The Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CCEI) held its Start-Up Challenge Pitch Competition on April 8 on the Storrs campus. Open to students on all UConn campuses, CCEI awarded a total of $10,000 in prize money to individuals and/or teams across ten categories. Entries ranged from mobile apps for improved access to educational resources to novel material design for improved transportation infrastructure. The organizers challenged students to prepare a 90-second business idea pitch followed by a 2-minute Q&A session.

I am very proud to announce that our pitch for a novel interbody fusion device won “Best Pitch.” Nicknamed SpineFuze, this is a biodegradable, natural polymer-based interbody fusion device for spinal disc surgery. The team also plans to submit an additional entry for the upcoming written business-plan competition.

The business pitch was delivered by Matthew Harmon, a current 3rd-year Ph.D. student in the Institute for Regenerative Engineering. Matthew is completing his Ph.D. before returning to medical school to continue his pursuit of a career as a physician scientist in orthopaedics. His current research interests involve novel material design for the treatment of spine-related orthopaedic injuries and pathologies.

I am happy to announce that Ms. Deborah Dorcemus, an IRE graduate student, was recently awarded the National Science Foundation’s prestigious LSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowship. The LSAMP program is funded by the National Science Foundation and focuses on strengthen the participation, representation and success of underrepresented minorities in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Fellows receive two years of funding under the program with an additional three years provided by their advisors.

After graduating high school in 2008, Deborah chose to attend the University of Connecticut for her degree in Biomedical Engineering. Throughout her four years of undergraduate work, Deborah was heavily involved with several organizations that promote the professional development and academic success of students and minorities interested in the STEM fields. Deborah also held the positions of secretary, vice president, and president of the UConn chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers.

Upon receiving her Bachelor of Science in May 2012, she decided to continue on her academic path and enrolled in UConn’s Graduate program for her Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering with a focus in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. With the support of her advisor, Dr. Syam P. Nukavarapu (IRE faculty member), she is nearing completion of her first year of graduate studies. In addition to her lab and school work, Deborah volunteers with the Engineering Graduate Dean’s Office, under the supervision of Aida Ghiaei, and works with students from technical high schools who come to UConn in hopes of becoming engineers. Deborah’s thesis work involves utilizing tissue engineering strategies to develop 3D matrixes that would regenerate osteochondral (functional bone and cartilage) tissue. In order to achieve this, she will use a polymer-hydrogel matrix to deliver growth factors that would cue the tissue to a specific formation. In the end, this structure will serve to replace damaged or arthritic tissue which is an area of great need among the elderly as well as athletes.

On March 19, I served as a guest speaker at the University of Colorado Denver’s School of Medicine. Each year, speakers in various disciples from across the country are invited to participate in the Dean’s Distinguished Seminar series. I spoke on musculoskeletal regenerative engineering and the challenges facing tissue engineering. I also highlighted the emergence of regenerative engineering as a promising new technology to regenerate tissues and organs for our bodies. My thanks to everyone at University of Colorado Denver for their hospitality. I look forward to collaborating with them in the future.

In mid-February, I was so honored to receive the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Mentor Award at a ceremony held during the 2013 AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston. The Mentor Award honors AAAS members who have mentored significant numbers of underrepresented students (such as women, minorities, and persons with disabilities) achieve Ph.D. degrees in the sciences as well as encouraging scholarship, activism, and community-building in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. A very heartfelt thank you to the AAAS for selecting me for this award. I would also like to thank all the students, fellows, residents, and faculty members who have worked with me over the years.

Last month, I was honored to deliver the Basore Lecture at Auburn. I appreciated the warm hospitality provided by the entire school. I want to thank Professor Mario R. Eden, Chairman of the Chemical Engineering for hosting me. During the visit, I also had the opportunity to join my friend and colleague, Dr. James Andrews a world-renowned orthopaedic surgeon on the Auburn football team sidelines.

I was proud to receive the prestigious Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award last month in Atlanta, Georgia. It recognizes individuals who have worked to inspire their students to be mentors themselves. I was nominated by my former student Dr. Saadiq El-Amin who is currently a professor of orthopaedic surgery at Southern Illinois University who is mentoring a new generation of students and individuals in the community. I am grateful to Dr. El-Amin and the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award Advisory Committee for this award.

It was my honor and privilege to serve as Visiting Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas, Austin. During the visit, I delivered the Pirkey lectureship entitled “Musculoskeletal Regenerative Engineering: Taking on the Grand Challenges.” My talk highlighted the tremendous work being carried out here at the Institute for Regenerative Engineering. More specifically, I discussed the unprecedented strides predicted for the next decade in regenerating musculoskeletal tissues, a move from an era of advanced prosthetics to what we terms “Regenerative Engineering.”

I so appreciated the hospitality provided by the university and I thank Professor Nicholas A. Peppas, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering and Pharmacy Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, in particular, for inviting me to visit this great institution.

This past weekend, Shaun McLaughlin, an M.D./Ph.D. student at the Institute for Regenerative Engineering working under my supervision attended the national M.D./Ph.D. student conference in Keystone, Colorado. Each year, the University of Colorado Medical Scientist Training Program sponsors and coordinates this event. The conference provides an opportunity for M.D./Ph.D. students around the country to present their work and interact with other students and prominent scientific investigators. This meeting has taken place since 1986 and currently over 225 students, faculty, and alumni from over 60 academic institutions in the United States and Canada attends annually.

Francis Collins, M.D.,Ph.D., director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was one of the keynote speakers at this year’s event, presenting a talk entitled: “Exceptional Opportunities in Biomedical Research.” Shaun gave his presentation entitled “Novel Aligned Electrospun Biphasic Scaffolds for Skeletal Muscle Regenerative Engineering,” being one of three bioengineering presentations at this year’s conference. It should be noted that Shaun’s research work is remarkable and I am so proud to have Shaun as my student in the Institute for Regenerative Engineering. I look forward to seeing what the future holds for his cutting edge research.

The Urban Education Institute invited me to join them in late March at North Carolina State A&T State University in Greensboro, NC. For those who may not know, the Institute is a meeting space for individuals and groups to examine critical issues that impact learners in urban contexts, share methods and approaches they utilize to address these issues, and brainstorm concrete steps to move forward as a critical mass of colleagues and collaborators. This year’s theme was “African American Males in the STEM Professions: Strategies, Practices, Exemplars.”

I led a session entitled “Preparing for Surgery.” It focused on challenges and barriers encountered by minority males, particularly African Americans, when they pursue careers in medicine. During the discussion, I shared my own experience as an African American physician in America, emphasizing the importance of mentoring, the prerequisite knowledge and skills, and academic programming that are important in the medical profession. In addition, I offered recommendations for concrete strategies and practices that I have used at public schools, universities, and in the community to encourage more minority males to pursue careers in medicine.

I saw an awesome group of African American scientists including one of my mentors, Dr. Louis Sullivan, and the legendary Dr. John Slaughter. I also had the opportunity to interact with Dr. James Stith, a physicist who has played an important role in increasing the role of African Americans in the physical sciences. He gave an incredible talk to the group, and I connected with everything he said. I look forward to collaborating with him in the future.

During my time in Greensboro, I visited the Woolworth’s where, in 1960, four male students sat down at the “whites only” lunch counter and ordered coffee. When they were refused service, they stayed until closing in nonviolent protest. The next day, another 20 students joined them, and by the fourth day, the number rose to 300, and organizers agreed to spread their nonviolent sit-in to the lunch counter at Greensboro’s Kress store. Within a week, students in other North Carolina towns launched their own sit-ins, and the movement spread throughout the South. On July 25, local store owners abandoned their segregation policies and a day later, the entire Woolworth’s chain was desegregated, serving blacks and whites alike.

I came away from my visit thankful for all those in the past whose actions have allowed me to be here, as well as those present-day mentors who sustain me now. Moreover, I reaffirm my pledge to give back by influencing the generations to come.