DiFusion Technologies, Inc. recently announced landmark data for the company’s ZFUZE Surgical Polymer and how it compares to traditional biomaterials like Titanium and Poly-Ether-Ether-Ketone (PEEK). The data and the importance of the immune system response in new technologies such as ZFUZE were debated by Stephen Badylak, DVM, MD, PhD, Deputy Director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh, and Director of the Center for Pre-Clinical Tissue Engineering within the Institute, at the International Society for Advancement of Spine Surgery (ISASS) in late May 2021 in Miami.  Dr. Badylak is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of DiFusion Technologies, Inc. Read More

The Starzl Network for Excellence in Pediatric Transplantation led by UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh has partnered with OmniLife to drive innovation around transplant graft selection and acceptance, specifically with the goal of reducing pediatric waitlist mortality. Read More

Recently, leaders of the Pennsylvania National Guard awarded McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Rory Cooper, PhD, FISA & Paralyzed Veterans of America Professor and Distinguished Professor of the Department of Rehabilitation Science & Technology, Professor of Bioengineering, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh, and Founding Director and VA Senior Research Career Scientist of the Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL), and Garrett Grindle, PhD, Associate Director for Engineering at HERL and a Research Scientist at the University of Pittsburgh, the Pennsylvania Veterans Service Award for their work protecting veterans and their caregivers during the pandemic. Read More

McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Victoria Webster-Wood, PhD, an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering with a courtesy appointment in Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for her work on robotic design. Her research will focus on creating actuators for biohybrid robots using living muscle and controlling these actuators with neurons. Dr. Webster-Wood’s project uses animal-inspired designs to improve robotic mobility. She hopes that muscle-based robots will be more adaptable and self-healing. Her award also describes outreach programs to increase numbers of underrepresented groups in robotics. Read More

It is not every day that scientists come across a phenomenon so fundamental that it is observed across fruit flies, rodents, and humans. Read More

There is no long-term benefit to surgically placing tympanostomy tubes in a young child’s ears to reduce the rate of recurrent ear infections during the ensuing two years compared with giving oral antibiotics to treat ear infections, a randomized trial led by UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and University of Pittsburgh pediatrician-scientists determined. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Joseph Dohar, MD—Co-Director of the Wound Healing Program at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, the Research Director of Children’s Aerodigestive Center, the Medical Director of its Voice, Resonance, and Swallowing Center, a Professor of Otolaryngology in the School of Medicine, a Professor of Communication Science and Disorders in the School of Health and Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh, and a Staff Otolaryngologist at both UPMC Presbyterian Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC—is a co-author on the study. Read More

The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine applauds its affiliated faculty members who were recently recognized by Pittsburgh Magazine as a Top Doctor.  Castle Connolly Top Doctors is a healthcare research company and the official source for Top Doctors for the past 25 years.  In 2021, 677 doctors in 63 specialties were honored. Read More

Paul Kirsch of Greentree is a retired U.S. Marine and Reservist, teacher and administrator in the Northgate and Keystone Oaks school districts, and a former Keystone Oaks School Board member. He had his first job in sixth grade and worked post-retirement until he was 80, teaching education classes at a local college. Now at age 87, Mr. Kirsch’s upbeat attitude and enthusiasm for life hasn’t waned. Read More

After 40 years of blindness, a 58-year-old man can once again see images and moving objects, thanks to an injection of light-sensitive proteins into his retina. Read More

Three current and one former McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty

members were named Fellows of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE).  IAMBE is made up of fellows who are recognized for their outstanding contributions to the profession of medical and biological engineering. Read More

For tens of millions of patients who battle chronic lung diseases, present-day care options are mostly limited to short-term drug and oxygen therapy. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member and Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU’s) Biomedical Engineering’s Interim Department Head and Professor Keith Cook, PhD, is working on innovative technologies to advance the long-term effectiveness and future use of artificial organs to address this worldwide issue. Read More

In recent decades, computer mice have become just as ubiquitous as computers. Now, thanks to Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL) and VA researchers, there’s even a prosthetic hook mouse for people with upper-limb amputations. Read More

May 2021 | VOL. 20, NO. 5| www.McGowan.pitt.edu

Serving Those Who Serve

The third Saturday in May marks National Armed Forces Day. Here are some In the News articles which detail the ways in which the research of McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members supports members of the military community: Read More

The third Saturday in May marks National Armed Forces Day. Here are some In the News articles which detail the ways in which the research of McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members supports members of the military community: Read More

Elderly residents of long-term care facilities mount a detectable antibody response to COVID-19 vaccination, according to a recently conducted survey of UPMC Senior Community residents. Because it’s not yet known how long the antibodies persist, the authors’ urged continual monitoring for COVID-19 symptoms and cautioned that there’s still a need for controlled reopening of the facilities. Read More

Oncologists faced with treating older women with breast cancer often must decide if the treatment may be more detrimental than the cancer. A study published in JAMA Network Open by researchers at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine sheds new light on this choice and suggests the rate of cancer recurrence or survival may be no different in treated vs. untreated elderly patients diagnosed in the early stages of the cancer diagnosed most commonly in women.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Steffi Oesterreich, PhD, the Shear Family Foundation Chair in Breast Cancer Research Professor and Vice-Chair Department of Pharmacology and Chemical Biology, University of Pittsburgh; Co-Leader Cancer Biology Program, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center (UPMC HCC); and Co-Director Women’s Cancer Research Center, UPMC HCC and Magee Womens Research Institute, is a co-author on the study. Read More

The first large-scale, multi-hospital evaluation of an “all or none” federal policy intended to improve outcomes in sepsis patients finds that the guidelines are a wash—on average they neither helped nor hurt despite significant investments in their implementation, according to an analysis by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (UPMC) clinician-scientists of nearly a dozen hospitals in one academic health system. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Derek Angus, MD, MPH, Executive Vice President, and Chief Healthcare Innovation Officer, UPMC; Associate Vice Chancellor for Healthcare Innovation, University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences; Distinguished Professor and Mitchell P. Fink Endowed Chair, Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh and UPMC; Senior editor, JAMA, is a co-author on the study. Read More

CATER Trainee Laura Molina defended her dissertation, “YAP1 Signaling in Hepatobiliary Development and Oncogenesis,” on May 12, 2021. We all wish Laura a hearty congratulations on doing such a fabulous job! Read More

People with cancer that affects the blood, bone marrow or lymph nodes are at elevated risk of COVID-19 vaccine failure, particularly those with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, according to new results from an analysis of UPMC Hillman Cancer Center patients. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Alan Wells, MD, DMSc, medical director of UPMC Clinical Laboratories and the Thomas Gill III Professor of Pathology in Pitt’s School of Medicine, is a co-author of these results. Read More

University of Pittsburgh bioengineer Partha Roy, PhD, Associate Professor of Bioengineering, Cell Biology, and Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh, received awards from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) of the National Institute of Health and the Magee Women’s Cancer Research and Education Funding Committee to investigate the role of actin-binding protein profilin1 in metastatic breast cancer — the second most common cancer among women in the United States. In 2021, an estimated 281,550 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in U.S. women, and around 15 percent of those cases are expected to be fatal. Read More

University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University graduate students have been selected for the 2021 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), which recognizes outstanding graduate students who are pursuing full-time research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.  Five of these selected students are advised by McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members: Read More

The University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering’s (SSOE’s) Engineering Graduate Student Organization (EGSO) recently announced the winners of the Outstanding Teaching Assistant award and Outstanding Research Assistant award in each of the SSOE departments.  The winners from the following McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member labs include: Read More

CATER Trainee Karis Kosar defended her dissertation, “Determining the Effects of Wnt Signaling in the Alleviation of Cholestasis Via the Promotion of Hepatocyte Transdifferentiation and Cholangiocyte Proliferation,” on May 5, 2021. The defense was held virtually via Zoom. Pictured here, Dr. Kari Nejak-Bowen introduces Ms. Kosar at her defense. Congratulations on doing a fabulous job! Read More

Sergey Young, a Forbes Council Member and the founder of the Longevity Vision Fund, recently published in Forbes the article entitled, “Will You Live to 200? Five Levels of Breakthroughs in Longevity Research You Must Know About.”  Of the five major levels of biological organization (cell, tissue, organ, organ system, and organism), one of his highlighted breakthroughs included the work of McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Eric Lagasse, PharmD, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, a secondary appointment in Pitt’s Clinical and Translational Institute, and the Director of the Cancer Stem Cell Center at the McGowan Institute.  Read Mr. Young’s thoughts on this work here: Read More

The Controlled Release Society (CRS) has announced that McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Steven Little, PhD, will receive its Distinguished Service Award at its virtual annual meeting this July 25-29. Dr. Little, the William Kepler Whiteford Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, is internationally recognized for his research in drug delivery systems that mimic the body’s own mechanisms of healing and resolving inflammation. Read More

With their article published in Nature, the National Institutes of Health’s Somatic Cell Gene Editing Consortium provided a detailed update on the progress of their nationwide effort to develop safer and more effective methods to edit the genomes of disease-relevant somatic cells and reduce the burden of disease caused by genetic changes.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Samira Kiani, MD, Associate Professor, Liver Research Center, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, is a co-author of this work. Read More

The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University co-hosted the 47th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference on March 23-25, 2021. With the goal of sharing novel research and educational efforts and stimulating collaboration, the virtual event focused on “New Research Frontiers and Educational Landscapes in Biomedical Engineering” with six key themes: Read More

April 2021 | VOL. 20, NO. 4| www.McGowan.pitt.edu

Pitt Innovation Awards

In a April 22nd virtual presentation, the University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute has recognized the achievements of three McGowan affiliated faculty members: Read More

Scientists have produced a comprehensive roadmap of muscle aging in mice that could be used to find treatments that prevent decline in muscle mobility and function, according to a report published in eLife.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Fabrisia Ambrosio, PhD, MPT, Director of Rehabilitation for UPMC International and an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh with secondary appointments in the Departments of Bioengineering, Physical Therapy, Orthopaedic Surgery, Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, and Environmental & Occupational Health, is the senior author on the work. Read More

Genprex, Inc., a clinical-stage gene therapy company focused on developing life-changing therapies for patients with cancer and diabetes, received the inaugural “License of the Year” award from the University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute (UPII) in recognition of the advances made with its license from the University of Pittsburgh toward progressing the development of its gene therapy for diabetes. Read More

Anna Balazs, PhD, an award-winning University of Pittsburgh Distinguished Professor in the Swanson School of Engineering and an affiliated faculty member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, has added one of the nation’s top honors to her portfolio. The National Academy of Sciences announced that Dr. Balazs is among its 120 newly elected members, recognizing distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Read More

As part of the Giants in Orthopaedic Sport Medicine video series produced by the International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine (ISAKOS), Savio L-Y. Woo, PhD, DSc, DEng, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus and Founding Director, Musculoskeletal Research Center, University of Pittsburgh, was interviewed by Jason Koh, MD, Director, NorthShore Orthopaedic & Spine Institute, Chairman, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.  They spoke about: Read More

The ultimate mission at Helix Nanotechnologies, Inc. (HelixNano) is to build technologies that unlock a future where freedom from cancer is a fundamental human right. But right now, the fight against a global pandemic needs all scientific hands on-deck. In response to this existential challenge, the HelixNano team is applying its expertise to deploy a novel vaccination approach against COVID-19.  McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Louis Falo, Jr., MD, PhD, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine with faculty appointments in the Department of Bioengineering of the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, the University of Pittsburgh UPMC Hillman Cancer Institute, and the Pittsburgh Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and his team are partnered with HelixNano to help deliver its vaccine to patients. Read More

As reported by Amerigo Allegretto of Pittwire, of all people, it was Superman who changed the course of the professional life of McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Kacey Marra, PhD. Read More

Michael Behrens, a student in the lab of McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Warren Ruder, PhD, associate professor and William Kepler Whiteford Faculty Fellow of Bioengineering at Pitt, created a side project to optimize his lab work.  This side project piqued the interest of the global scientific community, putting it in the top 10 chemistry papers published in Scientific Reports in 2020. Read More

Behind every heartbeat and brain signal is a massive orchestra of electrical activity. While current electrophysiology observation techniques have been mostly limited to extracellular recordings, a forward-thinking group of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia has identified a flexible, low-cost, and biocompatible platform for enabling richer intracellular recordings. Read More

McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine director William Wagner, PhD, named the 2021 Founders Award recipient from the Society For Biomaterials (SFB).  The Founders Award is based on long-term, landmark contributions to the discipline of biomaterials.  Dr. Wagner will be presented with the award at the virtual SFB 2021 Annual Meeting & Exposition being held April 20-23, 2021, during which he will make a plenary address. As the recipient of this prestigious recognition, he will receive a cash award and free registration to the virtual 2021 SFB Annual Meeting & Exposition. Read More

Monoclonal antibodies, a COVID-19 treatment given early after coronavirus infection, cut the risk of hospitalization and death by nearly 70% in those most likely to suffer complications of the disease, according to a preliminary analysis of UPMC patients who received the medication compared to similar patients who did not. Read More

Marissa Behun, a first-year PhD student in bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, received a Predoctoral Clinical and Translational Science Fellowship. This competitive award equips researchers with the skills to advance the translation of discoveries into improved patient outcomes and health policy. Read More

The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine welcomes new affiliated faculty member Sruti Shiva, PhD. Read More