MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR Happy New Year! We are delighted to present you with our 2013 Tulane Biomedical Engineering Newsletter. As you will see, it has been a great year for the department and I’m happy to share short vignettes about our progress. In this newsletter, edited by Cedric Walker, we have articles about students, faculty members, alumnae, our research and educational missions and outreach.
Donald Gaver has served as the Biomedical Engineering Department Chair for the past seven years. His laboratory research aims to develop an understanding of the interrelationships between the mechanical and physicochemical behavior of biological systems with a primary focus on the investigations of the pulmonary system. “It is my intent to use this understanding to help, either directly or indirectly, the development of improved therapies for pulmonary disease.”
Our faculty continues to enhance the research mission of our department and have been very successful in attracting competitive research funds. Of particular note is the 2012 NIH Director's Transformative Research Projects Award (TR01) that was granted to Professor Sergey Shevkoplyas. The goal of his project is to increase the safety and efficacy of transfusions administered throughout the practice of medicine. Also, Drs. Ahsan and Murfee are recipients funding from an NIH COBRE Award on Aging. This is an area I’m finding more interesting every day… We are also expanding our educational opportunities with a focus on translational research and design. At the undergraduate level we received funding from the State of Louisiana to develop a “Grand Challenges” course through which our students will conduct research and device development as part of an integrated team. We have also received an NSF IGERT award (see next page) to develop an interdisciplinary PhD program in Bioinnovation. This program will prepare graduates to work at the interface of academics and industry We are excited by our evolution, and we hope that you will likewise be infected by the promise that our field holds for current and future students and those who will benefit from the discoveries and the translational technologies they will develop. We encourage you to visit the department if you are in New Orleans, or send us an email to let us know how you are doing. Of course, we welcome any insight into how we can better prepare our students. With best wishes,
Donald Gaver Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering
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RESEARCH A New Doctoral Degree Program For The Biomedical Entrepreneur
Last May, Tulane joined the ranks of a select group of 18 research institutions that have been awarded an Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Tulane’s IGERT was created to initiate a transformational interdisciplinary PhD program: the Bioinnovation Program. This new doctoral program provides a collaborative space for creative, motivated scientists and engineers to generate practical biomedical breakthroughs. Bioinnovation graduate students, or “Fellows,” participate in transformative biotechnology development that leverages Tulane’s state-of-the-art facilities, resources in a revitalized healthcare industry and New Orleans’ burgeoning entrepreneurial spirit to accelerate the translation of research from the laboratory to the marketplace and patient bedside. At its core, the Bioinnovation PhD Program is collaborative. It benefits from the combined leadership of several professors from the School of Science & Engineering (Director Donald Gaver of Biomedical Engineering, Ricardo Cortez of Mathematics and Vijay John of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering) and the School of Medicine (John Clements of Microbiology & Immunology and Gabriel Navar of Physiology) as well as a diverse community of over 30 affiliated faculty members from all corners of research and academics at Tulane University. From start to end, Bioinnovation Fellows are
Karolina Kosakowska, Derek Dashti and Nick Pashos are the first three Bio-Innovation fellows.
integrated into a collegial environment primed for transformative research that extends far beyond the confines of the traditional scientific laboratory. This is just one component of the Bioinnovation Program. Another critical piece involves a partnership with the New Orleans BioInnovation Center (NOBIC) and with Tulane’s nationally ranked Levy Rosenblum Institute for Entrepreneurship and Schools of Business and Law. Through completing courses in the Business and Law Schools and participating in the New Orleans Business Plan Competition, Bioinnovation Fellows develop the business and legal acumen necessary to succeed in today’s market. A summer internship at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provides Bioinnovation Fellows with real-world business and regulatory experience critical for pushing biomedical
technologies out of the laboratory and into the healthcare environment. As noted by Dr. Gaver, “There are many barriers to progress. One is a lack of understanding by those who are doing fundamental science on what it takes to get something to the marketplace. And from the marketplace, what it takes to do the fundamental and applied science. We need to find and train individuals who want to bridge that gap.” The Bioinnovation PhD Program seeks individuals who not only are passionate about science or engineering but who also want to develop innovations that transform healthcare and benefit society. For more information and to apply, please contact the program manager ajacob@ tulane.edu or scan the QR code.
Did You Know...the use of biologically active metallic implants was pioneered at the Medical College of Louisiana, forerunner of Tulane University?* Dr. Warren Stone was a pioneer in the field of vascular surgery. In 1836 he performed the first ligation of the external iliac artery in Louisiana. The most significant ligation of the common iliac artery performed by Dr. Stone occurred in 1859 when he used a silver wire to ligate instead of the standard septic ligature. This breakthrough changed the state of the art in surgery. The antibiotic properties of silver when implanted in the body helped prevent infection that was so frequently was the cause for morbidity in those times of pre-antiseptic and pre-anesthesia. Although general anesthesia was absent in the early years of Dr. Stone's career, he is known as one of the pioneers in the use of chloroform. Performing surgery with the patient under etherization was neither commonplace nor fully accepted in the mid eighteen hundreds, but Stone amputated a man's leg under ether anesthesia as early as 1841. *This vignette, and the ones that follow, are adapted from a Senior Thesis written by Jennifer Stearns Drake ’95. The full thesis is on the BME web site at http://tulane.edu/sse/bme/about/upload/biomedattulane.pdf.
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OUTREACH The Perry Initiative On Saturday, October 6, 2012, the BME Department hosted thirty-two high school women from the greater New Orleans area for the Perry Outreach Program "Inspiring Women to be Leaders in Orthopaedic Surgery and Engineering". The event was sponsored by Medtronic, and introduced the young women to the challenging fields of orthopaedic surgery and engineering. BME faculty members, Taby Ahsan and Annette Oertling, along with BME students and faculty from the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering department and the Physics and Engineering Physics department volunteered their time to work with the girls. The program agenda focused on workshops, where participants used power tools to practice fixing fractured bones using internal rods, repaired a broken femur using an "ex-fix" method, designed an orthopaedic implant, reconstructed a knee, helped correct scoliosis, and fixed a mid-radial fracture. It also included lectures from surgery and engineering faculty and a panel discussion about studying engineering in college, led by BME students. “I knew I wanted to do surgery. But now I really know I want to do it,” said Ciana Steele, a senior from Destrehan, LA. John Curtis High School senior, MaRyca Watts was also excited about the program and stated, "I did not know that less than 7% of all practicing orthopaedic surgeons and doctoral-level engineers are female. This is a field that I will certainly consider and I am so thrilled have been a part of amazing opportunity." The Perry Initiative is a grassroots non-profit organization founded in 2009 by University of Delaware Mechanical Engineering Professor Jenni Buckley and orthopaedic surgeon Lisa Lattanza. Tulane BME alumna Meredith May serves on the Board of Directors. The Initiative’s goal is to increase the number of practicing women orthopaedic surgeons and engineers. The Perry Initiative sponsors Perry Outreach Programs (POP) for high school women combining hands-on surgery and engineering experiences with career mentoring from prominent women surgeons and engineers. The first Perry Outreach Program hosted at Tulane was so popular that plans are underway to make it an annual event.
The Perry Initiative is named in honor of Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Jacquelin Perry. Its goal is to motivate high school girls to consider careers in engineering or orthopedic surgery.
Did You Know...the modern binocular microscope was invented here? After securing his medical degree in 1836 from Cincinnati Medical College, Dr. John L. Riddell moved to New Orleans to become a Professor of Chemistry in the Medical College of Louisiana. The school had only recently been founded, and Riddell maintained his faculty appointment there until his death in 1865. He was also the melter and refiner in the United States Mint until 1849. In 1851, a bitter faculty dispute resulted in a request for his resignation, but Riddell refused and went on to bring the Medical College of Louisiana international fame with his development of the first workable system for a binocular microscope in 1852. Riddell claims to have completed his original design for the binocular microscope in 1851, but it was not until October 2, 1852 that he exhibited the completed instrument. In the New Orleans Monthly Register of October 1852 he wrote: "Behind the objective, and as near thereto as practicable, the light is equally divided, and bent at right angles, and made to travel in opposite directions, by means of two rectangular prisms which are in contact by their edges, that are somewhat ground away. The reflected rays are received at a proper distance for binocular vision upon two other rectangular prisms and again bent at right angles.” 3 TULANE BME NEWSLETTER
PEOPLE CURRENT STUDENTS GISELE "GAZELLE" CALDERON
Gisele Calderon ‘13 is a varsity swimmer and captain of the women’s team. She will graduate with honors in May.
Gisele “Gazelle” Calderon ’13 is a Louisiana native from Baton Rouge who came to Tulane as a freshman in 2009 with a varsity swimming scholarship. She is now captain of the women’s swimming and diving team and has swum in all Conference USA (C-USA) events every year of her study at Tulane. And she’s earned a GPA of 3.8/4.0 in Biomedical Engineering. Gisele started competitive swimming at a very early age of 6 and was a 4-year letter winner at her high school. At Tulane, she’s continued to be an outstanding athlete, juggling her time between swimming and her studies. Her training schedule calls for swimming 8000 yards per day for six days a week. She tallied individual 1st place finishes in 200 fly against Vanderbilt in 2011 and against North Texas in 2012. Besides
her own individual accomplishments, she helped the relay team win several top 3 finishes, swimming as anchor in various inter-collegiate events such as Phil Hansel Classic Invitational, UH Cougar Classic and San Diego Relay. Every year at Tulane, she’s claimed C-USA Commissioner’s Honor Roll and Tulane 3.0 Club recognition, and earned C-USA Academic Medal Honors for her extraordinary GPA. She is currently working in Prof. Damir Khismatullin’s lab and recently received a $3,500 research funding from the Newcomb-Tulane College George Lurcy/Oscar Lee Putnam Program to study breast cancer metastasis. She is also a finalist for a Fulbright Scholarship to do research in angiogenesis in Switzerland. The nickname came from her fans, and she loves it!
ELLIE RODEBECK Lots of BME undergrads have part time jobs, and a look at the bike rack outside Boggs confirms how many are on two wheels every day. But only one BME senior earns her cash by riding a bike around the French Quarter 10-25 hours a week. Ellie Rodebeck ’13 will go to medical school next year. She has 3 acceptances in hand, and she’s thinking about how to integrate engineering into her planned career as a reconstructive surgeon. To help finance her education, and all the costs associated with medical school applications, she pedals one of the new pedicabs that have begun ferrying 2-3 passengers each from the Superdome to restaurants and hotels. She says “I get paid to exercise and socialize with the tourists and locals as I pedal around the city, and I earn enough to support myself financially during the school year by working one or two shifts a week. Pedicabbing is one of the best experiences I’ve had in New Orleans” To get some speed and distance, she’s also a member of Tulane’s competitive bicycling team, practicing 40-80 miles per week along the Mississippi levee. Her favorite classes have been Prof. Gaver’s BMEN3440 Fluid Mechanics, and Prof. Walker’s BMEN3780 Embedded Controls, and her greatest love in New Orleans is the food. “After a tough exam, we go to Dat Dog (on Freret Street) to eat our pain away.” Dinner breaks during a pedicab shift see her at Mother’s on Poydras Street, and she’s getting to know the street musicians and artists as she regularly makes her way through the CBD and French Quarter. Growing up in Dayton Ohio, she never had her sights set on the South until she visited Tulane as a high school Senior. “The food, the weather, the culture – I just had a gut feeling that this was the right place for me.” She’s proved that her instincts were right, earning a perfect 4.0 GPA in four out of six semesters so far.
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RESEARCH Dr. Sergey Shevkoplyas Wins NIH Award Dr. Sergey Shevkoplyas, the Ken and Ruth Arnold Early Career Professor in Biomedical Engineering, is the recipient of a 5-year, $1.88M National Institutes of Health Director’s Transformative Research Award. This is a highly competitive and prestigious award and Dr. Shevkoplyas is among the elite group of only 20 recipients this year. The Transformative Research Award initiative was created specifically to support exceptionally innovative and/ or unconventional research projects. The award’s primary emphasis is to support research on bold and paradigm-shifting, but untested ideas. Dr. Shevkoplyas’ proposal entitled “Eliminating Mediators of Toxicity from Stored Blood” was judged to be high-risk and high-reward, and highly innovative. With nearly 15 million units of red blood cells (RBCs) transfused to about 5 million patients in the U.S. every year, RBC transfusion is one of the most commonly prescribed therapies for hospital patients. Most transfusions involve RBCs that have been stored in an anticoagulantpreservative solution at 1-6 deg C for up to 6 weeks. The biochemical, mechanical and functional properties of RBCs deteriorate progressively during hypothermic storage and a significant fraction of stored RBCs becomes irreparably damaged. The storage medium also accumulates toxic byproducts of RBC metabolism and
degradation. Infusion of these toxic mediators and damaged cells into the patient during transfusion reduces the therapeutic efficacy of transfusion and contributes to adverse outcomes in about 1-2% of transfused patients every year. Dr. Shevkoplyas proposes detection, sorting, Sergey Shevkoplyas has built a productive laboratory and transfusion centered on applications of microfluidics in human of only wellblood. preserved cells, Dr. Shevkoplyas free from damaged cells and toxins in has long experience the storage medium. This is an entirely and is a leading novel approach with a potentially gameresearcher in the changing, transformative impact on areas of blood banking and transfusion. the safety and efficacy of transfusions He has studied the properties of RBCs administered throughout the practice at microscale since he was a doctoral of medicine. The goal of this project is student at Boston University. Shortly to develop an inexpensive, disposable after coming to Tulane as an Assistant technology for high-throughput removal Professor in Biomedical Engineering, he of irreparably damaged cells and toxic received a $74,900 grant in 2010 from the mediators accumulating in the storage National Blood Foundation to study RBC medium from RBC units during the deterioration. transfusion process.
Doug Chrisey Joins Tulane BME As Adjunct Faculty Member Doug Chrisey, an internationally and highly acclaimed expert on biomaterials research, recently joined the faculty as the Cornelia and Arthur Jung Chair in Materials Engineering, with an adjunct appointment in Biomedical Engineering. Prof. Chrisey has had an accomplished career in materials research. He was a Professor of Material Science and Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), before coming to New Orleans. At RPI, 5 TULANE BME NEWSLETTER
he built a large and successful research program in materials research ranging from novel ceramics for energy storage to controlled stem cell differentiation. He has also spent over 17 years as the Section Head of Plasma Processing Section in the Materials Science and Technology Division at Naval Research Laboratory, where he conducted research on the capabilities of laser-based processing to fabricate novel electronic materials. As an expert of materials science and engineering, Prof. Chrisey has published over 400 papers with a total number of citations greater than 8,000 and an h-index of 47. He has 18 patents issued. For his research accomplishments, he has been invited to give over 200
presentations for international conferences and university colloquiums. He sits on the editorial board of a number of journals and he also served for various DoD, NSF and ONR Panels. Doug is also the scientific advisory member of two companies, Nanotherapeutics and Nano Solutions, Inc. He has supervised many post-docs and PhD students and several of them have gone on to become leaders in their fields. The arrival of Prof. Chrisey will bring a significant lift to the biomaterial science research in the BME Department and elsewhere in the University. We’re expecting to greatly enhance our biomaterials research with the vision and leadership of Prof. Chrisey.
PEOPLE Introducing Quincy Brown This Fall, we welcomed our newest faculty member, J. Quincy Brown. Brown is an expert in the rapidly expanding and dynamic field of biophotonics, and is Tulane’s first faculty member in this area of research. Biophotonics (also referred to as “biomedical optics”) involves leveraging the interactions of light with biology to increase our understanding of biology and to improve outcomes in human medicine. Applications of biophotonics range from purely research applications (for example, microscopic imaging in cell or animal disease models) to clinical diagnostics (cancer detection; retinal imaging) to therapeutics (laser ablation therapy; photodynamic therapy). Research in Prof. Brown’s Laboratory focuses on the application and clinical translation of quantitative optical spectroscopy and imaging tools for pointof-care cancer management. A major theme in their work is the use of novel spectroscopy and imaging devices (and computational analysis tools) to improve a surgeon’s ability to completely remove cancers of the breast, prostate, and kidney. The lab also develops tools and strategies using optics to answer interesting biological questions in cell and animal models (for instance, helping to determine which tumors will respond to which anti-cancer therapies). Prof. Brown earned his B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University in 2001, and continued there to earn his Ph.D. in
Quincy Brown, a Louisiana native, is a leader in the emerging field of biomedical photonics.
2005 as a member of the Institute for Micromanufacturing (under the direction of Dr. Michael McShane). As a graduate student at Louisiana Tech, Brown pioneered the modeling and development of nanoengineered, optically-transduced enzymatic microbead sensors for glucose. He then moved to the Ramanujam lab at Duke University for an NIH postdoctoral fellowship, where he developed and applied quantitative spectroscopy tools for applications in human breast cancer, including a study to monitor vascular oxygenation of breast tumors in vivo using spectroscopy, and a study to develop a new intraoperative tool for surgical margin assessment using spectral imaging. As an independent research faculty member at Duke, he was awarded an NIH research grant to develop a highthroughput optical sectioning microscopy approach for fluorescence enhanced surgical margin assessment. He was a
co-founder of a Duke start-up (Zenalux Biomedical) which is commercializing technology licensed from Duke, and he was involved in the development and execution of that company’s first product launch in 2012. Brown joined the Tulane BME Department as an Assistant Professor last July 2012. He is continuing the work on tumor margin assessment along with new research directions. He taught Tulane’s first course in Biomedical Optics in the Fall semester, and plans to teach additional courses that align with his research interests. He and his wife, Rebecca, are both native Louisianians (and lifelong Saints fans), and along with their two young children Caroline and Wesley, they are very excited to make their new home in New Orleans.
Did You Know...Biomedical Engineering at Tulane, as we know it today, started in the 1940s when the faculty from the School of Engineering joined forces with the faculty from the School of Medicine? From 1944 until the early 1970's, Professor Jim Cronvich (Head of Electrical Engineering), and George Burch MD (Internal Medicine) worked together on design of electronic instrumentation for clinical applications of biomedical engineering. In 1944 Dr. Burch ran into some difficulties with the control system he was using in his research. He brought the apparatus to Cronvich who was able to show him what was causing the trouble. Not long after that, Burch was getting odd results from his basal metabolism apparatus. He called Cronvich, described the problem over the phone and Cronvich told him how to fix it even though he had never seen the device. Together they tackled projects relating to electrocardiology, radioactivity's affect on humans, and digital plethysmography to study blood flow into the extremities and the effect of the environment on this flow. Even after Burch's retirement at age 65, he and Cronvich continued to work together on research projects. Their funding came from donations made by Burch's grateful patients. TULANE BME NEWSLETTER 6
OUTREACH Biotech Entrepreneurship Course Welcomes Medical Students A quarter of the participants in SCEN6000 Entrepreneurship in the Biosciences are students in the School of Medicine (SOM), marking the first time that one of our graduate courses is jointly taught to medical students and SSE (School of Science and Engineering) students. Taught by a local entrepreneur who is also a faculty member, Professor Edward Karp’s course has become one of the most popular offerings, with a waiting list every year. The first time he taught it, only six students signed up. At the time, the notion that students could translate their ideas and research into marketable products was not part of the student mindset. However, Prof. Karp sought to change that perception. His vision was to teach students how to analyze an idea, form a company around that idea, and then launch and grow that company to have a meaningful impact on healthcare and the economy. A chemical engineer who worked on the human insulin project, Prof. Karp decided to enter the business side of healthcare after graduating from Northwestern. He went on to receive his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Business and set off on a very
successful career, working for Eli Lilly & Co. and launching a number of his own healthcare companies. Years later, he brought his experience to Tulane to teach this course and that original class of six has now become one of the most popular in the School of Science and Engineering. It has developed such a great reputation that Dr. Marc Kahn, Associate Dean of the School of Medicine, came calling to asking for slots for his students. Twelve are enrolled for Spring ’13. In addition to offering the course as an elective for all medical students, those pursuing an MD/PhD from the SOM will now be required to take Professor Karp’s course. This will introduce them to a new perspective in the field of medicine, the business side, which will be very important to their careers, whether they pursue academia or industry. Several companies have already grown out of business plans written in Karp’s class, including Bioceptive, a venture-backed medical device company whose original business plan was written in 2010, and SODI-CAN, based on a solar filtration system developed by two students in last year’s class. Look for more great things in the years to come in this new partnership with the School of Medicine.
BME Hosts New Orleans Champion Steve Gleason Dateline: September 25, 2006. Location: The rebuilt Superdome, where the Saints played their first home game in New Orleans after a season on the road because of Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans Saint Steve Gleason bursts through the Atlanta Falcons offensive line and blocks the ball off the foot of the Falcons punter and into the end zone— recovered for a touchdown by the Saints. The Saints win, and “the blocked punt heard around the world” continues to resonate as a signal event that ignited the resurgence of New Orleans. Fast forward to December 4, 2012. BME Seminar, Tulane University. Steve Gleason, now retired, is playing the role of catalyst again—this time in the arena of healthcare. And the Biomedical Engineering “Team Design” program, directed by Prof. Lars Gilbertson, has become a part of this initiative. Team Gleason is dedicated to the mission of providing individuals with muscular diseases such as ALS with state of the art technology, equipment and services. Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS in 2011, and now has partnered with St. Margaret’s, iconic New Orleans provider of medical services to the poor since 1931 (http://stmargaretsno.org/). 7 TULANE BME NEWSLETTER
Biomedical Engineering students, faculty, and staff with Steve Gleason (center).
Together they have created an innovative skilled care residence in New Orleans for persons with ALS. Team Gleason originally approached the healthcare operator with a vision to outfit an 18-resident household with specialized technologies to foster maximum independence for those suffering from this presently incurable disease. “This facility will not only provide them with this technology to give the residents an opportunity to live as independently as possible but this will give the residents purpose and added value to their lives” says Gleason. Joining Steve in the BME Seminar was Michael Gilman, St. Margaret’s Director of Development. Gilman acknowledged
St. Margaret’s successful long-term collaboration with Tulane BME Team Design—and challenged the students in attendance “to apply hearts and minds to the development of novel assistive technology for persons with ALS.” Participating in the seminar via Skype, digital eye tracking technology, and computer-aided voice synthesis was Eric Valor from Santa Cruz, CA. Eric Valor’s calling card reads “Scientist, Advocate, Information Technology Professional, ALS Patient.” Eric mesmerized all in attendance with an account of his life before ALS (including cold water surfing, sailing, and scuba diving) and his epiphany after diagnosis that “Technology could enable me to continue to exist online, where I already had a robust life.” ALS is presently without a cure, but as Steve Gleason says, “Until there is a cure for ALS, technology is the cure.” Inspired by the seminar, BME students and faculty have not dropped the ball but have continued to interact with Team Gleason, St. Margaret’s, and Eric Valor, working together with passion to develop the technology that will give purpose and added value to the lives of persons with ALS.
PEOPLE Lowry Curley Uses Light Projection To Direct Cell Growth It wasn’t Lowry Curley’s grades, test scores, or work experience that most impressed Dr. Michael Moore when considering his application to the BME Ph.D. program. It was his mention of creativity and interests in art. Dr. Moore had just joined the faculty and was looking to find his first graduate student in his new lab. “We were going to be starting a brand-new research program, developing all new techniques,” Moore recalls, “and I knew my biggest need would be hard workers who were also creative problem-solvers.” Curley, who graduated cum laude with a degree in Ceramics and Materials Engineering from Clemson University, was hoping to apply his engineering skills to problems related to human health. “I really liked the idea of being able to apply my background in materials to a healthrelated field,” he explains. “And I thought using materials to regulate nerve growth sounded really fascinating.” Despite Lowry’s lack of a biological background, he picked up on biological research techniques readily, particularly neural microdissection. “I’ve sometimes noticed that students with skills in art and music seem to pick up microdissection really quickly,” Moore adds—and he is apparently serious. “Perhaps it’s something about the trained manual dexterity or eye-hand coordination.” Lowry would require his artistic skills and creativity for the rest of his Ph.D. training to come up with creative ways of approaching problems. He developed
Lowry Curley was Prof. Michael Moore’s first graduate student. He and Moore developed a new technique to optically guide nerve growth.
a novel way of using digital light projection technology to create simple micropatterns with gels that alternatively restrict and permit cell growth in order to microengineer living neural tissue. Lowry was able to show that his simple approach was effective for constraining neural growth in prescribed patterns within a 3D environment, forming neural tracts that look and behave a lot more like in vivo nerves than cells cultured in a dish. Then, incorporating another gel developed by another student in Moore’s lab, he was able to show that guidance molecules found during development, when placed in specific locations with the gel, could further selectively guide the nerve growth. The endeavor required not only creativity, but perseverance. “I
think I spent almost nine months trying to troubleshoot one particularly challenging problem,” he recalls. After successfully defending his Ph.D. dissertation in August, Lowry accepted a postdoctoral research position a long way from his native Louisiana. He is currently helping to develop bi-directional carbon interfaces for advanced implantable neuroprosthetics at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. The project will enable him to continue using advanced materials to address problems related to neuroscience, but will expand his knowledge and skill set into new areas. Eventually he expects to return to the U.S. with an eye toward translational research that has a good chance of improving patients’ lives.
Did You Know...Tulane’s first Biomedical Engineering course was taught in 1952? EE400 HUMAN ENGINEERING, was taught by Dr. Matthew Bach, was a professor in the Department of Physiology. Bach’s research interests, for a great part of his career, revolved around Biomedical Engineering. In 1949, Dr. Bach contacted Professor Claude J. Sperry of the Department of Electrical Engineering. Bach needed help in designing and building a blood-flow metering device for a research project. This project was only the first of many in Bach and Sperry's long and productive collaboration and friendship. Together, Bach and Sperry tackled projects ranging from cat physiology to weapon design. Their first joint research project, “Artificial Moonlight” spanned 1951-1953 for the United States Army Research and Development Laboratory. The Korean War was underway, and the troops were in danger during the very dark nights. "Artificial Moonlight" was based on the theory that atmospherically scattered light from powerful searchlight beams would allow the troops to see the approaching enemy soldiers. Based on the data they collected at the Bonnet Carre spillway, Bach, Sperry and the other researchers, the army constructed a slide rule which field commanders used to set searchlight elevations and azimuths for optimum illumination under various weather conditions. TULANE BME NEWSLETTER 8
PEOPLE DISTINGUISHED ALUMNA MARIA ODEN, BSE '89, MSE '91, PhD '94 Last June, The American Society for Engineering Education has honored Maria Oden (BSE '89, MSE '91, PhD '94), Professor in the Practice of Engineering Education at Rice University, with its prestigious 2012 Fred Merryfield Design Award for of “creativity and demonstrated excellence in the teaching of engineering design.”
Triple graduate Maria Oden (right) teaches Seniors at Rice University about engineering design.
After her third graduation from Tulane, Dr. Oden worked in orthopedic biomechanics and computational modeling as a senior research associate at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She joined the Department of Bioengineering at Rice as a lecturer and laboratory coordinator in 2004, and guides the technical design efforts of undergraduates participating in Beyond Traditional Borders and Global Health Technologies. She has developed and taught a two-semester Bioengineering Capstone Design course sequence, mentoring more than 250 students in 65 design teams. In 2008, Oden became the inaugural director of the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen, where she has inspired hundreds of students to work in teams of four or five to complete design challenge projects. More than 28 teams have won regional and national awards at design competitions, several of their devices are being tested in the U.S. and abroad, and 24 students have graduated with patent applications on their resume. “Maria has an incredible flair for inspiring and guiding students to solve design challenges that are ‘real world’. The teams often end up morphing the challenge and coming up with workable prototypes, some of which result in filing of intellectual property disclosures and even the occasional student-led start-up that solves the original real-world problem,” said Edwin “Ned” Thomas, the Dean of Engineering at Rice. Dr. Oden serves on the board of directors for Houston’s Center for Hearing and Speech. Her husband, Brian Duffy, also earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Tulane, and he’s now the Department Manager for Pipeline Engineering at Genesis Oil and Gas Consultants in Houston.
RESEARCH Center For Anatomical and Movement Sciences The Center for Anatomical and Movement Sciences (CAMS) is an interdepartmental initiative that originated from the remodeling and expansion of the former Human Anatomy Lab housed in the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences. CAMS’ main lab offers a unique human cadaver dissection experience to undergraduate and graduate students from the nine departments associated with the School of Science and Engineering (SSE). Recently Steven McCollam, a new SSE Board of Advisors member, introduced a suite of Stryker surgical equipment into the anatomy lab. Steve is a hand surgeon from Atlanta who demonstrated several techniques to Tulane Biomedical Engineering and other SSE students during a campus visit. Dr. McCollam was named one of the top hand orthopaedic surgeons in Atlanta in 2010, 2011 and 2012 and this year was given the Patients' Choice Award. He’s a New Orleans native who earned his BA (cum laude) from Tulane University in 1978 and his MD from Tulane with honors in 1982.
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All BME Juniors take a semester-long course in Anatomy and Physiology, including gross dissection of human cadavers at the Center for Anatomical and Movement Sciences.
PEOPLE FACULTY NEWS Research Updates • Honors & Awards • Innovative Projects Mic Dancisak has received surgical kits and maxillofacial implants from Gregory Auda, Director of New Business Development at Synthes. These will be used to demonstrate and give hands-on experience with mandibular repair on cadaveric and skeletal specimens in the CAMS teaching lab.
Annette Oertling was awarded the Louisiana Legislative Women’s Caucus 2012 Women of Excellence Award for Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM), recognizing her work with the Tulane School of Science and Engineering K-12 outreach initiatives.
Ron Anderson is celebrating his 25th year on the faculty. In October, he co-authored a poster at the Society for Biomaterials, in New Orleans.
Taby Ahsan’s Lab, as part of the Tulane Center of Aging, has started work on the effect of donor age on stem cellbased cardiovascular regeneration.
Sergey Shevkoplyas received a 2012 NIH Director's Transformative Research Award (T-R01) Eliminating Mediators of Toxicity from Stored Blood, which will have a potentially game-changing impact on health care by dramatically improving the safety and efficacy of blood transfusions.
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Damir Khismatullin is an organizer of the National Institute of Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) Investigative Workshop on Modeling Blood Cell Interactions bringing together leading researchers in cell biology, physiology, biophysics, engineering, and applied mathematics.
San Aung participated in ASEE 2012 Annual Conference Mechanics Division session on handson demos for Mechanics of Materials concepts with simple models for torsion, beam bending, shear flow and column buckling.
Lee Murfee, in recognition of his research identifying the role of pericytes in microvascular network growth, has been invited to give a symposium presentation at the International Union of Physiological Sciences Congress 2013 to be held in Birmingham, UK.
Donald Gaver, with AnneMarie Jacob Job published a paper in the Journal of Applied Physiology that demonstrates surface-tensioninduced disruption of epithelial cell tight junctions that may contribute to atelectrauma in ventilationinduced lung injury (doi: 10.1152/ japplphysiol.01432.2011).
Lars Gilbertson completed training and certification as an ABET Program Evaluator for Biomedical Engineering. He was honored as “Teacher of the Year” by the Class of 2012.
Cedric Walker has led the creation of a Universitywide program, named in honor of Dean Jean Danielson, to provide enhanced opportunities for intellectual engagement for highly motivated undergraduate students.
Yu-Ping Wang chaired an International Workshop on Multiscale Biomedical Imaging Analysis (MBIA) in conjunction with IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine (BIBM) in Philadelphia on October 4 - 7, 2012
Quincy Brown gave an invited presentation at the BMES Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA, on his work on optical guidance of breast cancer surgery.
Michael Moore’s laboratory, along with collaborators in Cell & Molecular Biology and the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, received a Concept Award grant from the Department of Defense to develop “a functional, high-throughput assay of myelination in vitro.” The project seeks to microengineer living neural fiber tracts from adult human stem cells to aid the screening of treatments for demyelinating disorders, such as multiple sclerosis.
Doug Chrisey’s lab has developed the CAD/CAM fabrication of engineered tissue constructs on a cellby-cell level.
TULANE BME NEWSLETTER 10
Department of Biomedical Engineering Lindy Boggs Center Suite 500 New Orleans, LA 70118
PEOPLE RESEARCH
LinkedIn UPDATE There are now more than 530 Tulane BME alumni, students, and faculty members in the “Tulane Biomedical Engineering Students and Alumni” group on LinkedIn.com. If you’re already a member of LinkedIn, it’s easy to join. Just type “Tulane Biomedical” in the “Groups” search box at the top of the LinkedIn home page.
Keep Up With The Latest News The BMEN web site is frequently updated with news about our students and research. Get the latest updates at http://tulane.edu/sse/bme/newsandevents/
OUTREACH
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