BME Seminar Series

January 31, 2022
Multicellular Coordination of Forces in Collective Cell Migration with Applications in Wound Healing
Jacob Notbohm, PhD; Assistant Professor, Department of Engineering Physics, UW-Madison

February 7, 2022
Assessing the Potential for Outer Retinal Reconstruction
David Gamm, MD, PhD; Professor, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences; RRF Emmett A. Humble Distinguished Director, McPherson Eye Research Institute, UW School of Medicine and Public Health

February 21, 2022
Strategies for 3D Printing Complex Cardiac Tissue Mimics
Brenda Ogle, PhD; Professor and Head, Department of Biomedical Engineering; Professor, Department of Pediatrics; Director, Stem Cell Institute, University of Minnesota–Twin Cities

February 28, 2022
All is not what you see: Improving burn care through fluorescent image-guided surgery
Angela Gibson, MD, PhD, FACS; Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, Division of Acute Care and Regional General Surgery UW School of Medicine; Medical Director, UW Health Wound Healing Services

March 21, 2022
Big10 BME Midwest Speaker Exchange
Pulse Wave 1D Algorithms: Computational Models of Fear and Aerobic Exercise to Investigate Large Artery Production of Nitric Oxide
Joseph Muskat; PhD Candidate, Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University

March 28, 2022
Programmable tools for DNA, RNA and protein targeting: new approaches, new challenges
Prashant Mali, PhD; Associate Professor of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego

April 4, 2022
Diversity Seminar
Operationalizing Belonging through Values Clarification in the Learning Environment
Dr. Christian Castro; Associate Dean for Inclusion, Equity and Diversity College of Engineering, UW-Madison

April 18, 2022
Closing the Loop: Protein and Cell Sensors for AI Guided Design and Control
Nigel Reuel, PhD; Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Iowa State University

April 25, 2022
Corrine Bahr Memorial Lecture
Scale Wars: Leveraging Multiscale Blood Flow Modeling for Cardiovascular Disease Therapy
Venkat Keshav Chivukula, PhD; Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Florida Institute of Technology

May 2, 2022
Light up the path toward smart and precision chem/bio sensing and imaging
Wei-Chuan Shih, PhD; Cullen Professor; Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Houston

September 27, 2021
Bioinspired Drug Delivery and Targeting Strategies for Vaccination and Immunotherapy
Evan Scott, PhD; Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University

October 4, 2021
Articular Cartilage Restoration: From Preservation to Rejuvenation
Brian Walczak, DO, PhD; Assistant Professor, Department of Orthopedics & Rehabilitation, UW-Madison

October 18, 2021
Label-free optical metabolic imaging for biomanufacturing
Melissa Skala, PhD; Investigator at Morgridge Institute for Research; Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering; UW-Madison

October 25, 2021
Unraveling the function of the non-coding genome in human disease
Valentina Lo Sardo, PhD; Assistant Professor, Department of Cell and Regenerative Biology; UW-Madison

November 1, 2021
Compliant, Wireless Optoelectric Systems as Neural Interfaces
John A. Rogers, PhD; Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery; Director of Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics; Northwestern University

November 15, 2021
Mechanical and molecular mechanisms of aortic remodeling in response to coarctation severity
John F. LaDisa, Jr, PhD; Professor of Pediatrics; Division of Pediatric Cardiology and Department of Biomedical Engineering; Director of the Computational Engineering and Visualization Program; Pediatric Cardiology; Medical College of Wisconsin and Marquette University

November 22, 2021
10 years of ECM proteomics research: What have we learned? What is yet to be discovered?
Alexandra Naba, PhD; Assistant Professor; Department of Physiology and Biophysics; University of Illinois at Chicago

November 29, 2021
Developing new models and therapies for ovarian cancer
Manish Patankar, PhD; Professor, Vice Chair for Research, Director of the Division of Reproductive Sciences; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; UW-Madison

December 5, 2021
Assessing the Potential for Outer Retinal Reconstruction
David M Gamm, MD, PhD; Professor, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences; RRF Emmett A. Humble Distinguished Director, McPherson Eye Research Institute; University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

March 15, 2021
Massively Parallel Simulations of Hemodynamics in the Human Vasculature
Amanda Randles, PhD; Alfred Winborne Mordecai and Victoria Stover Mordecai Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University

October 5, 2020
Beyond 2D: Self-Organizing Patterns in Biomaterials and Cancer
Ian Y. Wong, PhD; Assistant Professor of Engineering, Brown University

January 27, 2020
Engineered models to study the role of the extracellular matrix and the human microbiome in disease
Ana M. Porras, PhD; PhD Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow, Cornell University

February 3, 2020
Systems biology of microbial pathogens
Jason Papin, PhD; Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia

February 17, 2020
Materials and additive manufacturing for seamless bioelectronic-tissue interfaces
Alexandra Rutz, PhD; Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Research Fellow, Malliaras Bioelectronics Lab, University of Cambridge

February 24, 2020
Engineering the cell-matrix interface – understanding and guiding cell function
Claudia Loebel, MD, PhD; Postdoctoral Researcher, Polymeric Biomaterials Lab, University of Pennsylvania

March 2, 2020
Big10 BME Midwest Speaker Exchange
Targeted robotic gait training improves walking in individuals post-stroke
Ming Wu, PhD; Research Scientist, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab; Associate Professor of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago

September 23, 2019
Hacking the human visual system
Austin Roorda, PhD; Professor of Optometry and Vision Science, University of California, Berkeley

September 30, 2019
Deconstructing mechanotransduction to identify new drug targets for joint disease
Farshid Guilak, PhD; Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Washington University and Director of Research at St. Louis Shriners Hospitals for Children

October 7, 2019
Navigating the NSF for faculty and graduate students: funding opportunities, proposal preparation and the NSF review process
Robert Scheidt, PhD; Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Marquette University and the Medical College of Wisconsin and Program Director in the Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation Division of the Engineering Directorate; NSF

October 28, 2019
Global health innovation at Madison: my path to Fulbright and opportunities for UW students
Kayla Huemer; Morgridge Institute for Research; Affiliate Researcher

November 18, 2019
Engineering human liver platforms for drug development and disease modeling
Salman Khetani, PhD; Associate Professor; Department of Bioengineering; University of Illinois at Chicago

November 25, 2019
Picosecond optical responses of hemes: towards label-free redox contrast of the mitochondrial respiratory chain
Jesse Wilson, PhD; Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering; Colorado State University

December 3, 2019
Control of cell polarity, adhesion and germinal zone exit during neuronal progenitor differentiation
David Solecki, PhD; Associate Member; Developmental Neurobiology Department; St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

January 29, 2019
Structural and Functional Imaging of Tissues with Optical Coherence Tomography/Elastography
Kirill Larin, PhD; Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Houston

February 4, 2019
Information at the Interface Between Biology and Computation
Vasilis Ntranos, PhD; Postdoctoral Scholar at California Institute of Technology and Visiting Postdoctoral Researcher at Stanford University

February 11, 2019
Safety Seminar
Jesse Decker; Director for Safety, UW-Madison College of Engineering

February 18, 2019
Semi-Active Prostheses for Lightweight, Low-Power Gait Restoration
Peter Adamczyk, PhD; Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, UW-Madison

February 25, 2019
Balancing Complexity and Practicality in Organotypic Models for Toxicity Testing and Precision Medicine
Brian Johnson, PhD; Assistant Scientist, Microtechnology, Medicine and Biology (MMB) Lab, UW-Madison

March 4, 2019
Big10 BME Midwest Speaker Exchange
Supramolecular Materials and Their Use in Musculoskeletal Regeneration and Cartilage Repair
Jacob Lewis; PhD Candidate, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Stupp Laboratory, Northwestern University

March 25, 2019
Corrine Bahr Memorial Lecture
Finding Low-Dimensional Structure in Large-Scale Neural Datasets
Eva Dyer, PhD; Assistant Professor, W.H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University

April 1, 2019
Unraveling Tissue Morpho-Functional Metabolic Secrets Using Label-Free Two-Photon Imaging
Irene Georgakoudi, PhD; Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University

April 15, 2019
Medicine and Mechanics: Toward the Understanding of how Mechanical Forces Affect Lung Development, Growth and Injury
Dr. Hau Le, MD; Assistant Professor, Pediatric Surgery; University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

April 22, 2019
Sectioning with Single-View Structured Illumination
Charles DiMarzio, PhD; Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University

April 29, 2019
Engineering New Tools to Understand Mucus Function and Dysfunction
Gregg Duncan, PhD; Assistant Professor, Fischell Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland

September 24, 2018
Neuromechanics of balance: from flamingos to dancers
Lena H. Ting, PhD; Professor, W.H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory

October 15, 2018
Fiber curvature drives cell protrusive behavior
Amrinder S. Nain, PhD; Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Tech

October 22, 2018
Electrochemical, optical, and computational techniques for studying the neural effects of deep brain stimulation
J. Luis Luján, PhD; Associate Professor of Department of Neurologic Surgery, Mayo Clinic

October 29, 2018
Polarimetry as a novel source of contrast in intravascular OCT
Brett E. Bouma, PhD; Professor of Dermatology and Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard Medical School

November 11, 2018
Bio-inspired micro-optical imaging
Hongrui Jiang, PhD; Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UW-Madison

November 19, 2018
Technical developments for imaging dissolved phase hyperpolarized 129Xe MRI: applications in pulmonary fibrosis
Sean B. Fain, PhD; Professor of Radiology and Medical Physics, UW-Madison

November 26, 2018
Simple and robust strategies for biomanufacturing of cardiac cells from human pluripotent stem cells
Sean Palecek, PhD; Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, UW-Madison

December 3, 2018
Redox-based synthetic biology—towards electrogenetics
William E. Bentley, PhD; Fischell Department of Bioengineering, University of Maryland

January 29, 2018
The Nervous System at Single Cell Resolution: Quantitative Microscopy & the Study of Neurodevelopment in vivo
Pavak Shah, PhD; Postdoctoral Scholar, MSK Cancer Center

February 5, 2018
Spatiotemporal Organization of the E.coli Cytoplasm
Jason Yang, PhD; Postdoctoral Associate, MIT

February 19, 2018
Cardiovascular Soft Tissue in Time & Space
Colleen Witzenburg, PhD; Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Virginia

February 26, 2018
Great Arteries Lost & Found: Predictive Growth and Remodeling of Congenital Heart Defects
Kerem Pekkan, PhD; Assoc. Professor of Engineering; Koç University, Istanbul

March 5, 2018
A Tale of Two Biopolymers: Imaging the Nanoporosity of Mucus and Collagen with Diffusion-Sensitive Optical Coherence Tomography
Amy Oldenburg, PhD; Assoc. Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

March 7, 2018
Translational Immunoengineering Biosensors for Personalized Disease Theranostics at the Point-of-Care
Umer Hassan, PhD; Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

March 12, 2018
Nanofabricated Sensors for Recording & Imaging of Neural Activity — Towards Direct, Brain-Wide Readouts
Aviad Hai, PhD; Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biological Engineering at MIT

March 19, 2018
An Ultraflexible Electrode Platform for Electrophysiological Recording, Mapping, and Long-Term Tracking to Predict Disease Potential
Chong Xie, PhD; Asst. Professor, University of Texas at Austin

April 2, 2018
The Collagen-Dense Tumor Microenvironment Drives Inflammatory Signaling and Tumor Progression
Suzanne Ponik, PhD; Senior Scientist, UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health

April 16, 2018
Translational Optical Micro Imaging Technologies towards historical Imaging of Biological Tissues in vivo
Xingde Li, PhD; Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University

April 23, 2018
Corrine Bahr Memorial Lecture
Nano- and Microfabricated Hydrogels for Regenerative Engineering
Ali Khademhosseini, PhD; Professor of Bioengineering, Chemical Engineering, & Radiology; University of California, Los Angeles

April 30, 2018
Engineering Human CNS Morphogenesis In Vitro
Randolph S. Ashton, PhD; Asst. Professor of Biomedical Engineering, UW-Madison

September 18, 2017
Growth factor signaling and metabolic homeostasis in single cells
John Albeck, PhD; Assistant Professor of Molecular & Cellular Biology at UC-Davis

September 25, 2017
Static & Dynamic Measures of Human Brain Connectivity Predict Complementary Aspects of Human Cognitive Performance
Michael Deem, PhD; Department Chair of Bioengineering at Rice University, John W. Cox Professor in Biochemical & Genetic Engineering Professor, Physics & Astronomy Founding Director, Ph.D. Program in Systems, Synthetic, & Physical Biology (SSPB)

October 2, 2017
Spatiotemporal Organization of the E.coli Cytoplasm
James Weisshaar, PhD; Richard J. Burke Professor of Chemistry, UW-Madison

October 16, 2017
Graduate Panel: Neuromuscular Biomechanics Lab
PhD Candidates of the UW Neuromuscular Biomechanics Lab: Michael Vignos, Jack Martin, and Colin Smith

November 6, 2017
Technology for Neural Interfacing at Scale: from Single Cells to the Whole Cortex
Suhasa Kodandaramaiah, PhD; Benjamin Mayhugh Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota

November 14, 2017
Toward a Systems-Level Understanding of Cell Fate
Melissa Kinney, PhD; Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Hematology at Boston Children’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School

November 20, 2017
“What’s Eating You?”: Quantifying Proteolytic Activity in Health and Disease to Predict Disease Potential
Manu Platt, PhD; Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia TechWallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering Diversity DirectorSTC on Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems (EBICS), GRA Distinguished Scholar

November 27, 2017
Considering Neural Control & Body Mechanics for the Understanding & Restoration of Human Movement
Eric J. Perreault, PhD; Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Northwestern University, Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

November 28, 2017
Electrical Stimulation of the Nervous System as a Therapy: What Don’t We Know, Why Don’t We Know It, and How Do We Address It?
Kip A. Ludwig, PhD; Associate Director of the Mayo Neural Engineering Laboratories (NEL); Leader of the Bioelectronic Medicines Laboratory within the NEL

December 4, 2017
Mechanically Complex Tumor Microenvironments Drive Disease Progression and Resistance to Therapy
Paolo Provenzano, PhD; Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

January 23, 2017
Solid Stress and Elastic Energy as Measures of Tumor Mechanopathology
Hadi T. Nia, PhD; Postdoctoral Fellow, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Solid stress and tissue stiffness affect tumor growth, invasion, metastasis and treatment. Unlike stiffness, which can be precisely mapped in tumors, the measurement of solid stresses is challenging. In this seminar, I will present three distinct and quantitative techniques to obtain two-dimensional spatial mappings of solid stress and the resulting elastic energy in excised or in situ tumors with arbitrary shapes and wide size ranges. These techniques rely on the measurement of tissue displacement after disruption of the confining structures. I will present the findings from the application of these methods in models of primary tumors and metastasis: (i) solid stress depends on both cancer cells and their microenvironment; (ii) solid stress increases with tumor size; and (iii) mechanical confinement by the surrounding tissue significantly contributes to intratumoral solid stress. Finally, I will discuss how the study of the genesis and consequences of solid stress, facilitated by the engineering principles presented in this seminar, may lead to significant discoveries and new therapies

January 30, 2017
Fusion cytokines: A Novel Class of Biopharmaceuticals for Enabling Cancer Cellular Immunotherapy
Jacques Galipeau, MD FRCP(C); Don and Marilyn Anderson Prof. of Oncology, Dept. of Medicine, Assist. Dean for Therapeutics Discovery and Development, UW-Madison
Our group has found that the fusion of GM-CSF to members of γ-c interleukins result in the generation of novel proteins with unique signaling properties and unheralded biological effects. These fusion proteins, termed GIFT fusokines (GM-CSF Interleukin Fusion Transgenes) are the result of combining GM-CSF and a γ-common chain interleukin into a single, bi-functional polypeptide. In our experience, GIFT fusokines often confer immune cells with a gain-of-function that cannot be explained by the mere sum of their constituent moieties. They act as bi-specific ligands, coupling activated GM-CSF and interleukin receptors together to drive unique downstream signaling events. The synergy that arises from these fusions have shown great promise in their ability to modulate the immune response and overcome maladaptive biological processes that underlie diseases such as cancer and autoimmune conditions. In this seminar, I will discuss the ways in which the GIFT fusokines are able to alter the immune response, particularly in disease states, with a special emphasis on how these novel molecules may be translated into effective therapies in the clinical setting.

February 6, 2017
A MRI study of sustained neuromodulation inducted by electrical tongue stimulation in balance disorders
Beth Meyerand, PhD; Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics, UW-Madison
Neurostimulation has emerged as a promising approach to precisely target and modify activity within neuronal structures. The flexibility of this technique has made it a useful tool for research into normal brain function, and as a potential therapy for many neurological disorders. Electrical stimulation through the tongue offers multiple advantages over other routes of administration including access to the central nervous system without invasive surgeries, the ability to stimulate using low voltages (< 12 V), high receptor density allowing high data throughput and a very compact stimulation device liberated from accessory equipment and the need for a permanent power source. Recent studies suggest that stimulation through the tongue can produce sustained behavioral and subjective improvements in individuals with chronic balance disorders, even when the stimulation device has been removed. We have demonstrated that physical therapy measures show information-free stimulation through the tongue, termed cranial nerve non-invasive neuromoduation (CN-NINM), can indeed produce sustained improvements in the functional deficits and subjective symptoms in subjects with balance disorders. Subsequently, we applied advanced analysis techniques to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data in order to investigate balance-processing dysfunction in these individuals compared to healthy controls. Results suggest that balance-impaired individuals have visual motion-dependent hypersensitivity of the entire balance-processing network, extending previous findings that this hypersensitivity was limited to the visual cortices. We then compared network processing before and after individuals with balance disorders received information-free tongue stimulation. We found that CN-NINM normalizes the network response to visual-motion and likely induces sustained neuromodulation of the trigeminal nuclei of the brainstem – the site at which the incoming stimulation enters the central nervous system. Collectively, the work provides a preliminary understanding of how electrical tongue stimulation modulates the balance-processing network to produce long-term behavioral improvements in individuals with balance disorders.

February 14, 2017
Multifunctional polymer particles and fibers by electrohydrodynamic co-jetting
Joerg Lahann, PhD; Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the Biointerfaces Institute, University of Michigan
Precise control of the architecture of biodegradable materials is required for many biomedical applications, including controlled drug delivery, regenerative medicine, or simultaneous imaging and diagnosis applications. In particular, the complementary control of internal (bulk) and external (surface) features has been increasingly recognized as important design parameters for multifunctional materials. Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) co-jetting, an adaptive manufacturing process that involves transferring two or more capillary needles in a side-by-side configuration, can be used to create a wide range of multicompartmental particles and fibers with micron-to-nanometer features. This architecture can enable controlled release of multiple drugs, autonomous microactuation, or the manufacturing of fiber scaffolds with unprecedented architectural control.

February 20, 2017
Towards Improving Treatment Modalities for Peripheral Arterial Disease
Alexey Kamenskiy, PhD; Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center
Angioplasty and stenting for atherosclerotic occlusive disease in the arteries supplying the legs (Peripheral Arterial Disease, PAD) is the most common endovascular procedure outside of the heart, but carries the highest rate of reconstruction failure. Though the underlying reasons for these poor results are not completely clear, the main arterial segment within the leg, the femoropopliteal artery, appears to be significantly different from other peripheral arteries, such as the carotid or iliac arteries, possibly because of lower blood flow, but more importantly because the femoropopliteal artery undergoes large deformations during flexion of the limb. These severe deformations are reflected clinically by the high incidence of stent fractures. The seminar will cover the biomechanics of the human femoropopliteal artery; describe new ways to measure limb flexion-induced arterial deformations; discuss mechanical properties and structure of the leg artery; and assess physiologic stresses and strains that play important roles in vascular remodeling and adaptation. We will also consider common PAD treatment devices and materials, discuss the role of patient-specific modeling in improving device and material design, and suggest potential ways to improve treatment outcomes.

February 27, 2017
Engineered Titanium Dioxide Nanotube Based Sensing Platform for Low Cost Biomedical Diagnostics in Resource Limited Settings
Swomitra K. Mohanty, PhD; Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering & College of Mines and Earth Sciences, The University of Utah
There is a real need for advanced sensing technology to address significant health disparities in resource-limited environments. Diseases such as Tuberculosis (TB), effect over 9 million people a year worldwide, with another estimated 3 million being missed because of the lack of low-cost tools to help manage the disease and reach patients in rural settings. In order to address this problem a good understanding of the medical, and socio-economic ecosystems present in a particular community are important. Disease-specific volatile organic compounds from human breath are considered volatile biomarkers for diagnostics and have the potential to be utilized in non-invasive rapid testing at the point of care (POC). Several diseases have associated volatile biomarkers such as lung cancer, breast cancer, diabetes, and TB. TB is of particular interest as few highly sensitive and specific POC test is available for low resource settings at a low cost. This research presents a label-free method of sensing using a TiO2 nanotube based nanomaterial developed to detect volatile biomarkers associated with TB (from the breath of patients). In this work self-aligning TiO2 nanotubes were fabricated using anodization methods and functionalized with cobalt for specific binding to the volatile biomarkers. TiO2 nanotubes have large surface area and conductivity making it suitable for electronic detection. This talk will discuss the development of a point of care tuberculosis screening technology based on breath, and how the design, deployment and application is being driven by the end-user (physicians and healthcare professionals).

March 6, 2017
Translating Molecular Bioengineering from the Lab to the Patient
Ashutosh Chilkoti; Alan L. Kaganov Prof. and Chair of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University
This talk will highlight recent work from my laboratory that illustrates the clinical translation of molecular bioengineering technologies for point-of-care clinical diagnostics and drug delivery. In the first example, I will discuss a point-of-care diagnostic —the D4 assay — that we have developed, in which all reagents are printed and stored on a “non-fouling”—protein and cell resistant—polymer brush. The D4 assay has a speed and sensitivity that is as good or better than commercially available point-of-care tests and is far simpler, cheaper more rugged, and does not require a cold-chain. In the area of drug delivery, I will highlight two technologies: (1) an injectable delivery system based on thermally sensitive polypeptides for the sustained and tunable release of peptide drugs from a subcutaneous injection site that we have developed for treatment of type 2 diabetes; and (2) attachment-triggered self-assembly of recombinant peptide polymers that packages small molecules into soluble polymer nanoparticles that can improve the efficacy of many cancer chemotherapeutics.

March, 27, 2017
Autodigestion as Mechanism for Cell Dysfunction, Disease and Death
Geert W. Schmid-Schönbein; Distinguished Prof. and Chair, Department of Bioengineering, Univ. of California San Diego
How is it possible that one can digest biological molecules in food but not digest one’s own intestine? This question raises a fundamental issue that could be a key to understand many diseases and death. During every meal the pancreas releases a set of concentrated digestive enzymes into the small intestine, which degrade biopolymers of diverse sources as part of normal digestion. An important mechanism that prevents autodigestion of one’s own intestine is containment of digestive enzymes in the lumen of the small intestine by the mucosal epithelial barrier. This barrier blocks entry of the pancreatic enzymes from the lumen into the wall of the small intestine to assure one digests food and not one’s own tissue. An increasing body of evidence suggests, however, that this protection mechanism against autodigestion may fail and lead to diseases associated with cell dysfunctions by proteolytic cleavage of membrane receptors, organ failure and death.

April 3, 2017
Adaptive Neuromodulation for Movement Disorders
Aysegul Gunduz, PhD; Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida
The human brain consists of numerous networks distributed over space and connected over time to orchestrate meaningful interaction with the external world. Neurological disorders disrupt this interaction, as well as our control over our bodies. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has emerged in the nineties as a neurosurgical intervention for the treatment of movement disorders. The clinical personnel that perform programming of stimulation settings (amplitude, frequency and pulse width of the electrical current) however, do not necessarily have a scientific understanding of the underlying pathology, or the physiological response to the adjustments to various stimulation parameters. Instead, they base their decisions on the observable behavioral responses and verbal response of patients. Studying the neurophysiological signatures of neurological disorders, and the aftereffects of brain stimulation would enable direct interpretation of the disorder and provide insight into treatment options that can be tailored to the current clinical condition of the patient. Our goal of this project is to study the electrophysiological underpinnings of movement disorders using next generation DBS devices capable of recording brain signals in humans, in order to responsively deliver stimulation to the current pathological state of the brain. In this talk, I will present our efforts at the University of Florida on developing closed-loop DBS for Tourette syndrome, Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor.

April 17, 2017
Corrine Bahr Memorial Lecture
Photoacoustic Tomography: Ultrasonically Beating Optical Diffusion
Lihong V. Wang, PhD; Bren Prof. of Medical Engineering and Electrical Engineering, California Institute of Technology
Photoacoustic tomography (PAT), combining optical and ultrasonic waves via the photoacoustic effect, provides in vivo functional, metabolic, molecular, and histologic imaging. PAT has the unique strength of high-resolution imaging across the length scales of organelles, cells, tissues, organs, and small-animal organisms with consistent contrast. PAT has the potential to empower holistic omniscale biology research and accelerate translation from microscopic laboratory discoveries to macroscopic clinical practice. Potential applications include imaging of the breast, brain, skin, esophagus, colon, vascular system, and lymphatic system in both animals and humans.

April 24, 2017
New perspectives on disease diagnosis: From mobile phones to molecular engineering
Daniel A. Fletcher; Purnendu Chatterjee Chair in Engineering Biological Systems, Chair of Dept. of Bioengineering, Univ. of California Berkeley
Early detection of disease remains a major goal of modern healthcare. This talk with describe efforts at two different scales to harness technology for improved healthcare, one centered on converting mobile phones into image-based diagnostic platforms and the other focused on understanding and manipulating molecular mechanisms involved in target recognition by the innate immune system.

May 1, 2017
Graduate Student Speaker Exchange
An Integrative Circuit-Host Modeling Framework for Synthetic Biology
Chen Liao; Ph.D. student, Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
One fundamental challenge in synthetic biology is the lack of quantitative tools that accurately describe and predict the behavior of engineered gene circuits. This challenge arises from many factors, among which the complex interdependence of circuits and their host serves as a leading cause. Here we present a gene circuit modeling framework that explicitly integrates circuit behaviors with host physiology through bidirectional circuit-host coupling. Using Escherichia coli as a model, we first established a coarse-grained but mechanistic description of host physiology involving dynamic resource partitioning. We then characterized multilayered circuit-host coupling, including generic effects associated with load and growth as well as circuit-specific interactions from ppGpp-mediated global regulation and functional impacts of circuit-produced molecules. The host description and interaction characterization, along with a detailed kinetic module of exogenous circuits, constitute our integrative computational framework. To verify this model, we performed a set of simulations of constitutive gene expression under multiple genetic and environmental conditions. Meanwhile, we showed that our model can be used in other bacterial systems with minimal changes. To demonstrate its utility, we applied the framework to examine a growth-modulating feedback circuit whose behavior is qualitatively altered by circuit-host interactions. Using an extended version of the framework, we further systematically revealed circuit behavior across scales from single-cell dynamics to population behaviors and to the emergence of spatial ecology by using a toggle switch as an example.

Compared to existing approaches, our model offers the following advantages: (1) We explicitly acknowledges the ppGpp-mediated transcription regulation, which has been shown to be essential for both host and circuits. (2) We systematically explores both host-to-circuit interactions and circuit-to-host interactions. (3) Our model enables successful interpretation and prediction of a wide spectrum of experimental data, particularly the dynamic responses, from multiple research groups. (4) Our modeling framework is multiscale, ranging from the single-cell level to the population and the spatial ecological levels.

The ultimate goal of synthetic biology is to rapidly create desired phenotypes through rational design and construction of artificial gene circuits. Therefore, by generating the quantitative knowledge of circuit behavior across scales, this work is valuable to the field that is currently suffering from the lack of predictive tools. Meanwhile, by systematically illustrating key host cellular processes and multilayered circuit-host interactions, the work also sheds light on quantitative biology towards a better understanding of complex bacterial physiology. Overall, this work advances our quantitative understanding of gene circuit behavior, benefiting rational design of artificial gene networks and thus expediting the advances of next-generation synthetic biology applications.

September 12, 2016
Recent Advances in Clinical MRI
Jason Polzin, PhD; General Manager, Applications and Workflow, General Electric Healthcare, Global Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Since the introduction of the first 1.5 Tesla high field imaging systems, the use of Magnetic Resonance for diagnostic imaging has grown significantly to the point where it has become the standard of care for neuro and musculoskeletal diagnostic procedures. At the same time, the technology has experienced rapid growth in body, oncology and cardiac applications. However, primarily due to cost and complexity the availability has been limited in parts of the world. Even in developing markets reimbursement pressures have impacted its adoption reinforcing the need to make MR faster, more robust, and easier to use. This presentation will describe recent advances in Clinical MRI to address that need.

September 19, 2016
Tools for engineering personalized neural tissue
Stephanie Willerth, PhD and P.Eng; Canada Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering, Associate Director of the Center for Biomedical Research, Mechanical Engineering, Division of Medical Sciences, University of Victoria
Treating neurological diseases and disorders accounts for 6.7% of the total attributable cost of illness in Canada. These issues arise when healthy neural tissue stops functioning properly. My research focuses on developing personalized engineered tissues that could successfully provide a long term strategy for treating diseases and disorders of the central nervous system, such as spinal cord injury. We hypothesized that generating spinal motor neurons (sMNs) from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs)-derived neural aggregates (NAs) using a chemically-defined differentiation protocol would be more effective inside of 3D fibrin hydrogels compared to 2D laminin-coated surfaces. To test this hypothesis, we performed targeted RNA-Seq using next generation sequencing to determine the substrate-specific genetic differences that regulate cell phenotype. Cells cultured on both substrates expressed sMN genes CHAT and MNX1, though persistent Wnt signaling contributed to a higher proportion of interneurons in NAs cultured in 3D fibrin scaffolds. Cells in fibrin also expressed lower levels of astrocyte progenitor genes and higher levels of the neuronal-specific gene TUBB3, suggesting a purer population of neurons compared to the 2D cultures. This work provides insight into how fibrin hydrogels affect neuronal induction and these insights can then be used to tailor the properties of these hydrogels to optimize sMN generation for regenerative medicine applications.

September 26, 2016
Single Molecule Biosensors for Dynamic Multigene Analysis in Complex Tissue Environments
Pak Wong, PhD; Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Surgery, Pennsylvania State University
Collective cell migration is a fundamental multicellular activity that plays essential roles in numerous physiological and pathological processes, such as angiogenesis, tissue regeneration, and cancer metastasis. Proper coordination of cells, for instance, is required to repair damaged tissues in which cells crawl collectively atop exposed extracellular matrix following injury. The collective migration mechanisms responsible for tissue development are also utilized in the invasion and metastasis of malignant tumors. Despite its importance, the fundamental processes that drive collective cell migration, such as leader cell formation and biomechanical coupling, remain poorly understood. To elucidate the collective migration process, my laboratory is developing molecular and nanoengineering techniques for single molecule imaging, dynamic gene expression analysis, single cell photothermal ablation, biomechanical analysis of cell-cell and cell-matrix interaction, and agent-based computational modeling. In this talk, I will discuss the application of a single cell nanobiosensor for probing the mechanoregulation of collective cell migration. Using the nanobiosensor, we reveal that the formation of leader cells during collective migration is dynamically regulated by Dll4 signaling through both Notch1 and mechanical force. Our finding provides a molecular basis for the stochastic emergence of leader cells, which may enable novel approaches in regenerative medicine, diabetic wound healing and cancer treatment.

October 3, 2016
Microengineered Devices for Cells, Tissues and Organs
Nancy Allbritton, MD PhD; Chair, UNC/NC State Biomedical Engineering, Debreczeny Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The ability to monitor and manipulate the microenvironment of cells and tissues is one of the most promising applications for microengineered systems. The laboratory is developing a suite of technologies based on microengineered platforms and microfluidics to manipulate and analyze living cells. We have developed simple, inexpensive fabrication methods utilizing photoresists, plastics, and hydrogels for cell-based arrays, organ-on-chips, and tissue scaffolds. The fabricated devices include detachable, deformable, or biodegradable array elements designed for cell analysis and sorting. A second focus area exploits recent advances in mating living cells with microfabricated systems making it possible to create miniaturized devices with organ level function. These “organ-on-a-chip” platforms enable the controlled establishment of multicellular tissue-like cell populations from pluripotent cells.

October 10, 2016
Open Source Image Informatics for Multidimensional Live Cell Imaging
Kevin Eliceiri PhD; Director, Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation,UW-Madison, Investigator, Morgridge Institute for Research
Modern Biological imaging now has the unprecedented ability to track biological phenomena in high resolution in physiologically relevant conditions over time and in space. As these imaging technologies mature and become main stream tools for the bench biologist there is great need for improved software tools that drive the informatics workflow of the imaging process from acquisition and image analysis to visualization and dissemination. To best meet the workflow challenges, these tools need to be freely available, open source, and transparent in their development and deployment. Different imaging processing and visualization approaches need access not only to the data but also to each other. There needs to be compatibility not only in file import and export but interoperability in preserving and communicating what was done to the image. We present the efforts towards interoperability in the Fiji and Open Microscopy Environment consortiums that are leveraging new development of ImageJ with the development and utilization of key software libraries like ImgLib, Ops and Bio-Formats to parse and visualize multidimensional biological image data.

October 17, 2016
The Mechanical Environment of Pregnancy
Kristin M. Myers; Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University
The reproductive soft tissues that support the fetus undergo some of the most dramatic and unique growth and remodeling events in the human body. During pregnancy, the uterus and fetal membrane must grow and stretch to accommodate the fetus. Simultaneously, the cervix must remodel and be a mechanical barrier to keep the fetus within the uterus. All three tissues must withstand mechanical forces to protect, support, and maintain an optimal growth environment for the developing baby. Then, in a reversal of roles, ideally nearing term, the uterus begins to contract and the cervix deforms to allow for a safe delivery. The magnitude of stress and stretch of these soft tissues supporting the fetus are thought to control physiologic processes that regulate tissue growth, remodeling, contractility, and rupture, and it is generally hypothesized that these mechanical signals are clinical cues for normal labor and preterm birth, a major long-lasting public health problem with heavy emotional and financial consequences. In this talk I will reveal what we know about the soft tissue mechanics of pregnancy. I will present finite element models of pregnancy based on ultrasonic anatomical data, and I will examine the mechanical function of the soft tissues that support the fetus. I will also specifically characterize cervical material properties using a hyperelastic constitutive model that accounts for the cervical collagen fiber architecture and hormone-mediated remodeling relationships. Through this experimental and modeling effort I aim to identify which factor or combination of factors is responsible for clinically-observed mechanical dysfunction in pregnancy.

October 31, 2016
The Blood-Brain Barrier: An obstacle and an opportunity
Eric Shusta PhD; Howard Curler Distinguished Professor, Chemical & Biological Engineering, UW-Madison
Millions of people worldwide are afflicted with neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, brain cancer, and cerebral AIDS. Although many new drugs are being developed to combat these and other brain diseases, few new treatments have made it to the clinic. The impermeable nature of the brain vasculature, also known as the blood-brain barrier (BBB), is at least partially responsible for the paucity of new brain therapeutics. As examples, approximately 98% of small molecule pharmaceuticals do not enter the brain after intravenous administration, and the BBB prevents nearly all protein and gene medicines from entering the brain. Our research group is therefore focused on developing tools for the analysis of the brain drug delivery process and identifying novel strategies for circumventing this transport barrier. This presentation will detail our recent work regarding the development of stem cell-based in vitro experimental models that accurately mimic the BBB characteristics observed in vivo. Such models are amenable to drug permeability screening and human disease modeling. In addition, I will discuss our efforts to overcome BBB restrictions on brain drug delivery. To this end, we are mining large antibody libraries to identify antibodies that can target and act as artificial substrates for endogenous receptor-mediated BBB nutrient transport systems. After conjugation to drug payloads that can include small molecules, proteins, or DNA therapeutics, these antibodies could have the potential to deliver medicines across the BBB noninvasively.

November 7, 2016
Nanofluidic Biochips for Cell Transfection and Regenerative Medicine
L. James Lee; Helen C. Kurtz Chair, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University
Nanofluidics based biochips are a major platform technology being developed in our center for next-generation biomedical applications such as cancer cell interrogation and regenerative medicine. It requires strong interdisciplinary collaboration among engineering, science and medicine. Here we show the development of a new technology, nanochannel electroporation (NEP) and its applications in a frontier medical field, Regenerative Medicine. Many transfection techniques can deliver biomolecules into cells, but the dose cannot be controlled precisely. Delivering well-defined amounts of materials into cells is important for various biological studies and therapeutic applications. NEP may deliver precise amounts of a variety of transfection agents into individual living cells. The cell to be transfected is positioned next to a nanochannel. Delivering a voltage pulse across the nanochannel produces an intense electric field over a very small area on the cell membrane, allowing a precise amount of transfection agent to be electrophoretically driven through the nanochannel, the cell membrane and into the cell cytoplasm, without affecting cell viability. Dose control is achieved by adjusting the duration and number of pulses. Both 2D and 3D NEP biochips are successfully used for non-viral generation of induced neurons (iNs), endothelial cells (iECs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) with high efficiency, an important step to realize regenerative medicine. A NEP patch is also developed for skin transfection activated regeneration. Using mouse models, we demonstrated the potential of NEP biochips and NEP patch for future clinical use in stroke recovery and wound healing.

November 14, 2016
Therapeutic immunomodulation via rationally designed self-assembled nanomaterials
Evan A. Scott; Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University
Synthetic nanomaterials that are engineered to achieve specific biodistributions and mechanisms of degradation hold great promise for controlled stimulation of the immune system. Through the use of such rationally designed nanomaterials, we aim to investigate the basic inflammatory and immunological processes contributing to diverse pathologies and develop targeted immunotherapies. We specifically approach this by synthesizing, assembling and testing in vitro and in vivo a range of nanostructures loaded with strategically selected combinations of immunostimulants to achieve controlled elicitation or suppression of the immune system. Here, I will present some of our ongoing work in the areas of nanomaterials development, neonatal immunization, and vaccination against tuberculosis.

December 5, 2016
Biochemical tools development for precise description of protein function
Tamara Kinzer-Ursem; Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University
Dr. Kinzer-Ursem’s research includes protein engineering, protein assay and technology development, and computational biology. Her research group is developing selective protein tagging and protein-surface conjugation methods that are coupled with nanotechnologies and other emergent techniques to rapidly isolate and characterize protein function and improve protein assay workflow. These technologies are applied to the study of the spatiotemporal dynamics in protein signaling networks and advancements in the fields of medical diagnostics, and drug discovery and development. This talk will focus on two of our most recent technology developments: a molecular detection technology that is based on the principles of diffusivity and Brownian motion, and the tagging of newly synthesized proteins during specific time windows in juvenile and developing mice.