News Archive

Dr. Douglas Weber is Associate Professor in the Department of Bioengineering, with secondary appointments in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology, and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition. He is the founding Director of the Rehab Neural Engineering Laboratories (RNEL) here at the University of Pittsburgh. RNEL investigators work collaboratively on a range of projects aimed at the role of sensory feedback in supporting and regulating a wide range of perceptual, motor, cognitive, and autonomic functions. Dr. Weber’s own research combines fundamental neuroscience and engineering research to understand physiological mechanisms underlying sensory perception, feedback control of movement, and neuroplasticity in sensorimotor systems.

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Stephen Badylak, DVM, PhD, MD, Deputy Director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, is the recipient of the 2018 Marlin Mickle Outstanding Innovator Award.  During the Innovation Institute’s Celebration of Innovation on December 3, 2018, Dr. Badylak was presented with this prestigious honor.

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McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Steffi Oesterreich, PhD, professor of pharmacology and chemical biology and co-director of the Women’s Cancer Research Center at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and Magee-Womens Research Institute, is one of four leading UPMC Hillman Cancer Center breast cancer researchers that are among the world’s top scientists to share in a record-breaking $63 million investment in cancer research by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF).

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Pre-surgery exercising—prehabilitation—before that total knee replacement may not sound like an activity you want or can participate in however clinicians have found that the benefits may have a significant impact on your recovery.  The intention is that the fitter patients are when they have surgery, the quicker they will recover from surgery.

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McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Steven Belle, PhD, MScHyg, Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh and a Co-Director in the Epidemiology Data Center in the Graduate School of Public Health, was part of a team of researchers analyzing data from more than 2,400 obese patients who underwent bariatric weight-loss surgery. The researchers identified at least four different patient subgroups that diverge significantly in eating behaviors and rate of diabetes, as well as weight loss in three years after surgery.

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One of the downsides to getting older is that skeletal muscle loses its ability to heal after injury. New research from the University of Pittsburgh implicates the so-called “longevity protein” Klotho, both as culprit and therapeutic target.

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Effective December 1, 2018, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Kacey Marra, PhD, will assume the position of Vice-Chair of Research for the Department of Plastic Surgery.  Dr. Marra will also officially be appointed to the rank of Professor of Plastic Surgery, with tenure.

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Promising first results from the clinical feasibility trial of PRIMA, a wireless retinal implant designed to help restore useful vision in patients with advanced atrophic dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD), were presented recently at the American Academy of Ophthalmology 2018 annual meeting held in Chicago. The presentation was acknowledged as the “Best Paper” of Retina Session II at the meeting.

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In honor of the over more than 30 years of pioneering work, unwavering dedication and commitment to UPMC Sports Medicine of Freddie Fu, MD, the medical building on the campus of the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex has been renamed the UPMC Freddie Fu Sports Medicine Center.

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Mary Kekatos Health Reporter for the Dailymail.com and the Dailymail.com Reporter, recently detailed in her article that statins could prevent the spread of breast cancer, per a new study.  Researchers say the drugs, which combat high cholesterol, do not prevent the cancer from occurring but stop it from spreading to other organs.  Experiments performed in human cells and laboratory mice found that the pills prevent tumors from migrating to the lungs and liver.

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In recognition of his “service and commitment to the field of chemistry over the years, with particular emphasis on efforts to reinvent chemical engineering education in the Pittsburgh area,” the Pittsburgh Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) has named University of Pittsburgh Professor and McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Steven Little, PhD, as recipient of its 2018 Pittsburgh Award. Dr. Little is the William Kepler Whiteford Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering.

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Tyler Meder, a bioengineering graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh, was awarded first place among more than 40 participants at a poster session during the 7th annual Symposium on Regenerative Rehabilitation. The title of his winning paper is “Combining a Peripheral Nerve Matrix Derived Hydrogel and Post-Surgical Therapy for Improving Functional Recovery Following Nerve Reconstruction.”  The symposium was hosted in Seattle on October 11-13, 2018.

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McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Jenny Yu, MD, Vice Chair of Clinical Operations for the Department of Ophthalmology, UPMC Eye Center, a member on the Orbital, Oculoplastic, and Aesthetic Surgery Service, and an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh, is a co-founder of Project Theia along with Katie Duncan, MD, MDEyecare LLC.  Founded in 2017, Project Theia is a non-profit organization named after the Greek goddess of sight and heavenly light and is focused on

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Peptilogics’ is part of the LifeX™ Ventures company foundry, which builds life science companies from its Pittsburgh headquarters. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Dietrich Stephan, PhD, is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh and CEO of LifeX^TM Ventures.

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For millions of Americans struggling with obesity and considering surgical procedures to achieve weight loss and alleviate obesity-related health complications, a new study adds weight to the health benefits attributed to bariatric surgery.

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In pursuing its mission, the Italian Scientists and Scholars of North America Foundation (ISSNAF) grants specific focus to early stage investigators working in North America whose commitment to their discipline of study is innovative, impactful, and honors their country of origin.

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Annually, Modern Healthcare sponsors The Up & Comers awards and recognition program which acknowledges healthcare’s rising stars. These young executives have made significant contributions in the areas of healthcare administration, management, or policy. This year, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member MaCalus Hogan, MD, was named an Up & Comer for 2018.

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The University of Pittsburgh research team of

• Piervincenzo Rizzo, PhD, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering,
• Samuel Dickerson, PhD, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and
• McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Ian Conner, MD, PhD, assistant professor of ophthalmology and bioengineering,

recently received funding via a $360,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.  Dr. Rizzo and his team are currently measuring the internal pressure of objects, such as a piece of steel girder and a tennis ball, with the end goal of calculating corrosive deterioration in pipelines in the natural gas, hazardous liquid and liquefied natural gas plant industries.  Other applications being researched for this technology include, most notably, for measuring and monitoring eye pressure in glaucoma patients.

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A team of University of Pittsburgh and UPMC researchers was recently awarded two grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) totaling over $8 million to expand their groundbreaking brain computer interface (BCI) research in collaboration with researchers at the University of Chicago and Carnegie Mellon University.

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Christopher Bettinger, PhD, associate professor of materials science and biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and an affiliated faculty member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, spends much of his time thinking about how to improve the ways we take medicine.  Dr. Bettinger recently spoke with Benjamin Mikek of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for its occasional series, “Patented in Pittsburgh,” about his work on an oral, electrical method of drug delivery and the associated patent process.  Excerpts from that article follow.

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McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Kathryn Whitehead, PhD, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), has been awarded a 2018 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator Award for her project titled “Fate, Function, and Genetic Engineering of Breast Milk Cells for Infant Therapy.” NIH Director’s Awards are prestigious awards given to exceptionally creative scientists proposing high-risk, high-impact research.

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In 2017, the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine received an $11.7 million grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) to establish a resource center dedicated to advancing therapies for regenerating damaged dental, oral, and craniofacial tissues.  Officially named the Michigan-Pittsburgh-Wyss Regenerative Medicine (MPWRM) Resource Center: Supporting Regenerative Medicine in Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Technologies, Pitt established the center in partnership with the University of Michigan and Harvard University as part of the NIDCR’s Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Tissue Regeneration Consortium (DOCTRC). The goal of the consortium is to guide new therapies from the research stages through preclinical studies and into human clinical trials.

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The Bridgeside Research Forum is a seminar series given by postdocs and graduate students every Friday during the University of Pittsburgh academic year.

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The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has awarded three VA Merit Review Grants to the Human Engineering and Research Laboratory (HERL).  The mission of HERL is to continuously improve the mobility and function of people with disabilities through advanced engineering in clinical research and medical rehabilitation.

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A total of $475,000 in prizes were awarded at the Pitt Innovation Challenge (PInCh®) final event, in which teams competed with projects aimed at improving human performance, which was defined broadly as benefitting physiological or psychological functioning of healthy people or those with chronic disease.

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The need for liver transplantation is expected to rise by 23 percent over the next two decades, but the supply of transplantable livers is inadequate today, leaving patients in need of liver transplantation with increasingly longer waiting periods and worse prospects for survival. To save the lives of more patients suffering from liver diseases, patients, their families, doctors, and researchers are all looking toward improving liver cell transplantation using autologous (patient-donated) liver cells.

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Before the United Network for Organ Sharing, or UNOS, made the heart and lung transplantation organ allocation change in November 2017, the United States was divided into 58 local donor service areas. People on the heart and lung transplant list were first matched with donors within their service areas, even if another potential match was closer geographically.

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Pittsburgh’s Green Building Alliance (GBA) celebrated its silver anniversary at the Emerald Evening Fundraising gala, an annual event to recognize local construction projects that emphasize green, sustainable design. This year’s ceremony was especially auspicious.

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In her report, Elaine Vitone, PittMed, writes of the numerous research efforts of Pitt investigators that are illuminating a kind of cell death called ferroptosis, which likely plays a role in many acute and chronic diseases.  Ferroptosis is a type of programmed cell death dependent on iron and characterized by the accumulation of lipid peroxides and is genetically and biochemically distinct from other forms of regulated cell death such as apoptosis.

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Gavin Jenkins, in his recent article for PittMed, reports on the work of 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.  Seven years ago, and inspired by the history of scratch vaccinations, Dr. Falo began researching microneedle array technology, which delivers medicine through the skin.  Afterall, our skin is our biggest organ, and our first line of defense against viruses and other pathogens we come across.

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ECM Therapeutics, Inc. has licensed multiple extracellular matrix (ECM) technologies developed in the laboratory of Stephen Badylak, DVM, PhD, MD (pictured top), including hydrogels, bioactive derivatives and methods for delivering these materials within the body. Dr. Badylak is a professor in the Department of Surgery, a deputy director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and the director of the Center for Pre-Clinical Tissue Engineering within the Institute.

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McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Warren Ruder, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, receives prestigious honor from the NIH High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program.  Dr. Ruder joins Peter Strick, PhD, scientific director of the University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute and distinguished professor and chair of neurobiology, and Erik Wright, PhD, an assistant professor of biomedical informatics, as a recipient of this year’s recognition.

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Medtronic, a global leader in heart valve therapies, recently announced new data presented at the 30th Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference, the annual scientific symposium of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation. During the meeting, investigators—including McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Thomas Gleason, MD, the Ronald V. Pellegrini Endowed Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Chief, Division of Cardiac Surgery of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Co-Director of the Heart and Vascular Institute at UPMC, Director of the Center for Thoracic Aortic Disease, Co-Director of the Center for Heart Valve Disease, and member of the Center for Vascular Remodeling and Regeneration at Pitt—presented the longest-term data to-date from the CoreValve U.S. Pivotal Trial

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it has awarded five grants totaling up to $6 million per year over the next five years to Pediatric Device Consortia (PDC) across the country that will provide advice and support services to innovators of children’s medical devices.

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For a few years now, trendy IV (intravenous) spas have been popping up in non-medical facilities promising their clients hydration, more energy, and recovery from hangovers, jet lag, and symptoms of the flu.  But are IV treatments for these reasons safe?

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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—a VA Rehabilitation R&D Center of Excellence in partnership with Pitt—participated in the recent VA Research Fair in Washington, DC.  He demonstrated MEBot, a wheelchair which can climb stairs.

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Extracellular matrix (ECM) hydrogel promotes tissue regeneration in many peripheral soft tissues. However, the brain has generally been considered to lack the potential for tissue regeneration.  In their study published in Acta Biomaterialia, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Michel Modo, PhD, Professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of Pittsburgh with secondary appointments in the Department of Bioengineering and the Center for Neural Basis of Cognition, and McGowan Institute Deputy Director Stephen Badylak, DVM, PhD, MD, Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh and Director of the Center for Pre-Clinical Tissue Engineering within the Institute, demonstrated that tissue regeneration in the brain can be achieved using implantation of ECM hydrogel into a tissue cavity. They and the research team further demonstrated that a structure-function relationship is key to promote tissue regeneration in the brain.  This approach offers new avenues for the future treatment of chronic tissue damage caused by stroke and other acute brain injuries.

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The Ladies Hospital Aid Society 2018 Trailblazer Awards went to six doctors advancing the cause of medicine in their fields. Two of the six recipients were McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty members:

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From the desk of McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member J. Peter Rubin, MD, UPMC Endowed Professor and Chair of Plastic Surgery, Director, UPMC Wound Healing Services, Professor of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh:

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Sponsored by the Pittsburgh Business Times, the 2018 Health Care Hero Awards honor the individuals, companies, and organizations in western Pennsylvania for their contributions to improving health care in our region.

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