Lending a Helping Hand

Bioengineering, Student Profiles

Undergraduate students in a bioengineering design course at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering were tasked with identifying and innovating solutions to unmet clinical needs. From brainstorming to prototyping and testing, teams designed original medical products and applied to competitions to showcase their efforts.A team of students, including Emily Himelrick, Klaire Dickey, Rachel Lau, Seth Queen, Simon Shenk, Michael Shulock, Christopher Snodgrass, and Katherine Stevenson, were accepted to the ASAIO Student Design Competition — and clinched first place — for a project aimed to alleviate a simple but prevalent issue for medical professionals.“I asked my mom, a registered nurse, and my roommates who recently graduated from Pitt's nursing program to tell me about problems they encounter during their shifts,” said Himelrick. “A common complaint was the difficulty of donning gloves, especially with damp or wet hands. They noted that the issue was exacerbated in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic given the increase in required sanitization and personal protective equipment.”The design team took this feedback and began brainstorming potential solutions to ease the difficulty of donning gloves. Latex- and hydrogel-coated gloves are two existing alternatives to this issue — both absorb excess moisture and allow for easier donning, but these options also have their limitations.“Latex gloves are useful, but they’re rarely the supply of choice due to the prevalence of latex allergies,” Himelrick added. “The powder-free hydrogel coated gloves are also effective but cost significantly more than the typical nitrile examination gloves.” Users often wear larger gloves or apply two to each hand to combat this common issue, but these approaches are wasteful and compromise dexterity. According to the team’s research, the most common method to ease glove donning is to cup the opening and blow into it; however, even this simple method is not practical because it can spread germs from the mouth and is not feasible while wearing masks.For their project, they mimicked this simple, reliable method and created a device that circulates air through a glove, making it easier to quickly slip onto one’s hand. For the mechanism, they tested manual devices like inflator bulbs, foot pumps, and cans of compressed air and also tried powered devices, including an air compressor and a linear actuator. “Ultimately, we decided to use a linear actuator coupled with a syringe to create air pressure used to inflate the glove,” Himelrick explained. “The user simply places a glove over a funnel, which acts as an interface between the device and the glove.”The team iterated through several 3-D printed funnel designs that would fit every glove size and simplify user interaction with the device.“Our final design proved successful in the verification and validation testing conducted by the design team as well as nursing students and faculty at Pitt,” Himelrick said. “The design, although relatively simple, is innovative in its function and purpose, so the team is in the process of acquiring a provisional patent for our product. This experience has been incredibly rewarding and we were thrilled to present at the ASAIO Conference in June.”

Wagner and Woo Inducted as Fellows of IAMBE

Bioengineering, Chemical & Petroleum, Honors & Awards

Two bioengineering faculty members from the University of Pittsburgh were elected as Fellows of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE). William R. Wagner and Savio L-Y. Woo were selected for this competitive election alongside 24 other internationally recognized leaders in the field. To date, there are fewer than 250 Fellows of the Academy throughout the world.Dr. Wagner was selected “for pioneering contributions to regenerative medicine and for integrating engineering expertise within the clinical environment, and championing innovation investment at the state and national level.” Dr. Woo’s election is “for pivotal contributions and leadership in biomechanics and bioengineering, leading to revolutionary treatments and rehabilitation strategies for improved patient care for ligament and tendon injuries worldwide.”“IAMBE Fellowship recognizes an individual for his/her outstanding contributions to the profession of medical and biological engineering,” said Sanjeev G. Shroff, Distinguished Professor and Gerald E. McGinnis Chair of Bioengineering at Pitt. “I am delighted to note that two of our colleagues, Dr. Savio Woo and Dr. William Wagner, were among the 26 IAMBE Fellows elected worldwide this year. Both of them have made seminal contributions to the field of bioengineering through their research, mentoring, and professional service and leadership, and they both are most deserving of this recognition. We are proud and honored to have them as a part of the Pitt bioengineering community.”About William R. WagnerDirector of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Distinguished Professor of Surgery, Bioengineering and Chemical EngineeringDr. Wagner serves as Scientific Director of the NSF Engineering Research Center on “Revolutionizing Metallic Biomaterials” and Chief Science Officer for the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine. He is the Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief of one of the leading biomaterials journals, Acta Biomaterialia. He is past-president of the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs (ASAIO) and past chairman of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) Americas region. He is a fellow and former vice president of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and has also been elected a fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering, TERMIS, and the American Heart Association. In 2006 he was selected to the “Scientific American 50,” the magazine’s annual list recognizing leaders in science and technology from the research, business and policy fields.Dr. Wagner's research interests are in cardiovascular engineering with projects that address medical device biocompatibility and design, biomaterial development, and tissue engineering. His work has generated numerous patents (36 issued to date) and patent filings that have resulted in licensing activity, the formation of two companies, one of which initiated two clinical trials. (Read more)About Savio L-Y. WooDistinguished University Professor Emeritus of Bioengineering, Swanson School of EngineeringDr. Woo is the Founder and Director of the Musculoskeletal Research Center, a diverse multidisciplinary research and educational center in the Department of Bioengineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. He arrived at the University in 1990 after spending 20 years at the University of California, San Diego as a Professor of Surgery and Bioengineering. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (1991) (formerly the Institute of Medicine), the National Academy of Engineering (1994), and the Academia Sinica (1996), only one of five persons who have gained all three of these honors.Dr. Woo, a pioneer in bioengineering, is renowned for his 50 years of translational research and education to improve healing and repair of soft tissues. He and his colleagues have published 311 original research papers that have led to paradigm shifts in clinical management to improve patient outcomes. He has educated more than 500 orthopaedic surgeons, post-doctoral fellows and students from across the globe and has also successfully mentored 37 junior faculty members. (Read more)

Abigail Allen Receives NIH F31 for Her Cardiovascular Research

Student Profiles, Bioengineering

PITTSBURGH (May 21, 2021) ... Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death in the United States and the contributing factor for one in every four deaths. An improved understanding of the mechanisms behind atherosclerosis, a common contributor to cardiovascular disease, may help guide new therapeutic strategies to combat this deadly disease.University of Pittsburgh graduate student Abigail Allen received an F31 award from the National Institutes of Health for her work that examines the effect of actin-binding protein Profilin-1 (Pfn1) perturbation in atherosclerosis. Her studies involve taking a close look at angiogenesis and how Pfn1 may play an important role in its function.“Angiogenesis is the process in which new blood vessels sprout from pre-existing vasculature, and it is facilitated by complex interaction between endothelial cells (EC), extracellular matrix (ECM) and various stromal cells (immune cells, fibroblasts),” Allen explained. “This process is central to both normal physiology and life-threatening pathologies, like cancers, atherosclerosis, or diabetic retinopathy.”In addition to facilitating nutrient delivery, new vessel formation from angiogenesis also promotes infiltration of immune cells into the vascular system during inflammation and diseases involving inflammation.“Actin cytoskeleton remodeling in EC not only plays pivotal role in cellular restructuring, cell motility and sprouting angiogenesis, but is also important for features that impact vascular infiltration of immune cells, such as regulation of EC barrier function and EC-immune cell interactions,” Allen added.Studies from the Roy Lab have demonstrated that actin-binding protein Pfn1, an important regulator of actin cytoskeletal dynamics, is an indispensable endothelial mediator of angiogenesis in both physiological and abnormal settings.Other studies report that in preclinical setting of atherosclerosis, an overall decrease in Pfn1 expression – by modifying the gene at the embryonic level – leads to less vascular infiltration of pro-atherogenic immune cells, specifically macrophages. This effect reduces the disease burden.“These taken together with my preliminary findings that endothelial Pfn1 depletion dramatically alters the circulating levels of immune-modulatory cytokines in vivo, underscore the importance of endothelial Pfn1 function in vascular biology with potential impact on vascular-immune cell interactions,” Allen said.

Taking Charge: How to Use a Battery to Prevent Workplace Injury

Bioengineering, Features, Banner, Research

Workplace injuries and deaths have an enormous economic impact in the United States, costing society billions of dollars annually. According to the National Safety Council, work injury costs totaled $170.8 billion in 2018. One of the top causes is slip-and-fall injuries – an accident that can be mitigated in a variety of ways, such as proper footwear.The University of Pittsburgh’s Kurt Beschorner leads research to predict the risk of a slip-and-fall injury based on shoe tread. They have examined the impact of worn shoes on slipping and are now working with the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) Traumatic Injury Prevention Council to develop safety signage for hospitals and the restaurant industry.“Our research focuses on understanding the underlying causes of slippery shoes, and we have been working to identify the tread thresholds where shoes become unsafe,” said Beschorner, associate professor of bioengineering at Pitt and a member of the Human Movement & Balance Laboratory. “Slip-resistant shoes are designed with train channels that help drain fluid, but as shoes wear down, the channels disappear and become ineffective. This can create a slipping effect similar to tires hydroplaning on a wet road.”Unlike tire tread, which focuses on depth, Beschorner and his team found that the risk of slipping depends on the size of the worn patch of shoe. They developed a test that uses a universal device, a battery, to determine when it might be time to replace your footwear.“The strength of our test is in its simplicity,” Beschorner said. “Use the base of a AA battery to measure the worn region of your slip-resistant shoe. When the worn region becomes larger than the base of a battery, the shoe should be replaced. As the worn patch grows larger, there is a steady decline in function, and the base of the battery is the size where it becomes meaningful.”The team considered several common items – such as pens or coins – for the test, but most objects varied in size from brand to brand and country to country. Batteries, however, are globally universal in size.Beschorner suggests monitoring your shoes and replacing them before the worn patch becomes too large. His research also suggests that individuals will wear through their shoes at different rates.“The rate of wear was predicted by the walking style of the individual. Particularly, participants who utilized more friction during dry walking wore through shoes at a faster rate,” he said. “Thus, individuals may require different replacement schedules based on their unique walking style.”In addition to monitoring shoe wear, Beschorner also advises workers to examine the tread before buying a new pair.“Certain footwear comes with large tread features, which should be avoided since these treads mimic the worn patch that can lead to slips,” he explained.Check out the NORA Traumatic Injury Prevention Council’s posters for the food service and health care industries. “Common sense research meets the real world,” said Patrick Kubis, president of SR Max Slip Resistant Shoes. “We are already sharing this research with customers through educational posters and shoe box inserts. With one simple picture, our customers visualize the solution and the importance of replacing worn out shoes.”You can find more information on the HMBL website.

Sarah Hemler Clinches First Place at Pitt’s Three Minute Thesis Competition

Student Profiles, Bioengineering

Each year, graduate students from the University of Pittsburgh participate in the University of Queensland’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition to challenge their research communication skills. The event invites higher degree students to effectively explain their work in three minutes to a non-specialist audience.Sarah Hemler, a bioengineering PhD candidate in the Swanson School of Engineering’s Human Movement and Balance Laboratory, was awarded first place in Pitt’s 2021 competition. She used the platform to discuss the assessment and mechanics of shoe tread wear.“I think research or any work we do is only as potent as its communication,” she said. “In the lab, we know the details of our work more than anyone else. It’s in relaying this information with accuracy, tact, and attention to the audience that the information is disseminated effectively. Even the best interventions require strategic communication around their importance and validity to reach the intended audiences.”Her dissertation work includes monitoring shoe traction performance and wear, and developing footwear replacement strategies to prevent slips and falls. She designed and prototyped a portable shoe scanner, which could ultimately help reduce the billions of dollars spent on medical claims due to workplace injuries.“Part of my research involves user-centered design which understands how to assess and incorporate user needs into the product design process for optimal efficiency,” Hemler added. “I think effective communication involves applying some user-centered design techniques; we need to know what is useful, usable, and desirable for the audience in order for information to be remembered.”“Sarah has worked hard to refine the skill of communicating in a concise and understandable way,” said Kurt Beschorner, associate professor of bioengineering and Hemler’s research advisor. “This skill can be especially challenging when communicating highly technical research. I was so pleased that her efforts and talents were recognized in this competition.”Swanson School students have continually placed as finalists or won the top prize in this competition since 2018.

15 Pitt Students Earn NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Student Profiles, Bioengineering, Chemical & Petroleum, MEMS

Reposted from Pittwire. Click here to view the original story.Fifteen Pitt graduate students have been selected for the 2021 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), which recognizes outstanding graduate students who are pursuing full-time research-based master's and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.The prestigious award provides three years of support for the graduate education of individuals who have demonstrated their potential for significant research achievements in STEM or STEM education. Its overall goal is to recruit individuals into STEM fields and to broaden participation of underrepresented groups in science and engineering.Since its inception in 1952, the GRFP has supported more than 60,000 graduate students nationwide.The NSF expects to award 1,600 Graduate Research Fellowships overall. Fellows are provided a $34,000 stipend and $12,000 cost-of-education allowance each year.Pitt’s 2021 awardees are:Max Franklin Dudek, life sciences—computationally intensive researchZachary Egolf, engineering—systems engineeringHannah C. Geisler, engineering—biomedical engineeringMarcela Gonzalez-Rubio, engineering—bioengineeringSarah Clarkson Griffin, engineering—bioengineeringPete Howard Gueldner, engineering—bioengineeringElijah Hall, geosciences—hydrologySara Jaramillo, psychology—cognitive psychologyCaroline Iturbe Larkin, engineering—computationally intensive researchJennifer Mak, engineering—biomedical engineeringKaren Y Peralta Martinez, life sciences—organismal biologyKevin Pietz, engineering—bioengineeringApril Alexandra Rich, life sciences—genomicsPaul Anthony Torrillo, chemistry—computationally intensive researchCarissa Siu Yun Yim, engineering—chemical engineeringIn addition, nine Pitt students were recognized with honorable mentions:Marissa Nicole Behun, engineering—bioengineeringEmily Kaye Biermann, physics and astronomy—astronomy and astrophysicsGabriella Gerlach, life sciences—bioinformatics and computational biologyEmily Anne Hutchinson, psychology—developmental psychologyKayla M. Komondor, life sciences—developmental biologyRachael Dawn Kramp, life sciences—ecologyPatrick John Stofanak, engineering—mechanical engineeringMadeline Torres, life sciences—microbial biologyDarian Yang, life sciences—biophysics"It is very exciting that, once again this year, University of Pittsburgh students have been recognized by the National Science Foundation for their excellent work in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. That the country’s oldest fellowship program supporting STEM applauds the fine accomplishments of Pitt's students is as impressive as it is inspiring," said Joseph J. McCarthy, vice provost for undergraduate studies and interim dean of the University Honors College. "I sincerely congratulate this year's honorees."The University offers guidance for students who want to prepare strong applications for these and other awards.“Students in the Swanson School of Engineering successfully compete every year for NSF GRFP awards, which is a testament to their academic excellence and hard work,” said bioengineering professor Patrick Loughlin. “It is also a testament to the decade-long workshop and efforts by Swanson School faculty to assist graduate students in preparing competitive fellowship applications.”Loughlin said the Swanson School is joining forces with the University Honors College to expand its efforts with an eye toward further increasing the number of Pitt NSF GRFP recipients.Pitt Honors scholar-mentor Joshua Cannon said the Honors College’s program includes workshops throughout the summer and early fall, numerous past successful applications to read and learn from, advice on how to structure essays, and detailed reading and reviewing of essays.Awardee Marcela Gonzalez-Rubio said she felt overwhelmed as she started her NSF GRFP proposal. “Not because I didn't feel ready, but because as a graduate student it was my first time applying for such a competitive and prestigious grant.“I knew I needed mentorship, advice and new sets of eyes to provide an objective perspective on my proposal as I wanted it to be the best possible,” Gonzalez-Rubio said.“In my advisor, lab mates, fellow grad students and Pitt's Honors College prep program I found everything that I was looking for and I will be forever thankful for their support in helping me achieve what I consider to be my career's most important milestone so far.”Said honorable mention honoree Emily Bierman, "The application process allowed me to really envision what I wanted my graduate school experience to look like. After taking time to think deeply about what brought me to where I am today and what I want to accomplish, I feel much more grounded as a graduate student. Pitt's prep program really helped me through that self-reflection. The GRFP application is quite daunting, but I didn't have to do it alone."Swanson School recipients for the 2021 award include:Zachary Egolf, a mechanical engineering graduate student, works to develop a nonlinear control scheme for distributive control of robotic swarms. This controller will allow for robust tracking of randomly moving targets. (PI: Vipperman)Hannah Geisler, a bioengineering undergrad, performed research to investigate the fluid-handling capabilities of a 3D-printed peristaltic pump for application in cell-free protein synthesis systems. The overarching goal of the project was to design a microfluidic system capable of controlled, rapid SARS-COV-2 protein synthesis for downstream production of protein-based COVID-19 assays and therapeutics. (PI: Ruder)Marcela Gonzalez-Rubio, a bioengineering graduate student, studies how humans learn new ways of walking by using a split-belt treadmill where participants move each of their legs at different speeds. She is interested in quantifying their perception of leg movements once they adjust their walking patterns to this novel environment. (PI: Torres-Oviedo)Sarah Griffin, a bioengineering graduate student, studies the biomechanics and shoe-rung mechanics of ladder climbing to describe the factors affecting slip risk. The overall goal is to develop new knowledge that can be implemented in the workplace to reduce ladder slip and fall risk. (PI: Beschorner)Pete Gueldner, a bioengineering graduate student, uses novel experimental and computational techniques to analyze the biomechanics of abdominal aortic aneurysms. The central goal is to reduce the risk of patients by leveraging artificial intelligence tools on large clinical imaging datasets which will aid in the improvement of the clinical standards as well as overall patient health. (PI: Vorp)Jennifer Mak, a bioengineering graduate student, develops innovative stroke rehabilitation strategies, involving the use of augmented reality (AR), encephalography (EEG), robotics, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The overarching goal is to address post-stroke sensory processing issues like neglect as well as motor impairments. (PI: Wittenberg)Kevin Pietz, a bioengineering undergraduate, performed research that involved engineering stem cell-derived pancreatic islets using alginate encapsulation and islet-on-a-chip systems. The goal is to develop a long-term microphysiological culture system for studying type 2 diabetes. (PI: Banerjee)Carissa Yim, a chemical engineering undergraduate, aims to understand and improve energy efficiency in flow batteries through electrochemistry and molecular-scale structural simulations. This will enable researchers to better harness intermittent renewable energy and address climate change. (PI: McKone)Honorable MentionsMarissa Behun, a bioengineering graduate student, aims to better understand the way in which macrophage phenotypes change with age following a skeletal muscle injury. (PI: Brown)Patrick Stofanak, a mechanical engineering graduate student, works to better understand the impact that winds have on melting ice sheets and sublimation of snow in polar regions. Using fundamental thermal-fluid concepts and numerical simulation, he aims to improve our understanding of how these processes are contributing to sea level rise. (PI: Senocak)# # #Kimberly K. Barlow, Communications Manager, Office of University Communications, 4/8/2021Contact: Kimberly K. Barlow

DIY Device Climbs to the Top of the Charts

Student Profiles, Bioengineering

A student’s side project created to optimize his lab work has piqued the interest of the global scientific community, putting it in the top 10 chemistry papers published in Scientific Reports in 2020.Michael Behrens’ synthetic biology research at the University of Pittsburgh requires the use of microfluidic devices, which allow researchers to rapidly perform biology or chemistry experiments on a small scale.Doing this work on a small scale helps save time and precious research dollars by allowing investigators to stretch resources, but Behrens saw more room for improvement. The peripheral equipment often required for microfluidic experiments adds to the cost and complexity, so he decided to innovate a solution to this problem.Behrens’ open-source, 3D-printed tool is not only cheaper, but it also adds a level of flexibility for tech-savvy researchers to fully harness these transformative devices.“Peristaltic pumps for microfluidic devices already exist, but I wanted a simple, reliable version that could carry small volumes of liquid,” said Behrens, a bioengineering PhD student at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. “It’s cheaper to build it yourself, but we also added a level of flexibility by incorporating programmable microcontrollers that allow for custom flow profiles.”Microfluidic devices have a wide range of applications, including point-of-care diagnostics – much like the testing we have witnessed for the COVID-19 pandemic. This type of technology, also known as lab-on-a-chip, can quickly deliver much needed results and has transformed testing – particularly in times of emergency, at-home care, or in places that lack clinical infrastructure.“Since our pump is relatively cheap and easy to build and use, it could enable places with resource constraints to still have advanced diagnostics,” he said. “This pump could allow clinicians to run reagents past cells grown in a microfluidic device and do quick on-site testing, or allow high school labs to experiment with modern chemistry and biology research techniques.”For Behrens, the tool has helped advance his biorobotics research in the Synthetic Biology and Biomimetics Lab led by Warren Ruder, associate professor and William Kepler Whiteford Faculty Fellow of Bioengineering at Pitt. He believes this tool could help fellow engineers stretch their budgets and more effectively utilize microfluidic technologies.“I think there an unmet need to develop cheap tools to make microfluidics more accessible, especially for researchers,” he said. "The success of the paper shows me that a lot of people are interested in microfluidics, and providing open-source tools to help enable those technologies seems like a useful thing to do.”

Connecting the Dots Between Engagement and Learning

Bioengineering, Research, Banner

Reposted with permission from Carnegie Mellon University. Click here to view the original story.We’ve all heard the adage, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” but new research from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh finds that it isn’t all about repetition. Rather, internal states like engagement can also have an impact on learning.The collaborative research, published today in Nature Neuroscience, examined how changes in internal states, such as arousal, attention, motivation, and engagement can affect the learning process using brain-computer interface (BCI) technology. Findings suggest that changes in internal states can systematically influence how behavior improves with learning, thus paving the way for more effective methods to teach people skills quickly, and to a higher level of proficiency.Internal states are known to modulate brain-wide neural activity, and studies continue to explore their impact on motor control, sensory processing, and cognition. However, the specific interaction between internal states and learning is not well understood.“Intuitively, we know that neural activity changes as we’re learning different things, because our behavior gets better with practice,” explains Jay Hennig, a graduate student in neural computation and machine learning at Carnegie Mellon. “However, what we’re finding is that it’s not just about getting better. All of the things that go on alongside of learning, such as one’s level of attention or state of arousal, play a significant role.”Using a BCI learning paradigm, the researchers observed how neural activity changed, and the degree to which these changes were influenced by shifts in internal states, as subjects performed tasks by moving a cursor on a computer screen using only patterns of neural activity.As the study unfolded, the team began to notice occasional large, abrupt fluctuations in neural population activity within the motor cortex. At first, they did not understand why this was happening, but over time, they came to realize that the fluctuations happened whenever the subject was surprised with a change in the task. (Changes ranged from brief pauses to perturbations of the BCI mapping.) At these moments, the subjects’ pupils dilated, suggesting that the abrupt fluctuation was the neural manifestation of an internal state, engagement.“We weren’t looking for this particular effect in the neural data,” says Steve Chase, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon and the Neuroscience Institute. “The pupil diameter was tightly correlated with the engagement signal that we saw in the neural activity, and it seems to have a massive effect in the motor cortex.”Ultimately, the research suggests that subjects’ level of engagement or attention can make things easier or harder to learn, depending on the context.“You might have imagined that the brain would be set up with a clear segregation of functions, like motor areas to motor control, and emotional areas to emotional control, and sensory areas to sensory representation,” says Aaron Batista, professor of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. “What we’re finding is a serendipitous kind of intrusion of an internal state into a motor area. It could be that we can harness that signal to improve learning.”The group’s work is ongoing and done in collaboration with the Center for Neural Basis of Cognition, a cross-university research and educational program between Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh that leverages each institution’s strengths to investigate the cognitive and neural mechanisms that give rise to biological intelligence and behavior.“One of the unique parts of our collaboration is how integrated we all have been throughout the entire project, from experimental design, to experimental conduction, to data analyses, and adopting; we’re all involved in all parts of that,” says Byron Yu, professor of biomedical engineering and electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon. “The findings here might one day help people learn everyday skills, such as math or dance, more quickly and to a higher level of proficiency.”# # #Sara Vaccar, Communications Manager, College of Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University , 3/30/2021Contact: Sara Vaccar

Resilience in a Time of Uncertainty

Bioengineering, Student Profiles

When the COVID-19 crisis took hold of the United States more than a year ago, the University shut down all but essential work and had to transform day-to-day operations. Research was put on hold, students were told to stay home, and campus quickly became a ghost town.Despite these unprecedented circumstances, which continue to affect life on campus, research and education quickly revived, and University of Pittsburgh engineers returned to what they do best – addressing complex problems to improve the human condition.From collecting donations and making personal protective gear to advancing lung assist devices and mitigating viral exposure for doctors and nurses, Pitt bioengineers have overcome obstacles to help contribute to pandemic relief and adapt their research and education to the “new normal.”Reengineering ResearchGiven the nature of biomedical research, managing human and non-human subjects was an obstacle to overcome in this new environment. The first steps toward restarting research were to reduce personnel and mitigate risk, which required many labs to reengineer operations for a safe return.Tamer Ibrahim’s group uses its unique head coil system and one of the strongest MRI devices in the world to perform scans on patients with neurological disorders. To return to these studies and to keep their patients safe, the team had to adapt their technology.“We created new standard operating procedures, modified our devices with clever engineering, and completely changed the way we do human imaging in order to mitigate the risk of infections and spreading of the disease,” said Ibrahim, professor of bioengineering. “Despite significant difficulties, we have been conducting human studies for about seven months now and are becoming even busier than before the pandemic shut down our operation. I am amazed at the resilience of our students, postdocs, and staff.”Students have played a large role in adapting research to these new safety standards. Undergraduate students, like bioengineering senior Yuxuan Hu, have had to find creative ways to continue their lab work.Hu works on FingerSight, a device for the blind worn as a ring on the index finger. It has a camera and vibrators that can help a visually impaired individual navigate their environment and guide manipulation. During the pandemic, he managed to develop a system that allows a blindfolded person to pick up a plastic strawberry with a spoon.“The system uses relatively straightforward computer vision methods, such as binary thresholding, but adjusting parameters in the methods was still challenging as it requires repetitive testing,” he explained. “Dr. Stetten delivered basic parts of the hardware to my apartment so I could work on the prototype from home and only had to come to the lab for formal experiments. Additionally, I met with the lab virtually every week to present and discuss my progress.”Hu’s success will be published in the Swanson School’s annual student journal, Ingenium.“Considering my lab was otherwise shut down, and he was all alone, his efforts were above-and-beyond,” said George Stetten, professor of bioengineering who devised the concept for FingerSight.Though operations are still far from “normal,” most bioengineering labs have reopened and are continuing their work to advance human medicine and treatment.Restructuring EducationIn addition to a new research environment, faculty and students have also had to tackle an unconventional classroom.An integral part of engineering education is engaging in the creative design process and exploring solutions through hands-on learning – a task that is difficult to accomplish remotely. During the pandemic, faculty and students have had to apply their engineering skills to restructure the teaching environment.“My TA team and I have viewed this situation as a profoundly interesting challenge for us to reinvent a hands-on, project-based design course for remote delivery – and build the plane as we're flying it,” said Joseph Samosky, assistant professor of bioengineering who teaches the Art of Making: Hands-On System Design and Engineering, a Swanson School course that focuses on innovation, human-centered design, experiential learning and projects that address real-world problems.To equip the 43 students enrolled in the course’s spring 2021 term, Samosky and his wife sorted thousands of prototyping materials and tools to be shipped to each student by the first day of class. In a time of physical distance, this enabled the Art of Making students to remotely interact with one another, explore technologies and build prototypes“We had a communal ‘unboxing ceremony’ during the first class session to foster a sense of unity and promote the ability to work with physical ‘atoms’ even when our communications are mediated by ‘bits,’” he said. “We’ve seen dramatically increased engagement when students can ‘break the fourth wall’ of the Zoom screen by working together with physical artifacts.”In an early assignment, students built robots that play music and dance together – even while spatially remote. They also paused for creative physical activity breaks as a team.“Everyone stares at a screen all day, and since the class is almost two hours long, we try to get students out of their seats -- whether for a nature break or a virtual roller coaster simulation,” said Jessica Steinberg, a bioengineering sophomore and Art of Making TA.The teaching assistants took creative measures to try to make the “covid classroom” mimic an in-person experience.“Inspired by techniques used at the Stanford d.school to enhance creativity and community, Dr. Samoksy suggested playing ‘ideation music’ during some of our class activities. I DJ music while the students are working, playing calmer music during brainstorming and more high energy songs while they are prototyping or doing workshops,” said Mackenzie Stiles, a bioengineering sophomore who is also a TA for the course. “We used to listen to music together in G34 so something small like that really creates a nice sense of community while we work in different places.”Both Steinberg and Stiles were part of the spring 2020 course offering and were well equipped to help the new cohort of students navigate the untraditional classroom.“When we returned last spring, everything was so unstable with all of my classes, except the Art of Making,” said Stiles. “It was shocking how normal it felt, which is a testament to the hard work that Dr. Samosky and the TAs made during the week of spring break. That made me value what I do as a TA now and motivated me to provide the same level of consistency during these unpredictable times.”Samosky and his TA team also developed, tested and deployed a new Art of Making Online Expo where the capstone project teams presented their projects to their peers, industry guests and course alumni joining from around the world.“It is a great opportunity for the students to show off, get feedback, and take pride in everything they accomplished during the course,” Steinberg added. “Experiential learning has always been at the core of Art of Making, so it has been a rewarding challenge to help create ways for students to engage in hands-on, collaborative learning, even while physically distant.”Reimagining the FutureBioengineering is closely connected to the clinical world, and graduate programs in the field often draw health care professionals. During the pandemic, many of these professionals have faced unique challenges and have been pushed to the front line of the crisis. Two current MS in Medical Product Engineering (MS-MPE) graduate students have had to learn how to strike a balance between a career and education during these unprecedented circumstances.As COVID-19 swept through New York City in March 2020, hospital intensive care units (ICUs) were quickly slammed with patients and in desperate need of healthy hospital workers, like travel nurse Kelsey Cox.“I was in Seattle at the beginning of the pandemic and saw the immediate need for nurses in New York City,” said Cox, who started the MS-MPE program in the fall. “With my background and interest in failing lungs and hearts, I knew I had to help, so I moved to Brooklyn in mid-March.”After her time in New York, Cox traveled to Pittsburgh to settle in and prepare for the start of the program; however, she was soon called to Texas – another state hit hard by the pandemic.“I worked 21 days straight in an ICU in McAllen and later did the same thing in El Paso,” she said. “Though they were difficult months, I was happy I could contribute to the crisis and grateful to have had the experience.“Being a travel nurse has given me an amazing opportunity to work all across the nation and has allowed me to network with like-minded peers. It has also afforded me the chance to focus on my graduate studies and not have to work a part-time job as a student.”Cox hopes to connect her two professional worlds and engineer devices and solutions that can improve daily life for nurses.Another MS-MPE student juggling a career and graduate school is Brandon D’Aloiso (BS BioE ’15), a lead perfusionist at UPMC Presbyterian who supports cardiac patients, including heart and lung transplant patients. He also supports individuals on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) – a device that can do the work of the patient’s heart and/or lungs while native organs recover.“We have seen an increasing use of ECMO in the COVID-19 patient population and have supported these ECMO patients round-the-clock since last April,” he said.D’Aloiso also participates on the StatMedivac ECMO Transport team, a group that branches out to regional hospitals, places qualifying individuals on ECMO, and transports them back to UPMC Presbyterian for further care.“This life-saving effort was one of the coolest things I got to do during the pandemic,” he added. “It really helped regional centers to care for these sick patients.“While balancing life as a graduate student has been tough, I love my job and learning in the program so I have made it work. I have been fortunate that many of my courses have allowed me to focus on projects I am very interested in and that relate to my work as a perfusionist as well.”D’Aloiso has an interest in cardiac medical devices and joined the MS-MPE program to further his knowledge in this area.Though these stories only represent a fraction of the Pitt bioengineering population, they demonstrate the diverse backgrounds and interests that can come together to impact and improve the human condition – even during times of crisis.

University of Pittsburgh Faculty Elected Senior Members of the National Academy of Inventors

Bioengineering

Reposted from the Innovation Institute. Click here to view the original story.The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has selected three University of Pittsburgh professors among 61 academic inventors for the 2021 class of NAI Senior Members. They are:Bryan Brown, Associate Professor, Department of BioengineeringMichael Lotze, Professor, Department of SurgeryKacey Marra, Professor, Departments of Plastic SurgeryNAI Senior Members are active faculty, scientists and administrators from NAI Member Institutions who have demonstrated remarkable innovation producing technologies that have brought, or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society. They also have growing success in patents, licensing and commercialization.“I want to congratulate Drs. Brown, Lotze and Marra on joining an exclusive society of academic inventors,” said Evan Facher, Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Pittsburgh and Director of the Innovation Institute. “They all have demonstrated exceptional commitment to achieving impact for their research through commercial translation. Importantly, they have years of innovating ahead of them. We look forward to helping them bring more of those discoveries to market where they can make a difference in people’s lives.”Two of the new NAI Senior Members are developing solutions for treating large gap nerve injuries.Bryan Brown has been issued eight patents, with several more pending. He launched a startup company in 2017, Renerva, from his lab at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.Dr. Brown leveraged more than $300,000 in commercialization gap funding from within the university while working one-on-one with an entrepreneur in residence from Pitt’s Innovation Institute, Lorenzo Soletti, who has become Renerva’s CEO.Since launching, the company has raised more than $1 million in investment capital, while also securing more than $3 million in grants from the Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, to advance its preclinical programs.Kacey Marra was inspired to pursue commercial translation after receiving funding from the Department of Defense for her research and meeting soldiers who had received significant nerve damage from wounds suffered in combat.Since arriving at Pitt in 2002, she has submitted 20 invention disclosures to the Pitt Innovation Institute, which ties her for most among female faculty members. She has been issued 3 patents with many more pending. Dr. Marra and her lab have demonstrated in animal studies the ability to restore up to 80 percent of nerve function in large-gap injuries through the application of a biodegradable tube containing a time-released protein growth factor.With her research showing continuing promise, Dr. Marra launched her own company, Nerve Repair Technologies, in 2018.Michael Lotze is a pioneer in the cancer immunotherapy field and is the co-inventor of multiple patents in dendritic cell vaccines, antigen discovery, and tumor infiltrating lymphocyte therapy.He previously held leadership roles in industry as the chief scientific officer of Iovance Biotherapeutics, which is presently conducting four Phase 2 clinical trials for treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma, squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and cervical cancer. Earlier he had been vice president of research at GlaxoSmithKline. He was also senior advisor for the Immune Transplant and Therapy Center, a partnership between Pitt and UPMC.This latest class of NAI Senior Members represents 36 research universities, government, and non-profit research institutes. They are named inventors on over 617 issued U.S. patents.“With the NAI Senior Member award distinction, we are recognizing innovators who are rising stars in their fields and the innovative ecosystems that support their work,” said Paul R. Sanberg, NAI President.Following a nomination for NAI Senior Member, individuals undergo a rigorous selection process by the NAI Advisory Committee, which is composed of elected NAI members and other professionals considered pioneers in their respective field.Senior Members are elected biannually, and nominations are accepted on a rolling basis. Nominations are currently being accepted for the next Senior Member class.A full list of NAI Senior Members is available on the NAI website. Contact: Mike Yeomans

UPMC/Pitt Orthopaedic Robotics Laboratory Experts Study ACL Injury Features with Three-Dimensional Statistical Shape Modeling

Bioengineering

Reposted from UPMC Physician Resources. Click here to view the original article.A study to investigate tibiofemoral bony morphology features associated with ACL injury and sex utilizing three-dimensional statistical shape modeling was conducted by:Sene Polamalu, BSThird-year Bioengineering PhD Student Researcher  Orthopaedic Robotics Laboratory, University of PittsburghVolker Musahl, MDBlue Cross of Western Pennsylvania ProfessorChief UPMC Sports Medicine Medical DirectorProfessor, University of Pittsburgh Departments of Orthopaedic Surgery, Bioengineering, and Clinical Translational Science InstituteRichard Debski, PhDWilliam Kepler Whiteford Faculty FellowCo-Director, Orthopaedic Robotics LaboratoryProfessor, University of Pittsburgh Departments of Bioengineering and Orthopaedic SurgeryIn the study, statistical shape modeling was employed to assess three-dimensional (3D) bony morphology between:Distal femurs and proximal tibiae of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injured knees.The contralateral uninjured knees of ACL injured subjects.Knees with no history of injury.Surface models were created by segmenting bone from bilateral computed-tomography scans of:20 subjects of their ACL injured knees and non-injured contralateral knees.20 knees of control subjects with no history of a knee injury.Correspondence particles were placed on each surface, and a principal component analysis determined modes of variation in the positions of the correspondence particles describing anatomical variation. ANOVAs assessed the statistical differences of 3D bony morphological features with main effects of injury state and sex.ACL injured knees were determined to have a more lateral femoral mechanical axis and a greater angle between the long axis and condylar axis of the femur. A smaller anterior-posterior dimension of the lateral tibial plateau was also associated with ACL injured knees.Results of this study demonstrate that there are more bony morphological features predisposing individuals for ACL injury than previously established. These bony morphological parameters may cause greater internal and valgus torques increasing stresses in the ACL. No differences were determined between the ACL injured knees and their uninjured contralateral knees demonstrating that knees of ACL injured individuals are at similar risk for injury.Further understanding of the effect of bony morphology on the risk for ACL injury could improve individualized ACL injury treatment and prevention.Read more about this study on PubMed. Contact: UPMC Physician Resources

Alpha Chi Continues the Conversation on Racial Equality

Bioengineering, Student Profiles, Banner

Race relations and social justice have been in the spotlight in recent years, calling on individuals to devote energy toward creating a more equitable future for everyone.Allies have been encouraged to consider their privilege and educate themselves on the deep-rooted issues that contribute to racism in the United States. This self-reflection and realization, however, has left some overwhelmed or uncertain about how they can personally effect change. Working together and learning from one another may lend to a richer understanding of these issues, and Alpha Chi National College Honor Society will host a forum to help its members and greater community start the process. On Saturday, Feb. 6, in line with the start of Black History Month, they hope to facilitate an engaging conversation about “Personal Perspectives on Race, Privilege, and Responsibility.” “The seminar continues the current dialogue of fighting for social justice,” said Ande Marini, a bioengineering PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering. “Personally, I love learning about other people’s cultures and learning how people’s experiences have shaped their perspectives.“Learning about the hardships others have faced and how we can help those individuals is crucial to growing as a society. We need to have this dialogue to better understand each other’s perspectives, and having difficult conversations provides new avenues for growth and understanding.”When Alpha Chi called for nominations for the panel, Marini decided to nominate Steven Abramowitch, associate professor of bioengineering at Pitt.Abramowitch has contributed diversity and inclusion in the Swanson School through programs such as PITT STRIVE, the Global Engineering Preparedness Scholarship (GEPS), Engineering Design for Social Change: South Africa, and CampBioE. "I was honored to be nominated by Ande and to be selected for this panel,” Abramowitch said. “Our lives have been especially chaotic over the last year; thus, it is wonderful that Alpha Chi is using this time to help us do some reflection and encourage us to think beyond ourselves again."He will participate as one of three panelists in the seminar:Steven Abramowitch, associate professor of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, will focus on positive actions students can take to address diversity issues.Dwonna Goldstone, associate history professor and director of the African American Studies program at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas, will focus on her experience in helping people with difficult conversations about race.Justine Pas, associate professor of English and associate dean in the School of Humanities at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri, will share personal experiences and discuss the concept of white privilege.The seminar will be hosted and moderated by Lara Noah, executive director of Alpha Chi. “This panel is the second event in the first series of its kind as an educational initiative from Alpha Chi's national headquarters,” she said. “Other than programming during our annual national convention, educational events like these are typically planned and conducted at the local chapter level. I’m very much looking forward to our conversation on Saturday and appreciate Dr. Abramowitch’s participation.”“… and Justice for All” is the theme for the organization’s 2021 national conference, and this event was planned to help raise awareness of these issues among the Alpha Chi community.“Sharing these topics with the collegiate generation, both undergraduate and graduate, is important and can open their eyes to new perspectives,” Marini added. “By impacting this generation, we are laying a foundation built upon understanding, love, and acceptance for our future leaders.”About Alpha ChiAlpha Chi National College Honor Society was founded in 1922 to recognize and promote academic excellence among college and university students of all disciplines, to encourage a spirit of service and leadership, and to nurture the elements of character that make scholarship effective for good. Alpha Chi is a member in good standing with the Association of College Honor Societies. You can learn more about Alpha Chi at AlphaChiHonor.org.Contact: Leah Russell

Hemolung® RAS Used to Treat More than 75 COVID-19 Patients

Covid-19, Bioengineering

Reposted from Business Wire. Click here to view the original press release.PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ALung Technologies, Inc., the leading provider of low-flow extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal (ECCO2R) technologies for treating patients with acute respiratory failure, announced that it has now treated more than 75 COVID-19 patients, and that it is experiencing increasing demand for the Hemolung® Respiratory Assist System (RAS) as a result of the current pandemic. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted the Company Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) designation to the Hemolung RAS for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in the second quarter of 2020. The Hemolung is the only ECCO2R device currently granted an EUA for the treatment of COVID-19.“The Hemolung RAS has enabled us to recover patients with COVID pneumonia during the pandemic. In select patients where there is a selective issue with hypercarbic respiratory acidosis while their oxygen requirements have normalized post-Veno-Venous ECMO cannulation, we have utilized Hemolung as a bridge in their recovery. We have noticed that these patients are able to wean off mechanical circulatory support in a gradual manner. Additionally, at a time when there was a shortage of ECMO circuits, our program has relied on utilizing this technology in stabilizing patients with severe hypercarbic respiratory acidosis while providing lung protective ventilation,” stated Dr. Bindu Akkanti, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Divisions of Critical Care, Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine, McGovern Medical School, and Director of Heart and Vascular Critical Care, Memorial Hermann - Texas Medical Center.“The Hemolung RAS has given us a new tool during the current pandemic, to safely and easily treat our COVID-19 patients. We were able to rapidly introduce the Hemolung RAS to our staff and start treating patients under Emergency Use Authorization. As a smaller community hospital without an ECMO program, the ease of use of the Hemolung has played a large role in the successful deployment of ECCO2R for the treatment of COVID-19 at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center,” stated Ribal Darwish, MD, Medical Director Critical Care Medicine, Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center.“We are pleased to be able to assist in this fight against the COVID-19 viral disease by providing the use of the Hemolung RAS as a tool for physicians to be used in conjunction with IMV, by reducing or eliminating the potential of further lung damage caused by high ventilator driving pressures, often referred to as Ventilator Induced Lung Injury (VILI). We are treating COVID-19 patients in greater than 20 hospitals worldwide,” said Mr. Peter M. DeComo, Chairman and CEO of ALung Technologies.In its EUA approval letter to ALung the FDA stated that it believes the Hemolung RAS has the potential to treat lung failure as an adjunct to noninvasive or invasive mechanical ventilation, to reduce hypercapnia and hypercapnic acidosis due to COVID-19, and/or to maintain normalized levels of partial pressure of carbon dioxide(PCO2) and pH in patients suffering from acute, reversible respiratory failure due to COVID-19 for whom ventilation of CO2 cannot be adequately, safely, or tolerably achieved and, in turn, may provide clinical benefit, and that there is no adequate, approved and available alternative to the emergency use of the Hemolung RAS to treat lung failure caused by COVID-19.About ALung TechnologiesALung Technologies, Inc. is a privately held Pittsburgh-based developer and manufacturer of innovative lung assist devices. Founded in 1997 as a spin-out of the University of Pittsburgh, ALung has developed the Hemolung RAS as a dialysis-like alternative or supplement to mechanical ventilation. ALung is backed by Philips, UPMC Enterprises, Abiomed, The Accelerator Fund, Allos Ventures, Birchmere Ventures, Blue Tree Ventures, Eagle Ventures, Riverfront Ventures, West Capital Advisors, and other individual investors.For more information about ALung and the Hemolung RAS, visit www.alung.com.For more information on the VENT-AVOID trial, and a list of enrolling sites, please visit clinicaltrials.gov.For more information on the use of the Hemolung RAS for COVID-19 patients, please visit https://www.alung.com/covid-19/covid-19-us/*The Hemolung RAS has not been FDA cleared or approved.*The Hemolung RAS has been authorized for the above emergency use by FDA under an EUA.*This device is authorized only for the duration of the declaration that circumstances exist justifying the authorization of the emergency use of the Hemolung RAS under Section 564(b)(1) of the Act, 21 U.S.C. § 360bbb- 3(b)(1), unless the authorization is terminated or revoked sooner.This press release may contain forward-looking statements, which, if not based on historical facts, involve current assumptions and forecasts as well as risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from the results or events stated in the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, certain events not within the Company’s control. Events that could cause results to differ include failure to meet ongoing developmental and manufacturing timelines, changing GMP requirements, the need for additional capital requirements, risks associated with regulatory approval processes, adverse changes to reimbursement for the Company’s products/services, and delays with respect to market acceptance of new products/services and technologies. Other risks may be detailed from time to time, but the Company does not attempt to revise or update its forward-looking statements even if future experience or changes make it evident that any projected events or results expressed or implied therein will not be realized. Contact: Peter M. DeComo

Breathing Easier with a Better Tracheal Stent

Bioengineering, Chemical & Petroleum, MEMS, Banner

PITTSBURGH (Jan. 13, 2021) — Pediatric laryngotracheal stenosis (LTS), a narrowing of the airway in children, is a complex medical condition. While it can be something a child is born with or caused by injury, the condition can result in a life-threatening emergency if untreated.Treatment, however, is challenging. Depending on the severity, doctors will use a combination of endoscopic techniques, surgical repair, tracheostomy, or deployment of stents to hold the airway open and enable breathing. While stents are great at holding the airway open and simultaneously allowing the trachea to continue growing, they can move around, or cause damage when they’re eventually removed. New research published in Communications Biology and led by the University of Pittsburgh is poised to drastically improve the use of stents, demonstrating for the first time the successful use of a completely biodegradable magnesium-alloy tracheal stent that avoids some of these risks.“Using commercial non-biodegradable metal or silicone based tracheal stents has a risk of severe complications and doesn't achieve optimal clinical outcomes, even in adults,” said Prashant N. Kumta, Edward R. Weidlein Chair Professor of bioengineering at the Swanson School of Engineering. “Using advanced biomaterials could offer a less invasive, and more successful, treatment option.” In the study, the balloon-expandable ultra-high ductility (UHD) biodegradable magnesium stent was shown to perform better than current metallic non-biodegradable stents in use in both in lab testing and in rabbit models. The stent was shown to keep the airway open over time and have low degradation rates, displaying normal healing and no adverse problems.“Our results are very promising for the use of this novel biodegradable, high ductility metal stent, particularly for pediatric patients,” said Kumta, who also holds appointments in Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. “We hope this new approach leads to new and improved treatments for patients with this complex condition as well as other tracheal obstruction conditions including tracheal cancer.”The paper, “In-vivo efficacy of biodegradable ultrahigh ductility Mg-Li-Zn alloy tracheal stents for pediatric airway obstruction,” (DOI: 10.1038/s42003-020-01400-7), was authored by the Swanson School’s Jingyao Wu, Abhijit Roy, Bouen Lee, Youngjae Chun, William R. Wagner, and Prashant N. Kumta; UPMC’s Leila Mady, Ali Mübin Aral, Toma Catalin, Humberto E. Trejo Bittar, and David Chi; and Feng Zheng and Ke Yang from The Institute of Metal Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.Author: Maggie PavlickContact: Maggie Pavlick

IE's Youngjae Chun Receives Second-Year Funding From Children's Heart Foundation For Congenital Heart Defect Research

Bioengineering, Industrial

NORTHBROOK, Ill. (December 22, 2020/PRNewswire) ... Youngjae Chun, associate professor of industrial engineering and bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, will receive second-year research funding as part of more than $735,000 from the The Children's Heart Foundation, the nation's leading organization dedicated to funding congenital heart defect (CHD) research.Chun is one of three researchers receiving second-year funding for research that, according to the Foundation, has made significant progress this year:Kristopher B. Deatrick, MD [University of Maryland] for continued work on Stem Cell Therapy for Post- Cardiopulmonary Bypass Low Cardiac Output Syndrome. Youngjae Chun, PhD [University of Pittsburgh] for research on A Self-Growing Percutaneous Heart Valve Frame to Treat Congenital Heart Disease. Allen Everett, MD [Johns Hopkins University] for ongoing study of the Role of Cyclohexanone Toxicity in Mediating Congenital Cardiac Surgical Outcomes.These research efforts will help experts learn more about the life-long care needs of individuals living with CHDs and how to continue to improve their overall quality of life.Announced in March 2020, Chun's research focuses on developing a new type of metallic frame for pediatric heart valves that could not only be placed by a minimally invasive catheter-based procedure but would also grow with the child, eliminating the need for follow-up surgeries. The Foundation will fund over in CHD research and scientific collaborations this year across four key initiatives: 1. independent research funded by the Foundation, 2. collaborative research with the American Heart Association through joint Congenital Heart Defect Research Awards, 3. funding the American Academy of Pediatrics' Pediatric Cardiology Research Fellowship Award, and 4. funding Cardiac Networks United (CNU), a national pediatric and congenital cardiovascular research network.The Children's Heart Foundation provides funding to Cardiac Networks United to improve outcomes for children with CHDs. One of CNU's current research efforts—the Chest Tube Project—is now being implemented at nearly 20 U.S. hospitals as researchers consider the optimal time for chest tube removal in young CHD patients.In addition, the Foundation funded the American Academy of Pediatrics' 2020 Pediatric Cardiology Research Fellowship Award given to David Staudt, MD, PhD, pediatric cardiology fellow at Stanford University. His research—Unraveling Molecular Modifiers of Hypertrophic and Restrictive Cardiomyopathy—is important because it begins to identify genetic mutations and underlying causes of hypertrophic and restrictive cardiomyopathies, which could lead to therapies that counteract or prevent CHDs."Amidst uncertainty in 2020, our dedication to funding the most promising research has remained unchanged," said Barbara Newhouse, President & CEO of The Children's Heart Foundation. "The research we're funding is truly moving the needle."Every 15 minutes, a baby is born with a congenital heart defect, making CHDs America's most common birth defect. The Children's Heart Foundation's mission is to advance the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of CHDs by funding the most promising research. Since 1996, the Foundation has been a proven leader, funding nearly $14 million of CHD research and scientific collaborations.About The Children's Heart FoundationThe Children's Heart Foundation will mark its 25th anniversary in 2021. Its mission is to advance the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of congenital heart defects by funding the most promising research. For more information, visit www.childrensheartfoundation.org and follow us on Facebook, Instagram,  Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Author: Author: The Children's Heart Foundation (via PR Newswire) Contact: Paul Kovach

Shave and a Haircut on Two Wheels

Bioengineering, Student Profiles

PITTSBURGH (Dec. 2, 2020) … When the COVID-19 quarantines began, one luxury people grew to miss was being pampered in a salon or barbershop. For many wheelchair users, however, salon hair care is often a challenge. The process can require an individual to be lifted out of their wheelchair into a salon chair, but this transfer can easily result in injury.A barber from Dubois, PA approached a team of engineers and rehabilitation experts from the University of Pittsburgh to develop a device that would help individuals with physical disabilities have a more tailored, comfortable, and safe experience at the salon.“If you are a wheelchair user, there is currently no portable device to facilitate the elevation or  tilting required to visit places like a barbershop or recreational facility,” said Anand Mhatre, assistant professor at Pitt’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. “We want to make these activities more accessible by creating a device that provides the functionality necessary to reduce and eliminate potential strain or injuries from a chair transfer.” Accessibility is often an overlooked issue – from web design to building design, people with disabilities often experience a myriad of daily challenges that able-bodied individuals take for granted. This device, dubbed TranquiLift, wants to provide a portable solution for activities that require elevation, and Pitt faculty and students leveraged common tools to make it work.“TranquiLift operates with a scissor lift and a secondary hydraulic platform to allow for a tilt. The user rolls onto a platform and is raised one or two feet using a manual hydraulic jack, much like what you would see in a car shop,” explained Cody Ruck, a bioengineering graduate student studying medical product engineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. “The tilt function allows hairdressers to wash and style from different angles. There are safety constraints that lock the chair into place, and there are wheels on the base for portability.”The first Tranquilift prototype is in development with the hope of being deployed at Baka’s Barbershop in the summer. From there, the team will evaluate its performance and make the necessary design revisions. By the end of the year, they hope to have a fully deployed device that can potentially be commercialized.The team includes bioengineering students Austin Minard, Cody Ruck, Thaarakh Suresh, and Shreya Telang under the guidance of Anand Mhatre and Kilichan Gurleyik, assistant professor of bioengineering at Pitt.“TranquiLift is the first product of its kind that will give clients the kind of therapeutic, self-care experience that that we have all come to appreciate at a barbershop or salon,” said Mhatre. “We’re starting in the barbershop and hope to extend the device to other settings.”# # # Contact: Leah Russell

Latinx Community Engagement Grant Awarded to Team of Engineers, Art Historians, and Public Health Educators

Bioengineering, Student Profiles, Diversity

Jorge Jimenez, a PhD candidate in bioengineering, and Marisol Villela Balderrama, a PhD student in history of art and architecture, led a team effort to earn a Year of Engagement 2020 award for “Diseño Juntxs (Design Together): Engineering and Art with the Latinx Community in Pittsburgh.” The Year of Engagement invited students, staff and faculty to create partnerships that confront challenges to engagement and co-create solutions at the institutional, local, regional, statewide, national or international levels in the 2020-21 academic year and beyond. Diseño Juntxs (Design Together) is a series of remote bilingual (Spanish/English) workshops engaging Latinx youth in prototype design activities. The project is a co-partnership with Casa San José, a local Latinx nonprofit organization in Beechview, PA. The team was developed through the Emerging Latinx Community Research and Publishing Group (ELC), a mentoring and networking program for those interested in Latinx health issues. Team members include Casa San José leaders – Executive Director Mrs. Monica Ruiz-Caraballo, Ms. Diana Escobar-Rivera, and José María Ochoa; faculty from public health – Dr. Patricia Documet and Dr. Sharon Ross; faculty from history of art and architecture – Dr. Sahar Hosseini; and the local undergraduate chapter of Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, led by president Cuatemohc Macias. “Diseño Juntxs (Design Together) originated from being an active member of the ELC since late 2018,” Jimenez said. “Through our monthly meetings I learned about their community-based research focused on the emerging Latinx presence in communities like Allegheny County. Specifically, how the Latinx community obtains resources and services related to education, finances, health, housing, and social life.”Members of the ELC have contributed to the local Latinx community by researching women’s health, parental perspectives on physical activity and healthy eating, and health education in men. Additional community projects contributed to making the Latinx presence more visible through Ojo Latino Project, a photovoice project, and Disrespecting the Border, a mural workshop. During the immediate impact of COVID-19, the ELC met remotely to share resources and work with community leaders to assess needs, and these efforts are continually transforming. “Organizations like Casa San José served as community members’ ‘go-to’ for food security, COVID-19 testing and awareness, and social support,” Jimenez explained. “Over the summer, Casa San José held virtual youth activities based on art and education, and I felt that I could make the biggest impact by contributing to their growing body of work,” they continued. “I shared my ideas with our ELC mentors and began to collaborate with Marisol, who has been integral in incorporating cultural and historical aspects of design in Latin America.”Diseño Juntxs (Design Together) will focus on art and design of the Americas in the Pre-Columbian traditions and teach the engineering design process using free, bilingual 3D prototyping software (Tinkercad.com, Autodesk Inc.). “Our culturally tailored approaches to design thinking bridge interdisciplinary perspectives, and we believe our strategy to be inclusive to our community,” Jimenez added. “I hope this project adds value to the education space as a case study in inclusive practices to teaching design.” This project is supported with matching funds from the Swanson School of Engineering’s Dr. Mary Besterfield-Sacre, associate dean of academic affairs and director of the Engineering Education Research Center, and Dr. Jennifer Josten, department chair of history of art and architecture. A virtual ceremony was held on Nov. 16 at noon via Zoom, announcing the winners for the first cycle of Pitt’s Year of Engagement 2020. # # # Author: Meagan Lenze Contact: Leah Russell Author: Jorge Jimenez

Swanson School Stent Technologies Clinch Wells Competition Awards

Bioengineering, Industrial, Student Profiles

PITTSBURGH (Nov. 9, 2020) … Two Swanson School of Engineering projects received awards at the University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute’s Wells Healthcare Competition, which provides funding for students who are developing innovations related to the health care field. Moataz Elsisy, a PhD student in the Department of Industrial Engineering, received an award for the Organ Perfusion Stent (OPS), an innovative endovascular device that seeks to increase the availability of healthy donor organs for transplant surgery. Elsisy works in the Medical Device Manufacturing Laboratory led by Youngjae Chun, associate professor of Industrial Engineering at Pitt. The lab’s unique device targets patients who die from heart failure. “These donors may still have healthy organs in the torso, such as the liver, kidney or pancreas,” Elsisy explained, “but the effects of heart disease may affect blood flow and damage these potentially life-saving organs.” The OPS aims to minimize cardiac burden by separating aortic blood flow into two different chambers -- one for cardiac flow and another for oxygenated blood flow from an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) system. The device would significantly increase the number of available organs from the cardiac death donors, eliminating any potential organ blood shortage complications. “Our device increases the number of available healthy organs to those who are in desperate need for transplantation,” said Elsisy. “The device will save health care costs up to $1.2 million per donor. A single donor can take two patients off dialysis, one patient off insulin, and one patient out of the hospital for liver failure.” He adds that the device can also enhance the quality of life for transplant receivers, as they will not require daily insulin injections or dialysis several times a week. The second award went to Sneha Jeevan, a bioengineering senior, who works in the Soft Tissue Biomechanics Laboratory led by Jonathan Vande Geest, professor of bioengineering at Pitt. Their device hopes to address complications related to the treatment of peripheral artery disease. “Peripheral artery disease is a common circulatory problem in which narrowed arteries reduce blood flow to your limbs,” explained Jeevan. “It has become an increasingly serious public health issue, with 236 million people ages 40 and older world-wide being affected. It also has a large monetary cost, with insurance companies and private payers paying $21 billion annually to cover costs, including medication, physical therapy, and device reintervention.” While stents can be used to treat the disease, these devices are not compatible with small arteries and often renarrow, particularly across joints, after they are implanted. The winning project, Biocarpet, is a flexible, drug-eluting, and biodegradable endovascular device that they hope will provide a solution to the current limitations in stent technology. The Biocarpet combines a blend of biocompatible polymers and special thermoforming techniques that allow it to conform to any complex vascular anatomy. This advantage will reduce device kinking and restenosis, both of which occur frequently when treating PAD with current stent technologies. “The Biocarpet’s biopolymer conformability and improved delivery method act as key differentiating factors, which will allow for reduced reintervention rates and improved patient outcomes for PAD,” Jeevan added. “Once the device is established as an effective treatment for PAD, it can potentially be used in other cardiovascular diseases, changing the way that hospitals treat arterial disease and giving patients the best possible treatment while minimizing costs.” # # # Contact: Leah Russell

Pitt to collaborate on new artificial intelligence study of Alzheimer’s

Bioengineering, Electrical & Computer

Heng Huang, John A. Jurenko Endowed Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Swanson School of Engineering, will lead the University of Pittsburgh research on a collaborative study awarded to the University of Southern California's Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging Informatics Institute.“Current analytic methods have not kept pace with the vast amount and high complexity of data that is being collected on Alzheimer’s disease,” said Huang, who also holds an appointment in the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Pitt. “As a pioneer scientist with more than 15 years of experience in machine learning and biomedical data science, I am the main leader of the advanced AI and machine learning techniques developed in this project.” His award is in collaboration with Liang Zhan, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Pitt. The joint project has six dedicated core teams that will focus on ultra-scale genomics, imaging, and cognitive data analysis. The Pitt team will lead the AI&ML core and the Genomic Sequencing Data Analysis core while also contributing to the Imaging Genetics core.# # #Reposted with permission. Click here to view the University of Southern California's original story.USC leads massive new artificial intelligence study of Alzheimer’sBy Zara GreenbaumA massive problem like Alzheimer’s disease (AD)—which affects nearly 50 million people worldwide—requires bold solutions. New funding expected to total $17.8 million awarded to USC’s Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging Informatics Institute and its collaborators is one key piece of that puzzle. The five-year National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded effort, “Ultrascale Machine Learning to Empower Discovery in Alzheimer’s Disease Biobanks,” known as AI4AD, will develop state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) methods and apply them to giant databases of genetic, imaging and cognitive data collected from AD patients. Forty co-investigators at 11 research centers will team up to leverage AI and machine learning to bolster precision diagnostics, prognosis and the development of new treatments for AD. “Our team of experts in computer science, genetics, neuroscience and imaging sciences will create algorithms that analyze data at a previously impossible scale,” says Paul Thompson, associate director of the USC INI and project leader for the new grant. “Collectively, this will enable the discovery of new features in the genome that influence the biological processes involved in Alzheimer’s disease.” Predicting a diagnosisThe project’s first objective is to identify genetic and biological markers that predict an AD diagnosis—and to distinguish between several subtypes of the disease. To accomplish this, the research team will apply sophisticated AI and machine learning methods to a variety of data types, including tens of thousands of brain images and whole genome sequences. The investigators will then relate these findings to the clinical progression of AD, including in patients who have not yet developed dementia symptoms. The researchers will train AI methods on large databases of brain scans to identify patterns that can help detect the disease as it emerges in individual patients. “As we get older, each of us has a unique mix of brain changes that occur for decades before we develop any signs of Alzheimer’s disease–changes in our blood vessels, the buildup of abnormal protein deposits and brain cell loss”, says Thompson, who also directs the USC INI’s Imaging Genetics Center. “Our new AI methods will help us determine what changes are happening in each patient, as well as drivers of these processes in their DNA, that we can target with new drugs.” The team is even creating a dedicated “Drug Repurposing Core” to identify ways to repurpose existing drugs to target newly identified segments of the genome, molecules or neurobiological processes involved in the disease. “We predict that combining AI with whole genome data and advanced brain scans will outperform methods used today to predict Alzheimer’s disease progression,” says Thompson.Advancing AIThe AI4AD effort is part of the “Cognitive Systems Analysis of Alzheimer's Disease Genetic and Phenotypic Data” and “Harmonization of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) Genetic, Epidemiologic, and Clinical Data to Enhance Therapeutic Target Discovery” initiatives from the NIH’s National Institute on Aging. These initiatives aim to create and develop advanced AI methods, and apply them to extensive and harmonized rich genomic, imaging, and cognitive data. Collectively, the goals of AI4AD leverage the promise of machine learning to contribute to precision diagnostics, prognostication, and targeted and novel treatments. Thompson and his USC team will collaborate with four co-principal investigators at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh and the Indiana University School of Medicine. The researchers will also host regular training events at major AD neuroimaging and genetics conferences to help disseminate newly developed AI tools to investigators across the field. Research reported in this publication will be supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U01AG068057. Also involved in the project are INI faculty members Neda Jahanshad, PhD, and Lauren Salminen, PhD, as well as consortium manager Sophia Thomopoulos.# # # Author: Zara Greenbaum Contact: Leah Russell

Roy Lab Research Featured in JBC Special Virtual Issue

Bioengineering

PITTSBURGH (Oct. 21, 2020) … Animals, plants, fungi, and protozoans all have eukaryotic cells, and the cytoskeleton in these systems plays an important role in cell shape, movement, and division. Disruption in this complex network of protein filaments can lead to cell and organ dysfunction.The Journal of Biological Chemistry recently released a special virtual issue compiling a list of papers published in the journal over the last two years that represented the most exciting advances in the eukaryotic cytoskeleton field, and it features research from bioengineers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering.Partha Roy, associate professor of bioengineering at Pitt, leads a research group that studies cell migration and applies this fundamental knowledge to pathological conditions, such as cancer metastasis or excessive blood vessel formation. The lab’s article, “The VASP-profilin1 (Pfn1) interaction is critical for efficient cell migration and is regulated by cell-substrate adhesion in a PKA-dependent manner,” was selected for the JBC virtual issue.“This study looked at the fundamental process of how cells move and the signaling pathway that regulates it,” said Dr. David Gau, postdoctoral associate in the Roy Lab and the first author on the paper.“For proper cell migration, the actin cytoskeleton has to be efficiently remodeled,” he explained, “and one of the most important parts for remodeling the actin cytoskeleton for cell migration is a process called protrusion.”In protrusion, a cell attempts to reach out and attach itself to a surface so that it can propel forward. Roy’s group studied how interaction between two important actin-binding proteins -- profilin and VASP -- might be regulated during cell movement.“We proposed a mechanism on how these two proteins interact with each other based on the adhesive state of the cells,” said Gau. “We showed that when these two proteins are interacting, it promotes actin polymerization, which then allows cells to make protrusions and move. “When a cell is not in an attached state, there is a decrease in interaction between profilin and VASP,” he continued. “This cyclic adhesion-deadhesion-dependent regulation of profilin-VASP interaction involves tuning of biochemical modification of profilin at a certain site.”Understanding this fundamental cell process may help reveal ways to reduce aggressive cell movement or impact other cellular dysfunction. Roy’s lab continues to work in this area by studying how these types of protein interactions promote cancer metastasis or blood vessel formation. Given the importance of these types of actin-binding proteins in cancer, Gau is also looking at mechanisms to regulate the cellular levels of these proteins. # # # Contact: Leah Russell

Getting the Full Scope

Bioengineering

PITTSBURGH (Oct. 12, 2020) … A neural interface -- or brain-computer interface -- is a device that uses electrical stimulation to induce changes in brain activity. Among other applications, its positive effects are being leveraged to rehabilitate neurological conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease.These implantable devices have recently been in the headlines with Elon Musk’s new company, Neuralink, which seeks to make tools to treat brain diseases and eventually expand to human enhancement.But according to experts, there is still much to learn about this pioneering technology and how it affects this vital organ. Much like the ocean or the universe, there are many undiscovered functions of the brain, and the University of Pittsburgh’s Takashi D-Y. Kozai and Alberto Vazquez seek to further explore this scientific frontier. The brain is composed of a variety of cells, each with its own set of properties. While neurons are the most well-known, there are many supportive cells that are necessary for proper function. Kozai will use a $3,051,391 BRAIN Initiative R01 award from the National Institutes of Health to investigate what drives neural interfaces’ beneficial effects by studying how stimulation affects non-neuronal brain cells over time. Kozai and collaborators published research in Nature Biomedical Engineering that suggests that glial cells are more functional than previously thought. “There isn’t much research on how electrical stimulation affects cells other than neurons in the brain, and there is mounting evidence that suggests glia and the vasculature play a large role,” said Kozai, assistant professor of bioengineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. “Our understanding of the brain has been limited by our focus on neurons, and this creates a significant barrier to the design of new and improved clinical applications and the interpretation of stimulation-induced effects in basic science research,” he continued.Many neurological diseases are actually a dysfunction of non-neuronal cells or the neurovasculature: multiple sclerosis is a disease of the oligodendrocytes; Alzheimer’s disease may start with neurovasculature dysfunction; stroke is a neurovascular injury that impacts neurological function; and glioma is a cancer of the glia. The problem with studying this part of the brain is that the slow, dim signals of non-neuronal cells are much more difficult to detect than the vibrant electrical activity of neurons. Kozai’s solution is to use two-photon microscopy and optogenetics to investigate the inner workings of the brain.“In single photon microscopy, you take a high energy photon and collide it with an electron, which pushes it to the next orbital, and as it falls down, it releases a fluorescent light,” Kozai explained. “The difficulty with this approach is the amount of out-of-focus fluorescence that saturates the image.“With two-photon microscopy, you take two photons with half the energy and collide them simultaneously with the electron,” he continued. “This approach eliminates out-of-plane fluorescence and allows you to image deeper into the tissue.”Imaging deeper into brain tissue is important because the first layer of the cortex does not contain neurons, and researchers must penetrate further to see how neurons and non-neuronal cells interact. With modern technology, the team can insert normal -- or even modified -- green fluorescent proteins that report cellular changes, such as calcium or neurotransmitter levels, into specific cell types and monitor their activity over time. About the BIONIC LabKozai’s BIONIC Lab, will use this project to build on their expertise in neural interface technology. In January 2020, he received a $1,652,844 NIH award to develop a wireless in vivo stimulation technology that will enable precise neural circuit probing while minimizing tissue damage. He also received a 2020 CAREER award from the National Science Foundation to advance neural interface design by studying how different types of stimulation impact neuronal subtype activity.“We’re grateful for the opportunity to apply our experience and expertise to understanding some long-standing fundamental science questions at the brain-computer interface,” said Kozai. “These grants together give us an opportunity to ask some fundamental questions regarding the biological underpinning of neurostimulation and neuromodulation-related activity for a diverse set of cells in the brain.” “In turn, this allows us to integrate how these diverse cell activities fit together in a system-of-systems engineering perspective,” he continued. “The long-ranged vision is to identify new relationships between these different cell types and how to synergistically modulate them to improve therapies for neurological diseases and brain injuries. Ultimately, this requires researchers from a diverse set of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.”The BIONIC Lab is hiring: interested candidates should submit a statement on the alignment of the candidate’s research interest to the lab and relevant research experience, curriculum vitae, the names of three references, and date of availability to Professor Takashi Kozai (tdk18@pitt.edu). Contact: Leah Russell

Sanjeev Shroff Inducted as Fellow of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering

Bioengineering

PITTSBURGH (Oct. 8, 2020) … Sanjeev Shroff, Distinguished Professor and Gerald E. McGinnis Chair of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, was elected as a Fellow of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE). The virtual induction ceremony was held in conjunction with the Carnegie Mellon Forum on Biomedical Engineering on Sept. 18, 2020.  This competitive election is in recognition of distinguished contributions to and leadership in the field of medical and biological engineering on an international level. Presently, there are only around 200 living Fellows of the Academy throughout the world.  Shroff was selected for his significant research contributions to cardiovascular engineering and bioengineering education. His research in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering has two focus areas: (1) regulation of cardiac muscle contraction by changes in cardiac proteins and their chemical modifications and (2) the role of vascular stiffness in cardiovascular function and potential therapeutic applications of vascular stiffness-modifying drugs and/or hormones. His research efforts have been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1986, with additional support from other funding agencies such as American Heart Association, National Science Foundation, and industry.  “Elucidating the links between the overall cardiovascular mechanical function and underlying cellular and molecular processes has been the focus of my research, and I am honored that this work has been recognized by IAMBE,” said Shroff. “I have had the good fortune to collaborate with and learn from talented biomedical scientists and clinicians and I would like to share this honor with them.” In addition to his leadership in research, Shroff also has a strong record in teaching and mentorship. He has mentored 37 pre- and post-doctoral students and led the effort to establish the department’s Cardiovascular Bioengineering Training Program, which has been supported by an NIH training grant (T32) since its launch in 2005.About Sanjeev G. ShroffTrained as an electrical engineer (B.Tech., Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India and M.Eng., McMaster University, Canada), Shroff obtained his doctoral degree in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.. Prior to joining the University of Pittsburgh in April 2000, Shroff was a faculty member at the University of Chicago for 17 years in the Department of Medicine (Cardiology Section). Shroff was the recipient of the Established Investigator Award from the AHA (1986-1991) and was elected as a Fellow of the American Physiological Society (1988), Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (1999), and Fellow of Biomedical Engineering Society (2007). Recognized by his colleagues and peers as a consummate teacher and mentor, he received the Carnegie Science Center Award for Excellence (University Educator) in 2007, the Swanson School of Engineering’s Outstanding Educator Award in 2010, and University of Pittsburgh Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2011. He has mentored 37 students (15 post-doctoral and 22 graduate/pre-doctoral), most of whom are pursuing independent research careers in academia or industry. He has been serving as the Principal Investigator on a NIH-NHLBI pre-doctoral T32 training grant (Cardiovascular Bioengineering Training Program) since 2005 and on the Coulter Translational Research Partnership II grant since 2013. In 2012 Shroff was named the Distinguished Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, a designation that constitutes the highest honor that the University can accord a member of the professoriate. Contact: Leah Russell

Monitoring Coronary Artery Disease in Real-time

Bioengineering, Industrial

PITTSBURGH (Sept. 28, 2020) … Coronary artery disease – a leading cause of death in the US – narrows or blocks arteries that carry a vital supply of blood, oxygen, and nutrients to the heart. A stent can be inserted to widen the artery, but these devices must be closely monitored to ensure that they do not re-narrow, a common complication called restenosis.Youngjae Chun, PhD, associate professor of industrial engineering and bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, will lead a study to develop an electronic stent that can be implanted in a minimally invasive procedure and measure significant physiological changes with the development of restenosis. The device will provide real-time monitoring to help prevent subsequent heart attack or stroke.The project, funded by the National Institutes of Health, is in collaboration with W. Hong Yeo, PhD, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech and John Pacella, MD, cardiologist at UPMC, who also holds a secondary appointment in bioengineering. This work is a continuation of the group’s 2019 Innovative Project Award from the American Heart Association.“Though similar devices already exist, they are typically bulkier and do not work as effectively with the growth of artery tissue,” said Chun.This new device has an ultra-low profile sensor, which allows it to work without a battery and wirelessly monitor the restenosis progress. They believe that this device can easily integrate with commercially available stents without disturbing its functionality. With this design, users will be able to see real-time data on a smart device, rather than scheduling endless follow-up visits to the doctor. The group will use computational modeling and calculation to carefully design the device, and then it will then be fabricated using a novel nanoscale printing technique. Once it is developed, they will evaluate the design in vitro to determine its functionality with a stent.Previous sensors are only able to monitor stents for a few days or weeks after the implant procedure, but their design will be able to continuously monitor, providing a unique, long-term solution.Chun said, “This kind of translational research is a strength of the University of Pittsburgh, and we hope that this technology can eventually be expanded to other endovascular devices where specific physiological changes in our vascular system are a factor in the remodeling process.”# # # Contact: Leah Russell

Four Pitt Engineering Researchers Receive NSF CAREER Awards in 2020 Funding Cycle

Bioengineering, Chemical & Petroleum, Electrical & Computer, MEMS

PITTSBURGH (September 28, 2020) … The University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering closed out the 2020 fiscal year with four faculty winning CAREER awards from the National Science Foundation. This brings the total to 15 CAREER awards received by Swanson School faculty since 2016. According to NSF, the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is its most prestigious award in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. “I am incredibly proud of our young faculty for contributing to the Swanson School’s diverse research portfolio and achieving this important recognition in their early career,” said David Vorp, associate dean for research and the John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering. “Over the past few years, we have improved faculty resources for developing and applying for federal funding, and the number of CAREER recipients is a great indicator of our success.” The 2020 recipients include: Takashi D-Y Kozai, assistant professor of bioengineeringUncovering the Impact of Traditional and Novel Chronic Stimulation Modalities on Neural Excitability and Native Neuronal Network Function Dr. Kozai received a $437,144 CAREER award to improve the integration of the brain and technology in order to study long-standing questions in neurobiology and improve clinical applications of brain-computer interfaces. One of the challenges remaining with this technology is achieving long-term and precise stimulation of a specific group of neurons. Kozai has designed a wireless, light-activated electrodethat enables precise neural circuit probing while minimizing tissue damage. The funding will enable him to further improve this technology. Sangyeop Lee, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science Machine Learning Enabled Study of Thermal Transport in Polycrystalline Materials from First Principles Dr. Lee’s $500,000 CAREER award will utilize machine learning to model thermal transport in polycrystalline materials. Developing materials with ultrahigh or ultralow thermal conductivity along a certain direction can enable new energy storage and conversion devices. However, grain boundaries - two-dimensional defects in crystal structures - exist in polycrystalline material and significantly affect thermal transport. Addressing the defects is currently not efficient - observing and experimenting with grain boundaries when creating materials can prove to be a lengthy and costly process. Machine learning may provide a more sustainable alternative. His research seeks to create a computer model that can predict the conductive properties of a material in real life, providing guidance to engineer defects for desired thermal properties.Jason Shoemaker, assistant professor of chemical and petroleum engineering Enabling Immunomodulatory Treatment of Influenza Infection using Multiscale Modeling When a person contracts a respiratory viral infection like COVID-19 or influenza, the immune system responds in a myriad of ways to eliminate the virus. Respiratory viral infections are so dangerous, however, because excessive immune responses may cause extreme lung inflammation. However, Dr. Shoemaker’s new modeling research may help doctors better predict and treat patients who are most at risk to that extreme response. His $547,494 CAREER Award will fund creation of computational models of the immune response to seasonal, deadly (avian) influenza viruses, which can help identify the best way to suppress immune activity and reduce tissue inflammation. Since this work targets the immune system and not the specific virus, the models are expected to impact many respiratory infections, including COVID-19.Feng Xiong, PhD, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering Scalable Ionic Gated 2D Synapse (IG-2DS) with Programmable Spatio-Temporal Dynamics for Spiking Neural Networks In science fiction stories from “I, Robot” to “Star Trek,” an android’s “positronic brain” enables it to function like a human, but with tremendously more processing power and speed. In reality, the opposite is true: a human brain - which today is still more proficient than CPUs at cognitive tasks like pattern recognition - needs only 20 watts of power to complete a task, while a supercomputer requires more than 50,000 times that amount of energy. Dr. Xiong’s $500,000 CAREER award will fund research in neuromorphic computer and artificial neural networks to replicate the spatio-temporal processes native to the brain, like short-term and long-term memory, in artificial spiking neural networks (SNN). This “dynamic synapse” that will dramatically improve energy efficiency, bandwidth and cognitive capabilities of SNNs. ### Contact: Paul Kovach

Bioengineering Alumnae Establish Undergraduate Scholarship

Bioengineering, Office of Development & Alumni Affairs

PITTSBURGH (Sept. 16, 2020) … Two bioengineering alumnae from the University of Pittsburgh established a scholarship for students, who like them, are passionate about STEM education.The Stephanie F. Coquia and Angela L. Fu Scholarship in Bioengineering will provide support for tuition and other education-related expenses for a sophomore, junior, or senior student in good academic standing in the Department of Bioengineering at the Swanson School of Engineering.Preference will be given to students who reside in states outside of Pennsylvania and who have demonstrated involvement in extracurricular activities in high school.Drs. Coquia (BS BioE ‘02) and Fu (BS BioE ‘03), who became friends during their time at Pitt, want to acknowledge the program’s impact on their professional lives and provide support for current students to experience the same opportunity.“I wouldn’t be where I am today without the University of Pittsburgh and the Department of Bioengineering, and I wouldn’t have gone to Pitt or gotten a bioengineering degree if I hadn’t received a scholarship,” said Dr. Coquia. “So, this is my way of giving back. I am happy to be sponsoring this scholarship with Angela.”“The one thing that I have enjoyed most after graduating and starting my career is mentoring current students in their post graduation and career choices,” said Dr. Fu. “The scholarship will hopefully assist one student financially so they can focus on the decisions affecting their future.”The pair studied in the department during its nascent years and flourished along with the program. Since its first graduating class in 2000, the number of degrees awarded has tripled from roughly 20 in 2000 to 66 this past spring semester.“I am thankful to Stephanie and Angela for their generosity. It is wonderful to see our former students thrive in their professional careers and want to give back to the department,” said Sanjeev Shroff, distinguished professor and Gerald E. McGinnis Chair of bioengineering. “I am delighted that this scholarship will help provide a Swanson School education to deserving students and contribute to the growing number of successful bioengineering alumni.”# # # Contact: Leah Russell