Ruder’s research on magnetically activated engineered cells attracts prestigious NIH funding

Bioengineering

During graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Warren Ruder wondered if it might be possible to  genetically engineer cells to respond to magnetic fields. When implanted in the body, cell-based therapies could then be fine-tuned by exposing a patient to a magnetic field. Though the necessary technology to pursue this project did not exist at the time, Ruder has found himself back in Pittsburgh a decade later with diverse training, advanced technology, and a significant NIH award to now further his original idea at the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering. Ruder, now an assistant professor at the Swanson School’s Department of Bioengineering, was one of 58 researchers to be awarded $1.5 million with the competitive and prestigious NIH Director’s New Innovator Award. Established in 2007 under the High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, this award supports “exceptionally creative scientists proposing high-risk, high-impact research,” according to the NIH. Ruder’s research group works at the interface of biology and engineering to create new biomimetic systems that provide insight into biological phenomena while also serving as platform technologies for future medical applications. He plans to combine his backgrounds in synthetic biology and biomimetics for this project titled “Creating Magnetically Inducible Synthetic Gene Networks for Cell and Tissue Therapies.” Ruder’s background in biomechanics and biomimetics started as an inaugural trainee in the Joint Pitt-CMU  Biomechanics in Regenerative Medicine Training Program in 2005, where he learned to manipulate the cell environment, particularly with magnetics. “During my graduate studies in Pittsburgh, I learned how to use magnetic tensile cytometry - a form of magnetic tweezers - to place very small forces on the membrane of mammalian cells,” said Ruder. “I was also introduced to biomimetics and learned to create microscale and nanoscale systems - such as lab-on-a-chip or microfluidic devices - that mimic cellular environments.” Ruder took this training and continued his scientific career as a postdoctoral research associate in Boston where he joined the lab of Jim Collins, PhD, a founder of synthetic biology. In Collins’ lab, he learned to manipulate genetic circuitry to reprogram and put new functions into cells. Ruder later received his first faculty position at Virginia Tech where he combined his research experience from Pittsburgh and Boston to pioneer the use of synthetic biology with robotics. His team engineered living bacteria to command and control a robot and mimic the connection between a gut microbiome and an animal host. They also engineered a nutrient-producing bacteria designed for an organ-on-a-chip system that mimics a gut. After four years honing his research, Ruder decided to make a change and return to Pittsburgh. “The University of Pittsburgh and its surrounding environment have allowed me to move from a focus on engineering bacteria, which has been straightforward for synthetic biologists for over a decade, to engineering mammalian cells,” said Ruder. “Now, my lab is moving beyond engineering bacteria species that live in our guts and focusing on the actual human cells that make up our bodies.” This NIH-funded project combines the skills he learned in his previous training and appointments with the goal of reprogramming mammalian cell behavior, incorporating magnetics and magnetic field manipulation. “In this project, we will design and build mechanical protein scaffolds that will be inside of the cell, and upon application of a magnetic field, these scaffolds will morph and control the cell’s behavior,” explained Ruder. An advantage to Ruder’s strategy is that magnetic fields may be able to reach places that similar technology cannot. “A complimentary approach is optogenetics where researchers use light to manipulate cellular behavior,” said Ruder. “One of the advantages of using a magnetic field, particularly if you can manage the challenge of concentrating it, is that it can penetrate the body where light may not be able. “We hope to create structures that could regulate multiple downstream pathways, creating a new class of magnetically activated transcription factors as opposed to membrane-bound channels,” said Ruder. Ruder’s short-term goal is to build the system and instrumentation for the project. His long-term, ultimate goal is to regulate a pathway and work with collaborators at Pitt to explore the effects of these tools on diseased organs, such as the heart or lungs. Ruder said, “We hope to make scientific discoveries and create technologies that can be applied to biomedical interventions and successfully regulate disease pathways.” ###

Debski and Collaborators Receive PInCh Funds to Prevent Overuse Injury in Athletes

Bioengineering

PITTSBURGH (October 12, 2018) … Athletes and fans alike understand the aggravation that comes with players getting benched for multiple weeks due to an injury. Athletes are often sidelined for tendon injuries that can be attributed to overuse. But thanks to a $25,000 award from the Pitt Innovation Challenge (PInCh), a team of researchers at the University of Pittsburgh hope to develop a new technology that predicts tendon overuse and prevents injury. The research team includes Richard Debski, professor of bioengineering; Volker Musahl, chief of sports medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; Kang Kim, associate professor of medicine; and Gerald Ferrer, a bioengineering PhD candidate. Debski and Musahl co-direct the Orthopedics Robotics Laboratory (ORL) in the Swanson School of Engineering where they created QUPTI - Quantitative Ultrasound to Prevent Tendon Injury. “Overuse injury is a problem that occurs because of repetitive trauma to tissues without sufficient time for recovery,” said Debski. “It affects a wide range of joints in the body including the elbow, knee, ankle, and shoulder. This issue may lead to a performance reduction and a loss of playing time for the athletes.” According to Debski, overuse injuries account for 30 percent of all collegiate athlete injuries, and 20 percent of athletes with an overuse injury were sidelined for over three weeks. “There are currently no predictive methods for preventing overuse injuries, only diagnostic tests after athletes complain of pain,” said Debski. “We plan to use QUPTI to track tendon health. It uses an acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) ultrasound technology to quantify location-specific tendon mechanical properties using remote palpation.” With this technology, the research team can target and evaluate the exact location where injuries normally occur in the tendon. “QUPTI can be used on a tendon to track the health during a season, practice, or game,” said Debski. “It provides real-time feedback of tendon health to reduce the occurrence of overuse injury by informing the coaching staff to modify training intensity and ultimately maximize the performance of athletes.” ###

ECE’s Ervin Sejdic to Participate in the Arab-American Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Symposium

Bioengineering, Electrical & Computer

PITTSBURGH (October 9, 2018) … Ervin Sejdić, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, will participate in the sixth annual Arab-American Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine symposium. The meeting is presented by the US National Academy of Sciences and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences. The symposium brings together a multidisciplinary group of young scientists, engineers, and medical professionals from across the US and the 22 Arab League countries. It aims to foster a collaborative and open dialogue amongst industry leaders and program participants. It will be held at the Kuwait National Library in Kuwait City on November 4-6, 2018. The program’s organizing committee selects and chairs session topics and suggests speakers who are experts in their field. This year’s topics include big data, water systems, the microbiome, air quality, and next generation buildings and infrastructure. Sejdić will be presenting a talk on the use of modern data analytics tools to develop computational biomarkers to track diseases during the big data session on Tuesday afternoon. “A human body is comprised of several physiological systems that carry out specific functions necessary for daily living,” said Sejdić. “Traumatic injuries, diseases, and aging negatively impact human functions, which can cause a decreased quality of life and many other socio-economical and medical issues. “Accurate models of human functions are needed to propose interventions and treatments that can restore deteriorated human functions,” continued Sejdić. “Therefore, our research aims to develop novel data analytics and instrumentation approaches that can accurately assess changes in swallowing, and gait functions by focusing on dynamical interactions between musculoskeletal and other physiological systems.” For the Arab-American Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine symposium, Sejdić will present some of his lab’s recent contributions dealing with both engineering and clinical aspects of their work as well as future research goals and strategies. Sejdić leads the Innovative Medical Engineering Developments (iMED) laboratory in the Swanson School of Engineering with a core expertise in signal processing, instrumentation, and physiological monitoring. ###

BioE grad student makes waves in MR research with a 3D printed phantom head

Bioengineering, Student Profiles

PITTSBURGH (September 26, 2018) … Phantoms are not just ghostly figures of our imagination, they are also numerical or physical models that represent human characteristics and provide an inexpensive way to test electromagnetic applications. Sossena Wood, a bioengineering PhD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh, has developed a realistic phantom head for magnetic resonance research in the Swanson School of Engineering. Wood started her tenure at Pitt as an undergraduate student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering where she met Tamer Ibrahim, an associate professor of bioengineering. She began research in his lab, the Radiofrequency (RF) Research Facility, during her senior year and is now finishing her dissertation incorporating similar research as a graduate student in the Department of Bioengineering. Ibrahim envisioned designing a 3D printed phantom head to use with the uniquely designed ultrahigh field technology in his lab. “In the RF Research Facility, we use a whole-body 7 Tesla magnetic resonance imager (7T MRI), which is one of the strongest clinical human MRI devices in the world,” said Ibrahim. 7T ultrahigh field technology is a powerful tool, but unfortunately, there are a few setbacks that come with this type of imaging. “As you move from lower to higher fields, the images produced become less uniform and localized heating becomes more prevalent,” explained Ibrahim. “We wanted to develop an anthropomorphic phantom head to help us better understand these issues by providing a safer way to test the imaging. We use the device to analyze, evaluate, and calibrate the MRI systems and instrumentation before testing new protocols on human subjects.” Researchers are currently using numerical simulations to study the effect of electromagnetic (EM) fields on biological tissues at varying frequencies. Wood said, “EM numerical modeling has been a standard when analyzing these interactions, and we wanted to create a phantom that resembled the human form for use in validating the EM modeling, thereby providing a more realistic environment for testing.” Before Wood could print the 3D structure, she had to do computational work to build the digital blueprint for the model. She started with a 3T MRI dataset of a healthy male, which she characterized by segmentation and broke into eight tissue compartments, a feature that differentiates her model from other basic phantom heads. According to Wood, these compartments help improve image accuracy by acting as a sort of “speed bump” for the field. After the computational preparations, Wood used an MRI scanner to produce a 3D-digital image of healthy male’s head and ran her model through computer-aided design, which is software used to create, modify, analyze, and optimize a design. The next step was to print the prototype, which took three semesters to complete. “We used a plastic developed by DSM Somos® for our printing material because it allowed us to create durable and detailed parts with a similar conductivity to the human body,” said Wood. “To help the model further mimic a real environment, we created filling ports on the prototype where we can deposit fluids that resemble various tissue types.” Now that Wood has a fully printed anthropomorphic phantom head, she is able to assemble it and begin testing. The phantom has many applications including testing to see if certain implants are able to go inside of an MRI or detecting the temperature rise in different tissues based on various RF instrumentation. “With MR imaging, the power from the RF exposure is transformed into heat in the patient’s tissue, which can have detrimental effects on the patient’s health, especially with implants if not monitored by the scanner” explained Wood. “With our phantom head, we can test the safety of our imaging by putting probes inside of certain regions of the head and measuring the effects,” said Ibrahim. Ibrahim and Wood hope that this model will eventually be developed commercially and provide others with the ability to pursue research without relying on human testing. ###

Beschorner receives NIOSH grant to develop a statistical prediction tool for shoe traction

Bioengineering

PITTSBURGH (September 20, 2018) … Kurt Beschorner, associate professor of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, received a $145,000 grant from NIOSH to further his research on characterizing the influence of shoe design on traction. This work aims to prevent slip and fall accidents, one of the biggest causes of workplace injury in the U.S. In this project titled “A Predictive Statistical Model for Shoe-Floor-Fluid Coefficient of Friction”, Beschorner will work with Natasa Vidic (Co-I), an assistant professor of industrial engineering at Pitt. “This project will allow us to develop a statistical prediction tool for shoe traction that is based on metrics that are easy and inexpensive to measure,” said Beschorner. “It is expected that the results from this project will make shoe traction assessment accessible to small and mid-sized companies.” Beschorner’s group is developing new standards to improve the way that researchers test friction of shoes and floor surfaces. He discusses the research in the following video posted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To learn more about this research, read the Swanson School of Engineering and PittWire news releases.

BioE’s Rakié Cham Evaluates the Impact of Central Vision Loss on Patients’ Daily Lives

Bioengineering

PITTSBURGH (September 6, 2018) … Individuals with low vision conditions can suffer from complications that can negatively affect their quality of life, such as balance and mobility impairments. While the future looks bright with new medical interventions for various ocular conditions, there are no standard assessment tools to evaluate the efficacy and quality of these emerging treatments on patients’ quality of life. Rakié Cham, associate professor of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, is one of 23 faculty and staff to receive funding from the inaugural Pitt Seed program to develop tools to assess these interventions in patients with central vision loss. In this project, Dr. Cham is partnering with Pitt investigators and clinicians with a wide range of expertise. They include bioengineers (Dr. Mark Redfern), ophthalmologists (Drs. Andrew Eller and José-Alain Sahel), physical therapists (Dr. Patrick Sparto), occupational therapists (Dr. Nancy Baker) and qualitative research experts (Dr. Megan E. Hamm). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one in four older adults fall each year, and vision-related impairments are among the top risk factors for falls.1 “Visual field losses are a common type of vision impairment found in age-related ocular pathologies such as glaucoma and macular degeneration,” said Dr. Cham. “Falls are a serious public health concern in adults who have such conditions so part of our research is also focused to determine the impact of visual field losses on balance and gait.” The research team is using a patient-centered team-based approach in this Pitt Seed funded project. The Qualitative, Evaluation And Stakeholder Engagement (Qual EASE) Research Services, housed within the Center for Research on Health Care’s Data Center, will interview patients with central vision loss to gather a better understanding of their function-related needs, challenges, and barriers to independent living in their personal environment and in the community. Dr. Cham said, “We want to understand the patients’ perception of their function levels in various domains to get more comprehensive data about their daily lives.” After gathering this data, Dr. Cham and her collaborators will develop a set of performance-based outcome measures that can be used to assess balance and mobility function levels, starting with established validated tools borrowed from the aging research literature. Dr. Cham said, “Being able to understand the barriers to independence and challenges in patients’ daily lives and to identify those at risk of falling will help assess current interventions and develop new strategies. Ultimately our goal is to improve the quality of life for patients with low vision conditions.” ### 1 More than one in four older adults falls each year, https://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/falls/adultfalls.html

Bioengineering names Ali Behrangzade its 2018 Leonard H. Berenfield Fellow

Bioengineering, Student Profiles

PITTSBURGH (August 13, 2018) … The University of Pittsburgh Department of Bioengineering selected Ali Behrangzade, a graduate student in the Soft Tissue Biomechanics Lab, for its Leonard H. Berenfield Graduate Fellowship in Bioengineering. This competitive fellowship is awarded to one student each academic year. Recipients of this award receive one year of funding for cardiovascular research performed in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. They retain the title of Berenfield Fellow throughout their PhD studies and occasionally meet with the award’s donor. Behrangzade earned his BSc and MSc degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Tehran. During his master’s, he focused on experimental and computational fluid mechanics. He is currently pursuing a PhD in bioengineering under advisor Jonathan P. Vande Geest, professor of bioengineering. Behrangzade is working on functional tissue-engineered vascular grafts (TEVGs) that will be used for coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. According to a 2015 American Heart Association report, coronary artery disease (CAD) occurs in 32.2 percent of males and 18.8 percent of females over the age of 80, and most of these patients require CABG surgery. Autologous vessels are blood vessels obtained from the same individual and used in CABG surgery. However, these vessels are not always suitable because of prior harvesting or pre-existing vascular disease. “Since current alternatives for autologous vessels lead to failure of the grafts via intimal hyperplasia - thickening of the inner layer of a blood vessel - and graft thrombosis, a functional TEVG is required for CABG surgery,” said Behrangzade. “As part of this project, I’m studying vasoactivity - the contraction and dilation of a blood vessel in response to different stimuli - of these vascular grafts which is a necessary feature of a functional TEVG.” “Vasoactivity contributes to the regulation of blood pressure by a contraction/dilation process. Since smooth muscle cells (SMCs) play the key role in vasoconstriction/vasodilation, I am investigating the responsiveness of the SMC-seeded vascular graft to different chemical stimuli,” explained Behrangzade. “The ultimate goal of this research is to provide a functional TEVG as a reliable alternative for autologous vessels for CABG surgery, which will lead to less failure and can benefit patients and the healthcare system. About Leonard H. Berenfield:Leonard H. Berenfield received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 1964. In 1965, after one year at Westinghouse, he moved to Warren, Pa. to use his engineering knowledge to help grow Berenfield Steel Drum Co. – the family steel drum manufacturing business. The firm’s continued growth led to reorganization as Berenfield Containers, Inc. in 1985 with Mr. Berenfield assuming the role of President. Further expansions of existing plants over the years and the acquisition of plants in Harrisburg, N.C. and Pine Bluff, Ark. as well as new factories to diversify the product line into fibre drums established the company’s legacy. Mauser USA purchased Berenfield Containers in 2016. Mr. Berenfield was born and raised in the Pittsburgh area and is an active volunteer. He has held posts in several nonprofit and industry boards including the American Heart Association, the United Way, the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, Hebrew Union College, the Steel Shipping Container Institute, the International Fibre Drum Institute, and the Industrial Steel Drum Institute. In 2018, he was named Distinguished Alumnus of the Swanson School’s  Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. ###

Pitt bioengineer receives $390K NIH grant to develop imaging technology that may improve brain implant design

All SSoE News, Bioengineering

PITTSBURGH (July 18, 2018) … Chronic brain implants are long-term devices used to record brain activity or stimulate neurons with electrical pulses and are a crucial component of neuroprosthetics. The performance of these devices depends on the host tissue response, which is often inflammatory and results in device performance degradation. Takashi Kozai, assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, was awarded an NIH R21 grant to improve device design by investigating the role of oligodendrocytes and oligodendrocyte progenitor cells in this process. Kozai will work with Franca Cambi, professor of neurology at Pitt, to develop in vivo imaging technology that will explore how these cells cause negative tissue response to chronic brain implants. Supported by the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Kozai and Cambi received a two-year, $386,645 award for their research. Kozai and his collaborators recently published work that reveals the importance of the brain’s glial cells. Oligodendrocytes and oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) are a type of glia or connective tissue in the central nervous system that play an important role in brain injury and neuronal activity, including the body’s response to brain implants. Oligodendrocytes are crucial for normal signaling in the brain. They produce proteins that help neurons grow, form synapses, and may even help neurons survive traumatic injuries. They play a key role in myelination, a process where oligodendrocytes wrap a fatty substance around the neuron’s axon to help insulate electrical signals and allow neural signals to move more rapidly. “Oligodendrocytes, like neurons, consume enormous amounts of energy,” explained Kozai. “Neurons require the energy to maintain membrane potential, while oligodendrocytes require energy to maintain high production levels of protein and lipids. As a result oligodendrocytes and neurons are one of the first cell types to die following brain injury.” “Because the oligodendrocytes provide growth factors and support for neurons, the idea is maybe if we can help to oligodendrocytes to survive after injury, they can, in turn, help the neurons to survive,” said Kozai. They plan to apply a similar logic to OPCs, which are a subtype of glia that are of particular interest because they have the capacity to differentiate into oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, or neurons during tissue repair. Kozai said, “If we can maintain a healthy environment for OPCs, maybe they can help replenish the oligodendrocyte and neuronal population, instead of turning into scar tissue forming astrocytes.” Kozai and Cambi hope to gain insight by getting a more detailed look at the life span of these cells using multiphoton imaging and neural engineering technology. Kozai said, “Much of the work on oligodendrocytes and OPCs has been carried out with post-mortem immunohistochemistry and molecular assays in disease models. As such, we only get a snapshot of the dead cells in their last moments, instead of seeing how and when they got there so that we can identify when and where to apply treatments and employ intervention strategies.” By using in vivo imaging techniques like multiphoton imaging and pinpointing brain injury using neural engineering technology, Kozai and Cambi can map out the spatiotemporal relationships between oligodendrocyte loss, neuronal cell death, and OPC tissue repair and identify targets for intervention strategies, not just for brain implants, but also many neurodegenerative diseases. ###

Pitt’s Center for Medical Innovation awards five novel biomedical projects with $105,000 in Round-1 2018 Pilot Funding

Bioengineering

PITTSBURGH (June 27, 2018) … The University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Medical Innovation (CMI) awarded grants totaling $105,000 to five research groups through its 2018 Round-1 Pilot Funding Program for Early Stage Medical Technology Research and Development. The latest funding proposals include a new vascular access device for use with stent grafts, an artificial tricuspid valve for treatment of right-heart disease, a shoe insert for treatment of foot pain, a biological treatment for inflammatory bowel disease, and a biofeedback system for mobility rehabilitation training. CMI, a University Center housed in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering (SSOE), supports applied technology projects in the early stages of development with “kickstart” funding toward the goal of transitioning the research to clinical adoption. Proposals are evaluated on the basis of scientific merit, technical and clinical relevance, potential health care impact and significance, experience of the investigators, and potential in obtaining further financial investment to translate the particular solution to healthcare. This is our seventh year of pilot funding, and our leadership team could not be more excited with the breadth and depth of this round’s awardees,” said Alan D. Hirschman, PhD, CMI Executive Director. “This early-stage interdisciplinary research helps to develop highly specific biomedical technologies through a proven strategy of linking UPMC’s clinicians and surgeons with the Swanson School’s engineering faculty. AWARD 1: “E-mag system for Rapid Cannulation of Fenestrated Stent Grafts to Reduce Radiation Exposure” For the development of a vascular stent graft system that will magnetically guide cannulation of endograft branches. Bryan W. Tillman, MD, PhDDivision of Vascular Surgery Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Youngjae Chun, PhDAssociate Professor, Industrial Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering AWARD 2: “Valved stent conduit for the treatment of severe advanced tricuspid regurgitation” For the development of an artificial tricuspid valve that will treat decreased right ventricular performance due to cardiac disease. Catalin Toma, MDAssistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Heart and Vascular Institute Youngjae Chun, PhD Associate Professor, Industrial Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering AWARD 3: “PopSoleTM Foot Off-Loading Device” For the development of a shoe insert that will reduce foot pain due to fat pad atrophy in the feet. Jeffrey Gusenoff, MD Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Beth Gusenoff, DPM Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Kurt Beschorner, PhD Associate Professor, Bioengineering, Swanson School of Engineering Seyed Reza Moghaddam, PhDBioengineering, Swanson School of Engineering Steven Donahoe, MSBioengineering, Swanson School of EngineeringAWARD 4: “Local Induction of Tolerogenic T cells to Ameliorate Inflammation in Inflammatory Bowel Disease”For the development of a potent IBD therapy with fewer side effects than current medical therapy. R. Warren Sands MD, PhDT32 Clinical and Research Fellow, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School Steven R. Little PhD William Kepler Whiteford Endowed Professor and Chair, Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Swanson School of Engineering David G. Binion MD, AGAF, FACGProfessor of Medicine, Clinical and Translational Science Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, University of Pittsburgh Medical SchoolAWARD 5: “MOVISU-FIT: Mobile Wearable System for Real Time Visual Feedback and Gait Training”For the development of a system to provide real-time visual feedback to patients working on gait corrections during mobility rehabilitation training. Goeran Fiedler PhDAssistant Professor, Rehabilitation Science and Technology, UPMC William Clark, PhD Professor, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Swanson School of Engineering David Brienza, PhD Professor, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Krista Kutina, DPT Researcher, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Alicia Koontz, PhD Associate Professor, Veterans Administration Hospital April Chambers, PhD Research Assistant Professor, Bioengineering, Swanson School of Engineering ### About the University of Pittsburgh Center for Medical InnovationThe Center for Medical Innovation is a collaboration among the Swanson School of Engineering, the Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), the Innovation Institute, and the Coulter Translational Research Partnership II (CTRP). CMI was established in 2011 to promote the application and development of innovative biomedical technologies to clinical problems; to educate the next generation of innovators in cooperation with the schools of Engineering, Health Sciences, Business, and Law; and to facilitate the translation of innovative biomedical technologies into marketable products and services. Over 60 early-stage projects have been supported by CMI with a total investment of over $1 million since inception.
Akhil Aniff, CMI Fellow

ChemE Graduate Student Alexandra May Receives Willem Kolff Award at ASAIO Annual Meeting

Bioengineering, Chemical & Petroleum, Student Profiles

PITTSBURGH (June 19, 2018) …The American Society for Artificial Internal Organs (ASAIO) selected Alexandra May, a chemical engineering graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh, as a finalist for the Willem Kolff Award at its 64th annual meeting. The award, named after the late Dutch physician who invented the original artificial kidney, recognizes the top abstracts at each annual meeting. May is a graduate student in the Swanson School of Engineering’s Cardiovascular Bioengineering Training Program and works in the Medical Devices Laboratory under the direction of William Federspiel, a William Kepler Whiteford Professor of Bioengineering at Pitt. The lab develops clinically significant devices for the treatment of pulmonary and cardiovascular ailments by utilizing engineering principles of fluid flow and mass transfer. May’s research focuses on the development of the Pittsburgh Pediatric Ambulatory Lung (P-PAL), an artificial lung device developed to bridge pediatric acute or chronic lung failure patients to transplant. The P-PAL integrates the blood pump and gas exchanging hollow fiber membrane bundle into a single compact unit and provides 70 percent to 90 percent of the patient’s oxygenation needs. The compact design of the P-PAL provides children with increased mobility pre-transplant, a factor which has been shown to improve post-transplant outcomes. The ASAIO Annual Meeting was held June 13-16, 2018 in Washington, D.C. May’s abstract titled Acute in vivo Performance of a Pediatric Ambulatory Artificial Lung was awarded second place out of approximately 300 accepted abstracts, and she presented her work during the conference’s opening general session. “Alex deserves this recognition,” said Federspiel. “She is an extremely hard worker and devoutly dedicated to our mission of improving the lives of kids with respiratory failure.” ###

David Vorp named Fellow of the American Heart Association

All SSoE News, Bioengineering

PITTSBURGH (June 4, 2018) ... David A. Vorp, Associate Dean for Research and John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, was named a Fellow of the American Heart Association (FAHA) in recognition of his innovative and sustained contributions in scholarship, education, and volunteer service to the organization. Vorp’s election was conferred by the Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (ATVB) recognizing his work in those fields. Founded in 1924, the American Heart Association is the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. They provide funding for innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies, and provide critical tools and information to save and improve lives. The ATVB is recognizing Vorp for his achievements in cardiovascular research over the past 26 years. He has published more than 120 peer-reviewed research articles and currently serves on three editorial boards. His research has been supported by over $14 million from the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, and other sources. He has several patents in the field of vascular bioengineering and is a co-founder of Neograft Technologies, Inc., a startup that uses technology developed in his lab to help produce arterial vein grafts. Vorp’s lab applies its strengths in computational and experimental biomechanics, image analysis, cellular and molecular biology, and tissue engineering to understand and seek solutions to pathologies of tubular tissue and organs. His current research aims to develop regenerative treatments for vascular diseases such as aortic aneurysm and coronary heart disease. John Curci, associate professor of surgery at Vanderbilt University, said, "Dr. Vorp's scientific discoveries in vascular biomechanics and biology have independently created incredible advances in the discipline. More importantly, his collaborative leadership in the field has been generous and insightful, allowing many others to increase their scientific productivity exponentially." Vorp has worked closely with clinical colleagues to develop a multi-disciplinary, NIH-funded research program focusing on abdominal aortic aneurysm disease, vascular “mechanopathobiology,” and tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications for vascular and urethral systems. “Dr. Vorp has very effectively and creatively applied his unique expertise as a bioengineer to advance our understanding of the pathogenesis and treatment of several potentially lethal clinical problems, such as aortic aneurysms,” said Marshall Webster, Senior Vice President of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “He has mentored and promoted the careers of a new generation of bioengineers and has established our University as a world class research and training environment, widely recognized.” Vorp has had 14 PhD students graduate from his lab and is currently advising two. He has supervised or mentored 10 medical students, 16 postdoctoral research associates and visiting scholars, and over 80 undergraduate students. Additionally, he has served on over 40 graduate student thesis committees. Vorp has also made scholarly contributions to the American Heart Association. He has participated as an invited speaker and panelist at three different AHA Scientific Sessions and has served as a reviewer for multiple AHA journals, including Circulation and Circulation Research. Other organizations have recognized Vorp’s contributions to the field. He is an elected Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). In 2012, he became the first non-MD President of the International Society for Applied Cardiovascular Biology and was re-elected for a second term in 2014. His other executive roles include his appointment as ASME Bioengineering Division Chair from 2013-2014, two terms on the BMES Board of Directors, and two terms as BMES Secretary. Sanjeev G. Shroff, Distinguished Professor and Gerald McGinnis Chair of Bioengineering at Pitt, said, “Dr. Vorp has been an integral part of our bioengineering department since it was founded in 1996. His election as a Fellow of the American Heart Association underscores his dedication and commitment to and high accomplishments in cardiovascular research.” ###

Bon Voyage! BioE Undergraduate Receives Gilman Scholarship to Study Abroad in France

Bioengineering

PITTSBURGH (May 25, 2018) … Madeline Hobbs is an active student at the University of Pittsburgh- she is an engineering student, a member of the Blue and Gold Society, an ambassador for the Swanson School of Engineering, and a defensive player on Pitt’s varsity D1 women’s soccer team. This summer, she plans to take on another role: a world traveler. Hobbs, a rising junior bioengineering student, used her savoir-faire to become one of four Pitt students to receive the prestigious Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. Supported by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Gilman Scholarship provides up to $5,000 for students to study or intern abroad. Its goal is to broaden the student population that is able to have an international experience during their undergraduate studies. The program encourages students to study and intern in a diverse array of countries and world regions. Inspired by her father’s time abroad in Bologna, Italy, Hobbs applied to the Gilman Scholarship so that she too could have an enriching experience in Lyon, France. “I think there is a huge value in studying abroad because of the challenges it presents. You have to get out of your comfort zone, try new things, and make mistakes along the way,” said Hobbs. “I believe it is important to understand other cultures and keep your mind open to trying things that are not part of your everyday life.” Hobbs has always had a penchant for the French language and culture. She said, “When I was little, my parents took a trip to Paris and brought back an Eiffel Tower t-shirt that I adored! That’s when I became a francophile, and since then, I’ve grown to love the French language, culture, and gastronomy.” According to Hobbs, France is home to many prestigious engineering schools and is an up-and-coming leader in industry. As a Gilman Scholar, she will receive financial support for her studies at the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées in Lyon, France. During her studies, she will take a course called Connected Devices and the Internet of Things where students will examine devices and sensors, determine how they are used in French society, and design and build a device to help solve a need that she and her fellow students identify is prevalent. During her month-long experience, Hobbs hopes to explore the language and culture of France. She will be taking a conversation course to help improve her speaking proficiency and learn more about French society. She said, “French is an extremely useful and beautiful language spoken by many people around the world. I am excited to study alongside French students and improve my speaking skills while learning about their way of life.” Over 2,900 scholarships were awarded to American undergraduate students this year. Hobbs said, “I have always enjoyed traveling and exploring new places. As a kid, I loved being outside and going on little adventures. I’m grateful that the Gilman Scholarship has allowed me to go on this big adventure to a country whose language, food, and culture have captivated me.” ###

Swanson School of Engineering Names Art of Making Professor Joseph Samosky as its 2018 Outstanding Educator

Bioengineering

PITTSBURGH (May 14, 2018) … In recognition of his excellence in teaching and development of its Art of Making program, the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering presented Joseph Samosky, Ph.D., assistant professor of bioengineering, with its 2018 Outstanding Educator Award. Dr. Samosky joined the Swanson School full time in 2014 after seven years at the Pitt medical school. He came from an interdisciplinary educational background with undergraduate degrees in electrical engineering and behavioral neuroscience from Pitt, a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in medical engineering from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology. These diverse academic experiences helped shape his unique pedagogical approach. “I’m an enthusiastic advocate of experiential and exploratory learning, and the idea that building is a way of thinking,” said Dr. Samosky. “I hope to engage students in a process of hands-on experience and active discovery of the why to motivate learning the how of engineering.” In 2013, Pitt joined the NSF’s Epicenter (Engineering Pathways to Innovation) program, which created an opportunity for Dr. Samosky to utilize his passion for this style of learning to develop a design-centered course called The Art of Making. In this course, students apply innovative methods to solve real-world problems while gaining hands-on experience with cutting-edge technologies including robotics, smart systems, and user interfaces. It is offered in the Swanson School to first-year and upper-level undergraduate students. Dr. Samosky said, “I recruited a group of the most innovative and enthusiastic engineering students I could find, and we started weekly brainstorming meetings we called ‘jam sessions’, using jazz as a metaphor for combining creative improvisation and rigorous technique.” The team also designed a new learning environment for the course: they explored and tested different technology learning tools, brought in carloads of furniture and prototyping supplies, and built out Benedum Hall’s G34 Innovation Space. The result was a 24/7 resource that provides students with a “home base for innovation” and the freedom to explore their creativity. “G34 is a collaborative space that promotes peer-to-peer learning. Our first rule of use for the room is: help each other and share your ideas,” explained Dr. Samosky. “There are a lot of materials and tools in G34, but the most important part of G34 is the people. We made design choices considering carefully how and what we wanted the space itself to communicate, as a communal place to gather and explore.” As one student describes, “G34 is so much more than a workspace. It is a home for a diverse community of students, course alumni, and staff who support and bring out the best in one another.” (See a video of G34 in action. ) Outside G34 are interactive display cases of student projects and a “Video Wall” display that streams student projects and activities for passersby. Currently, over 350 students have access to the Innovation Space; students from all Swanson School departments in 14 courses, 3 student clubs, and multiple Innovation Institute competitions have used the space to develop projects. Art of Making students and TAs explore creating a novel human-computer interface in the G34 Innovation Space. Enthusiasm for The Art of Making is evident in the course evaluations, which played a role in Dr. Samosky’s selection for this highly competitive award. In the most recent two offerings of the course, he received overall teaching effectiveness scores of 4.92 and 4.93/5. The human-centered design approach of the course has achieved important results for students, including student teams from The Art of Making winning the Overall Best Project award at the Swanson School Design Expo twice in two years. A student describes the course as, “How to design the world I want to live in. The skills and perspectives I cultivated in this class make me view our world in a completely new way, and because of this class I believe I'll be able to effectively begin developing answers to ambiguous ‘big-idea’ problems.” Another states, “We learned more in a semester than I thought I could learn from 4 years of classes.” A course alumna and teaching assistant said, “The Art of Making gave me not only concrete skills but, more importantly, the confidence to believe that I have something valuable to contribute, even this early in my engineering education. It truly changed my life.” In addition to the establishment of this course, Dr. Samosky has served as a mentor for 27 bioengineering senior design teams, advising a total of 130 students. The undergraduate projects mentored by Dr. Samosky have led to 33 students being co-authors on 14 papers and conference presentations, and co-inventors on 8 invention disclosures and provisional patents and 2 issued patents. “Joe is an outstanding educator who has developed and continues to develop novel approaches to experiential learning and incorporating design thinking in engineering education,” said Sanjeev Shroff, professor and Gerald E. McGinnis Chair of Bioengineering. “I strongly believe that he has positively impacted the innovation and entrepreneurship culture within the Swanson School.” Dr. Samosky plans to continue encouraging students to push the boundaries of engineering. He said, “As an engineering educator I want to empower students to innovate effective solutions to real-world problems, inspire them to have creative confidence, help them enjoy the creative paradigm of engineering that transforms thoughts into new and useful artifacts in the world, and enhance their ability to successfully invent the future, including their own life and career pathways.” ###

Expanding Boundaries: Pitt Bioengineering undergraduate Andrea Hartman wins Vira I. Heinz award to study abroad

Bioengineering, Student Profiles

PITTSBURGH (April 26, 2018) … Each year, the Vira I. Heinz Program for Women in Global Leadership (VIH) admits undergraduate women from 15 institutions across Pennsylvania into a one-year leadership development program that includes an opportunity to study abroad. One of this year’s recipients from the University of Pittsburgh is Andrea Hartman, a senior bioengineering student in the Swanson School of Engineering who will visit South Africa this summer. The VIH program provides funding for women who have never traveled internationally and prepares them for tomorrow’s global challenges. In addition to international experience, recipients are required to attend two leadership development retreats in Pittsburgh and "create a Community Engagement Experience” designed to use their new-found skills to impact their local community in a positive way. Hartman will be spending a week in Johannesburg and four weeks in Cape Town. “I chose South Africa to learn first-hand about the social, economic, and political struggles that have affected the country,” said Hartman. “I wanted to step out of my comfort zone, and I think the best way to gain a global perspective is to not only educate yourself through research, but to go there and interact with the people, immersing yourself in their culture.” Hartman looks forward to the leadership development aspect of the program. Since starting in the Swanson School, she has enhanced her leadership skills through her co-op experience with Zimmer Biomet, a medical device company in Warsaw, Indiana. She has also made personal gains from the Swanson School’s Engineering Ambassador program and her involvement with the women’s fraternity, Chi Omega. Hartman said, “I would like to be more involved in the Pittsburgh community which is why I look forward to being a part of a Community Engagement Experience that I and the cohort of awardees in Pittsburgh will do after our experiences abroad.” Hartman plans to focus her experience on education in South Africa and hopes to share that knowledge with her peers in Pittsburgh. “I believe an education system is the foundation of a society,” said Hartman. “I hope to learn about how the education system in South Africa has molded its community, and bring that back to my experience in Pittsburgh to educate others.” The program’s namesake, Vira I. Heinz, was an active member of the Pittsburgh community and engaged in philanthropic and civic work around the region and internationally. She left a lasting mark in Pennsylvania by funding international opportunities to generations of women after her. “Because of this award I will have the opportunity to travel for the first time, and I could not be more thankful for this incredible opportunity,” said Hartman. “I look forward to meeting all of the other women in the program!” ###

ShanghaiRankings Puts Pitt Bioengineering Among the Top Biomedical Engineering Programs in the World

Bioengineering

PITTSBURGH (April 25, 2018) The University of Pittsburgh Department of Bioengineering was ranked the #14 biomedical engineering program in the world by the 2017 ShanghaiRanking Global Ranking of Academic Subjects. “It is great to see our department recognized on this international scale,” said Sanjeev Shroff Distinguished Professor and Gerald E. McGinnis Chair of Bioengineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. “I am proud of the accomplishments made by our outstanding faculty, students and staff. We have a strong department, rich with academic and research opportunities, and I look forward to our continued growth and success.” In FY17, the Department of Bioengineering received over $27 million in new grants, including the renewal of its Cardiovascular Bioengineering Training Program (CBTP) by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with more than $1.9 million in funding over the next five years. The department has two additional training grants funded by the NIH: Biomechanics in Regenerative Medicine (BiRM) and Cellular Approaches to Tissue Engineering and Regeneration (CATER). Since 2009, ShanghaiRanking Consultancy, an independent organization dedicated to research on higher education intelligence and consultation, has been publishing the Academic Ranking of World Universities. ###

Pitt Researchers Develop Computational Model to Predict Friction of Shoes and Prevent Falls

Bioengineering

PITTSBURGH (April 20, 2018) … Slips and falls are one of the biggest causes of workplace injury in the U.S., and shoe choice can make all the difference in avoiding it. A proper shoe tread provides friction with the floor, which is necessary in preventing falling accidents. However, treads come in a variety of forms, and not all are designed to help prevent injury. A new computational model created by a team of researchers in the University of Pittsburgh Department of Bioengineering may help in the design of safer shoes. The project is led by Kurt Beschorner, associate professor of bioengineering at Pitt, and graduate student researcher Seyed Moghaddam, who conduct research in the Human Movement and Balance Laboratory in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. Beschorner’s lab focuses on the development of ergonomic solutions for preventing falling accidents through biomechanics and tribology fundamentals. While a lot of research has been published on how surface features affect traction or friction, there remains a need to investigate actual shoe geometries to gather an understanding of the whole shoe-floor coefficient of friction. Beschorner’s latest findings are the result of a $1.5 million NIOSH R01 award he received in 2015 to better predict the wear rate of shoes. Beschorner and his team tackled this knowledge gap and recently published an article in the Journal of Biomechanics (doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2017.11.009) that discusses how they apply their computational model to measure and predict shoe-floor coefficient of friction. His lab is one of the first to use computational modeling to study friction between shoe and floor surfaces. Over the past three months, their publication has been the top downloaded article on the journal’s website. “Shoe-floor friction is influenced by microscopic and macroscopic features of the shoe and flooring,” said Beschorner. “Using our computational model, we can look at individual features to determine how it contributes to friction mechanisms.” “The model simulates shoe and floor interactions at multiple scales,” explains Beschorner. “This includes simulating the interaction of shoe and floor features at the micrometer scale as well as the visible scale. By combining information from these two scales, we can estimate the overall performance of the shoe.” Beschorner said, “In the end, this will enable us to develop safer shoes more efficiently.” The next step for this team is to work with footwear companies to integrate these methods in their design process. ###

Bioengineering and the Brain

Bioengineering

In January 2014, the University of Pittsburgh announced it would establish a new Brain Institute to “unlock the mysteries of normal and abnormal brain function, and then use this new information to develop novel treatments and cures for brain disorders.” Its founding scientific director, Peter L. Strick, PhD is Distinguished Professor & Thomas Detre Endowed Chair of the Department of Neurobiology and an expert on the neural basis of movement and cognition. He believes that the success of the program requires a multi-disciplinary approach that includes the Swanson School’s Department of Bioengineering. Dr. Peter Strick enjoys telling stories and speaks with a quiet passion that resonates with the history of neuroscience he has helped to build at Pitt. He also understands that it takes more than one discipline, one way of thinking to build upon that success and create a game-changing Brain Institute. “I started at Pitt 18 years ago as the co-director of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CBNC),” a joint venture between the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, with Dr. Strick representing Pitt. “The Center took the comparable strengths of CMU robotics, computer science and statistics, and merged it with the strong neuroscience and clinical programs at Pitt. At the time, Pitt’s bioengineering program was in its infancy and wasn’t involved, but I saw that as a mistake. “Neural engineering and brain interface research was beginning to blossom and I truly thought that it could be a key player in the Center, especially because of its revolutionary work in tissue engineering.” Dr. Strick explains that bioengineering was key because of its inherent nature of being a multi-faceted discipline. “I related the potential of bioengineering to the beginning of my own career, as a neuroanatomist who cross-trained in my post-doc as a neurophysiologist. An eminent neurophysiologist told me that I would have to decide what I was going to be when I grew up.  Otherwise, I would be neither fish nor fowl – I wouldn't swim well or fly well. “Fifteen years later, when he saw me once more and it became apparent that the cross training had benefited my research [in utilizing viruses to understand neural circuitry], he said he was glad I didn’t take his advice. Neuroscience and bioengineering are similar in that both need to ask questions and then use whatever technique is most appropriate to answer them.  Bioengineers have the special challenge of combining training in hard core biology with the quantitative and computational approaches of engineering.” Dr. Strick believes that “it takes a University” to develop a leading program in brain research, one that taps into the multidisciplinary and open nature of collaboration between disciplines. One of his first recruits was Andrew Schwartz, professor of neurobiology with expertise in neural control. “Andy was responsible for the explosive growth of neural engineering research at Pitt, and led a pioneering group in brain-machine interface,” Dr. Strick says. “I saw its potential and the need to nurture and sustain it.” Dr. Strick explains that Dr. Schwartz shared his vision because he too understands the need to remove barriers to collaboration and take advantage of the open academic architecture of a university like Pitt. Over time the university would grow to include approximately 150 neuroscientists across disciplines, not including purely clinical colleagues. Dr. Strick says that the Swanson School’s Department of Bioengineering continues to play a key role in that growth, especially in Pitt’s growing expertise in neural engineering and brain-machine interface research. “The bioengineering faculty truly are a university resource, an intellectual resource that is active across all departments,” he explains. “The brain-machine interface program is bigger than a single department. It includes neurosurgeons who interact with physical medicine and rehabilitation scientists who work with patients to promote recovery, as well as the bioengineering faculty who explore everything from the electrode-tissue interface of brain implants to decoding neural signals to control robotic devices.” The brain-machine interface program captured international headlines when the team enabled patient Jan Scheuermann, a 53-year-old woman who suffers from a neurodegenerative disease and is paralyzed below the neck, to move a robotic arm and feed herself a bar of chocolate. The robotic arm was controlled via microeletrode arrays implanted into the surface of her cerebral cortex, enabling her to move the arm with her thoughts. “The success with Jan is a perfect example of how a multi-disciplinary program, built from the strengths of multiple departments in a major university and its medical school, can literally transform a life,” he says. Cross-disciplinary and cross-departmental interactions, as well as outside-the-box thinking were critical to the success of this project. “In the 1980s Andy proposed placing a monkey in a primate chair and training the animal to control an imaginary ball within a virtual reality environment,” Dr. Strick remembers. “People thought this research would lead nowhere, but in fact it was the foundation to allow a woman to control a robotic arm and feed herself chocolate.” WHAT MAKES A GREAT SCIENTIST AND BIOENGINEER? “There is a notion that individuals have brains with certain specific abilities that lead some of us to be writers, others to be mathematicians and scientists and still others to be artists.  According to this view, few of us have all of these abilities.  Thus, one doesn't normally expect the math genius to be the most communicative person in the room,” Dr. Strick says. “Today's modern scientist has to be multidisciplinary and broadly skilled to be successful.  He or she must write well, speak well and of course do science well.  The modern scientist must write grants that are clear and compelling and be able to communicate their ideas and findings to the lay public as well as to specialists in the field. “The modern bioengineer has an even more daunting challenge.  They must be cross-trained in math, physics, engineering, computer science and still think like a biologist.  Learning each of these disciplines is like learning a new language.  In a sense, bioengineers must be multilingual.  Not everyone is interested or even able to stretch in this way.  Our Bioengineering Department is unique in that it has attracted faculty who speak the many languages of science and recognize the value of multiple levels of analysis from cell and molecular approaches to whole systems and networks.” BUILDING A BETTER BRAIN INSTITUTE A major task of the Brain Institute, according to Dr. Strick, is to identify and provide the necessary research resources to enable world-class neuroscience at Pitt.  These resources include major equipment, outstanding faculty and research funding.  The most difficult part of this task is fundraising. “Our faculty do a wonderful job of obtaining federal grants to support their research. But, by all accounts, federal funding for research is shrinking,” Dr. Strick explains. “As a consequence, we are in danger of shutting off the pipeline for discovery.  Our representatives and the general public want the field to translate results into new treatments and cures for neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders.  However, this translation depends critically on new discoveries that come from basic fundamental research. “In essence, without new discoveries, there is nothing to translate.  A major task of the Brain Institute is to identify financial resources that can enable us to keep the pipeline of discovery open.” As noted earlier, the core mission of the Brain Institute is to unlock the mysteries of normal and abnormal brain function, and then use this new information to develop novel treatments and cures for brain disorders.  “I see bioengineering as a major player in this mission,” Dr. Strick says. “Indeed, the faculty and students at the Swanson School and in the Neural Engineering Track are posed to make major contributions to new areas of neuroscience such as multi-modal neuro-imaging with PET, MR and MEG; neuromodulation with deep brain stimulation, and neuro-technology with brain machine interfaces.  Faculty in Bioengineering like Aaron Batista, Tracy Cui, Raj Gandhi, Takashi Kozai, Gelsy Oviedo-Torres, and Doug Weber are all involved in cutting-edge research.  The success of the Brain Institute will depend in part on the efforts of this vibrant faculty.”
Paul Kovach

BioE’s Davidson, Debski, and Vande Geest Inducted into Medical and Biological Engineering Elite

All SSoE News, Bioengineering

Reprinted with permission from AIMBE. WASHINGTON, D.C.— The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has announced the induction of three University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering professors to its College of Fellows. Lance A. Davidson, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, for seminal contributions to developmental biomechanics, establishing theoretical frameworks and experimental techniques to expose design principles. Richard E. Debski, Ph.D., Professor of Bioengineering and Orthopaedic Surgery, Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, for outstanding contributions in bioengineering research, particularly in the area of biomechanics of shoulder and knee joints. Jonathan Vande Geest, Ph.D., Professor, Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, for outstanding contributions to the educational and scientific advancement of experimental and computational soft tissue biomechanics. Each professor was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows. Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to a medical and biological engineer. The College of Fellows is comprised of the top two percent of medical and biological engineers. College membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering and medicine research, practice, or education” and to "the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of medical and biological engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to bioengineering education." A formal induction ceremony was held during the AIMBE Annual Meeting at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC on April 9, 2018. These professors were inducted along with 156 colleagues who make up the AIMBE College of Fellows Class of 2018. About AIMBE AIMBE is the authoritative voice and advocate for the value of medical and biological engineering to society. AIMBE’s mission is to recognize excellence, advance the public understanding, and accelerate medical and biological innovation. No other organization can bring together academic, industry, government, and scientific societies to form a highly influential community advancing medical and biological engineering. AIMBE’s mission drives advocacy initiatives into action on Capitol Hill and beyond. For more information about the AIMBE, please visit www.aimbe.org.
Charlie Kim, Director of Membership Services, AIMBE

Eleven Pitt Students Awarded 2018 National Science Foundation Fellowships

Bioengineering, Chemical & Petroleum, Civil & Environmental, Electrical & Computer, MEMS, Student Profiles

University of Pittsburgh News Release PITTSBURGH – Eleven University of Pittsburgh students and four alumni were awarded the 2018 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Eleven Pitt students and four alumni also received honorable mentions. The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program is designed to ensure the vitality and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce in the United States. The program recognizes and supports outstanding students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees. Fellows receive a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 as well as a $12,000 cost-of-education allowance for tuition and fees. The fellowship program has a long history of selecting recipients who achieve high levels of success in their future academic and professional careers. The support accorded NSF Graduate Research Fellows nurtures their ambition to become lifelong leaders who contribute significantly to both scientific innovation and teaching. Among this year's Pitt cohort, eight undergraduate and graduate students were awarded fellowships, joined by two Swanson School alumni now in graduate school. Four undergraduate and graduate students and one alumnus received honorable mentions. Mary Besterfield-Sacre, the Swanson School’s Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, attributed this year's increase in winners from engineering to a strategically focused mentor-mentee program. “The program diversity among this year’s Swanson School NSF fellows is thanks in great part to Bioengineering Professor Pat Loughlin for working with each department to identify strong candidates and faculty mentors to help them build winning portfolios,” Dr. Besterfield-Sacre said. “The NSF Graduate Research Program is incredibly competitive and we’re especially proud that undergraduates make up half of our fellows.” Current Pitt students who were awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship are seniors from: - Swanson School of Engineering: Abraham Charles Cullom (civil and environmental engineering), Vani Hiremath Sundaram (mechanical engineering and material science), Adam Lewis Smoulder (bioengineering) and Henry Phalen (bioengineering); and graduate students Megan Routzong (bioengineering), Monica Fei Liu (bioengineering), Angelica Janina Herrera (bioengineering) and Sarah Hemler (bioengineering). - Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences: Graduate students Brett Baribault Bankson (psychology), Stefanie Lee Sequeira (psychology) and Alaina Nicole McDonnell (chemistry). Current Pitt students who received honorable mentions are from: - Swanson School of Engineering: seniors Anthony Joseph O’Brian (chemical and petroleum engineering), Anthony Louis Mercader (mechanical engineering and material science), Zachary Smith (electrical and computer engineering); and graduate student Maria Kathleen Jantz (bioengineering). - Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences: graduate students Amy Ryan (chemistry), Kathryn Mae Rothenhoefer (neuroscience), Andrea Marie Fetters (biological sciences), Mariah Denhart, (biological sciences), Timothy Stephen Coleman (statistics), Hope Elizabeth Anne Brooks (biological sciences), Mary Elizabeth Rouse Braza (geology and environmental science). Alumni who were awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship include Thomas Robert Werkmeister (engineering science) and Luke Drnach (bioengineering) from the Swanson School, and Julianne Griffith (psychology and sociology) and Aleza Wallace (psychology) from the Dietrich School. Alumni who received honorable mentions include Corey Williams (bioengineering) from the Swanson School, Sarah Elise Post (biological sciences), Hannah Katherine Dollish (neuroscience and Slavik studies) and Krista Bullard (chemistry), the latter three from the Dietrich School. Visit https://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/grfp/Login.do for a full list of fellows and honorable mentions and to learn more about the Graduate Research Fellowship Program. # # #
Amerigo Allegretto, University Communications

Using Ultrasound to Help People Walk Again

Bioengineering, MEMS

PITTSBURGH (April 3, 2017) … Spinal cord injuries impact more than 17,000 Americans each year, and although those with incomplete injuries may regain control of their limbs, overall muscle strength and mobility is weakened. Neurorehabilitation using robotic exoskeletons or electrical stimulation devices can help a person regain movement through repeated exercise. The amount of assistance through these devices during neurorehabilitation is based on the measurement of the user’s remaining muscle function. However, current sensing techniques are often unable to correctly measure voluntary muscle function in these individuals. Any discrepancies in the measurement can cause the robot to provide inadequate assistance or over-assistance. Improper robotic assistance slows recovery from the injury, and can potentially lead to falls during robot-assisted walking. To reduce this risk and provide therapists and patients with a more efficient rehabilitation tool, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering is utilizing ultrasound imaging to develop a more precise interface between exoskeletons and individual muscles.Nitin Sharma, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, received a $509,060 CAREER award from the National Science Foundation for “Ultrasound-based Intent Modeling and Control Framework for Neurorehabilitation and Educating Children with Disabilities and High School Students.” The NSF CAREER award is the organization’s most competitive research prize for junior faculty.Current noninvasive rehabilitation devices measure electrical signals from muscle activity, also known as electromyography to predict remaining muscle function and subsequent assistance. However, Dr. Sharma explained that correctly measuring how much assistance the device should provide is a challenge with electromyography, and also its use is limited to large muscle groups. Dr. Sharma says, “In very complex muscle groups that provide a range of motions, we need to measure individual muscle activity, rather than measuring the entire muscle group at once via electromyography, because it is susceptible to interference from adjacent muscles. Ultrasound can reduce the interference from surrounding muscle groups so that we can collect, monitor and control muscle activity of individual muscle fibers.” Dr. Sharma’s lab group will specifically focus on the human ankle for both its range of complex movements and its role in providing stability and balance when walking or standing. Ultrasound will provide precise imaging of the ankle muscles responsible for specific movements, which in turn will allow for optimization of electrode placement and correct modulation of robotic assistance to initiate movement. Ultimately, Dr. Sharma intends to build an ankle exoskeleton that patients and therapists can use in clinical rehabilitation. “Rather than randomly stimulating the entire ankle area to create movement in one direction, a wearable ultrasound-based exoskeleton can better monitor and control movement so that persons with incomplete spinal cord injury can more safely and quickly walk on the road to recovery,” Dr. Sharma said. “The technology also has the potential to help patients with other walking disorders better control their gait and balance.” ### Learn more at Dr. Sharma's lab site.

Swanson School students capture top prize and more at tenth annual Randall Family Big Idea Competition

Bioengineering, Chemical & Petroleum, Electrical & Computer, Industrial, MEMS, Student Profiles

Innovation Institute News Release With a blast of confetti falling from above the stage at the Charity Randall Theater, the participants in the 2018 Randall Family Big Idea Competition celebrated the culmination of two months of extra-curricular work on ideas for new products ranging from a software platform to connect hunters to landowners to a new insulin pump for diabetics, to a wearable earbud for helping disabled people control devices with eye movement. And 13 of the 40 finalist teams celebrated sharing the $100,000 in prize money. This year’s competition was the largest yet, with more than 300 students of all levels, from freshman to doctoral, participating in the initial round comprising more than 100 teams. Teams led by Swanson School of Engineering students captured at least one win in every place. The winner of the $25,000 top prize was Four Growers, an interdisciplinary group of students led by Dan Chi of the Swanson School of Engineering. They are developing a robotic system for harvesting tomatoes in commercial greenhouses. Next up for Four Growers will be representing Pitt as its entrant in the ACC InVenture Prize competition April 4-6, 2018, at Georgia Tech University, where each university in the Atlantic Coast Conference competes against each other in an innovation pitch competition. Four Growers is one of two Pitt teams that have been accepted into the prestigious Rice Business Plan Competition the same weekend, meaning they will have to split the team to compete both in Atlanta and Houston. The other Pitt entrant is FRED, which has developed a flexible platform for dynamic social science modeling. “This is the first time Pitt has had a team accepted in the Rice competition in its 17-year history, so having not one but the maximum allowed of two teams from the university accepted is a big deal,” said Babs Carryer, Director of Education and Outreach for the Innovation Institute, who oversees the Big Idea Competition. This years’ competition marked the 10th anniversary and it included the announcement that Pitt trustee Bob Randall and his family are donating $2 million to establish the Big Idea Center at the Innovation Institute to support student entrepreneurship. See that full story here. Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher credited Bob Randall’s vision for embedding entrepreneurship into the fabric of the university with bringing about a culture change that has witnessed a dramatic increase in the experiential learning opportunities in entrepreneurship that have been built around the Big Idea Competition in the past four years. “Bob’s vision has transformed this campus in so many powerful ways. We thank you and your family for not only being a great friend and a generous benefactor but for being a catalyst for change,” he said. Chancellor Gallagher said the crucible of the Big Idea competition will serve the participants well in whatever career route they take, whether it’s launching a startup or leading new initiatives in a larger organization. “If you think about the experience of being an entrepreneur, there’s almost nothing like it. Conversion of a thought into something that’s tangible and real and of value is the magic of entrepreneurship, and to do it is a seminal learning experience,” he said. The Big Idea prize winners will proceed into the Blast Furnace student accelerator beginning in May to further develop their ideas with the goal for some of creating startup companies around their ideas. The winning Swanson School of Engineering teams include: 1st place: $25,000Four GrowersTeam: Brandon Contino (ECE), Daniel Chi (MEMS), Daniel Garcia (Neuroscience), Jiangzi Li (Katz), Rahul Ramakrishnan (CMU)Idea: Automation of tomato harvesting in commercial greenhouses 2nd place: $15,000 (1 out of 3 winners)Re-VisionTeam: Yolandi van der Merwe (BioE), Mark Murdock (Pathology/Badylak Lab)Idea: Therapeutic platform to promote ocular tissue healing after injury 3rd place: $5,000 (2 out of 4 winners) Aqua Bio-Chem DiamondTeam: Mohan Wang (ECE), Jingyu Wu (ECE)Idea: Environmentally friendly removal of pollutants from contaminated waste water PCA BuddyTeam: Akhil Aniff (BioE), Patrick Haggerty (BioE), Sarah Cummings (Nursing), Tyler Martin (BioE)Idea:  Pump that gives children the ability to self-administer medication 4th place: $2,000 (2 out of 4 winners) Steeltown RetractorTeam: Chris Dumm (MEMS), Jack Bartley (MEMS)Idea: Allows surgeons to operate more efficiently and naturally by simplifying surgical tool placement and adjustment GlucaglinTeam: Shane Taylor (ChemE), Evan Sparks (ChemE), Jake Muldowney (ChemE)Idea: Multifunctional pump for diabetics Best Video Award EXG H+TechnologiesTeam: Ker Jiun Wang (BioE), Nicolina Nanni (IE), Yu Liu, Yiqiu Ren (ECE), Kaiwen You (ECE), Xiangyu Liao (ECE), Quanbo Liu (ECE)Idea: System to use eye movement for control of a powered wheelchair, cell phone, or other Internet of Things (IoT) devices
Michael C. Yeomans, Marketing and Special Events Manager, Innovation Institute

Research Assistant Professor in BioE

Bioengineering, Open Positions

The Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, Swanson School of Engineering invites applications by accomplished individuals with a Ph.D. or equivalent in Bioengineering, Biomedical Engineering, or closely related discipline. Applicants should have experience with conducting research in the field of neurovascular and neurometabolic coupling. This position will involve development and application of in vivo brain imaging platforms for diagnostics and therapy monitoring of vascular and metabolic diseases in the brain. This position is also responsible for writing grant applications and contributing to scientific advances in the field of cellular, vascular and metabolic imaging. Candidate will be responsible for publishing the scientific work conducted in peer reviewed journals and presenting findings at scientific meetings. Additionally, the candidate may assist in teaching, mentoring undergraduate or graduate students, and overseeing laboratory staff performing both in-vitro and in-vivo experiments. Located in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, the University of Pittsburgh is a top-five institution in terms of NIH funding, and provides a rich environment for interdisciplinary research, strengthened through its affiliation with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). The Department of Bioengineering, consistently ranked among the top programs in the country, has outstanding research and educational programs, offering undergraduate (~270 students, sophomore-to-senior years) and graduate (~150 PhD or MD/PhD and ~50 MS students) degrees. The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine (mirm.pitt.edu), the Vascular Medicine Institute (vmi.pitt.edu), the Brain Institute (braininstitute.pitt.edu), Center for Neuroscience (neurobio.pitt.edu), and the Drug Discovery Institute (upddi.pitt.edu) offer many collaborative research opportunities. The Coulter Translational Partnership II Program (engineering.pitt.edu/coulter) and the Center for Commercial Applications of Healthcare Data (healthdataalliance.com/pitt) provide biomedical innovation and translation opportunities. Interested candidates should send the following materials as a single PDF attachment via email with the subject line titled “Neurovascular and Neurometabolic coupling”. Please send your application to bioeapp@pitt.edu: 1. Letter of Intent 2. Most recent CV 3. Teaching statement 4. Three representative publications 5. Name and complete contact information of at least 5 references. The Department of Bioengineering is strongly committed to a diverse academic environment and places high priority on attracting female and underrepresented minority candidates. We strongly encourage candidates from these groups to apply for the position. The University affirms and actively promotes the rights of all individuals to equal opportunity in education and employment without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, age, religion, marital status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or any other protected class. The position is to be filled as soon as possible. Candidates are encouraged to apply early because applications will be reviewed as they are received.

San Diego Based Business Development Executive Allison Formal appointed Director of Pitt’s Coulter Translational Research Partners II Program

Bioengineering

PITTSBURGH (March 6, 2018) … After an extensive national search, the Coulter Translational Research Partners II Program at the University of Pittsburgh (Coulter@Pitt), has named Allison Formal, MBA as the Director of the Coulter Program in the Swanson School of Engineering.  Ms. Formal succeeds Max A. Fedor, MBA who moved within the University as the Executive Director of the Pittsburgh CREATES program at the Eye & Ear Foundation of Pittsburgh. Allison has a proven talent for identifying innovation. From concept through execution, she has produced thoughtful plans to assess business opportunities and assist researchers in addressing challenges in translational technology and development. “Allison’s business development experience will be very helpful to lead Coulter@Pitt through its next phase of growth and sustainability for the program at Pitt,” stated Sanjeev G. Shroff, PhD, the principal investigator of the Coulter@Pitt Program and Distinguished Professor and Gerald McGinnis Chair of Bioengineering at Pitt. Allison earned her MBA in finance and marketing from Marymount University. She started her professional career at Pfizer and has over 30 years of industry experience creating business alliances to advance biomedical innovations toward commercialization. She was most recently an Entrepreneur in Residence at UCLA with the Technology Development Group (the equivalent of Pitt’s Innovation Institute) and a consultant for Tollbridge Therapeutics founded by Nobel Laureate Bruce Beutler and the Myeloproliferative Neoplasm Research Foundation (MPNRF) where she now serves on the Board of Directors. Allison has been and remains focused on strategic planning and implementation for successful proof of concept studies. As the VP of Research Business Development at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), Allison played a key role building the successful venture philanthropy arm, the Therapy Acceleration Program (TAP). She created more than 60 research and development partnerships, investing in biopharmaceutical companies and academic researchers to develop therapies and diagnostics aimed at changing the standard of care for blood cancers. Allison has also held several leadership roles in biopharmaceutical companies including: VP, Business Development, MediQuest; VP, Business Development, Neuralstem; Director, International Division of Watson Pharmaceutical (now Allergan); and Director, Business Development, Humanitarian Aid Division of Schein-Bayer Pharmaceutical. Another unique set of qualifications brought by Allison include the roles she has played as an oversight committee member for the Translational Medicine and Commercialization Program at the University of Michigan Medical School (MTRAC, a program in the state of Michigan modeled on the Coulter process), a member of the grant review committee funding Bio-Therapeutic innovations at Oregon Health & Sciences University, and working with the commercialization committee at Washington State University. Alison said, “The University of Pittsburgh has a rich history of outstanding innovation, and I am very excited to be a part of its future, playing a role that will enable the biomedical engineering excellence to further develop and thrive. Pitt has played a leading role in making the Pittsburgh area a growing tech and innovation hub, and the Coulter model has significantly enhanced the entrepreneurial spirit. I am so pleased to be part of this vibrant community.” About the Coulter Program The Coulter Translational Research Partners II Program is a University based accelerator, designed to help faculty researchers translate their innovations to commercialization. By way of a competitive grant program, training processes, and collaborative services, our goal is to de-risk University technology and identify viable commercial pathways through the complex healthcare industry landscape. Further, we engage extensively with business partners, mentors and clinical experts to bring industry perspectives to translational research. In 6 years, the Coulter Program has attracted almost 200 applications, funded 31 projects leading to eight license agreements, four optioned technologies and eight start-up companies. About the Department of Bioengineering at the Swanson School of Engineering Bioengineering is the application of engineering principles to analyze native biological systems and to design and manufacture tools, structures, and processes for solving problems in the life sciences. Successful patient-focused and commercialization-oriented collaborations between engineers and physicians who traditionally employ differing methodologies are critical to the burgeoning field and to regional economic development. Pitt's Department of Bioengineering, established in 1998 as part of the Swanson School of Engineering and ranked as one of the nation's top bioengineering programs, is credited for developing many major biomedical technologies: cardiac-assist device for infants, a blood-treatment tool that can free patients from ventilator dependence, materials that help regenerate various tissues and organs, to name a few. ###

Undergraduate mechanical engineering student places second at the AHA Research Fellows Day poster session

Bioengineering, MEMS, Student Profiles

PITTSBURGH (February 21, 2018) … Residents, fellows, postdocs, and medical students filed into the University Club to compete in the American Heart Association’s 26th annual Fellows Research Day poster session. Among this group of accomplished young researchers was Trevor Kickliter, a mechanical engineering sophomore in the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering. Kickliter works in the lab of David Vorp, Associate Dean for Research and the John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering, where he uses commercial and custom-built software to study vascular diseases. On a whim he decided to pick up some research that had been put on the back-burner, and what started as a side project in the lab turned out to yield interesting results that intrigued some of Vorp’s cardiologist collaborators. Kickliter joined a group of researchers and began to look at how to detect reductions in the coronary arteries of pediatric patients. Other members of the research team include Aneesh Ramaswamy, a bioengineering graduate student researcher in the Vorp Lab; Brian Feingold, a pediatric cardiologist at UPMC; and Justin Weinbaum, research assistant professor of bioengineering at Pitt. “Late failure remains a major cause of death after pediatric heart transplantations,” explained Kickliter. “When coronary arteries begin to narrow, it is a hint that heart failure may be imminent, and with pediatric patients, treatment is difficult when this reduction becomes severe.” Kickliter said, “Cardiologists struggle to detect this gradual reduction on angiograms so our group decided to develop a tool to quantify the progression of coronary arteriopathy, thereby mitigating human error.” Vorp added, “Machine learning tools have well-established uses in biomedical image analysis, and Trevor recognized that such a tool could be used to overcome the limitations of current human analysis in this application.” Kickliter and his team trained a convolutional neural network to automatically identify the arteries and any reductions that may be happening. “We collected 2D angiography data from pediatric patients following heart transplantation then selected and segmented individual frames to generate binary masks over the coronary arteries,” explained Kickliter. “These images and masks were used for the neural network, and the accuracy, precision, and area under the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve -a plot of the true positive rate against the false positive rate- were used to assess its performance.” Excited by the promising results, Feingold encouraged Kickliter to submit an abstract to the AHA’s Fellows Research Day. The event’s poster session was judged by some of the region’s leading physicians and scientists. Though he faced competition from more experienced researchers, Kickliter, one of the youngest participants, won 2nd place and $250 in the clinical science category. “When Dr. Feingold suggested that we submit an abstract to the AHA Fellows Day, I was skeptical because my experience with these is that they are populated by very high-quality, polished MD residents and fellows, with an occasional post-doc,” said Vorp. “In most circumstances, I would not want one of my undergraduate researchers to be thrown to the wolves like this, but if anyone could handle the pressure, it would be Trevor. I am very proud of him and look forward to watching him continue to grow.” Kickliter and the other award winners were acknowledged at the Pittsburgh Heart Ball on Saturday, February 17, 2018 at the Pittsburgh Wyndham Grand Hotel. The group plans to continue research on this project. “This was really preliminary work, and there is still a long way to go,” said Kickliter. “We plan to improve the algorithm and train our network on a larger dataset to improve its performance. In the end, we hope that our work will help prevent heart failure in future pediatric heart transplant recipients.”

Postdoctoral Positions in Cardiopulmonary Organ-on-a-Chip

Bioengineering, Open Positions

A postdoctoral position is available through a collaboration between the laboratories of Dr. Stephen Chan, M.D., Ph.D., a physician-scientist and Director of the Center for Pulmonary Vascular Biology and Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and Dr. Warren Ruder, Ph.D., a synthetic biologist and Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. The postdoctoral associate will develop an arteriole-on-a-chip system to recapitulate pulmonary arteriole vasculature in vitro for the purpose of studying pulmonary hypertension (PH). The system will integrate air-perfused airway epithelial cells with a liquid-perfused co-culture of pulmonary artery endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, and adventitial fibroblasts in a synthetic biology-enhanced microfluidic model to study the effects of microRNAs on PH. PhD, MD or MD/PhD is required. The successful candidate will be highly motivated, with excellent written and verbal English communication skills, experience and expertise in cell culture, molecular biology, and microfluidic systems, and a proven track record of their ability to develop high impact research projects in the field of bioengineering. Particular consideration will be given to candidates with demonstrated experience in synthetic biology, and experience developing organ-on-a-chip systems. The University of Pittsburgh is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Women and minorities are especially encouraged to apply. Interested applicants should forward their CV, statement of research interests, and references to: Warren Ruder, Ph.D. (warrenr@pitt.edu) Assistant Professor Department of BioengineeringUniversity of Pittsburgh Stephen Chan, M.D., Ph.D. (chansy@upmc.edu)Associate Professor and Director, Center for  Pulmonary Vascular Biology and Medicine University of Pittsburgh and UPMC The Department of Bioengineering and the Center for Pulmonary Vascular Biology and Medicine are strongly committed to a diverse academic environment and places high priority on attracting female and underrepresented minority candidates. We strongly encourage candidates from these groups to apply for the position. The University of Pittsburgh affirms and actively promotes the rights of all individuals to equal opportunity in education and employment without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, age, religion, marital status, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or any other protected class.

New Gordon Research Conference on Neuroelectronic Interfaces Co-Founded by BioE’s Takashi Kozai

Bioengineering

Electrophysiological signals being detected from neurons (blue) with a sub-cellular sized implantable composite microelectrode designed to stealthily avoid the foreign body response. (Image by TDY Kozai/BionicLab.ORG) PITTSBURGH (February 6, 2018) ... Takashi Kozai, assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, will act as co-vice chair at the inaugural Gordon Research Conference on Neuroelectronic Interfaces. The meeting will take place March 25-30, 2018 in Galveston, Texas. Neuroelectronic interfaces -commonly known as brain-machine (or brain-computer) interfaces- create a direct communication line from the central nervous system to the outside world. This connection allows scientists to research ways to rehabilitate those with paralysis, other forms of motor dysfunction, or limb loss. “One major limitation for practical clinical translation, despite nearly 60 years of chronic neural interface research, is that there remains a poor understanding of the complex biological and material failure modes across all classes of microelectrode arrays,” Kozai explains. “Among several classes of multi-modal problems encountered, the strong foreign body response, scar tissue formation, and implant material breakdown over time are critical obstacles. These issues ultimately lead to an electrical decoupling of implanted devices from the brain and a loss of signal.” “Our inaugural Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Neuroelectronic Interfaces will challenge the international field to turn back to the drawing board of basic materials research armed with emerging basic neurosciences knowledge,” Kozai says. The event will bring together a multi-disciplinary team of leading experts in cellular neuroscience, brain pathology, neuro-technology and materials science to discuss and eventually solve these challenges in order to achieve a chronically useful and reliable neural interface. Kozai leads the Bio-Integrating Optoelectric Neural Interface & Cybernetics Lab (B.I.O.N.I.C. Lab) in the Swanson School of Engineering. The lab takes a multidisciplinary approach to better understand interactions at micro-scale neural interfaces and develop next-generation neural technologies that reduce or reverse negative tissue interactions. “As both scientific knowledge and technological advances progress, we’re finding that many of the assumptions that were made in the field are limited in scope, or incomplete,” Kozai says. “As a result, we see more and more of these dogmas fall apart as we push the limits of engineering.” As part of the five-day event, Kozai will lead a discussion on “Biomechanics of the Device-Tissue Interface.” The program also includes Xinyan Tracy Cui, William Kepler Whiteford Professor of Bioengineering at Pitt, who will present a talk titled “Biomimetic Strategy for Seamless Neural Electrode-Tissue Integration.” “The Gordon Research Conference is unlike most other conferences in that you get to spend a week sitting shoulder to shoulder with the leaders in the field to discuss new ideas and emerging research and development,” Kozai says. “We’ve been fortunate enough to bring together an all-star list of the world’s expert scientists and engineers.” Applications for this meeting must be submitted by February 25, 2018. Visit: https://www.grc.org/neuroelectronic-interfaces-conference/2018/. See the research being done at Pitt’s Human Neural Prosthetics Program: http://www.neurosurgery.pitt.edu/centers-excellence/human-neural-prosthetics.

Swanson School Students Succeed at the Startup Blitz

Bioengineering, Chemical & Petroleum, Electrical & Computer, Student Profiles

PITTSBURGH (January 29, 2018) … The University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute hosted its biannual Startup Blitz where nearly 50 students from across the University presented their ideas and innovations to a panel of peers and entrepreneurial experts. The Swanson School of Engineering students had a strong showing and were represented in each of the top three teams. These teams demonstrated interdepartmental collaborations that proved successful in creating ideas that spoke to fellow entrepreneurs. The top prize went to a project that may look familiar to those who attended the School’s fall semester Design Expo. The Posture Protect team of bioengineering students Tyler Bray, Raj Madhani, Jacob Meadows, and Vaishali Shetty came out on top again. They pitched their prototype for a device that helps improve posture for individuals with Parkinson’s disease to the panel of judges and were presented the first place award of $1,500. The Beacone team pitching their idea. (Photo credit: Pitt Innovation Institute) “I am delighted this team of students and their project from our fall 2017 ENGR 1716 Art of Making class won 1st place at Startup Blitz,” said Joseph Samosky, assistant professor of bioengineering and course director of The Art of Making. “In our course we promote human-centered design, the ability to frame and innovatively solve real-world problems, and how to effectively communicate your ideas to others,” said Samosky. “The Posture Protect team pursued an outstanding design thinking process, and they richly deserve the accolades they’re getting. Their project has real potential to help people with Parkinson’s.” The first runner up team included chemical engineering and Pitt STRIVE student, Henry Ayoola and electrical and computer engineering student, Teddy Valinski. They created Beacone, a safety program for manufacturing plants and construction sites that utilizes a smart device. The team was awarded a prize of $1,000. The Four Growers team presented with their award. (Photo credit: Pitt Innovation Institute) The second runner up team included electrical and computer engineering student, Dan Chi and bioengineering student, Ruben Hartogs. They created Four Growers, an automated device for harvesting tomatoes in commercial greenhouses. They were awarded $500 for their innovation. The Innovation Institute encourages students with entrepreneurial aspirations to apply to the upcoming Randall Family Big Idea Competition. Applications are due February 5. Read the entire news release from the Innovation Institute.

Pitt’s Center for Medical Innovation awards five novel biomedical devices with $115,000 total Round-2 2017 Pilot Funding

Bioengineering, Chemical & Petroleum, MEMS

PITTSBURGH (January 22, 2018) … The University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Medical Innovation (CMI) awarded grants totaling $115,000 to five engineering and medicine groups through its 2017 Round-2 Pilot Funding Program for Early Stage Medical Technology Research and Development. The latest funding proposals include proposed solutions to conditions such as peripheral artery disease, pulmonary fibrosis, improving auditory pathology detection, improved wound healing and repair, and a better means to perform root canal surgery. The Center for Medical Innovation, a University Center housed in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, supports applied technology projects in the early stages of development with “kickstart” funding toward the goal of transitioning the research to clinical adoption. Proposals are evaluated on the basis of scientific merit, technical and clinical relevance, potential health care impact and significance, experience of the investigators, and potential in obtaining further financial investment to translate the particular solution to healthcare. “We have an extremely strong cohort from our 2017 Round 2 funding,” said Alan D. Hirschman, PhD, CMI Executive Director. “The collaboration between engineering and medicine at Pitt provides a fertile setting for novel medical technology, and so we’re proud to give these researchers funding to take their ideas to the next level.” AWARD 1: A structurally and mechanically tunable Biocarpet for peripheral arterial diseaseDevelopment of a prototype “Biocarpet” that is mechanically and topographically tunable and can be used to treat complex peripheral artery disease. This will help treat long lesions in peripheral arteries that have multiple stenoses. Jonathan P. Vande Geest, PhD Professor of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering Kang Kim, PhD Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; and secondary appointment in Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering William R. Wagner, PhD Professor of Surgery University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; Director, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and secondary in Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering John J. Pacella, MD, MS Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; and Vascular Medicine Institute Kenneth J. Furdella Graduate Student, Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering AWARD 2: FibroKineTM: CXCL10 Biomimetic Peptides for Treatment of Pulmonary Fibrosis Development of an inhaled aerosol delivery system will achieve target organ specificity and efficient delivery to the lung. This will specifically aid patients who suffer from Pulmonary Fibrosis. Cecelia C. Yates, PhD Assistant Professor of Health Promotion and Development, University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing Timothy E. Corcoran, PhD Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; and secondary appointments in departments of Bioengineering and Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering Zariel I. Johnson, PhD Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Health Promotion and Development, University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing Christopher Mahoney, M.S. PhD Candidate, Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering AWARD 3: Hearing for Health: Single Unit Hearing Screener and AmplifierDevelopment of a wearable product that will allow health care professionals to quickly screen individuals for hearing loss. The device would also further provide sound amplification for those individuals with difficulty hearing. Catherine V. Palmer, PhD Program Director and Associate Professor, Audiology Program, Department of Communication Science & Disorders, University of Pittsburgh School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences; and Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Jeffrey S. Vipperman, PhD Professor and Department Vice-Chair of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering AWARD 4: Gel-based reconstructive matrix for treating orbital trauma and periocular woundsDevelopment of a novel ocular trauma management system, for immediate response to injuries that occur to the areas including and surrounding the eye. Morgan Fedorchak, PhD Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Clinical & Translational Sciences, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; secondary appointment in Chemical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering; and Louis J. Fox Center for Vision Restoration Jenny Yu, MD, FACS Assistant Professor and Vice Chair for Clinical Operations Department of Ophthalmology, UPMC Eye Center; and Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology,  University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Michael Washington, PhD Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine AWARD 5: Vital-Dent, a Revitalizing Root Canal SolutionDevelopment of a novel device to regenerate vital tooth pulp after root canal therapy. Vital pulp will help protect the tooth from future infection and injury, reducing the need for tooth extraction, implants and dentures. Juan Taboas, PhD Department of Oral Biology, University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine; secondary appointment, Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering; and Center for Craniofacial Regeneration, McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine Herbert Lee Ray Jr., DMD Assistant Professor of Endodontics and Director, Graduate Endodontic Residency Program, University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine; and Center for Craniofacial Regeneration, McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine Jingming Chen, B.S. Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering; and Center for Craniofacial Regeneration, McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine ### About the Center for Medical Innovation The Center for Medical Innovation at the Swanson School of Engineering is a collaboration among the University of Pittsburgh’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), the Innovation Institute, and the Coulter Translational Research Partnership II (CTRP). CMI was established in 2011 to promote the application and development of innovative biomedical technologies to clinical problems; to educate the next generation of innovators in cooperation with the schools of Engineering, Health Sciences, Business, and Law; and to facilitate the translation of innovative biomedical technologies into marketable products and services. Over 50 early-stage projects have been supported by CMI with a total investment of over $1 million since inception.

Undergraduate Bioengineering Alumna Turns Senior Design Project Into a Business

Bioengineering, Office of Development & Alumni Affairs

PITTSBURGH (January 11, 2018) … For undergraduates in the Swanson School of Engineering looking for a seamless transition into the “real world”, the opportunity to turn an idea into innovation and even a start-up can be a stitch in time. Lia Winter received a BS in bioengineering at Pitt in April 2017 and has since used her entrepreneurial spirit to start a business from a project whipped together in her undergraduate Senior Design class. Winter developed EasyWhip, an orthopedic surgical device that improves the whip stitching process during reconstructive procedures, like ACL surgery. “In these procedures, tendons are harvested from another part of the body and surgeons use a graft preparation station along with a whip stitching needle attached to a length of suture to construct a replacement graft for the injured ligament,” Winter explains. During her summer internship at an orthopedics medical device company, Winter saw an opportunity for improvement in the system. “I was inspired to create EasyWhip when I realized that there was an unmet medical need to make the whip stitching process easier,” Winter said. “EasyWhip is a modification to the conventional system that allows surgeons to recreate the same stitching pattern both faster and more consistently.” She worked closely with the Swanson Center for Product Innovation to create a highly functional prototype, and was awarded 3rd place at the Swanson School of Engineering Fall 2016 Design Expo. Winter took this winning project with her as she matriculated at the Dual MBA/MS Biomedical Engineering program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) and entered it into VolCourt, a 90-second elevator pitch competition. She was awarded first place and received $1,500, office space in the University of Tennessee Research Foundation Business Incubator, and several services to help her start a business. With the resources received from VolCourt, Winter started a sole proprietorship and filed a provisional patent application. She formulated a full business plan and was encouraged to present her idea at another pitch competition: UTK’s Boyd Venture Challenge. The Boyd Venture Challenge awards up to $20,000 in seed funding to student-owned businesses. Each participant gives a 25-minute presentation on the various elements of their business plan. Winter said, “I explained the problem at hand, detailed my innovation, gave a market estimate, illustrated my business model, presented a pro-forma budget, and projected financial statements for three years.” She was one of two student startups awarded $12,500 and plans to pursue a full patent and potentially license her product to a medical device company. Winter gives credit to Pitt for serving as a solid foundation in her biomedical engineering career. She said, “After completing a summer internship in industry and taking Senior Design, I realized that I am passionate about helping solve unmet medical needs.” Winter was awarded the Ergen Fellowship at UTK, which provided her with a scholarship and graduate research assistantship in the Department of Management. She said, “I plan to combine my biomedical engineering skills with business skills to help efficiently bring new innovative medical products to market.” She also encourages current bioengineering undergraduate students to stick with their Senior Design projects. Winter said, “A lot of these projects are actually great ideas that, with the right motivation and resources, you could use to start a business.” ###