October 2013

VOLUME VIII VIII ||OCT VOLUME OCT 2013 2013 || ISSUE ISSUE 22

THEPIONEER.GATECH.EDU THEPIONEER.GATECH.EDU

READ MORE ABOUT THE PHD CANDIDATE AND HER RESEARCH

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THE COULTER DEPARTMENT STUDENT PUBLICATION OF GEORGIA TECH AND EMORY

Established 2007

Hello everyone!

Everyone in the department seems to be getting into the groove of things as October rolls around. With our December graduates looking toward industry for jobs, and others for co-ops and internships, it sure is a busy time! Best of luck to those that are far enough along with the medical school application cycle to be going through interviews! For our freshman who have just lived to tell the tale of your first round of tests, give yourselves a pat on the back for a job well done – you’ve survived! With Pioneer, we have just experienced a 20% expansion in staff size following our new recruitment. Not only do we have new talent on staff, but we have also rethought our content pool to take on new article types to best meet all of your expectations.

In this issue of the Pioneer, we delve into the ongoings of BBUGS through the eyes of Ariel Kniss, a graduate student in Dr. Melissa Kemp’s lab. We also have a piece covering the ongoings of the Biotechnology Fair held back in September. We’ve also done something we haven’t many times before with writing a piece on one of our newer faculty members housed in Emory, Dr. Xiaoping Hu. We also have pulled together a profile covered by some BMED 1000 students about a successful alumni from industry and her pathway on how she got there. Also in the package is a spotlight at Jim Ross, a Georgia Tech Biomedical Engineering alumnus at Axion Biosystems, who made it on Sky Magazine this past August. We’ve spread our wings even wider with bringing out the voices of our faculty with a view at what some of our faculty do after hours away from Georgia Tech. This time, specifically, Dr. Newstetter talks on cycling and her appreciation for literature. For more, flip through the pages of our issue and discover the astounding work inked into each of the pages.

We’ve also taken a look at our previous BME Fractures project, and have transformed it into an avenue to get feedback from students on their thoughts about BME, the Whitaker Department, and any humorous BME occurrences they experience. To collect this feedback, you’ll see our comment box at the U. A. Whitaker newsstand in the lobby. Drop a slip of paper with your thoughts pulled together for some great content.

For more regular updates on the happenings of the biotechnology community, feel free to like our page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/gtpioneer and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/pioneergt. Additionally, take a glance at more online content on our site at thepioneer.gatech.edu. As always, feel free to contact us by email at thepioneer@gatech.edu.

With warm regards, Harish M. Srinimukesh Editor-in-Chief Pioneer

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EDITOR IN CHIEF

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FACULTY SPONSOR

William Sessions Jaemin Sung Taufiq Dhanani Lauren Gardner Hee Su Lee PUBLIC RELATIONS Alexandra Low OPERATIONS SECRETARY TREASURY

WEBMASTERS

STAFF WRITERS

EDITORS

LAYOUT EDITORS

RECENT PUBLICATIONS…………………………………..……………………..…...….3 GRADUATE STUDENT SPOTLIGHT……..…………………..…….…………….....……4 Ariel Kniss

PRE-HEALTH………………………………………………………………………….……...5 Medical School Interview Time

INVENTION STUDIO…….…………………..……………...……….……………….…...…6

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INDUSTY SPOTLIGHT…………………………………………………….…………….…..9 Axion Biosystems

BIOTECHNOLOGY REVIEW………………………………………………………….…..10

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT…….……….……..…………………………………….………...13 Dr. Xiaoping P. Hu

NANOTECHNOLOGY………….……..………………………………….........................14 Study of the Small World

BMED 1000 ALUMNI INTERVIEWS..……..…………………………………………......15

Jonathan Austin Catherine Chou Lauren Gardner Shi (Amy) Hui Anirudh Joshi Nina Mohebbi Nithya Paranthaman Dhara Patel Valeriya Popova Abigail Riddle Hifza Sakhi Linda Tian Prateek (Neil) Viswanathan Wells Yang Iva Zivojinovic Tino Zhang

Jackson Hair

Nader Abdullahi Katherine Crawford Hardika Dhir Amanda Klinker Arun Kumar Meera Nathan Fatiesa Sulejmani Kristen Weirich Melanie Yoshimura

Marisa Casola

Kevin Bai Samridhi Banskota Sruti Bheri Candice Cheung Joy Kim Candace Law Alexandra Low Mika Munch Nikita Nagpal Yingbo Shi

Karen Adams Courtney Lucas Ferencik Paul Fincannon Sally Gerrish Martin Jacobson Jennifer Kimble Megan McDevitt Colleen Mitchell Adrianne Proeller Raja Schaar Shannon Sullivan

Get to Know Your Faculty

Career Fair

Steven Touchton Jr

COLLABORATORS

AFTER HOURS …………………….……………………………………….………..…..….8

COULTER EVENTS…………….……..…………….…………………………………......12

Jaheda Khanam Troy Kleber Jimmy Nguyen Nafiz Sheikh Elizabeth Walker

Jacob Khouri

EVENTS AND DEADLINES…..………………...………………………..…..………….....7

BME ANSWERS……………………….……..…………………………………………......11

Sara Khalek

PHOTOGRAPHERS

1% Inspiration, 99% Perspiration

Current News

Harish Srinimukesh Wendy Newstetter, Ph.D.

Tashfia (Tishi) Chowdhury Nate Conn Paige McQuade Henry Mei Rachel Moore Thomas Nguyen Tuan Nguyen Jun Ha Park Megahan Styles Alex Shao David Van Hyunjun (Fred) Woo

OCT ISSUE 2

Journal

Article Title

Authors

Adv Mater

25th Anniversary Article: Galvanic Replacement: A Simple and Versatile Route to Hollow Nanostructures with Tunable and WellControlled Properties.

Xia X, Wang Y, Ruditskiy A, Xia Y.

Proc SPIE

Automatic 3D Segmentation of the Kidney in MR Images Using Wavelet Feature Extraction and Probability Shape Model.

Akbari H, Fei B.

PLoS One

Characterization of mRNA-Cytoskeleton Interactions In Situ Using FMTRIP and Proximity Ligation.

Jung J, Lifland AW, Alonas EJ, Zurla C, Santangelo PJ.

Phys. Rev. Lett.

Estimate of the maximum strength of metallic glasses from finite deformation theory.

Wang H, Li M.

Environ. Pollut.

Estimating the toxicity of ambient fine aerosols using freshwater rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus (Rotifera: Monogononta).

Verma V, Rico-Martinez R, Kotra N, Rennolds C, Liu J, Snell TW, Weber RJ.

Adv Healthc Mater

Generation of Spatially Aligned Collagen Fiber Networks Through Microtransfer Molding.

Naik N, Caves J, Chaikof EL, Allen MG.

Adv Mater

Harmonic-Resonator-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerator as a Sustainable Power Source and a Self-Powered Active Vibration Sensor.

Chen J, Zhu G, Yang W, Jing Q, Bai P, Yang Y, Hou TC, Wang ZL.

Cytotherapy

Human platelet lysate stimulates high-passage and senescent human multipotent mesenchymal stromal cell growth and rejuvenation in vitro.

Griffiths S, Baraniak PR, Copland IB, Nerem RM, McDevitt TC.

ACS Nano

Langmuir Ann Biomed Eng

Tissue Eng Part A

Adv Mater Nano Life PLoS Comput Biol

Yang Y, Zhang H, Lin ZH, Zhou YS, Jing Q, Su Y, Yang J, Chen J, Hu C, Wang ZL. Kweon H, Yiacoumi S, Influence of Surface Potential on the Adhesive Force of Radioactive Lee I, McFarlane J, Gold Surfaces.

Tsouris C. Mechanochemistry: A Molecular Biomechanics View of Zhu C. Mechanosensing.

Kolambkar YM, Bajin Nanofiber Orientation and Surface Functionalization Modulate M, Wojtowicz AM, Hutmacher DW, Garcia Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell Behavior In Vitro.

AJ, Guldberg R. Niu S, Liu Y, Wang S, Lin L, Zhou YS, Hu Y, Theory of Sliding-Mode Triboelectric Nanogenerators.

Wang ZL. TUNABLE COMPLEMENT ACTIVATION BY PARTICLES WITH Pacheco PM, LE B, VARIABLE SIZE AND Fc DENSITY. White D, Sulchek T. Visual nonclassical receptive field effects emerge from sparse Zhu M, Rozell CJ. coding in a dynamical system.

Human Skin Based Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Harvesting Biomechanical Energy and as Self-Powered Active Tactile Sensor System.

OCT ISSUE 2

Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department

Ariel Kniss is a research leadership chair in BBUGS and an NSF Graduate Research Fellow at Georgia Tech. (Photo: Jacob Khouri)

orn and educated in Pennsylvania, Ariel Kniss obtained undergraduate degrees in math and biology at Bucknell University before starting her pursuit of a Ph.D. at the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory in 2011.

Since enrolling at Georgia Tech, Kniss has been researching in the lab of Dr. Melissa Kemp, Associate Professor and Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar. Kniss’s research concentrates on redox biology with a specific focus on T-cells and the human immune system. Currently, Kniss and her colleagues are working to acquire more data in the field of redox biology through microfluidic devices capable of measuring the concentration of reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as hydrogen peroxide in stimulated cells. ROS play a key role in cell signaling and have been known to increase drastically when the human body is in a diseased state. With further research into redox biology, it would be possible to better learn the nuances of disease and immune mechanisms in the body so that patients can be better armed to combat a sickness.

However, outside the lab, Kniss also has worked as a

teacher’s assistant for BMED 2300, the design preparatory course for undergraduate BME students. She believes that it is important to increase the communication among the different student groups who may come from different backgrounds and that increased interaction between undergraduate and graduate students helps promote the academic development of both parties.

Kniss is also actively involved in the Bioengineering and Bioscience Unified Graduate Students (BBUGS) organization.

BBUGS is a large graduate student group which organizes social and educational awareness events at Georgia Tech and in the local Atlanta community. Besides organizing rafting trips and bowling nights for the graduate students, BBUGS also holds research seminars and visits local schools in an outreach program to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education to high school students.

With such an active lifestyle, Kniss reminds us that even though graduate school can be challenging, it is not all work and no play. Research has always been a core component of a biomedical engineering graduate student’s schedule, but it is important (and possible) to also participate in other activities.

OCT ISSUE 2

Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department t’s that time of year again. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the pre-med seniors have finished submitting their applications, signaling the start of interview season. The application process in general is a very stressful one—from the MCAT, to the primary application, to never-ending essays for the secondary application, to that blissful moment when you schedule your interview, to even, in the end, the actual interview. It is a tough process, but that acceptance letter to medical school makes it all worthwhile.

Every time we hear the words “medical school” and “admission,” the word “interview” undoubtedly follows. Interviews stand as the final rite of passage—that last step before becoming a medical student. But what does it really entail? Does everybody schedule an interview? What is the interview process really like?

There isn’t just one formulaic answer that will serve as the perfect solution.

First of all, it is important to remember that just as the application itself differs from school to school, so does the interview. Not every applicant will get one — that award is reserved for only the students whose applications stood out, the ones that are being seriously considered for admission. The interview is a way for the admissions board to meet these students and to make sure that they are indeed a good fit for their school.

It is very important to make a great first impression which can

be achieved with two simple things: demeanor and professionalism. Don’t forget to smile and dress to impress! The Office of Pre-Health Advising suggests budgeting money for one professional interview outfit and then reusing the outfit for all subsequent interviews (otherwise, interviews could become costly, considering that the average medical school applicant applies to 14 schools).

The Office of Pre-Health Advising offers mock interviews for those applying to medical school to help them prepare. While individual admissions boards put their own spin on the interviews, many of the questions asked in mock interviews will be similar to those asked by the admission boards. These mock interviews can help applicants become familiarized with the process so that they will not be as nervous and will be better prepared for questions that may arise during the real interview. Mock interviews include a “real time” interview with Jennifer Kimble and a critique of your interview skills afterwards, with suggestions for improvement.

It is important to take advantage of the available resources as soon as possible so as to best prepare for your interview, and, ultimately, stand out as an exceptional candidate. Sometimes it is easy to lose oneself in the little things – especially when they are as stressful as interviews, so it is always important to keep that end goal in mind! Remember why you’re working so hard and you will do great.

Photo: (http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/opposition-begets-innovation-sometimes/947)

OCT ISSUE 2

Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department he industrious Thomas Edison, famed for his mantra of “1% inspiration, 99% perspiration”, also said, “To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.”

Clearly, the famed Wizard of Menlo Park was not equipped with the wicked prowess of the Omax Water Jet, a ridiculous beast capable of transforming naught but mere water and abrasive into a powerful tool capable of cutting through 8 inches of solid steel. This Water Jet, in addition to a formidable collection of other incredibly potent machines, resides within the confines of the Invention Studio, a “Design-BuildPlay” space for all Georgia Tech Students that encourages the spirit of creative building and experimentation. And like many inventions, the Studio itself was the result of someone identifying a prominent problem and devising a creative solution.

Six years ago, Dr. Craig Forest (who earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech and his Masters and PhD from M.I.T) noticed that many of the graduates from the M.E. program had never really actualized a working, functional prototype for their Capstone Design projects. Wanting to change this, Dr. Forest, a Capstone instructor, re-directed a few thousand dollars into the hands of his students so they could do just that. As the students built, however, the issue of storing

their projects arose and a mail room was swiftly converted into a design lab to accommodate the students’ prototypes. But then Dr. Forest had a better idea: what if the students could have a bevy of readily accessible tools right there next to their prototypes? A few months later, with a bit of help from the sophomore design course, the former mail room now housed not only students’ prototypes but also a state-of-theart Water Jet cutter and a wide array of equipment culled from a machine shop at GTRI. This former mail room had now become the blueprint of a hands-on environment where the ideas and imaginations of students could flourish.

The Invention Studio was born.

But, as with everything, time was a scarce resource; for the Studio to stay open, Dr. Forest and Dr. Ray Vito took it upon themselves to man 3-hour shifts in order to supervise the students and assist them with their use of the machines. So one day during class, Dr. Forest handed out ten keys to students who had prior experience with the Studio’s machinery and promised them 24/7 access as long as they dedicated 3 hours of their time every week to helping their Capstone classmates out in the Studio.

This remained the case until when, one day, Dr. Forest walked by the Studio and noticed a pair of underclassmen eagerly waiting to use the Water Jet to cut out parts for a

skateboard. Upon realizing there was a demand for the space beyond outside of Capstone, Dr. Forest summoned his student supervisors to his office and created the “Makers Club”, a student club dedicated to autonomously running the Invention Studio.

It was a club made for students who make things.

In addition to having become a valuable resource for Georgia Tech students, the Invention Studio has proven to be a worthwhile capital investment for its supporters. The Studio receives a notable sum from the Technology Fee Fund (each semester, every student pays a Technology Fee as part of their attendance fees) and the Department of Mechanical Engineering generously provides the Studio with space in the MRDC and pays the salaries for those who work in the Studio full-time. Professors who want to use these tools for their own research pay a small fee that goes directly into the Studio’s account. In addition, upwards of 30 companies have each pledged a sum to have their logo printed in the Studio, to provide projects for the Capstone Design course, and to invest in (and potentially hire) bright students from Tech who know how to design and build things with their own hands. All of the money received from these donors goes towards the maintenance of the Studio and the purchase of new equipment.

The invention studio, maintained by the makers club, is located in the MRDC and free for any Georgia Tech student to use. (Photo: Invention Studio)

OCT ISSUE 2

From its origination, the Invention Studio has become “a facility with a million dollars of capital equipment that is open every day for any [student] at Georgia Tech to go build anything they want for free … a Halloween costume, a Christmas present, or an invention.” As of late, the Studio has come to boast 20 3D printers, all studentaccessible. The Studio, once meant for just the M.E. Capstone Design class, is now an integral and crucial part to the curricula of many majors. In fact, last semester’s president of the Makers Club majored in Electrical Engineering. In addition, the educational potential of the Studio reaches past the student body at Tech – summer camps are held for local high school students to come and toy with the machines themselves and learn more about the creative and inventive process. In the end, Dr. Forest’s vision for the Studio is that it should not only be “a place to teach for yourself, to do for yourself, [to learn] how to build things” but an avenue by which Tech students can collaborate and begin to transform their ideas and passions into something tangible, marketable, and, most of all, lastingly meaningful to themselves.

3 Business Etiquette 11 am-Clary Theater SCC 7 Graduate Student Job Search Strategies 4:15 pm-Clary Theater SCC 8 Brain Workshop: Enabling Health through Neurotechnologies 8:00 am — Suddath Seminar Room 1128 8 Creating a Professional Resume 11 am- Clary Theater SCC 10 Successful Interviewing Strategies 11 am-Clary Theater SCC

So, although those who use the Invention Studio may not agree with Father of Invention’s slightly derogatory notion of “junk”, I would dare to claim that there exists a certain vigor and spirit common to both parties that is best embodied by one of Mr. Edison’s parting remarks:

“I never did a day’s work in my life. It was all fun.”

Find out more about the Invention Studio and the Makers Club at inventionstudio.gatech.edu. Open Hours for the Studio are Monday to Thursday from 10A – 7P and Friday from 10A – 5P.

(Photo: Invention Studio)

15 Integrated Cancer Research Seminar Series "Designed Multiple Ligands for Targeted Epigenetic Perturbation” 4pm — Suddath Seminar Room 1128 15 Breakfast Club Seminar Series: “Designing Instructive and Responsive Biomaterials: From Stem Cells” Drug Delivery” 8:30 am— Suddath Seminar Room 1128 17 Bioengineering Seminar Series "Translational biomaterials in regenerative medicine” 11 am— Suddath Seminar Room 1128

22 Majors Fair 11 am— SC Ballroom University 29 Young Innovators Seminar Jeff Jacot, Rice University 11am– Whitaker 1103 29 Managing Your Money 11am– Clary Theater SCC

OCT ISSUE 2

Director of Learning Sciences Research in the Coulter Department was invited to write the inaugural piece for a new column that will appear regularly in Pioneer.

The intent of this column is for biomedical engineering students to get to know faculty outside the classroom and the laboratory, to be offered a window on the interests and passions they pursue on weekends or moments of free time. Accordingly, I have taken the liberty of provisionally naming this column "After Hours."

I have two passions: cycling and reading fiction.

The seeds for my cycling passion were sown when I was in graduate school at Lancaster University in the beautiful rolling countryside of northwest England near the Lake District. I bought a cheap 10-speed bike and whenever the stress of grad school was too much, I would get out my surveyor map of Lancashire and head out to explore the small country villages of that region. Twenty years later, I did my first BRAG (Bike Ride Across Georgia) with my two daughters and three girls from my Girl Scout Troop. For my youngest daughter, eight year old Olivia, 40-50 miles a day was tough, so sometimes she was a bit cranky. At one point, we were creeping along a backwater country road in South Georgia when a pace line approached from behind. Six super fit guys were tooling along at around 20 miles an hour, the ones at the back barely pedaling as they were drafting on the work of the guys up front. Someone yelled aloud before the line of cyclists reached us, "Throw her on the back." So we started pedaling faster and as they passed, Olivia shifted to the left to join the line and zoomed off so fast she couldn't stop laughing. I had to really grind to catch up. Here in Atlanta, I ride the Silver Comet or around the hills of Buckhead where I live. My sister, who lives in San Francisco, and I are aiming to do the AIDS ride, a 543 mile ride from San Fran to LA, next June. Any takers?

I am also an avid fiction reader. I usually read three or four books at once. Presently, I am reading Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner, the female Hemingway as described by some critics, The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope by Rhonda Riley, A Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohamed Hanif and IQ84 by Haruki Murakami. I was an Asian Studies major as an undergraduate, so I really like diving into new international terrain and crossing cultural boundaries in my reading.

The reason I have so many books going at once is because I listen to three weekly book-related podcasts:

Dr.Newstetter and her bike. (Photo: Dr.Newstetter)

KCRW Bookworm, Books on the Nightstand and New Yorker Fiction. These programs review new books, interview popular authors or ask the authors to read fiction that has been important to them as writers. These podcasts give me access to how fiction writers work and think in crafting their works of art. Though I will never be a fiction writer, I am curious about their craft so I write down books they talk about and then download them to my Kindle or iPad. In addition, while the rest of the country is absorbed with the college basketball Final Four in the spring, I am absorbed with the Tournament of Books, found online at The Morning News, which replicates the same "play-off" scenario found in this college sport. I always try to read the champion of this tournament as well as the contenders. Finally, I make it a point to read the winner of the Booker Prize, one of the world’s most important annual literary awards. This year I have set a goal for myself to read all the books on the Booker Prize short list. As a start, I bought A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki and Transatlantic by Colum McCann.

The good news is that the Georgia Institute of Technology library has many of these Booker Prize contenders already in their fiction collection. Check them out!

I think it would be great if we created a BME book club where a group of faculty and students get together to discuss some of the most popular fiction books of the year. This could be an excellent community building activity that transcends the usual boundaries and barriers between students and faculty, where we might explore creativity and innovation in the arts as inquiring, intellectual beings together.

OCT ISSUE 2

Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department f you could wrap up the entire story of your life thus far in just three letters, what would those letters be?

Our lives are characterized by the things we do. For instance, I have a friend who loves to sleep and, if he could, he would be content with just dreaming all day. His letters would be “nap”. There are people who are so impatient and hasty that everything for them has to happen right “now” – and then there are others who are willing to wait for a culmination, for an “end”. Athletes, mightily dedicated people who toil endlessly on and off the field or court, aspire to make their letters “NBA” or “NFL”. But right now, their letters are simply just to “run” or “hit” – or, more importantly, to “win”. Our lives, our stories can often be defined by just three letters.

James Ross, chief technical officer of Axion BioSystems, a startup company based on technology devleoped at Georgia Tech, displays the company’s highthroughput Maestro microelectrode array system. (Photo: Gary Meek )

For Dr. James Ross, those three letters are MEA. Ross began his secondary education at Louisiana State University (LSU) as an undergraduate student in electrical engineering. While there, he worked for a lab that dealt with the integration of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and electronics. While there, he also focused on transistors with moving parts, specifically laterally-movable gate field transistors. After finishing his bachelor’s at LSU, Ross decided to pursue post-secondary studies at Georgia Institute of Technology for two reasons: his to-be wife was a member of the first class for the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University graduate program and the potential promise between the fields of biology and microelectronics piqued his interest.

While pursuing their doctorates, Ross and a few of his classmates, Mr. Edgar Brown and Dr. Swami Rajamaran, were working on a bio-engineering partnership dedicated to improving

micro-electrode array (MEA) technology. An MEA is an electrophysiological device with many channels for data collection. In this device, a neural interface can be created by connecting neurons to electronic circuitry for the purposes of recording and stimulation.

The group was discussing the technology with a faculty member from the University of Illinois when the following question was proposed: why would someone want an MEA with one well, 1000 channels, and an excess of specific data when they could have 100 wells with just 10 channels in each one? The idea seemed so obvious that when they asked others about it, people had simply assumed that somebody was already working on it. As a result, this ambitious group of students sought to create something to answer this question.

Today, the former students’ solution is Axion Biosystems, an innovative company dedicated to improving and creating MEA technology. The company’s main products are the Muse and the Maestro, the former being akin to traditional MEA technology and the latter a high-throughput means for increasing the scale of experiments. The Maestro boasts 768 channels for data collection which can be grouped into 12, 48, or 96 wells. It also fits into industry -standard plates, granting users of the device heavy customizability.

At the moment, the company is looking into the different ways that MEA technology could be used. Users of the device hypothesize that a neural network contained within the MEA could lead to the creation of a comprehensive neurotoxicity model. This is plausible because any changes within the cells’ biological pathways due to the introduction of a substance are reflected within the electrophysiology of the neural activity. Additionally, research is being conducted with regards to the capacity of the MEA as a means to determine how pluripotent stem cells will differentiate. This research also investigates whether the phenotypes of these stem cells are the ones that are desired by looking at the excitability of the observed cells. The use of stem cell derived neurons with disease-specific genetic mutations has led to the beginning of what is called diseasein-a-dish modeling where human cells are placed in the MEA and their reactions recorded; some diseases currently under investigation in this manner are Parkinson’s, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and Alzheimer’s. From the establishment of Axion Biosystems to present day, Ross credits the company’s success not only to their dedication to developing their products but also to their team; succinctly phrased by Ross, “we either live or die by the team.” As for personal motivation, Ross says that his passion for his work and his inability to see himself doing anything else is what drives him to help develop better MEA technology. So, for Ross, the letters of MEA truly define who he is today.

As for me, a simple “wow” is all I can muster for the work Ross and his team have accomplished thus far and the new frontiers they will pioneer with this technology.

OCT ISSUE 2

Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department

1) Scientists Use Synthetic mRNA to Regenerate Infarcted Heart

A study led by scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and Harvard University utilized an injured murine heart to express vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) to drive cardiovascular regeneration and formation of new cardiomyocytes. The study was funded by the US National Institutes of Health and The Croucher Foundation and published in Nature Biotechnology. VEGFA can be used as a switch to redirect heart stem cells to form coronary vessels in the fetal heart instead of the usual cardiomyocytes. To make the murine hearts express VEGFA, the investigators injected synthetic mRNA encoding VEGFA into the heart muscle cells, which resulted in the production of short pulses of VEGFA. These mRNAs were modified to escape the native murine defense systems that would reject and degrade this mRNA. A single administration of this short pulse VEGFA expression, delivered to the heart progenitors within 48 hours following myocardial infarction, was sufficient to improve survival.

Deploying this strategy of using mRNAs to produce VEGFA changes the fate of native heart stem cells and redirects them to form cardiovascular tissue instead of the usual cardiac fibrotic scar tissue. Hence, this study provides a great example of how to leverage this regeneration potential of the cardiovascular tissue through a single chemical agent without injecting additional cells into the heart.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130908135619.htm

2) Scientists Uncover a Method to Speed Up Medical Imaging While Keeping Costs Down Through Molybdenum Disulfide Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed a new low cost photodetector employing both amorphous silicon and molybdenum disulfide, a product commonly sold in automotive stores.

Traditional photodetectors use amorphous silicon, due to its low cost and high absorption of light. However, defects in this material hinder the ordered movement of electrons, making the imaging procedures lengthy and exposing patients to radiation for longer periods of time.

To circumvent this problem, the researchers at the University of California, Berkeley paired a thin film of molybdenum disulfide with a thin sheet of amorphous silicon to be used in the photodetector. This combination of materials allowed the photogenerated electrons to move at faster speeds as compared to the electrons in the traditional amorphous silicon method. In addition, another advantage of this method is that molybdenum disulfide is

inexpensive, so even though imaging speeds will increase, the costs will still stay down.

This technique has the potential to speed up imaging in an array of industries ranging from biomedical imaging to solar cells in energy-efficient transistors while still keeping costs down.

Source: http://www.qmed.com/news/auto-product-could-boost-medical-imaging

3) Scientists Employ an Existing Cancer Drug for the Treatment of Diabetes Researchers at Stanford University uncovered a pathway during the development of diabetes which can be regulated by Aflibercept, a cancer drug already on the market which is marketed as Eylea or Zaltrap. This pair of studies conducted by Stanford researchers identified a link between hypoxia and the ability of hepatocytes (liver cells) to respond to insulin. Their findings are published in Nature Medicine.

Aflibercept (Eylea or Zaltrap), a drug traditionally used to treat metastatic colorectal cancer and a type of macular degeneration works by inhibiting the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway. Blocking this pathway prevents angiogenesis from occurring at tumor sites, thereby depriving the tumor cells of oxygen.

In Dr. Kuo’s lab, it was discovered that VEGF inhibitors can also be used to decrease blood glucose levels in mice. Blood glucose levels are regulated by the liver, through the secretion of hormones insulin and glucagon in the bloodstream. Insulin triggers hepatocytes to store glucose in the form of glycogen, whereas glucagon triggers hepatocytes to breaks down glycogen. In Diabetes, there is disruption in this process, when the body either can’t produce insulin or appropriately responds to insulin. The liver’s function requires cells to have easy access to blood, which carries both oxygen and glucose. Cells that don’t receive enough oxygen become hypoxic and naturally produce proteins to help them survive under these extreme conditions. Among the proteins produced in the hypoxic state is HIF-2alpha, which activates expression of insulin receptor substrate 2 (IRS2), thereby enhancing the cell’s ability to respond to insulin.

Treatment with the aflibercept drug also increases the number of cells in the hypoxic state. As a consequence, HIF-alpha2 protein levels increase which causes increased expression of IRS2, thereby allowing the mice to better tolerate the increased blood-glucose levels.

Dr. Giaccia and colleagues uncovered another discovery.

Blocking of the protein called PhD3 stabilizes the HIF-alpha2 pathway identified by the Kuo lab, which enhances these results.

Hence, targeting the PhD3/HIF-2 pathway opens new doors for developing therapeutics for the treatment of diabetes.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130915134355.htm

OCT ISSUE 2

4) Scientists Use Nanodiamond Drug Delivery in the fight Against Brain Cancer Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and University of California have developed a new method to deliver chemotherapeutic agents to patients suffering from an aggressive form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma.

Their findings are reported in Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine.

These researchers employed nanodiamond technology to deliver the chemotherapeutic agent called doxorubicin to tumor sites. Since the nanodiamond surface is hydrophilic, it can attract water and therapeutic agents like drugs. Though tumors typically reject chemotherapeutic agents, when these agents are bound to the nanodiamond surface, they are readily taken up by the tumors.

The researchers employed this drug delivery technique by first binding the chemotherapeutic agent doxorubicin on the nanodiamond surface and then injecting these to tumor sites. The nanodiamond were able to hold on to the doxorubicin until they reached tumor sites. Once at the tumor site, the physiological characteristics of the cancer cells allowed for the release of doxorubicin from the nanodiamond.

The advantage of using this method is that the drug is directly injected at the tumor site, ensuring the chemotherapeutic agent

remains in the tumor for longer periods. This results in decreased viability of the cancerous cells and minimizes the exposure of the chemotherapeutic agent to the healthy cells.

Source: http://www.qmed.com/news/nanodiamond-drug-delivery-targets-aggressive brain-cancer

5) Scientists Develop a New Medical Device for the Treatment of Glaucoma

Researchers at the University of Rochester have unveiled a new device called iStent for the treatment of glaucoma. According physicians at the Flaum Eye Institute, iStent is the smallest FDAapproved medical device.

Glaucoma is a disease often caused by poor drainage of the eye, which clogs up the trabecular meshwork of the eye and builds up intraocular pressure. The iStent, a titanium-based device measuring just 1 mm-long features a 120-micron pore opening to circumvent around this problem. With the iStent in place, fluids can bypass the trabecular meshwork and drain out normally through the iStent’s 120-micron pore opening. The FDA has approved this device to be used on adults who use a daily regimen of prescription eye drops to treat glaucoma.

Source: http://.qmed.com/news/tiniest-fda-approved-medical-device-can-treat-glaucoma

By ALPHA ETA MU BETA – The BME Secret Society

My GPA is lower than I like, and I do not like my BMED classes as much as the PSYC and BIOL electives that I have been taking. However, I am halfway through all of the BMED classes. Is it too late for me to switch majors?

It is not too late to switch majors. It is always better to get your major changed and reroute yourself to the correct career path than to realize that you had selected the wrong major later on in your life when it is really difficult to return to college or start over. However, if you only want to switch from BMED because the classes are challenging, I urge you to reconsider. We are definitely one of the toughest majors on campus, and working for that degree will hurt. Search for what your passion really lies in. For some people, it takes a few years to figure things out, so it is perfectly fine to switch majors even late in your undergraduate years.

What kind of interview and networking tips do you have now that job searching has really kicked into gear for all of campus?

As my Asian friends like to say, it is all about “face”. Your reputation and appearance are extremely important during interviews and networking events. It is very true that most people come up with their impressions of you within the first few minutes of meeting you if not sooner. I have a friend in HR that works by “strikes”.

When you talk with him over the phone or face to face, he judges you based on how many strikes you incur. These strikes or red flags include if you arrived on time or not, your handshake, and how much you know about the company’s industry (who are their competitors and what are the major projects going on in their industry right now). When you get too many strikes, my friend will just power down and stops paying attention to the rest of the interview. You are already eliminated in his head, so now he will just try and save energy for the next interview. The introduction is very crucial. Maintain eye contact. Make sure the web of your hand between your thumb and index finger connects with your interviewer’s, and have a firm handshake (about the same strength as your interviewer’s).

Always dress sharply, and try to be as prepared as possible. Remember that you are expected to do in-detailed research on the company you are meeting with.

Also, remember that WHENEVER you are meeting with a representative of a company whether it is at a career fair or having idle conversation with a secretary as you wait to walk into your interview, you are being judged. It’s not just go time from when you walk into your interview room. It’s go time from when you walk out of your front door.

I have heard that other schools are often understanding of engineering majors that have lower GPAs. Is this true?

In some cases, this could be true. For example, many companies that hire from Georgia Tech are very understanding of low GPAs, and some simply do not ask for it. However, if you are applying to medical school or graduate school, it is tough. I have been told by school representatives on admissions boards to schools across the country that having a tough major is absolutely no excuse for having a lower GPA. Also, schools like medical school will not be impressed that you attempted a tougher major for your undergraduate studies. They still want to see that high GPA, but they really care about the experiences that you have gone through. Think of your numbers as a baseline cutoff. Once you get past that, it is all about your personality and your passion. On the other hand, it is not so clear cut as that. Another medical school admissions board director I talked to said that they normalize every person’s grade to the average GPA of people that have gone to medical school from that college. For Georgia Tech, if I remember my numbers correctly, I believe it is around a 3.5 which is drawn from the fact that about 120 people have gone to medical school from Georgia Tech over the last three years.

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Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department or those of us looking at career opportunities, be they internships or full-time positions, September is a stressful time. However, the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University hosts several events during the first month back to school that make that the job search more manageable, including resume workshops, interview practices, and informational sessions. All these events culminate in the Biotechnology Career Fair which boasts companies spanning the entire biotechnology employment spectrum. This year's fair took place on September 12 and covered the four stories of atria in the Molecular Science and Engineering building with industrial leaders and eager students.

The fair was visited by over 250 students and more than twenty companies who were looking to fill full-time and part-time positions with both graduate and undergraduate students. On the list were veteran attendees, like Medtronic, Procter & Gamble, and Edwards Lifesciences. The students attending ranged from polymer and fiber engineering to business administration majors, all looking to obtain a job in the biotechnology industry.

How does all this miraculously happen, you ask? The Biotechnology Fair is actually planned by students! A group of about twelve students, both graduate and undergraduate, work to make the month of career services, panels, and workshops a reality. Brian Wile, a graduate student in the Bao Lab, worked on the committee as their industry liaison. The interest meeting he

attended in May has roped him into the fair, he jokes. He and the rest of the committee have been hard at work for the duration of the summer to bring career-related events to Tech students.

Samantha Gray, one of the few undergraduate students on the committee, looks at the fair with a sense of appreciation and wonder. As the committee member responsible for advertising, Samantha communicated with other departments within Tech. She says she was glad for the close connections that Tech fosters within itself and with engineering companies all over the world.

What was especially exciting for her was the fact that companies were more than eager and willing to come to the career fair and required no prodding. The whole experience, Samantha believes, made her look at the fair in a whole new light – through the perspective of one who helped bring over 250 students together into one place with all their favorite potential employers.

The 9th Annual Biotechnology Career Fair was held on September 12th in the Molecular Science and Engineering Building and hosted over 20 biotechnology companies. (Photo: Rachel Moore)

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Photo: (June Park)

Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department ith over 200 authored or co-authored publications and over 13,000 citations, to say that Dr. Xiaoping P. Hu’s accomplishments are significant would be a gross understatement. A professor of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, Hu’s path to success in the field of biomedical engineering began somewhat unconventionally: with a B.S. in Physics. After earning his undergraduate degree from the University of Science and Technology of China, Hu spent the next six years at the University of Chicago to earn his M.S. in Physics and his Ph.D. in Medical Physics, specializing in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, as many students here in the Coulter Department struggle to find their calling, it took some time before Hu was able to realize his true passion for medical imaging.

To begin, he explains, his research focused on pure physics such as crystal growth and semiconductors. “I felt like I was working on something that was not very big,” he explains, “I was not sure if it had any immediate applications.” In the early 1980s, medical imaging was still not a very big field; MRI was relatively new. However, a young Hu saw room for growth and, in contrast to his previous research, was attracted by the technology’s direct impact on people’s lives. Little did he know that medical imaging would soon become the major technological field that it is today.

“I figured the field would probably go for another 20 years,” Hu recalls. But 30 years later, imaging technology is still expanding.

“Looking back, I’m really glad I made that switch,” Hu says After working a bit with several different modalities of medical imaging (x-ray, positron emission tomography, etc.),Hu settled his focus on MRI as it required the most engineering, and he could see a very direct and immediate impact. He explains, “In my days there were not many biomedical engineers. But now, looking at biomedical engineering as a whole, [the field of imaging] has the most direct impact on humans.”

After earning his Ph. D., Hu spent twelve years at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis as a professor. However, as the Biomedical Engineering department here at Georgia Tech

and Emory began to grow and actively recruit new faculty, Hu saw an opportunity to expand his research in a fresh, promising program. Hu points to the “collaboration between two distinct universities” as one of the main reasons for moving to Atlanta in 2002. The opportunity to set up an MRI center within the university and the ability to work closely with clinicians were icing on the cake.

Part of. Hu’s research here at Georgia Tech and Emory is centered on neuroscience applications of magnetic resonance imaging. In two projects, Dr. Hu’s research looks at MRI scans of children who were prenatally exposed to alcohol or cocaine, respectively. Interestingly, “the effect of alcohol was actually worse,” Dr. Hu explains, “because of the ability of alcohol to get through the blood brain barrier.” Through the images, a disconnection between the corpus callosum can be seen, indicating poor communication between different sides of the brain. Another interesting application of medical imaging focuses on deep brain stimulation to treat depression. Through imaging, Hu’s lab can “look at how the stimulated site is connected to other parts of the brain.” The connection is not only readily seen, but also tells if the treatment is effective. While a specific treatment may be good for one patient, it may be ineffective for another. This knowledge can be gained through MRI analysis.

For students looking to get involved in imaging and similar research, Hu recommends a greater focus on “signal processing and the physical sciences.” With the extensive education biomedical engineers receive in biology, Hu points out that the importance of physical sciences is often overlooked. “It is important not to lose sight,” he explains, “of fields such as electrical engineering and physics.” With an extensive education in physics. Hu states he “pulls up things he learned as an undergraduate” that are still useful today. “Of course, if I could do it over again,” he laughs, “I would want to have both the physics as well as the bioengineering background.” Overall, “a good fundamental education,” Hu advises, “is going to go a long way, because you never know what you’ll want to do 10 years from now. If you have the fundamentals, you can do anything.”

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Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department

Photo: (http://www.softmachine.net/2013/03/nanotechnology-doubleedged)

here's an unprecedented convergence of scientists from multiple fields dedicated to the study of a world so small, it can’t even be seen with visual light microscopy. This is the world of nanotechnology, a fresh field, populated with atoms and nanostructures, full of boundless possibilities. In order to understand the unusual world of nanotechnology, we need to get an idea of the units of measure involved. A centimeter is onehundredth of a meter, a millimeter is one-thousandth of a meter, and a micrometer is one-millionth of a meter, but these are still huge compared to the nanoscopic scale. A nanometer (nm) is one-billionth of a meter, smaller than the wavelength of visible light and a hundred-thousandth the width of a human hair. Even as small as a nanometer is, it's still large compared to the atomic scale. An atom has a diameter of about 0.1 nm, and an atom's nucleus is much smaller -- about 0.00001 nm. Elements are at their most basic at the atomic scale, but on the nanoscopic scale we can manipulate these elements to form anything we want.

Scientists currently find a particular nanostructure, a carbon nanotube, of special interest. A carbon nanotube is a nano-sized cylinder rolled from a sheet of carbon atoms. Carbon nanotube properties depend on the direction that the carbon sheet is rolled.

In other words, even though all carbon nanotubes are made of carbon, they can be very different from one another based on how the individual atoms are aligned.

For instance, Professor Seon Jeong Kim of the Electrical and Biomedical Engineering Departments at Hanyang University in Korea recently demonstrated new hybrid high-power and highwork capacity carbon nanotube yarn muscles. Traditional difficulties in nanotube yarn muscles consisted of slow responses, low strain and force generation, a short cycle life, and low energy

efficiency. In addition, the actuators, responsible for muscle contractions, require electrolytes, counter electrodes, and device packaging. This results in heavier weight and thus lower performance. The ‘Hybrid Carbon Nanotube Yarn Muscles’, created by Professor Kim, overcame these limits, enhancing the response rate and creating a helix based geometry that allows both tensile contraction and torsional rotation. Because they can be twisted together and knotted, braided, sewn, or even woven, they can eventually find their way in a myriad of autonomous intelligent materials in textiles—for example, such yarn muscles might be used to regulate a flow valve in response to detected chemicals.

Nanotechnology has also led to improvements in tuberculosis testing. TB infected some 8.7 million people worldwide in 2011, killing 1.4 million, according to the World Health Organization.

Most of these victims live in impoverished countries, with little to no infrastructure and few resources for health personnel. In normal cases, testing blood samples for the disease takes weeks, delaying treatment and spreading the infection. But with new nanotechnology, TB testing can potentially be done on the spot in a short amount of time.

Two different research teams led by Ralph Weissleder, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Systems Biology, have created devices that can identify the TB pathogen in hours – both are the size of a standard microscope slide. The first device, developed by Monty Liong and designed by Hahko Lee, is a flat cartridge containing a tiny computer chip and a nanochemistry lab, which samples body fluid and uses a chemical reaction to duplicate the sample DNA. It then releases very small polymer beads coated with DNA, which link up with one

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side of the DNA of the TB pathogen. Subsequently, even smaller particles of iron oxide are released, which have been designed to link up with the bits of DNA on the small polymer beads. The device then generates an oscillating magnetic field, making all the magnetic particles line up and relax, creating a detectable signal.

If no TB is present, the polymer particles will not link to anything, and thus no signal will be created. The second device also uses the previous system, but relies on ribosomal RNA instead of DNA. These devices returned test results in two or three hours, and could detect lower levels of bacterial exposure. However, the systems are not yet ready for commercialization; the developers have to make them robust enough to be deployed in the field by operating with a battery, and to work well under different temperature variations.

Like any future technology, despite its potential, the field of nanotechnology faces a wide array of challenges before it can be integrated into our daily lives. The most immediate challenge in the field today is that not enough is known about materials at their nano-state. Because elements behave differently at the nanoscale than they do in bulk, there is some concern that nanoparticles could be toxic. Because they are so small, some doctors worry that they could cross the blood brain barrier easily.

Other challenges are technical: if we want to realize the potential of nanotechnology, we will need to find ways to mass produce nano-size products like carbon nanotubes and nanowires. In addition, nanotechnology provides some significant social concerns. Like any new technology, nanotechnology may allow for more powerful weapons, and may eventually create a situation similar to bio-weapons, chemical weapons, or nuclear weapons.

Nanotechnology presents both huge potential and huge challenges for the biomedical field. As shown before, its ability to manipulate objects at the molecular scale is a godsend for biomedical engineers, who more often than not require objects of such precision. Miniature labs and new artificial muscles are only a few of the myriad examples in the field today. However, like any other technology, nanotechnologists must surmount several obstacles to commercialize this technology. They must be able to manipulate elements at the nano scale while accounting for negative side effects. They must be able to mass produce nanosize objects cost-effectively, and finally they must be able to resolve the ethical implications. Once these obstacles are overcome, however, nanotechnology will be able to grow quickly, and with this growth all other engineering disciplines, including biomedical engineering, will advance at a rapid rate.

Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department n recent years, students in BMED 1000 have been asked to interview alumni to get an understanding of life as a biomedical engineer. One particular group chose to interview an alumna named Katy, a product management employee at Amniox Medical, who shared her insights about her time as a student at Georgia Institute of Technology and how the Co-Op program greatly helped her.

As a high school student, Katy wanted to pursue either nursing or design. “My mother was a nurse, so I always thought I would do something in the medical field.” Katy, however, also enjoyed art, so she decided to major in industrial design upon application to Tech. She later switched to civil engineering, but decided that it was not for her. Upon hearing about biomedical engineering and its tendencies to combine design and medical concepts, Katy decided to become a student of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

Katy asserts that a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering can help you with a variety of career paths. “You can go to med school, dental school, or grad school; you can go into sales or marketing; you can even perform research at a company.”

Originally, she planned to pursue a master’s degree in prosthetics and orthotics, but she changed her mind because she felt she didn’t need anything more than an undergraduate degree for the career she would ultimately choose. Katy says, “If you want to go into a marketing arena, you definitely don’t need anything beyond undergrad, though you can go back and get an MBA in five years if you want. That somewhat dictated the path that I took; I didn’t

want to sit in a classroom for another ten years.”

While at Georgia Tech, Katy researched in a materials sciences lab with Dr. Ken Gall, Professor of the School of Material Science and Engineering who worked with MedShape, a small start-up company in Atlanta. She warns that only a very specific type of person can enjoy being in a lab. Katy describes herself as “too chatty to be in a lab all day every day with the same three people.” After two semesters of research, she began a co-op with MedShape.

Katy had three job offers after graduation, and she cites this five-semester co-op experience as the biggest reason behind these offers. Because she had already been through the co-op application process, she felt less stressed during the job application. “Additionally, I probably did as well as I did during my first year working [at Amniox] since I had learned from my co-op not to be afraid to ask questions, especially when I needed help.”

Katy’s first job offer, in research and development, was from MedShape, Her second job offer was as a nurse for St. Jude Medical Hospital. The third offer, however – the one she accepted – was in product management and marketing at Amniox. She observes that Amniox “saw [she] was creative and had at least a science background and an understanding of the medical industry.” Katy also explains that she had never considered a job in marketing prior to the Amniox offer.

Despite her long path to becoming a BME graduate, Katy took advantage of the opportunity to get involved in research on campus and demonstrated the value of a co-op in her job search and personal development.