DEPARTMENT OF
BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING
SCHOOL OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING • BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING NEWSLETTER • 2020
MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR What a year of contrasts it has been!
Donald Gaver has served as the Biomedical Engineering Department Chair for the past fourteen 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.”
We began the year with a new krewe of highly ambitious seniors, all (seriously, all) of whom had completed summer internships. These included two new Tulane programs: 1) clinical research internships with the New Orleans VA and 2) BIGI (Biomedical Innovation for Global Impact), a program led by Professors Bayer and Raymond that brings rising seniors to Peru to participate in global health initiatives in low-resource communities. Both programs have been successful in helping our students develop non-academic career development experiences as they conduct “needs assessment” that meaningfully contribute to their capstone team design projects. In the fall semester, we completed our ABET accreditation site-visit. This ‘event’ provides us with the opportunity to demonstrate to external evaluators the coherency and continuous quality improvement approach towards our programs. Frankly, while an onerous process, our department is culturally supportive of ABET student-focused goals, and this visit allowed us to demonstrate our intellectually and (at that moment) socially connected community. We were very happy with the outcome of this visit. During the spring semester, life quickly changed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the necessity for socially distanced education. Given the nature of our department with the many research and teaching connections between us, this was not an easy transition. Nevertheless, we rallied to successfully teach online courses, and hold BME community events that included regular “BME Friday Afternoon Live!” get-togethers, an online Team Design Expo, an Order of the Engineers induction ceremony, and an Awards Gala! Of course, the faculty also completed necessary (and ubiquitous) Zoom meetings to keep us connected and working coherently. The attached picture is from our 42nd Course Roundup – a biannual ritual that brings us together to discuss successes and opportunities for improvement. This semester we critically examined methods to improve upon on-line teaching methods in preparation for the likely scenario that some of our classes will be on-line in the fall. So, this was a year of contrasts. We look forward to a healthy recovery to a less physically distanced situation, with lessons learned from our current situation that may improve our research and teaching practices. We most sincerely hope that this newsletter finds you and your loved ones healthy and happy. With warm regards,
Donald Gaver Chair, Tulane Department of Biomedical Engineering
Our Tulane BME highly connected (and physically distanced) faculty Top row (from L to R): Professors Wang, Gaver, Anderson and Khismatullin Middle row (from L to R): Professors Moore, Miller, Bayer, Bull Bottom row (from L to R): Professors Brown, Raymond, Dancisak, and Mondrinos
RESEARCH CAROLYN L. BAYER GRANT
Placental functional imaging to predict preeclampsia therapeutic outcomes, R01, National Institutes of Health
AWARD
$1.6 Million over 5 years
FOCUS
Determine the impact of specific drugs in the treatment of preeclampsia using contrast enhanced ultrasound and photoacoustic imagining.
MICHAEL J. MOORE GRANT
Human Microphysiological Model of Afferent Nociceptive Transmission, UG3, National Institutes of Health
AWARD
$1.1 Million over 2 years
FOCUS
Develop a “Pain-on-a-Chip� model consisting of living human cells that mimic the transmission of pain signals from the peripheral nerve to the spinal cord, which will be used to screen experimental drugs for their painrelieving potential.
KRISTIN S. MILLER GRANT
Elastic Fiber Regeneration Potential During Postpartum Healing, National Science Foundation, Award Number:1947770
AWARD
$491,735.00 over 3 years
FOCUS
Investigate the regenerative potential of the murine vagina during postpartum healing as a function of increasing maternal age. This will be accomplished by evaluating the mechanical properties via mechanical testing and then assessing the tissue microstructure through multiphoton microscopy as well as histology. Such data will be used to inform a biomechanical microstructural model of the vagina with respect to increasing maternal age. 2
FACULTY MARK MONDRINOS
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Dr. Mark Mondrinos joined Tulane Biomedical Engineering in July 2019. He came to Tulane because of the unique combination of emphasizing grassroots undergraduate education while striving for top-tier research excellence. Outstanding collaborative opportunities in the School of Medicine and numerous research centers will allow his students and trainees to make significant contributions in translational science as biomedical engineers. Dr. Mark Mondrinos earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Drexel University and then trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Temple University School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania, where he was later promoted to research associate faculty and served as instructor for the course ‘Engineering Principles of Human Physiology’. His research interests in microphysiological systems lie broadly at the intersection of tissue engineering, organ-on-a-chip technology, and human pathophysiology across scales from systems of multiple organs to individual cells. His doctoral work pioneered the field of lung organoid engineering and he has made significant contributions to the fields of biomaterials, preclinical modeling of lung injury, mechanobiology, and organ-on-a-chip technology. Integrating these diverse disciplines, the Tissue Engineering and MicroPhysiological Systems (TEMPS) laboratory at Tulane will strive to be a world leader in developing platform technologies to first model and then deconstruct complex human pathophysiology, ultimately enabling the discovery of new therapies. Current focus in the lab is on engineering multi-organ models of electronic cigarette vapor exposure and respiratory viral infection in collaboration with investigators at the School of Medicine and the Tulane National Primate Research Center, as well as models of cancer processes including metastasis and systemic wasting in collaboration with other investigators at the Tulane Cancer Center. Teaching and mentoring are the things that Dr. Mondrinos enjoys most about being an academic. In his first semester at Tulane he taught a newly-created graduate and professional elective course titled ‘Microphysiological Systems’, which will now become a semi-annual offering. He is also passionate about teaching subjects including Quantitative Physiology, Tissue Engineering, Biomaterials, Cell Biology and Mechanobiology. Originally from Bradenton, FL; Dr. Mondrinos comes to Tulane after 16 years in Philadelphia, PA and he is delighted to finally be back in the south. He now lives in uptown New Orleans with his wife of 14 years, Brittany, and their children - Madeleine (10), Vivienne (6) and Dorian (3). Some hobbies that occupy the small amount of time left over after career and family life include bonsai, gardening in general, listening to old records, and discovering new things to learn about. His favorite things about New Orleans and Tulane are the people and the strong sense of community and New Orleans is the right place for his family!
FACULTY NEWS
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Research Updates • Honors & Awards • Innovative Projects
Donald Gaver has published a Viewpoint paper “The POOR Get POORer: A Hypothesis for the Pathogenesis of Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury” in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Yu-Ping Wang has been appointed as the associate editor for IEEE Trans. Medical Imaging. IEEE TMI is a primary journal in the field of medical imaging, with an impact factor of 7.816.
Carolyn Bayer is serving on the editorial boards of both Scientific Reports and Molecular Imaging and Biology journals.
Michael Dancisak has begun working with the NOLA Gold, a professional rugby team, looking into data acquisition and processing for enhancement of sport performance at the elite levels. This is sadly on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Elvis Danso, a post-doctoral fellow in Kristin S. Miller’s lab, presented a talk titled Effects of Pelvic Organ Prolapse on the Biaxial Mechanical Behavior of Post-Menopausal Uterosacral Ligament at the Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference in June, 2019.”
Quincy Brown served as a General Chair of the Novel Techniques in Microscopy meeting within the 2019 OSA Biophotonics Congress, and as a Conference Chair of the Clinical and Preclinical Optical Diagnostics Conference within the 2019 European Conferences on Biomedical Optics (ECBO). At ECBO, he gave a Hot Topics plenary session talk on “The State of the Optical Biopsy in 2019.”
PEOPLE Undergraduate Student Focus: MOSTAFA MESELHE Hometown: Lafayette, Louisiana • Graduation: May 2020 Why Tulane: Mostafa attended Tulane because of the opportunities to be creative, to do research, to take part in service and to work. The strong sense of community within the BME department, the school, and the city made him feel warm and welcomed. Favorite Class: Microphysiological Systems taught by Dr. Mondrinos. This class applied knowledge learned from previous classes and research experiences to creatively propose novel organ-on-a-chip models. While at Tulane: Mostafa was a campus tour guide and worked as a tutor at the Academic Learning and Teaching Center. Additionally, he was very involved in a service organization called Engineers Without Borders as well as the Rock Climbing Club. Research Experience: He worked in Dr. Moore’s Neural MicroEngineering Lab for the past 3 years on a project to visualize neuron activity in cultured models. He found it fascinating to watch the neurons light up when they activate and depolarize. Awards: The Nissim Nathan Cohen Memorial Award, Cronvich Award and Tomkins Memorial Award Favorite Things in New Orleans: The culture and the energy of the people in New Orleans. There’s a uniqueness and liveliness in the city that gives it so much soul and made New Orleans such an amazing city to call home. Free Time: In his free time Mostafa enjoys going to coffee shops and playing soccer in a local city league. Despite having a pretty energetic personality, he is notorious for his ability to fall asleep and nap anywhere at any time. Post-Graduation: Master of Philosophy in Engineering at the University of Cambridge with Dr. Shery Huang’s group ‘Biointerface’ developing biomimetic organ-on-chips followed by an MD/PhD.
Master’s Student Focus: ANN MARIE BARFIELD Hometown: Baton Rouge, Louisiana • Graduation: May 2020 Research Focus: Master’s work was done in the Tulane Center for Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine and focused on characterizing full-term human amniotic fluid and amniotic membrane. While at Tulane: Ann Marie competed with two Novel Tech Challenge (NTC) Teams in April 2020 Team AccuTractor and Team Naomi. AccuTractor was the continuation of her BME senior Team Design project of a novel dissection tool based on the team’s cadaver dissection experience. Naomi was a project that Katelynn Montgomery, a Bioinnovation PhD student that works in the lab with Ann Marie, started. The goal is an amniotic-based supplement for treating a common disease in premature infants. Working on Naomi with NTC was unique because it used a completely different type of technology and was in a different stage of development than AccuTractor, and it was more alongside her research. Team Naomi won first place and Team AccuTractor won second place, so it was an “awesome feeling” for Ann Marie to see all the work pay off. Overall, NTC did a great job exposing her to different elements of tech development and really reinforced a lot of the things learned in Team Design and throughout BME. Post-Graduation: Either medical school in the fall or entering the working world. Favorite Things in New Orleans: Live music and art markets. Free Time: Any outdoor exercise, especially running and biking; reading; listening to podcasts. As an undergrad Ann Marie volunteered as an EMT with Tulane EMS. While initially disappointed at the COVID-19 interruptions to life, having family and friends working on the frontlines put the whole situation into perspective. It has also allowed for more personal time and quality time with family and a chance to slow down and focus on what’s important.
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PEOPLE Graduate Student Focus: IVAN BOZIC Hometown: Zemun, Serbia Education: BS/MS: Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, School of Electrical Engineering (ETF), University of Belgrade, Serbia; MS: Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University Research Lab: Quincy Brown’s Translational Biophotonics Laboratory Research Focus: Developing an optical diagnostic device for intraoperative use during cancer removal that will provide a real-time estimate of cancer margins and allow the surgeon to be more conservative in tissue removal. Before coming to Tulane: Ivan had the opportunity to work at CERN during the Higgs boson discovery, which will probably stay as one of the most significant discoveries of our lives. Working for CERN was one of the greatest experiences in Ivan’s life, from learning to work in a huge collaboration and competing with different teams from around the world to taking responsibilities not just for his work, but for whole collaborations. The CERN experience prepared him for moving to the US by forcing him to communicate in English, which until then was something learned in school but, except for reading, never used in practice. CERN hires people from institutions to participate in projects, the Serbian group that works on the ATLAS experiment hired Ivan due to his experience in signal processing and some electronic knowledge. Favorite Things in New Orleans: Live music and how New Orleans architecture, especially uptown and French quarter, look-alike to European. Hobbies: Sports, particularly soccer and volleyball, hiking, traveling, and reading. Covid-19 rearranged his hobbies with more time for reading and no chance for sports. Ivan speaks seven languages.
Bioinnovation Student Focus: RANI BROOKS Hometown: Manassas, Virginia Education: B.Sc. Biological Sciences, Microbiology concentration, Cornell University Why Tulane: Rani wanted to earn a PhD so he could develop new skills and work on novel research, while pursuing some form of entrepreneurship. Bioinnovation is a unique to Tulane PhD program that covers both territories. Research Focus: Rani is developing synthetic biology tools to improve easeof-use and access to phage therapy. Phage therapy is a precision medicine approach for treating antibiotic-resistant infections using bacteriophage, or phage, which are viruses that selectively kill bacteria. Rani witnessed several people close to him suffer from antibiotic-resistant infections, so he’s excited to be working to support a promising therapy that could curb needless pain and medical expense. Grant: Rani received a Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program Discovery Award in the amount of $280,826 from the Department of Defense on October 4, 2019. The award, “Toxin-Free Host-Independent Synthesis of Bacteriophage of Gram-Negative Pathogens,” is underwritten by Dr. Lisa Morici at Tulane School of Medicine and Dr. Nicholas Sandoval at Tulane School of Science and Engineering. Post-Graduation: Hopefully, Rani will develop his research to the point where it can commercialize products to advance phage therapy. He is currently working on a method to reduce lead-time in phage manufacturing as well as a tool to simplify phage genetic engineering. Hobbies: Rani likes to play music in his spare time. His instruments are bass, banjo, mandolin, and his favorite, ukulele. Rani also bakes bread. He didn’t jump on the Covid sourdough bandwagon, he was already on the Great British Baking Show bandwagon. Self-isolation has given him more opportunities to practice both his hobbies. Interesting Fact: Rani has three pet rats: Mr. Peppy, Sleepy Gary, and Tiny Brother (TB). 5
DESIGN Team Design In The Time Of Covid-19 The 2019-2020 Team Design experience was one like no other. There are always challenges to overcome in completing ambitious capstone projects, but a global pandemic and subsequent quarantine presented unprecedented hurdles. Fortunately, opportunities arose for the senior cohort to showcase ingenuity, creative adaptability, resiliency, and professionalism in completing this year’s capstone biomedical engineering projects. Starting in the Fall of 2019, the seniors shared their summer work experience to identify skill areas for team collaborations and to plan topics on which they could share expertise with their colleagues in future lectures. Rising seniors worked at an impressive variety of experiences the summer before their senior year, including industry opportunities such as Medtronic and Applied Medical, labs on and off campus, government offices such as the FDA and USPTO, and hospitals such as the VA and Ochsner. Each student had the opportunity to “pitch” needs statements to their classmates for adoption as projects, including those developed from an NIH-funded clinical needs finding experience. From 35 pitches, 11 projects were selected. Throughout the two semesters, students worked with industry representatives from across the community to hone their skills and improve their projects. For the past three years, the Team Design course has culminated with the presentation of the seniors’ capstone projects at the Tulane Engineering Capstone Design Expo. When the quarantine occurred, leaders of the capstone courses and administration worked rapidly to move the Expo to an online format, as students shifted to new methods of communicating with their groups and proving feasibility of their innovations. While students cited such challenges as differing time zones and continuing physical models with team members spaced across the nation, they noted the positive aspects of remote learning such as “utilizing the ‘rooms’ feature on
Biomedical Engineering Overall Winner Trach Tech
Zoom for group work.” Working with professors, teaching assistants, and mentors, the students pivoted to create CAD models to test their designs, videos to showcase the overall explanation of their work, and websites to capture the design process. On April 16, 2020 the “virtual” Expo took place. While there is no replacement for an in-person event, the showcase yielded unexpected benefits such as family members from across the country joining, as well as flexibility for industry professionals, academic mentors, and BME board members to attend. Students gave positive feedback; one noted, “the expo went on without problems and was very exciting to be part of.” Professors were impressed with the exceptional creativity and thoroughness of the students’ presentations. Noted emeritus professor David Rice, “It was a very fine show, particularly under the COVID circumstances.” View student presentation videos and websites here: https:// sse.tulane.edu/2020-engineering-capstone-design-expo
Tulane BME gratefully acknowledges the advice and guidance of the 2019-20 Team Design academic and industry mentors: Dr. Carolyn Bayer
Erolle J. Dennis-Garner
Dr. Julie Kardachi
Carole Lucia
Dr. James Bennett
Dr. Amy Feehan
Dr. Dennis Kay
Dr. Kristin Miller
Dr. Quincy Brown
Terry Forrette
Dr. Sean Knapp
Dr. Mark Mondrinos
Dr. Joseph Bull
Jonathan Frattaroli
Dr. Monroe Laborde
Dr. Michael Moore
Benjamin Cappiello
Dr. Chrissy Guidry
Amy Ladley
Robert Niskanen
Dr. Elizabeth Chiariello
Sidney Haase
Brian Layman
Dr. Valerie Paz-Soldan
Dr. Michael J. Dancisak
Dr. Katherine Johnson
Dr. John Lindsey
Dr. Timothy Schuler Dr. Cedric Walker 6
PEOPLE BME Class of 2020
Crossing Freret to ‘Get Back’ to Boggs.
Above: Senior BME students attend the Society of Women Engineers Conference in Anaheim, CA in November 2019.
The 2019 BIG Impact cohort, along with faculty mentors, boards a boat on the Amazon in Peru.
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Left: Tulane Biomedical Engineering students at the 2019 Biomedical Engineering Society Meeting in Philadelphia, PA.
PEOPLE
Class of 2020 Honors Even though the graduation ceremony has been delayed by Covid-19 the university announced the winners of several prestigious awards. Biomedical engineering graduates Jackson Levine, Emma Rogers and Stephanie Zhao are among those who were honored with the Tulane 34 award at the 2020 graduation ceremonies. This award is presented annually to 34 graduates who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate lives. Students are recognized for their exemplary leadership, service and academic excellence. Named for the year the University was founded, 1834, Tulane 34 is among the most coveted honors bestowed upon the student body. Also honored were Kameron Kane, Colette McGarvey, Asha Prakash and Emma Rogers with the Oak Wreath award. The Oak Wreath is bestowed upon graduating seniors who have distinguished themselves through an engaged pursuit of learning, leadership in student activities, commitment to the mission of the Newcomb College Institute, and contribution to the Newcomb/Tulane community. Arjun Sree Manoj was recognized as a member of the William Wallace Peery Society Class of 2020, which is the university’s top academic honor and recognizes exceptional seniors who set the standard for academic rigor among Tulane’s undergraduate community. Biomedical Engineering Departmental Awards: https://sse.tulane.edu/bme/awards
Grand Challenges Scholars
The 2020 Cohort of the NAE Grand Challenges Scholars Program (GCSP) was comprised of seven biomedical engineering students: Diego Gattica, Jackson Levine, Arjun Sree Manoj, Mostafa Meselhe, Marco Mirnics, Tia Monjure and Asha Prakash. The program provides an opportunity for a select group of Tulane students to be recognized for their commitment to and engagement in research, entrepreneurship, global awareness, service and interdisciplinary approaches to realworld scientific and engineering problems. They presented their final showcase over Zoom on April 17, 2020. Click here to watch the presentations: http://gcsp.tulane. edu/2020/04/27/gcsp-class-of-2020-showcase/.
KEEP IN TOUCH Mailing Address: Department of Biomedical Engineering Lindy Boggs Center Suite 500 Tulane University New Orleans, LA 70118 Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/TulaneBME/ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/groups/1923837/ Tulane BME Website: sse.tulane.edu/bme Phone: 504-865-5897 8