The same technology used in COVID-19 vaccines holds promise as a new approach to liver disease treatment. Michele Dula Baum, Senior Writer/Project Manager, Strategic Communications, Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor, Health Sciences, reports in PittMed where the science is heading in this new therapy methodology.
Cardiomyopathy is a disease that affects the heart muscle. In cardiomyopathy, the damaged heart muscle becomes enlarged, thick, or rigid, and cannot pump blood effectively. It’s the leading cause of heart failure and the most common reason for needing a heart transplant. Unlike other heart problems, cardiomyopathy frequently affects younger people.
Fighting cancer and chronic disease is tiring work for the immune system. When T cells are engaged in this kind of lengthy battle, they can become exhausted, or unable to function properly. One immunotherapy that revitalizes these cells by blocking an immune checkpoint protein called LAG3 was recently approved by federal regulators. But exactly how LAG3 works has remained a mystery — until now.
The Lee/Oesterreich Lab of the Magee-Women’s Research Institute is headed by the husband/wife team of Adrian Lee, PhD (pictured left), Professor of Pharmacology & Chemical Biology and Human Genetics, and Director, Institute for Precision Medicine, and Steffi Oesterreich, PhD (pictured right), Professor & Vice Chair, Precision and Translational Pharmacology, and Co-Director of the Women’s Cancer Research Center. Dr. Oesterrich is also an affiliated faculty member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
The Society For Biomaterials hosted its 2022 Annual Meeting at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, April 27-30, 2022. The theme for the 2022 Annual Meeting was “The Perilous Fight to Translate Innovative Research to Commercial Viability.” This year’s program focused on ideas that involve breakthroughs in biomaterials science, translation of basic research to clinical application, next-generation medical devices, and content that explores standards development, regulatory issues, and commercial realities.
Eva Lai, PhD, made a site visit to the University of Pittsburgh in 2006 when she was building a national research program for regenerative medicine for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to address wounded warriors’ injuries. The program was the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM) that resulted in over $200 million in research investments. AFIRM, a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary network working to develop advanced treatment options for our severely wounded servicemen and women, is ongoing. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine Director William Wagner, PhD, is its Chief Science Officer in the collaborative AFIRM effort of the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine and the McGowan Institute.
Almost one third of babies born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, or HLHS, die from heart failure before their first birthday. By uncovering cellular processes that drive heart failure in these young patients, a new study may hold the answers to identifying and treating those at highest risk of early death.
For people with tetraplegia—a condition in which all four limbs have lost motor ability—regaining independence is a top priority. Although there is no cure for paralysis caused by neurological disorders, robotic arms and exoskeletons may provide some assistance. Controlling these robotic devices, however, is a complex problem. Researchers have experimented with voice control (which struggles to translate verbal commands into a three-dimensional space), brain-computer interfaces (which require complex surgery), and joysticks (which often mean multiple rounds of positioning for each arm segment).
The University of Pittsburgh Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship presented its 2022 Celebration of Innovation on April 21, 2022. This event recognized the achievements of Pitt faculty and student innovators who are seeking to improve people’s lives through the commercialization of their ideas and discoveries. In addition to recognizing all faculty and students who submitted an invention disclosure, were issued a U.S. patent, or had their innovation licensed, there were seven special awards presented. The efforts of two McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty members were recognized among these special awards.
Four paralyzed people in Australia can now operate a computer using only their thoughts thanks to a brain implant developed in part by Carnegie Mellon University’s Douglas Weber, PhD, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Neuroscience and an affiliated faculty member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Emily Mullin, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, recently spoke with Dr. Weber on the status of this brain-computer interface.
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Jessie VanSwearingen, PhD, PT, Professor of Physical Therapy in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, was named a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) for her outstanding contributions to the group.
The International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) has announced the results of the 2022 member elections for Professional Community Leaders, who serve as representatives to the four ISHLT Interdisciplinary Network Steering Committees. Seventeen leaders across seven professional specialties were elected to serve three-year terms beginning May 1, 2022, immediately following the 2022 ISHLT Annual Meeting. Two of the 17 leaders elected are McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members:
Author: Xinxiu Xu, Kang Jin, Abha S. Bai, Wenjuan Zhu, Hisato Yagi, Timothy N. Feinstein, Phong K. Nguyen, Joseph D. Criscione, Xiaoqin Liu, Gisela Beutner, Kalyani B. Karunakaran, Krithika S. Rao, Haoting He, Phillip Adams, Catherine K. Kuo, Dennis Kostka, Gloria S. Pryhuber, Sruti Shiva, Madhavi K. Ganapathiraju, George A. Porter Jr., Jiuann-Huey Ivy Lin, Bruce Aronow, Cecilia W. Lo
PI: Donghun Shin
Title: Delineating the molecular mechanisms of hepatocyte-to-cholangiocyte reprogramming
Drs. Kacey Marra (top) and Eric Lagasse
The University of Pittsburgh Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship presented its 2022 Celebration of Innovation on April 21, 2022. This event recognized the achievements of Pitt faculty and student innovators who are seeking to improve people’s lives through the commercialization of their ideas and discoveries. In addition to recognizing all faculty and students who submitted an invention disclosure, were issued a U.S. patent, or had their innovation licensed, there were seven special awards presented. The efforts of two McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty members were recognized among these special awards.
CATER Trainee George Gabriel defended his dissertation on Thursday, April 14, 2022. The presentation was titled, “Genetic and Epigenetic Basis for Brain Abnormalities and Neurobehavioral Deficits in a Mouse Model of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.”
EV2 Technologies’ Biocarpet is a flexible and fully biodegradable endovascular device that uses a special thermoforming technique and provides treatment of peripheral arterial disease in small arteries and across joints. The team’s approach minimizes vascular wall stress thus reducing restenosis. This technology was developed in the laboratories of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and won the $15,000 prize at the 2022 Randall Family Big Idea Competition. Collaborators on this effort include:
The Scientific Achievement Award sponsored by Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and awarded by Life Sciences PA recognizes a scientist in the Pennsylvania life sciences community who has demonstrated outstanding achievement by advancing scientific knowledge, innovation, and/or patient care in their lifetime. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Ernest Manders, MD, Professor of Plastic Surgery (Emeritus), Department of Plastic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, received this year’s award.
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Peter Alexander, PhD, is the Assistant Director of the Center for Cellular and Molecular Engineering and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery both within the University of Pittsburgh. His background includes research in developmental biology, mechanisms of teratology and reproductive toxicology, orthopaedic surgery, stem cell biology, and tissue engineering. Common themes that run through active areas of his research are the use of stem cells in tissue engineering either as a participant or mediator of regenerative processes, the development of in vitro and/or in vivo models with which to test specific cell and tissue interactions, developmental or pathogenic processes, and the use of bioreactors to recapitulate specific cell and tissue interactions to produce physiological systems that more faithfully report disease processes and therapeutic outcomes.
The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine welcomes new affiliated faculty member Ramakrishna Mukkamala, PhD.
Liver transplantation is the only effective treatment for patients with end-stage liver diseases; however, the shortage of donor livers makes this therapy very limited. Comprehensive and detailed understanding of innate liver regeneration in diseased livers will provide significant insights into developing therapeutic strategies to promote liver regeneration in the patients. Our studies will delineate the molecular mechanisms underlying hepatocyte-to-cholangiocyte reprogramming-mediated biliary regeneration and suggest HDAC1/2 inhibitors as promising therapeutic drugs to promote the reprogramming-mediated regeneration in patients with cholestatic liver diseases.
After receiving his BA in Physics from Brandeis University in 1969, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Harvey Borovetz, PhD, went on to earn an MS and a PhD degree, both in bioengineering, from Carnegie Mellon University in 1973 and 1976, respectively. Today, he is a Distinguished Professor and former Chair (2002-2013) in the Department of Bioengineering, Swanson School of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh; the Robert L. Hardesty Professor in the Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; a Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering; a Professor in the Clinical and Translational Science Institute; and a University Honors College Faculty Fellow. Dr. Borovetz’s current research interests focus on the design and clinical utilization of cardiovascular organ replacements for both adult and pediatric patients.
Since 2014, the International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory has partnered with Boeing to award grants through an annual MassChallenge “Technology in Space Prize,” which supports startups with ideas for innovative research and development onboard the ISS National Laboratory. Boeing reported in SpaceNews about RevBio, a Lowell, Mass.-based medical device company that makes a patented bone adhesive called Tetranite, which fixes fractures and accelerates bone repair—especially in patients suffering from osteoporosis. After learning that even a short stay in microgravity can cause loss of bone mass, the company entered the “Technology in Space” competition and was awarded the prize in 2015.
The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine welcomes new affiliated faculty member Hamza Yazdani, MD.
Led by the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine Deputy Director Stephen Badylak, DVM, PhD, MD, a multi-institution research team secured a $22 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 2020 to develop a device combining artificial intelligence, bioelectronics, and regenerative medicine to regrow muscle tissue, especially after combat injuries. This 4-year DARPA opportunity, a “mini-Manhattan Project” for wound healing, is a cross-disciplinary project including researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, Northwestern University, Rice University, University of Vermont, University of Wisconsin, and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in addition to the University of Pittsburgh.
People with congenital stationary night blindness (CSNB) are unable to distinguish objects in dim-light conditions. This impairment presents challenges, especially where artificial lighting is unavailable or when driving at night.
Pittsburgh tech and education leaders at this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) festival, held in Austin, Texas, March 6-20, 2022, were recognized by Sophie Burkholder, a Staff Writer for Technical.ly, a news organization that serves a community of technology professionals, including entrepreneurs, technologists, and their supporters. This is the first in-person SXSW since 2020.
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member George Mazariegos, MD, pediatric liver and intestine transplant surgeon and the Director of the Hillman Center for Pediatric Transplantation at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, spoke to Ellis Cannon of WPXI/Pittsburgh in support of April’s Donate Life Month. The video interview is a part of the station’s UPMC/WPXI Community Matters segment.
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member David Kaczorowski, MD, Surgical Director of the Advanced Heart Failure Center of UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute and an Associate Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, was a member of the surgical team on the historic first successful transplant of a porcine heart into an adult human with end-stage heart disease. As a follow-up to this extraordinary accomplishment by the surgical team, Dr. Kaczorowski published an article entitled, “Organs from genetically engineered pigs may help shorten the transplant wait list,” in The Conversation. The article focuses on the history of xenotransplantion, or transplanting animal organs into human beings. The article is repeated here:
The International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory and the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine (MIRM) are working on a multi-year research alliance to push the limits of biomedical research and development aboard the orbiting laboratory. The alliance — a core element of the ISS National Laboratory Industrial Biomedicine Program — serves as a benchmark for how the ISS National Laboratory develops similar programs in the future involving research and development activities aboard the space station.
During the month of February 2022, University of Pittsburgh innovators were issued eight U.S. patents. Five of those patents were based on research work conducted by McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members. Their newly issued patents include:
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Stefanie Sydlik, PhD, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), was named a member of CMU’s inaugural class of Tartans on the Rise. Tartans on the Rise celebrates recent alumni who are making an impact in their organizations and in their communities, across the nation and around the world through leadership, innovation, and career achievements. This year’s Tartans on the Rise class represents a diverse and talented alumni body that is working to elevate industries, communities, and people everywhere.
PI: Sruti Shiva
Co-PI: Anthony J. Molina
Title: The relationship between blood based bioenergetics and muscle function, mobility, and aging
Author: Michel Modo, Harmanvir Ghuman, Reem Azar, Ryan Krafty, Stephen F Badylak, T Kevin Hitchens
Title: Mapping the acute time course of immune cell infiltration into an ECM hydrogel in a rat model of stroke using 19 F MRI
Women’s History Month had its origins as a national celebration in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized and requested the President to proclaim the week beginning March 7, 1982, as “Women’s History Week.” This continued throughout the next five years. In 1987 after being petitioned by the National Women’s History Project, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9 which designated the month of March 1987 as “Women’s History Month.” Since 1988, presidents have issued a series of annual proclamations designating March as “Women’s History Month.” These proclamations celebrate the contributions women have made to the United States and recognize the specific achievements women have made over the course of American history in a variety of fields.
George Hussey, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Department of Pathology. Prior to joining the Department of Pathology, he was a Research Assistant Professor, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Department of Surgery. He was also a McGowan Institute Postdoctoral Associate in the laboratory of Stephen Badylak, DVM, PhD, MD, and a Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Philip Howe, PhD, Hollings Cancer Center, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology.
CATER Trainee Kien Tran defended her dissertation on Monday, March 21, 2022. The presentation was titled, “Spermatogonial Stem Cells to Preserve and Restore Spermatogenic Potential.” Kien has also accepted a new position, a Stem Cell Scientist at Cellino Biotech, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She will begin the new role in June 2022.
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member David Kaczorowski, MD, Surgical Director of the Advanced Heart Failure Center of UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute and an Associate Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, was a member of the surgical team on the historic first successful transplant of a porcine heart into an adult human with end-stage heart disease. As a follow-up to this extraordinary accomplishment by the surgical team, Dr. Kaczorowski published an article entitled, “Organs from genetically engineered pigs may help shorten the transplant wait list,” in The Conversation. The article focuses on the history of xenotransplantion, or transplanting animal organs into human beings. The article is repeated here:
University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Patrick Gallagher recognized 15 faculty members — and one entire office — this year with Chancellor’s Distinguished Awards across three categories. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Cecelia Yates, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Development, School of Nursing, was recognized in the Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Awards/Junior category for her research to understand the signaling networks that underlie pathologic fibrosis across multiple tissue and organ systems. Cited as a “rising star” in the field, Dr. Yates’ approach also includes developing therapeutics for diseases caused by this phenomenon.
Approximately 23,700 children in the U.S. undergo invasive mechanical ventilation for acute respiratory failure annually. Although most survive, little is known if they have worse long-term neurocognitive function than children who do not undergo such procedures. There are concerns about neurotoxic effects of critical illness and its treatment on the developing brain. Therefore, infants and young children may be uniquely susceptible to adverse neurocognitive outcomes after invasive mechanical ventilation.
