November 2010

The Pioneer Newsletter is brought to you by the students, faculty, and staff of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. The newsletter staff and its collaborators strive to bring you the latest news from all aspects of the BME community. To submit articles, opinions, ideas, or events for publication and for more information about the newsletter, please visit:

www.thepioneer.gatech.edu

Inside this issue: Trick or Treat!

A BME Halloween Course Registration Made Easy: Degreeworks Released

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November 2010

Volume V, Issue 3

Oral Delivery System Developed to Treat Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

By Abby Vogel

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esearchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University have developed a novel approach for delivering small bits of genetic material into the body to improve the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases.

Delivering short strands of RNA into cells has become a popular research area because of its potential therapeutic applications, but how to deliver them into targeted cells in a living organism has been an obstacle.

Lead author Scott Wilson from the Murthy Lab received the Controlled Re-

Continued on Page 6

lease Society’s Outstanding Oral Drug Delivery Award. (Photo: GTRC / GIT)

Your Future Graduate School

Student Organizations: 5 Engineering World Health

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ou are probably wondering, “Who is this Ted Chen guy and what does he know about getting into graduate school?” Well, not everything, but I got into a few and learned a lot along the way.

Applying to graduate schools is not something everyone needs to learn by experience alone. Below, I have outlined some important topics that I feel were most important in the graduate application process.

BMES 2010 Conference 7 Reflections from Georgia Tech Attendees Upcoming Seminars Events, Opportunities, Scholarships, and More!

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Research Series: The Basics of a BME Laboratory

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Faculty Spotlight: Manu Platt, Ph.D.. Road To Professorship

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And More!

By Ted Chen

Getting To There From Here

1. Deciding On The Schools: It is tempting to pull the top 10 schools off the latest US News & World Report Graduate School Rankings and be done with your list, but there's more to it!

(Photo: GTRC / GIT)

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“That’s So BME!” Voices From The Student Body

“I wan t ed t o go t o m ed s c h o o l fr es h man y ear . I wan t ed t o go t o gr ad s c h o o l s o p h o mo r e y ear . I wan t ed t o go i n t o i n d u s t r y ju n io r y ear . As a s en i o r n o w, I n eed an o t h er y ear t o gr ad u at e. ” F i rs t day o f de ad we e k H ai k u by P aul F i nc anno n Al way s mak e s my day

“ If y y o ur t he ha v e

By You!

it h o u ne e d he l p w t , B ME l a b a cco un l l f i r s t t hi ng y o u’ s us . ” t o do i s f i nd Je

ra nk e d a s t he “ B ME w a s re c e nt l y . T oo ba d i t ’ s # 1 l e a s t s t re s s ful j ob l m a j or. ” t he # 1 m os t s t re s s fu

More at: www.thatssobme.gatech.edu

Staff Members Editors in Chief Willa Ni Chun Yong Faculty Sponsor Wendy Newstetter Officers Karan Patel Debika Mitra

Layout Editors Kevin Lam Victoria Ibarra Candace Law Seung Eun Lee Anum Syed Photographers Saranya Karthikeyan Virginia Lin William Sessions

Staff Writers Alex Cooper Dhruv Vishwakarma Webmasters Elysia Hwang Subhendu De Timothy Lin Eric Huang Andrew Lei Collaborators Mike Mallow Karen Adams Daniel Siqueira da Silva Paul Fincannon Rachel Stewart Sally Gerrish Benjamin Thomas Jennifer Kimble Megan McDevitt Editors Colleen Mitchell Gopi Patel Fadrika Prather Nida Dharani Adrianne Proeller Kanav Jain Shannon Sullivan Laura Kish John Toon Shalv Madhani Abby Vogel Ayesha Patel Elina Sarmah *Executive Officers

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A Couple of Words From the Editors in Chief

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ooling temperatures and bright blue skies herald the passing of midterms. As another semester wraps up, The Pioneer looks back on yet another milestone on its journey. This semester saw the addition of many new staff members and the release of the first 16-page newsletter. We must also note the continuity of old traditions. The Pioneer continues to strive to cover issues relevant to undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the Georgia Tech Biotechnology community. This, as we have always said, is an ever ongoing goal because The Pioneer exists in a cutting edge and ever-changing research community.

Though The Pioneer continues to move forward, we would like to take a moment to reflect on the contributions of this newsletter thus far. Externally, the biotechnology community has been strung with the first tendrils of communication amongst students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Students have increased exposure to opportunities and opportunities have increased exposure to students. Certain faces have been focused on to define the blur of faces that makes up the Coulter Department in the form of student and faculty spotlights. Internally, a structured executive board of The Pioneer has been developed. Staff members have also taken this opportunity to network and share tips or field questions. Overall, The Pioneer has served the biotechnology community both internally and externally for the past year and will hopefully for many more years to come.

Yours sincerely,

Chun Yong and Willa Ni Editors in Chief The Pioneer

Trick or Treat A BME Halloween

By Karan Patel

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emember Halloween as a child? The tingling excitement of shrugging on a crisp white lab coat and slipping on a mask of your most favorite professor, knocking on the front doors of labs, threatening unsuspecting graduate students with “trick or treat” and refusing to leave until treats were procured? Fathers cracking glow sticks for their children while mothers mapped out creepy stalker safe zones? But the best for me was coming home, flipping my pillowcase upside down and counting all of the beakers, test tubes, cell culture plates and containers of industrial grade 10M NaOH I had acquired.

When I came to college, I felt like I had been forced to leave all of that behind. However, I still sought to recreate the Halloween experience. Maybe it was my refusal to let go of my childhood, but I couldn’t believe that in college October 31st was going to be just another night. No flasks. No NMR tubes. No IR Spectra.

Nothing. Luckily, I met Chun Yong, another student who felt the same way.

“You know what the worst part is?” he asked me one day. “When I was a kid, I’d wake up on November 1st, excited to dive into my bag of Pyrex glassware, biodegradable materials and questionable chemicals, but now, it’s like we have nothing to look forward to!”

I had to agree. Something had to be done. We had to bring Halloween back to Georgia Tech.

The first thing we had to do was to acquire our costumes. I decided on my favorite professor – Dr. Wendy Newstetter, while Chun went for the more traditional Paul Fincannon. Luckily, the local party store had both of these costumes in all different sizes given that these two outfits were highly coveted by children all across the nation. We bought our costumes and were ready for Halloween.

As we walked into the Parker H. Petit Institute of Bioengineering and Biosciences (IBB), we definitely turned heads. We did not mind though. Our first target was the Platt lab. We knocked on the door to the wing and were greeted by a graduate student. When she saw us standing there with our masks and pillowcases, she began to call security, startled. After reassuring her that we were simply trick-or-treating, she laughed and dropped containers of benzene solution into our bags.

Thank you!

The next lab we went to was the Sambanis Lab, famous for their homemade cell cultures. We could smell the cinnamon, apples, and βTC-tet cells from a hundred feet away. The aroma was irresistible and we just hoped there was enough left for us. After arriving, we were abruptly accosted by a postdoctoral fellow.

“What do you want?!” he demanded.

“We were just wondering if we could have some of your delicious cell culture.”

“GET OUT OF HERE!” Although we tried to sound friendly, he clearly did not want to share.

We ran away with lab coats flapping and beakers,

In addition to trick-or-treating at various research laboratories during Halloween, students of the Coulter department mathematically modeled various zombie outbreaks. (Photo: Summer Lee)

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flasks, and test tubes rattling. Unfortunately, some people were not as receptive to the idea of Halloween.

The third lab we went to was dark. The door was ajar, so we peeked in. An old graduate student with graying gravity defying hair who smelled of mothballs (among 127 other symptoms of running countless PCRs) ushered us into the lab.

“Have you guys heard of the curse of the IBB? Five years ago, a student was working on a Western Blot when he mysteriously disappeared. No one knew what happened to him, but he was never seen again. Ever since then, a student has disappeared every year on Halloween night. Some say it’s the lonely spirit of the graduate student looking for companionship, but no one knows for sure. I’d advise you both to leave the building right now.”

We should have left right then, but we were curious. We thanked him and left his lab.

“What should we do?” I asked Chun.

“We look for the missing students of course! We can’t just let someone else disappear tonight!”

I nodded in agreement as we walked through the hauntingly hushed halls of the IBB. After a few minutes, we saw a dark corner of the hallway with a single door propped open and an unattended janitor’s cart.

“Let’s go look!” Chun said as he pulled the door wide open and walked in. I watched in horror as the door slammed shut behind him, almost automatically. “HELP!” Chun yelled. “HELP! Help. help…” His cries grew fainter and fainter until I could not hear them anymore. When the stubbornly stiff doorknob suddenly gave way to my desperate rattling, I peered into an empty closet.

Some professors swear that on some days they still see Chun in their classes, taking their tests and attending their lectures, but when they look back, he is gone. I have not seen him since, and I cannot tell what exactly happened in that closet. All I can advise is to stay out of the IBB and away from janitor’s closets on the 31st of October.

Karan Patel is an undergraduate student in the Coulter Department.

Course Registration Made Easy New Tool Developed to Aid Academic Advising

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he weather is colder, the work is getting harder and Oscar is about to incur high traffic. Indeed, ‘tis the season – the Registration Season. Whether you are a newbie to the game unsure of your registration time or a registering all-star practicing your page refresh rate, a brand new tool has recently been developed to alleviate registration stress for all of us: Degreeworks.

Degreeworks is an online academic advising tool helping both you and Paul Fincannon figure out the best schedule for you. When you first log on, you will be greeted by your Student View Worksheet, which lists your major and GPA, along with all the classes required to obtain your degree. Classes that you have already taken will have a green checkmark by them, while those in progress will have a blue wave. By clicking on the class names, you can learn about the prerequisites, eliminating the need to fumble through that long prerequisite chart.

In the What If section, you can see what your potential course load would look like if you wanted to add a minor or change your major, and even estimate how many semesters it will take for you to graduate. You can even add in courses that you are considering next semester, creating a new hypothetical worksheet with your planned classes marked on the worksheet. All of these exciting features can also be exported into a handy PDF. All registration meetings with Paul will also be documented in the Notes section, helping both you and Paul recall what you specifically talked about during each meeting. Though it still has its bugs and kinks, it shows great promise as it expands to every major.

“Degreeworks will change the way all students look at registration,” says Fincannon.

Andrew Lei is an undergraduate student in the Coulter Department.

BME Academic Advisor, Paul Fincannon.

(Photo: William Sessions)

Log on now!

Get started at www.degreeworks.gatech.edu Page 4

By Andrew Lei

Student Organization Spotlight:

By Benjamin Thomas

Engineering World Health at Georgia Tech

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s many fellow Tech students, I participated in TeamBuzz and my first experience with Engineering World Health at Georgia Tech (EWH), which will definitely not be my last. With a mission to “bring awareness and sustainable solutions to the global inequities in health care in the developing world,” EWH works in conjunction with MedShare International to prepare refurbished medical devices for shipments. Named “Best New Organization “ on campus for the 20062007 school year, EWH has continued to hold on to high standards through the years.

MedShare is a non-profit charity headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia that receives old or broken medical devices donated by local hospitals and medical centers. The organization strives to make these devices usable. To this date, Medshare has shipped more than 550 forty -foot containers of medical supplies to 80 countries across the globe. These devices range from defibrillators and computer systems to basic products such as blood pressure machines and lab supplies. The net value of the otherwise discarded devices is estimated at 6.25 billion dollars a year. EWH accomplishes its mission through organizing bi-weekly carpools to the MedShare warehouse where EWH members volunteer and apply their engineering knowledge to evaluate and repair vast arrays of generously donated medical devices.

When I arrived at the MedShare

operated warehouse, volunteers were assigned with the task of evaluating and repairing hospital beds for shipment. This immense warehouse held roughly 600 donated beds in need of motor inspections, switch adjustments, the addition of power supplies, and guard rail evaluations. Though it was a colossal undertaking, EWH managed to effectively process 300 beds in just a few hours.

The repair session was an engaging and productive learning experience. All of the senior members were enthusiastic to answer any questions about the organization and the projects EWH undertakes.

During repair sessions, EWH works on a spectrum of medical devices ranging from complicated defibrillators and computer systems to simpler equipment like blood pressure machines or lab supplies. EWH is by no means a club just for Biomedical Engineering majors or the highly experienced; it welcomes anyone interested in helping out those in need and expanding their knowledge on medical equipments.

I highly recommend EWH as an enjoyable and rewarding way of getting involved. EWH meets at 8:45 AM on every other Saturday at the second floor of the Student Center (outside the Music Listening Room) to carpool to the MedShare warehouse. The carpool leaves around 9:00 AM and returns to campus by 1:00 PM. To learn more about EWH and its m i s s i on , p le a se con tac t Sh an i e

Liyanagamage, Secretary of EWH, at shanie@gatech.edu, who is available for any inquires.

Benjamin Thomas is an undergraduate student in the Coulter Department.

Students gather by Skiles walkway durng TeamBuzz on October 2, 2010, to volunteer for various Atlanta-based projects. (Photo: Virginia Lin)

EWH Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/ group.php?gid=2343398897

National Website: www.ewh.org

Members of Georgia Tech’s Engineering World Health evaluated and repaired hospital beds prior to shipments to third world countries (bottom left). This example is just one of many other projects that EWH undertakes. (Photo: Virginia Lin)

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Oral Delivery System

from Page 1

In the Oct. 10 advance online edition of the journal Nature Materials, researchers describe how they encapsulated short pieces of RNA into engineered particles called thioketal nanoparticles and orally delivered the genetic material directly to the inflamed intestines of animals. The research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health.

“The thioketal nanoparticles we designed are stable in both acids and bases and only break open to release the pieces of RNA in the presence of reactive oxygen species, which are found in and around inflamed tissue in the gastrointestinal tract of individuals with inflammatory bowel diseases,” said Niren Murthy, an associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

This work was done in collaboration with Emory University Division of Digestive Diseases professor Shanthi Sitaraman, associate professor Didier Merlin and postdoctoral fellow Guillaume Dalmasso.

The thioketal nanoparticles protect the small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) from the harsh environment of the gastrointestinal tract and target them directly to the inflamed intestinal tissues. This localized approach is necessary because siRNAs can cause major side effects if injected systemically.

In the paper, the thioketal nanoparticles were formulated from a new polymer - poly-(1,4-phenyleneacetone dimethylene thioketal) (PPADT) - and engineered to have a diameter of approximately 600 nanometers for optimal oral delivery.

For their experiments, the researchers used a mouse model of ulcerative colitis - a debilitating inflammatory bowel disease in which the digestive tract becomes inflamed, causing severe diarrhea and abdominal pain that can lead to lifethreatening complications.

The researchers orally administered thioketal nanoparticles loaded with siRNA that inhibits an inflammation-promoting cytokine called tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). The nanoparticles traveled directly to the mouse colons where reactive oxygen species were being produced in excess and decreased the cytokine production levels there.

Tissue samples from the colons treated with siRNA delivered by these thioketal nanoparticles exhibited intact epitheliums,

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well-defined fingerlike “crypt” structures and lower levels of inflammation - signs that the colon was protected against ulcerative colitis.

“Since ulcerative colitis is restricted to the colon, these results confirm that the siRNA-loaded thioketal nanoparticles remain stable in non-inflamed regions of the gastrointestinal tract while targeting

have to investigate further, but during this study we discovered that thioketal nanoparticles loaded with siRNA have a cell toxicity profile similar to nanoparticles formulated from the FDA-approved material poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA),” added Murthy.

In the future, thioketal nanoparticles may become a significant player in the treatment of numerous gastrointestinal diseases linked to intestinal inflammation, including gastrointestinal cancers, inflammatory bowel diseases and viral infections, according to Murthy.

Abby Vogel is a communications officer in the GT Research News & Publications Office and a collaborator of The Pioneer.

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When delivered orally, thioketal nanoparticles remain stable in non-inflamed tissues (top). However, at sites of intestinal inflammation the thioketal nanoparticles degrade and release siRNA (bottom). (Photo: Scott Wilson)

siRNA to inflamed intestinal tissues,” explained the paper's lead author Scott Wilson, a graduate student in the Georgia Tech School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering.

The paper showed that thioketal nanoparticles have the chemical and physical properties needed to overcome the obstacles of gastrointestinal fluids, intestinal mucosa and cellular barriers to provide therapy to inflamed intestinal tissues, he added.

The researchers are currently working on increasing the degradation rate of the nanoparticles and enhancing their reactivity with reactive oxygen species. The team also plans to conduct a biodistribution study to detail how the nanoparticles travel through the body.

“Polymer toxicity is something we'll

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Colon tissue samples of (A) healthy tissue; (B) ulcerative colitis treated with siRNA delivered by thioketal nanoparticles; (C) untreated ulcerative colitis. The middle tissue looks like healthy tissue. (Photo: Scott Wilson)

Enjoyed this article? Keep up with more groundbreaking research in the Georgia Tech news room!

www.gatech.edu/newsroom

BMES 2010 Annual Meeting Reflections from Georgia Tech Attendees

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he Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) seeks to “serve as the lead society and professional home for biomedical engineering and bioengineering.” This year, their annual conference was held on October 6-9 in Austin, Texas.

One of the primary purposes of the conference is to open the doors between researchers at different institutions. During the summer before the event, applicants submit abstracts for the projects they hope to present at the conference. They can be accepted for either a poster presentation or an oral presentation. Researchers also received opportunities to apply for travel awards and grants.

Jaskaran Rakkar, an undergraduate student who presented at the conference stated, “For me, anything that I could understand, I was interested about. But there was just a lot of stuff that just went completely over my head even though I actually tried very hard to understand what they were saying. It was just so specific, like a very small area of something large.”

Such a response is typically expected due to the high degree of variation and specialization in the field of biomedical engineering. The BMES conference was segmented into different areas of interest such as cardiovascular mechanics, complex -ity and heterogeneity in lung behavior, mechanotransduction, and immunobioengineering. With this division of countless subject matters, an attendee at the conference has a better chance to see presentations that are of interest and are understandable to him/her.

During the afternoons of the conference, broader activities are hosted such as résumé critiquing sessions, lectures on diversity, and further keynote speakers.

The conference also hosted some of the most famous speakers in biomedical research, such as Drs. Robert Pritzker and Nicholas Peppas. These speakers kicked off the individual days of the conference followed by respective poster and platform presentations.

Rakkar says, “Going to the conference, I was pretty sure that I was not going to do grad school or a master’s program in biomedical engineering. My mind was set on doing a medical M.D. and I was just going to take a year off [to] do research.

But going there, actually learning about how cool some of the research is… Maybe grad school is a good option… It was appealing to see that there are projects out there that are very intriguing.”

With more than 25 companies interested in hiring biomedical engineers at different levels and more than 50 graduate universities represented, it is no surprise that this conference has become an effective recruiting tool for students, schools, and companies. Sally Gerrish, the director of student, alumni, and industrial relations for the Coulter department, ran the exhibition booth for Georgia Tech’s graduate program. She mentions, “Prospective students talk to Georgia Tech students and find out about different things with research... That was a really great way of introducing Georgia Tech to even more students.”

Next year, the conference will be held

By Rachel Stewart

Conference attendees enjoyed an evening reception at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. (Photo: Aileen Li)

in Hartford, Connecticut. “If you think… you have a good presentation [or] a good poster, definitely try to submit it,” says Rakkar. Gerrish also agrees, “It’s the whole range - from undergraduate all the way to post-doc - this is an opportunity to connect with different universities and different industry.” Chun Yong, another undergraduate student who presented at the BMES conference, encourages “everyone who has some research done to go to one of these conferences. “ He adds, “The funding is there. It’s just a matter of writing your abstract, submitting it, and attending the conference.”

It seems that everyone who attended agrees: Whether looking for a career, looking for new students, or just looking to present one’s work, the BMES conference is a great opportunity to learn, gain, and share ideas as well as network with professionals in the field.

Rachel Stewart is an undergraduate student in the Coulter Department.

Georgia Tech BME alumnus Aileen Li presented research conducted in the Platt Lab during a poster session to students Philip Keegan and Jaskaran Rakkar (left). Sally Gerrish by the Georgia Tech booth at the BMES 2010 Annual Meeting. (Photos: Aileen Li and Chun Yong)

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Meet Your Pre-Health Advisor!

SMART Scholarship for UG and Grad Students in STEM Areas

Are you pre-health? Meet your advisor, Jennifer Kimble, now! Attend one of the follow mandatory pre-health workshops to find out more about being a pre-health student at Georgia Tech and the application process of getting into professional health schools. These workshops are required before being able to schedule individual appoints with Kimble.

The Smart Scholarship, offered by the US Department of Defense (DoD), is available to undergraduates and graduate students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) programs and pays tuition plus a generous cash stipend. In addition to financial support, the program provides summer internships at DoD facilities.

After graduation, scholars are obligated to work for the DoD for one year per each year funded.

November 1 - 6:00 PM, SSC Clary Theater December 13 - 4:00 PM, SSC Clary Theater

The scholarship is open only to US Citizens.

Interested students should attend the info session and begin the application process soon - the deadline is approaching fast! www.asee.org/smart

For more information, contact Jennifer Kimble at: jennifer.kimble@carnegie.gatech.edu

FULBRIGHT INFORMATION SESSION November 11 - 11:00 Success Center, President's Suite C The Fulbright Scholarship funds a year of research, graduate study, or English-teaching to 140 countries.

The award is open to US citizens in any field who will be seniors or graduate students next fall.

Interested students should attend the info session and begin the application process soon since it takes time and care to select the right country, design a strong project, arrange affiliation with a host institution, and assemble a competitive application. www.us.fulbrightonline.org/home.html Contact Dr. Karen Adams, (karen.adams@provost.gatech.edu) well ahead of the deadlines for advice and feedback on your application.

Campus deadline: mid-September, 2011 National deadline: mid-October, 2011

Be A Winner. Apply Today. www.fellowships.gatech.edu

Contact Dr. Karen Adams (karen.adams@provost.gatech.edu) if you wish feedback comments on your application essay Deadline: mid-December, 2010

UPCOMING SCHOLARSHIP COMPETITIONS FOR SOPHOMORES AND JUNIORS GOLDWATER SCHOLARSHIP Open to sophomores and juniors in STEM areas with 3.9 GPA and plans to do a doctorate in research. Georgia Tech can nominate 4 students, and there is an internal competition to determine who will be nominated. www.act.org/goldwater Campus contact: Dr. Karen Adams (karen.adams@provost.gatech.edu) – contact her by November Campus deadline: January 12, 2011

UDALL SCHOLARSHIP Open to sophomores and juniors who have been working with environmental programs and who plan a career related to environmental work. www.udall.gov Campus contact: Dr. Karen Adams (karen.adams@provost.gatech.edu) – contact her by November Campus deadline: February 2011

TRUMAN SCHOLARSHIP Open to juniors only. Must be active in public service and plan a career in public service. $30,000 scholarship ($7500 for senior year and rest for graduate study). www.truman.gov Campus contact: Mr. Paul Hurst (paul.hurst@provost.gatech.edu)– contact him in early fall Campus deadline: January 2011

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FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL STUDENTS AND FACULTY Use the community of science funding database to find scholarships, internships, and postdocs!

http://fundingopps.cos.com/ Must be connected with the Georgia Tech computer system to access.

Graduate Program in Biomedical Engineering Research Emphasis: Biomedical Imaging • Biomedical Implants and Devices • Cardiac Electrophysiology • Computational Multiscale Modeling • Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Medicine •

ADVERTISE ON THE PIONEER! www.thepioneer.gatech.edu/ sponsorship

Program Highlights: Strong interdisciplinary research and training • Master’s and Ph.D. degree programs • Competitive stipends and tuition assistance •

• Strong

collaborations with Medicine, Dentistry & Joint Health Sciences

• •

Exceptional research mentors Excellent professional placement

For more information: http://www.uab.edu/engineering/departments-research/be or https://app.applyyourself.com/?id=uab-grad

Holy Crap! Get Your Ph.D. From Three Universities At Once www.bme.gatech.edu/pku.shtml Page 9

Graduate School

from Page 1

Some important questions to ask are: Do I want an all-around good school where I can explore different areas to find what I like, or do I already know what area(s) I want to work in? What schools should I apply to considering my background (e.g. grades, research experience, etc.)? Do I have enough safety schools to ensure that I will be able to go somewhere? Each school has its own strengths and weaknesses.

Talking with professors and graduate students can definitely help you narrow down your choices. It may be hard to imagine, but they were once applying to grad schools, too!

2. GREs and Transcripts: Once you have your list of schools, you will need to start sorting out each school's requirements. Does the school require official transcripts? What department code do I need to send my GRE scores to?

Should I send my MCAT score as well? It is better to get these done as soon as possible since these do take time to process. You do not want to miss the deadline just because you couldn't get these in on time!

3. Recommendations: These are more important than you realize: they can set you apart from other applicants or they can get your application thrown out of the pile. Schools are looking for individuals who have the potential to be strong, independent researchers. Your recommenders should be able to speak to your ability to work in a professional environment. They should have enough experience with you to know about your leadership abilities, work ethic, and research capacity.

Protip 1: The key to receiving a detailed and well thought recommendation is to being courteous by giving your recommenders plenty of time. They are busier than you and appreciate it when students respect their time. Ask those who are familiar with your work, your attitude and can speak of who you are in a positive light!

4. The Application Process: Streamlining the process can improve your efficiency. Many of the schools ask for similar topics in their essays; therefore if you have a well-written essay for one school, you can easily re-use it (with minor editing, of course) for other schools. Be prepared to provide all the information a school requests; this may include absurd

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requests such as listing every course textbook you have used in your college career grouped by subject! Once you have gotten one application submitted, you’ll find that the rest will soon follow.

Planning ahead helps in avoiding technical issues so be aware of deadlines and processing times (e.g. GRE scores, application handling, etc.). Some schools actually process applications on a rolling basis, so submitting your application right before the “official” deadline would be a bad decision.

If there is anything on your application that might raise some eyebrows, address it!

You want the reader to know the reason behind that 'D' or low GRE score rather than having them guess at it.

5. Fellowships: I know, more applications, but these are just as important! Fellowship announcements come right before the final decision deadline, which means if you get one of these you have some leverage as to which graduate program you want to attend.

Common ones to apply to include NSF GRFP and NDSEG; aim high: the sky’s the limit!

6. The Wait: Each school does their interview process slightly differently, and you want to be prepared! Start researching programs and possible labs you might be interested in. For some programs, you should take the initiative to contact professors individually since the professors themselves have to wade through the applicant pool to find potential graduate students. If you take the initiative to contact labs you are interested in, you can sell yourself better and possibly earn yourself a spot in the program.

However, remember that there is nothing worse than interviewing with a professor whose research you do not fully understand! Meanwhile, relax! You have gotten through one major challenge and you should be prepared for what is (hopefully) ahead!

7. Interviews: If possible, you should take a lighter course load during spring semester to make up for the traveling you will (hopefully) be doing. The most important thing to remember during interviews is that while you are trying to prove that you are good enough for the school, they are also trying to show you that their program is worth your time. Take note of which labs have shown interest in you to gauge the professor's interest in you.

Another thing to note is that not everyone going into interviews is at the same level; you may have all gotten invited, but interviewers are looking for different things from each applicant to make sure they are a good “fit” for their department.

A general tip is to be kind, courteous and professional at all times during the interview process. When talking to different professors, make sure you are enthusiastic, positive and knowledgeable of his/her background and research interests.

It also wouldn’t hurt to read the abstracts of their recently published paper to be up to date!

But most of all, STOP and take a look at the school, the program, the professors, and the students. Find out if the school is the right “fit” for you so that you do not have to find out when it is too late! It is important that you ask the graduate students and professors the tough questions. Are students excited to be there? Are the professors interested in you? Does the program see you as another number or as a person? What is the mentoring style of each professor? What do current students like and dislike about their labs? What are the expectations of different professors? Can you fit in with the lab culture of the labs you are interested in?

Protip 2: A bonus for interviews is the ability to rack up frequent flyer miles. If you have a preferred airline, you can arrange flights on that airline (even if another flight has been suggested) if you contact the graduate program coordinator or travel agency.

8. The Decision: If you are lucky, you will have several top schools that will be waiting for your response. Although it may be tempting to just pick a highly-ranked school, remember that graduate school is defined by the research you do, not merely by the school’s name. Good labs exist at lowerranked schools. Likewise, not all labs at highly-ranked schools are equal. To sum up, you are going to spend the next 4 to 6 years of your life in a place and devote some of the best years of your life to a project, so make sure you go somewhere that you can develop as a researcher and a person while working on something you are passionate about!

If you make it this far, congratulations!

You are about to start the next (more wonderful) phase of your life. But until then, the best thing you can do is to be prepared for what’s ahead.

Ted Chen is an alumnus of the Coulter department and a current graduate student at the University of Washington.

Research Series: The Basics How To Get In And The Laboratory Hierarchy

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hat is research? There are many ways to describe what research is: exhaustive examination, studious inquiry or even knowledge expansion. Like the wide umbrella of research, undergraduate research may take an entire range of forms.

Before we delve into the intricacies and specifications of what a BME laboratory is, we first need to join one.

Simply shooting a professor an email asking for a spot on his team will not suffice. “Because there are so many undergraduates and so few research experiences, the students who show that extra dedication get that extra push.” Manu Platt, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University and head of the repair, regeneration, and remodeling laboratory explains that second-year undergraduate researcher, Binbin Chen applied when Platt had no undergraduate openings. “I took Binbin just because he kept coming to see me about working in my lab.” Such a demonstration of dedication and diligence showed Platt that Chen would be a great addition to his research team.

As far as the initial correspondence goes, try to sell yourself. A short resume with past experiences, jobs, activities, leadership positions, high school GPA, and any relevant courses taken or in progress

are just some of the things you can include.

Also, an objective, specific and insightful statement on why you want to join a particular team is a must. “If I’m getting ten of these [resumes] and it’s just ‘Hi. I’m interested in working in your lab’ then I really don’t know the kids.” says Platt. The goal is to distinguish yourself from other students. If the professor does not respond, send another email or try to see the professor in person. This effort is a measure of the worth you place on a professor’s laboratory, which in turn is a measure of your worth to that research team.

Of course there are other ways to join a laboratory. If you have had previous contact with a professor through a class, you may be able inquire about his/her research and available positions after class or during office hours. Other options include contacting friends currently doing research or Paul Fincannon, the BME undergraduate advisor, concerning available positions. As mentioned above, submitting a resume will communicate your skill set and show the professor that you take research seriously.

The next stage is an interview. Prepare some answers to questions that are frequently asked, such as, “Why do you want to join this laboratory?” or “What kind of research are you interested in

By Mike Mallow doing?” Practice these answers with a friend. This will keep you from getting nervous during the actual interview.

Now that you have been accepted onto a research team, who are the people with whom you will be working with, and how is it organized? “There’s a normal hierarchy.

You have a P.I., or principle investigator, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and then the undergrads working underneath them. You have two to three undergrads per mentor, either a grad student or a post doc.” says Alexandr Nizkorodov, a fourth year working in the Boyan laboratory on orthopedic and bone regeneration. “The grad students manage the research while the undergrads follow or sometimes even venture off independently into some kind of project.”

This is the general structure of most labs with slight deviations.

In this first installation of a monthly research series, the basics of joining a laboratory and the laboratory hierarchy have been explored. Next issue’s installation will detail the wide variety of work undergraduate researchers participate in and what happens once you overcome that initial hurdle of joining a laboratory.

Mike Mallow is an undergraduate student in the Coulter Department.

Undergraduates Alexandr Nizkorodov (left) and Binbin Chen (right). (Photos: William Sessions)

Biomedical Research & Opportunities Society Upcoming Meetings: Graduate Student Panel: Nov 1, 7 PM, Whitaker 1103 How To Get Into Research: Nov 8, 7 PM, Whitaker 1103

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Faculty Spotlight: Manu Platt, Ph.D. His Road to Becoming the Coulter Department’s Newest Faculty Member the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical EngiJ oining neering at Georgia Tech and Emory University in January of 2009, Manu Platt. Ph.D., is currently the Coulter Department's newest faculty member. His research is focused on cardiovascular tissue remodeling in sickle cell disease and in patients with HIV and developing regenerative medicine approaches using bone marrow derived stem cells for tissue repair.

Platt received his B.S. in Biology at Morehouse College in 2001.

As a senior undergraduate, he was invited to participate in research at the Georgia Tech & Emory Center for the Engineering of Living Tissue (GTEC) working with Robert Nerem, Ph.D. This propelled Platt to pursue a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech, which he received in 2006. Under the advisement of Hanjoong Jo, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering and cardiology, Platt's thesis investigated the role of blood flow mechanics in differential regulation of cathepsin enzymes and their inhibitor cystatin C in the endothelial cells that line the arterial walls; this work has important implications on plaque development in arteries that leads to cardiovascular disease.

Those who now know Platt might be surprised to learn that he did not intend to become a professor throughout his undergraduate and graduate career. Instead, Platt's goal was to work at NASA performing biological research; he had interned at three different NASA sites during his undergraduate career.

The turning point occurred during the summer of 2005 while Platt interned at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas where he was trying to lyophilize (freeze dry) mammalian cells. In the wake of the Columbia disaster in 2003, NASA’s space program shifted focus towards unmanned vehicles and the Mars landing.

This left a nearly nonexistent life science workforce. “I realized that while there was some level of freedom, there is still the possibility that the government can redirect your research agenda,” said Platt.

This prompted Platt to become a professor instead and pursue an academic postdoctoral position. Under the suggestion of Nerem, former director of IBB and current director of GTEC, Platt applied to a faculty position with the Coulter Department.

He received the position, but the department was in support of his decision to first relocate to a postdoctoral position with Douglas Lauffenburger, Ph.D., and Linda Griffith, Ph.D., at MIT's Biological Engineering department from 2006 to 2008. Here he switched fields to orthopedic tissue engineering, biomaterials, stem cells, mathematical modeling, signal transduction, and systems biology.

Platt returned in January of 2009 to start the Platt Lab for Repair, Regeneration, and Remodeling at Georgia Tech. He explains that starting a laboratory from scratch was a lot of work and fun, but also tricky. New professors are given a generous budget to buy the equipment needed to get their lab off the ground. “It's fun because you can buy the things that you really want that maybe the labs you were in as a graduate student didn't have,” said Platt. “But the trickiest part was the little things and the disposables, beakers, graduated cylinders, even paper towels” which are often taken for granted. Starting a lab also required a less than glamorous amount of paperwork.

A second challenge that Platt faced was building his team. As he explains, a new professor has no track record and many first year graduate students only strive to work with well-known superstar professors. On top of that, the point of the department is not just

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By Eric Huang

to get students; those students have to trust the professor, the project and “there has to be this connection.” “So my first year, I was worried that I wasn't going to get a graduate student,” said Platt.

Platt also recalls the correlation of nearing grant deadlines to his own professors’ stress levels during his own years as a graduate student. “The big fear was the grant writing part,” admitted Platt.

As a recipient of a grant from the Georgia Cancer Coalition and a recent grant from the NIH New Innovator Award, Platt has quite obviously overcome this fear.

For all the initial challenges associated with professorship, Platt was and is motivated by the opportunity to create knowledge and apply it towards improving human health and medicine. The freedom in academia to pursue your research dreams, research with a more directed agenda in industry or government funded labs like NASA, mentoring students, and the chance to travel and share big ideas with other people at conferences and at Tech all helped to draw him into this position.

To aspiring students, Platt gives a few words of advice that have brought him to where he is now.

First, work hard and play hard. “It's very easy to burn out at top level institutions when the focus is on the best grades, etc.

Another way to say this is, don't just look at the finish line but enjoy the journey. But if you play too hard, the work always suffers.”

Second, if you get an opportunity take it. “I am thankful for the many scary opportunities that have brought me here that I didn't really think would happen. As I always say, don't tell yourself no, let other people tell you no.”

Eric Huang is an undergraduate student in the Coulter Department.

Manu Platt, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Coulter department. (Photo: Debika Mitra)