The University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering’s (SSOE’s) Engineering Graduate Student Organization (EGSO) recently announced the winners of the Outstanding Teaching Assistant award and Outstanding Research Assistant award in each of the SSOE departments. The winners from the following McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member labs include:
CATER Trainee Karis Kosar defended her dissertation, “Determining the Effects of Wnt Signaling in the Alleviation of Cholestasis Via the Promotion of Hepatocyte Transdifferentiation and Cholangiocyte Proliferation,” on May 5, 2021. The defense was held virtually via Zoom. Pictured here, Dr. Kari Nejak-Bowen introduces Ms. Kosar at her defense. Congratulations on doing a fabulous job!
Sergey Young, a Forbes Council Member and the founder of the Longevity Vision Fund, recently published in Forbes the article entitled, “Will You Live to 200? Five Levels of Breakthroughs in Longevity Research You Must Know About.” Of the five major levels of biological organization (cell, tissue, organ, organ system, and organism), one of his highlighted breakthroughs included the work of McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Eric Lagasse, PharmD, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, a secondary appointment in Pitt’s Clinical and Translational Institute, and the Director of the Cancer Stem Cell Center at the McGowan Institute. Read Mr. Young’s thoughts on this work here:
The Controlled Release Society (CRS) has announced that McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Steven Little, PhD, will receive its Distinguished Service Award at its virtual annual meeting this July 25-29. Dr. Little, the William Kepler Whiteford Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering, is internationally recognized for his research in drug delivery systems that mimic the body’s own mechanisms of healing and resolving inflammation.
With their article published in Nature, the National Institutes of Health’s Somatic Cell Gene Editing Consortium provided a detailed update on the progress of their nationwide effort to develop safer and more effective methods to edit the genomes of disease-relevant somatic cells and reduce the burden of disease caused by genetic changes. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty member Samira Kiani, MD, Associate Professor, Liver Research Center, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, is a co-author of this work.
The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University co-hosted the 47th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference on March 23-25, 2021. With the goal of sharing novel research and educational efforts and stimulating collaboration, the virtual event focused on “New Research Frontiers and Educational Landscapes in Biomedical Engineering” with six key themes:
Scientists have produced a comprehensive roadmap of muscle aging in mice that could be used to find treatments that prevent decline in muscle mobility and function, according to a report published in eLife. McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member Fabrisia Ambrosio, PhD, MPT, Director of Rehabilitation for UPMC International and an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh with secondary appointments in the Departments of Bioengineering, Physical Therapy, Orthopaedic Surgery, Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, and Environmental & Occupational Health, is the senior author on the work.
Genprex, Inc., a clinical-stage gene therapy company focused on developing life-changing therapies for patients with cancer and diabetes, received the inaugural “License of the Year” award from the University of Pittsburgh Innovation Institute (UPII) in recognition of the advances made with its license from the University of Pittsburgh toward progressing the development of its gene therapy for diabetes.
Anna Balazs, PhD, an award-winning University of Pittsburgh Distinguished Professor in the Swanson School of Engineering and an affiliated faculty member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, has added one of the nation’s top honors to her portfolio. The National Academy of Sciences announced that Dr. Balazs is among its 120 newly elected members, recognizing distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
As part of the Giants in Orthopaedic Sport Medicine video series produced by the International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine (ISAKOS), Savio L-Y. Woo, PhD, DSc, DEng, Distinguished University Professor Emeritus and Founding Director, Musculoskeletal Research Center, University of Pittsburgh, was interviewed by Jason Koh, MD, Director, NorthShore Orthopaedic & Spine Institute, Chairman, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. They spoke about:
