The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine held its 2016 Scientific Retreat March 6-8, 2016. The focus was on peer-to-peer networking, and the retreat provided many opportunities to explore collaborative endeavors with other researchers, participating guests, and external partners who are working to bring regenerative medicine technologies to clinical use.

The participation and contributions of the guests and external collaborators – along with McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty and trainees – provided for insightful discussions and identification of opportunities for partnership.  This year’s program was co-chaired by Fabrisia Ambrosio, PhD, MPT, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh, and Vijay Gorantla, MD, PhD, McGowan Institute Deputy Director, Associate Professor of Surgery in the Department of Plastic Surgery, and the Administrative Medical Director of the Pittsburgh Reconstructive Transplant Program at UPMC.

Program Highlights

HeartThe Retreat’s Opening Keynote Session was led by McGowan Institute Director William Wagner, PhD, Professor of Surgery, Bioengineering, and Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.  Following Dr. Wagner’s welcome, the main program for the evening was a “Tribute to the Artificial Heart Program” which included contributions from McGowan Institute faculty members—Harvey Borovetz, PhD, 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 and of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, and a Deputy Director of Artificial Organs and Medical Devices at the McGowan Institute, Robert Kormos, MD, Professor with tenure specializing in cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh, the Director of UPMC’s Artificial Heart Program, and Co-Director of the Heart Transplantation Program, and Peter Wearden, MD, PhD, Department Chair, Division of Cardiology, Department of Cardiovascular Services, Nemours Children’s Hospital, Orlando, Florida.

Prior to the opening program, the retreat included several Short Courses with presentations by the following guests:

Supporting Science Reproducibility and Rigor with Research: Quality Assurance for Academic Environments

  • Rebecca Davies, PhD, Associate Professor – Comparative Endocrinology Director, Quality Central, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota: “Training the Next Generation of Scientists to Use Principles of Research Quality Assurance (QA) to Improve Data Reliability and Reproducibility”
  • Michael W. Jamieson, DRSc, Associate Director International Center for Regulatory Sciences, Assistant Professor, Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of Southern California: “Introducing the Concept of GRP to Academic Labs: Lessons Learned”
  • Joan Adamo, PhD, Associate Director, Regulatory Support Services, Clinical & Translational Science Institute, University of Rochester Medical Center: “Enhancing Quality in Translational Science: Normalizing a Culture of Quality for Academic Research”

The Innovation Institute –We Are Here to Help You….Commercialize

  • Evan Facher, PhD, MBA, Director, Enterprise Development, University of Pittsburgh, Innovation Institute

Pediatric Device Development –‘Making the Connection’

  • Luis De la Torre, MD: “Electro-identifier of perineal muscles: A critical and genuine necessity of a new device for the surgical treatment of patients with imperforate anus”
  • Cuneyt Alper, MD: “Development of a Testing/Treatment device for Eustachian Tube Dysfunction”
  • Paul Szabolcs, MD: “Impact of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Dose in Blood and Marrow Transplantation:  Challenges and Opportunities”
  • Jay Kolls, MD: “IL-22 and Acute Lung Injury”
  • Ken Nischal, MD: “Adapting Intra-ocular implant technology for the Infant”
  • Patrick Bosch, MD: “Congenital dislocated hip tether”
  • Steven Docimo, MD: “Missing the Point: Preventing Sharps Injuries from Needle-Tipped Electrocautery Devices” and “(Don’t) Feel the Burn!  A Passive Light Cord Safety System”
  • Stefan Scholz, MD, PhD: “Dynamic pressure-guided bracing for chest wall deformities” and “Facilitating mucous fistula refeeding for neonates”
  • Stephanie Greene, MD: “Prenatal Treatment of Isolated Aqueductal Stenosis”

Strategies for Winning Department of Defense (DoD) Funding

  • Ann Gleeson, MS, Managing Director, Center for Military Medicine Research, University of Pittsburgh

SessionThe Retreat program also included a great cross-section of scientific presentations given by invited researchers from other institutions and agencies who are not formally affiliated with the Institute (in alphabetical order):

  • Katelyn Fleishman Allison, PhD, ACSM-HFS, Assistant Professor, Neuromuscular Research Laboratory (NMRL), University of Pittsburgh: “Musculoskeletal, Biomechanical, and Physiological Gender Differences in the U.S. Military”
  • Gary An, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Chicago Medicine: “Theory-Driven Biology: The Real Path Towards “Precision Medicine”
  • Elisabeth Barton, PhD, Professor, College of Health & Human Performance, Applied Physiology & Kinesiology, University of Florida: “Strategies for Improving Skeletal Muscle Repair”
  • Charlie Batch, Founder, Best of the Batch Foundation, Co-Founder, Impellia, Former NFL Quarterback, Vice President, Executive Committee, NFL Players Association: “PIVOTing to Market: The Importance of Academia/Industry Partnerships”
  • Partha Biswas, BVSc, MVSc, PhD, Assistant Professor, Division of Rheumatology & Clinical Immunology, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh: “IL-17 signaling in Kidney: Two Sides of the Same Coin”
  • DaTren Chou, PhD, Swanson School of Engineering: “3-D printing & Metallic Biomaterials”
  • George Christ, PhD, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Orthopaedic Surgery, Mary Muilenburg Stamp Professor of Orthopaedic Research, Director of Basic and Translational Research in Orthopaedic Surgery, Head, Laboratory of Regenerative Therapeutics, University of Virginia: “Enabling Technologies for Muscle Repair”
  • Sydney R. Coleman, MD, TribeCa Plastic Surgery: “Adipose Based Soft Tissue Regeneration for Trauma”
  • Tarek Fahmy, PhD, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Immunobiology, Yale University: “Nanobiosensors and Nanoscale Applications in Transplantation”
  • Zev Gartner, PhD, Associate Professor, School of Pharmacy Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of California San Francisco: “3D Printing Human Cells and Tissues with DNA Velcro”
  • Hernando Gomez, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Department of Critical Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine and Clinical and Translational Research Center for Critical Care Nephrology, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center: “Sepsis Phenotyping”
  • Kenton Gregory, MD, Director, Center for Regenerative Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University: “Treatment of Extremity Compartment Syndrome Using Autologous Bone Marrow Mononuclear Cells with Rehabilitation Exercises”
  • Tamer Ibrahim, PhD, Associate Professor and Director of the Radio Frequency Research Facility, Departments of Bioengineering and Radiology, University of Pittsburgh: “MRI Ultra High Field Imaging in the Aging Brain”
  • Stephen LeBeau, President, nanoMAG, LLC: “Magnesium Devices for Dental and Orthopedic Applications”
  • Nathan K. LeBrasseur, MS, PhD, Associate Professor and Co-Chair of Research, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Mayo Clinic: “Cellular Senescence: At the Crossroads of Aging and Rejuvenation”
  • R. Wayne Matheny, Jr., PhD, Research Physiologist, Military Performance Division, U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine: “Mechanisms of Musculoskeletal Injury in Warfighters”
  • Rudy A. Mazzocchi, CEO, Elenza, Inc. – Florida: “Trials and Triumphs of an Entrepreneur’s Journey”
  • Ellen Mitchell, MD, Clinical Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, Fox Center for Vision Restoration: “BrainPort and Sensory Substitution in Pediatric Patients”
  • Alison Morris, MD, MS, Vice Chair of Clinical Research, Department of Medicine, Associate Professor of Medicine and Immunology, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy & Critical Care Medicine: “The Human Microbiome:  Beyond the Person in Personalized Medicine”
  • Volker Musahl, MD, Associate Professor, Departments of Orthopedics and Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Medical Director, UPMC Center for Sports Medicine, South Side: “PIVOTing to Market: The Importance of Academia/Industry Partnerships”
  • Rema Padman, PhD, Professor of Management Science & Healthcare Informatics, The H. John Heinz III College, Carnegie Mellon University: “Predictions with Clinical Data: Disease Risk, Progression and Pathway Analysis”
  • Jaques Reifman, PhD, Senior Research Scientist (Advanced Medical Technology), U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Director, Biotechnology HPC Software Applications Institute, Fort Detrick, Maryland: “Can We Predict Cognitive Performance Decrements Due to Sleep Loss and the Recuperative Effects of Caffeine?”
  • Dietrich Stephan, PhD, Professor and Chairman of Human Genetics, University of Pittsburgh: “Translational Research in Precision Medicine”
  • Sylvia E. Szentpetery, MD, Pediatric Pulmonology Fellow, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC: “Non-Invasive Negative-Pressure Ventilation”
  • Lawrence Wechsler, MD, Henry B. Higman Professor of Neurology/Neurosurgery, Chair, Department of Neurology; Vice President, Telemedicine, Physician Services Division, UPMC: “Combining Cell Therapy and Rehabilitation in Stroke Clinical Trials”

See the full Retreat Program here.

New this year, during the technical sessions a student trainee made an invited presentation.  The identification of these presenters was made following a review of the poster session abstracts and selection sought alignment with the theme of the respective session.  The trainees (in alphabetical order) included:

  • Kassandra Allbright, Medical Student; Mentor: Kacey Marra, PhD: “Poloxamer Hydrogel Delivery of Adipose-derived Stem Cells for Repair of Transecting Peripheral Nerve Injury: Positive Effects on Regenerative Gene Expression Programs in Re-innervating Muscle”
  • Rebecca Duffy, PhD Graduate Student; Mentor: Adam Feinberg, PhD: “Using Micropatterned Extracellular Matrix Cues to Guide Murine and Human Myotube Formation”
  • Michael Durka, PhD Graduate Student; Mentor: Anne Robertson, PhD: “CFD Modeling of Cerebral Aneurysms: Hemodynamic Sensitivity to Choice of Waveform in the Elderly Population”
  • James Eles, PhD Graduate Student; Mentor: Tracy Cui, PhD: “In Vivo Tracking of the Meningeal Response to Chronically Implanted Neural Electrode Arrays”
  • James Fisher, MD/PhD Student; Mentors: Steven Little, PhD, and Vijay Gorantla, MD, PhD: “Biomimetic Microparticles Can Establish Dominant Tolerance in Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation via Endogenous Regulatory T Cell Enrichment”
  • Luke Ziegler, Research Fellow; Mentor: Marina Kameneva, PhD:  “Encapsulation of Donor Hemoglobin in Autogenic RBCs for Potential Treatment of Sickle Cell Disease”

PosterSessionPoster Session

The poster session was effective in introducing the focus of the Retreat and interests of the faculty and the guests.  Andrew Duncan, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology, Division of Experimental Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, and his committee organized the session and judged the posters. The winners of the poster session were:

Cellular and Gene Therapy

Winner:  Luke Ziegler
Mentor: Marina Kameneva, PhD
Title: Encapsulation of Donor Hemoglobin in Autogenic RBCs for Potential Treatment of Sickle Cell Disease
Department: Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh

Runner-up:  Evan Delgado
Mentor: Andrew Duncan, PhD
Title: MicroRNA-122 Regulates Polyploidization in the Murine Liver
Department: Pathology, University of Pittsburgh

Computation and Modeling

PosterWinnersWinner:  Li Ang Zhang
Mentor:  Gilles Clermont, MD
Title: Identifying Disease Endotypes and Time of Onset from Interleukin-6 Trajectories in Septic Patients
Department:  Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Pittsburgh

Runner-up:  Matthew Markovetz
Mentor:  Robert Parker, PhD
Title: Identification and Characterization of a Defect in Liquid-Solute Transport and Junctional Integrity in Airway Epithelia with Cystic Fibrosis
Department:  Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Pittsburgh

Medical Devices

Winner:  Mitali Patil
Mentor:  Prashant Kumta, PhD
Title: Fabrication and optimization of parameters of vertically aligned platinum wire aptasensor arrays (VAPAA) for impedimetric detection of cardiac biomarkers
Department:  Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh

Runner-up:  Xin Zheng
Mentor:  Tracey Cui, PhD
Title: Evaluation of a soft elastomeric electrode for intramuscular stimulation and drug release
Department:  Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh

Tissue Engineering

Winner:  Timothy Jackson
Mentor:  Lance Davidson, PhD
Title: Heart progenitor cells undergo a mechanically-regulated mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition that is required for vertebrate heart formation
Department:  Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh

Runner-up:  Deepthi Vijayraghavan
Mentor:  Lance Davidson, PhD
Title: Mechanical Regulation of Cell Behaviors During Convergent Extension of the Xenopus Laevis Neural Plate
Department:  Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh

CaterIn addition, the Cellular Approaches to Tissue Engineering and Regeneration (CATER) Program recognized its students. The director of the CATER Program is Satdarshan P. Singh Monga, MD, Endowed Research Chair in Experimental Pathology and Vice-Chair of the Division of Experimental Pathology, Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, Professor of Pathology (Division of Cellular & Molecular Pathology), and Professor of Medicine (Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition), University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.  The winners of this year’s CATER scientific poster contest were:

First Place (tied):  Lindsay Sadlin
Title:  Understanding Esophageal Adenocarcinoma Progression Using Inflammatory and Neoplastic Extracellular Matrix Hydrogels

First Place (tied):  Jacqueline Russell
Title:  Lack of Beta-Catenin in Hepatocytes Impairs Proliferation and Leads to Increased Morbidity in Response to a Choline-Deficient Ethionine-Supplemented Diet

Second Place:  ‘Abby’ Elizabeth C. Stahl
Title:  Kupffer Cell Subsets Differ Between Young and Aged Murine Livers

Exhibitors

Seven exhibitors were present during the Retreat to promote opportunities within their realm of expertise.  Exhibitors included:

  • Cyfuse Biomedical K.K.
  • Louis J. Fox Center for Vision Restoration
  • McGowan Institute Histology Laboratory
  • The Coulter Translational Research Partners II Program
  • The Alliance for Regenerative Rehabilitation Research and Training (AR3T)
  • U.S. Military Medical Recruiters
  • McGowan Institute Flow Cytometry Laboratory

Retreat participants were entered into a raffle after visiting the exhibitor stations. Winners of the prizes were Peng Zhang, Xin ‘Sally’ Zheng, Aimon Iftikhar, and Firuz Feturi.

A special thank you is extended to all who made this year’s Retreat a success!