{"336241":{"#nid":"336241","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Biomaterials Day","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThere were moments when the first Biomaterials Day at the Georgia Institute of Technology resembled a Vaudeville comedy routine, like when three of the top scientists in the field morphed into the Three Stooges for a few seconds while mugging for a photo, reflecting the festive side of an event that was part celebration, part jaw-dropping science. And even though the mood light, the slapstick was kept to a minimum \u2013 no one got hit in the face with a pie or poked in the eye \u2013 and it was smart people and their world-changing research that held center stage. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMore than 160 students and faculty from more than 10 different universities descended on the Marcus Nanotechnology Building for last Friday\u2019s sold-out event (Oct. 10), taking part in an all-day conference with the subtitle, \u201cNext Generation Biomaterials,\u201d which is appropriate, since it was the next generation of biomaterials scientists \u2013 Georgia Tech students \u2013 who organized the event. The setting also was appropriate. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cI honestly believe we are one of the strongest groups conducting biomaterials research, compared to anywhere in the world,\u201d says Ravi Bellamkonda, who holds the endowed professorial chair and is the departmental chair in the Georgia Tech\/Emory Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME). \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cAnd our strength isn\u2019t just in BME. It is wide-spread, including the Schools of Mechanical Engineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Biology, and Chemistry,\u201d Bellamkonda adds. \u201cI can\u2019t think of very many places with such depth and breadth researching materials and how they interact with biology and how they can be designed to make this an interaction that promotes healing and decreases scarring.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EJulia Babensee, associate professor of biomedical engineering in BME, who delivered the opening remarks, called the event, \u201ca culmination of all of our biomaterials efforts. And I think getting the students involved and having an opportunity to present their work and hear about other people\u2019s work in this area is really important. They represent the next generation of biomaterials experts.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe short history of Biomaterials Day at Georgia Tech begins more than a year ago, when a group of bio-community grad students and faculty applied for a $5,000 grant from the Society for Biomaterials (SFB) with the idea of hosting an event. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cOther schools have hosted Biomaterials Day and SFB had actually been pushing Georgia Tech to form a student chapter for the society, because they wanted us to host one,\u201d explains Olivia Burnsed, the grad student who served as the organizing chair for Biomaterials Day (with co-chair Travis Meyer). \u201cWe were granted the $5,000, but that definitely wasn\u2019t enough to cover this event, so we applied for internal grants here at Georgia Tech.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EA combination of support from a variety of internal sources, such as the GT-FIRE (Fund for Transformative Research and Education) grant program, the College of Engineering, BME and the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, as well as industry sponsors (BioSpherix, BOSE and 3M) paved the way for a full-day of programming that included faculty and student research presentations, a huge poster competition (more than 70 were on display), plenary speakers who happen to be among the top researchers in the field (Pat Stayton from the University of Washington and Kevin Healy from the University of California-Berkeley, two of the aforementioned faux stooges), and a post-event celebration of Bellamkonda\u2019s winning of the Clemson Award, one of the most prestigious national honors in biomaterials research. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cI am humbled when I look at the list of winners from past years,\u201d Bellamkonda says, \u201cand I think of my students and post-docs and research staff who work hard and help make projects that are mere ideas, a reality that can potentially impact lives.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EStudents and faculty representing Georgia Tech, Clemson, Auburn, Mercer and Morehouse made live presentations on a wide range of topics. Three Georgia Tech professors \u2013 Bellamkonda, Andr\u00e9s Garc\u00eda and Todd McDevitt \u2013 spoke about the research happening in their labs. Stayton spoke on the challenges, discoveries and opportunities for the next generations of researchers in the area of biomaterials science (biomaterials being any matter, surface or construct that interacts with biological systems). \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cThere\u2019s been this incredible advancement in our understanding of disease from a fundamental biology standpoint, but somehow it hasn\u2019t been translated yet into clinical benefits for people who need new therapies,\u201d Stayton says. One of the main reasons for that, he explains, is because the workforce in the pharmaceutical world is mostly accustomed to working with small molecule drugs, or New Chemical Entities (NCEs), as opposed to biologics \u2013 modern biomolecular drugs derived through the processes of genetic engineering, manufactured in living systems. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cNewer categories of biologic drugs are important because they aren\u2019t mechanistically limited by the same problems that small molecules have,\u201d Stayton says. \u201cBut they require delivery in a way that small molecules don\u2019t, so I posed it to the graduate students and post docs that this is an area where we really do need engineered biomaterials, and where we really need creative new approaches to designing drug carriers that could allow you to exploit these biologics in a new way.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EAt the end of a day of live presentations on broad topics such as \u2018rationally designed biomaterials\u2019 and \u2018biomaterials in industry\u2019 and \u2018biomaterials design for tissue repair\u2019 and \u2018stem cell-biomaterial interactions,\u2019 Healy explained why biomaterials science is critical for patient-specific medicine, focusing on the problem of how to efficiently develop drugs. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cWe want to make small, efficient micro-tissues, so the screening process can be economically robust and actually challenge the concept of expense that is currently being incurred in drug development,\u201d says Healy, referring to the $5 billion-plus, and 10 years (or so) it takes to typically develop a new drug. His work is centered in human microphysiological systems, which could provide models for predicting the efficacy of new drugs in clinical trials (and also for predicting drug toxicities early in the development process). \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EHealy also echoed something Stayton said his remarks: \u201cI think it\u2019s fantastic that this is a student-run conference.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EPrevious Biomaterials Days have been held at Clemson University, which obviously has a long history of expertise in the area (there\u2019s the Clemson Award, after all). Clemson professor Bob Latour seemed impressed with Tech\u2019s version of the event. \u201cThis is an excellent event, particularly for students, who get to hear and discuss the state of the art of what\u2019s going in the biomaterials field, as well as hear from representatives from the biomaterials industry, and have a chance to show off their own work at the poster session,\u201d says Latour, as he stands among the rows of posters. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELatour was one of the judges of the poster competition, which was won by Georgia Christopher Johnson (a grad student in Garc\u00eda\u2019s lab), whose poster was titled, \u201cBacteriophage Therapy to Reduce Bacterial Burden in Infected Bone Regenerative Implants.\u201d Second place went to Marian Hettiaratchi (affiliated with the McDevitt lab and also the lab of Petit Institute Executive Director Bob Guldberg). Third place was shared by Amy Clark (also from Garc\u00eda\u2019s lab), and two Auburn grad students affiliated with Elizabeth Lipke\u2019s lab, Petra Kersher and Shantanu Pradhan. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cYou can never get enough of this kind of experience,\u201d Clark says. \u201cYou sit through a lot of diverse talks, stuff that\u2019s outside of your field, looking at what other researchers are doing. You always learn something new.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EWith a new student chapter of SFB, and now the experience of having hosted some of the nation\u2019s thought leaders in biomaterials, Georgia Tech has taken another step forward not only in a growing field of research, but in the propagation of student leadership. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cThe other thing I like very much about Biomaterials Day is that it was organized in large part by our students,\u201d Bellamkonda says. \u201cI continued to be amazed at how articulate and independent they are, and how they so willingly give of their time to help build the wonderful community of scholars we have at Georgia Tech and Emory in this space.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Student and faculty researchers converge at Georgia Tech for first-time event"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EStudent and faculty researchers converge at Georgia Tech for first-time event.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Student and faculty researchers converge at Georgia Tech for first-time event."}],"uid":"27195","created_gmt":"2014-10-22 13:33:28","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:17:19","author":"Colly Mitchell","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-10-22T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-10-22T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"336251":{"id":"336251","type":"image","title":"Katy Lassahn, graduate student in the McDevitt lab at Georgia Tech","body":null,"created":"1449245201","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 16:06:41","changed":"1475895048","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:48","alt":"Katy Lassahn, graduate student in the McDevitt lab at Georgia Tech","file":{"fid":"200515","name":"katy2-square.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/katy2-square_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/katy2-square_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1608801,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/katy2-square_0.jpg?itok=q7r1ICKP"}}},"media_ids":["336251"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/biomaterials.gatech.edu\/","title":"Georgia Tech Biomaterials"}],"groups":[{"id":"1254","name":"Wallace H. Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"42941","name":"Art Research"},{"id":"140","name":"Cancer Research"},{"id":"141","name":"Chemistry and Chemical Engineering"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u0026nbsp;\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering \u0026amp; Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}