The University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Medical Innovation (CMI) awarded grants totaling $70,000 to three research groups through its 2019 Round-1 Pilot Funding Program for Early Stage Medical Technology Research and Development. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Carl Snyderman, MD, MBA, is a co-investigator on one of the selected projects, along with Garrett Coyan, MD, a surgery resident in the lab of William Wagner, PhD:
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Rory Cooper, PhD, has been appointed to the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s Spinal Cord Research Advisory Committee. Rachel Levine, MD, Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Health, notified Dr. Cooper of this honor.
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members Hang Lin, PhD, and Douglas Weber, PhD, received $1.5 million from the NIH to study the mechanism of osteoarthritis pain and test drugs in a novel microphysiological tissue chip (microJoint). The team will use the microJoint to also assess the impact of opioids on the neural activity and tissue health in the knee joint.
Break any bone in the human body and the body can repair the tissue and fix the damage. Yet tooth enamel — the strongest tissue in the human body — cannot repair itself. Still, our teeth last a lifetime.
The recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newspaper article by Jill Daly highlights the significant challenges infants and children face if they require a heart transplant.
Researchers of Sechenov University and University of Pittsburgh—including McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member and Duquesne University professor John Pollock, PhD, and his team aim to develop an app to improve mental health. As reported by Kellen Stepler, staff writer for The Duquesne Duke, the app’s objective is to help pre-teens develop coping skills to manage stress and anxiety. A 2019 report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association claims that the teen suicide rate has reached its highest level in nearly two decades.
A new report highlights the latest advances in cell-based therapies for the treatment of disorders of the musculoskeletal system, such as arthritis and osteoporosis, and it identifies key unanswered questions that should be addressed through ongoing research. The report is published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research and concurrently in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research, and was issued by a joint Task Force of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research and the Orthopaedic Research Society. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Rocky Tuan, PhD, Vice-Chancellor and President of The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the former Associate Director of the McGowan Institute, is the co-chair of the Task Force.
Sene Polamalu, a bioengineering graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh in the Orthopedic Robotics Laboratory under the supervision of McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Richard Debski, PhD, William Kepler Whiteford Faculty Fellow and Professor of Bioengineering and Orthopaedic Surgery, was named the 2019 Wesley C. Pickard Fellow by the Department of Bioengineering. Recipients of this award are selected by the department chair and chosen based on academic merit.
Oncorus, Inc., an oncolytic virus company focused on driving innovation to transform outcomes for cancer patients, announced recently the completion of an oversubscribed $79.5 million Series B financing. Oncorus is a University of Pittsburgh spin-out company based on the pioneering research of McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Joseph Glorioso III, PhD, Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine with a secondary appointment in the Department of Human Genetics, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Dr. Glorioso is a co-founder of Oncorus and heads its Scientific Advisory Board.
Renerva, LLC, a medical device company developing innovative technologies for peripheral nerve repair, announced recently that it has received two additional grants totaling $500,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), rapidly accelerating development of their medical device products.
Our director, William Wagner, PhD, Professor of Surgery, Bioengineering and Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, spoke with Michelle Wright of WTAE about our partnership with the ISS. Watch the interview here.
While 3D printing soft materials, such as silicone or proteins, offers many advantages, it also introduces many new and complicated variables to consider when creating a new part, per Vanesa Listek for 3D Print in her report featuring the work of McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Newell Washburn, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering and chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). The existing soft materials that can be 3D printed commercially are somewhat limited since they don’t have all the properties that researchers need to fully advance their developments and they end up working within the constraints of the current technology.
More than 30 million Americans suffer from diabetes and must inject themselves with insulin two to four times daily. Researchers have been looking for ways to administer the drug orally, and researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) have now shown such a feat is possible.
Coronary artery disease is a leading cause of death in the U.S., with about 370,000 Americans dying from the disease each year. Stents are a life-saving procedure used to prop open narrowing blood vessels; however, over time, tissue can regrow into the mesh stent and cause the artery to narrow again, putting the patient at risk.
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed an organ-on-an-electronic-chip platform, which uses bioelectrical sensors to measure the electrophysiology of the heart cells in three dimensions. These 3D, self-rolling biosensor arrays coil up over heart cell spheroid tissues to form an “organ-on-e-chip,” thus enabling the researchers to study how cells communicate with each other in multicellular systems such as the heart.
As reported by Forbes contributor Robin Seaton Jefferson, LyGenesis, Inc., hopes to enter human trials in 2020 on a therapy that could potentially give patients with end stage liver disease hope for new livers without having to wait on donated organs. The technology, developed through research from McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Eric Lagasse, PharmD, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh and LyGenesis’ Chief Scientific Officer, uses lymph nodes as bioreactors to regrow functioning organs within a patient’s own body. The research found that a variety of different cells types and tissues, including the liver, could engraft and actually grow within lymph nodes. The company is working on injecting cadaver cells into lymph nodes to grow secondary livers.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Hillman Cancer Center—including McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Simon Watkins, PhD, founder and director of the Center for Biologic Imaging at the University of Pittsburgh, a member of the Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, and a distinguished professor and vice chairman within the Department of Cell Biology—provide the first concrete evidence for the long-held belief that sick mitochondria pollute the cells they’re supposed to be supplying with power.
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member David Vorp, PhD, associate dean for research at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering and the John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering, and his team are using Amazon Web Services (AWS) resources to improve the diagnosis and treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms, the 13th-leading cause of death in western countries. New machine learning technologies and advances in computing power, like those offered by Amazon SageMaker and Amazon EC2, are making it possible to rapidly translate insights discovered in the lab into treatments and services that could dramatically improve human health.
Mantle cell lymphoma is an aggressive subtype of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that claims the lives of tens of thousands of people every year. Mantle cell lymphoma is considered incurable, even though new treatments have yielded promising results.
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Keith Cook, PhD, a professor of biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), is working to give new hope to patients with chronic lung disease.
A poster presented by Asiyeh Golabchi, PhD, a bioengineering postdoctoral research associate at the University of Pittsburgh, was selected as one of the best poster presentations at the 2019 Postdoctoral Data & Dine Symposium. Dr. Golabchi works in the Neural Tissue Engineering (NTE) Lab directed by McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Xinyan Tracy Cui, PhD, professor of bioengineering in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering. Dr. Golabchi’s research focuses on developing a molecular-level understanding of neurobiological interactions to neural implants.
“If you had a patient in need of a dentist, which dentist would you refer them to?”
This is the question asked to thousands of dentists to help determine who the topDentists should be. Dentists and specialists are asked to take into consideration years of experience, continuing education, manner with patients, use of new techniques and technologies, and of course physical results. Pittsburgh Magazine’s annual list, which contains 398 dentists across 12 specialties, includes three McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members:
The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) Council on Research (CoR) has named McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member David Vorp, PhD, as one of eight fellows in its third Research Leader Fellowship Program cohort selected nationwide. Dr. Vorp is Associate Dean for Research for Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, the John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering, and Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Surgery, Chemical & Petroleum Engineering, and the Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute.
One out of four sepsis patients who survive their hospital stay have elevated levels of inflammation a year after discharge, and they are at higher risk for major health problems and death, according to a study led by physician-scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members who are authors on this study include:
By Dr. George V. Mazariegos, Opinion Contributor, The Hill
“Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future,” President John F. Kennedy told the U.S. Committee for UNICEF in 1963. That same year, Dr. Thomas Starzl, my mentor, performed the world’s first pediatric liver transplant.
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Mary Amanda Dew, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Clinical and Translational Science has been awarded the 2019 Bud Orgel Award for Distinguished Achievement in Research from the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers.
Study: In the time it takes you to read this sentence, every cell in your body suffers some form of DNA damage. Without vigilant repair, cancer would run rampant, and now scientists at the University of Pittsburgh have gotten a glimpse of how one protein in particular keeps DNA damage in check.
The Disabled Veterans National Foundation (DVNF), a nonprofit veterans service organization that provides critically needed support to disabled and at-risk veterans who leave the military wounded—physically or psychologically—after defending our safety and our freedom, presented a grant of $50,000 to the Human Engineering Research Laboratories (HERL).
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) have published a paper in Science that details a new technique to 3D bioprint tissue scaffolds out of collagen, the major structural protein in the human body. This first-of-its-kind method brings the field of tissue engineering one step closer to being able to 3D print a full-sized organ such as an adult human heart. The work was done in the lab of Adam Feinberg, PhD, a professor of biomedical engineering (BME) and materials science & engineering at CMU. Dr. Feinberg is an affiliated faculty member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
Living-donor liver transplant offers numerous advantages over deceased-donor transplant, including better three-year survival rates for patients and lower costs, according to new research from the UPMC Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Death rates from sepsis fell faster in New York than expected—and faster than in peer states—following the introduction of the nation’s first state-mandated sepsis regulation, according to an analysis led by University of Pittsburgh researchers and published in JAMA. The policy requires all New York hospitals to quickly implement certain protocols when the deadly condition is suspected.
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Mangesh Kulkarni, PhD, assistant professor of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering, was awarded $17,793 in funding from the Central Research Development Fund (CRDF) to support research for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
The University of Pittsburgh received a $6 million grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to support the development of a cortical vision research program in the Pitt School of Medicine Department of Ophthalmology. The program will aim to understand how the eye and the brain work together to help us see the world and use that knowledge to develop new ways to restore vision using various technologies such as brain computer interfaces and novel genetic technologies.
The McGowan Institute has formed an alliance with the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory to develop and demonstrate how microgravity can improve regenerative medicine-based therapies. The ISS provides a unique platform to conduct studies in a microgravity environment.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine—including McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members Alejandro Soto-Gutierrez, MD, PhD, associate professor of pathology at Pitt’s School of Medicine and faculty member of the Pittsburgh Liver Research Center, and Ira Fox, MD, professor of surgery and pediatric transplantation at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh—are the first to grow genetically modified miniature human livers in the laboratory, to emulate human liver disease progression and test therapeutics.
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) has selected Gillian Schriever, distance runner and 2019 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, as one of the two ACC candidates for 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year. Duke University golfer Virginia Elena Carta also received the ACC’s nomination.
Study: A bioengineering group from the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering is bringing the worlds of computational modeling and experimentation closer together by developing a methodology to help analyze the wealth of imaging data provided by advancements in imaging tools and automated microscopes.
The Wiegand Summer Internship provides an opportunity for a high school senior, who resides in Allegheny County and who graduated in the spring of 2019, to spend 5 weeks learning first-hand about regenerative medicine research and scientific investigations in general.
CATER trainee Alexis Nolfi, doctoral candidate in the lab of McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Bryan Brown, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering with secondary appointments in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the University of Pittsburgh, is a member of the research team developing a silicone-hydrogel-based contact lens that has been coated with natural biopolymers containing an immune modifying drug for the treatment of dry eye disease. The project is named CyteSolutions Lens and the project’s video is here.
