NEWSLETTER
SPRING 2017
Message from the Department Head Newest Fellows of the AIMBE Academic Advisors Papautsky Laboratory CADMIM Meeting BMES Chapter Updates EMBS Chapter Updates EWH Chapter Updates UIC News Alumni News Research Funding Student Awards Faculty Awards Visit Us on YouTube
Phase contrast image of a single micropatterned liver cell island (10X magnification) Image courtesy of Salman R Khetani, PhD, the Microfabricated Tissue Models (MTM) Laboratory
Message from the Department Head Dear Friends of UIC Bioengineering, In our Spring 2017 Newsletter, I’m proud to share with you the latest accomplishments of our outstanding faculty, staff, and students. As always, thank you for supporting our continued pursuit of excellence. Gifts targeted to the department help us achieve our strategic goals, and could include opportunities to endow a named professorship, scholarship, laboratory, or special facility or program. See our “Make a Gift” link at bioe.uic.edu. In addition to financial support, I know that the network of UIC BioE alumni and friends will continue to help our students find internship and employment opportunities. I am always happy to meet our alumni and friends and welcome your visit. And, please join our Facebook group; see the link on the cover. Sincerely, Photo: Bart Harris
Thomas J. Royston, PhD
Royston and Stroscio Newest Fellows of the AIMBE
Thomas J. Royston, PhD
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Michael Stroscio, PhD
Thomas J. Royston, professor & head, and Michael Stroscio, Richard and Loan Hill Professor of Engineering and a University Distinguished Professor, were both inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) at a ceremony held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. on March 20, 2017. According to AIMBE (aimbe.org), “Fellows are nominated each year by their peers and represent the top 2% of the medical and biological engineering community.” Royston and Stroscio join the following UIC Bioengineering faculty already in the AIMBE College of Fellows: Richard and Loan Hill Professor Jie Liang, University Distinguished Professor Richard L. Magin, Visiting Professor Urmila Diwekar and the following Affiliate and Emeritus Professors: Gyan Agarwal (ECE Emeritus), James Lin (ECE & BioE Emeritus), Yi-Chung Pai (Physical Therapy).
bioe.uic.edu/future-students
Interested in joining Bioengineering? Undergraduate Studies Advisors If you are interested in joining our undergraduate or graduate programs, please reach out to us.
bioe.uic.edu/ future-students
John Hetling, PhD Director of Undergraduate Studies Associate Professor jhetli1@uic.edu
Hananeh Esmailbeigi, PhD Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies Clinical Assistant Professor hesmai2@uic.edu
Graduate Studies Advisors
David Eddington, PhD
bioe@uic.edu
Director of Graduate Studies Associate Professor dte@uic.edu
Yang Dai, PhD
312-996-2335
Associate Director of Graduate Studies for the Bioinformatics Program Associate Professor yangdai@uic.edu
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Papautsky Laboratory Professor Ian Papautsky joined the Richard and Loan Hill Department of Bioengineering in August 2016. His research program focuses on microfluidics, point-of-care sensors, and their bioapplications (medical, biological, or environmental). He is a co-director of the NSF I/UCRC Center for Advanced Design and Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidics (CADMIM), a joint center with UC-Irvine. The center brings together academic and industry partners in pioneering state-of-the-art research in microfluidics and point-ofcare sensing. An optical profile image of an inertial microfluidic device for rapid fractionation of blood. The spiral microchannel with a central input and three perimeter outputs is formed in elastomer by soft lithography. The device takes advantage of the inertial effect of fluid around blood cells to drive them across flow streamlines into equilibrium positions, leading to fractionation of blood into red and white blood cells in minutes. N. Nivedita & Ian Papautsky. Image courtesy of the Papautsky Laboratory.
In 2008, the Papautsky lab pioneered a high impact research area termed “inertial microfluidics.” The approach uses hydrodynamic forces to manipulate focusing and positioning of cells within flow without external forces and can be used for label-free physical phenotyping of cells or isolation of rare cells, such as circulating tumor cells from blood. Papautsky’s recent work in point-of-care sensors has focused on using electrochemical methods for determination of trace metals in blood and water. The newest miniature sensor has a form-factor of a USB stick and features a low-cost electrode material— copper—that offers simple fabrication and competitive performance in electrochemical detection. The sensors can rapidly measure manganese and lead with ppb limits of detection. Papautsky’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Lab on a Chip, Scientific Reports, and Analytical Chemistry, and has been highlighted on journal covers multiple times.
Fluorescence image of echogenic liposomes for ultrasound-mediated drug delivery, generated using a microfluidic flow-focusing device. The liposomes can be loaded with recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (rt-PA) – the only FDA approved thrombolytic for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke – and perfluorocarbon gas microbubbles that act as cavitation nuclei in ultrasound-mediated thrombolysis. Prithviraj Mukherjee & Ian Papautsky. Image courtesy of the Papautsky Laboratory.
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From left: Jian Zhou, Ian Papautsky, Prithviraj Mukherjee
CADMIM Meeting inrf.uci.edu/cadmim
The Center for Advanced Design and Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidics (CADMIM) is a National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC). It began in the spring of 2014 as a joint center with UC-Irvine. CADMIM’s vision is to advance cutting-edge research and education of integrated microfluidics, the science manipulating fluids at the submillimeter scale. The Center acts as a bridge between academia and industry, by working closely with industrial members and developing applied research projects that can address bottlenecks in their business spaces and workflows.
CADMIM co-directors Ian Papautsky (left) and Abraham Lee (right) at the Center meeting in Irvine, CA. Photo: Roxy Jin
The CADMIM mission is to create tools, methods, and technologies for integrated microfluidics enabling cost-effective, quick, and easy diagnosis of the environment, agriculture, and human health. The strategy for this grand challenge centers on mass-produced diagnostic devices containing miniature microfluidic components with high sensitivities (nM-pM) and short reaction times (<1min), capable of bioanalysis in miniaturized volumes (ÂľL-pL). Center research efforts focus on three main thrusts areas: manufacturable processes and materials, fluid sample processing and detection, and integration and control systems. Through these thrusts, CADMIM is developing low-power, automated, self-contained, microfluidic devices capable of multi-step biochemical processes. These research thrusts lay the foundation for broader commercialization of microfluidics in application areas ranging from medical diagnostics and pharmaceutics to water and food quality assessments to household products.
Read more by Wendy Wolfson at the UCI CURRENTS
currents.innovation.uci.edu/blog/2017/3/23/cadmim-members-meet-on-furthermicrofluidics-collaborations
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BMES Chapter Updates bmes.uic.edu
Hananeh Esmailbeigi, PhD Clinical Associate Professor Faculty Advisor to BMES and IEEE EMBS
The Tongue Controller Interface project started as a collaboration between the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) student chapter at UIC and the Wearable Technology and Sensory Enhancement laboratory directed by Clinical Associate Professor Hananeh Esmailbeigi. The variety of wearable wireless assistive devices developed focus on rehabilitation of communication capabilities for the disabled and enhancement of communication capabilities for healthy individuals. Each of the wearable devices consists of a two-layer dental thermoplastic retainer that houses electronic hardware. The TongueToSpeech (TTS) device is developed with the goal of augmenting speech communication for the vocally impaired. This device enables a vocally impaired person to communicate in real time. The User Interface Cursor-Controller (UIC-C) device is a hands-free device that utilizes the tongue muscle to control the cursor movement of a computer or a smartphone. The UIC-C device could be used during the periods of acute or permanent upper extremities impairment or rehabilitation. The Tongue to Robot (TTR) device allows individuals with contraction of the upper extremities mobility or amputation to wirelessly control a robotic arm. Similar to the UIC-C and the TTS devices an array of sensors are placed in between two layers of retainer. The sensors are designed to allow for a robotic arm to be controlled with the tongue with the same degrees of freedom as controlling the device manually by hand.
(From left to right) Nicholas Marjanovic, Kevin Kerr, Ricardo Aranda, and Hananeh Esmailbeigi, the BMES Tongue-Computer Interface project team, were awarded VentureWell E-Team Program grant. 5
The Tongue Controller Interface group was awarded the VentureWell E-Stage One award for $5,000. The team participated in the VentureWell workshop held at Autodesk and MIT. The workshops exposed engineering students to industry experts versed in the fields of entrepreneurship, business, and protection of intellectual property. The experience was important in shifting the traditional mindset of striving to be an engineer who works for a fortune 500 company to being an engineering that starts the next fortune 500 company. venturewell. org/e-team-grantees
Ernesto Berrum (left) and Kevin Kerr (right) receiving the check prize
On Monday, April 10, 2017, Tongue Ventures participated in the UIC Startup Challenge and received second place, receiving a $2,000 prize. The team consists of Kevin Kerr, Nicholas Marjanovic, Ricardo Aranada, Ernesto Berrum, and Professor Hananeh Esmailbeigi. Tongue Ventures works on developing assistive devices for disabled patients using the tongue as a medium. The potential devices would be able to help a wide range of disabilities ranging from individuals with ALS and amputees to quadriplegia. Each device is a custom-made retainer with electronics housed internally allowing for discrete and wireless transmission to any Bluetooth enabled technology.
EMBS Chapter Updates embs.uic.edu
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We are happy to announce the establishment of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) student chapter at UIC. The chapter was officially established on February 11, 2017. Our goal as a chapter is to be an interdisciplinary group consisting of bioengineers, electrical engineers, computer scientists, and medical students working alongside undergraduate and graduate students to get involved in the community, work on projects, learn, and network. Our chapter at UIC will focus on conducting student-driven projects in the area of neural engineering and bioinformatics. We also strive to be involved on campus and connect with fellow students by hosting on-campus lab visits and interactive workshops. We have already conducted an Arduino workshop, Biosignal recording workshop, multiple UIC research laboratory visits, and an off-campus tour of the mHUB facilities. – Hananeh Esmailbeigi
EMBS tour of the mHUB facility. (From left to right) Luke Pretzie, Mike Wells, Alex Grycuk, Adi Voukadinova, and Foram Kamdar. 6
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Engineering World Health ewhuic.wordpress.com
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I am so proud to share that this hard working Engineering World Health team was able to push through and achieve official Performance Certification for Laminar Airflow Equipment from LabMetrics, Inc.! The device they’ve built meets the same performance specifications as commercials hoods used in pharmacies, laboratories, and hospitals. In March 2017, they visited Nhi Dong 1 Women and Children’s Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam seeking to gain device acceptance at the hospital and discussing future goals of building additional units. Congratulations to these hard-working students, and also for going far above and beyond to support this project. A special “thank you” to Eric Schmidt (College of Engineering Machine Shop) and Ed Paligreeni (LabMetrics Inc.).
Miiri Kotche, PhD Clinical Associate Professor Faculty Advisor to EWH
– Miiri Kotche
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Professor Kotche’s focus is on undergraduate education. She runs an NIH-funded interdisciplinary Clinical Immersion Program, for senior undergraduate students with an interest in medical product development. The immersion program provides an opportunity for bioengineering students and Innovation Medicine medical students to understand how medical devices are used in the clinical environment by offering a paid summer internship in multiple medical environments, as well as coursework co-taught by engineering and design research faculty. An initiative at the graduate level is the Medical Accelerator for Devices Laboratory (MAD Lab). MAD Lab, part of the UIC Innovation Center, uses an interdisciplinary approach to develop early medical device ideas into design concepts with technical and business viability.
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EWH students designed and built a laminar flow hood for mixing intravenous medications in an aseptic environment. Pictured are Bioengineering seniors -Tejas Madhavan, Lindsay Tryon, and Beny Romo - with Ed Paligreeni of LabMetrics, Inc. (third from left) who generously donated their services to help the team achieve performance certification for their project.
EWH Hood Project
Project Acknowledgments
EWH Hood Project team would like to thank everyone who helped the project along from inception to completion.
The sails of the EWH hood project were filled by strong winds of guidance and support from our very own College of Engineering Makerspace director, Eric Schmidt. For over ten years, Schmidt has educated our students on principles of design, project management, and common sense.
In the Fabrication Lab you will find 3D printers, a laser cutter, mini CNC mills, and many other tools to create your projects.
Eric Schmidt Director College of Engineering Makerspace
The Design studio is a great location for group collaboration, including two 4K monitors with Sage 2.
The Gallery has a lot of room for group and project collaboration within the main room and various office spaces available for reservation.
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It was a wonderful experience being involved in the Vietnam laminar hood project. The students showed great versatility in adapting different concepts before implementing them in true form. In the days of growing contamination sources and intelligent bacteria, sterile compounding is paramount in any hospital setting. I remain inspired by the UIC students dedication in producing a fully certified unit. This project will now touch many lives.
Ed Paligreeni Owner, LabMetrics, Inc.
– Ed Paligreeni
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EWH Hood Project Vietnam Trip 2017
This blog documents our trip in March 2017 to Nhi Dong 1 Women and Children’s Hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in collaboration with the International Pediatric Specialists Alliance for the Children of Vietnam (ipsacvietnam.org ). Lindsay Tryon I am an undergraduate senior studying bioengineering at UIC. I have worked on the laminar flow hood project since it began, and I am very excited to have the opportunity to get feedback from the intended users. Lindsay’s Blog Krunal Patel I am a undergraduate sophomore bioengineering student at UIC. I am interested in combining medical knowledge with technology to solve problems and help people.
Krunal’s Blog Tejas Madhavan I am an undergraduate senior in bioengineering at UIC and have been with EWH for four years and was part of the 2015 trip. I am very excited to be going back to Vietnam with a designed laminar flow hood in hand. Building devices and coding are my passions and I hope to continue them in my professional career and put them to use to help save and improve the lives of people around the globe. Tejas’s Blog Beny Romo I am an undergraduate senior in bioengineering at UIC. I have been a member of EWH for four years, and I am currently the vice president of the UIC chapter. I have been part of the laminar flow hood project since it first began, and it has been an amazing experience to see how the project has grown and evolved over the past two years. Beny’s Blog Max McKeough I am an undergraduate junior at UIC pursuing a degree in bioengineering. I’ve been with EWH for two years, and I’ve been associated with the laminar flow hood for both. I am currently one of the flow hood managers, and I look forward to the fantastic opportunity to continue contributing both to the project and the organization going forward. 9
Max’s Blog
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This is the main hospital that we visited during our trip. It is a 1,400 bed facility with 1,600 staff. We focused our efforts with the pediatric services provided at the hospital where there are approximately 7,000 children who visit everyday.
I had two experiences through this trip, a bioengineering one and a cultural one. Starting with the bioengineering experience, I was able to experience what a human centered approach to solving a problem looks like, which is what bioengineering is all about. We were took tours and examined the setting in which this flow hood and future hoods can be used. Along with this, we were able to get feedback on the hood and possible areas of improvement directly from the doctors and nurses who would be using it. A few years ago, a team at UIC designed a prosthetic arm for a girl in Vietnam who lost her right arm. We had the chance to meet her and get new measurements and ask for feedback on the prosthetic designed previously. Through this we will hopefully be able to design a prosthetic arm for her that fits well and meets her needs. Finally, we were also able to see how the hospital’s technicians and engineers work with limited resources. The second experience I had on this trip was a cultural one. I did not know much about the Vietnamese culture before this trip. Through the tours and sightseeing, I was able to learn more about the history, tradition, food, and culture of Vietnam. I also had a chance to meet some of the nicest people like Mrs. Sa who was our liaison from the hospital. Overall, the seven days I spent in Vietnam taught me so much and gave me experiences and memories that will stay with me forever.
During our trip we had a full day to explore popular destinations in Vietnam. One of these locations was the May Kong Delta, just south of Saigon. There, we were able to take a small passenger boat to explore some of the rivers in the delta.
– Krunal Patel
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Being a part of EWH for the past four years of my undergraduate career has been one of my most rewarding experiences at UIC. I have gained many friends, lots of user-centered engineering design experience, and one of the most eye opening trips of my life. This team trip to Vietnam was my second trip after my first trip back in 2015 and has given a deeper look into life impacting medical device design. The interactions that I have had through EWH with the medical professionals and patients in Vietnam truly motivates me to drive the field of bioengineering forward to improve humanity and the future of healthcare.
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– Tejas Madhavan After our time at the hospitals we took some time to explore the surrounding city. One of our stops was the statue of Ho Chi Minh in front of the Saigon City Hall.
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UIC News: East Meets West Sharon Parmet February 21, 2017
Can cellphone use predict manic episodes in bipolar disorder?
Peter Nelson (left) and Alex Leow lead a team that developed an app called BiAffect, which can monitor mobile device usage to predict manic and depressive moods in people diagnosed with bipolar disorder. (Photo: Jenny Fontaine)
A cellphone app that measures typing speed and spell-check overrides may be able to predict manic and depressive moods in people diagnosed with bipolar disorder. A team led by two UIC researchers has been chosen as one of two finalists in a contest to use Apple’s ResearchKit, an open-source platform for creating apps, to develop a means to study mood disorders. As finalists, they will receive $100,000 to develop their app using Apple’s beta-testing platform, Test Flight. The eventual winner of the Mood Challenge, to be announced in May, will receive a final award of $200,000 to launch their app publicly. Alex Leow, associate professor of psychiatry and bioengineering in the College of Medicine, and Peter Nelson, professor of computer science and dean of the College of Engineering, led a team that developed an app called BiAffect that unobtrusively monitors mobile device usage — including keyboard dynamics such as typing speed. Earlier this year, Leow and her colleagues completed a pilot study of 30 participants that showed typing speed, frequency of texting, and use of social media correlated to depressive and manic episodes in people with bipolar disorder.
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“During a manic episode, people with bipolar disorder exhibit some common behaviors, such as talking really, really fast,” Leow said. “It is thus natural that they also type on their phones very fast and tend to not check what they are typing.”
Spell-check usage may be a strong indicator of a manic episode, she said. “Spell-checking requires the writer to pause and determine whether or not to ignore the suggested correction, or keep typing. People in the midst of a manic episode have reduced impulse control, and they tend to blow through the spell-check alerts.” Episodes of depression can also be identified by tracking cellphone usage, Leow said. During depressive episodes, typing a long message may become laborious, and messages tend to be shorter. Bipolar disorder, which causes extreme mood swings between the emotional highs of manic episodes and low periods of depression, affects approximately 5.7 million adult Americans, or about 2.6 percent of those over 18, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Diagnosis relies on careful history-taking and examination. “Cellphones are virtually ubiquitous,” Nelson said. “People are increasingly interacting through typed messages as opposed to old-fashioned phone calls and face-to-face conversations. BiAffect lets us examine these ubiquitous virtual-mental-health footprints or signatures of people suffering from mood disorders.” Leow thinks that apps like BiAffect may prove useful in other fields of medicine. For example, researchers may be able to determine the efficacy of drugs in improving cognition using similarly unobtrusive technology. “It’s easy to see how we can also use these kinds of apps to track symptoms associated with neurological diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease,” she said. Mladen Rasic, Faraz Hussain, Dr. Neil Smalheiser, Andrea Piscitello, Dr. Olusola Ajilore, Dr. Scott Langenecker, Philip Yu, Dr. John Zulueta and Bokai Cao of UIC, and Melvin McInnis and Kelly Ryan of the University of Michigan are also members of the BiAffect team. Read more at the UIC News Center
news.uic.edu/east-meets-west-can-cellphone-use-predict-manic-episodes-in-bipolar-disorder
BiAffect BiAffect is a system for understanding mood and neurocognitive functioning in bipolar disorder using keystroke dynamics, such as typing speed and errors, to track and predict mood episodes. Alteration in communication is one of the main problematic symptoms of bipolar disorder. This study will unobtrusively monitor non-verbal communications on an iPhone to improve our understanding of mood disorders and provide a means of predicting future mood fluctuations. moodchallenge.com/biaffect-finalist 12
UIC News: Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Award Brian Flood April 12, 2017
UIC bioengineer receives Fulbright to study in Finland A University of Illinois at Chicago bioengineer has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award to study user-centered product design that intersects technology and health care delivery in Finland. Miiri Kotche, clinical associate professor of bioengineering, is one of 800 faculty and professionals who will travel abroad during the 2017-2018 academic year through the program, which is the flagship international educational exchange sponsored by the U.S. government. Beginning in January, Kotche will spend seven months at the Helsinki-based VTT Technical Research Center, the largest multidisciplinary research organization in Northern Europe.
Miiri Kotche, PhD Clinical Associate Professor
“I want to understand how VTT engineers translate user needs into technical requirements for medical devices by studying their product development process,” Kotche said. “A deeper understanding of how a successful ecosystem of innovation in Finland positively impacts health care product development can help inform our own processes and provide insight into how to create stronger collaborations within and external to UIC.” Kotche’s industry experience informs her UIC teaching and research, which focuses on preparing future engineers and physicians to incorporate innovation in health care careers. She directs the Medical Accelerator for Devices Laboratory, or MAD Lab, an interdisciplinary program for engineers, industrial designers, MBA students and medical students that examines early concept generation, market opportunity, and intellectual property considerations. She also leads Innovation Medicine, a co-curricular program in the UIC College of Medicine that combines technology and health care, and she is director of a clinical immersion internship program that offers engineering and medical students opportunities to conduct needs assessments in clinical settings. The Fulbright experience will influence her product design courses, as well as future biomedical engineers, she says. “By broadening my knowledge and experience to include other cultures, I can better prepare our students to meet the demand for ‘global engineers’ who possess the personal qualities and technical skill-set required to work effectively in a range of international settings and work environments,” she said. Kotche’s previous honors include the 2016 Motivator of the Year award from the Association for Women in Science’s Chicago chapter. The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, which was created in 1946 to increase mutual understanding between U.S. citizens and the people of other countries, recognizes academic and professional achievement in addition to record of service and demonstrated leadership in their respective fields. Read more at the UIC News Center
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news.uic.edu/uic-bioengineer-receives-fulbright-to-study-in-finland
Alumni News
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Kyle Sierzega Class of 2017
From December 2016 through April 2017 I had been working as an intern for Ventura Solutions. The internship was focused on systems engineering aspects related to the biomedical device development process. My primary task during the internship was the development of design history files and performing risk analysis for on market medical devices. I began by formulating the high-level user requirements, tracing them through the development process, and into their corresponding design outputs. Next, to familiarize myself with the risk management processes, I created failure mode and effect analyses (FMEA’s) for both the potential user errors and the device failure modes and examined the potential hazards associated with use of the product. The skills and knowledge that I developed during this internship prepared me for my current position that I began in April; I am currently consulting as a systems engineer for Pfizer through Ventura Solutions. My internship through Ventura solutions would not have been possible without my participation in BIOE 399, the professional development course taught by Professor Hananeh Esmailbeigi. In the course we learned how to properly prepare a resume, construct a LinkedIn profile, and carry out a professional interview, however, the course did not only prepare me professionally; it allowed me to network and establish contact with Chuck Ventura, the president of Ventura Solutions. He had come to present his experiences in the industry after graduating from UIC and discussed potential internship and training opportunities within his company. I was fortunate enough to be considered for an internship after interviewing with his company, and I was offered a position with Ventura Solutions once it concluded.
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– Kyle Sierzega
Chuck Ventura is the founder and president of Ventura Solutions and a UIC alumni. He received his bachelor’s degree in bioengineering with a minor in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He went on to earn his M.E. degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Chuck Ventura President of Ventura Solutions Class of 2006
Ventura Solutions is developing a track record for placing UIC graduates into contract, direct hire, and consulting positions directly after graduation. Ventura Solutions is an engineering consulting, staffing, and training company for the Medical Device, Pharmaceutical, and Combination Products industries. To learn more and contact Ventura Solutions for internship, training, and employment opportunities visit www.ventura-solutions.com and utilize the “contact us” page to request more information.
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Research Funding Newly-awarded Grants (since our Fall 2016 Newsletter) David Eddington, PhD
• National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant EAGER Collaborative Proposal: A microfluidic platform for the discovery of new, life-like chemical systems In collaboration with David Baum of the University of Wisconsin 1-year grant for $300,00 with David Eddington share being $150,000 (August 1, 2016 - July 31, 2018) This project aims to develop a microfluidic platform for the discovery of new, life-like chemical systems. There is a lack of knowledge about how new life–like chemical systems–having the capacity for reproducing and evolving–can emerge. The researchers are developing a device to screen complex chemical mixtures in order to find life-like systems that can grow over a mineral surface and can evolve more efficient growth over time. The goal of the project is the discovery of new life-like chemical systems, which would advance the understanding of how life originated on earth.
Salman Khetani, PhD
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) R21 Grant Functionally maturing iPSC-derived human hepatocytes in 3D microgels 2-year grant for $426,595 (April 1, 2017 - March 31, 2019) In vitro (in a dish) models of the human liver have great utility for screening toxic drugs before they reach human clinical trials; for modeling diseases to develop better therapeutics; and for building implantable constructs for patients who suffer from liver failure. Typically, primary human hepatocytes, the main cell type of the liver, are isolated from deceased donors to build human liver models; however, these cells are in short supply due to shortages of donor organs. On the other hand, induced pluripotent stem cell-derived human hepatocytes or iHeps can provide a nearly infinite and genetically-diverse source of cells for building personalized human liver models (i.e. from each patient’s own cells); however, iHeps display much lower functions in vitro than their primary hepatocyte counterparts. Thus, in this R21 project funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (part of National Institutes of Health), we will adapt and optimize a high-throughput 3D microgel platform to determine how the protein composition surrounding iHeps as well as their interactions with other cell types of the liver in 3D affects their functional maturation relative to primary hepatocytes. Our work will create the first high-throughput 3D iHep platform with tunable protein and cellular composition, which can be used in the future to positively impact human health.
PI Thomas J. Royston, PhD and Co-I Dieter Klatt, PhD
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) S10 Shared Instrumentation Grant Acquisition of Hyperpolarized Gas System for Lung MR Imaging 1-year grant for $479,745 (April 1, 2017 - March 31, 2018) PI Thomas J. Royston
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Co-I Dieter Klatt
UIC has a large research mission focused on diagnosis and treatment of lung diseases, including lung cancer, radiation-induced lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome, sickle cell-linked acute chest syndrome, acute lung injury, and transplant obliterative bronchiolitis. UIC also has significant expertise and facilities for developing and conducting research utilizing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Conventional proton (1H) MRI does not work well in the lungs due to the abundance of air. Over the past few decades hyperpolarized noble gas MRI has been shown to provide tremendous ability and insights in imaging lung disease and response to treatment. Using xenon (129Xe) gas has the added benefit that it can quantify how well gas is being exchanged in the lungs into the blood stream and tissue. With this grant we will acquire a commercial system for generation of 129Xe to catalyze the advances of our ongoing NIH-funded lung research.
Jie Liang, PhD
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 Grant Database and Tools for Functional Inference and Mechanistic Insight into Somatic Cancer Mutations 3-year grant for $1,064,054 (April 1, 2017 - March 31, 2020) We will develop databases and computational tools for discovery of novel mutations involved in cancer development and for understanding of the mechanistic roles of cancer related mutations. These databases and tools can help to uncover cooperative effects of accumulation of multiple mutations of low recurrency in cancer. Our approach will be based on the computation of 3D structures of protein functional surfaces where cancer variants are located, along with the quantification of their evolutionary patterns, as well as changes in their biophysical properties.
Newly-transferred Grants Ian Papautsky, PhD
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 Grant Development of a lab-on-a-chip for point-of-care biomonitoring of blood metals 5-year grant for $1,549,000 (October 1, 2013 - September 30, 2018) This award aims to transform the current paradigm for blood metal analysis through the development of a sensor that will provide rapid and accurate point-of-care measurement of blood metals in susceptible pediatric populations. Biomarkers of pediatric, low-level, mixed exposures to lead (Pb) and manganese (Mn) are essential yet current approaches suffer from high-cost and time-consuming laboratory procedures, and often yield long turnaround times. Our approach integrates electrochemical voltammetry methods with microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip to provide real-time analysis of metals for susceptible populations in national and international research and clinical settings.
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) R21/R33 Grant Validation and Demonstration of Point-of-Care Sensor for Multi-Metal Exposure Assessment 4-year grant for $2,200,000 (April 1, 2015 - November 30, 2019) The goal of this project is to demonstrate validity and usability of a point-of-care sensor for rapid and accurate measurement of blood manganese (Mn) and lead (Pb) in the field. A relatively swift, simultaneous assessment of heavy metal exposure, which ultimately reduces costs and turnaround times, would benefit pediatric public health.
• National Science Foundation (NSF) I/UCRC: Center for Design and Advanced Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidics (CADMIM) 5-year grant for $300,000 (March 1, 2014 - February 28, 2019) The goal of this award is to support establishment of a national NSF center for microfluidic innovation. The center mission is to develop advanced design tools and manufacturing technologies for integrated microfluidics targeting cost-effective, quick, and easy diagnosis of the environment, agriculture, and human health. The center has two sites: one at University of California, Irvine and now a new one at UIC.
• National Science Foundation (NSF) AIR-TT: Integrated Microfluidic System for Cell Separation and Enrichment 1-year grant for $200,000 (August 15, 2016 - October 31, 2017) This project will develop an integrated microfluidic system capable of processing 7.5mL of whole blood by rapidly separating rare cells (such as circulating tumor cells, CTCs) from the blood and locally enriching the isolated cells, resulting in faster blood sample preparation and enabling higher fidelity cancer diagnostic measurements compared to what is attainable today. CTCs have become clinically relevant as they are often the first indicators of metastasis (tumor spreading) and have the potential to inform physicians and guide therapy via a liquid biopsy in lieu of a more invasive tissue biopsy. 16
Students Awards David Banner
Advisor: Tolou Shokuhfar, PhD
Microscopy & Microanalysis (M&M) Award The Microscopy Society of America (MSA) and the Microanalysis Society (MS) annually sponsor awards for outstanding papers contributed to the Microscopy & Microanalysis (MM) meeting, which are competitively judged based upon the quality of the submitted paper. These awards are provided to students, postdoctoral researchers, and professional technical staff members to help defray travel, lodging and other costs of attending the meeting. microscopy.org/awards/conference.cfm
Sarita Deshpande
Advisor: Rhonna Cohen, PhD
Gates Cambridge Scholarship The Gates Cambridge Scholarship program was established in October 2000 by a donation of $210 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the University of Cambridge: this is the largest ever single donation to a UK university. Scholarships are awarded to outstanding applicants from countries outside the UK to pursue a full-time postgraduate degree in any subject available at the University of Cambridge. gatescambridge.org/about
Taneka Jones
Advisor: Satish Alapati, PhD
Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition (1st place) The Three-Minute Thesis (3MT®) is an academic research communication competition developed by the University of Queensland, in Australia. The competition celebrates the exciting research conducted by graduate students and cultivates academic, presentation, and research communication skills. Students are permitted three minutes and one static image to impress a nonspecialist audience with their research. grad.uic.edu/sites/default/files/newsletters/files/GradInfoSpring2017.pdf
Megan Rexius
Advisor: David Eddington, PhD
American Physiological Society Endocrinology & Metabolism Research Recognition Award The Endocrinology and Metabolism Section New Investigator Award ($1,000 plus reimbursement of the advance registration fee) recognizes an outstanding investigator in the early stages of his/her career. Candidates should be investigators who have made meritorious contributions to the area represented by the Endocrinology & Metabolism Section. the-aps.org/mm/awards/sections/endo-metabol
Vidyani Suryadevara
Advisors: Thomas Royston, PhD & Viswanathan Natarajan, PhD
Shreya Ghosh
Advisor: Michael Stroscio, PhD
Chancellor’s Graduate Research Award 2016
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The Chancellor’s Graduate Research Award has supported multidisciplinary scholarship in an attempt to expose graduate students to varied research and creative fields. The award mechanism has naturally evolved into a way for students early in their studies to develop new research directions for their PhD dissertations or terminal degree thesis/capstone project and has been used by graduate programs as a way for students to practice writing research proposals. Starting with the Fall 2016 competition, funding in the sum of $5,000 will now be available for one-year pilot grants to support preliminary research of students seeking future funding from external sources. grad.uic.edu/chancellors-graduate-research-award
Faculty Awards Michael Stroscio, PhD Excellence in Teaching Award Every year, UIC honors a select few of its most dedicated and outstanding faculty members with the Award for Excellence in Teaching. The winners, who receive a $5,000 salary increase, are selected by past recipients of the award from nominations made by departments and colleges. In 2016, Richard and Loan Hill Professor of Engineering and a University Distinguished Professor Michael Stroscio, of the Richard and Loan Hill Department of Bioengineering and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been selected by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost as a recipient of the prestigious award. ece.uic.edu/2016/08/12/professor-michael-stroscio-wins-excellence-in-teaching-award
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Credits: Thomas J. Royston (Editor) | Beiruo He (Designer) | Joel Super (Consultant)
Richard and Loan Hill Department of Bioengineering University of Illinois at Chicago College of Engineering College of Medicine 851 S. Morgan Street (MC 063) Chicago, IL 60607
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