Just as a climbing plant needs the right trellis to thrive, a small-diameter tissue-engineered vascular graft (TEVG) needs the right scaffold to transform seeded cells into a native-like artery that can save a life
Ateam led by the University of Pittsburgh’s David A. Vorp received a $1.1M award from the National Institutes of Health to optimize this emerging technology for cardiovascular disease. They will examine the best combination(s) of active “payload” and scaffold to develop a feasible alternative to the decades-old practice of using vessels harvested from a patient’s own chest or leg.
Coronary heart disease – a worldwide leading cause of death – damages arteries that carry a vital supply of blood, oxygen, and nutrients to the heart. Surgeons typically replace damaged vessels with healthy autologous ones that are harvested from a different part of the patient’s body, but according to Vorp, they are not an ideal substitution.
“Autologous vessels are not ideal in that they are limited in number and/or are not naturally designed to function as an artery,” Vorp said. “They have been the gold standard in bypass grafts, but in recent years, companies have begun clinical testing on TEVGs developed in research labs like ours.” Vorp is the Senior Associate Dean for Research at the Swanson School of Engineering and the John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering.
Vorp’s team has developed a TEVG based on the well-known regenerative power of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which both prevent blood from clotting on the implanted TEVG and recruit host immune cells that participate in the regeneration process. MSCs are adult stem cells most often derived from a patient’s bone marrow.
A successful TEVG will grow and remodel into a native-like artery. It consists of a scaffold that provides a framework for seeded cells, which when given environmental cues, will promote tissue regeneration. In this project, Vorp and his collaborators will examine a variety of successful “payloads” and scaffolds to determine which combinations work best.
For the payload, the group will study a cell-based and cell-free approach using both MSCs and – for the cell-free approach – certain immunoregulatory factors that the MSCs secrete.
“We believe that the regulatory pathway for a cell-free configuration would be faster if it is shown to be as effective as a cellbased approach,” Vorp said.
They will assess each feasible combination of payload and biodegradable scaffold, which will be made from materials in the polyurethane and silk families.
“Our previous work has focused on the ability of some of our payload and scaffold combinations to remodel into a successful TEVG when implanted as an aortic replacement graft in rats,” said Vorp, the John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering and member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. “This NIH Catalyze grant will now allow us to more rigorously optimize the grafts in the small animal model to narrow down the number of combinations to be tested in a large animal model.”
Finding the best combination(s) of payload and scaffold is only the first step of this project. It is part of a two-phase Catalyze grant from the NIH’s National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, which includes a oneyear R61 grant in which the team must achieve the necessary milestones to be eligible to transition to the two-year R33 award.
In the second part of the project, the group will use the R33 award to address the manufacturability and other clinical translational aspects of a TEVG, including large animal testing of the best configuration(s).
“We will work with ‘accelerator partners,’ including RoosterBio, Inc. and Pitt’s Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute, as well as regulatory consultants to begin addressing manufacturability for clinical translation,” Vorp said.
Though there are many advantages to TEVGs, the technology also has its challenges. The researchers hope that finding an optimal configuration will decrease the chance of stenosis, a common complication where the vessel narrows and limits blood flow.
The goal of this award is to find a design that can advance to the clinical phase of development and eventually reach the market as a better-quality graft for bypass surgery.
When a person contracts COVID-19, or any other respiratory virus, the immune system springs into action. Body aches and fever are two signs the body is trying to slow the infection and fight off the virus.
The problem is that sometimes, the body doesn’t know when to stop.
“In respiratory infection, the immune response can be the hero and the villain,” said University of Pittsburgh researcher Jason Shoemaker, assistant professor of chemical and petroleum engineering. “A reasonable immune response should control the infection while protecting our body, but aggressive immune responses can often lead to increased tissue damage or even death during infection.”
Why are some bodies able to fight off the virus without causing damage to healthy tissue when others cannot? Shoemaker, PhD, assistant professor of chemical engineering, and his team are determined to find out. The team includes Pitt researchers Penelope Morel, MD, professor of immunology, and James Faeder, PhD, associate professor of computational and systems biology.
Using agent-based modeling, they are learning how the virus behaves by mapping the body’s immune response.
“Agent-based modeling is a modeling method more akin to video game design than most models in engineering,” explained Shoemaker. “It is based on choice: in this situation, based on what we know, what action would the cell be most likely to take?”
By following the virus’s path through the body, the team is creating a detailed simulation that can uncover the biomarkers and signs that may predict an overly aggressive
immune response. That would allow doctors to treat those patients accordingly.
“Our modeling can help doctors determine when to use the drugs we already have on the market: We want an immune response that is strong enough to clear the virus, but we want to be able to suppress the immune system if necessary before it begins to cause damage,” explained Shoemaker. “The timing of drug intervention is one of the most difficult parts in treating disease, but engineering is great at working with that kind of precise timing.”
Shoemaker received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award for this work.
From mapping the virus’s actions in individual cells to understanding the effects on the lungs as a whole, each member of the team is working to piece together this puzzle, creating a comprehensive model that ideally will predict how the virus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, infects the lungs, and the damage it leaves behind.
In addition to the Pitt team’s modeling work, the group is collaborating with an international team led by Indiana University researcher Paul Macklin, PhD, associate professor of intelligent systems engineering, to create larger-scale models that could inform pharmaceutical interventions. The initial agent-based model has been developed in close collaboration with James Glazier, PhD, professor of physics, also at Indiana University.
“Our work will enable us to identify the best means of controlling the infection by either regulating the immune system itself or by identifying new human proteins to consider for drug targeting,” said Shoemaker. “This virus is going to be with us for some time, so it’s important that we understand how to help our bodies react to it in the best possible way.”
Pitt researchers seek to prevent long-lasting lung damage by predicting an overly aggressive immune response
In Benedum Hall at the University of Pittsburgh, nine shower heads in three brand new shower stalls run for eight minutes every day.
Eight minutes is the average time an American spends in the shower, though no one is using these showers for their typical purpose. Instead, they’re part of the Investigating Home Water and Aerosols’ Links to Opportunistic Pathogen Exposure (INHALE) Lab, led by Sarah Haig, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering.
Prior to joining the Swanson School, Haig worked with cystic fibrosis patients and their families, testing their plumbing for opportunistic pathogens (OPs) that could pose danger to their compromised immune systems, like nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
“Parents would ask me a lot of questions about how to clean their shower head and what kind of shower head helps limit bacterial growth and exposure. I didn’t have good answers for them – we just don’t know,” said Haig. “That was part of the inspiration for the INHALE Lab, where we can compare how materials and in-home disinfection strategies impact microbes so that we can find those answers. The research can empower the public to make their own decisions regarding reducing microbial exposure at the final point of exposure: the fixtures in their homes.”
The 250 square foot lab has its own water heaters and plumbing. The shower heads are a mix of standard plastic and metal shower heads and shower heads embedded with antimicrobial silver. Because the lab is new and has sat idle since the
lockdowns began in March 2020, the lines need to be flushed daily to condition the pipes – and to allow bacteria to take up residence – before research can begin again in earnest. However, several projects will utilize the lab’s unique capabilities.
One current project, funded by the National Science Foundation, will look at the effect of silver in shower heads on the OP Legionella and whether antibiotic resistance is induced due to silver exposure. Another project, which has received seed grant funding from the Central Research Development Fund at Pitt, will examine the effectiveness of several prevention methods on the number of OPs that can become airborne when the shower is running – the most common way users are exposed to the OPs. The work will assess the effectiveness of disinfection strategies as well as different kinds of shower heads, including standard shower heads and ones modified with antimicrobial compounds or filtration devices.
Eventually, Haig hopes the INHALE Lab’s research will help families, hospitals and other facilities make decisions that will keep vulnerable populations safe from potentially harmful OPs.
“For healthy individuals, these OPs are not generally a problem. Water is not – and isn’t meant to be –sterile. But for people who are immunocompromised or have existing pulmonary conditions, they can be deadly,” she noted. “Opportunistic pathogens are natural members of the water community, so you can’t feasibly eliminate them, but it’s a numbers game. When you reduce the number of pathogens, you can reduce your risk – we now just need to focus on understanding how to do this.”
Haig’s new inhale lab tests how consumer choices impact their exposure to microbes in shower water
Astrobotic and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Space, High-performance, and Resilient Computing (SHREC) announced a partnership to develop new software and hardware technologies for future space applications.
The SHREC consortium, led by the University of Pittsburgh, is an NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) and will work together with Astrobotic by pairing first-class academic researchers with engineering teams to translate concepts into tangible innovations that will support lunar landings, rover missions, satellite servicing, and more. A diverse cohort of researchers, scientists, and engineers at Astrobotic and SHREC will share intellectual property, domain expertise, and practical know-how to develop space computing platforms, among other technologies.
The teams have already kicked off collaboration on Astrobotic’s Phase II NASA SBIR contract to develop UltraNav, a compact smart camera for next-generation space missions. This low size, weight, and power system includes an integrated suite of hardware-accelerated computer vision algorithms that enable a wide range of in-space applications, including satellite servicing, autonomous rover navigation, and precision planetary landing.
“The University of Pittsburgh’s space-focused engineering program is developing incredible technologies through a mixture of universities and companies supporting foundational and applied research,” says Chris Owens, Astrobotic Research Engineer and Principal Investigator for the UltraNav project.
“In addition to research collaboration, Astrobotic is taking advantage of the partnership with SHREC to revamp our
internship program. We are supporting not just SHREC students, but students in Pittsburgh and beyond who might want to give space a try.”
“On behalf of all students and faculty in SHREC, we are most honored to be partnering with the leading space company in our region,” said Alan George, SHREC Center Director and R&H Mickle Endowed Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “We look forward to many collaborations on space research, technologies, experiments, and workforce development.”
SHREC has a proven track record of developing computing solutions and advanced algorithms to handle the challenging radiation and thermal environment of space. Astrobotic has most recently worked with Bosch Research to develop hardware for the SoundSee Mission to the International Space Station (ISS). SHREC also boasts hardware currently in orbit on the ISS through multiple missions with the Department of Defense’s Space Test Program. SHREC and Astrobotic will use these platforms to test technologies in space before launching.
Astrobotic and SHREC, both founded in 2007, are examples of the Pittsburgh region’s renewed invigoration in the space industry – Astrobotic with its recent $199.5 million VIPER contract win from NASA and SHREC curating its dozens of partnerships with leading space companies and agencies across the nation. Both Astrobotic and SHREC are participants in the PGH Space Collaborative, a group seeking to coalesce a broader network of existing regional assets to revitalize Pittsburgh as a space robotics hub. The Astrobotic-SHREC partnership begins with a two-year-long agreement and will culminate in an enhanced UltraNav system in 2022.
Teams will work together to translate concepts into tangible innovations that will support lunar landings, rover missions, satellite servicing, and more
Masks, gowns, and other personal protective equipment (PPE) are essential for protecting healthcare workers. However, the textiles and materials used in such items can absorb and carry viruses and bacteria, inadvertently spreading the disease the wearer sought to contain.
When the coronavirus spread amongst healthcare professionals and left PPE in short supply, finding a way to provide better protection while allowing for the safe reuse of these items became paramount.
Research from the LAMP Lab at the Swanson School of Engineering may have a solution. The lab has created a textile coating that can not only repel liquids like blood and saliva but can also prevent viruses from adhering to the surface. The work was recently published in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.
“Recently there’s been focus on blood-repellent surfaces, and we were interested in achieving this with mechanical durability,” said Anthony Galante, PhD student in industrial engineering at Pitt and lead author of the paper. “We want to push the boundary on what is possible with these types of surfaces, and especially given the current pandemic, we knew it’d be important to test against viruses.”
What makes the coating unique is its ability to withstand ultrasonic washing, scrubbing and scraping. With other similar coatings currently in use, washing or rubbing the surface of the textile will reduce or eliminate its repellent abilities.
“The durability is very important because there are other surface treatments out there, but they’re limited to disposable textiles. You can only use a gown or mask once before disposing of it,” said Paul Leu, co-author and associate professor of industrial engineering, who leads the LAMP Lab. “Given the PPE shortage, there is a need for coatings that can be applied to reusable medical textiles that can be properly washed and sanitized.”
Galante put the new coating to the test, running it through tens of ultrasonic washes, applying thousands of rotations with a scrubbing pad (not unlike what might be used to scour pots and pans), and even scraping it with a sharp razor blade. After each test, the coating remained just as effective.
The researchers worked with the Charles T. Campbell Microbiology Laboratory’s Research Director Eric Romanowski and Director of Basic Research Robert Shanks, in the Department of Ophthalmology at Pitt, to test the coating against a strain of adenovirus.
The coating may have broad applications in healthcare: everything from hospital
gowns to waiting room chairs could benefit from the ability to repel viruses, particularly ones as easily spread as adenoviruses. The next step for the researchers will be to test the effectiveness against betacoronaviruses, like the one that causes COVID-19.
“If the treated fabric would repel betacornonaviruses, and in particular SARS-CoV-2, this could have a huge impact for healthcare workers and even the general public if PPE, scrubs, or even clothing could be made from protein, blood-, bacteria-, and virus-repelling fabrics,” said Romanowski.
At the moment, the coating is applied using drop casting, a method that saturates the material with a solution from a syringe and applies a heat treatment to increase stability. But the researchers believe the process can use a spraying or dipping method to accommodate larger pieces of material, like gowns, and can eventually be scaled up for production.
The paper, “Superhemophobic and Antivirofouling Coating for Mechanically Durable and Wash-Stable Medical Textiles” (DOI: 10.1021/acsami.9b23058), was co-authored by Anthony Galante, Sajad Haghanifar, Eric Romanowski, Robert Shanks and Paul Leu.
New research published in ACS applied materials and interfaces could lead to safely reusable PPE
As renewable power generation increases, conventional energy sources like natural gas, coal, and nuclear power will still be required to balance the nation’s energy portfolio. Traditional power plants will not, however, need to produce as much energy as they do now, leaving them to sit idle some of the time.
Katherine Hornbostel, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science, and her team received $800,283 in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Flexible Carbon Capture and Storage (FLECCS) program to design a natural gas/ direct air capture hybrid plant that will take advantage of those idle periods. The proposed design will not only eliminate carbon emissions from the power plant when it is producing electricity for the grid but will also capture carbon from the atmosphere during idle periods, ideally making the plant carbon negative.
“We still have a large fleet of natural gas and coal plants in our country. As we add renewables, which provide intermittent energy, we’ll still need those fossil power sources to make sure the grid is consistently powered,” explained Hornbostel. “The FLECCS funding call asks how we can make those fossil sources cleaner and even use them to improve air quality.”
For the project, Hornbostel will partner with Glenn Lipscomb, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Toledo; Debangsu Bhattacharyya, professor of chemical engineering at West Virginia University; and Michael Matuszewski, founder of Aristosys LLC in Venetia, PA.
The team has proposed a system design that integrates natural gas with two carbon capture technologies: a membrane system that captures carbon dioxide (CO2) from the plant’s exhaust, and
a sorbent system that will absorb leftover CO2 from the exhaust and CO2 from the air outside. During normal operations, the hybrid plant will capture about 99 percent of the CO2 it generates; during off-peak hours, the plant will use its power to run the carbon capture systems to remove CO2 from the air.
“This is a very exciting and important project, and I’m pleased – but not surprised – to see this innovative research is being undertaken in Pittsburgh,” said Congressman Mike Doyle. “The world must achieve net-zero carbon emissions in a few short decades, or the impact on the environment and our society will be devastating. It’s essential that, as we make the transition to carbon-free energy, we also make efforts like this to reduce carbon emissions from existing power plants that use fossil fuels – and explore technology that could reduce the carbon already in our atmosphere. ARPA-E is playing a critical role in promoting groundbreaking research on all aspects of energy production and consumption, and I strongly support its important work.”
The highly competitive ARPA-E FLECCS Program awarded $11.5 million in Phase 1 funding to 12 projects that develop carbon capture and storage processes. Hornbostel will be the second in the Swanson School to receive an ARPA-E award, following Assistant Chair of Research and Professor of Chemical Engineering Robert Enick.
“ARPA-E grants are very prestigious and are only awarded to the most innovative applications that propose high impact projects,” said David Vorp, associate dean for research and John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering. “Dr. Hornbostel and her team will use this FLECCS funding to address several important gaps in the field, and we could not be prouder of her for winning this award.”
Pitt professor Katherine Hornbostel receives ARPA-E grant to design natural gas plant that captures more carbon than it produces
Experts in sustainability warn that the current economic model, forming a straight line from resource to product to waste, is unsustainable. Researchers are instead turning to the circular economy to disrupt that line, working toward a lifecycle of products that does not end in a landfill. Melissa Bilec, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, is currently leading a team of researchers studying the circular economy, the focus of another NSF Convergence grant, which received $1.3 million last year.
Bilec has received $98,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to convene a panel of experts to meet for a workshop on the circular economy that will help set the research agenda for years to come. The workshop brings together experts and thought leaders in academia, industry, government and nonprofits to discuss circular economy design from molecules to the built environment. In the course of three
three-hour sessions over three weeks, the workshop will be an opportunity for the wide array of invited constituents to discuss and develop ideas in circular economy research.
director of the Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation (MCSI). “This is a fantastic opportunity to build, foster and facilitate the community around this emerging area of sustainability research. It also has the potential to shape the direction of major research in the coming years.”
“The NSF’s Convergence Accelerator Program selects one or two research tracks each year, and this year, and these workshops help to determine what those tracks will be,” explained Bilec, who is also the Roberta A. Luxbacher Faculty Fellow and deputy
Bilec will team with Eric Beckman, Distinguished Service Professor of Chemical Engineering. They are collaborating with the University of Georgia’s Jason Locklin, professor of chemical engineering and founding director of the New Materials Institute; Jenna Jambeck, professor of environmental engineering at the University of Georgia, and Gregg Beckham, senior research fellow at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL).
The group will also call on the expertise of KnowInnovation, a company with extensive experience in virtual workshop facilitation. The workshops are taking place by invitation throughout the month of September.
An eight-figure donation to the Swanson School of Engineering from an anonymous graduate of the School and their spouse will provide financial aid to undergraduate students who are enrolled in the Pitt EXCEL Program . Announced by Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher and US Steel Dean of Engineering James R Martin II, the donors’ bequest will provide tuition support for underprivileged or underrepresented engineering students
who are residents of the United States of America and in need of financial aid
“I am extremely grateful for this gift, which supports the University of Pittsburgh’s efforts to tackle one of society’s greatest challenges – the inequity of opportunity,”
Gallagher said . “Put into action, this commitment will help students from underrepresented groups access a worldclass Pitt education and – in doing so – help elevate the entire field of engineering ”
“Our dedication as engineers is to create new knowledge that benefits the human condition, and that includes educating the next generation of engineers Our students’ success informs our mission, and I am honored and humbled that our donors are vested in helping to expand the diversity of engineering students,” Martin noted . “Often the most successful engineers are those who have the greatest need or who lack access, and support such as this is critical to expanding our outreach and strengthening the role of engineers in society .”
Martin noted that the gift is timely because it was made shortly after Chancellor Gallagher’s call to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment for all, especially for the University’s future students. The gift – and the donors’ passion for the Swanson School – show that there is untapped potential as well as significant interest in addressing unmet need for students who represent a demographic shift in the American workforce.
“By 2050, when the U.S. will have a minoritymajority population, two-thirds of the American workforce will require a post-secondary education,” Martin explained. “We are already reimagining how we deliver engineering education and research, and generosity such as this will lessen the financial burden that students will face to prepare for that future workforce.”
In 1969 the late Dr. Karl Lewis founded the IMPACT Program at the University of Pittsburgh to encourage minority and financially and culturally disadvantaged students to enter and graduate from the field of engineering. The six-week program prepared incoming first year students through exposure to university academic life, development of study skills, academic and career counseling, and coursework to reinforce strengths or remedy weaknesses. Many Pitt alumni today still note the role that Lewis and IMPACT had on their personal and professional lives.
Under Lewis’ leadership, IMPACT sparked the creation of two award-winning initiatives within the Swanson School’s Office of Diversity:
• INVESTING NOW, a college preparatory program created to stimulate, support, and recognize the high academic performance of pre-college students from groups that are historically underrepresented in STEM majors.
• Pitt EXCEL, a comprehensive undergraduate diversity program committed to the recruitment, retention, and graduation of academically excellent engineering undergraduates, particularly individuals from groups historically underrepresented in the field.
“Dr. Lewis, like so many of his generation, started a movement that grew beyond one person’s idea,” said Yvette Wisher, Director of Pitt EXCEL. “Anyone who talks to today’s EXCEL students can hear the passion of Dr. Lewis and see how exceptional these young people will be as engineers and individuals. They and the hundreds of students who preceded them are the reason why Pitt EXCEL is a game-changer for so many.”
Since its inception, Pitt EXCEL has helped more than 1,500 students earn their engineering degrees and become leaders and change agents in their communities. Ms. Wisher says the most important concept she teaches students who are enrolled in the program is to give back however they can once they graduate – through mentorship, volunteerism, philanthropy, or advocacy.
“Pitt EXCEL is a home - but more importantly, a family. The strong familial bonds within Pitt EXCEL are what attracted me to Swanson as a graduating high school senior, what kept me going throughout my time in undergrad and what keeps me energized to this very day as
a PhD student,” explained Isaiah M. SpencerWilliams, BSCE ’19 and a pre-doctoral student in the Swanson School’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. “Pitt EXCEL is a family where iron sharpens iron and where we push each other to be the best that we can be every day. Beyond that, it is a space where you are not only holistically nurtured and supported but are also groomed to pave the way for and invest into those who are coming behind you.
“Pitt EXCEL, and by extension, Dr. Lewis’ legacy and movement are the reasons why I am the leader and change agent that I am today. This generous gift will ensure a bright future for underrepresented engineering students in the Pitt EXCEL Program, and will help to continue the outstanding development of the change agents of tomorrow.”
“Next year marks the 51st anniversary of IMPACT/EXCEL as well as the 175th year of engineering at Pitt and the 50th anniversary of Benedum Hall,” Dean Martin said. “The Swanson School of Engineering represents 28,000 alumni around the world, who in many ways are life-long students of engineering beyond the walls of Benedum, but who share pride in being Pitt Engineers.
“The key to our future success is working together as a global community to find within ourselves how we can best support tomorrow’s students,” Martin concluded. “We should all celebrate this as a foundational cornerstone gift for greater engagement.”
