Month: May 2016

New Issue of Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine

By Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D.

I am very pleased to announce the second issue of the Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine has been published. I thank all the editors, editorial board members, reviewers, and editorial staff. Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine is an international journal mainly devoted to the publication of original studies and research on regenerative engineering.

In this new issue, we have assembled an excellent selection of original articles. Dr. Justin Brown of Penn State University created a novel biodegradable scaffold system with unique crisscross fiber geometry for tendon and ligament tissue engineering. Dr. Dinesh Srinivasan of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore demonstrated the addition of silk fibroin and minocycline hydrochloride to polycaprolactone-based scaffolds potentially enhanced adipose-derived stem cells differentiation into osteogenesis. Dr. Samir Mitragotri of UC Santa Barbara developed novel peptide-based technologies for treating skin disease. Dr. Evan Scott at Northwestern reviewed recent progress in the use of nanomaterials designed to enhance imaging and therapeutic intervention of atherosclerotic inflammation. In addition, there is a News and Views article edited by Dr. Ali Khademhosseini of Harvard University.

I hope you will find this issue of Regenerative Engineering and Translational Medicine informative. Please consider submitting your work to this promising academic venue.

2016 Young Innovative Investigator Program

By Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D.

As the CEO of the Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (CICATS), I congratulate the Young Innovative Investigator Program (YIIP) scholars who earned their master degrees in biomedical science from the UConn Graduate School. Under the direction of Dr. Linda Barry, CICATS Assistant Director and YIIP program director, the program’s aim is providing academic training to underrepresented minorities who are dedicated to pursuing careers as scientists and scholars in the biological and biomedical sciences. The ultimate goal is developing the next generation of innovative biomedical scientists while incresing diversity in the current pool of academic scientists. YIIP provides tools for scholars to conduct research, succeed in an academic environment, and become competitive candidates for medical or graduate school. All of our YIIP scholars conducted basic scientific research in a UConn Health lab under the direction of their assigned faculty. Simultaneously, they completed graduate level studies. I am proud of their achievements and look forward to their successes! Thank you to all our faculty and staff who contributed to the success of the program.

2016 Young Innovative Investigator Program

2016 Young Innovative Investigator Program

2016 Young Innovative Investigator Program  2016 Young Innovative Investigator Program

Intel International Science and Engineering Fair

By Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D.

On May 10th, I was honored to sit on the Excellence in Science and Technology Discussion Panel for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) in Phoenix, AZ. Intel ISEF is the world’s largest international pre-college science competition, the premier science competition in the world.  Each year, it provides a forum for more than 1,750 high school students from more than 75 countries, regions and territories to showcase their independent research. The discussion panel was made up of many Nobel Laureates and other prestigious scientists. During the discussion, I talked about the most important characteristics of a scientist and the power of regenerative engineering. The event was incredibly rewarding and I really enjoyed the discussion with students and the panelists.

Intel International Science and Engineering Fair

Intel International Science and Engineering Fair

CICATS Participated in STEAM Career Expo

By Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D.

On April 23rd, the Urban League of Greater Hartford Young Professionals in Partnership with professionals from the Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (CICATS) at UConn, Wesleyan University, Southern New England Association of Technical Professionals, and Capital Community College hosted the 1st Annual  Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematical (STEAM) Career Expo in downtown Hartford, CT. The STEAM Expo gave local students the opportunity to learn real world applications of math, science, and engineering and encourage students to pursue a career in the STEAM fields. The event was also designed to encourage students to enter the pipeline and eventually pursue careers in these fields, creating a diverse workforce of future leaders in STEAM.

Dr. Linda Barry, Assistant Director of CICATS, and several members from CICATS and the Institute for Regenerative Engineering (IRE) participated in the Career Expo. During the event, they shared their real research and clinical experiences with young people in Hartford. One of our missions is to ensure that young people in our community have mentors and to encourage them to pursue STEAM for their careers. IRE provides high-school and college students with numerous research opportunities in our laboratories. Each summer, we recruit students who are interested in medicine, dental medicine, engineering or biomedical research to participate in our research programs.

Learn more about our training and mentoring programs.

STEAM Career Expo

STEAM Career Expo

Former Graduate Students Granted Tenure and Promotion

By Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D.

Last week, I was pleased to learn two of my former students completed the rigorous process of receiving tenure and promotion.

Justin Brown of Penn State University received tenure and promotion to associate professor. In 2008, Professor Brown received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from my lab at the University of Virginia. In 2010, He joined to the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Penn State as assistant professor in 2010. His current research involves the investigation of the interface between osteoprogenitor cells and synthetic nanofibers. This includes the application of systems biology to elucidate the alterations in the interactome of an osteoprogenitor on nanofiber substrates as the cell population progresses from adhesion, to migration and proliferation, and finally differentiation; and also the utilization of polymer chemistry to modulate the diameter of synthetic nanofibers across several orders of magnitude and evaluate the subsequent alterations and interactions of focal adhesion proteins.

justin-brown

Ehsan Jabbarzadeh of the University of South Carolina also received tenure and promotion to associate professor. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from my lab at Drexel in 2007. Three years later, he joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at University of South Carolina as an assistant professor. The overarching theme of Professor Jabbarzadeh’s research include robust design and engineering of tissues through understanding and modeling of the environmental effects on stem cell differentiation and tissue remodeling and development. This includes engineering microenvironments based on carbon nanotube arrays with finely controllable biophysical and biochemical properties for the investigation of molecular mechanisms associated with cell migration, proliferation and differentiation. Investigations in his lab revolve around how cells sense distinctive types of mechanical, biochemical and morphological cues and integrate them to generate an appropriate response. This work is complemented by a parallel effort to construct a single cell based mathematical model of intercellular signaling events that are linked to signaling outputs associated with fate commitment.                                                                                   

I offer each my enthusiastic congratulations!

Ehsan Jabbarzadeh, Ph.D.

NMA Colloquium

By Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D.

On March 4-6, the National Medical Association (NMA) hosted its 17th National Colloquium on African American Health in National Harbor, Maryland. This year’s theme, “True North Toward Health Care Equity: Clinical, Policy, and Social Determinants” conveyed the NMA’s objective to eliminate the health disparities in our country. The event also focused on the clinical, policy, and social determinants of health and impact on individual opportunities to earn a good living, live and work in a safe and healthy environment, and effectively use available social service and health care resources to optimize and maximize health care and disease prevention. This event attracted more than 200 health professionals interested in the pressing issues facing patients, healthcare providers and community leaders. I was among the many distinguished keynote speakers providing remarks aligned with the theme. The event was incredibly successful. Thank you to staff members at NMA particularly Dr. Edith Mitchell, the 116th president of NMA, for organizing such a wonderful event.

BME Senior Design Team

By Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D.

I am so proud to announce that my BME Senior Design Team which includes Dwight Meggie, Julian Rose, Alexandra Stowe, Nathan Eckhardt won the first place certificate for the 2016 Senior Design Project Award. The project entitled “Harnessing Healing: Mechanical Isolation of Adipose Derived Stem Cells for Clinical Applications” sought to evaluate a mechanical method to rapidly harvest adipose tissue and adipose derived stem cells that can be used within a patient to help regenerate the cartilage. Currently, the most prevalent method to isolate adipose derived stem cells is utilizing an enzyme, collagenase, to breakdown the extracellular matrix but this has limited clinical applications. Thus there is a need for a mechanical isolation method. Several isolation methods were tested to isolate stem cells using fresh adipose tissue from rats. This project has the potential to improve human health as it is aimed at regenerating deteriorated cartilage which affects a multitude of patients.

The senior design project is an extremely important part of the BME curriculum at UConn. Through the program, our students work with sponsors or faculty advisors as part of a project aimed at designing and fabricating a new system in order to solve a real world problem. Each year during Senior Design Day, each team is eligible to win prizes based on a judging panel. The winners are announced at the end of the Senior Design Day.

Julian, Dwight, Alexandra, and Nathan, great job!

The Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Goes Bimonthly

By Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D.

I am happy to announce our flagship journal, The Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, will move from quarterly publication to bimonthly, starting in 2017. Since its official launch in July 2013, we have received an impressive number of high quality submissions from scholars all over the world. We have published articles in all areas of racial and ethnic health disparities. Importantly, our journal was accepted for indexing by PubMed/Medline in October 2015.

The Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities will continue to update the community on new research findings, commentaries, insights, and discussions that are relevant to the health disparities. I congratulate all our associates: editors, editorial board members, reviewers, and editorial staff for their outstanding work in achieving this milestone.

Speaking at Johns Hopkins University

By Cato T. Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D.

On March 17, it was a great pleasure to give a talk at Johns Hopkins University as part of its Postdoctoral Affairs Lecture Series. During my visit, I met with a number of postdoctoral researchers and graduate students in educational and training programs related to bone regenerative engineering. While postdoctoral fellows and graduate students have become the backbone of the research enterprise, we share responsibility for providing them with appropriate research training and career development guidance. I really enjoyed sharing some principles for success and personal philosophies in terms of successfully developing young people.

Speaking at NIH

On March 16, it was a great pleasure and, even more, an honor for me to speak at NIH in Maryland as part of the Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series (WALS). WALS is the highest profile lecture program at NIH, with each session including some of the pioneers in biomedical and behavioral research. The title of my speech was “Bone Regenerative Engineering: A Convergence Approach,” and I detailed many aspects of our regenerative engineering work including the HEAL Project. Many thanks to NIH for inviting me. I also want to thank them for continuous support on our research programs here at UConn Health.