October 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: Student Spotlight: Andrea Barrett, Hertz Scholar

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Attention Pre-Health Students: Questions To Ask Yourself Today!

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Alumni Spotlight: Christina Rostad, M.D.

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Upcoming Seminars Events, Opportunities, Scholarships, and More!

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Ask An Alum!

Interviewing Strategies From BME Alumni

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2010 Career Fairs: A Reflection

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Faculty Spotlight: Michelle Laplaca, Ph.D. Traumatic Brain Surgery Research

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October 2010

Volume V, Issue 2

New Biosensing Technology Could Facilitate Personalized Medicine

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he multi-welled microplate, long a standard tool in biomedical research and diagnostic laboratories, could become a thing of the past thanks to new electronic biosensing technology developed by a team of microelectronics engineers and biomedical scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Essentially arrays of tiny test tubes, microplates have been used for decades to simultaneously test multiple samples for their responses to chemicals, living organisms or antibodies. Fluorescence or color changes in labels associated with compounds on the plates can...

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The new electronic microplate is shown in front of the technology it aims to replace, the conventional microplate. (Photo: GTRC / GIT )

Equipped For Your Needs: The Nanotechnology Research Center

And More!

By John Toon

By Willa Ni

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Front entrance to the NRC with a row of windows that look to the inorganic cleanrooms. (Photo: Debika Mitra)

long row of yellow tinted windows look onto a floor with stations of equipment amongst which figures clad in white protective gear pace. Welcome to the Nanotechnology Research Center (NRC). Those mysterious figures are actually properly dressed in gowns to protect both themselves and the inorganic cleanroom in which they are walking. Other than inorganic cleanrooms, the NRC is also equipped with organic cleanrooms, which will prove the NRC to be a valuable neighbor to the researchers housed in the nearby Biotechnology Quad.

As Jie Xu, a research scientist at Georgia Tech, explains, the NRC houses three organic cleanrooms, two biosafety level 1 rooms (BSL-1), and six biosafety level 2 rooms (BSL-2). Since their opening last spring, these rooms have...

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

By You!

“Someone totally stole my cube and cylinder!”

- Lying BMED 2300 Student “The only reason why I go to biomechanics lecture is to whack my roommate with swimming noodles.”

- Sword fighting In 3400 “…………………………………………….Phew!”

- Just Left Paul’s Office “I saw a cylinder rotating around another cylinder and was automatically reminded of the Navier-Stokes equation.”

- Totally Failed Biotransport

“COMMON DEROGATORY TERMS IN ANY BME LAB AT GEORGIA TECH.”

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 Andrew Lei Timothy Lin Daniel Siqueira da Silva Benjamin Thomas Collaborators Lucy Tucker Karen Adams Mike Mallow Paul Fincannon Rachel Stewart Sally Gerrish Subhendu De Jennifer Kimble Nancy Kim Megan McDevitt Colleen Mitchell Editors Fadrika Prather Gopi Patel Adrianne Proeller Nida Dharani Shannon Sullivan Kanav Jain John Toon Laura Kish Abby Vogel Shalv Madhani Ayesha Patel *Executive Officers Elina Sarmah

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More at: www.thatssobme.gatech.edu

A Couple of Words From the Editors in Chief

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s everyone is getting back into the stride of this semester and the campus is once again bustling with students, The Pioneer is proud to welcome its new staff members! After the most successful recruitment season in the history of The Pioneer, the Editors-in-Chief were left with very hard decisions.

After thoughtful consideration, we welcome an extremely talented and diverse group of writers, copy editors, layout editors, photographers, and webmasters. We sincerely look forward to working with everyone!

This previous month was highlighted by the Georgia Tech Career Fair and the Biotechnology Career Fair. We wish the eager students the best of luck in finding internships, co-ops, and jobs. To the many companies that came to campus, we thank you for enhancing our Tech experience.

As usual, The Pioneer looks forward to your comments and suggestions, which can be submitted via our website: www.thepioneer.gatech.edu.

We also thank our supporters throughout the biotechnology community.

Even as we steadily progress forward, we look back and realize that our achievements would be impossible without you. For that you have our gratitude.

Yours sincerely,

Chun Yong and Willa Ni Editors in Chief The Pioneer

Student Spotlight: Andrea Barrett Georgia Tech President Scholar Receives 2010 Hertz Fellowship

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s our most recent graduating class begins their lives after Georgia Tech undergrad, it is important to look back and recognize excellence. The achievements of our seniors year after year never cease to amaze and reaffirm the limitless potential we all have. Andrea Barrett is one such senior who has accomplished much throughout her time at Georgia Tech and is still reaching higher and higher.

Selected from over 600 applicants, Barrett is a winner of the Hertz Fellowship, a $250,000 award for graduate school lasting up to five years. She first heard about the fellowship while working in Dr. May Wang’s laboratory. Wang suggested she apply for the fellowship; though skeptical at first, Andrea applied and after a lengthy application cycle and interview process, became one of the only fifteen winners in the country.

She attributes this prestigious honor to a number of things, but starts with her research. Barrett spent her summers researching at various institutions such as Harvard Medical School, Osaka University in Japan, and the National Cancer Institute, in addition to working in Wang’s laboratory during the year. Doing research throughout the country, she says, really helped her since she was able to network with a lot of different people and through this, obtain most of her recommendations outside of Georgia Tech. Maintaining excellent grades and writing solid essays were also integral in obtaining this fellowship.

In addition to a Hertz Fellow, Andrea is also a President’s Scholar, a Fleet Scholar, and a Goldwater Scholar. On top of these prestigious honors, Barrett also finds time to do activities outside research that she enjoys. She is involved in dance and orchestra, as well as honor societies such as Tau Beta Pi (the engineering honor society).

For all the new doors opened for her, Barrett maintains a strong appreciation for the BME department. “The BME department and Georgia Tech give a lot of opportunities, and if you want to go for it, you need to make the most of those opportunities and realize you will get rewarded for all the hard work you put in.” She says that all of the PBL and teamwork required in BME prepared her and her fellow students to become strong presenters and engineers. This translates well to lab work where teamwork as well as individual strengths are necessary.

Now on her way to Duke University where she will pursue a Ph.D. in computational biology and bioinformatics, Barrett, hoping to do either post-doctoral work or go into industry, has good advice to offer to current BME students: “Work hard. It’s tough, but keep your eyes on your goal. Get involved in research early so you maximize your opportunities [such as getting publications or conference presentations]”. She also recommends that students network with each other as having a good group of friends helps in academics, laboratory work, as well as

By Karan Patel

Andrea Barrett (left) with May Wang, Ph.D. (right).

(Photo: GTRC / GIT )

having a good team later on for senior design.

But the most important advice Barrett wishes to impart on those wishing to be successful is this: “Never underestimate what you can do. Believe in yourself and you never know where you will go.”

Karan Patel is an undergraduate student in the Coulter Department.

Buzz on Biotechnology

By Colleen O. Mitchell

High School Open House

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eorgia Tech’s largest graduate student organization, Bioengineering and Bioscience Unified Graduate Students (BBUGS), with the support of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB), hosted its annual Buzz on Biotechnology High School Open House.

Open to all Atlanta area high school students, parents and teachers, this year’s event drew a record of over 400 attendees from 56 different schools. Visitors came to engage in a wide variety of hands-on, innovative science and engineering demonstrations such as “Edible Cells,” “Virtual Stomach Surgery,” “Acids and Bases,” “Electromyography Recordings of

Muscles” and “Protein Folding.” They were able to tour the state-of-the-art laboratories in the IBB, which included neuroengineering, robotics, atomic force microscopy and biomedical engineering laboratories. Many guests also attended bioengineering and stem cell seminars and even had the opportunity to take Georgia Tech campus tours and talk with an admissions representative. The day wrapped up with the always-popular “Egg Drop” contest to find the safest, and lightest, “egg helmet” by dropping all those constructed throughout the day from the atrium’s third floor.

The open house event was created in

2003 by BBUGS to reach out to area high school students to indulge their curiosity by introducing them to the world of science and engineering in a fun and accessible way.

Colleen Mitchell is the Projects Coordinator from the IBB and a collaborator of The Pioneer.

Interested in BBUGS? Join today! www.bbugs.gatech.edu

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Attention All Pre-Health Students!

By Jennifer Kimble

Ask Yourself The Following:

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very day I see at least one BME prehealth student during my appointment times. Usually, the student wants to know if she/he is on track. Here are some questions to ask yourself: Am I doing well in my classes?

Many Tech students are under the impression that a 2.8 GPA will get them into medical school. Yes, medical and other professional schools recognize that Tech is an academically challenging institution, but our average GPA for accepted students to health profession (medical, pharmacy, dental, etc.) schools is 3.4-3.6. Anecdotally, I will say the average accepted GPA to medical school for BME students is around a 3.6.

Students also say that Tech is too hard and is ruining their chances of acceptance.

The percentage of students who fall into a statistically competitive category (GPA of 3.5 and MCAT of 30) during an application cycle hovers around a 33%. This is about 13% higher than many other schools in which I have worked.

If you are struggling academically, realize that there is no shame in asking for help from your professors and academic advisors to learn about academic support services at Tech. Asking for help is hard for many of our high achieving students, especially freshmen.

Many students also think that they’ll make an “A” on the final even though they have been making “C” and “D” grades throughout the semester. I always ask, “If you are able to make an “A” on a test in this class, why haven’t you been doing it all semester?” The same question applies to your GPA. Do people REALLY know me?

Remember, you are going through an extremely competitive application process.

A letter that says, “Susie was a student in my organic chemistry class. She seemed nice. Please let me know if you have any

questions” is not going to get you accepted. You need letters from evaluators who have seen you create a study group, display classroom maturity, learn for learning’s sake, do research, and have strong interpersonal skills. Schools put a lot of weight on letters. Remember, you are applying to professional school with other students who made good grades, had good test scores, shadowed, volunteered in the community, were involved on campus, did research, etc. How are YOU going to stand out? Your faculty helped me create a “Tips on Getting Your Instructors to Know You” document on the Office of Pre-Health TSquare site.

Have I challenged myself to make sure I really want to be a doctor (dentist, pharmacist, etc.)?

Professional schools do not like to see applicants who have never shadowed or had healthcare exposures, but say that they want to be a doctor, dentist, or pharmacist.

As one student told me, “I was used to seeing blood from watching medical shows on TV, but when I could smell it, the blood actually made me woozy.” Also, being exposed to sick people may not be enjoyable to everyone. How do you know that you want to be around that all day with exposure in field?

Whenever the economy goes down, people flock to graduate/law/professional schools. You don’t want to look like someone who says, “Well, I have the prereqs for dental school, so I guess I’ll apply for that.” You want to look like this is a well thought out decision.

Being involved with Student Hospital Connections (www.gtshc.weebly.com) and networking is a good start. The BMED 4803 class allows you the opportunity to get some emergency department exposure at Grady Memorial Hospital. Pre-dental students will find volunteering at Ben Massell Dental Clinic to be beneficial. Our pre-pharm students enjoy being a pharmacy technician at Stamps Health Center.

Diverse patient population?

Guess what? Your patients aren’t going to be cookie cutter versions of you. They might not speak English; they might not have insurance; they might have criminal records or be alcoholics or drug abusers.

How are you going to relate or see them as human beings and not charity cases? Get out of the Tech bubble and work with humanity. MOVE (www.move.gatech.edu) has a Medical Assistance branch. Several student organizations on campus also focus on community service.

Am I working on my interpersonal skills?

I see too many applicants to professional schools who lack social skills.

Many of our students are shy and provide monosyllabic responses. They avoid eye contact and have stone-like facial expressions. On paper, they are strong applicants. At interviews, schools ask themselves, “Will our patients feel comfortable disclosing personal information to this candidate?” Coming across as shy or awkward will blow an interview.

Join campus organizations where you don’t know anyone. When attending a workshop, sit by someone you don’t know and introduce yourself. Work on looking at people in the eye and displaying appropriate facial expressions. As I tell students during the interview workshop, being a good interviewee is about breaking bad habits and strengthening good ones.

Work on that skill set starting your freshmen year.

For more advice on being a pre-health student at Georgia Tech, please attend a Mandatory Pre-Health Workshop! More information may be found on the next page.

Jennifer Kimble is the pre-health advisor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a collaborator of The Pioneer.

Pre-health? Join the American Medical Student Association at Georgia Tech for medical school admissions visits, leadership and volunteer opportunities, mentorship programs, international experiences, conferences, and much more!

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Alumni Spotlight: Christina Rostad Recent Graduate Of Emory University School of Medicine

By Nancy Kim

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hristina Rostad is an alumnus from Georgia Tech currently doing her residency at Emory Hospital in Pediatrics. Rostad entered the Wallace H. Coulter of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University when the Coulter Department was just founded. As an undergraduate, Rostad participated in the Undergraduate Research Scholars Program in Dr. Mark Prausnitz’s Drug Delivery Lab. Research enriched her experience at Georgia Tech and made her a competitive medical school applicant. Her research experience even extended to her residency application, in which she explained her undergraduate research to her interviewers.

Entering the Emory University School of Medicine, Rostad continued conducting research in pediatric oncology. In addition, she took a class in Medical Spanish and International Health, which later allowed her to do a rotation in rural Guatemala. Rostad also volunteered at the local non-profit clinic located in inner-city Atlanta, The Good Samaritan Health Center, a provider of healthcare to underserved populations. Volunteering helped Rostad “realize the positive impact it [volunteering] could have on patients, regardless of where [she] was or how much training [she] had.”

Looking back at her memories from medical school, an incident as a second year medical student in the emergency room especially stood out. In the afternoon, a trauma victim who had stopped breathing was brought into her station. A nurse came up to Rostad and asked if she could give the patient positive pressure ventilation with a big valve mask. “I felt like I was literally giving him his breath to keep him alive.”

Rostad finds her career as a physician challenging as well as rewarding through her everyday opportunities to learn something new and touch patients’ lives. “Practicing medicine is full of amazing moments that enables you to be a lifeline for people in need,” she affirms.

To current pre-med students, Rostad encourages them to garner clinical and leadership experience, as well as volunteer in few organizations rather than making small contributions to many clubs. She also recommends investigating different types of career options in the medical field beforehand so students can make informative decisions on which career path to take.

Christina Rostad, alumnus of the Coulter department and recent graduate of the Emory University School of Medicine. (Photo: Christina Rostad)

To survive Tech and medical school, Rostad emphasizes sleeping every night, eating three meals per day, spending time with friends and family, and calling your mom to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Nancy Kim is an undergraduate student in the Coulter Department.

Meet Your Pre-Health Advisor!

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.

October 6 - 4.30 PM, SSC President’s Suite A November 1 - 6:00 PM, SSC Clary Theater December 13 - 4:00 PM, SSC Clary Theater For more information, contact Jennifer Kimble at: jennifer.kimble@carnegie.gatech.edu Christina Rostad performed one of her medical rotations in Guatemala during medical school. (Photo: Chirstina Rostad)

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New Bio-Technology

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signal the presence of particular proteins or gene sequences.

The researchers hope to replace these microplates with modern microelectronics technology, including disposable arrays containing thousands of electronic sensors connected to powerful signal processing circuitry. If they're successful, this new electronic biosensing platform could help realize the dream of personalized medicine by making possible real-time disease diagnosis – potentially in a physician’s office – and by helping select individualized therapeutic approaches.

“This technology could help facilitate a new era of personalized medicine,” said John McDonald, chief research scientist at the Ovarian Cancer Institute in Atlanta and a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Biology. “A device like this could quickly detect in individuals the gene mutations that are indicative of cancer and then determine what would be the optimal treatment. There are a lot of potential applications for this that cannot be done with current analytical and diagnostic technology.”

Fundamental to the new biosensing system is the ability to electronically detect markers that differentiate between healthy and diseased cells. These markers could be differences in proteins, mutations in DNA or even specific levels of ions that exist at different amounts in cancer cells.

Researchers are finding more and more differences like these that could be

exploited to create fast and inexpensive electronic detection techniques that don't rely on conventional labels.

“We have put together several novel pieces of nanoelectronics technology to create a method for doing things in a very different way than what we have been doing,” said Muhannad Bakir, an associate professor in Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

“What we are creating is a new generalpurpose sensing platform that takes advantage of the best of nanoelectronics and three-dimensional electronic system integration to modernize and add new applications to the old microplate application. This is a marriage of electronics and molecular biology.”

The three-dimensional sensor arrays are fabricated using conventional low-cost, top-down microelectronics technology.

Though existing sample preparation and loading systems may have to be modified, the new biosensor arrays should be compatible with existing work flows in research and diagnostic labs.

“We want to make these devices simple to manufacture by taking advantage of all the advances made in microelectronics, while at the same time not significantly changing usability for the clinician or researcher,” said Ramasamy Ravindran, a graduate research assistant in Georgia Tech’s Nanotechnology Research Center and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

A key advantage of the platform is that sensing will be done using low-cost,

Associate professor Muhannad Bakir (left), from Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, holds a prototype electronic microplate, while Professor John McDonald, from the School of Biology, holds an example of the conventional microprocessor. (Photo: GTRC / GIT )

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disposable components, while information processing will be done by reusable conventional integrated circuits connected temporarily to the array. Ultra-high density spring-like mechanically compliant connectors and advanced “through-silicon vias” will make the electrical connections while allowing technicians to replace the biosensor arrays without damaging the underlying circuitry.

Separating the sensing and processing portions allows fabrication to be optimized for each type of device, notes Hyung Suk Yang, a graduate research assistant also working in the Nanotechnology Research Center. Without the separation, the types of materials and processes that can be used to fabricate the sensors are severely limited.

The sensitivity of the tiny electronic sensors can often be greater than current systems, potentially allowing diseases to be detected earlier. Because the sample wells will be substantially smaller than those of current microplates – allowing a smaller form factor – they could permit more testing to be done with a given sample volume.

The technology could also facilitate use of ligand-based sensing that recognizes specific genetic sequences in DNA or messenger RNA. “This would very quickly give us an indication of the proteins that are being expressed by that patient, which gives us knowledge of the disease state at the point-of-care,” explained Ken Scarberry, a postdoctoral fellow in McDonald's lab.

So far, the researchers have demonstrated a biosensing system with silicon nanowire sensors in a 16-well device built on a one-centimeter by onecentimeter chip. The nanowires, just 50 by 70 nanometers, differentiated between ovarian cancer cells and healthy ovarian epithelial cells at a variety of cell densities.

Silicon nanowire sensor technology can be used to simultaneously detect large numbers of different cells and biomaterials without labels. Beyond that versatile technology, the biosensing platform could accommodate a broad range of other sensors, including technologies that may not exist yet. Ultimately, hundreds of thousands of different sensors could be included on each chip, enough to rapidly detect markers for a broad range of diseases.

“Our platform idea is really sensor agnostic,” said Ravindran. “It could be used with a lot of different sensors that people are developing. It would give us an opportunity to bring together a lot of

Graduate research assistant Ramasamy Ravindran observes postdoctoral fellow Kenneth Scarberry as he uses bioconjugate techniques to bind ligands to silicon nanowires. (Photo: GTRC / GIT )

different kinds of sensors in a single chip.”

Genetic mutations can lead to a large number of different disease states that can affect a patient's response to disease or medication, but current labeled sensing methods are limited in their ability to detect large numbers of different markers simultaneously.

Mapping single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), variations that account for approximately 90 percent of human genetic variation, could be used to determine a patient's propensity for a disease, or their likelihood of benefitting from a particular intervention. The new biosensing technology could enable caregivers to produce and analyze SNP maps at the point-of-care.

Though many technical challenges remain, the ability to screen for thousands of disease markers in real-time has biomedical scientists like McDonald excited.

“With enough sensors in there, you could theoretically put all possible combinations on the array,” he said. “This has not been considered possible until now because making an array large enough to detect them all with current technology is probably not feasible.

But with microelectronics technology, you can easily include all the possible combinations, and that changes things.”

Papers describing the biosensing device were presented at the Electronic Components and Technology Conference and the International Interconnect Technology conference in June 2010. The research has been supported in part by the National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN), Georgia Tech's Integrative BioSystems Institute (IBSI) and the Semiconductor Research Corporation.

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

Enjoyed This Article?

Keep up with more groundbreaking news at: www.gatech.edu/newsroom

Systems Biology of Complex Traits Topics Facial Expressions: “Facing up to the Genetics of Complex Traits” Flies: “Phenotypic Effects of Regulatory Variation in Drosophila” Voles: “Molecular Neurobiology of Social Bonding” Finches: “The Dynamic Interplay of Genes and Social Life: Learning from Songbirds” Dogs: “Unnatural Selection in Dogs: A GenomeWide Scan for Substrates of Human Tinkering” Lunch and beverages provided throughout workshop!

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Recent Coulter Department Publications The Pioneer congratulates the following faculty, post-docs, and students for the following recent research publications.

Acta Biomaterialia Long-term toughness of photopolymerizable (meth)acrylate networks in aqueous environments.

Smith KE, Trusty P, Wan B, Gall K Annals of Biomedical Engineering Design principles for problem-driven learning laboratories in biomedical engineering education.

Newstetter WC, Behravesh E, Nersessian NJ, Fasse BB Annals of Plastic Surgery Alginate Microencapsulation Technology for the Percutaneous Delivery of Adipose-Derived Stem Cells.

Moyer HR, Kinney RC, Singh KA, Williams JK, Schwartz Z, Boyan BD Antioxidants & Redox Signaling A model of redox kinetics implicates the thiol proteome in cellular hydrogen peroxide responses.

Adimora NJ, Jones DP, Kemp ML Biotechnology and Bioengineering Aggregation of bovine anterior cruciate ligament fibroblasts or marrow stromal cells promotes aggrecan production.

Lim JJ, Scott L Jr, Temenoff JS Blood Building better fibrin knob mimics: an investigation of synthetic fibrin knob peptide structures in solution and their dynamic binding with fibrinogen/fibrin holes.

Stabenfeldt SE, Gossett JJ, Barker TH Journal of Biotechnology Automated piecewise power-law modeling of biological systems.

Machina A, Ponosov A, Voit EO Tissue Engineering Part A Runx2 overexpression in bone marrow stromal cells accelerates bone formation in critical-sized femoral defects.

Wojtowicz AM, Templeman KL, Hutmacher DW, Guldberg RE, GarcĂ­a AJ

Journal of Controlled Release Biomaterial adjuvant effect is attenuated by anti-inflammatory drug delivery or material selection.

Norton LW, Park J, Babensee JE

Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging Functional connectivity in blood oxygenation level-dependent and cerebral blood volume-weighted resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging in the rat brain.

Magnuson M, Majeed W, Keilholz SD Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences Fabrication of dissolving polymer microneedles for controlled drug encapsulation and delivery: Bubble and pedestal microneedle designs.

Chu LY, Choi SO, Prausnitz MR The Journal of Virology Respiratory syncytial virus induces host RNA stress granules to facilitate viral replication.

Lindquist ME, Lifland AW, Utley TJ, Santangelo PJ, Crowe JE Jr Magnetic Resonance Imaging Adaptive smoothing of high angular resolution diffusionweighted imaging data by generalized cross-validation improves Q-ball orientation distribution function reconstruction.

Metwalli NS, Hu XP, Carew JD Mathematical Biosciences Mathematical modeling of monolignol biosynthesis in Populus xylem.

Lee Y, Voit EO NeuroImage Effect of hemodynamic variability on Granger causality analysis of fMRI. Deshpande G, Sathian K, Hu X Spatiotemporal dynamics of low frequency BOLD fluctuations in rats and humans.

Majeed W, Magnuson M, Hasenkamp W, Schwarb H, Schumacher EH, Barsalou L, Keilholz SD

Do Research in China.

Apply for the CURE Program!

Year-long undergraduate program of collaborative biomedical research at Peking University and Georgia Tech/Emory University. Airfare, housing, and a $2000 stipend provided!

Holy Crap! Get Your Ph.D. From Three Universities At Once www.bme.gatech.edu/pku.shtml Page 8

Application forms are available in the BME Academic Office. Deadline is November 5.

Nano Center

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acquired an impressive number of equipment that is now available to members of Georgia Tech. Starting from the most basic, a locker is provided for users to store personal items before entering the gowning room. All basic supporting equipment, such as autoclaves, centrifuges, balances, and pipettes, are provided in BSL-1 and BSL-2. This area allows for sample preparation.

Neighboring cleanrooms contain a variety of other equipment. For example, an x-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS) is available to “study the surface

A typical gowning room for organic cleanrooms in the Nanotechnology Research Center. (Photo: Debika Mitra)

composition of materials.” Xu explains that the XPS can be used to study biocompatibility in implantable medical devices.

Next up, a variable pressure scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images like a conventional SEM, with an added bonus: no gold splattering. The work around for nonconductive samples imaged by a conventional SEM is a layer of gold splattering. This variable pressure SEM no longer requires that step. Instead, it “can vent a little air inside,” which will absorb the electrons that sit on non-conducting samples and usually make them hard to image. This tiny amount of vented air versus the original vacuum also enables the imaging of biological samples that contain moisture.

A dynamic contact angle machine is also available to measure surface energies of materials.

A quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) tracks surface absorption and mass change, which allows the monitoring of binding of a variety of compounds such as antibodies and antigens. Values, which include dissociation rates, kinetic constants, and binding curves, can also be extracted with the QCM. Unlike the confocal microscopes in the IBB that might measure fluorescence, NRC has a laser confocal microscope that provides slices of the outer surface of samples.

Other equipment in the organic cleanrooms include: a UVspectroscope, a Microfab jetlab, Bioforce Nano eNabler, and a qNano nanoparticle characterizer.

The NRC’s inorganic cleanrooms also has the equipment to create masks. Xu explains that a 3D microelectrode array can actually be created in the inorganic

Various equipments in an inorganic cleanroom in the Nanotechnology Research Center. (Photo: Debika Mitra)

cleanrooms. Currently, members of industry are already using the inorganic cleanrooms to create proof-of-concept models for devices.

In order to access the organic cleanrooms and this equipment, contact Jie Xu at Jie.Xu@gtri.gatech.edu. Training will be provided on the equipment and cleanroom procedures. Georgia Tech and non-Georgia Tech users are charged at a rate of $20 per hour. A price cap at 120 hours exists for users from academia.

Willa Ni is an undergraduate student in the Coulter Department.

Be A Winner. Apply Today. www.fellowships.gatech.edu Page 9

IBB Special Seminar Jacques Galipeau, MD FRCP(C) October 5, 2010 - 11:00 AM IBB, Suddath Seminar Room “Enabling Experimental Cell Therapy in Georgia: A Defined Plan for First-in-human Clinical Trials at Emory” Dr. Jacques Galipeau is a Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Pediatrics & Medicine, Emory School of Medicine and is Co-Director of the Emory-Georgia Tech Center for Regenerative Therapy as well as Director of the Emory-Georgia Tech Cell Therapy Facility. Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar. Galipeau obtained his Medical Degree from the University of Montreal in 1988 and completed specialty training in internal medicine at the McGill-affiliated Jewish General Hospital. He went on to the Tufts-affiliated New England Medical Center in Boston for three years of subspecialty training in Hematology and Oncology followed by a two-year scientific fellowship in gene Therapy at St-Jude Children's research hospital in Memphis Tennessee. Galipeau is a Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar. Since 1997, he has initiated and developed a research program in cell and gene therapy of catastrophic illnesses including cancer, immune and cardiovascular disease.

BME SEMINAR Shryni Varghese, Ph.D. October 5, 2010 - 4:00 PM Whitaker 1214 “Engineering the Interface: From Biomaterials to Stem Cells” Interfaces play an important role on a wide spectrum of biological processes ranging from cellular functions to structure formation. In this talk, I will discuss how interfacial properties of materials can be harnessed to direct stem cell differentiation, expand mature cells, and introduce novel biomimetic functionalities into materials. In particular, we have developed tunable synthetic materials that provide unprecedented control over their interfacial hydrophobicity without altering the chemical, topographical, and mechanical properties of the material. Our studies show a profound effect of interfacial hydrophobicity on the adhesion, migration, cytoskeletal organization, and differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells. Interestingly, the same material properties can also be exploited to direct biomineralization and self-healing in synthetic systems.

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Bioengineering Seminar Series Denis Wirtz, Ph.D. October 14, 2010 - 11:00 AM IBB, Suddath Seminar Room “Cancer Cell Motility in 3D” Focal adhesions are large multi-protein clustered assemblies that form at the basal surface of cells placed on planar dishes which mediate cell signaling, force transduction, and adhesion with the underlying substratum. While much is known about the organization and function of focal adhesion components in 2-D systems, their organization and function in migrating cells within a more physiological three-dimensional (3-D) matrix is largely unknown. Quantitative live-cell microscopy shows that for cells fully embedded in a 3-D matrix focal adhesion proteins, including vinculin, paxillin, talin, a-actinin, zyxin, VASP, FAK, and p130Cas, do not cluster into appreciable aggregates, but are diffusively distributed in the cytoplasm of cells. Despite the absence of detectable focal adhesions, focal adhesion proteins still modulate cell motility but in a manner distinct from cells moving on conventional planar substrates. Rather, focal adhesion proteins in matrix-embedded cells regulate cell speed by affecting protrusion activity and matrix deformation, two processes that play no direct role in controlling 2-D cell speed. This study shows that actively growing membrane protrusions constitute a critical motility/matrix-traction module that drives cell motility in a 3-D matrix. We will discuss the implications of this work in cancer metastasis.

Paula Hammond, Ph.D. October 28, 2010 - 11:00 AM IBB, Suddath Seminar Room “Seminar Topic: To Be Announced” In 1994, Paula Hammond, Ph.D., was awarded the NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chemistry while performing postdoctoral research in the Harvard University Chemistry Deptartment as a member of the Whitesides research group. She has received numerous awards and was one of a group of key faculty members involved in starting the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies. Her research areas include Nanolayer Assemblies for Biomaterials, Delivery and Responsive Thin Films, and Linear-Dendritic Block Copolymers: Gene/Drug Delivery and Fundamental Assembly Behavior.

For more speakers, workshops, thesis proposals and defenses, visit:

www.ibb.gatech.edu/news-events

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

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

ADVERTISE ON THE PIONEER! www.thepioneer.gatech.edu/sponsorship Page 11

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Graduate Mentors Needed!

2011 Petit Scholars Program

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he Petit Undergraduate Research Scholars program provides an opportunity for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to mentor undergraduate scholars for valuable mentoring and project management experience while allowing them to further their research interests.

The 2011 program will run from January through December and the application review and interview process will take place in November of 2010.

Benefits to Mentors: • Graduate student mentors receive $750 for travel • Great CV builder, most employers prefer Ph.D.’s with management experience • Labs receive $2,000 for materials and supplies

Mentor Application Guidelines: 1. Meet with your advisor to ask if mentoring an undergraduate is a good fit for you and your lab 2. Ask your advisor to contact Colly Mitchell stating that they give their approval for you to submit a project for consideration

3. Submit project proposal by November 1, 2010 4. Notifications of selection will be made by mid November, 2010 Project Selection: • Only projects which allow undergraduates to work independently will be considered

• Projects will be reviewed and scored by a committee • A lab may submit more than one proposal, but each mentor can only submit one proposal For more information, please visit: www.petitscholars.gatech.edu

President’s Undergrad Research Award Congratulations to Fall 2010 BME Awardees!

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he President’s Undergraduate Research Award (PURA) funds student/faculty teams to support undergraduate student involvement in research at Georgia Tech. Salary awards of up to $1500 and travel awards of up to $1000 are awarded each semester to students submitting winning proposals for their research.

The Pioneer would like to congratulate the following BME students for receiving PURA for Fall 2010. Out of 69 winners, 22 awardees were from the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. Not only are these students participating in research in their own field, but many are also conducting research in chemical and biomolecular engineering, materials science and engineering, mechanical engineering, and biology.

For more information, please visit: www.undergradresearch.gatech.edu

Student Name / Mentor

Student Name / Mentor

Laura Bracaglia / Christopher Mark Haggerty

Jared Ries / John Oshinski

Katie Brasuk / Melissa Lambeth Kemp

Lauren Troxler / Ajit Yoganathan

Chelsea Britt / Barbara Boyan

Chun Yong / Athanassios Sambanis

Hieu Bui / Johnna Sue Temenoff

Shivani Bhatnagar / Kenneth Gall

Dana Buice / Ajit Yoganathan

Chris Jackman / Rudolph Lawson Gleason Jr

Benjamin Chism / Ajit Yoganathan

Rutwik Rath / Andres Garcia

Natalia Cuenca / Barbara Boyan

Ankita Tippur / Yury Chernoff

Frederick Damen / Xiaoping Hu Kalpi Desai / Ajit Yoganathan Eleanor Dehitta / Ravi Venkat Bellamkonda Abby Hill / Melissa Lambeth Kemp Samiya Hussain / Ajit Yoganathan Richard Huber / Ravi Venkat Bellamkonda Seth Koenig / Ravi Venkat Bellamkonda

Interested in PURA? The deadline for Spring 2011 PURA Awards is October 18.

Submit your applications now!

Questions? Contact:

PURA@gatech.edu

Janki Patel / Ravi Venkat Bellamkonda

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Ask An Alum! Interviewing Strategies Got An Upcoming Interview? Here’s Real Advice For You.

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would like to share some experiences of mine that will hopefully help you during the interview process.

Lesson #1: Interviews sometimes don’t go the way you expect them to, so in the words of Will Ferrell, “Keep your composure!” Case in point, I was evacuated in the middle of my interview with a company due to a methane gas leak in the building. It wouldn’t have been so bad if A) it wasn’t October in Boston, B) The Boston Red Sox hadn’t won Game 7 against the New York Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series (over half my interviewers were Yankees fans), and C) I wasn’t already really nervous for the interview. So, after standing in the cold for 15 minutes, my interviewer took me to another building’s cafeteria to continue the interview, which unfortunately, was full of over-zealous and extremely distracting Red Sox fans.

However, I remained positive and professsional, and the remaining interview went over pretty well despite the noise and interruptions.

Lesson #2: Be prepared to adapt to the situation! The next interviewer I had was also evacuated from the building and was completely unprepared for the interview.

Luckily, I grabbed my bag during the evacuation and had an extra copy of my resume. She was able to ask some questions based on my resume, but it was really hard to hear her since she had such a soft voice and we were in a very loud cafeteria. I found myself saying “Excuse me, would you please repeat the question?” the

whole interview. I definitely did not five a pristine first impression, but it demonstrated my ability to adapt to unpredictable situations that set me apart from the other applicants. This obviously paid off as I ended up getting the job offer!

Lesson #3: Be honest and don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know” if you don’t know. I had NINE 45-minute one-on-one interviews in one day and had to catch a flight that evening to go back home. The majority of the interviews were pretty standard, but I had one individual who was grilling me with technical questions, such as “How much DMSO is needed to freeze down some mammalian cells?”, “What is the percent error between a hemocytometer and a Coulter counter?”, “How does trypan blue work?” Since Google was not readily available, I answered them with “I’m not sure, but…” and talked my way through the questions to show my train of thought in order to make an educated guess. I later found out that this particular individual asks technical questions to see how a candidate acts under pressure and if they panic and make up answers. Honesty is the always the best answer.

Lesson #4: Prep work and practice goes a long way. This anecdote comes from my GT BME classmate Rob Burke, now Dr. Burke. First off, you need to understand in great detail what type of person is required for the position. This requires extensive research on the company and on the position. Try to find people who have had similar positions and ask them about it.

By Parika Petaipimol Interviewers will most likely ask you about challenges you’ve experienced and how you resolved those challenges. Take some time to think of stories about yourself and your life that describe when you were in situations where you demonstrated those qualities, did those things, etc. You should practice these stories so you can tell them fluidly, but not to the extent of a robotic response. If you are asked to describe a bad experience you had, try to find ways to turn negative experiences into positive experiences. Background research on the company shows that you’re enthusiastic about the position and can help you come up with thoughtful questions that, when asked, demonstrate that you have a deep understanding of the company and of the position. Bad example: “Do I really have to work 40 hours per week?” Good example: “I saw an article in the news recently where your CEO mentioned XX, does that indicate a shift in your company's strategy?”

Write these down, and when they ask you if you have any questions, you should always say yes.

Schedule your interviews chronologically in reverse order of importance to you. That way, if you mess up the first time it wasn't for the job you really wanted, and your interview skills are improving with each interview as you get into interviewing for the jobs you want the most. If you’re looking for real world practice, my recommendation is to look at the job postings from the career center, and sign up for interviews. You may (or may not) truly be interested in the position, but it will give the experience you need to nail an interview for a position you REALLY want.

Undergraduate and graduate students, including postdoctoral fellows, attended the Georgia Tech 6th Annual Biotechnology Career Fair on September 16, 2010. Students eagerly met company representatives in hopes of obtaining part- and full-time job positions. (Photos: Adrianne Proeller)

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Lesson #5: Take the water/coffee/soda if they offer. Sometimes you get a question that you need some time to think about.

Having water/coffee/soda can actually buy you some time instead of having an awkward silence or having a series of long uhhh’s and umm’s. Take a sip while thinking, and answer the question. The biggest curve-ball interview question ever thrown to me was: “What do you hope to accomplish before you die?” I think even the most seasoned interviewee would be thrown by that question. But, I followed Lesson #1 and kept my composure, took a

sip of my water, and used Lesson #3 and answered the question as honestly as possible.

someone’s inbox. Snail mail thank you cards are rare these days, which makes you stand out even more.

Lesson #6: Write “Thank You” cards.

This may seem trivial and old-fashioned, but not very many applicants take the time to write thank you cards. After the interview, make sure you write down something about each interviewer so you can personalize the thank you cards and not write generic ones to everyone. Thank you by email is also acceptable, but an email can easily get lost in the vast abyss of

These lessons helped me out when I was interviewing, so I hope to pass this knowledge to you. I’m not guaranteeing that these lessons will get you the job you want, but they’ll definitely help you get on the right track for nailing your future interviews.

Parika Petaipimol is a Georgia Tech alumnus of the Coulter Department.

Reflecting On The Career Fairs With Mary Fisher, Division of Professional Practice

By Alex Cooper

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here’s nothing quite like an afternoon running around a big hall full of people trying to look their best, repeatedly spitting out a short speech about yourself to complete strangers and desperately hoping to get some phone numbers. No, I’m not talking about speed dating; I’m talking about career fairs.

That's right: it's the potentially brainnumbing and awkward time of the year again where students, much like peacocks, try to show off their colors and land their dream job. Fortunately for both you and the company representatives you meet, it doesn't have to be brain-numbing nor awkward. “There are a couple things I think a lot of students don't realize,” Mary Fisher, assistant director for Undergraduate Professional Internships at the Division of Professional Practice, explained.

“Not everyone is there to hire. In fact, I would say only fifty percent actually are there to hire. The other fifty percent are there to advertise their company to Georgia Tech Students.”

Of course, just because a representative isn't hiring doesn't mean that they're not worth your time. First of all, they came to Georgia Tech to advertise. That means they're already interested in you, otherwise they wouldn't have come out. So, don't fret, and be confident.

You've already proven yourself as a proactive student for coming out to the fair. Now, you just need to take the next step and follow through with the confidence in your elevator pitch.

An elevator pitch is pretty simple.

“Basically, if you were stuck in an elevator with someone for two minutes and you had to make them interested in you, what would you say?” Mary Fisher asks, “Every student should come prepared with one.”

Elevator pitches are all about getting to the

point. The representative you're speaking to has been talking to at least one hundred people before you, so you've got to be quick and memorable. Returning to one of her mantras, Mary Fisher stresses, “You have to be confident.”

The Biotechnology Career Fair was September 16, so now is the time to prepare and learn from past experiences.

“There really are only a couple of mistakes students tend to make. They don't practice their elevator speech or simply don't have one, they aren't prepared to discuss their resume, and they haven't researched the company.” Much like speed dating, the goal of career fairs is to learn about each other and find a match. Running around indiscriminately introducing yourself to as many companies as possible is beneficial to no one, so do your research and find the companies you're interested in. Think about why they should be interested in you and what you bring to the table. You can also call up the company's Human Resources department and schedule an informational interview. An informational

interview is when the tables are turned and you interview a company representative, in the interest of learning about the company and assessing if you fit the company. It's a great way to learn about a company and genuinely show the company that you're interested.

Regardless of how much you know about a company, you still need to give off a good impression in person. Interviewing is a skill and like any skill, you need to practice and learn. The Division of Professional Practice has an incredible arsenal of information to help you in this next step to your coveted position. You can schedule mock-interviews to practice and get some feedback. Utilizing these tools will give you the edge you need to land the job, co-op, or internship that you've been eying. At the very least, you'll get some phone numbers. Just don't forget to send thank you notes!

Alex Cooper is an undergraduate student in the Coulter Department.

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Faculty Spotlight: Michelle LaPlaca, Ph.D.

By Dhruv Vishwakarma

Research on Traumatic Brain Injury

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ssociate professor Michelle LaPlaca joined the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering Department at Georgia Tech and Emory University when it was formed in 1997.

Armed with an undergraduate degree from the Catholic University of America in Biomedical Engineering and a M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in bioengineering, it was a “natural transition” to complete her post-doctoral research at the surgery department of the University of Pennsylvania. LaPlaca strongly believes in “really keeping the lab in touch with the clinical problem and making sure that students are exposed to the clinical problems they're trying to solve.” Currently, she heads a lab that is a part of the Neurolabs researching the biomechanics and treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI).

TBI refers to a physically traumatic injury caused by an outside force – such as in a car or bike accident. In these situations, the neural tissue is damaged by direct impact or rapid acceleration. The consequences of TBI, depending on the specific events involved, are different than most other injuries since the central nervous system, the control center for the rest of the body, is usually affected in a severe manner that may disable the patient in any number of ways. Currently, treatment focuses on stabilizing the patient, repairing auxiliary support structures (spinal column, skull, etc.), and preventing further damage. There are no approved clinically available drugs or procedures that reverse neural damage or recover lost brain functionality.

The first step in developing clinically effective treatments for TBI is to clearly understand the biomechanics of neural injury, which is the focus of LaPlaca’s lab.

The traditional method for developing treatments would involve a top-down

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approach – first mimicking situationspecific injuries, examining the biophysical results of the injury and trying to reverse the damage. This approach is quite ineffective when it concerns neural damage because “no two brain injuries are the same”. LaPlaca’s bottom-up approach involves careful control of the physical insult that damages the brain. Since cells are much more sensitive to shear strain than tensile or compressive strains, LaPlaca’s lab has developed several biomechanical testing rigs that “can isolate components of the nervous system and subject them to prescribed levels of deformation.”

This deformation mimics the in vivo injury in a clear, controllable way. By testing the culture against as few variable parameters as possible, it is easier to pinpoint subtle biomechanical changes in response to deformation.

In reality, even systems that mimic in vivo conditions will eventually get to a point where a biologically significant enough parameter cannot be removed or modeled. For example, in vitro systems lack a biological framework. Therefore,

tissue fragments can be used instead, despite a major caveat: size. The interior of large tissue fragments will undergo necrosis due to malnourishment and insufficient waste removal. Overall, an optimal testing procedure must use dense, 3dimensional tissue fragments. To this end, LaPlaca’s team, in collaboration with several other labs, has developed a microfluidics/electronics framework that allows perfusion and measurement of electrical activity of 3-dimensional tissue. In contrast with multi-electrode arrays that can only measure a slice of tissue, a microfluidics system utilizes micro-electrode towers to penetrate the tissue. This allows for a much more thorough perfusion for delivering fluids or nutrients and removing waste and more precise measurement of electrical activity. The hope is that these kinds of systems will resolve the need for scaling tissue cultures up and the need for in vivo-like densities.

In light of the fact that no approved treatments for TBI are currently available, translational research is of great importance in accelerating the clinical viability of damage-reversing procedures. LaPlaca believes strongly in “bringing some of the strategies to clinical trials by using high throughput testing in the lab, developing biomarkers as correlates to existing diagnostic tools.” The complexity of the brain contributes to the slow speed of development of clinical procedures of any kind. This, however, is also the intrigue and draw of neuroscience.

Dhruv Vishwakarma is an undergraduate student in the Coulter Department.

Coulter professor Michelle LaPlaca (right) demonstrates a concussion detection equipment that helps analyze minor head trauma. (Photos: GTRC / GIT )