McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Cecelia Yates, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Health Promotion & Development, School of Nursing, University of Pittsburgh, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, has been awarded $250,000 and support to accelerate her research through an ongoing partnership between global biotechnology leader CSL Behring and the University City Science Center.
During a press briefing during the recent 2020 AAAS Annual Meeting, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Rory Cooper, PhD, the FISA & Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) Professor and Distinguished Professor of the Department of Rehabilitation Science & Technology, and professor of Bioengineering, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh, discussed how people with disabilities are shut off from STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers and why inclusivity matters.
Neuroelectronic interfaces are the foundation of technology that connects the human mind to machine and helps to restore motor and sensory function to individuals with neurological diseases and disorders. This technology has been introduced as a successful treatment to the clinical environment, but issues with device stability and longevity remain.
Although 1 in 7 adults smoke cigarettes the year prior to undergoing weight-loss surgery, nearly all successfully quit at least a month before their operation. However, smoking prevalence steadily climbs to pre-surgery levels within seven years, according to new research led by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Steven Belle, PhD, MScHyg, Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and a Co-Director in the Epidemiology Data Center, Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh, is a co-author on this work.
Genprex, Inc., a clinical-stage gene therapy company developing potentially life-changing technologies for patients with cancer and other serious diseases, today announced that it signed an exclusive license agreement with the University of Pittsburgh for a diabetes gene therapy that may have the potential to cure Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, which together currently affect approximately 30.3 million people in the U.S, or 9 percent of the U.S. population.
The University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Medical Innovation (CMI) awarded grants totaling $47,500 to three research groups through its 2019 Round-2 Pilot Funding Program for Early Stage Medical Technology Research and Development. The latest funding proposals include a system for preservation of explanted hearts used in transplantation surgery, a new vascular stent with anti-thrombogenic capability, and a rugged, infection-resistant material for orthopedic implants.
An article by Alicia Lasek for McKnight’s noted how nurse practitioners spend their time in eldercare facilities has changed little in 20 years, a new study has found. In fact, much of their work time remains nonclinical in these settings, reported investigators.
In recognition of exemplary efforts and steadfast service, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Robert Kormos, MD, was presented with The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) 2020 Distinguished Service Award at the Society’s 56th Annual Meeting.
Cornell’s University College of Engineering has announced the winners of its annual Scale-Up and Prototyping Awards, which give teams of engineering faculty and students up to $40,000 to commercialize startup technologies that might otherwise have trouble obtaining funding. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member James Antaki, PhD, Susan K. McAdam Professor of Heart Assist Technology in the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering at Cornell, had a winning project: Heart-Recovery Device for Infants and Young Children.
Mucus is a protective, slimy secretion produced by goblet cells and which lines organs of the respiratory, digestive, and reproductive systems. Slime production is essential to health, and an imbalance can be life-threatening. Patients with diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and ulcerative colitis produce too much mucus, often after growing too many goblet cells. Loss of goblet cells can be equally devastating – for instance during cancer, after infection, or injury. The balance of slime creation, amount, and transport is critical, so doctors and medical researchers have long sought the origins of goblet cells and have been eager to control processes that regenerate them and maintain balanced populations.
Sometimes, in order to understand the big picture, you need to start by assessing the smallest of details. It’s a truth that engineers know well — selecting the right materials can mean the success or failure of a given application.
The internet of things (IoT) widely spans from the smart speakers and Wi-Fi-connected home appliances to manufacturing machines that use connected sensors to time tasks on an assembly line, warehouses that rely on automation to manage inventory, and surgeons who can perform extremely precise surgeries with robots. But for these applications, timing is everything: a lagging connection could have disastrous consequences.
Overweight and obese vitamin D-deficient children who took a relatively high dose of vitamin D every day for six months had lower blood pressure and improved insulin sensitivity than their peers who took a lower dose, according to the results of a UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh clinical trial reported in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Abbe de Vallejo, PhD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Immunology in the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, is a co-author on the study.
As reported by Jensen Toussaint for AL DÍA News, the second annual AL DÍA Top Doctors Forum held in January 2020 in the Lincoln Memorial at the Union League of Philadelphia, shed a light on some of the significant leaders who exist within the Latino community. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Christian Bermudez, MD, the Director of Thoracic Transplantation at the University of Pennsylvania, an Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and the Surgical Director of Lung Transplantation and ECMO at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, is an AL DÍA Top Doctors.
Neural stimulation is a pioneering technology that can be used to recover function and improve the quality of life for individuals who suffer from brain injury or disease. It serves an integral role in modern neuroscience research and human neuroprosthetics, including advancements in prosthetic limbs and brain-computer interfaces. A challenge that remains with this technology is achieving long-term and precise stimulation of a specific group of neurons.
The National Institutes of Health recently awarded $3.8 million to the R01 Grant Project entitled “Physical exercise and blood-brain communication: Exosomes, Klotho and the Choroid Plexus.” The project’s co-principal investigators include:
UPMC has implanted the first patient in the United States with a new wireless retinal device as part of a clinical trial aimed at restoring partial sight to patients with advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a disease that leads to permanent blindness.
Twice as many people as previously believed are dying of sepsis worldwide, according to an analysis published in The Lancet and announced at the Critical Care Reviews annual meeting in Belfast. Among them are a disproportionately high number of children in poor areas.
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers have created a biodegradable nerve guide — a polymer tube — filled with growth-promoting protein that can regenerate long sections of damaged nerves, without the need for transplanting stem cells or a donor nerve.
Abbott Laboratories, the Abbott Park, Illinois-based health care giant, has won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a less invasive surgical procedure that allows surgeons to implant the company’s heart pump without a patient undergoing open heart surgery.
Transplants from donors with hepatitis C may be a safe option for those awaiting new hearts – a major development in curbing the nationwide organ shortage, according to new research.
Renerva, a medical startup that is developing an injectable gel to speed the healing of damaged nerves and creating an off-the-shelf nerve-graft product that may spare patients life-long disability, has joined Cornell University’s McGovern Center life sciences business incubator.
In October, the Pittsburgh Business Times announced the establishment of their inaugural “Power 100” List which they describe as individuals who represent “Pittsburgh’s most influential movers and shakers. These are the people who have defined and are redefining the region, who are controlling the agenda right now, and who are leading and shaping the industries they are in.” McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine director William Wagner, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Surgery, Bioengineering and Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, was selected as a “Power 100” honoree as a Pittsburgh driving force and motivator.
In recognition of outstanding productivity as a faculty member, the University of Pittsburgh Department of Bioengineering appointed two faculty professorships and one faculty fellowship in 2019. Lance Davidson, PhD, was appointed William Kepler Whiteford Professor of Bioengineering; William Federspiel, PhD, was appointed John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering; and Warren Ruder, PhD, was appointed William Kepler Whiteford Fellow of Bioengineering.
Three students from the University of Pittsburgh Department of Bioengineering received 2020 American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowships, which provides up to two years of project support for aspiring academic and health professionals. Four of the five principal investigators associated with these students are McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members.
As a healthy heart ages, it becomes more susceptible to cardiovascular diseases. Though researchers have discovered that relaxin, an insulin-like hormone, suppresses atrial fibrillation (AF), inflammation, and fibrosis in aged rats, the underlying mechanisms of these benefits are still unknown. In a recent Scientific Reports paper, a University of Pittsburgh research team discusses how relaxin interacts with the body’s signaling processes to produce a fundamental mechanism that may have great therapeutic potential.
The University of Pittsburgh’s Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation named eight faculty awardees for the 2020 John C. Mascaro Faculty Program in Sustainability.
Artur Dubrawski, PhD, is not a critical care physician, but his best friend is. Dr. Dubrawski, a research professor in Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, loves talking about disease symptoms with McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Michael Pinsky, MD, a professor of critical care medicine, cardiovascular disease, bioengineering and more at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. They also love talking about data and, more important, what the data means.
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Krzysztof Matyjaszewski, PhD, is the Co-Founder and CSO of BioHybrid Solutions, LLC (BHS), a Pittsburgh-based protein engineering company, which recently received a contract worth up to $30 million from the United States Department of Defense to develop a next-generation prophylactic medical countermeasure. The project was sponsored by the U.S. Government through the Medical CBRN Defense Consortium (MCDC). Dr. Matyjaszewski is the J.C. Warner Professor of Natural Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University.
McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine deputy director Stephen Badylak, DVM, PhD, MD, professor in the Department of Surgery and director of the Center for Pre-Clinical Tissue Engineering within the McGowan Institute, was honored with the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society-Americas (TERMIS-AM). The TERMIS-AM Lifetime Achievement Award was established to recognize an individual who has contributed immensely to the tissue engineering and regenerative medicine field. The award is presented to an individual whose work has impacted and assisted with laying the foundation stones for the field.
William Federspiel, PhD, Director of the Medical Devices Laboratory of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the William Kepler Whiteford Professor in the Department of Bioengineering with secondary appointments in Chemical Engineering and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, has been named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society. Academic inventors and innovators elected to the rank of NAI Fellow status have been nominated by their peers for outstanding contributions to innovation in areas such as patents and licensing, innovative discovery and technology, significant impact on society, and support and enhancement of innovation. The 2019 Fellows Gala and Induction Ceremony will take place on April 10, 2020, at The Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ.
The US-Ireland Alliance recently announced the 21st Class of George J. Mitchell Scholars and among the finalists was McKenzie Sicke, a bioengineering undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh who works in the lab of McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine Bryan Brown, PhD, associate professor of bioengineering. In Dr. Brown’s lab, she studies angiogenic response to polypropylene mesh implants in rabbit models. The George J. Mitchell Scholarship Program is a national, competitive scholarship that awards one year of postgraduate study in any discipline offered by institutions of higher learning in Ireland and Northern Ireland to up to 12 students annually.
In celebration of his appointment, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member John Kellum, MD, Endowed Chair in Critical Care Medicine Research, presented the December 9, 2019, Provost Inaugural Lecture. His presentation was entitled “The Inconvenient Truth About Acute Kidney Injury.”
It is with sadness that the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine announces the passing of affiliated faculty member James Funderburgh, PhD.
With its theme of Inspiration and Innovation, Fairfield University, Fairfield, Connecticut, hosted a recent TEDx on October 28, 2019.
Cardiol Therapeutics Inc., a leader in the production of pharmaceutical cannabidiol (CBD) products and in the development of innovative cannabidiol medicines for heart disease, announced the formation of the Clinical Steering Committee (CSC) for a Phase 2 international trial in acute myocarditis using its CardiolRx™100 cannabidiol formulation.
The Innovation Institute celebrated the University of Pittsburgh faculty, students and staff who are working to make their ideas and research discoveries have a real-world impact at the 14th Annual Celebration of Innovation, on November 20 at the Petersen Events Center Campus View Club.
The University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine is the first in the nation to establish opioid-free pain management guidelines for the vast majority of procedures performed in all of its clinics.
The dopamine D2 receptor has a previously unobserved role in modulating Wnt expression and control of cell proliferation, according to a new study from the George Washington University (GW) and the University of Pittsburgh. The research, published in Scientific Reports, could have implications for the development of new therapeutics across multiple disciplines including nephrology, endocrinology, and psychiatry. Zachary Freyberg, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of psychiatry and cell biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and an affiliated faculty member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, is a senior author on the study.
Sebastian Correa, a junior bioengineering student in the lab of McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Douglas Weber, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh and director of the Rehab Neural Engineering Labs (RNEL), attended the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) National Convention in Phoenix and received the first place award at the Engineering Science Symposium poster competition.
