IGERT News Posts

Lindsay’s abstract, “Recombinant LL37 Antimicrobial Peptide with Collagen Tethering for Wound Healing Applications”, co-authored by Denis Kole, Ray Gasper, Chelsea Miller, Tanja Dominko, Marsha Rolle and Terri Camesano, was chosen in the top 25 abstracts for the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society Americas 2014 meeting (or TERMIS-AM) in Washington D.C. The top 25 abstracts were invited to participate in a separate poster competition by which three judges would come around to each poster and judge it based on presentation and content. On the last day of TERMIS-AM, program coordinators announced the winners, and Lindsay’s presentation won first place. The TERMIS world congress will be in Boston, MA in 2015.

Sarah Hernandez recently gave a presentation at the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society Americas 2014 meeting “Restoring Lives Through Regenerative Medicine,”. (or TERMIS-AM) in Washington D.C. December 13-16. Sarah’s talk was titled Pre-Cancer Biomarkers Identified From Induced Regeneration Competent Cells.

On December 10^th, some 210 master’s and PhD candidates shared their innovative research at the Graduate Research Innovation Exchange (GRIE). During the day, judges visited all of the participants, evaluating their posters and learning more about their work. They selected 65 finalists—46 PhD and 19 MS candidates divided proportionately among four categories: business and social science, engineering, life sciences and bioengineering, and science. They will compete again during the Poster Finals on April 13th in conjunction with the i3: Investing in Ideas with Impact competition.

The IGERT fellows are:

Lindsay Lozeau-

Activity And Collagen-Binding Ability Of A Recombinant Antimicrobial Peptide For Wound Healing Applications

Christopher Nycz-

Modeling And Testing Of Force Control Applications in High Torque, Low Power DC Actuators

Megan O’Brien-

Towards The Design Of A Composite Cardiac Patch: Fabrication Of A Fibrin Microthread-Based Engineered Myocardial Layer

Marsha Rolle received a three month Faculty Research Visit award from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (German Academic Exchange Service). Prof. Rolle will work with Dr. Katja Schenke-Layland at the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart, Germany to develop label-free imaging techniques to assess vascular smooth muscle cell structure. The DAAD is a joint organization of institutes of higher education in the Federal Republic of Germany that promotes international academic cooperation through the exchange of students and academics.

Study by a team, at Worcester Polytechnic Institute shows standard bone density scans may underestimate the fracture risk for spinal cord injury patients and, by extension, those with osteoporosis.

The results suggest that physicians need to begin therapies for spinal cord injury patients sooner to maintain bone mass and strength. The data also serve as a warning to physicians treating patients with osteoporosis to think beyond the standard bone density test when assessing risks of hip and other fractures. Details of the study are reported in the paper “Reduction in Proximal Femoral Strength in Patients With Acute Spinal Cord Injury” published by the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

“It’s not just a question of how much bone mass is lost, but where that loss is occurring,” said Karen Troy, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at WPI and senior author of the paper. “We found that bone loss occurred sooner in mechanically important areas and significantly increased the risk of fracture.”

Study image is featured on the cover of the Journal of Bone Mineral Research. Red areas of the bone are stiffer and blue areas are less stiff.

In the article 10 Crazy Medtech Ideas That Could Disrupt Medicine, on Qmed.com, WPI Prof. Fischer’s MRI guided robot is listed at #4.

Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute have received a $3-million NIH grant to study a minimally invasive method of destroying brain tumors while preserving healthy tissue surrounding them. Led by professor Gregory Fischer, PhD, the technology couples a robot designed to be used within an MRI scanner and an ultrasound probe that can deliver interstitial high-intensity focused ultrasound at the tumor, heating only malignant tissue—even in deep-seated irregularly shaped tumors.

The tumor can be pinpointed using real-time MRI data. Such real-time imagery is invaluable, Fischer says. “Once a hole is made in the skull, for example, the brain may swell and shift, and even images acquired just prior to the surgery will no longer be accurate,” he said in a press release. “Live images enable real-time control and a high degree of accuracy.”

See the article:

http://www.qmed.com/mpmn/gallery/image/4-mri-guided-robot-could-destroy-brain-tumors-while-preserving-healthy-tissue

The research team of Sarah Hernandez and her advisor, Tanja Dominko are one of two teams to win the 2014 Kalenian Award for which they will receive a grant to support their research.

Cancer is one of the most prevalent diseases, accounting for 25% of all deaths in the United States (1). As such, medicine has shifted from reactive to proactive. Colonoscopies alone have reduced morality from colorectal cancer by 53% (2). As medical technology advances, preventative screens are becoming less invasive and more widespread as research reveals biomarkers that can be used to identify cancer-related changes. However, there are currently no biomarkers widely used in cancer screens prior to tumor formation. The cancer treatment market in the United States alone is predicted to reach $207 billion by 2020 (3). The next breakthrough innovation in preventative medicine, that will no doubt garner a substantial portion of the cancer screening market, is a prognostic test that intervenes before patients develop cancer, by screening for biomarkers of pre-cancerous biological changes. To fill this gap in the market, we propose the commercialization of a qualitative diagnostic screening device that detects a biomarker associated with pre-cancerous cells.

Our lab has patented a novel system that allows cells to live longer. By simply altering the conditions under which cells are grown, we have demonstrated more than twofold increase in cellular lifespan (4,5). Increases in cellular lifespan are relevant for the identification and characterization of biomarkers during the transformation from a healthy cell to a pre-cancer cell, offering potential targets for therapeutics and diagnostic tests. Here, these cells are used as a tool. With these cells, we have demonstrated increased levels of an enzyme required for increased cellular lifespan, making it the ideal pre-cancerous biomarker. Interestingly, mutations of the same enzyme have been identified in skin, ovarian, and colorectal cancers (6). The revolutionary potential of the research described here is that expression of this enzyme is increased in cells with extended lifespan, potentially implicating  a link between this enzyme and a pre-cancerous state, allowing us to develop screens and treatments for a disease that patients have yet to develop.

Kristen Billiar, Professor of Biomedical Engineering was awarded a 2 year, $450,000 grant from the National Institute of Health(NIH); the research involves combatting retraction in tissue engineered heart valves.

Todd Alexander presented at NATO’s Advanced Research Workshop “Nano technology to Aid Chemical and Biological Defense” in September in Antalya, Turkey. His research is concentrated on tethered antimicrobial peptides. These antimicrobial peptides or AMPs can be used in a broad variety of applications. Todd’s presentation focused on using these peptides, in this case Chrysophsin-1, to defend against microbial infection of medical devices. These peptides can also be used for bio-defense against biological threats.

Lindsay’s abstract, titled “Recombinant LL37 Antimicrobial Peptide with Collagen Tethering for Wound Healing Applications” was recently accepted as a poster presentation at the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society Americas (TERMIS-AM) Meeting in Washington, DC, December 13-16^th. The theme for the 2014 TERMIS-AM Meeting is “Restoring Lives Through Regenerative Medicine,” reflecting the increasing need to consider the societal impact of tissue engineering. To this end, the program will focus on the impact of regenerative medicine upon patient lives.