<![CDATA[The Challenges of Regulating Artificial Intelligence]]> 36418 In 1950, Alan Turing asked, “Can machines think?” More than 70 years later, advancements in artificial intelligence are creating exciting possibilities and questions about its potential pitfalls.  

A recent executive order issued by President Joe Biden seeks to establish "new standards for AI safety and security" while addressing consumer privacy concerns and promoting innovation. Georgia Tech experts have examined the key elements of the order and offer their thoughts on its scope and what comes next.  

A Precautionary Tale 

The order calls for the development of standards, tools, and tests to ensure the safe use of AI. From voice scams and phishing campaigns to larger-scale threats, the technology’s potential dangers have been widely documented. But Margaret Kosal, associate professor in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, says that additional context is often needed to dispel hysteria. 

"No one is going to be hooking up AI to launch nuclear weapons, but AI capabilities may enable targeting, or enable the command and control and the decision-making time to be compressed,” she said.  
 
The order will create an AI Safety and Security Board tasked with addressing critical threats. Companies developing foundation models that "pose a serious risk to national security, national economic security, or national public health and safety” will be required to notify the federal government when training the model and required to share the results of all red-team safety tests — a simulated cyberattack to test a system's defenses.  

Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022, a CNBC report details a 1,267% rise in phishing emails. Srijan Kumar, assistant professor in the College of Computing, attributes the increase to the technology's availability and an inability to rein in "bad actors."  

He says these scams will only continue to get more sophisticated and personalized. They “can be created by knowing what you might be willing to fall prey to versus what I might fall prey to,” said Kumar, whose systems have influenced misinformation detection on sites like X (formerly Twitter) and Wikipedia. “AI is not going to autonomously do all of those bad things, but this order can ensure there are consequences for people who misuse it.”  

A Delicate Balance 

Building an AI platform requires large amounts of data regardless of its intended application. Two primary goals of the executive order are protecting privacy and advancing equity.  

To protect personal data, the order tasks Congress with evaluating how agencies collect and use commercially available information and address algorithmic discrimination.  

Acknowledging that everyone should be allowed to have their voice represented in the outputs of AI data sets, Deven Desai, associate professor in the Scheller College of Business, noted, "There are people who don't want to be part of data sets, which is their right, but this means their voices won't be reflected in the outputs.”   

The order also includes sections to address intellectual property concerns among inventors and creators, though legal challenges will likely set new precedents in the years ahead.  

When that time comes, Kosal says that defining “theft” in the context of AI becomes the true challenge and that, ultimately, money will play a significant role. "If you spit out a Harry Potter book and read it yourself, nobody will care. It's when you start selling it to make money, and you don't share proceeds with the original people, then it becomes an issue," she said.   

What Does AI-Generated Mean? 

The order instructs the Department of Commerce to develop guidelines for content authentication and watermarking to label AI-generated content. Desai questions what it means for something to be truly created by AI.  

An important distinction lies between using AI to assist a writer in organizing their thoughts and using the technology to generate content. He likens the trend to the music industry in the 1980s.  

"Synthesizers really changed people's ability to generate music and, for a while, people thought that was horrible. They can just program the music. They're not. I am still the human responsible for that music, or that article in this case, so what is the point of the label?" he asks. 

As AI assistance becomes commonplace in content creation, trusting the source of information is increasingly important. Recently, articles published on Sports Illustrated's website featured AI-generated content provided by a third-party company that had used a machine to write the content and create fake bylines. Sports Illustrated, which may not have known of the problem, ran the material without disclosure to readers. CEO Ross Levinsohn was ousted shortly after the story broke.  

“Perhaps if the third party had disclosed its use of AI software, SI would have been able to assess how much AI was used and then chosen not to run the material, or to run it with a disclaimer that AI helped write the material,” Desai said. "Of course, even if they label the content as AI-generated, a reader still won't know exactly how much of the content came from AI or a human.” 

AI and the Workforce 

As AI systems and models become more sophisticated, workers may become more concerned about being replaced. To counteract these concerns, the order calls for a study to examine AI’s potential impact on labor markets and investments in workforce training efforts.  

Kumar compares the rise of AI to similar technological innovations throughout history and sees it as an opportunity for workers and industries to adapt. "It's less a matter of AI replacing workers and more of reskilling people to use the new technology. It's no different from when assembly lines in the auto industry were created."  

Promoting Innovation and Competition 

The power to harness the full potential of AI has initiated a race to the top. Desai believes that part of the executive order providing resources to smaller developers can help level the playing field.   

"There is a possibility here for markets to open up. Current players using models that weren't built with transparency in mind might struggle, but maybe that's OK." 

The issue of reliability and transparency comes into focus for Desai, especially as it relates to government usage of AI. The order calls on agencies to "acquire specified AI products and services faster, more cheaply, and more effectively through more rapid and efficient contracting."  

When taxpayer dollars are at stake, government can’t afford to trust a technology it doesn’t fully understand — a topic Desai has explored elsewhere. "You can’t just say, ‘We don’t know how it works, but we trust it.’ That’s not going to work. So that’s where there may be a slowdown in the government’s ability to use private sector software if they can’t explain how the thing works and to show that it doesn’t have discriminatory issues.” 

What's Next 

Promoting and policing the safe use of AI cannot be done independently. Georgia Tech experts agree that participation on a global scale is necessary. To that end, the European Union will unveil its comprehensive EU AI Act, which includes a similar framework to the president's executive order.  

Due to the evolving nature of AI, the executive order or the EU's actions will not be all-encompassing. Law often lags behind technology, but Kosal points out that it's crucial to think beyond what currently exists when crafting policy.  

Experts also agree that AI cannot be regulated or governed through a single document and that this order is likely the first in a series of policymaking moves. Kosal sees tremendous opportunity with the innovation surrounding AI but hopes the growing fear of its rise does not usher in another AI winter, in which interest and research funding fade. 

]]> sgagliano3 1 1705001153 2024-01-11 19:25:53 1705071532 2024-01-12 14:58:52 0 0 news As innovation surrounding artificial intelligence continues, Georgia Tech experts offer their thoughts on the scope of the recent executive order and the challenges ahead in regulating AI.

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2024-01-11T00:00:00-05:00 2024-01-11T00:00:00-05:00 2024-01-11 00:00:00 Steven Gagliano - Institute Communications

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672744 672744 image <![CDATA[Artificial Intelligence and Policy]]> image/jpeg 1705003002 2024-01-11 19:56:42 1705003002 2024-01-11 19:56:42 <![CDATA[AI: Am I...The Future of Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech]]>
<![CDATA[Founding Director of Integrated Cancer Research at Tech Publishes ‘A Patient’s Guide to Cancer: Understanding the Causes and Treatments of a Complex Disease’]]> 27195 There are times when John McDonald, emeritus professor in the School of Biological Sciences and founding director of Georgia Tech’s Integrated Cancer Research Center, is asked to share his special insight into cancer. 

“Over the years, I’ve gotten calls from non-scientist friends and others who have been diagnosed with cancer, and they call me to get more details on what’s going on, and what options are available,” said McDonald, also a former chief scientific officer with the Atlanta-based Ovarian Cancer Institute. 

That’s the primary motivation why McDonald wrote A Patient's Guide to Cancer: Understanding the Causes and Treatments of a Complex Disease, which was published by Raven Press LLC (Atlanta) and is now available at Amazon or Barnes and Noble in paperback and ebook editions. The book describes in non-technical language the processes that cause cancer, and details on how recent advances and experimental treatments are offering hope for patients and their families.

A book for the proactive patient 

McDonald said he couldn’t go into detail for every type of cancer, but provides a generally applicable background for the disease. For those who want more information, he provides links to other resources, including videos, that provide more detail on specific types of cancer. “There’s not much out there in one place for patients who want to understand the underlying causes of cancer, and the spectrum of therapies currently available,” he said. 

McDonald, who was honored in January by the Georgia Center for Oncology Research and Education (CORE) as one of “Today’s Innovators,” also didn’t want A Patient’s Guide to Cancer to be a lengthy book, and it checks in at only 86 pages. 

McDonald believes that when patients talk to their physicians about cancer treatments,  they should ideally have a basic understanding of the underlying cause of their cancer, as well as a general awareness of the range of therapies currently available, and what may be coming down the road in the future. 

“My book is specifically designed to provide newly diagnosed cancer patients who are not scientists with this kind of background information, empowering them to play a more informed role in the selection of appropriate treatments for their disease”.

The current experimental treatment landscape; McDonald’s 2023 research goals

McDonald’s own cancer research has led to two related startup companies, co-founded with School of Biological Sciences colleagues. 

McDonald is working with postdoctoral researcher Nick Housley on using nanoparticles to deliver powerful drugs to cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue. The other company, founded in collaboration with Jeffrey Skolnick, Regents' Professor, Mary and Maisie Gibson Chair & Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Computational Systems Biology, uses machine learning to create personalized diagnostic tools for ovarian cancer.

He and his lab team are also preparing to submit a research paper that builds off their 2021 study on gene network interactions that could provide new chemotherapy targets for breast cancer. That paper focuses on the three major subtypes of breast cancer. McDonald and his colleagues will also soon submit another study detailing genetic changes that happen with the onset and progression of ovarian cancer.

When it comes to current experimental treatments, McDonald says he’s especially excited about  the potential of cancer immunotherapy, which uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer cells. But he writes in A Patient’s Guide to Cancer that because these drugs are also delivered systemically, healthy tissues can also be affected, potentially leading to autoimmunity or the self-destruction of our normal cells. 

“In the future, I believe many of the negative side-effects currently associated with the system-wide delivery of cancer drugs will be averted by the use of nanoparticles designed to target therapies specifically to tumors”.

]]> Colly Mitchell 1 1681145304 2023-04-10 16:48:24 1681231778 2023-04-11 16:49:38 0 0 news Providing newly diagnosed cancer patients with basic understanding of the underlying cause of their cancer, a general awareness of the range of therapies currently available, and what may be coming down the road in the future. 

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2023-04-03T00:00:00-04:00 2023-04-03T00:00:00-04:00 2023-04-03 00:00:00 Renay San Miguel

Communications Officer II/Science Writer

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670488 670488 image <![CDATA[John McDonald, Emeritus Professor in the School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Tech]]> image/png 1681145806 2023-04-10 16:56:46 1681145862 2023-04-10 16:57:42
<![CDATA[Kosal Talks Biotechnology and Security in SIPRI Video Series on Emerging Technology Risks ]]> 34600 Margaret E. Kosal, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, is featured in a new video series on biosecurity risks and emerging technology produced by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). 

The series features international experts from fields such as genetics, bioethics, international security, and microbiology and is part of SIPRI’s efforts to develop a bio-risk assessment toolkit for academics and researchers in the life sciences.  

Kosal, who earned a Ph.D. in chemistry, focuses her research on reducing the threat of weapons of mass destruction and understanding the role of emerging technologies for security. She was the only expert chosen from the Western hemisphere. 

In her interview, Kosal discusses the key security challenges related to biosecurity and the importance of addressing them. 

“We need to start thinking about groups of technologies, about how these things converge, and so that, I would say, is one of the biggest challenges,” she said. 

Kosal’s involvement in the workshop and series illustrates the commitment of the Nunn School and Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts to impactful global engagement and interdisciplinary work bridging the social sciences and technology.  

Kosal emphasized the value of collaborative efforts such as SIPRI’s workshop in establishing global norms and reducing the risks surrounding emerging technologies.   

“It’s the culmination of these different efforts that build up as we go back, some of us go back to teaching, some go back to positions in governments or if they have chances to influence political actors. There’s a great value in this kind of work.” 

]]> mpearson34 1 1680298772 2023-03-31 21:39:32 1680707013 2023-04-05 15:03:33 0 0 news Nunn School Associate Professor Margaret E. Kosal is featured in a Stockholm International Peace Research Institute video series on biosecurity risks and emerging technology.

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2023-04-02T00:00:00-04:00 2023-04-02T00:00:00-04:00 2023-04-02 00:00:00 Michael Pearson
Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

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<![CDATA[Announcing the Recipients of the 2022-2023 Krish Roy – GRA Travel Awards ]]> 36454 The Krish Roy - GRA Travel Award is a new travel award endowed by Professor Krishnendu Roy with funding provided by the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA). Roy is a Regents’ Professor and the Robert A. Milton Endowed Chair in Biomedical Engineering. He also serves as Director of the NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT), the Marcus Center for Cell Therapy Characterization and Manufacturing (MC3M), and the Center for ImmunoEngineering. The award was designed to support to IBB-affiliated undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral trainees conducting research in cell manufacturing, drug delivery, immunoengineering, and regenerative medicine.

Ten finalists (pictured left) were selected to receive a stipend to travel to a domestic or international conference or workshop to present their research work.

“The Krish Roy Travel award allowed me to participate in my first conference of my graduate school career." said Parisa Keshavarz-Joud. "I had the opportunity to present a poster on my research at the Physical Virology Gordon Research Conference in January 2023 and interact with experts in the field. This experience broadened my knowledge of the field and helped me in developing new ideas about the next steps of my project.”

Elijah Holland used his award in January to attend the Fibronectin Gordon Research Conference in Ventura, California. In expressing gratitude for the award, Holland shared that he was able to meet leaders in the cell adhesion field and gave his first oral research presentation, titled "Mechanotransduction at Focal Adhesions: Interplay among Force, FAs, and YAP."

Fourth-year ChemE PhD student Hyun Jee Lee plans to use the award to her support her first experience at an international seminar and conference, where she will present her research and connect with other researchers around the world. Lee's research focus is developing microfluidic tools to study cellular and molecular mechanisms in small organisms. "I'm particularly interested in investigating brain activity changes associated with learning in C. elegans." Lee explained. "I'm very grateful to have received the award." 

Awardees (pictured from top left to right):

John Cox, Graduate Research Assistant, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Yarelis Gonzalez-Vargas, Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering

Travis Rotterman, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Biological Sciences

Wenting Shi, Graduate Research Assistant, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Kamisha Hill, Graduate Research Assistant, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Paris Keshavarz-Joud, Graduate Research Assistant, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Elijah Holland, Graduate Research Assistant, Mechanical Engineering

Hun Jee Lee, Graduate Student, Chemical Engineering 

Maeve Janecka, Undergraduate Student, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering 

Sunny (Chao-yi) Lu, Graduate Research Assistant, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

]]> swilliamson40 1 1681396062 2023-04-13 14:27:42 1684272654 2023-05-16 21:30:54 0 0 news The Krish Roy - GRA Travel Award is a new travel award endowed by Professor Krishnendu Roy with funding provided by the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA). Roy is a Regents’ Professor and the Robert A. Milton Endowed Chair in Biomedical Engineering. He also serves as Director of the NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT), the Marcus Center for Cell Therapy Characterization and Manufacturing (MC3M), and the Center for ImmunoEngineering. The award was designed to support to IBB-affiliated undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral trainees conducting research in cell manufacturing, drug delivery, immunoengineering, and regenerative medicine.

Ten finalists (pictured left) were selected to receive a stipend to travel to a domestic or international conference or workshop to present their research work.

 

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2023-04-13T00:00:00-04:00 2023-04-13T00:00:00-04:00 2023-04-13 00:00:00 Savannah Williamson

Research Communications Program Manager, IBB

 

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670528 670528 image <![CDATA[Final_GRA awardees.png]]> image/png 1681406289 2023-04-13 17:18:09 1681406289 2023-04-13 17:18:09
<![CDATA[3-2-1, InQuBATE: T32 Training Takes Off with Three Grad Students]]> 34434 This story is an update to the July 2021 announcement of this program: InQuBATE Training Program Integrates Modeling and Data Science for Bioscience Ph.D. Students

Three Ph.D. students — two from the College of Sciences — have been announced as the inaugural cohort for a new Georgia Tech training program designed to give biomedical researchers a deeper dive into quantitative, data-intensive studies. 

The trainees for the 2021 class of the Integrative and Quantitative Biosciences Accelerated Training Environment (InQuBATE) program, areas of study, and their advisors are:

As noted in the summer announcement of the program, the three students are part of a new five-year, $1.27 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that creates the InQuBATE program to help transform the study of quantitative- and data-intensive biosciences at Georgia Tech. InQuBATE is designed to train a new generation of biomedical researchers and thought leaders to harness the data revolution.

“We want to improve and enhance the training of students to focus on biological questions while leveraging modern tools, and in some cases developing new tools, to address foundational challenges at scales from molecules to systems,” noted Joshua Weitz, professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in the School of Biological Sciences, in that announcement. Weitz is co-leading the program with Peng Qiu, associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

Biology is undergoing a transformation, added Weitz and Qiu, requiring a new educational paradigm that integrates quantitative approaches like computational modeling and data analytics into the experimental study of living systems.

“Our intention is to develop a training environment that instills a quantitative, data-driven mindset, integrating quantitative and data science methods into all aspects of the life science training pipeline,” added Weitz, founding director of Tech’s Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Quantitative Biosciences (QBioS).

Meet the inaugural InQuBATE cohort

Kathryn (Katie) Wendorf MacGillivray
Quantitative Biosciences Interdisciplinary Graduate Program (advised by Will Ratcliff)

Katie Wendorf MacGillivray received a Master’s in Biology from New York University where she worked on phenotypic heterogeneity of antibiotic susceptibility in the lab of Edo Kussell. She is now a Ph.D. student in the Quantitative Biosciences program at Georgia Tech. In the Ratcliff Lab, she is interested in engineering yeast that can switch between life cycles – unicellular, clonal, and aggregative. Outside of the lab, she likes to knit, garden, and take road trips with her husband Ian. "I have a biology and chemistry background, and believe strongly that all biosciences research could benefit from the addition of computational modeling and/or data science approaches. That's why I chose QBioS for my PhD program in the first place," she says.

Gabriella Chebli
Biological Sciences (advised by Julia Kubanek)

Gabriella Chebli graduated from Agnes Scott College with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Chemistry. While an undergraduate, she conducted research under the direction of Chemistry professor Thomas Morgan to revise the structure of a class of natural products called “hyloins” that are found in the frog species Boana punctata. Chebli also worked in the lab of Biology professor, Iris Levin, studying telomere length in adult barn swallows. Chebli first joined the Kubanek Lab as an REU participant, working on a metabolomics-based project on harmful algal blooms. After graduating from Agnes Scott, she took a gap year, where she volunteered with ecotourism kayak tours with Seaside Adventure in Kachemak Bay, Alaska and interned at the Lammi Biological Station in Lammi, Finland. In the Kubanek Lab, Chebli is researching chemical ecology and assisting with an algal biofuel ponds project and maintenance of phytoplankton cultures.

Maxfield (Max) Comstock
Computational Science and Engineering (advised by Elizabeth Cherry)

Comstock, originally from Seattle, Washington, received his undergraduate degrees in Math and Computer Science from Harvey Mudd College. “I'm honored to be part of the inaugural InQuBATE cohort, and am looking forward to working with all the amazing people involved with the program," he says. "I hope to gain experience collaborating with researchers from different backgrounds who may approach problems from a different perspective, and to learn new ways to apply computational techniques to important biomedical problems. I intend to continue tackling medical problems using these skills throughout the rest of my career.”

 

]]> Renay San Miguel 1 1629824606 2021-08-24 17:03:26 1630087537 2021-08-27 18:05:37 0 0 news Three Ph.D. students — two of them from the College of Sciences — will make up the inaugural cohort of a new Georgia Tech training program designed to give biomedical researchers a deeper dive into quantatitive data sciences. 

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2021-08-27T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-27T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-27 00:00:00 Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer II/Science Writer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

 

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650148 650149 650181 650030 650148 image <![CDATA[Kathryn (Katie) Wendorf MacGillivray]]> image/jpeg 1630010638 2021-08-26 20:43:58 1630010638 2021-08-26 20:43:58 650149 image <![CDATA[Gabriella Chebli]]> image/jpeg 1630010716 2021-08-26 20:45:16 1630010716 2021-08-26 20:45:16 650181 image <![CDATA[Maxfield Comstock (Photo Harvey Mudd College)]]> image/png 1630080130 2021-08-27 16:02:10 1630080130 2021-08-27 16:02:10 650030 image <![CDATA[Peng Qiu and Joshua Weitz, co-leaders of the the Integrative and Quantitative Biosciences Accelerated Training Environment (InQuBATE) program]]> image/png 1629825189 2021-08-24 17:13:09 1629825189 2021-08-24 17:13:09 <![CDATA[InQuBATE Training Program Integrates Modeling and Data Science for Bioscience Ph.D. Students]]>
<![CDATA[Coskun Gets $50,000 Pilot Grant from SPORE to Study Cell Signaling in Lung Cancer]]> 28153 Ahmet Coskun is trying to solve a molecular mystery: He wants to know why some patients don’t respond to a lung cancer drug that has shown otherwise promising results. He hopes understanding why will help his team develop tools that will enable personalized precision therapies in the future.

“Most patients are responding to this drug very well, but it fails in some patients, and why it fails is a mystery,” said Coskun, an assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University and a researcher in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech.

Coskun aims to take a detailed look at cellular communication and decision-making, to closely visualize cell signaling and develop a new metric to define how cells respond to drugs for lung cancer therapy. To help him get started, the Emory Lung Cancer SPORE group is awarding him $50,000 over the next year.

“Our research will result in a molecular screening platform for imaging signaling proteins of human cell cultures and tissues,” said Coskun, who plans to decipher the role of cellular signals and explain how different cells coordinate signaling to achieve healthy or abnormal results, specifically in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

This year, about 200,000 adults in the United States will be diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the world. About 15 percent of those people have an epidermal growth factor receptor mutation in their cancer.

Epidermal growth factor receptor, or EGFR, is a protein involved in cell signaling. When it works correctly, it helps control cell division. But when it becomes mutated, as it does in some lung cancer cells, it causes rapid cell growth, helping the cancer spread.

For lung cancer patients with the EGFR mutation, there is a measure of hope thanks to a drug developed by Emory University several years ago. In a 2017 clinical study led by Emory researcher Suresh Ramalingam, patients experienced substantial improvement when treated with an EGFR inhibitor called osimertinib, compared to those who received the standard of care.

The drug is designed to inhibit EGFR’s haywire signaling activity in cancer. As Coskun noted, though, it doesn’t work well for every patient. It’s because no two patient tumors are exactly alike – each tumor microenvironment is unique. There are multiple biomarkers and multiple potential targets for cancer drugs to attack. So, inhibiting one protein like EGFR won’t always make a difference, Coskun said.

“The standard clinical techniques are limited to focusing on a single marker,” said Coskun, who is using multiplex cellular imaging, a technology that allows detection of multiple markers. “Recent advances in these systems allow visualization of a larger number of markers — up to 30 unique targets. We intend to develop automated, multiplexed platforms to detect numerous markers and to feed the information into an algorithm to diagnose patients and predict their response to therapies.”

Clearly identifying other markers could pave the way for combination therapies with other inhibitor drugs to block other cancer signaling pathways — together, they’re a more comprehensive approach to attacking the disease. The ability to look at 30 different proteins or markers — potential drug targets — at one time, in a single cell, wasn’t possible before because the technology didn’t exist.

“The emerging technology that we have developed here at Georgia Tech and Emory allow rapid and high-content signaling network studies in cells and tissues,” Coskun said.

Essentially, researchers combine technologies to create a complete molecular profile of a patient’s cancer at the single cell level. Coskun’s team uses microfluidic instruments to acquire microscopic images and then super computers are used to process and visualize complex cellular maps.

“These maps will enable personalized precision therapies,” Coskun said. “That is our goal.”

Coskun and his team will work under the mentorship of Ramalingam, executive director of the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory and co-lead of the Lung Cancer SPORE, a Specialized Program of Research Excellence created in 2019 with a $9.7 million National Cancer Institute grant. It’s one of four SPORE grants in the U.S. focused on lung cancer.

 

LINKS

https://winshipcancer.emory.edu/research/spore-grants/lung-cancer.html

https://bme.gatech.edu/bme/faculty/Ahmet-F-Coskun

 

]]> Jerry Grillo 1 1629913531 2021-08-25 17:45:31 1630426266 2021-08-31 16:11:06 0 0 news 2021-08-25T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-25T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-25 00:00:00 Writer: Jerry Grillo

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650087 650089 650087 image <![CDATA[Cell signaling]]> image/jpeg 1629913143 2021-08-25 17:39:03 1629913143 2021-08-25 17:39:03 650089 image <![CDATA[Ahmet Coskun]]> image/jpeg 1629913206 2021-08-25 17:40:06 1629913206 2021-08-25 17:40:06
<![CDATA[Heat-Controllable CAR T-Cells Destroy Tumors and Prevent Relapse in New Study]]> 28153 A team of researchers led by bioengineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology is expanding the precision and ability of a revolutionary immunotherapy that is already transforming oncology. CAR T-Cell therapy has been hailed by patients, clinical-researchers, investors, and the media as a viable cure for some cancers.

CAR T-Cell therapy involves engineering a patient’s T-cells, a type of white blood cell, in a lab. Then a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) is added, and these customized immune cells are returned to the patient’s body, where they seek and destroy cancer cells. That’s how it works, when it works.

It’s a new, evolving, and booming area of immunotherapy, with more than 500 clinical trials analyzing CAR T-cells for cancer treatment going on right now around the world.

“These therapies have proven to be remarkably effective for patients with liquid tumors – so, tumors that are circulating in the blood, such as leukemia,” said Gabe Kwong, associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory. “Unfortunately, for solid tumors – sarcomas, carcinomas – they don’t work well. There are many different reasons why. One huge problem is that the CAR T-cells are immunosuppressed by the tumor microenvironment.”

Kwong and his collaborators are changing the environment and making some cell modifications of their own to enhance the way CAR T-cells fight cancer. They’ve added a genetic on-off switch to the cells and a developed a remote-control system that sends the modified T-cells on a precision invasion of the tumor microenvironment, where they kill the tumor and prevent a relapse. And they explain it all in a study published recently in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.

The latest study builds on the lab’s body of work exploring remotely controlled cell therapies, in which the researchers can precisely target tumors, wherever they are in the body, with a local deposition of heat. “And this heat basically activates the CAR T-cells inside the tumors, overcoming the problems of immunosuppression,” said Kwong.

In the earlier study, the researchers did not clinically treat tumors, but they are doing that now with the new work. To generate heat in a mouse’s tumor, they shone laser pulses from outside the animal’s body, onto the spot where a tumor is located. Gold nanorods delivered to the tumor turn the light waves into localized, mild heat, raising the temperature to 40-42 Celsius (104-107.6 F), just enough to activate the T-Cells’ on-switch, but not so hot that it would damage healthy tissue, or the T-cells. Once turned on, the cells go to work, increasing the expression of cancer-fighting proteins.

The real novelty, Kwong said, was in genetically engineering clinical-grade CAR T-Cells, something the team worked on for the past three years. Now, in addition to a switch that responds to heat, the researchers have added a few upgrades to the T-cells, rewiring them to produce molecules to stimulate the immune system.

Localized production of these potent, engineered proteins (cytokines and Bispecific T-cell Engagers) has to be controlled precisely.

“These cancer-fighting proteins are really good at stimulating CAR T-cells, but they are too toxic to be used outside of tumors,” said Kwong. “They are too toxic to be delivered systemically. But with our approach we can localize these proteins safely. We get all the benefits without the drawbacks.”

The latest study shows the system cured cancer in mice, and the team’s approach not only shrunk tumors but prevented relapse – critical for long-term survival. Further studies will delve into additional tailoring of T-cells, as well as how heat will be deposited at the tumor site. A gentle laser was used to heat the tumor site. That won’t be the case when the technology moves on to human studies.

“We’ll use focused ultrasound, which is completely non-invasive and can target any site in the body,” Kwong said. “One of the limitations with laser is that it doesn’t penetrate very far in the body. So, if you have a deep-seated malignant tumor, that would be a problem. We want to eliminate problems.”

 

The research was funded by the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2HD091793), the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (UL1TR000454), and the Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation.

CITATION: Ian C. Miller, Ali Zamat, Lee-Kai Sun, Hathaichanok Phuengkham, Adrian M. Harris, Lena Gamboa1, Jason Yang7, John P. Murad7, Saul J. Priceman, Gabriel A. Kwong. Enhanced intratumoural activity of CAR T cells engineered to produce immunomodulators under photothermal control.” (Nature Biomedical Engineering, August 2021)

 

About Georgia Tech

The Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is a top 10 public research university developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition. The Institute offers business, computing, design, engineering, liberal arts, and sciences degrees. Its nearly 40,000 students representing 50 states and 149 countries, study at the main campus in Atlanta, at campuses in France and China, and through distance and online learning. As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech is an engine of economic development for Georgia, the Southeast, and the nation, conducting more than $1 billion in research annually for government, industry, and society.

]]> Jerry Grillo 1 1629242303 2021-08-17 23:18:23 1629300178 2021-08-18 15:22:58 0 0 news 2021-08-17T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-17T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-17 00:00:00 Writer: Jerry Grillo

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649788 649788 image <![CDATA[Zamat and Kwong]]> image/jpeg 1629241906 2021-08-17 23:11:46 1629241906 2021-08-17 23:11:46
<![CDATA[Five Georgia Tech Students Named 2023 Goldwater Scholars]]> 28822 2023 Goldwater Recipients (1080 × 1080 px).png

The Goldwater reviewers faced the difficult task of selecting scholarship recipients from a pool of 1,267 outstanding undergraduates nominated by 427 institutions. When added to the 70 sophomores from the 2022 competition, the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation will support a total of 483 scholars this year. 

Among the recipients are five outstanding undergraduate students from Georgia Tech: Jim James, Maeve Janecka, Velin "Venny" Kojouharov, Dawei Liu, and Nadia Qutob. These students were selected based on their exceptional achievements and potential for future success in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). 

Jim James, a computer science Major who also won an Astronaut Scholarship last year, is focusing his research on a combination of applications of deep learning in materials science and inverse reinforcement learning. James credits mentor Ben Blaiszik for being instrumental in developing his interest in a research career, while Ashwin Pananjady and Vidya Muthukumar helped him connect the math he studied in his coursework to cutting-edge research. "From the start of my undergraduate education, Prestigious Fellowships Advising helped me understand what steps I needed to take to make myself competitive for the Goldwater Scholarship," said James. "When it came time to apply for the award, Karen Mura gave me advice on my application essays and helped me revise them several times until they were well-refined."  

Maeve Janecka, a chemical and biomolecular engineering major, focused her research on her undergraduate thesis project, which studies the drug deliveries of a novel orthopedic implant material. "I have been fortunate to have had two incredible mentors since my first year at Georgia Tech," said Janecka. "Champion is my research advisor, and she has been an invaluable guide as I continue to develop my technical skillset. Chrissy Spencer has been a wonderful academic resource and helped me grow as a leader. I also want to thank my graduate advisor, Thomas Pho, for his support throughout our research process and for the time he has taken to mentor me as a future Ph.D. student." In the future, she wants to research diagnostic tools for the early detection of endometriosis.  

Velin "Venny" Kojouharov is a mechanical engineering major whose research is inspired by animals and the way they move. "These bioinspired robots help advance the field of robotics by expanding our ability to move in natural environments," said Kojouharov. His mentor, Daniel Goldman, has been his research mentor since his first year at Georgia Tech. "He has given me the resources, motivation, and passion for the research that I do and has inspired me to continue doing it," said Kojouharov. "My graduate student mentor, Ph.D. student Tianyu Wang, has also been crucial to my success and is the person responsible for teaching me almost everything that I know about robotics, physics, and biology." Kojouharov also thanks Karen Mura for her support in the application process. "Through our numerous meetings, she has helped me figure out my story and made me believe in myself enough to apply for fellowships and scholarships." 

Dawei Liu, a biomedical engineering major, centered his research around the use of immune cells, specifically those equipped with engineered chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), to target and eliminate tumors. Liu is grateful to have the support of his family, friends, and mentors as he conducted his research. "I want to thank my graduate student mentor Miguel Armenta Ochoa and Krish Roy for their guidance, and faculty mentors Pinaki Banerjee, Hind Rafei, and Katy Rezvani for letting me contribute to their work," said Liu. "I know for certain that without their help, I wouldn't have had any of these amazing opportunities. I hope that receiving this award is one way I can give back." Liu worked extensively with Pre-Graduate & Pre-Professional (PGPP) Advising to craft his application materials and met with Karen Mura several times to revise his essays for approval from his research mentors.  

Nadia Qutob is a physics major whose research focuses on gravitational wave data analysis with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), specifically parameter estimation optimization for the high signal-to-noise ratio regime. Qutob's mentors, Laura Cadonati and Meg Millhouse, were instrumental during her time at LIGO. "Their guidance and patience have cultivated an environment where I can thrive and reach my full research potential. I wouldn't be where I am today without them," she said. She also took advantage of Prestigious Fellowships Advising for support through the application process. "Karen Mura and Shannon Dobranski were instrumental in the success of my Goldwater application," Qutob said. "They were available to proofread my application materials, answer questions, and offer suggestions at every stage of the application process." In the future, Qutob wants to pursue a Ph.D. in astrophysics and conduct research on dark matter's influence on the formation of galaxies.  

Karen Mura, prestigious fellowships advisor, said, “I am so proud of the accomplishments and successes of these students. They worked diligently on their Goldwater applications, which required several short answer essays and a three-page research essay. In addition, this marks the first time that Georgia Tech has had five recipients – the largest number of recipients allowed by Goldwater. Each institution is allowed to nominate four applicants and a fifth applicant if they are a transfer student for the national competition per year."

The Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation was established by Congress in 1986 to honor Senator Barry Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years, including 30 years of service in the U.S. Senate. Its goal is to provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents and intend to pursue careers in these fields. 

]]> Cory Hopkins 1 1683832745 2023-05-11 19:19:05 1683832914 2023-05-11 19:21:54 0 0 news The Office of Undergraduate Education is pleased to announce that five Georgia Tech undergraduates have been awarded the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship for 2023. 

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2023-04-14T00:00:00-04:00 2023-04-14T00:00:00-04:00 2023-04-14 00:00:00 Apply for Fellowship Awards: 

Students interested in the Goldwater Scholarship, or any nationally or internationally competitive award, can follow up by scheduling an appointment with Mura on AdvisorLink. 

Pre-Graduate and Pre-Professional Advising is part of the Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE). Learn more about OUE by following @gtoue on social media. 

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<![CDATA[Prestigious Fellowships]]> <![CDATA[Office of Undergraduate Education]]>
<![CDATA[Fernandez Featured in the Society Pages]]> 35403 Facundo Fernandez, professor and associate chair in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, was recently featured in the Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. As the latest subject of the journal’s “Faces of Mass Spectrometry” series, Fernandez discusses his personal and scientific history, from his upbringing in Argentina to the pivotal role of his postdoctoral mentor to his interest in the fundamentals and applications of mass spectrometry.

Fernandez provides a highly accessible insight into his laboratory’s work on ambient mass spectrometry, analytical problems crucial to space travel, and characterizing pharmaceutical compounds and the molecular signatures of disease. The interview provides a good introduction into many diverse applications of state-of-the-art mass spectrometry, which, in the Fernandez lab, translates to bringing highly sophisticated molecular characterization to bear in non-traditional environments and on important biological questions.  

Fernandez is the twenty-fourth investigator to be profiled in the “Faces” series, which began in 2018. Mostly from the US, the honorees work across a variety of organizations – universities, companies, and national laboratories – and on all aspects of mass spectrometry.   

]]> Carly Ralston 1 1628272418 2021-08-06 17:53:38 1628272418 2021-08-06 17:53:38 0 0 news 2021-08-06T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-06T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-06 00:00:00 649316 649316 image <![CDATA[Facundo Fernandez]]> image/jpeg 1628272187 2021-08-06 17:49:47 1628272187 2021-08-06 17:49:47
<![CDATA[Not-so-Blind Mice Make a Good Model for Studying Human Vision]]> 28153 Some neurons in the visual system act like Instagram photo filters, dialing up the darks and fading the whites at the center of our vision. It’s a well-known, fundamental process in the brains of humans and primates. Turns out it works that way in mice, too, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University have now discovered.

That’s important, because it means the mouse is a better model for studying human visual functions and diseases than scientists previously thought, according to Bilal Haider, lead author of an international study published recently in the journal Current Biology.

“This is surprising, because no one thought it would be the same in mice. Their eyes don’t face forward, and they don’t move their eyes to focus on objects,” said Haider, assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory. “But we discovered this fundamental feature of vision extends to the mouse visual system and can help us better understand the human visual system, [eye] diseases, and so forth.”

Primates and mice have both monocular vision and binocular vision, but those terms mean different things for each. Monocular vision in a human or a primate is when just one eye is used. But in a mouse, the eyes are on opposite sides of the head, and each eye views a large and non-overlapping region of the visual field, which can be helpful in spotting potential predators.

However, humans, monkeys, and mice also have binocular vision — where the two eyes have overlapping fields of view, allowing for better perception of depth and other visual features. While humans have a 135-degree binocular field of vision in front of them, mice are operating at only 40 degrees of binocular vision. Apparently, they make the most of it.

Haider and his collaborators measured brain signals in mice looking at different visual stimuli. Measurements were made at multiple scales, one of the unique features of the research, according to Haider.

“From thousands, if not tens of thousands, of neurons, to small groups of neurons — like 10 to 50 at a time — and then single neurons,” he said. “We were able to measure the electrical activity flowing into a single neuron in the awake brain.”

At every level, he said, the researchers found the same thing when it came to responses to stimuli that were directly in front of the mouse: the response to the dark stimuli was much stronger than to the bright stimuli. Pretty much the same as it is in humans and primates.

“If you wanted to use a mouse for a model for curing blindness, visual dysfunctions, retinal damage, or other eye issues — it’s a huge field — it would be great if you knew their binocular vision was similar to ours,” said Haider, who also a researcher in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. “That was a driving force behind this research.”

 

The ‘Aha’ Moment

The discovery that mice and people see things at the center of their vision in a similar way was a bona fide “aha” moment for Haider. He asked the paper’s lead author, Brice Williams, who was analyzing the data they’d gathered, to look first at the brightest and darkest stimuli.

“We always present a range of blacks to grays to whites, but I suggested we separate the pure blacks and whites as a first pass, assuming the responses would be equal regardless of where the stimulus appeared,” Haider said, “because why in the world would they be different?”

Williams, who had been an undergraduate in the Haider lab and is now in the Emory/Georgia Tech M.D./Ph.D. program, showed the vastly different mouse brain responses to black and white, “and we thought that was interesting and weird,” Haider said. Then he reached out to a former collaborator in the U.K., associate professor Aman Saleem at University College London.

Saleem and his team in London had been working along similar lines, studying mouse visual responses, building a completely independent set of data. Haider wanted to take a look at it.

“Different continent, different everything, and we saw the same thing,” Haider said. “There was a significant increase in neural response to the dark stimuli in front of the mouse, and it makes sense. It could be because the natural world has dark objects, which are really salient: they can be shadows of something moving or approaching.”

While the neural reaction of mice on either side of the Atlantic showed sharp contrasts between dark and light stimuli at the center of vision, neural responses to peripheral imagery, whether it was light or dark, were pretty equal. There was definitely an increase in neural response relative to a blank screen, according to Haider, but it was equal between dark and light stimuli.

“What it shows us is, there’s an evolutionary advantage for the nervous system in mammals to do vision in this way,” Haider said. “There are probably behavioral advantages for processing visual stimuli in a different way when something is right in front of you versus off to the side. And the fact that it’s kind of the same in mice and humans makes the mouse a much more relevant model for studying vision and visual dysfunctions throughout the visual field.”

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS107968 to B.H.), National Institutes of Health BRAIN Initiative (NS109978 to B.H.), the Simons Foundation (SFARI 600343), Sir Henry Dale Fellowship from the Wellcome Trust and Royal Society (200501), and Human Science Frontiers

Program grant (RGY0076/2018 to A.B.S.). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any funding agency.

Citation: Brice Williams, et al., “Spatial modulation of dark versus bright stimulus responses in the mouse visual system.” (Current Biology, July 2021)

Links:

Haider Lab

“Spatial modulation of dark versus bright stimulus responses in the mouse visual system.” Current Biology

 

]]> Jerry Grillo 1 1628207884 2021-08-05 23:58:04 1628207884 2021-08-05 23:58:04 0 0 news 2021-08-05T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-05T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-05 00:00:00 Writer: Jerry Grillo

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<![CDATA[Nucleic Acid-Based Devices Will Rapidly Diagnose Sepsis, Respiratory Infections]]> 27195 A multidisciplinary team led by Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) researchers has received $14.7 million in funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop novel diagnostic devices able to rapidly identify the bacteria causing sepsis – and viruses that cause respiratory infections such as RSV, SARS-CoV-2, and influenza.

The novel nucleic acid detection devices will use the CRISPR Cas13a enzyme to initiate a synthetic biology workflow that will lead to the production of a visible signal if a targeted infectious agent is present in a sample of blood – or fluid from a nasal or throat swab. The devices will be simple to use, similar to the lateral-flow technology in home pregnancy tests. The devices will provide diagnostic capabilities to low-resource areas such as clinics and battlefield medical units, allowing treatment of infections to begin more quickly – potentially saving lives.

“This new technology will make it much faster and more cost-effective to diagnose these infections,” said Mike Farrell, a Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) principal research scientist who is leading the project. “You would obtain a sample, put it into a device, diagnose the underlying pathogen, and be able to provide a treatment. This could be a huge leap forward in rapidly diagnosing these diseases where sophisticated laboratory testing isn’t available.”

Funded by DARPA’s Detect It with Gene Editing Technologies (DIGET) program, the project – known as Tactical Rapid Pathogen Identification and Diagnostic Ensemble (TRIAgE) – also includes researchers from Emory University and two private sector companies. The goal will be to detect 10 different pathogens with each device.

Detection Reaction Begins with CRISPR Cas13a Enzyme

Detection of a pathogen will begin with exposure of a patient sample to the CRISPR Cas13a enzyme with guide proteins containing RNA genetic sequences from the targeted pathogens. If a genetic sequence in the device matches a sequence in the patient sample, the enzyme will begin breaking down the targeted RNA.

Development of the CRISPR Cas13a component of the project will be led by Phil Santangelo, a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University and one of the team’s collaborators. CRISPR Cas13a differs from Cas9 technology, which has become known for its ability to edit DNA, which Cas13A will not do.

Once the Cas13a enzyme breaks down the pathogen RNA, that will trigger additional reactions to amplify the signal and create a visible blue line in the device within 15 minutes.

Synthetic Biology Workflow Signals Pathogen Presence

“We will be assembling a synthetic biology workflow that takes an initial signal created by CRISPR-based nucleic acid detection and amplifies it using the same cell-free synthetic biology approaches we have used to create sensors for detecting small molecules and metals: turning on genes that create a visual readout so that expensive instruments, and even electricity, are unnecessary,” explained Mark Styczynski, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and another team collaborator.

“As part of the DIGET project, we will be leveraging my group’s expertise in minimal-equipment diagnostics,” he added. “The biological ‘parts’ we develop can be reused to transduce signals for the detection of essentially any nucleic acid sequence.”

Another Georgia Tech researcher, I. King Jordan, professor and director of the Bioinformatics Graduate Program in the School of Biological Sciences, will mine the genomes of the targeted pathogens for optimal Cas13a target sequences as well as the corresponding Cas13a RNA guide sequences.

Devices Must be Both Sensitive and Specific

Beyond specifically identifying the pathogen or pathogens causing an infection, the diagnostic devices being developed must also be very sensitive – able to detect as few as 10 copies of the target pathogen in a sample. “A major technological challenge is achieving the level of signal amplification within the device’s synthetic biology circuit to reach the needed level of sensitivity,” Farrell said.

The ability to detect 10 different pathogens with a single lateral-flow assay is an ambitious goal for a device that depends on a synthetic biology circuit and is designed for use in the field, he added. Lateral-flow assays commonly used in home or point-of-care medical tests operate by applying a liquid sample to a pad containing reactive molecules. The molecules may create visible positive or negative reactions, depending on the design.

“You just put the sample on the device and it does its thing,” Farrell said. “If the target pathogen is present, a line turns blue and you can see it with your eye.”

Early Diagnosis Can be Life-Saving

Sepsis is an infection of the bloodstream by any of a number of different bacteria. These bacteria can originate from a lower respiratory infection, kidney or bladder infection, digestive system breakdown, catheter site, wound, or burn. Sepsis results in a severe and persistent inflammatory response that can lead to disrupted blood flow, tissue damage, organ failure, and death.

“It’s important to identify the specific bacteria causing the sepsis because that informs the type of antimicrobial therapy that’s needed,” said Farrell. “The sooner you can identify the underlying pathogen, the faster you can provide the proper medical care, and the more likely it is that the patient will survive. Current laboratory-based diagnostic methods can take between 24 and 72 hours, and that is just too long.”

Improving diagnostics for sepsis and respiratory diseases will have applications to both the military and civilian worlds, particularly in locations without easy access to laboratory testing.

“Wounded soldiers in the field are very susceptible to sepsis blood infections, and common respiratory diseases can affect troop readiness, so from a military standpoint, having this rapid diagnostic test would be very significant,” Farrell said. “In low-resource environments, being able to diagnose these diseases with a single test would be huge as well. Being able to identify the underlying bacteria behind sepsis more quickly could save a lot of lives.”

Beyond the university researchers, the project includes Global Access Diagnostics, a manufacturer of lateral-flow devices, and Ginkgo Bioworks, which manufactures proteins essential to the diagnostics.

The five-phase project is expected to last for four years and will conclude with field validation and a transition to manufacturing. The devices will need to win FDA approval before they can be used, so there is a significant regulatory review aspect to the project, Farrell said.

Approved for Public Release, Distribution Unlimited

Writer: John Toon
GTRI Communications
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Atlanta, Georgia

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $800 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

]]> Colly Mitchell 1 1681435607 2023-04-14 01:26:47 1684272826 2023-05-16 21:33:46 0 0 news Mike Farrell, I. King Jordan, and Phil Santangelo working on $14.7 million DARPA funded project to developing novel diagnostic devices able to rapidly identify the bacteria causing sepsis. 

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2023-03-29T00:00:00-04:00 2023-03-29T00:00:00-04:00 2023-03-29 00:00:00 John Toon

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<![CDATA[Add One More Weapon to Cholera’s Deadly Arsenal]]> 34434 Vibrio cholerae, the pathogenic bacterium that causes cholera, has killed millions worldwide, and is still found in countries where infrastructure doesn’t support clean water. Cholera patients can suffer from severe vomiting and diarrhea, which can lead to fatal dehydration.

One factor V. cholerae uses to cause disease is a toxin-loaded “nano-harpoon,” in the words of Brian Hammer, associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences. “Many pathogenic bacteria, including V. cholerae, are successful in the environment and human body because they compete for food and space by lancing their neighbors with that harpoon. The harpoon’s toxic ‘contact-antibiotics’ kill bacteria from the inside. Thwarting human pathogens will require an understanding of these arsenals.”

Now, Hammer is on a team of scientists from Georgia Tech who have found a previously unknown weapon in the arsenal of cholera bacteria: a toxin that impairs a cell’s membrane and looks like none described prior — hence the title of the team’s research study: “A New Contact Killing Toxin Permeabilizes Cells and Belongs to a Broadly Distributed Protein Family,” published July 21 in mSphere, part of the American Society of Microbiology Journals.

Team members include Hammer (the study’s corresponding author), his graduate student Christian Crisan (the study’s lead author), and undergraduate researcher Catherine Everly; along with assistant professor Peter Yunker and his postdoctoral student Gabi Steinbach of the School of Physics; and professor Raquel Lieberman and her postdoctoral student Shannon Hill in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Hammer and Yunker are members of Georgia Tech’s Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection; and Hammer, Lieberman, and Yunker are also members of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience

The technical term for V. cholerae’s “nano-harpoon” is a Type 6 Secretion System, (T6SS). “While many microbiologists have focused their efforts on a few toxins made by V. cholerae obtained from patients, we sequenced the DNA of Vibrios from non-human environmental sources and developed computational tools to find new contact-antibiotic toxin genes,” Hammer says of his lab’s work. “In doing so, my student Cristian Crisan, who just defended his Ph.D., discovered a new T6 toxin that doesn't look like any other protein characterized prior. He showed this toxin” — which the team named TpeV (type VI permeabilizing effector Vibrio) — “kills competitors by altering their cell membranes.” Doing so results in cell damage or death.

Hunting through a database, Crisan also discovered that hundreds of other bacteria, including pathogens like Salmonella and Proteus, also carry this novel toxin. “Our current work is studying exactly how this contact-antibiotic works, and ways that bacteria can adapt to become resistant to it and other T6 toxins,” Hammer says. 

Cholera remains a well-studied disease since it touches many disciplines including microbiology, epidemiology, aquatic ecology, and water resource management, Hammer says. Outbreaks still occur in places such as Bangladesh, Yemen, and Haiti.

Learning more about V. cholerae’s toxins, and their antimicrobial abilities, could mean more effective ways to deal with antibiotic resistance, now an area of concern for microbiologists. 

“We demonstrate that TpeV has antimicrobial activity by permeabilizing cells, eliminating membrane potentials, and causing severe cytotoxicity,” the team writes in its study. “We propose that TpeV-like toxins contribute to the fitness of many bacteria. Finally, since antibiotic resistance is a critical global health threat, the discovery of new antimicrobial mechanisms could lead to the development of new treatments against resistant strains.”

The School of Biological Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation, and the German National Academy of Natural Sciences Leopoldina contributed to this research study.

]]> Renay San Miguel 1 1628001579 2021-08-03 14:39:39 1628209870 2021-08-06 00:31:10 0 0 news A team of interdisciplinary scientists from Georgia Tech led by Brian Hammer has found a previously unknown tool in the arsenal of cholera bacterium — a toxin that impairs a cell’s overall membrane and looks like none described prior.

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2021-08-05T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-05T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-05 00:00:00 Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer II/Science Writer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

 

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649213 604636 649213 image <![CDATA[Vibrio cholerae bacteria (Photo Wikimedia Commons)]]> image/png 1628000792 2021-08-03 14:26:32 1628000792 2021-08-03 14:26:32 604636 image <![CDATA[Brian Hammer]]> image/jpeg 1522767251 2018-04-03 14:54:11 1522767251 2018-04-03 14:54:11 <![CDATA[CMDI: Mighty Microbial Dynamics for a Healthier People and Planet]]> <![CDATA[Hammer and Kostka Named Distinguished Lecturers]]> <![CDATA[In zebrafish, the cholera bacterium sets off a surprising flush]]> <![CDATA[Small Things Considered at Suddath Symposium]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech, MIT Team Wins $1.5 Million NSF Grant]]>
<![CDATA[REM Seed Grants Support Drug Delivery Innovation ]]> 35403 The Regenerative Engineering and Medicine (REM) research center has awarded seed grants– totaling $300,000– to three teams of interdisciplinary researchers. 

REM, a collaboration between Emory University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Georgia, supports drug delivery research with high innovation and potential for translational impact among diverse investigators in tissue regeneration, cell therapy, and immune modulation.

The goal of the 2021 seed grants is to support new, innovative research in therapeutic delivery. 

“The seed grant program is crucial to sparking investigative research projects across institutions and disciplines,” says Susan Thomas, Petit Institute researcher, professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, and co-director of the REM center representing Georgia Tech. “We’re excited to see how each team’s project develops over the next few years.” 

Here’s an overview of the 2021 recipients: 

 

Project Title: Precise Area INtroduction and Targeted Delivery (PAINT Delivery): A Novel Tool to Facilitate Targeted Intracellular Delivery of Therapeutic Agents

Principal Investigators: Andrei Fedorov (Georgia Tech, Petit Institute researcher), Ravi Kane (Georgia Tech, Petit Institute researcher), Lohitash Karumbaiah (University of Georgia).

Synopsis: The researchers’ focus is surrounding Glioblastoma (GBM) and the presence of resistant glioblastoma stem cells (GCSs) that reside in a highly specialized tumor microenvironment (TME). The team has proposed a technology called Precise Area INtroduction and Targeted Delivery (PAINT Delivery) to address this gap. This technology will allow precise and direct delivery of therapeutic agents (both small molecule drugs and biologics) to GBM with unparalleled rapidity, accuracy, versatility, and ease of use. The goal is to use this approach to further develop and facilitate the targeted delivery of therapeutic agents to relevant cellular populations in other highly invasive and heterogeneous solid tumors.

 

Project Title: Lymphatic Function as a Therapeutic Target for Enhancing the Abscopal Effect in Melanoma

Principal Investigators: J. Brandon Dixon (Georgia Tech, Petit Institute researcher), Zachary Buchwald (Emory University, School of Medicine)

Synopsis: The overarching goal is to establish the necessity of lymphatic drainage and the potential of lymphatic function as a therapeutic target, to enhance the abscopal effect of combined radiation therapy and immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs. The team will focus on understanding how the lymphatic system contributes to the abscopal effect and if stimulating lymphangiogenesis increases the potency of therapy. This project represents a novel drug delivery approach that enhances delivery of tumor antigens to lymph nodes by stimulating lymphatic transport in response to radiation therapy as a strategy to improve the efficacy of immunotherapy. 

 

Project Title: Extracellular Vesicles Encapsulating Cas9/sgRNA for Treatment of Lung Cancer

Principle Investigators: Houjian Cai (University of Georgia), Shi-Yong Sun (Emory University) 

Synopsis: The goal of this study is to develop a technology that will encapsulate the Cas9/sgRNA ribonucleoprotein complex into extracellular vesicles and incorporate a viral envelope protein into the extracellular vesicle membrane to confer transfection specificity to target lung tumor cells. The investigators will deliver the CRISPR machinery to silence c-Myc and re-sensitize osimertinib treatment in non-small cell lung cancer expressing EGFR mutant (EGFRm). The encapsulation process of the CRISPR/Cas9 machinery occurs naturally through extracellular vesicle’s biogenesis. This study will provide a novel approach for gene therapy for the treatment of lung cancer.

Learn more about the REM Research Center.

]]> Carly Ralston 1 1628179673 2021-08-05 16:07:53 1628179673 2021-08-05 16:07:53 0 0 news 2021-08-05T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-05T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-05 00:00:00 Carly Ralston

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649269 649269 image <![CDATA[REM 2021 Seed Grants]]> image/jpeg 1628179262 2021-08-05 16:01:02 1628179262 2021-08-05 16:01:02
<![CDATA[CMDI: Mighty Microbial Dynamics for a Healthier People and Planet]]> 34434 Shaping the shared future of microbes and human health is the mission for Georgia Tech’s Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection (CMDI).

Yes, there are similar academic-based centers studying infectious diseases and the microbes that cause them, but to understand what makes Georgia Tech’s center different, Sam Brown, CMDI co-director and a professor in the School of Biological Sciences, says to concentrate on that third letter in the Center's name.

“Focus on dynamics,” says Brown. “That’s basically how microbes are changing over time and space as well as how they’re changing systems in time. This notion of dynamics operates on different scales. It operates, as I see it, on a behavioral scale — individual bugs making decisions and changing their behavior in time.”

Ecological dynamics are “how populations are changing with time, and how they’re interacting with other communities — for example in biofilms,” Brown adds, referring to the name for communities of microorganisms that stick to surfaces and create their own “neighborhoods.”

There are also evolutionary dynamics, which are worrying to Brown and other researchers, as they can mean bacteria increase resistance to antibiotics. And then there are epidemiological dynamics.

“We’re all glued to our screens watching the epidemiological dynamics of Covid-19 play out in real time,” he explains.

All of this involves the study of some of the natural world’s tiniest troublemakers — and helpers. Humans are pathetically outnumbered by microbes. They live in, on, and around all of us. They are at both ends of the human food chain, helping farmers grow food, and then assisting us in digesting our meals.

“You have trillions of bacteria in your gut,” points out Marvin Whiteley, CMDI’s founding co-director who serves as a professor in the School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Tech Bennie H. and Nelson D. Abell Chair in Molecular and Cellular Biology, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and co-director for Emory-Children’s CF Center. So, in the spectrum of these tiny communities, there are helpful and harmful microbes alike — and the latter can often make us very sick. That’s where CMDI experts step in.

“CMDI is working to transform how we study microbes in an environmental context, and ultimately find new microbial strategies to improve human and environmental health,” Brown says.

CMDI’s science is conducted in an interdisciplinary manner, like many other research centers at Georgia Tech, with research that reaches into a number of other disciplines — microbial ecology, microbiome dynamics, biogeochemistry, microbial biophysics, socio-microbiology, infection dynamics, host-pathogen interactions, marine and aquatic microbiology, microbial evolution, viral ecology, spatial imaging, and math/computational modeling.

The Center is fairly new, beginning operations in 2018. Yet it’s already closing in on 100 researchers — faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral students — and is aggressively recruiting early career scientists from around the world to research at CMDI.

“We are a unique interdisciplinary research center since our expertise spans such broad subjects from coral reef ecosystems, to antibiotic resistant bacteria, to new infectious diseases therapies,” explains Maria Avdonina, CMDI manager. 

Building CMDI’s foundation, and using it to attack P. aeruginosa

“How does a pathogen do what it does at the molecular level?” Marvin Whiteley asks.

It is a question that he began asking at The University of Texas at Austin, where he founded another center to study infectious disease before coming to Georgia Tech in 2017. Back then, Whiteley was looking for the kind of interdisciplinary mix of researchers that can be found widely across the Institute, so he moved to Atlanta and built that into the CMDI’s mission as its founding co-director.

“It’s the idea of not just working with pure microbiologists, but working with those interested in how things change, and their dynamic aspects, even daily changes in the microbiome,” he says, referring to the term used to describe all the microorganisms that live in a particular environment, whether it’s a human body or a body of land or water. “It requires modelers — people used to looking at big data sets — and people who think about evolutionary biology. It’s a unique kind of expertise that I don’t have in my lab, but the folks who work for me in the lab can take advantage of it within CMDI.”

Whiteley’s research interests include the study of cystic fibrosis (CF), a genetic disease that results in bacteria chronically attacking the lungs of its patients. To combat disease, Whiteley is focusing research on Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa), a particularly dangerous bacteria that’s often found in CF patients’ lungs. He notes that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) lists it as one of the primary pathogens that is cause for clinical concern.

“It lives in nature, but we published a paper showing it’s not everywhere. It’s located near human activity, so wherever we are, it seems to grow and do really well. It’s in a lot of different diseases — and CF is one of them.”

P. aeruginosa is also “a really important cause of wound infections,” Whiteley adds, citing a CDC estimate that by 2050, about 20 percent of the entire U.S. healthcare budget could be spent treating chronic wound infections.

“The biggest problem in environments where it’s problematic is hospitals,” he says. “It’s very tolerant of antimicrobials, and it acquires resistance fairly quickly. That causes it to enrich in its environment.”

Taking on Covid-19

Joshua Weitz, who is a CMDI faculty member, professor and Tom and Marie Patton Chair in Biological Sciences, and founding director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences program, is a key scientist behind Georgia Tech’s Covid-19 surveillance testing efforts, along with Covid-19 event risk and population immunity modeling research around nation and beyond.

Weitz has led a series of concurrent efforts to estimate epidemiological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2, develop novel approaches to use large-scale testing as an intervention, and leverage mathematical models and real-time datasets to inform the public of ongoing transmission risk.   

Weitz recently received a best paper award from the Georgia Tech Chapter of Sigma Xi for his work on the Covid-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool, which calculates the odds of being exposed to an infected individual in groups of different sizes; it has received more than 8 million unique visitors who have generated more than 40 million risk estimates since the planning tool’s launch in July 2020.

Weitz also joined fellow faculty and staff in sharing an Institute Research Award and Institute Service Award in recognition of collective efforts to design, develop, implement, deploy an asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 saliva-based testing program to address the coronavirus pandemic across campus. “We’re very proud of what Joshua has done,” Sam Brown says, “both in the context of Covid-19 and also in exploring new therapeutic angles for bacterial infections, by harnessing the viral natural enemies of bacteria: phages.”

The search for new antibiotics — and how best to use them

While Covid-19 is a virus that has dominated headlines since early 2020, bacterial resistance to antibiotics has been a problem for decades. Penicillin was first available as an antibiotic in 1941. Staphylococcus aureus was found to be resistant to it as early as 1942.

CMDI faculty member Julia Kubanek, a professor of in the School of Biological Sciences and School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, former associate dean for Research in the College of Sciences and newly appointed vice president for Interdisciplinary Research (VPIR) for all of Georgia Tech, has spent the past 17 years diving into the waters near Fiji and the Solomon Islands, looking for natural marine products that could fill that widening gap in resistance-free drugs.

“It’s been a long time since entirely new classes of antibiotics were brought to market,” Kubanek explains. “Pharmaceutical companies have reduced their investments in antibiotic drug discovery, despite the continuing rise of antimicrobial resistance among existing drugs. More resistant strains of infectious bacteria and fungi are evolving constantly and present severe threats to public health.”

The Covid-19 pandemic is a related example. It has revealed that science’s arsenal of antiviral drugs is inadequate, she notes.

Kubanek and CMDI faculty colleague Mark Hay, Regents Professor and Harry and Linda Teasley Chair in the School of Biological Sciences, are both part of Georgia Tech’s drug discovery program, which looks at small molecule natural products from marine organisms as sources for potential future medicines against infectious diseases.

A partnership with Emory University School of Medicine helps researchers screen Georgia Tech’s natural product library — what Kubanek and her research team found on those South Pacific trips — for potential drug candidates has resulted in encouraging news for viruses like SARS-CoV-2, the specific coronavirus that causes Covid-19.

“We’re currently following three promising classes of natural products from marine algae and sponges that show preliminary activity against this coronavirus,” Kubanek says. Those molecules are distinct from currently marketed antivirals and antibiotics, and that could mean more weapons in science’s arsenal for fighting infectious diseases.

CMDI researchers also approach the antibiotic resistance crisis through an epidemiological and evolutionary lens. For example, recent work from the Brown Lab has identified new strategies to slow or even reverse the increase in drug-resistant strains, by changing how doctors dose their drugs, and how they make use of diagnostic information.  

Microbes, climate, and environmental health 

Beyond human infections and pathogen control, CMDI also focuses on the significant impacts that microbes have on human and environmental health. CMDI faculty member Joel Kostka, professor and associate chair of Research in the School of Biological Sciences who also serves as a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, is a leading researcher in environmental microbiology, bringing the power of “omics” technologies to discover the role of environmental microbes in shaping key aspects of our shared world, from bioremediation to climate change. 

Kostka’s work led to the discovery of key marine microbes that played an important role in cleaning up the oil spilled during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Disaster — microbes that turned out to be abundant in oil-contaminated soils around the world. 

Kostka’s work in this space “revealed a natural capacity for rare microbes in the Gulf of Mexico to catalyze the bioremediation, or natural cleanup, of petroleum hydrocarbons,” he explains. “These microbes show promise as biological indicators to direct emergency response efforts, as well as to elucidate the impacts of oil exposure on ecosystem health during oil spills and other environmental disasters,” he adds. 

The Kostka Lab has also long characterized the role of the environment in shaping microbial communities that limit the release of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.  

In a large scale climate change experiment that’s being conducted in northern Minnesota with funding by the U.S. Department of Energy, Kostka’s research recently showed that warming accelerates the production of greenhouse gases from soil microbial respiration — and that microbial activity “was fueled by the release of plant metabolites, suggesting that enhanced greenhouse gas production is likely to persist and result in amplified climate feedbacks.”  

“Joel is our key player in this space,” Brown says. “He’s done incredible research on how the environment can dictate microbial species abundance and their behavioral contributions to the functioning of Earth’s ecosystems. He’s shown that different ‘taxa’, or groups of organisms, become metabolically active or ‘switched on’ depending on environmental factors like temperature. His research contributes to building better climate models as well as to develop new geoengineering strategies to adapt to climate change. He’s doing beautiful work.”

CMDI’s global call to early career microbiologists

CMDI’s research is funded by grants from agencies like the National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health to individual labs run by faculty — and by money distributed directly to the Center from across Georgia Tech, including the College of Sciences and its Office of the Dean and Sutherland Dean's Chair.

These sources “are getting healthier by the minute, and that’s a testament to the scientists at the Center,” Brown points out — so much so that two new positions have recently been created: a senior research scientist who will assist postdoctoral and graduate students with grant and fellowship applications, and a CMDI Early Career Award Fellowship that seeks out “superstars, people who are going to go on to be faculty success stories.”

“We want to get them early,” Brown says. “We’re interviewing some great candidates just out of their Ph.D.s. We’ll give them maximum independence, their own space, their own office, their own pot of money. They’ll be sitting at the intersection of our research interests but can run their own lab and their own research program.”

This allows postdoctoral students to focus on research projects, Julia Kubanek says. “Because postdocs generally don’t enroll in formal courses, nor are they generally expected to teach in the classroom, they get to immerse themselves in research in collaboration with faculty, students, and other postdocs. The CMDI is rapidly growing as a collaborative environment, where postdocs can try out their best ideas and learn from others how to tackle the most pressing scientific questions in microbial dynamics, microbial communication, ecosystem health, and infectious disease.” Kubanek adds that a related fellowship program “will augment postdoctoral salaries to attract the very best candidates, enabling grant dollars to stretch further, leading to new discoveries.”

The Center is also ratcheting up outreach, including what it calls its "Research Envoys Program." The intitiative features graduate students giving seminars at local institutions throughout the Atlanta area, including at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Although it’s mostly on pause right now due to the pandemic, two Ph.D. students and a postdoctoral student working with CMDI faculty member Brian Hammer — a professor in the School of Biological Sciences who is also chair of the Institute Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, and co-director of the Aquatic Chemical Ecology Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program — recently gave remote seminars at Spelman College and Kennesaw State University.

“Our trainees get practice in speaking, and it opens doors to folks seeing Georgia Tech as an option,” Brown explains. The CMDI is also working with Georgia Tech’s Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Southern Regional Education Board to continue to increase the number of underrepresented minorities at all levels of recruitment.

“We’re really interested in educating the next generation of scientists in biology,” Whiteley adds. “Everybody says that — but we’re actually developing programs to recruit the best talent in the world.”

 

CMDI research areas and faculty:

Sam Brown

Virulence, microbiomes, biofilms, cystic fibrosis

Steve Diggle

Biofilms, virulence

Neha Garg

Cystic fibrosis, coral reef microbial disease

Brian Hammer

Vibrio cholerae (cholera), microbial interactions

Mark Hay

Marine ecology/coral reefs

Joel Kostka

Environmental microbiology, biogeochemistry, microbiomes, wetlands, bioremediation

Julia Kubanek

Natural product drug discovery, marine chemical ecology

William Ratcliff

Multicellular evolution, biofilm dynamics

Frank Rosenzweig

Cellular genomics and evolution

Peter Yunker

Soft matter physics, biofilms, multicellular evolution

Joshua Weitz

Viruses/viral modeling, bacteriophages, microbial ecology/evolution

Marvin Whiteley

Microbial ecology/virulence, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, cystic fibrosis

Learn more about each faculty member’s area of research on the CMDI website.

 

Writer: Renay San Miguel

Editors and Contributors: Jess Hunt-Ralston, Joel Kostka, Joshua Weitz, Julia Kubanek, Maria Avdonina, Marvin Whiteley, Sam Brown

]]> Renay San Miguel 1 1621279061 2021-05-17 19:17:41 1708461341 2024-02-20 20:35:41 0 0 news Georgia Tech’s Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection (CMDI) merges disciplines, aggressively recruiting microbiologist ‘superstars’ to take back the high ground from antibiotic-resistant pathogens and emerging diseases — and to harness microbes to provide new medicines, cleaner environments, and solutions to the challenges of climate change.

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2021-08-05T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-05T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-05 00:00:00 Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer II/Science Writer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

 

]]>
647520 647521 647522 647526 647523 647525 622660 649055 649056 649057 641424 609249 628565 633951 622659 647520 image <![CDATA[Bacterial biofilms ]]> image/png 1621279666 2021-05-17 19:27:46 1621279666 2021-05-17 19:27:46 647521 image <![CDATA[Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection Logo]]> image/png 1621279753 2021-05-17 19:29:13 1621279753 2021-05-17 19:29:13 647522 image <![CDATA[Samuel Brown ]]> image/png 1621279820 2021-05-17 19:30:20 1621279820 2021-05-17 19:30:20 647526 image <![CDATA[Maria Avdonina]]> image/png 1621280039 2021-05-17 19:33:59 1621280039 2021-05-17 19:33:59 647523 image <![CDATA[Marvin Whiteley ]]> image/png 1621279888 2021-05-17 19:31:28 1621279888 2021-05-17 19:31:28 647525 image <![CDATA[Julia Kubanek]]> image/png 1621279957 2021-05-17 19:32:37 1621279957 2021-05-17 19:32:37 622660 image <![CDATA[Julia Kubanek during fieldwork in Fiji (Courtesy of Julia Kubanek)]]> image/jpeg 1561122353 2019-06-21 13:05:53 1561122440 2019-06-21 13:07:20 649055 image <![CDATA[Mark Hay (Photo Candace Klein)]]> image/png 1627320217 2021-07-26 17:23:37 1627320217 2021-07-26 17:23:37 649056 image <![CDATA[Joel Kostka (right) with members of his lab. (Photo Joel Kostka Lab)]]> image/png 1627320441 2021-07-26 17:27:21 1627320441 2021-07-26 17:27:21 649057 image <![CDATA[Joshua Weitz (Photo Joshua Weitz)]]> image/jpeg 1627320683 2021-07-26 17:31:23 1627320683 2021-07-26 17:31:23 641424 image <![CDATA[Covid-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool Screenshot]]> image/png 1605728170 2020-11-18 19:36:10 1605728170 2020-11-18 19:36:10 609249 image <![CDATA[Brian Hammer]]> image/jpeg 1533158829 2018-08-01 21:27:09 1533158829 2018-08-01 21:27:09 628565 image <![CDATA[Joel Kostka (left) and postdoctoral assistant Max Kolton at the SPRUCE research facility in Minnesota. ]]> image/jpeg 1572890556 2019-11-04 18:02:36 1572890556 2019-11-04 18:02:36 633951 image <![CDATA[Photograph of oil droplets and microbes during the Deepwater Horizon spill. (Photo courtesy AP Images/Shutterstock/Shmruti Karthikeyan/Eos Magazine]]> image/png 1585681817 2020-03-31 19:10:17 1585681817 2020-03-31 19:10:17 622659 image <![CDATA[Fijian coral reefs (Courtesy of Julia Kubanek)]]> image/jpeg 1561122293 2019-06-21 13:04:53 1561122293 2019-06-21 13:04:53 <![CDATA[Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection (CMDI)]]> <![CDATA[12 Proposals to Achieve College of Sciences Strategic Goals Funded by Sutherland Dean's Chair]]> <![CDATA[Researchers Team Up for Microbial Dynamics and Infection]]> <![CDATA[A Problematic Pathogen Develops Antibiotic Tolerance — Without Previous Exposure]]> <![CDATA[Bacterial Conversations in Cystic Fibrosis]]> <![CDATA[Study Shows How Bacteria Behave Differently in Humans Compared to the Lab]]> <![CDATA[Small Things Considered at Suddath Symposium]]> <![CDATA[Covid-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Science Forum Spotlights Coronavirus Outbreak]]> <![CDATA[Temperate Glimpse Into a Warming World: SPRUCE ]]> <![CDATA[The Microbial Legacy of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster]]> <![CDATA[Deepwater Horizon and the Rise of the Omics: A Decade of Breakthroughs in Microbial Science]]> <![CDATA[When Coral Species Vanish, Their Absence Can Imperil Surviving Corals]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Leading in the Quest for Ocean Solutions ]]>
<![CDATA[Biochemistry Postdoctoral Researcher Wins Burroughs Wellcome Fund Award for Early Career Scientists ]]> 34434 A postdoctoral researcher in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry is one of 11 students across the nation to win the 2021 Career Awards at the Scientific Interface from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

Rebecca Donegan won for her proposal that will study nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), an infection that can mimic other respiratory conditions and can cause lung damage. Donegan’s project was one of 250 initial pre-proposals that survived the process to receive the CASI Award.

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund established the award to provide funding security “that enables interdisciplinary new investigators to develop innovative and independent research programs during this critical time in their careers,” according to a Fund press release. “The intent is that this infusion of funds and early career support will allow these investigators to quickly establish an innovative research program that will allow them to become leaders in their respective fields.”

“I was really surprised when I got the notification that I had received the award,” Donegan says. “I was notified via a phone call, and I remember being very excited and not entirely sure what to say other than, ‘Thank you.’ There are a lot of rejections when applying for awards and grants, so it feels great to receive one.”

Donegan will study how non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) use heme — a precursor to hemoglobin, which binds oxygen to blood — as a nutrient source during infection.  The AboutNTM website says the lung disease “can make you sick and cause you to experience symptoms like coughing, fatigue, and shortness of breath. People can have NTM for months, sometimes years, without knowing it because symptoms are similar to other lung conditions.”

“NTM are important to study because their infections are difficult to treat and their numbers are on the rise,” Donegan says. “During infection, NTM must either make or uptake heme to be able to survive, but we don’t really understand which of these processes is necessary or know how NTM maintain the right amount of heme. My research will hopefully uncover how NTM use heme during infection to identify new pathways to target in order to treat NTM infections.”

Raquel Lieberman, a professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, served as Donegan’s graduate mentor. “Dr. Donegan continually impresses me with her scientific creativity and seemingly effortless intuition for biochemistry, broadly defined,” Lieberman says. “She is an intuitive, highly talented, tenacious, efficient, broadly trained, and motivated biochemist, as well as an excellent role model, mentor, and colleague for those lucky enough to interact with her.”

Donegan’s goal is to have her own research lab while teaching biochemistry. “I hope that in five to ten years, my lab has identified some of the proteins that NTM need to maintain heme.”

According to its website, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund “serves and strengthens society by nurturing a diverse group of leaders in biomedical sciences to improve human health through education and powering discovery in frontiers of greatest need.”

]]> Renay San Miguel 1 1628024385 2021-08-03 20:59:45 1628200909 2021-08-05 22:01:49 0 0 news A biochemistry postdoctoral student will soon be able to focus more attention on a bacteria that can mimic other respiratory conditions, and can cause lung damage,  thanks to an award for early career scientists from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund.

]]>
2021-08-03T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-03T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-03 00:00:00 Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer II/Science Writer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

]]>
649241 649241 image <![CDATA[Rebecca Donegan]]> image/jpeg 1628023803 2021-08-03 20:50:03 1628023803 2021-08-03 20:50:03 <![CDATA[College of Sciences Postdocs Shine in Research Symposium]]> <![CDATA[Rebecca Donegan, María Coronel Win Excellence In Research Grant]]>
<![CDATA[Quiroz Peeling Back the Layers of Skin Formation]]> 28153 Our skin is a super organ: protective, large, flexible, powerful, self-healing, essential, totally exposed, yet still enigmatic. Felipe Garcia Quiroz, assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, works at unraveling mysteries embedded in the skin.

As a postdoctoral fellow at Rockefeller University, his research led to the discovery that liquid-liquid phase separation – LLPS, a new and hot concept in cell biology – drives formation of the skin barrier. He was lead author of a 2020 paper in the journal Science describing the research.

Now principal investigator in his own lab, Quiroz is senior author of a review article discussing the implications of his discovery on the field of skin research. The work was published recently in JID Innovations, a journal from the Society for Investigative Dermatology.

“The Science article provided us with a remarkable platform to communicate our biomolecular tools and discoveries to the broad research community,” said Quiroz, also a researcher in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech. The new article “presents a stimulating outlook on how the discovery of LLPS in skin, and our new bioengineered tools, will shape the future of research in skin biology and skin barrier diseases.”

Both articles focus on work by Quiroz and his colleagues illuminating the process of living skin cells migrating outward toward the body surface. There, facing exposure to the grueling external environment, the skin cells transform: They lose their nuclei and other organelles and, eventually, replace sloughed-off cells to replenish our skin barrier — a network of flat, tightly sealed cells called corneocytes.

The researchers’ focus has been on dense protein deposits that form in the skin cells before they become corneocytes — resembling droplets of vinegar in oil. This is phase separation in action, when liquids of mismatched properties come together.

These protein deposits are called keratohyalin granules, or KGs, and they resemble other membraneless organelles in cells, because they are not bound by lipid membranes. An absence of KGs is common in skin barrier disorders. Despite this strong association with human disease, the function of KGs was unknown.

Quiroz and his colleagues developed transgenic mice with a fluorescent phase separation sensor, which helped them identify the key role KGs play in skin. Their work demonstrated that intrinsically disordered proteins of the skin program the formation and properties of KGs through a vinegar-in-oil type of phase separation.

The main protein involved, filaggrin — or FLG — is often mutated in skin barrier disorders. Basically, when FLG is faulty and phase separation doesn’t happen, it opens the door to diseases of the skin barrier. The team’s research was first to establish a role for LLPS in a human tissue.

Based on the work reported in Science, Quiroz was invited by the Society for Investigative Dermatology to offer some perspective for JID Innovations. He enlisted Alexa Avecilla, a Ph.D. student in his lab, as lead author.

“Our goal in this review article is to discuss the current progress in this nascent area for skin research,” Avecilla said. “Specifically, how the discovery of liquid-liquid phase separation in skin-residing, membraneless organelles will influence understanding of the complex processes of skin barrier formation.”

The focus this time is broader than a research article; it’s more about perspective, Quiroz said, but it also works as a companion piece to the study published in Science. And it gives Quiroz and his team an opportunity to share their latest research directly with the people who ultimately will use it on the front lines of clinical care.

“We’re communicating here with the scientists and clinicians who are always thinking about diseases of the skin, the dermatologists and skin biologists,” Quiroz said. “And that will have an impact on the eventual translation of our LLPS-inspired ideas.”

]]> Jerry Grillo 1 1627994507 2021-08-03 12:41:47 1627994572 2021-08-03 12:42:52 0 0 news BME researchers shed new light on liquid-liquid phase separation 

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2021-08-03T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-03T00:00:00-04:00 2021-08-03 00:00:00 Jerry Grillo

Communications officer

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649208 649209 649208 image <![CDATA[Avecilla and Quiroz]]> image/jpeg 1627994075 2021-08-03 12:34:35 1627994075 2021-08-03 12:34:35 649209 image <![CDATA[Skin Cells]]> image/jpeg 1627994472 2021-08-03 12:41:12 1627994472 2021-08-03 12:41:12
<![CDATA[Probing the Undead to Understand the Aging Process]]> 28153 Sometimes, cells permanently stop dividing but remain active — you could even say they are undead. Scientists have appropriately nicknamed them “zombie” cells, which is a much more colorful description than the biological term, senescence.

Resistant to the natural process of cell death, or apoptosis, they no longer contribute to tissue repair or homeostasis and instead are known to release harmful substances, causing inflammation and damage to cells nearby and in distant organs.

So-called zombie cells increase as we age, and they are thought to be a central cause of age-related diseases and frailty. That’s why Denis Tsygankov and his collaborators are trying to dig up the underlying workings of senescence with the help of the National Institutes of Health.

The NIH has awarded Tsygankov, an assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, a two-year, $275,000 R21 grant for his project, “Patterns of Aging and the Role of Biomarkers in Senescence.” R21 grants are designed to support exploratory research with potential to lead to advances in biomedical research.

“This project will build the first mathematical model to characterize senescence in the entire human organism, unveiling its regulation and dynamics, and its role in the physiological or pathological processes during human aging,” said Tsygankov, an expert in computational biology and mathematical modeling.

His collaborators include Dr. Hyman Muss, clinical researcher from the University of North Carolina, and Dr. Natalia Mitin, former cancer researcher at UNC, who is now CEO and co-founder of Sapere Bio, a company focused on studying senescence and interpreting its clinical significance. Dr. Muss has been interested in understanding senescence in his clinical practice for over a decade and published numerous papers on the connection between a central biomarker of senescence, p16, and chemotherapy-induced age-acceleration.

“The company is built around measuring a protein and tumor suppressor called p16,” said Tsygankov, who also is a researcher in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech, and who has experience with that particular protein. “There is very strong evidence that p16 is a true biomarker of aging, perhaps the most trustworthy biomarker, and with great clinical value.”

Research interest in p16 has grown in the past 10 years or so, since Ned Sharpless’ lab at UNC identified the protein in human T cells as an easily measured biomarker of human senescence or molecular age. The researchers identified a subset of blood cells that express p16, “which made it possible to measure p16 efficiently and precisely, unlike the attempts of measuring in whole blood,” said Tsygankov, who was a postdoc at UNC before coming to Georgia Tech/Emory BME in 2015.

“Our top goal in this project is to develop quantitative, mechanistic models of p16 dynamics at the cellular and the whole organism scales, and determine if the p16 measured in T cells actually reflects the overall senescence load at the systems level,” Tysgankov added.

Tsygankov and his collaborators are working under the broad theme that aging may not be reversed, but it can be slowed down. A quantitative understanding of p16’s role as a biomarker of senescence, and the ability to control it, could improve health care, particularly when it comes to guiding clinical decisions.

“Treatment plans such as chemotherapy can be dependent on a patient’s age,” Tsygankov said. “But chronological age and molecular or biological age are different things. We all age differently.”

Preliminary analysis of data from studies by Muss and Sapere Bio has shown that p16 levels — those indicators of senescence — can be used to predict patient risk for adverse side effects of treatment, such as kidney failure in patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery or peripheral neuropathy in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

“Better data and predictive mathematical models on p16’s role in senescence could lead to better personalized treatment,” Tsygankov said. “Then we can expand the scope of our research, potentially leading to a precise, reliable set of clinically important biomarkers of aging.”

Links:

Tsygankov lab

]]> Jerry Grillo 1 1627572342 2021-07-29 15:25:42 1627659529 2021-07-30 15:38:49 0 0 news New NIH grant will help Denis Tysgankov unveil the inner workings of ‘zombie’ cells

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2021-07-29T00:00:00-04:00 2021-07-29T00:00:00-04:00 2021-07-29 00:00:00 649134 649134 image <![CDATA[Denis Tsygankov]]> image/jpeg 1627571817 2021-07-29 15:16:57 1627571817 2021-07-29 15:16:57
<![CDATA[Lindsey Receives $2.5M to Develop Interventional Cardiology Imaging System]]> 27446 Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, and coronary artery disease specifically is responsible for 366,000 deaths each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Despite the impact and widespread nature of coronary artery disease, gaps in information make treating the condition a challenge.

With the support of a four-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Brooks Lindsey will lead a team developing an imaging system to fill these gaps and guide treatment based on assessing the risk of heart attack in patients with coronary artery disease.

Many of those patients are treated via a minimally-invasive procedure that places a stent to re-open arteries that have become narrowed with plaques. Partially occluded coronary arteries can result in heart attack in some of these patients. However, other patients have a similar blockage but have stable disease and do not require intervention. The challenge is deciding which patients are which.

“In the cardiac catheterization lab where these procedures are performed, there are a number of separate approaches for quantifying functional markers, such as local blood pressure, blood flow velocity, and plaque composition. However, all of these tools function independently and in isolation from one another,” said Lindsey, assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. “Most are one-dimensional measurements, which makes it difficult to measure everything going on in the complex, 3D, local biomechanical environment. This includes tissue and plaque mechanical properties, artery geometry, and hemodynamics, all of which vary dynamically as the heart beats.”

While current tools can measure blood flow velocity or blood pressure and characterize plaque composition independently, all of these factors together contribute to the likelihood of plaque rupture and heart attack. No current method can acquire all this information with spatial and temporal information intact.

Lindsey’s lab will address this gap by developing a tiny ultrasound imaging device approximately 1 millimeter in diameter to measure these properties in 3D from the tip of the catheter during procedures in the cardiac catheterization lab. Their approach will be designed to allow simultaneous measurement of blood flow velocity, mechanical properties of tissue, and artery geometry for the first time.

“More than 1 million cardiac catheterizations are performed each year in the U.S.,” Lindsey said. “Even patients who ultimately do not require intervention undergo diagnostic catheterization, but there is no way to measure all the properties simultaneously. The goal of this project is to develop a system that uses ultrasound on the tip of catheter to give cardiologists a complete picture of the patient’s individual anatomy and physiology, including dynamic behavior in coronary arteries as the heart beats. This imaging information, in turn, allows development of improved computational models of coronary arteries in health and disease.”

Lindsey will lead engineering efforts, including development of the imaging device and algorithms to quantify hemodynamics. Clinical aspects of the project will be handled by Habib Samady, a cardiologist at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville who is an expert in imaging hemodynamics in clinical practice. Alessandro Veneziani, professor in Emory’s Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, will lead computational modeling efforts. Muralidhar Padala, director of the Structural Heart Research & Innovation Program and associate professor in Emory’s Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, will lead testing in coronary artery disease models. Coulter BME Professor John Oshinski will provide expertise in imaging-derived fluid dynamics.

]]> Joshua Stewart 1 1626963606 2021-07-22 14:20:06 1626963606 2021-07-22 14:20:06 0 0 news The catheter-based ultrasound system will simultaneously measure plaque composition, artery structure, and hemodynamics in 3D.

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2021-07-22T00:00:00-04:00 2021-07-22T00:00:00-04:00 2021-07-22 00:00:00 Joshua Stewart

Communications

Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering

]]>
648982 648984 585424 648982 image <![CDATA[Catheter Ultrasound Design]]> image/jpeg 1626960177 2021-07-22 13:22:57 1626960177 2021-07-22 13:22:57 648984 image <![CDATA[Catheter Ultrasound Data]]> image/jpeg 1626962989 2021-07-22 14:09:49 1626962989 2021-07-22 14:09:49 585424 image <![CDATA[Brooks Lindsey, Ph.D.]]> image/jpeg 1483459407 2017-01-03 16:03:27 1483459407 2017-01-03 16:03:27 <![CDATA[Project Summary: "3D Multi-Functional Catheter-Based Imaging of Coronary Lesion Composition, Structure, and Hemodynamics ... "]]> <![CDATA[Brooks Lindsey]]>
<![CDATA[Wearable Brain-Machine Interface Turns Intentions into Actions]]> 28153 A new wearable brain-machine interface (BMI) system could improve the quality of life for people with motor dysfunction or paralysis, even those struggling with locked-in syndrome – when a person is fully conscious but unable to move or communicate.

A multi-institutional, international team of researchers led by the lab of Woon-Hong Yeo at the Georgia Institute of Technology combined wireless soft scalp electronics and virtual reality in a BMI system that allows the user to imagine an action and wirelessly control a wheelchair or robotic arm.

The team, which included researchers from the University of Kent (United Kingdom) and Yonsei University (Republic of Korea), describes the new motor imagery-based BMI system this month in the journal Advanced Science.

“The major advantage of this system to the user, compared to what currently exists, is that it is soft and comfortable to wear, and doesn’t have any wires,” said Yeo, associate professor on the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

BMI systems are a rehabilitation technology that analyzes a person’s brain signals and translates that neural activity into commands, turning intentions into actions. The most common non-invasive method for acquiring those signals is ElectroEncephaloGraphy, EEG, which typically requires a cumbersome electrode skull cap and a tangled web of wires.

These devices generally rely heavily on gels and pastes to help maintain skin contact, require extensive set-up times, are generally inconvenient and uncomfortable to use. The devices also often suffer from poor signal acquisition due to material degradation or motion artifacts – the ancillary “noise” which may be caused by something like teeth grinding or eye blinking. This noise shows up in brain-data and must be filtered out.

The portable EEG system Yeo designed, integrating imperceptible microneedle electrodes with soft wireless circuits, offers improved signal acquisition. Accurately measuring those brain signals is critical to determining what actions a user wants to perform, so the team integrated a powerful machine learning algorithm and  virtual reality component to address that challenge.

The new system was tested with four human subjects, but hasn’t been studied with disabled individuals yet.

“This is just a first demonstration, but we’re thrilled with what we have seen,” noted Yeo, Director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Human-Centric Interfaces and Engineering under the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, and a member of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience.

New Paradigm

Yeo’s team originally introduced soft, wearable EEG brain-machine interface in a 2019 study published in the Nature Machine Intelligence. The lead author of that work, Musa Mahmood, was also the lead author of the team’s new research paper.

“This new brain-machine interface uses an entirely different paradigm, involving imagined motor actions, such as grasping with either hand, which frees the subject from having to look at too much stimuli,” said Mahmood, a Ph. D. student in Yeo’s lab.

In the 2021 study, users demonstrated accurate control of virtual reality exercises using their thoughts – their motor imagery. The visual cues enhance the process for both the user and the researchers gathering information.

“The virtual prompts have proven to be very helpful,” Yeo said. “They speed up and improve user engagement and accuracy. And we were able to record continuous, high-quality motor imagery activity.”

According to Mahmood, future work on the system will focus on optimizing electrode placement and more advanced integration of stimulus-based EEG, using what they’ve learned from the last two studies.

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH R21AG064309), the Center Grant (Human-Centric Interfaces and Engineering) at Georgia Tech, the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2018M3A7B4071109 and NRF-2019R1A2C2086085) and Yonsei-KIST Convergence Research Program. Georgia Tech has a pending patent application related to the work described in this paper.

Citation: Musa Mahmood, et al., “Wireless Soft Scalp Electronics and Virtual Reality System for Motor Imagery-based Brain-Machine Interfaces.” (Advanced Science, July 2021)

Links

Woon-Hong Yeo

“Wireless Soft Scalp Electronics and Virtual Reality System for Motor Imagery-based Brain-Machine Interfaces.”

Center for Human-Centric Interfaces and Engineering

Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience     

George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering

 

 

]]> Jerry Grillo 1 1626788040 2021-07-20 13:34:00 1626890192 2021-07-21 17:56:32 0 0 news New system based on user’s motor-imagery could control wheelchair, robotic arm, or other devices

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2021-07-20T00:00:00-04:00 2021-07-20T00:00:00-04:00 2021-07-20 00:00:00 Jerry Grillo

Writer/Communications Officer

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648902 648903 648902 image <![CDATA[Woon-Hong Yeo]]> image/jpeg 1626785689 2021-07-20 12:54:49 1626785689 2021-07-20 12:54:49 648903 image <![CDATA[Advanced Science cover]]> image/png 1626786249 2021-07-20 13:04:09 1626786249 2021-07-20 13:04:09
<![CDATA[Inan Named as Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Chair]]> 27241 Omer Inan has been appointed to the Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, effective July 1.

Inan started working at Georgia Tech in 2013, where he is now an associate professor in ECE and a program faculty member for the Georgia Tech Bioengineering Graduate Program. Inan is the director of the Inan Research Lab, where he and his research team work on non-invasive physiological sensing and modulation for four different application areas: unobtrusive cardiovascular monitoring, wearable biomechanics, non-invasive neuromodulation of stress, and pediatric bioengineering.

Inan advises or co-advises two postdoctoral fellows, 21 Ph.D. students, and three M.S. students. He has graduated 17 Ph.D. students and nine M.S. students. Four of his Ph.D. graduates are in faculty positions at leading universities, and others hold research positions in both industry and academia. Their work has attracted media attention and has been featured in outlets such as CNN Health, BBC News, National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and Scientific American.

Inan and his team have published 258 refereed journal papers, conference papers, and abstracts, and they have been issued nine patents. He and one of his Ph.D. graduates cofounded Cardiosense, a startup company that aims to develop the first non-invasive monitoring platform that can detect early signs of congestion in patients with heart failure and allow care teams to design appropriate interventions and to monitor recovery.

Inan is an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering and was recently invited to participate in the National Academy of Medicine’s 2021 International Workshop on Science & Technology for Healthy Longevity. In 2018, he received an NSF CAREER Award, an ONR Young Investigator Award, and the IEEE Sensors Council Early Career Award. In 2017, Inan received the Georgia Tech Sigma Xi Young Faculty Award. Earlier this year, he was the co-recipient of an Academy Award for Technical Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Inan was chosen for this award for the engineering of subminiature high-performance lavalier microphones developed at Countryman Associates, where he worked prior to his arrival at Georgia Tech. These microphones are used in different entertainment settings, such as live theater, concerts, television, and motion pictures.

Equally dedicated to excellence in teaching and mentoring, Inan is highly regarded by undergraduate and graduate students in ECE. He teaches courses in biosystems analysis, biomedical instrumentation, and biomedical sensing systems. He received the 2021 Georgia Tech Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Advisor Award and the 2019 Richard M. Bass/Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Teacher Award, an honor determined by a vote of the ECE senior class. Inan has also been honored with the 2019 Georgia Power Professor of Excellence Award, the 2018 ECE Outstanding Junior Faculty Member Award, and the 2016 Lockheed Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

Inan is an enthusiastic and active member of the ECE and Georgia Tech communities. He is a member of the Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, the Institute for People and Technology, and the GVU Center. In ECE, Inan is currently a member of the Diversity and Inclusion Council, and he served as the bioengineering technical interest group chair from 2018-2020. Inan was on the Steve W. Chaddick School Chair Search Committee in 2017-18 and the ECE Strategic Planning and Strategic Doing Committee in 2016-2017. He has also served in and helped with leading strategic planning activities on both the College of Engineering and Institute levels.

]]> Jackie Nemeth 1 1626380038 2021-07-15 20:13:58 1626380166 2021-07-15 20:16:06 0 0 news Omer Inan has been appointed to the Linda J. and Mark C. Smith Chair in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, effective July 1.

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2021-07-15T00:00:00-04:00 2021-07-15T00:00:00-04:00 2021-07-15 00:00:00 Jackie Nemeth

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

]]>
648814 648814 image <![CDATA[Omer Inan]]> image/jpeg 1626380119 2021-07-15 20:15:19 1626380119 2021-07-15 20:15:19 <![CDATA[Omer Inan]]> <![CDATA[Inan Research Lab]]> <![CDATA[School of Electrical and Computer Engineering]]> <![CDATA[Bioengineering Graduate Program]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech]]>
<![CDATA[New Grants Could Transform Scientists' Understanding of DNA]]> 35403 Two charitable foundations have announced their support of research at the Georgia Institute of Technology that could change the basic understanding of DNA, potentially leading to new treatments for degenerative diseases.

The W.M. Keck Foundation and the G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation have awarded grants of $1 million and $300,000, respectively, to boost the research of Francesca Storici, professor in the School of Biological Sciences and principal investigator for the projects. Both grants are directed toward decrypting the hidden message of ribonucleotide incorporation in human nuclear DNA.

“We have a lot to learn about the role ribonucleotides play in the structure and function of human DNA,” said Storici, also a researcher with the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech, whose lab already has contributed much to what the world knows about ribonucleotides, or rNMPs – the basic building blocks of RNA – when they are embedded in DNA.

Storici and her collaborators have developed new tools and techniques to find and characterize rNMPs in DNA. Their studies of yeast DNA suggest that rNMPs aren’t just random “noise,” as had been previously alleged, but rather offer a code – Storici and her colleagues call it “cryptic language,” capable of regulating DNA functions.

The grants will help researchers begin to translate that cryptic language.

 “These ribonucleotides may represent novel biomarkers for human diseases such as cancer and other degenerative disorders,” Storici said.

Mistaken Replication

For an organism to grow, its cells must divide. For a cell to divide, its DNA must replicate. In humans, nearly 2 trillion cells divide every day. DNA polymerases, enzymes that facilitate DNA replication, mis-incorporate – or incorporate – rNMPs. These embedded rNMPs are known for changing the character of DNA and posing a threat to genomic stability.

Storici’s lab developed and tested a technique called ribose-seq that let them determine the whole profile of rNMPs incorporated into yeast DNA. Using ribose-seq, they discovered hot spots and patterns where rNMP insertions accumulate – accumulations that were assumed to be random noise.

Based on their recent findings, the researchers hypothesize that some rNMPs form specific motifs, or cryptic words, in human DNA, comprising previously hidden signals for specific metabolic functions of DNA, such as gene expression and replication.

“We don’t think this cryptic language of ribonucleotides is random. So, our goal is to decode the cryptic language,” Storici said. “Currently, we know nothing about that. There may be a particular sequence, or patterns of regularity that we can identify.”

Using ribose-seq to map rNMPs in DNA, via next-generation sequencing, and a computational toolkit they developed called Ribose-Map, the Storici team will build libraries of rNMP sites from a number of human cell types.

Through bioinformatic analyses and computational methods, they intend to identify and decipher the cryptic words of rNMP incorporation, “setting the stage to discover rNMPs’ role,” Storici said.

The foundations are both supporting the same scope of work, but at different scales, and the researchers will work with different human cell lines for each grant.

The Mathers Foundation will cover work with the Storici lab only. The Keck Foundation is supporting a collaborative effort between Storici and Natasha Jonoska, professor of mathematics at the University of South Florida. Both Storici and Jonoska are founding members of the Southeast Center for Mathematics and Biology.

“Through the combination of our molecular biology tools at Georgia Tech, with Natasha’s mathematical expertise in modeling and data analysis, there is great potential here for a big breakthrough – for developing a greater understanding of the biology of the human genome,” Storici said.

***

About The G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation

The mission of The G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation is to advance knowledge in the life sciences by sponsoring scientific research that will benefit humankind. Basic scientific research, with potential translational application, is central to this goal. Since commencing grantmaking activities in 1982, the Mathers Foundation has granted more than $350 million. For many years, the foundation has enjoyed special recognition in the research community in supporting basic scientific research, realizing that true transformative breakthroughs usually occur after a thorough understanding of the fundamental mechanisms underlying natural phenomena. More recently, and with the advent of newer investigative methodologies, technology, and tools, the foundation now embraces innovative translational research proposals.

About the W.M. Keck Foundation

The W.M. Keck Foundation was established in 1954 in Los Angeles by William Myron Keck, founder of The Superior Oil Company. One of the nation’s largest philanthropic organizations, the W.M. Keck Foundation supports outstanding science, engineering, and medical research. The foundation also supports undergraduate education and maintains a program within Southern California to support arts and culture, education, health, and community service projects.

About the Georgia Institute of Technology

The Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is a top 10 public research university developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition.

The Institute offers business, computing, design, engineering, liberal arts, and sciences degrees. Its nearly 40,000 students, representing 50 states and 149 countries, study at the main campus in Atlanta, at campuses in France and China, and through distance and online learning. 

As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech is an engine of economic development for Georgia, the Southeast, and the nation, conducting more than $1 billion in research annually for government, industry, and society.

 

]]> Carly Ralston 1 1626351794 2021-07-15 12:23:14 1626373469 2021-07-15 18:24:29 0 0 news 2021-07-15T00:00:00-04:00 2021-07-15T00:00:00-04:00 2021-07-15 00:00:00 Jerry Grillo

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648776 648776 image <![CDATA[Francesca Storici and Natasha Jonoska]]> image/jpeg 1626351616 2021-07-15 12:20:16 1626351616 2021-07-15 12:20:16
<![CDATA[A Signal of Danger in Heart Disease]]> 27863 According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease and its effects is the leading cause of death in the U.S. across a majority of racial and ethnic groups. Globally, the risk factors for developing heart disease, such as obesity and diabetes have grown by huge margins, increasing the future impact of heart disease on society and medical infrastructures. As with many chronic, or long-term, health issues, the successful management of heart disease can greatly improve a patient’s lifespan and quality.

This successful management requires the collection of large datasets of the electrical signal of a patient’s heart gathered from long-term measurements using an electrocardiogram (ECG) device. In the past, ECG data was collected in controlled clinical settings, however the development of new electronic materials and internet-connected devices have allowed the ECG to become a portable, wearable and commercially available product. Although these products are a great benefit to the patient users, they are not without flaws. The everyday motions of a patient, from walking to brushing their teeth, can alter the ECG data. These false recordings, called motion artifacts (MAs), can make it difficult for clinicians to detect abnormal heart rhythms that may be the signal of the onset of a heart attack.

Corrective solutions to the issue of MAs have, thus far, been either expensive to implement, such as filtering software, or cause discomfort to the wearer, such as tighter strap attachments and stronger, skin irritating adhesives. The team of W. Hong Yeo, Associate Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering & PI of the Yeo Group & Director of Center for HCIE, working with partners at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and Emory University have designed a flexibly packaged wireless wearable ECG device using a new class of strain-isolating materials that reduces MAs, induced by movement in the skin/sensor contact area.

The team’s new strain-isolated, wearable soft bioelectronic system (SIS) adheres naturally to the skin using a breathable soft membrane for continuous conformal contact. A pair of nanomembrane mesh electrodes and a thin-film circuit powered by rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are placed on a thin layer of silicone gel to allow a greater range of motion and packaged within a low modulus silicone elastomer. In testing the design against commercially available skin-mounted biosensors, the team’s new device provides real-time wireless data of multiple physiological signals with a significant reduction in MA interference. Additionally, and most importantly, the device trial participants exhibited no device lamination issues, excessive sweating, signal degradation, or increased skin irritation.


Yeo and his team are pleased with their results to-date but have plans to take the research even further. The team seeks an even smaller device footprint by integrating fan-out wafer-level packaging and developing all-printing fabrication methods. Additionally, the team is planning large-scale clinical studies in cardiology and pediatrics to monitor the health status of both inpatient and outpatient groups on a continuous basis.

- Christa M. Ernst

Rodeheaver, N., Herbert, R., Kim, Y.-S., Mahmood, M., Kim, H., Jeong, J.-W., Yeo, W.-H., Strain-Isolating Materials and Interfacial Physics for Soft Wearable Bioelectronics and Wireless, Motion Artifact-Controlled Health Monitoring. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2021, 2104070. https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202104070
 

]]> Christa Ernst 1 1625851165 2021-07-09 17:19:25 1625851194 2021-07-09 17:19:54 0 0 news 2021-07-09T00:00:00-04:00 2021-07-09T00:00:00-04:00 2021-07-09 00:00:00 christa.ernst@research.gatech.edu

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648666 648666 image <![CDATA[WH Yeo SIS Device]]> image/png 1625850878 2021-07-09 17:14:38 1635275557 2021-10-26 19:12:37
<![CDATA[LaPlaca, Singh Invited to Join NIH Grant Review Panels]]> 27446 Two biomedical engineering professors are joining the standing groups of accomplished researchers who review applications for National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants.

Michelle LaPlaca was invited to serve on the Acute Neural Injury and Epilepsy Study Section, which primarily reviews patient-oriented research into central nervous system injuries caused by concussion, stroke, traumatic brain injury, epilepsy, and spinal cord injury. As a member of the Cellular and Molecular Technologies Study Section, Ankur Singh will consider applications focused on developing and applying new methods, tools, and techniques for studying cellular processes. LaPlaca is a professor and Singh is an associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

“It’s truly an honor to serve the NIH. Membership on a study section is a major commitment of professional time and energy as well as a unique opportunity to contribute to the national biomedical research effort,” said Singh, who also is a Woodruff Faculty Fellow and a member of the faculty in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Tech.

The study sections review grant proposals and make recommendations to the agency’s national advisory council. Members are selected based on their research accomplishments and demonstrated expertise. Singh said the panels provide great value to biomedical research in the United States.

“Service on a study section also requires mature judgment and objectivity as well as the ability to work effectively in a group, which was quite attractive to me,” Singh said. “I look forward to serving the NIH and the research community in best possible ways.

LaPlaca’s work focuses on traumatic brain injury — understanding injury mechanisms to develop better diagnostics and strategies for protection and repair from neurological trauma.

Singh’s research centers on creating biomaterials-based “living” immune organoids or on-chip tissues that mimic lymph node structure and function with application to infectious diseases, inflammatory diseases, and cancer.

They’ll serve as members of the study sections for a four-year term.

]]> Joshua Stewart 1 1624990001 2021-06-29 18:06:41 1624990001 2021-06-29 18:06:41 0 0 news The panels, called study sections, review grant applications and make recommendations to the agency’s national advisory council

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2021-06-29T00:00:00-04:00 2021-06-29T00:00:00-04:00 2021-06-29 00:00:00 Joshua Stewart

Communications

Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering

]]>
648442 648442 image <![CDATA[Ankur Singh and Michelle LaPlaca composite]]> image/jpeg 1624989675 2021-06-29 18:01:15 1624989675 2021-06-29 18:01:15 <![CDATA[Acute Neural Injury and Epilepsy Study Section]]> <![CDATA[Cellular and Molecular Technologies Study Section]]> <![CDATA[Michelle LaPlaca]]> <![CDATA[Ankur Singh]]>
<![CDATA[Of Mice and Megahertz: Qiliang He Wins Fellowship to Study Gamma Wave Stimulation for Reversing Age-Related Memory Damage ]]> 34434 If mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease had some cognitive functions restored by researchers exposing them to lights and sounds triggering gamma brain waves, would the same results happen in human studies?

The Warren Alpert Foundation is going to fund School of Psychology postdoctoral fellow Qiliang He $200,000 a year for the next two years to find out. 

He, who is entering his fourth year at Georgia Tech, is the winner of an Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholar Fellowship Award to study how audiovisual stimulation modulating neural activity in the gamma range affects neural activity and cognitive function in humans. 

“The whole study is actually an adaptation of animal studies,” He says. “The mice were exposed to gamma stimulation for one hour a day for eight weeks. We want to see if this similar intervention can work in humans.” 

Mouse models refers to mice that have been genetically programmed to develop Alzheimer's disease pathology. "They have been altered to overexpress amyloid (plaques) and then develop other hallmarks of the disease like synaptic loss, brain atrophy, memory impairment, etc.," He says. His plans involve studying people who show the kinds of cognitive and memory declines found in normally aging adults first, and then expanding to conduct studies with Alzheimer’s patients. Because of the continuing pandemic, He hopes to start his in-person research in late summer. 

In a 2019 study, MIT researchers, along with scientists from the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering and Emory University, found that light and sound stimulation targeting gamma waves reduce the buildup of amyloid plaques in the mice brains that modeled Alzheimer’s disease (AD) symptoms. Those plaques, or abnormal proteins, are what cause damage to brain grey matter. “Our observations demonstrate a non-invasive approach to elicit system-wide effects on AD-related pathology and improvements in cognition in an AD mouse model,” the authors wrote.

Gamma brain waves include a broad range of frequencies, from 30hz to 120hz. The sweet spot for this study appears to be 40hz, He says. “The gamma modulation is associated with learning and memory. In the aged population, and in patients with Alzheimer’s, this gamma optimization is abnormal, or is disrupted compared to healthy controls.” When gamma waves are activated, separate areas of the brain act more like a group. “It connects different brain regions together. It’s like a coordinator, getting different brain regions to communicate.”

The method to trigger those gamma waves, He explains, is deceptively simple: Subjects will view lights flashing and sounds turning on and off at 40 times per second (40hz.). He cites an earlier cohort study that followed a group of people who underwent the treatment for eight weeks, and it found no adverse effects due to the stimulation.

In addition to electroencephalograms (EEGs), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and computational modeling, He will also use virtual reality to test his subjects’ spatial navigation ability. The loss of that ability is one of the earliest symptoms of Alzheimer’s, and of memory decline in an aging population, yet the mice in the MIT study showed rapid improvements after gamma wave treatment. 

He is a postdoctoral fellow in Thackery Brown's lab in the School of Psychology and in Annabelle Singer's lab in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. He names both Brown and Singer as his mentors. Singer's lab co-led the 2019 study which He's work will build on.

Mark Wheeler, School of Psychology chair and professor, says after an internal Georgia Tech competition, He was put forth as the Institute's sole nominee for the Alpert Fellowship, which according to its website, “supports individual scientists of exceptional creativity who have an M.D. or Ph.D. degree (or both) and who have completed a minimum of three years of a post-doctoral fellowship in the field of neurosciences, and hold a post-doctoral research position at a United States medical school, research institute or academic hospital.”

“I felt very honored when I learned that my research proposal was selected as GT’s sole nominated project for the Warren Alpert Distinguished Scholar Award,” he says. “I know there are many talented and established postdocs in the GT Neuro community. My mentors, Dr. Thackery Brown and Dr. Annabelle Singer, played no small parts in it because I had very little grant proposal writing experience. I am deeply indebted to their advice on the conceptualization and refinement of this research proposal.”

]]> Renay San Miguel 1 1615221753 2021-03-08 16:42:33 1615244795 2021-03-08 23:06:35 0 0 news Qiliang He, a postdoctoral researcher, is following the path blazed by his Georgia Tech mentors — and will use his new Warren Alpert Foundation Scholar Award to target gamma brain wave stimulation to try to reverse the effects of aging. 

]]>
2021-03-08T00:00:00-05:00 2021-03-08T00:00:00-05:00 2021-03-08 00:00:00 Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer II/Science Writer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

 

]]>
632027 645090 612025 632027 image <![CDATA[Flickering light strip for Alzheimer's studies on mice]]> image/jpeg 1580745499 2020-02-03 15:58:19 1580745499 2020-02-03 15:58:19 645090 image <![CDATA[Before (left) and after images of reduced amyloid plaques in mice brains from a 2019 study. ]]> image/png 1615222242 2021-03-08 16:50:42 1615222242 2021-03-08 16:50:42 612025 image <![CDATA[Qiliang He]]> image/jpeg 1538056140 2018-09-27 13:49:00 1538056140 2018-09-27 13:49:00 <![CDATA[Flicker Treatment for Alzheimer’s Gets a Test Run]]> <![CDATA[Flickering Light Mobilizes Brain Chemistry That May Fight Alzheimer’s]]> <![CDATA[Virtual Reality Helps Reveal Honeycomb Grids in Human Brain for Navigation]]>
<![CDATA[Georgia Tech Hosts Notable Names During Black History Month]]> 35678 In recent weeks, Georgia Tech has hosted several poignant discussions and candid conversations about race on campus and beyond. Though most have been virtual, they have offered the Tech community opportunities to hear many Black voices, both local and national. In celebration of Black History Month, we’ve rounded up some of the speakers from recent campus events.

 

Nikole Hannah-Jones

On Jan. 14, the 10th Annual MLK Lecture was delivered by keynote speaker Nikole Hannah-Jones, acclaimed investigative journalist. Hannah-Jones spearheaded The New York Times 1619 Project, for which her introductory essay won her a 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. The 1619 Project shares work from Black creatives and acts as a portal to the past, present, and future with Black history at the forefront. During the lecture, Hannah-Jones highlighted the ways American history has erased Black history and the importance of reclaiming that past. She also highlighted how Black history has shaped the current American landscape, arguing that through writing and storytelling it will not be erased for future generations. 

Read a full recap of the event

Frank Brown

On Jan. 16, the Engage Symposium showcased a variety of speakers whose work aims to enhance the communities they live in. The first speaker was Frank Brown, CEO of Communities in Schools of Atlanta, which works to provide community support for students. Through his leadership in establishing youth programming, civic engagement, and assistance to children and families, Brown has become a key leader in Atlanta. The purpose of his interview with Taylor Gray was to answer the question, “How is a community of support built?” Brown highlighted the importance of relationships and urged students to join student government and other campus and social groups.   

View the full lecture

Cheneé Joseph

The second session of the Engage Symposium brought Cheneé Joseph, the executive director of the Historic District Development Corporation (HDDC), back to Tech. The Tech alumna is currently working to provide affordable housing in Atlanta through the Beltline Affordable Housing Advisory Board and revitalize Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic district. The question of the session was, “What if I was in charge?” Throughout the lecture, Joseph talked about the revitalization efforts of the HDDC and explained the steps taken to increase community engagement with the project. 

View the full lecture

Doug Hooker

The third speaker of the Engage Symposium was Doug Hooker, executive director of the Atlanta Regional Commission, which aids local government and community members to improve the region’s quality of life through the arts, community development, transportation, and homeland security. His session aimed to answer the question, “Do people know you care?” Throughout the interview, the Tech alumna wove in his experiences in various community boards over the years. 

View the full lecture  

Jennifer Abrams

In a conversation between Dean of Students John Stein and Tech alumna Jennifer Abrams, the last Engage Symposium session focused on the lessons learned throughout their careers. Abrams is part of the Piedmont Healthcare Corporation and helped lead the response to the coronavirus pandemic through her support of infectious disease physicians. During the conversation, she talked about how her experience at Tech was shaped by her involvement in student orientation and leadership roles in several student groups. The motivation behind her leadership is thinking of the people who don’t have the opportunity to be in that space.

View the full lecture

John Onwuchekwa

On Jan. 18, the MLK Day of Service 2021 closing speaker, John Onwuchekwa, co-founder of Portrait Coffee, shared the story behind his business and his take on hope as a vessel for defiance and perseverance. This personal mantra has taken him on a journey of waking up at 4 a.m. and even starting a coffee shop during a pandemic. The key takeaway was why problems can feel more bearable with the mindset, in Onwuchekwa’s words, that “the state of my soul is not going to be affected by the circumstances I find myself in.”

View the full lecture

Al Vivian

The Georgia Tech: A Call to Action lecture series emerged from the Black Lives Matter protests last summer and hosts discussions with faculty members about the Black experience at Tech. This year, on Jan. 21, the keynote speaker was Al Vivian, CEO of Basic Diversity Inc. and son of Martin Luther King Jr.’s confidant, C.T. Vivian. Basic Diversity, an inclusion and diversity consultancy, works with businesses not only to encourage more diversity in their workforce but also to deal with the challenges that come with it. 

Read a full recap of the event

Kamau Bobb

The Inaugural Petit Institute Antiracism Distinguished Lecture was delivered by Kamau Bobb on Feb. 4. A widely respected scholar involved in STEM inclusivity and outreach programs, Bobb’s experience ranges from Google to President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper STEM + Entrepreneurship Taskforce. As a founding director of the Constellations Center for Equity in Computing at Georgia Tech, he stressed the importance of researchers recognizing the pivotal point the country is in right now regarding race relations and not getting lost in complacency. 

View the full lecture

Angela Davis

For Georgia Tech’s 2021 Black History Month Lecture on Feb. 10, the highly anticipated keynote speaker was the legendary political activist and writer, Angela Davis. Over the course of an hour, students and faculty got to hear Davis’ perspective on the true meaning of political activism, what hope really means, and even going back to teaching at UCLA this spring. Undergraduate members of Tech’s African American Student Union moderated a question-and-answer session as well. 

Read a full recap of the event

]]> vvargas30 1 1614179552 2021-02-24 15:12:32 1614273839 2021-02-25 17:23:59 0 0 news In recent weeks, Georgia Tech has hosted several poignant discussions and candid conversations about race on campus and beyond.

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2021-02-24T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-24T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-24 00:00:00 Vanesa Vargas

Institute Communications

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644626 644626 image <![CDATA[Black History Month Speakers Roundup]]> image/jpeg 1614180617 2021-02-24 15:30:17 1614180617 2021-02-24 15:30:17
<![CDATA[IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Honors Desai’s Decades of Leadership, Service]]> 27446 Jaydev Desai has been helping lead the scientific exchange and events of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society for nearly two decades, devoting countless hours to create what he called “top-notch” programs for his colleagues worldwide.

This year, the society is recognizing his dedication with its Distinguished Service Award, citing Desai’s “distinguished leadership, outstanding service, and innovative contributions to IEEE RAS conferences and technical activities.”

Desai, however, was quick to share the credit.

“It is very gratifying, and humbling at the same time, to receive this recognition, but I can also say that I am not the only one. There are so many people who spend time working for the society,” said Desai, professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. “It really is a team effort — to run a large conference, for example, we all have to chip in to make sure that it is a success. Likewise, to launch new initiatives, the community has to come together to make it happen.”

Desai said it always has been important to him to give back to his professional community, which he has been involved in since the very beginning of his career. Now, he said, he also has the opportunity to involve the next generation of leaders in the society’s work and mentor them.

Desai’s leadership in Robotics and Automation Society signature events stretches back to the 2008 IEEE/RAS-EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics, where he was program chair. Most recently, he served as the program chair of the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), the world’s largest conference in robotics and automation. He’s led a number of other events, and he served as co-chair of the society’s Technical Committee on Surgical Robotics for eight years.

“You get to guide the quality of those events within the conference,” Desai said, “and I believe in having a top-notch quality. I put in a lot of effort into making sure that it is.”

Desai’s work continues to this day — he might be busier now than ever, in fact. He was recently appointed associate vice president, technical program, of the society’s Conference Activities Board, which oversees the technical, finance, publications, and operations aspects of all its conferences. He also was recently elected to serve a three-year term on the society’s governing Administrative Committee.

“It’s an honor to be recognized with the award, but that doesn't mean that you stop there,” Desai said. “My work is ongoing, and I think my contributions to the society will be ongoing for the foreseeable future.”

The society will award two service awards at ICRA in June. The other will go to Ayanna Howard, the departing chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing.

]]> Joshua Stewart 1 1614012598 2021-02-22 16:49:58 1614012598 2021-02-22 16:49:58 0 0 news Jaydev Desai has been a long-time leader of the society's conferences and technical activities.

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2021-02-22T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-22T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-22 00:00:00 Joshua Stewart

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644549 644549 image <![CDATA[Jaydev Desai]]> image/jpeg 1614012250 2021-02-22 16:44:10 1614012805 2021-02-22 16:53:25 <![CDATA[IEEE RAS Distinguished Service Award Announcement]]> <![CDATA[Jaydev Desai]]>
<![CDATA[Addressing the Need for Representation and Diversity — in Genetic Risk Assessments]]> 34434 With the sequencing of the human genome, scientists say personalized medicine is a more realistic goal. A future of customized medications, better understanding about disease factors and individualized risks, and a deeper knowledge of how cell mutations result in diseases like cancer could help pave the way for healthier populations around the globe.

But to realize this future, scientists need to build better risk assessments containing as much genetic information as possible regarding human populations — without compromising security and privacy, and without marginalizing or overrepresenting any groups. To date, existing datasets of this type of information have largely focused on individuals of European ancestry — which has meant that most people in the world have either been critically underrepresented, or at times not represented at all, among these important genomic studies and resources. 

Many groups are working together to improve those datasets, including School of Biological Sciences Patton Professor Greg Gibson, who recently teamed up with Emory University School of Medicine’s Subra Kugathasan, M.D. and other colleagues to publish a new study based on what Gibson shares as the largest whole genome-sequencing study of inflammatory bowel disease for African-Americans to date. 

Whole-Genome Sequencing of African-Americans Implicates Differential Genetic Architecture in Inflammatory Bowel Disease,” published February 17 in the American Journal for Human Genetics, researches inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Crohn’s disease in more than 3,000 Americans of African descent. IBD patients made up 1,774 members of the group, while the control group numbered 1,644 individuals without IBD. 

“The huge concern in the field is that all minorities are dramatically underrepresented” in genetic studies, Gibson notes, underscoring the need for more diverse studies and highlighting his interest in pursuing the current study. “It’s comprehensive, it’s incredibly powerful and it way overperforms what came before, in terms of magnitude of accomplishment. We started three years ago, which I think is pretty amazing. There are still not many studies out there as large in terms of true genomic sequencing of population.”

The group’s work hopes to build a better understanding of potential population divergence and genetic risk of specific complex diseases like IBD — as well as identify any possible corresponding evolution of susceptibility and origins of health disparities.

To achieve this, the research group set out to further resolve the genetic architecture of inflammatory bowel disease — and also to better define the differential genetic structure of the disease across divergent ancestries. The team notes that their resulting analyses “include many alleles that were not previously examined, in a population that remains very significantly understudied.”

So, what exactly is an allele?

A brief tutorial on alleles and genomics

Alleles are alternative forms of a gene, and they’re born from mutations. “Every person’s genome has about a million out of a billion pairs that are different,” Gibson explains. These are polymorphisms, or alleles, which are “the flavor of a gene.” When a new mutation happens, its frequency is extremely rare, but some mutations do become more common over time, and contribute ever so subtly to disease.

Most of these alleles are shared by European and African-Americans, but small differences in frequency and effect can add up — especially over several thousand of them — to real differences in risk of disease progression.

Gibson also highlights the importance of understanding and taking into account the many environmental factors that can be related to IBD and Crohn’s, such as stress, diet, access to quality nutrition, access to healthcare and preventative medicine, and even differences in socioeconomic status and opportunities that also tally up to significant health and risk disparities across divergent populations.   

More diverse genomics assessments coming soon?

Gibson and Kugathasan’s research was a collaborative study involving self-identified African-American subjects recruited from five primary sites across the country: Emory University (recruited as part of the Emory African-American Inflammatory Bowel Disease Consortium), Johns Hopkins/Rutgers (recruited as part of the Multicenter African-American Inflammatory Bowel Disease Study), Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Mount Sinai Medical Center, and Washington University (recruited as part of the Centers for Common Disease Genomics network). 

The study was approved by the institutional review boards at each of the participating sites and informed consent was obtained from all the participants. To protect privacy, de-identified datasets including genetic data were housed at Emory University with the approval of the local ethical board.

All DNA samples investigated in the study (a total of 3,610 before quality control) were processed and sequenced at the Broad Institute of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology following the same protocol.

More of this needs to happen, Gibson notes, so that the real work on narrowing the gaps and differences in healthcare among a diverse spectrum of populations can begin. He adds that the African genetic structure requires complete gene sequencing for all sorts of technical reasons, making it harder than more studies of Europeans — as well as essential and well worth the effort. 

“If you try to predict the onset of disease and you don’t account for ancestry differences, your assessments are just way off. In any sort of medicine, you want to be as accurate as you can. That’s why it’s so critical to include diversity in genetic studies as we progress to equitable access of all health care in all populations.”

Gibson says his next research study will deal with how genetics interacts with the other factors involved in health in underrepresented communities, such as nutrition and the impact of so-called “food deserts,” environmental issues, access to important health care, and other socio-economic indicators. 

“It’s probably the most important paper I’ll ever work on,” he says. 

]]> Renay San Miguel 1 1613766599 2021-02-19 20:29:59 1614018374 2021-02-22 18:26:14 0 0 news The largest genome sequencing studies yet for African-Americans with Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Crohn's disease is being conducted by a School of Biological Sciences professor and his colleague at Emory — but Greg Gibson says that more genetic risk assessments for underrepresented communities must be done to help deliver more equitable health care access and outcomes.

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2021-02-22T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-22T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-22 00:00:00 Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer/Science Writer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

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644556 634850 644556 image <![CDATA[A high magnification micrograph of "cryptitis" in a case of Crohn's disease, colorized with an H&E stain and enhanced with post-processing. (Courtesy Wikimedia author Nephron)]]> image/jpeg 1614018294 2021-02-22 18:24:54 1614018294 2021-02-22 18:24:54 634850 image <![CDATA[Greg Gibson]]> image/jpeg 1588178114 2020-04-29 16:35:14 1588178114 2020-04-29 16:35:14 <![CDATA[African Ancestry Proportion Influences Ileal Gene Expression in Inflammatory Bowel Disease]]> <![CDATA[Bridging the Genomic Divide: King Jordan Lab Focusing on Precision Public Health in the U.S.]]> <![CDATA[Health, Genes & Society]]> <![CDATA[#StraightToTheSource Cuts through Covid-19 Confusion, Finds the Facts with Faculty Experts]]> <![CDATA[Greg Gibson for AJC: The Testing Solution for Testing Times]]> <![CDATA[Faces of Testing]]>
<![CDATA[Dasi Elected an AIMBE Fellow]]> 27446 Lakshmi “Prasad” Dasi’s contributions to heart valve engineering and biofluid mechanics has earned him a place among the top medical and biological engineers in the country.

The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) announced Feb. 15 that Dasi is joining its College of Fellows as part of the 2021 class. Election to fellow is an honor reserved for just 2% of the top medical and biological engineering leaders in the nation.

“My mission is to translate biomedical technology for the benefit of humanity. Election to AIMBE means so much to me personally. It is a new door that has been opened, inviting me to actively engage in AIMBE's efforts to push our vision to make the world better,” said Dasi, professor and associate chair for undergraduate studies in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. “I am looking forward to serving beyond the boundaries of academic research and education.”

Candidates for the AIMBE College of Fellows are nominated by existing members and evaluated by a panel of a dozen of their peers. Reviewers consider significant research accomplishments and how candidates have engaged in service and given back to the fields of medical and biological engineering “for the benefit of society.”

“The most accomplished and distinguished engineering and medical school chairs, research directors, professors, innovators, and successful entrepreneurs comprise the College of Fellows,” according to an institute news release about Dasi’s election.

Five Georgia Tech faculty members are among the 174 new AIMBE fellows this year: Dasi; Julie Champion and Corey Wilson, associate professors in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; and Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb and Brandon Dixon, professors in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. They will be formally inducted at AIMBE’s Annual Event in March.

Dasi said his election as a fellow is really more of a beginning to than a culmination of his impact.

“As the late Professor Bob Nerem put it: ‘Life is filled with a lot of paths and doors to walk through. Do not waste time on a door which is closed; let the rock in your path be a stepping stone,’” Dasi said.

“I am confident this is a stepping stone to something bigger, and I am excited about it.”

]]> Joshua Stewart 1 1613407594 2021-02-15 16:46:34 1613426365 2021-02-15 21:59:25 0 0 news Lakshmi “Prasad” Dasi honored for his contributions to heart valve engineering and biofluid mechanics.

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2021-02-15T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-15T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-15 00:00:00 Joshua Stewart

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644243 644243 image <![CDATA[Lakshmi "Prasad" Dasi]]> image/jpeg 1613406659 2021-02-15 16:30:59 1613406672 2021-02-15 16:31:12 <![CDATA[Lakshmi "Prasad" Dasi – Profile]]> <![CDATA[American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering]]> <![CDATA[AIMBE College of Fellows]]>
<![CDATA[Collective Worm and Robot “Blobs” Protect Individuals, Swarm Together]]> 27303 Individually, California blackworms live an unremarkable life eating microorganisms in ponds and serving as tropical fish food for aquarium enthusiasts. But together, tens, hundreds, or thousands of the centimeter-long creatures can collaborate to form a “worm blob,” a shape-shifting living liquid that collectively protects its members from drying out and helps them escape threats such as excessive heat.

While other organisms form collective flocks, schools, or swarms for such purposes as mating, predation, and protection, the Lumbriculus variegatus worms are unusual in their ability to braid themselves together to accomplish tasks that unconnected individuals cannot. A new study reported by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology describes how the worms self-organize to act as entangled “active matter,” creating surprising collective behaviors whose principles have been applied to help blobs of simple robots evolve their own locomotion.

The research, supported by the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Office, was reported Feb. 5 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Findings from the work could help developers of swarm robots understand how emergent behavior of entangled active matter can produce unexpected, complex, and potentially useful mechanically driven behaviors.

Collective Behavior in Worms

The spark for the research came several years ago in California, where Saad Bhamla was intrigued by blobs of the worms he saw in a backyard pond.

“We were curious about why these worms would form these living blobs,” said Bhamla, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “We have now shown through mathematical models and biological experiments that forming the blobs confers a kind of collective decision-making that enables worms in a larger blob to survive longer against desiccation. We also showed that they can move together, a collective behavior that’s not done by any other organisms we know of at the macro scale.”

Such collective behavior in living systems is of interest to researchers exploring ways to apply the principles of living systems to human-designed systems such as swarm robots, in which individuals must also work together to create complex behaviors.

“The worm blob collective turns out to have capabilities that are more than what the individuals have, a wonderful example of biological emergence,” said Daniel Goldman, a Dunn Family Professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Physics, who studies the physics of living systems.

Why the Worms Form Blobs

The worm blob system was studied extensively by Yasemin Ozkan-Aydin, a research associate in Goldman’s lab. Using bundles of worms she originally ordered from a California aquarium supply company – and now raises in Georgia Tech labs – Ozkan-Aydin put the worms through several experiments. Those included development of a “worm gymnasium” that allowed her to measure the strength of individual worms, knowledge important to understanding how small numbers of the creatures can move an entire blob.

She started by taking the aquatic worms out of the water and watching their behavior. First, they individually began searching for water. When that search failed, they formed a ball-shaped blob in which individuals took turns on the outer surface exposed to the air where evaporation was taking place – behavior she theorized would reduce the effect of evaporation on the collective. By studying the blobs, she learned that worms in a blob could survive out of water 10 times longer than individual worms could.

“They would certainly want to reduce desiccation, but the way in which they would do this is not obvious and points to a kind of collective intelligence in the system,” said Goldman. “They are not just surface-minimizing machines. They are looking to exploit good conditions and resources.”

Using Blobs to Escape Threats

Ozkan-Aydin also studied how worm blobs responded to both temperature gradients and intense light. The worms need a specific range of temperatures to survive and dislike intense light. When a blob was placed on a heated plate, it slowly moved away from the hotter portion of the plate to the cooler portion and under intense light formed tightly entangled blobs. The worms appeared to divide responsibilities for the movement, with some individuals pulling the blob while others helped lift the aggregation to reduce friction.

As with evaporation, the collective activity improves the chances of survival for the entire group, which can range from 10 worms up to as many as 50,000.

“For an individual worm going from hot to cold, survival depends on chance,” said Bhamla. “When they move as a blob, they move more slowly because they have to coordinate the mechanics. But if they move as a blob, 95% of them get to the cold side, so being part of the blob confers many survival advantages.”

A Worm Gymnasium

The researchers noted that only two or three “puller” worms were needed to drag a 15-worm blob. That led them to wonder just how strong the creatures were, so Ozkan-Aydin created a series of poles and cantilevers in which she could measure the forces exerted by individual worms. This “worm gymnasium” allowed her to appreciate how the pullers managed to do their jobs.

“When the worms are happy and cool, they stretch out and grab onto one of the poles with their heads and they pull onto it,” Bhamla said. “When they are pulling, you can see the deflection of the cantilever to which their tails were attached. Yasemin was able to use known weights to calibrate the forces the worms create. The force measurement shows the individual worms are packing a lot of power.”

Some worms were stronger than others, and as the temperature increased, their willingness to work out at the gym declined.

Applying Worm Principles to Robots

Ozkan-Aydin also applied the principles observed in the worms to small robotic blobs composed of “smart active particles,” six 3D-printed robots with two arms and two sensors allowing them to sense light. She added a mesh enclosure and pins to arms that allowed these “smarticles” to be entangled like the worms and tested a variety of gaits and movements that could be programmed into them.

“Depending on the intensity, the robots try to move away from the light,” Ozkan-Aydin said. “They generate emergent behavior that is similar to what we saw in the worms.”

She noted that there was no communication among the robots. “Each robot is doing its own thing in a decentralized way,” she said. “Using just the mechanical interaction and the attraction each robot had for light intensity, we could control the robot blob.”

By measuring the energy consumption of an individual robot when it performed different gaits (wiggle and crawl), she determined that the wiggle gait uses less power than the crawl gait. The researchers anticipate that by exploiting gait differentiation, future entangled robotic swarms could improve their energy efficiency. 

Expanding What Robot Swarms Can Do

The researchers hope to continue their study of the collective dynamics of the worm blobs and apply what they learn to swarm robots, which must work together with little communication to accomplish tasks that they could not do alone. But those systems must be able to work in the real world.

“Often people want to make robot swarms do specific things, but they tend to be operating in pristine environments with simple situations,” said Goldman. “With these blobs, the whole point is that they work only because of physical interaction among the individuals. That’s an interesting factor to bring into robotics.”

Among the challenges ahead are recruiting graduate students willing to work with the worm blobs, which have the consistency of bread dough. 

“The worms are very nice to work with,” said Ozkan-Aydin. “We can play with them and they are very friendly. But it takes a person who is very comfortable working with living systems.”

The project shows how the biological world can provide insights beneficial to the field of robotics, said Kathryn Dickson, program director of the Physiological Mechanisms and Biomechanics Program at the National Science Foundation.

“This discovery shows that observations of animal behavior in natural settings, along with biological experiments and modeling, can offer new insights, and how new knowledge gained from interdisciplinary research can help humans, for example, in the robotic control applications arising from this work,” she said.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grants CAREER 1941933 and 1817334 and the Army Research Office under grant W911NF-11-1-0514. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agencies.

CITATION: Yasemin Ozkan-Aydin, Daniel I. Goldman, and M. Saad Bhamla, “Collective dynamics in entangled worm and robot blobs. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2010542118

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
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Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu)

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1612979447 2021-02-10 17:50:47 1612979549 2021-02-10 17:52:29 0 0 news Individually, California blackworms live an unremarkable life eating microorganisms in ponds and serving as tropical fish food for aquarium enthusiasts. But together, tens, hundreds, or thousands of the centimeter-long creatures can collaborate to form a “worm blob,” a shape-shifting living liquid that collectively protects its members from drying out and helps them escape threats such as excessive heat.

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2021-02-10T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-10T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-10 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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644063 644064 644067 644069 644066 644071 644070 644063 image <![CDATA[Worm blobs create collective behavior]]> image/jpeg 1612977380 2021-02-10 17:16:20 1612977380 2021-02-10 17:16:20 644064 image <![CDATA[Closeup of smart active particle (smarticle)]]> image/jpeg 1612977504 2021-02-10 17:18:24 1612977504 2021-02-10 17:18:24 644067 image <![CDATA[Group of smart active particles (smarticles)]]> image/jpeg 1612977805 2021-02-10 17:23:25 1612977805 2021-02-10 17:23:25 644069 image <![CDATA[Daniel Goldman and smarticle]]> image/jpeg 1612977934 2021-02-10 17:25:34 1612977934 2021-02-10 17:25:34 644066 image <![CDATA[Robot blob and worm blob]]> image/jpeg 1612977688 2021-02-10 17:21:28 1612977688 2021-02-10 17:21:28 644071 image <![CDATA[Smarticles interact to form a robot blob]]> image/jpeg 1612978286 2021-02-10 17:31:26 1612978286 2021-02-10 17:31:26 644070 image <![CDATA[Living liquid of worm blobs]]> image/jpeg 1612978167 2021-02-10 17:29:27 1612978167 2021-02-10 17:29:27
<![CDATA[Inventors of World’s Smallest Lavalier Microphone Tapped for Technical Achievement Award]]> 27842 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has given a Technical Achievement Award to Chris Countryman and Omer T. Inan for the engineering of the subminiature high-performance Countryman Associates lavalier microphones. The Academy’s Board of Governors announced the recipients for this year’s Scientific and Technical Awards on February 2, 2021. The Scientific and Technical Awards will be presented at a virtual event on February 13, 2021. The overall Oscars ceremony will be broadcast live on ABC on April 25, 2021.

Chris Countryman, president of Countryman Associates, and Omer T. Inan, former chief engineer of Countryman Associates and current associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, engineered a suite of lavalier microphones that lead the industry due to their high performance, rugged construction, and small size. The B3, B6, and B2D Countryman lavalier microphones are used in a variety of entertainment settings including live theater, concerts, television, and motion pictures.

The series includes both directional and omnidirectional lavalier microphone offerings, which allow for versatility depending on the visual and audio needs of a scene or situation. Each product in the series is designed to be easily hidden, extremely durable, and able to provide full frequency sound pickup without compromising the visual aesthetics of a scene. The B6 and B2D microphones are also the smallest in the world, measuring the diameter of a No. 2 pencil lead.

Below is the official text from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which outlines the Award.

To Chris Countryman and Omer T. Inan for their engineering of the subminiature high-performance Countryman Associates lavalier microphones. Originated by company founder Carl Countryman (1946–2006), these meticulously crafted subminiature microphones are easily concealed. Their spectral response-shaping filters, cable mounting and capsule design contribute to their wide adoption by motion picture production sound mixers.

 “We are deeply honored to accept this award for our subminiature lavalier microphones. This work has been a passion for me and my family going back decades now. It is humbling to think that the work we do means so much to the expert crafters and storytellers in the film industry. The innovation you see today with Countryman Associates was established over 40 years ago by my father Carl Countryman. I wish he was here to see how far we have come. I know he would be proud,” said Chris Countryman.

 

About Countryman Associates
For more than 40 years, Countryman has focused on developing microphones and accessories that deliver maximum gain before feedback, with the highest possible rejection of wind, vibration, interference, and other unwanted sounds. The result is warm, clear vocals in speaking and singing applications, delivering natural audio reinforcement that requires almost no attention from the sound engineer or the performer. For additional information about Countryman Associates, visit the company online at www.countryman.com.    

About the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) is one of eight schools and departments in the College of Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. All ECE undergraduate and graduate programs are in the top 10 of the most recent college rankings by U.S. News & World Report. Almost 2,400 students are enrolled in the School’s graduate and undergraduate programs, and in the last academic year, 872 degrees were awarded.

Over 100 ECE faculty members are involved in 11 areas of research, education, and commercialization – bioengineering, computer systems and software, digital signal processing, electric power, electromagnetics, electronic design and applications, microsystems, optics and photonics, systems and controls, telecommunications, and VLSI systems and digital design.

About the Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the world's premier research universities. Ranked eighth among U.S. News & World Report's top public universities, the Institute enrolls almost 39,800 students within its six colleges. Georgia Tech is the nation's leading producer of engineers, as well as a leading producer of female and minority engineering Ph.D. graduates. In FY 20, Georgia Tech received $1.04 billion in sponsored research and development expenditures and acquired $1.06 billion in total sponsored projects funding. Visit www.gatech.edu for more information.

]]> Ashlee Gardner 1 1612369519 2021-02-03 16:25:19 1612369519 2021-02-03 16:25:19 0 0 news The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has given a Technical Achievement Award to Chris Countryman and Omer T. Inan for the engineering of the subminiature high-performance Countryman Associates lavalier microphones.

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2021-02-03T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-03T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-03 00:00:00 Ashlee Gardner
ashlee.gardner@ece.gatech.edu

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643821 643820 643821 image <![CDATA[Omer Inan]]> image/jpeg 1612369144 2021-02-03 16:19:04 1612369144 2021-02-03 16:19:04 643820 image <![CDATA[Omer Inan and Chris Countryman]]> image/jpeg 1612365922 2021-02-03 15:25:22 1612365922 2021-02-03 15:25:22 <![CDATA[ 17 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENTS TO BE HONORED WITH ACADEMY AWARDS®]]> <![CDATA[Countryman Associates Website]]>
<![CDATA[Platt Honored with Mentor Award from AAAS]]> 27446 Enriching. Transformative. Nurturing. Authentic.

Those adjectives, and more like them, are how his former students have described Manu Platt and his influence on their education and careers.

Platt’s work growing — and pushing — the next generation of biomedical engineers has won him the 2021 Mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an honor that recognizes “extraordinary leadership to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in science and engineering fields and careers.”

“Dr. Platt pushed me outside of my comfort zone to a growth zone, which molded me into a better engineer and helped me find my place to be my full, authentic self as a Black woman in academia,” said Simone Douglas-Green, who earned her Ph.D. with Platt and now is a postdoctoral scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Dr. Platt has always given me more than I think I can handle, but he has a gift of knowing what is in his student’s best interest and encouraging them to aim higher. He always saw the potential in me before I could see it.”

Douglas-Green joined the effort to nominate Platt for the mentor award when she was contacted by Monet Roberts, another of Platt’s former doctoral students who was leading the charge. Roberts said she met Platt when she was a first-year student in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. It was that relationship that convinced her academia was the place for her.

“He was the first Black biomedical engineer and professor that I had ever seen,” Roberts said. “He took me under his wing as an informal mentor and adviser. He started to invite me to his lab meetings. I helped out in his lab as a lab assistant and became interested in the research and transitioned to an undergraduate researcher.”

Roberts and Douglas-Green both said Platt builds a culture of family in his lab and models what it means to be what Roberts called “a socially conscious scientist and engineer.” Douglas-Green said Platt showed her how to balance advancing science while “being an advocate and doing outreach to improve diversity and inclusion in BME.”

For Platt, the award was touching — and a surprise. He said he’s thrilled to be in the company of previous winners like former Georgia Tech Dean of Engineering Gary May, the first Black dean of the college whom Platt called “a mentor and absolute hero of mine.”

“I have had amazing mentors along my way, some who looked like me and many who did not. It has opened up doors for me where I did not even know there was a door,” said Platt, associate professor in Coulter BME and a Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Scholar. “That has led me to this exciting career in science and engineering. It has been so much more than what I would have ever thought it would be when I was a young nerd.”

Which is why, he said, mentoring has been so important to him: “Others should have that opportunity.”

Platt pointed to professors from Morehouse College who impressed upon him the importance of building a network that looks out for one another while pushing each other to improve. Platt said Petit Institute Founding Director Bob Nerem was a significant influence, reminding him that science is a people business; Coulter BME Associate Chair Hanjoong Jo has always pushed him to grow and think rigorously; and Gilda Barabino, president of the Olin College of Engineering, helped him understand the big picture.

He also credited his students, like Roberts and Douglas-Green.

“This is really a testament to the great students who have taken a risk on working with this nutty guy with crazy ideas, and then allowed me to help guide them along their way, giving them some extra experiences, opportunities, and knowledge to make it seem like a worthy, fun, and exciting journey,” Platt said.

Platt will accept the 2021 AAAS Mentor Award at the society’s annual meeting Feb. 8-11.

“We need more Platt Labs in academia that embrace inclusion and diversity to push boundaries,” Douglas-Green said. “Dr. Platt lives his life unapologetically and brings his whole self to the lab; it fosters an open lab environment and genuine connections with his students and trainees.”

She and Roberts said their connections to Platt continue, even as they start to build their careers elsewhere.

“He is more than deserving of this award,” Roberts said. “I am excited that he is getting the recognition that matches all of his efforts in the lives that he has touched.”

]]> Joshua Stewart 1 1612362907 2021-02-03 14:35:07 1612364626 2021-02-03 15:03:46 0 0 news Nominators said Platt builds a culture of family in his lab and models what it means to be “a socially conscious scientist and engineer.”

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2021-02-03T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-03T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-03 00:00:00 Joshua Stewart

404.385.2416

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643814 643814 image <![CDATA[Manu Platt at BMES with former students]]> image/jpeg 1612361929 2021-02-03 14:18:49 1612361929 2021-02-03 14:18:49 <![CDATA[AAAS 2021 Mentor Award Announcement]]> <![CDATA[AAAS Mentor Award Details]]> <![CDATA[Manu Platt]]>
<![CDATA[Easy-to-deliver mRNA treatment shows promise for stopping flu and Covid-19 viruses]]> 27446 With a relatively minor genetic change, a new treatment developed by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University appears to stop replication of both flu viruses and the virus that causes Covid-19. Best of all, the treatment could be delivered to the lungs via a nebulizer, making it easy for patients to administer themselves at home.

The therapy is based on a type of CRISPR, which normally allows researchers to target and edit specific portions of the genetic code, to target RNA molecules. In this case, the team used mRNA technology to code for a protein called Cas13a that destroys parts of the RNA genetic code that viruses use to replicate in cells in the lungs. It was developed by researchers in Philip Santangelo’s lab in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering.

“In our drug, the only thing you have to change to go from one virus to another is the guide strand — we only have to change one sequence of RNA. That's it,” Santangelo said. “We went from flu to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. They're incredibly different viruses. And we were able to do that very, very rapidly by just changing a guide.”

The guide strand is a map that basically tells the Cas13a protein where to attach to the viruses’ RNA and begin to destroy it. Working with collaborators at the University of Georgia, Georgia State University, and Kennesaw State University, Santangelo’s team tested its approach against flu in mice and SARS-CoV-2 in hamsters. In both cases, the sick animals recovered.

Their results are reported Feb. 3 in the journal Nature Biotechnology. It’s the first study to show mRNA can be used to express the Cas13a protein and get it to work directly in lung tissue rather than in cells in a dish. It’s also the first to demonstrate the Cas13a protein is effective at stopping replication of SARS-CoV-2.

What’s more, the team’s approach has the potential to work against 99% of flu strains that have circulated over the last century. It also appears it would be effective against the new highly contagious variants of the coronavirus that have begun to circulate.

The key to that broad effectiveness is the sequence of genes the researchers target.

“In flu, we're attacking the polymerase genes. Those are the enzymes that allow the virus to make more RNA and to replicate,” said Santangelo, the study’s corresponding author.

With help from a collaborator at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they looked at the genetic sequences of prevalent flu strains over the last 100 years and found regions of RNA that are unchanged across nearly all of them.

“We went after those, because they're far better conserved,” Santangelo said. “We let the biology dictate what our targets would be.”

Likewise, in SARS-CoV-2, the sequences the researchers targeted so far remain unchanged in the new variants.

The approach means the treatment is flexible and adaptable as new viruses emerge, said Daryll Vanover, a research scientist in Santangelo’s lab and the paper’s second author.

“One of the first things that society and the CDC is going to get when a pandemic emerges is the genetic sequence. It's one of the first tools that the CDC and the surveillance teams are going to use to identify what kind of virus this is and to begin tracking it,” Vanover said. “Once the CDC publishes those sequences — that's all we need. We can immediately screen across the regions that we're interested in to target it and knock down the virus.”

Vanover said that can result in lead candidates for clinical trials in a matter of weeks — which is about how long it took them to scan the sequences, design their guide strands, and be ready for testing in this study.

“It’s really quite plug-and-play,” Santangelo said. “If you're talking about small tweaks versus large tweaks, it's a big bonus in terms of time. And in pandemics — if we had had a vaccine in a month or two after the pandemic hit, think about what things would look like now. If we had a therapy a month after it hit, what would things look like now? It could make a huge difference, the impact on the economy, the impact on people.”

The project was funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's PReemptive Expression of Protective Alleles and Response Elements (PREPARE) program. The goal is to create safe, effective, transient, and reversible gene modulators as medical countermeasures that could be adapted and delivered rapidly. That’s why the team decided to try a nebulizer for delivering the treatment, Santangelo said.

“If you're really trying to think of something that's going to be a treatment that someone can actually give themselves in their own house, the nebulizer we used is not terribly different from one that you can go buy at a pharmacy,” he said.

The team’s approach also was sped along by their previous work on delivering mRNA to mucosal surfaces like those in the lungs. They knew there was a good chance they could tackle respiratory infections with that approach. They decided to use mRNA to code for the Cas13a protein because it’s an inherently safe technique.

“The mRNA is transient. It doesn't get into the nucleus, doesn't affect your DNA,” Santangelo said, “and for these CRISPR proteins, you really don't want them expressed for long periods of time.”

He and Vanover said additional work remains — especially understanding more about the specific mechanisms that make the treatment effective. It has produced no side effects in the animal models, but they want to take a deeper look at safety as they consider moving closer to a therapy for human patients.

“This project really gave us the opportunity to push our limits in the lab in terms of techniques, in terms of new strategy,” said Chiara Zurla, the team’s project manager and a co-author on the paper. “Especially with the pandemic, we feel an obligation to do as much as we can as well as we can. This first paper is a great example, but many will follow; we've done a lot of work, and we have a lot of promising results.”

This research was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, grant No. HR00111920008. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any funding agency.

]]> Joshua Stewart 1 1612377021 2021-02-03 18:30:21 1612385019 2021-02-03 20:43:39 0 0 news The treatment uses a type of CRISPR to target viral  RNA and appears to stop replication of both viruses in the lungs.

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2021-02-03T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-03T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-03 00:00:00 Joshua Stewart

404.385.2416

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643815 643815 image <![CDATA[Daryll Vanover with nebulizer for mRNA flu and Covid treatment]]> image/jpeg 1612362315 2021-02-03 14:25:15 1612362315 2021-02-03 14:25:15 <![CDATA["Treatment of influenza and SARS-CoV-2 infections via mRNA-encoded Cas13a in rodents"]]> <![CDATA[Santangelo Lab website]]> <![CDATA[Philip Santangelo]]>
<![CDATA[Snake Micro Scales Reveal Secrets of Sidewinding and Slithering]]> 27303 The mesmerizing flow of a sidewinder moving obliquely across desert sands has captivated biologists for centuries and has been variously studied over the years, but questions remained about how the snakes produce their unique motion. Sidewinders are pit vipers, specifically rattlesnakes, native to the deserts of the southwestern United States and adjacent Mexico.

Scientists had already described the microstructure of the skin on the ventral, or belly, surface of snakes. Many of the snakes studied, including all viper species, had distinctive rearward facing “microspicules” (micron-sized protrusions on scales) that had been interpreted in the context of reducing friction in the forward direction—the direction the crawling snake—and increasing friction in the backward direction to reduce slip. 

Considered through the lens of a sidewinder’s peculiar form of locomotion, however, it seemed that these microspicules would not function in the same manner. But no one had examined the microstructure of sidewinders, nor of a handful of unrelated African vipers that also sidewind.

Working with naturally-shed skins collected from snakes in zoos, researchers used atomic force microscopy to visualize and measure the microstructures of these scale protrusions in three species of sidewinding vipers as well as many other viper species for comparison. The results of the research, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that indeed the sidewinders have a unique structure distinct from other snakes. 

The microspicules were absent in the African sidewinding species and reduced to tiny nubbins in the North American sidewinder. All three snakes also had distinctive crater-like micro-depressions producing a distinctive texture not seen in other snakes. 

Daniel Goldman, Dunn Family Professor of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Jennifer Rieser, working as a postdoctoral researcher in Goldman’s group and currently an assistant professor in the Department of Physics at Emory University, developed mathematical models to test how both the typical texture of rearward-directed microspicules and spicule-less cratered texture function as snakes interact with the ground. The models revealed that the microspicules would actually impede sidewinding, explaining their evolutionary loss in these species. 

The models also revealed an unexpected result that microspicules function to improve performance of snakes that use lateral undulation to move. Lateral undulation is the typical side-to-side mode locomotion used by the majority of snake species. “This discovery adds a new dimension to our knowledge of the functionality of these structures, that is more complex than the previous ideas,” said Joseph Mendelson, director of research at Zoo Atlanta and adjunct associate professor in the Georgia Tech School of Biological Sciences.

The models indicate that the microspicules act a bit like corduroy fabric. “Friction is low when you run your finger along the length of the furrowed fabric—consistent with previous work—but the furrows produce significant friction when you move your finger sideways across the fabric texture,” said Goldman. The functionality of the distinct craters remains a mystery.

The findings could be important to the development of future generations of robots able to move across challenging surfaces such as loose sand. “Understanding how and why this example of convergent evolution works may allow us to adapt it for our own needs, such as building robots that can move in challenging environments,” Rieser said.

In terms of anatomy, this was a classic example of convergent evolution between a pair of snake species in Africa and a very distantly related snake in North America, Mendelson noted. Biogeographic reconstructions conducted by Jessica Tingle, a doctoral student at University of California Riverside, indicated that the African snakes are evolutionarily much older than the North American sidewinder, suggesting that the sidewinders represented an earlier phase in adaptation for sidewinding.

Tai-De Li, then at Georgia Tech in the lab of Prof Elisa Riedo and now at the City University of New York, did the AFM measurements. 

Drawing from the fields of evolutionary biology, living systems physics, and mathematical modelling, the team produced a study that explains some aspects of what these microstructures on the bellies of snakes do and how they evolved in snakes. 

“Our results highlight how an integrated approach can provide quantitative predictions for structure-function relationships and insights into behavioral and evolutionary adaptions in biological systems,” the authors wrote. 

This research was supported by the Georgia Tech Elizabeth Smithgall Watts Fund; National Science Foundation Physics of Living Systems Grants PHY-1205878 and PHY-1150760; and Army Research Office Grant W911NF-11-1-0514. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agencies.

CITATION: Jennifer M. Rieser, Tai-De Li, Jessica L. Tingle, Daniel I. Goldman, and Joseph R. Mendelson III, “Functional consequences of convergently evolved microscopic skin features on snake locomotion.” (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021)

Research News
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]]> John Toon 1 1612228539 2021-02-02 01:15:39 1612901228 2021-02-09 20:07:08 0 0 news The mesmerizing flow of a sidewinder moving obliquely across desert sands has captivated biologists for centuries and has been variously studied over the years, but questions remained about how the snakes produce their unique motion. Sidewinders are pit vipers, specifically rattlesnakes, native to the deserts of the southwestern United States and adjacent Mexico.

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2021-02-01T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-01T00:00:00-05:00 2021-02-01 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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643748 643749 643750 643748 image <![CDATA[Microstructure of snake belly scales]]> image/jpeg 1612227536 2021-02-02 00:58:56 1612227536 2021-02-02 00:58:56 643749 image <![CDATA[Sidewinder in sandy arena]]> image/jpeg 1612227616 2021-02-02 01:00:16 1612227616 2021-02-02 01:00:16 643750 image <![CDATA[Sidewinder snake microstructures]]> image/jpeg 1612227723 2021-02-02 01:02:03 1612227723 2021-02-02 01:02:03
<![CDATA[Remembering Bridgette A. Barry, Professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry]]> 34528 One of Bridgette A. Barry’s last published research papers focused on providing more detail about what exactly happens during oxygen photosynthesis, which she called “the great fueler of life on the planet.”

Even though much has been studied about the sunlight-powered process that provides Earth with oxygen, Barry knew that there was still a lot to uncover about photosynthesis for the good of humankind. “You could work with it to make crops more productive,” Barry said in 2018. With an eye on climate change’s impact on nature, she added, “We may have to repair and adapt the photosynthesis process someday, too.”

Professor Barry, a renowned professor of biochemistry and biophysics in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and a member of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, died January 20, 2021. She was 63. According to a memorial written by her family, her death comes after several years of bravely battling a severe autoimmune disease and the side effects of treatment.

Professor Barry’s husband, Peter Dardi, and her family have shared details here for a virtual memorial service which may be viewed by all on Saturday, January 30, 2021 at 11 a.m. ET.

All are additionally invited to share thoughts and remembrances on this memorial page, which has been kindly organized by the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Joining our six schools and the Institute, the College sends heartfelt condolences to all of Professor Barry’s family, colleagues, students, and friends. She will be missed.

Professor Barry was director of Georgia Tech’s Molecular Biophysics Training Program, and of the Barry Group Laboratory. Her Institute biography said of her research interests, “Research in my group is focused on how the dynamic and responsive protein matrix facilitates biological catalysis. We use a wide range of high resolution spectroscopic, biochemical, and structural techniques to describe the reaction coordinate, which reveals the motion of the protein in space and time. We test the design principles, which we uncover, by building biomimetic models.”

She received an A.B. in Chemistry with High Honors from Oberlin College in 1978, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, where she met her husband, in 1984. After earning her Ph.D., she completed post-doctoral training at Michigan State University before starting as an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota.

Professor Barry received tenure and advanced to full professorship at the University of Minnesota before moving to Georgia Tech in 2003. She also made a significant impact through training and mentoring students and faculty alike, and in 2012 received Georgia Tech's Faculty Mentoring Award.

She held the Graduate Opportunity Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley (1982-1983), a McKnight Postdoctoral Fellowship at Michigan State University (1985), a Public Health Service Award at the National Institutes of Health (1985-1988), Faculty Summer Research Fellowship at the University of Minnesota (1989), fellowship at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2009), and fellowship in the American Chemical Society (2010). She participated in the Bush Foundation Faculty Development Program (1992-1993) and received the Bush Sabbatical Award from the University of Minnesota in 1997. During that same year, Barry also received the Career Advancement Award from the National Science Foundation. She is a national honorary member of Iota Sigma Pi.

School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Chair and Professor M.G. Finn recently noted, “Bridgette influenced everyone who knew her with equal measures of scientific passion, dedication to quality, kindness, and consideration. I have always admired her papers — clear, insightful, frequently breathtaking — as wonderful examples of how we figure out how the world works. And I came to admire at least as much her quiet courage in these past years, dealing with her health challenges while maintaining the highest professional standards. When Bridgette spoke, everyone listened. We'll miss her greatly.”

Professor Barry is survived by her husband of 36 years, Peter Dardi; a brother and sister-in-law, Michael and Jen Barry; and several nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, her family asks that contributions may be made to your local food bank.

Several of Professor Barry’s colleagues and friends are in the process of gathering and sharing memories and tributes to her life and research, which can be found on this aforementioned memorial page. These thoughts and remembrances will be shared with Professor Barry’s family.

 

]]> jhunt7 1 1611774693 2021-01-27 19:11:33 1611782134 2021-01-27 21:15:34 0 0 news Colleagues, students, alumni, and friends honor the remarkable life and work of Bridgette A. Barry, a renowned professor of biochemistry and biophysics in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, who also a longtime member of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience.

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2021-01-27T00:00:00-05:00 2021-01-27T00:00:00-05:00 2021-01-27 00:00:00 Sue Winters
School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
College of Sciences at Georgia Tech

]]>
643493 643493 image <![CDATA[Professor Bridgette Barry]]> image/jpeg 1611774503 2021-01-27 19:08:23 1611774503 2021-01-27 19:08:23 <![CDATA[Memorial Page: Professor Bridgette A. Barry]]> <![CDATA[Service and Memorial Information]]> <![CDATA[Making the Oxygen We Breathe, a Photosynthesis Mechanism Exposed]]> <![CDATA[Barry Group Laboratory]]>
<![CDATA[9 Things to Know About the Covid-19 Vaccines]]> 27446 As the two Covid-19 vaccines start to arrive in communities across the country, they’re accompanied by questions about how they work and how they were created so quickly.

Two researchers in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering work with the components that make up the vaccine and say they’re safe and effective.
 

1. Both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are made with mRNA. What is an mRNA vaccine?

These vaccines are made of two primary ingredients: a piece of mRNA and a lipid nanoparticle, which is made from different fats.

The mRNA is essentially a set of instructions — the “m” stands for “messenger.” In this case, the instructions tell our own cells how to make a piece of protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus called the spike protein.

“If you ever see pictures of the coronavirus, this protein is the big spike that is sticking out of the virus particle,” said Philip Santangelo, professor in the Coulter Department.

First, the mRNA has to enter your cells, which is where the lipid nanoparticle, or LNP, comes in: It’s like an envelope that delivers the instructions. The LNP is a combination of four different fats to create a shell around the mRNA that allows it to penetrate into our cells.

“If you just inject mRNA on its own, your body does not like that, and the mRNA will not enter your cells,” said James Dahlman, assistant professor in the Department. “You can imagine the lipid nanoparticle as a Trojan horse for the mRNA: The mRNA has to enter a cell to work as a drug, but it cannot enter the cell on its own. So, you put the mRNA inside the LNP, which can enter the cell, and as a result the mRNA enters the cell.”

Once the mRNA is inside, the cells start to produce the spike protein. Your body recognizes an invader and starts to mount an immune response.
 

2. Can I get Covid-19 from the vaccine?

No. The Covid-19 vaccines contain no virus.

“The mRNA is only making the spike protein. It’s not the whole virus; it’s only a part of it,” Santangelo said. “You can’t get the virus from the mRNA vaccine.”
 

3. What about the bad reactions some people have experienced?

Santangelo said some people have had reactions at the injection site, but that’s common with many vaccines and, while annoying, it usually means the vaccine is doing exactly what it’s intended to do: prompting your body to react.

“The needle and the lipids do cause a little inflammation,” he said. “That’s what tells the immune system, ‘Hey, we need to send some cells to the muscle to pick up that spike protein,’ and then initiate the immunological responses. Then, when your body sees that protein [again] if you’re exposed to Covid-19, your body will respond rapidly and help clear the infection.”
 

4. Are any human cells used to create the vaccines?

No. The two parts of the vaccine are made in labs using readily available, purified ingredients —and no human or animal tissue, Santangelo said.

The mRNA particles are just like the RNA made in our bodies, he said, but they are assembled chemically in a lab using natural proteins.

Dahlman said the four parts of the lipid nanoparticle are either naturally occurring — like cholesterol — or designed by scientists in the lab.
 

5. How were the vaccines developed so quickly?

Two reasons, according to Dahlman and Santangelo.

First: The pharmaceutical companies had a head start.

“Both companies had lipid formulations they knew would be useful for delivering mRNA via an intramuscular injection,” Santangelo said. At that point, they just needed to know what kind of mRNA to use.

“One of the reasons why this platform is so exciting is that it is somewhat plug-and-play,” he said. “As soon as they had information about the sequence for that spike protein, the companies were easily able to put that into their pipelines and generate an mRNA for that spike. Then all they had to do was make that mRNA and combine it with the same lipids that they had been using before.”

The government and the pharmaceutical industry also had been planning for some kind of pandemic to happen eventually — most likely a flu — and conducting research on mRNA vaccines, Dahlman said.

“Did we know it was going to be Covid-19? No, we didn’t. But scientists had an idea that something could come along,” he said. “There’s been a lot of research ahead of time to study whether mRNA-based vaccines would work against emerging diseases.”

The second reason the vaccine came together quickly was a result of the design of the clinical trials, according to Dahlman. The companies designed the phase 2 and phase 3 trials at the same time as the initial trials were underway. That’s usually a prohibitively expensive proposition.

“In this case, there was a global emergency, so companies and governments took on the financial risk to design the phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials earlier,” Dahlman said. “It was worth the risk to have the vaccine move along more quickly, given the dire human and economic consequences of this pandemic.”
 

6. How do we know the vaccines are safe?

Dahlman and Santangelo pointed to the tens of thousands of people involved in those clinical trials.

“Just because the clinical trials were run more quickly than normal does not mean the data are unreliable,” Dahlman said. “The data have been peer-reviewed. The data are clear: The vaccine is safe.”

He and Santangelo also pointed to the short amount of time the vaccine’s components remain in the human body.

“mRNA does not last forever,” Santangelo said. “The mRNA may express for a few days, and it will degrade through normal processes inherent to every cell in your body. The lipids also are metabolized through normal metabolization pathways.”

He added: “We want the vaccine to go in, to express the viral protein — the spike protein — you want your body to react to that, you want your immune system to mobilize in response to that spike being there. But we don’t want the vaccine there forever. You’re relying on your immune system to do the heavy lifting; the vaccine just gets things started.”
 

7. Why do we get two doses of the vaccine instead of one?

Santangelo said it’s not uncommon for vaccines to require multiple doses. Think of the booster shots kids receive for some vaccines.

In the case of the Covid-19 vaccine, he said: “The data suggests that after one shot, there is an immune response, but it’s not as strong as they would like, and that’s why they give you the second one. The second one is a booster. And what you see in the data is your antibody responses increase significantly.”
 

8. Why do the vaccines have to be stored at such cold temperatures?

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has to be stored at -70 degrees Celsius. Moderna’s is frozen at -25 degrees Celsius. That’s all about preserving the stability and effectiveness of the vaccine, Santangelo said, and the difference is attributable to the different kinds of lipids the two companies used around the mRNA.

It may not be ideal, but Santangelo said the requirements keep the vaccine from degrading in any way.

“They had to move so fast creating the vaccines, so they went with what they knew would work,” he said.
 

9. How long will protection last from the vaccine?

We don’t have as much information about the durability of protection as we would like, Santangelo said. He pointed to data that shows persistence of antibodies for at least three to six months after the second dose.

Even with that question still unanswered, he said getting the vaccine will benefit everyone.

“It’s going to help protect you from the virus,” he said. “Even if you get Covid — not from the vaccine, but post-vaccination — you’re not going to get as sick if you have the vaccine than if you didn’t have the vaccine. If the vaccine keeps us out of the hospital, if it keeps us from getting very, very sick, that is a very good thing.”

]]> Joshua Stewart 1 1611152114 2021-01-20 14:15:14 1611678132 2021-01-26 16:22:12 0 0 news 2021-01-20T00:00:00-05:00 2021-01-20T00:00:00-05:00 2021-01-20 00:00:00 Joshua Stewart

404.385.2416

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643121 643121 image <![CDATA[Covid-19 Vaccine Vial]]> image/jpeg 1611151143 2021-01-20 13:59:03 1611151143 2021-01-20 13:59:03 <![CDATA[Covid-19 Vaccines at Georgia Tech]]>
<![CDATA[Stanley Named Founding Director of McCamish Parkinson’s Disease Innovation Program]]> 27446 The impact of a transformational gift from the McCamish Foundation is starting to take shape at the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Garrett Stanley will be the founding director of the new McCamish Parkinson’s Disease Innovation Program led by the Coulter Department to create impact-amplifying partnerships across disparate disciplines, and to advance innovative ideas that will form the basis of future treatment and cure of Parkinson’s and other neurological disorders.

“The fact that Parkinson’s disease is so complex, affects people in different ways, and changes as the disease progresses, means that we need a comprehensive set of diverse approaches and tools that directly confront these complexities,” said Stanley, Carol Ann and David D. Flanagan Professor in the Department. “This ranges from using sensors to precisely measure movement, to technologies for interacting with the underlying brain circuits, to data analytics to capture things that are hidden in the wealth of data being collected, and beyond.”

Neurological disorders like Parkinson’s are complex diseases of neural circuits that impact virtually every aspect of a person’s life, from moving to sensing to cognition, and ultimately render even the most fundamental aspects of daily life a significant challenge. The cause of Parkinson’s remains unknown, to say nothing of curing the disease.

Stanley said understanding, treating, and ultimately finding a cure for such diseases requires a comprehensive, coordinated, and technology-driven effort at the intersection of fundamental neuroscience, neuroengineering and neurotechnology, data science, and clinical translation — an approach that goes well beyond traditional avenues of scientific research.

To accomplish such lofty ambitions, the McCamish Parkinson’s program will support “Blue Sky” multi-investigator, early stage research; research translation to commercialization; and the cultivation of a collaborative network with Emory University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and the University of Georgia to position Georgia as a leader in Parkinson’s research.

“The Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering is uniquely positioned to catalyze this exciting, new interdisciplinary research effort,” Stanley said, “and we are grateful for the significant opportunity the McCamish Foundation has provided.”

Stanley is a leading expert in the control of the complex brain circuits that enable us to sense and move through the world. He has led multiple efforts focused on integrating neuroscience, neuroengineering, and neurotechnology and supported by the National Institutes of Health BRAIN Initiative. Over the past decade, Stanley has been a key driver in building interdisciplinary research in neuroscience and neurotechnology across Georgia Tech and Emory and is co-director of the Georgia Tech and Emory Neural Engineering Centers.

]]> Joshua Stewart 1 1611080634 2021-01-19 18:23:54 1611169591 2021-01-20 19:06:31 0 0 news Garrett Stanley will lead work under a landmark gift from the McCamish Foundation to revolutionize treatment of neurological diseases.

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2021-01-19T00:00:00-05:00 2021-01-19T00:00:00-05:00 2021-01-19 00:00:00 Joshua Stewart

404.385.2416

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643116 538581 643116 image <![CDATA[Neuron Illustration]]> image/jpeg 1611150106 2021-01-20 13:41:46 1611150106 2021-01-20 13:41:46 538581 image <![CDATA[Garrett Stanley, Ph.D.]]> image/jpeg 1464703200 2016-05-31 14:00:00 1475895326 2016-10-08 02:55:26 <![CDATA[Read More: McCamish Foundation Commitment Funds Research of Parkinson’s Disease at Georgia Tech and Emory]]> <![CDATA[Garrett Stanley]]>
<![CDATA[Two Postdocs Win Excellence In Research Grants]]> 28153 Two Georgia Institute of Technology postdoctoral researchers whose work is focused on improving the odds against devastating disease are winners of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB) Excellence in Research Grants. María Coronel and Rebecca Donegan will each be awarded $22,000 to help support their projects.

Coronel, who works in the lab of Petit Institute Executive Director Andrés García, won her grant for a proposal entitled, “Engineering leaky gut on chip for studying Type 1 diabetes pathogenesis.”

It’s a new area of research exploring the connections between the gut and the pancreas in diabetes. “By applying microfluidics, stem cells, and immunoengineering, I’m looking to develop new platforms that can help improve early diagnosis, but also challenge our current knowledge of how the disease develops,” said Coronel, who is currently researching immunotherapies to improve insulin replacement as a treatment for type 1 diabetes.

People with the disease require insulin injections to regulate their blood sugars, a treatment that has dramatically improved lives. But it isn’t a cure, “which can be done now with a treatment called islet transplantation,” Coronel noted, adding that the procedure is basically an organ transplant, which means patients have to take potent drugs to suppress their immune system, making them susceptible to infections and other side effects.

“My work is focused on using synthetic biomaterials in the form of microgels for the local presentation of proteins that can control the patient’s immune cells, the surveillance army that keeps you safe from foreign agents like viruses and bacteria,” Coronel said. “By controlling these cells, we can allow insulin-producing beta-cells to engraft and function without being rejected when transplanted. This can minimize the need for immunosuppressive drugs and broaden the patient population that can benefit from this therapy.”

Her goal is to translate these therapies into pre-clinical models to find out if the technology is translatable to treat humans. But ultimately, she added, “I am working towards an independent faculty position to mentor the new generation of diverse scientists in STEM.”

Donegan’s research is aimed at developing a better understanding of how the human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb, the bacteria that causes tuberculosis) uses the iron-containing molecule heme to survive during infection.

“Mtb requires heme for survival and has the ability to both uptake heme and to synthesize its own heme,” noted Donegan, who works in the lab of Amit Reddi, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry. Donegan’s grant-winning proposal is entitled, “Imaging heme dynamics at the host pathogen interface.”

“Iron and heme are really interesting metallonutrients to study because they are both necessary for survival and potentially cytotoxic,” said Donegan, who will use the grant to learn more about how heme levels change throughout the course of infection.

“By combining our sensors with fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry, we will be able to build a more comprehensive picture of how Mtb uses host heme during infection,” she said. “And by clarifying how and when heme is used during Mtb infection, we will be better poised for identifying new targets for developing new anti-Mtb therapies that target heme homeostasis.”

Donegan’s career plan is to become an assistant professor, teaching undergraduate students. Eventually, she’d like to lead her own independent research, combining the skills she developed in Reddi’s lab with her graduate training in protein crystallography (in the lab of Petit Institute researcher Raquel Lieberman), to study how a nontuberculous mycobacteria [NTM], which she called an emerging threat, transition from being environmental bacteria to pathogenic bacteria. She plans to work toward the discovery of new anti-NTM therapeutic targets.

Meanwhile, she and Coronel are the beneficiaries of the first IBB Excellence in Research Grants, thanks to the generosity of the Beckman Coulter Foundation, as well as Georgia Tech graduate Karl F. Dasher (Industrial Engineering, 1993) and his wife, Erin Dasher, a member of the Petit Institute Advisory Board. The Karl F. Dasher Research Endowment supports research and educational initiatives at the Petit Institute.

]]> Jerry Grillo 1 1610722035 2021-01-15 14:47:15 1610722118 2021-01-15 14:48:38 0 0 news María Coronel and Rebecca Donegan helping to improve the odds against disease with assist Beckman Coulter Foundation and Dasher Endowment

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2021-01-15T00:00:00-05:00 2021-01-15T00:00:00-05:00 2021-01-15 00:00:00 642969 642969 image <![CDATA[Grant Winners]]> image/png 1610721779 2021-01-15 14:42:59 1610721779 2021-01-15 14:42:59
<![CDATA[New Advances for Old Problems: Center for Chemical Evolution Celebrates 10 Years Exploring the Chemical Origins of Life ]]> 34434 The NSF/NASA-sponsored Center for Chemical Evolution (CCE) at Georgia Tech recently completed a decade-long funding lifespan, the longest possible with the funding agencies for this kind of center. The reason?

NSF and NASA wanted its academic partners to produce as many new discoveries as possible about the chemical origins of life, while also charting future directions for this particular scientific discipline and training a new generation to take over the reins of discovery.

“These centers are not intended to go on forever. The idea is that a center should advance a scientific problem, make a major impact on a field, but then make room for new centers to do the same for other fields,” says Nick Hud, Regents’ Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Associate Director of the Parker H. Petit Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience, and the CCE’s Principal Investigator. 

“The CCE was given a mission. We were granted 10 years of funding to move the origins of life field ahead — to bring in new researchers and ideas to the field, to have a major impact on the field. I think we were successful. I think we accomplished our mission.”

Officially launched in August 2010 as an NSF/NASA Phase II Center for Chemical Innovation, the CCE sunsets with their stated goals achieved — and then some, according to Hud, who was also instrumental in setting up the Center at Georgia Tech.  

“NSF and NASA were looking to support fresh ideas on a problem considered one of the greatest scientific questions of all time,” Hud says. “They felt the rate of progress could be boosted by a large center. They wanted a concerted effort and new approaches to some long-unsolved problems concerning the chemical origins of life.”

Biological evolution deals with changes in living organisms, past and present, while chemical evolution, as defined by the CCE, focuses on uncovering how simple molecules present on the early Earth gave rise to the more complex molecules that eventually allowed for the emergence of life. 

When molecules, or chemicals, undergo a reaction, such as in laboratory experiments, it is often the case that a complex mixture of molecules is produced, including the production of many unexpected or undesired molecules. Scientists studying chemical evolution have long sought to understand how biomolecules, like DNA and proteins, then, could have evolved from the complex mixture of molecules present on the prebiotic Earth — without the aid of a chemist to guide particular reactions or to purify specific products.

CCE approached this problem by posing a different angle than most other scientists, Hud shares. “We came in with the idea that the molecules that are in life today were not necessarily those that started life — because the molecules that started life may have evolved, they may have been refined by evolution to become what they are today,” he explains. “An overarching hypothesis of ours was that if we make even small changes to the molecules that are the building block of the biopolymers found in life today, that we might find molecules that form polymers much more easily.” Biopolymers are very large molecules, such as DNA, protein, and polysaccharides, that are central to all life on Earth.

Ten years later, Hud says the CCE now has several examples of how such changes can make it much easier to form molecules and polymers very similar to those found in living organisms, but in reactions that are believed to have happen on the early Earth. “Now we have several models for the synthesis of molecules that may have facilitated the emergence of life. We’ve advanced origins of life science by experimentally testing and refining this hypothesis.” Possible applications to the fundamental advances made by CCE chemists include new and more efficient methods for the syntheses of pharmaceutical drugs. 

And while the CCE is officially sunsetting, the group’s work will continue to live on through collaborative projects, and will be soon celebrated by the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience through its annual Suddath Symposium. This year’s virtual edition, titled Origins and Early Evolution of Life, is set for January 28-29, 2021.

From chemistry student to CCE managing director 

The idea of small changes making big differences doesn’t just apply to the CCE’s research on molecules. It can also refer to how the Center found its managing director. 

Christine Conwell was a graduate student in 1999 at Georgia Tech, and first met Hud when she took one of his biochemistry classes. Conwell would receive her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Georgia Tech in 2004, and then it was off to the University of North Carolina for postdoctoral work.

It was the chance to help lead the Center for Chemical Evolution that brought her back to the Institute in 2011. Managing the Center’s $40 million budget, Conwell oversaw the building of interdisciplinary partnerships with other institutions and scientists, represented the CCE to the NSF and NASA, and helped establish education and outreach efforts in tandem with the group’s research efforts. That work over her near-decade as the CCE Managing Director earned Conwell the 2020 Outstanding Achievement in Research Enterprise Enhancement Award, presented by the Office for Executive Vice President for Research. 

When the award was presented last April, M.G. Finn, professor and chair of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and James A. Carlos Family Chair for Pediatric Technology, noted, “This jewel in Georgia Tech’s crown would not have been possible without her efforts. As a jointly funded center by the NSF and NASA, it has been both unique and uniquely successful, bringing together investigators from the U.S. and around the world. This demands administrative skill and leadership of the highest order, and Dr. Conwell has provided exactly that.”

“She was the perfect person for the job,” Hud adds.

“The dynamic center platform has allowed us to gather data and then modify our research paths based upon what we learned. As a result, we have done so much more than what we could have anticipated,” explains Conwell, who now is Director of Planning and Operations for Georgia Tech’s Strategic Energy Institute. “Because of the way the centers are set up, you bring together an incredible team of scientist and create opportunities to brainstorm and dissect data with a team that otherwise would not be at the table together. You can go with the flow, starting in one place, then making changes based on the conversations. You can see those projects that are accelerating at a crazy pace. So we shifted to meet our goals. In the lifetime of the Center, more than once, we started at one place — and evolved in ways we couldn’t have anticipated in 2010.”

Conwell adds that she’s grateful that the CCE was also able to introduce a new generation of researchers to a special collaborative system that advanced the science behind chemical evolution. “We’ve given postdocs and graduate students a unique research experience,” she says. “They’re now used to being in a group of 80 people — including everyone from former university provosts and vice presidents, to undergraduates at institutions a state or two away — talking science in collaborative, interdisciplinary meetings. Researchers get input from so many diverse scientific — and life — perspectives. That is a big difference from when I was in Nick’s lab 20 years ago. From a workforce training perspective, it’s a huge deal that we could provide such a well-rounded research experiences to our trainees entering the research community.”

A sizable group of CCE alumni are also continuing their research in other colleges and universities around the U.S., and at institutions around the world, including the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, the Earth-Life Science Institute in Tokyo, and Nanjing University in China. 

Conwell shares that she’s especially proud of the outreach and teaching efforts led by the CCE. “There’s been a lot of time and energy put into getting out into different groups of people, of all ages and levels of scientific knowledge, and telling them why science is awesome,” she says. “We have developed really amazing outreach and education partnerships and have made tremendous investments educating the public.” She cites Stated Clearly and its animated videos, which have reached more than 2 million viewers on the CCE website, as well as the Atlanta Science Festival and its more than 30,000 annual participants, as examples of those partnerships. 

Conwell says that those outreach efforts have aimed at introducing chemical evolution to younger audiences with the hopes of sparking a desire to learn more about science — adding that CCE-based inspiration has also sparked a number of new ideas and ways of thinking for established scientists, too.

Continuing excitement for science after 57 years of research at Georgia Tech

Charlie Liotta, School of Chemistry and Biochemistry Regents Professor Emeritus, just received a new NASA grant entitled “The Prebiotic Formation of Linear Sugars and Sugar Acids.”  This came as Liotta celebrated his 57th year at Georgia Tech – and his 83rd birthday.

“In addition to experiencing excellent science developed within the CCE, humor was often used as a bonding vehicle within the Center,” Liotta says. “I like to joke and tell people that I am so old that my Ph.D. thesis was written on stone tablets. When people question whether something is really prebiotic (compounds formed before life on Earth), everybody looks at me and asks, ‘Is that so?’.” 

Liotta remembers when, in the late 1990s, Hud first drafted a proposal for establishing the CCE at Georgia Tech. At the time, Liotta’s research was in the area of physical organic chemistry. “In physical-organic chemistry we study how reactions take place and the relationship between molecular structure and the properties of molecules. Previous to my participation in the CCE, I had never been involved in origins of life research,” he recalls.

Liotta read Hud’s proposal and immediately called him to congratulate him on proposing exciting and fundamental science. “I said this is really an interesting area of science. Nick asked me if I would like to be a part of the Center. I immediately said yes. I visualized that my contribution would be to bring the principles of physical-organic chemistry into the origins of life research."   

Recently, Liotta and fellow CCE collaborator Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy, an associate professor of Chemistry at Scripps Research Institute, were awarded a $1 million NASA grant for their research on the origins of simple sugars. Liotta cites his working relationship with Krishnamurthy as a direct result of his association with the CCE, and credits Hud and Conwell for bringing them together.

“Christine and Nick are fantastic leaders,” he says. “They not only held everything together, but they created an atmosphere where there was excitement about discovery.”

Count Liotta in on that excitement. “All I know is that my participation in the CCE was a very positive experience, and I got to meet a lot of people that I would have never collaborated with if it weren’t for the center. The CCE was a vehicle for interaction with excellent scientists — and a vehicle for me to be introduced to new and interesting science.”

]]> Renay San Miguel 1 1610463585 2021-01-12 14:59:45 1610725700 2021-01-15 15:48:20 0 0 news The Center for Chemical Evolution at Georgia Tech is ending its 10-year mission with scientific accomplishments and influence among origins of life researchers, while preparing the next generation of scientists. 

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2021-01-15T00:00:00-05:00 2021-01-15T00:00:00-05:00 2021-01-15 00:00:00 Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

 

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642956 642955 642957 588112 634622 41138 642956 image <![CDATA[Center for Chemical Evolution staff with mural (2018 pic by Georgia Tech)]]> image/png 1610660071 2021-01-14 21:34:31 1610660071 2021-01-14 21:34:31 642955 image <![CDATA[Center for Chemical Evolution mural depicting related scientific advances (Art: Christine He/David Fialho for Georgia Tech)]]> image/png 1610659948 2021-01-14 21:32:28 1610659948 2021-01-14 21:32:28 642957 image <![CDATA[A Center for Chemical Evolution lab.]]> image/png 1610660975 2021-01-14 21:49:35 1610660975 2021-01-14 21:49:35 588112 image <![CDATA[Nick Hud]]> image/jpeg 1488314795 2017-02-28 20:46:35 1488314795 2017-02-28 20:46:35 634622 image <![CDATA[Christine Conwell, former managing director of the Center for Chemical Evolution ]]> image/png 1587505181 2020-04-21 21:39:41 1587505181 2020-04-21 21:39:41 41138 image <![CDATA[Charles Liotta]]> image/jpeg 1449174275 2015-12-03 20:24:35 1475894364 2016-10-08 02:39:24 <![CDATA[The Helix, of DNA Fame, May Have Arisen with Startling Ease]]> <![CDATA[Asteroid “Time Capsules” May Help Explain How Life Started on Earth]]> <![CDATA[Harnessing the Power of Evolution]]> <![CDATA[Silica May Have Helped Form Protein Precursors in Prebiotic Earth]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Researchers Expand Utility of Common Reagent]]>
<![CDATA[A Stellar Achievement]]> 27863 New IRIM Research Faculty and Senior Clinical Research Scientist in the School of Mechanical Engineering Ms. Kinsey Herrin has garnered her first major grant award through the DoD’s CDMRP OPORP program. This $350K award will fund a Phase I clinical trial with above knee amputees with microprocessor knee technology, including technology from the Exoskeleton and Prosthetic Intelligent Controls (EPIC) Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  

The EPIC lab, under the leadership of Professor Aaron Young, has successful ongoing orthotics projects for powered knee/ankle prosthesis with Shriners Hospitals for Children®. Professor Young noted that Ms. Herrin drafted the grant application and justifications and is the lead clinician on the grant, “…a great accomplishment for her first year as a research scientist. This would not have been possible without her support and involvement.”

The Exoskeleton and Prosthetic Intelligent Controls (EPIC) Lab at Georgia Tech, led by Prof.  Aaron Young, is devoted to the design and improvement of powered orthotic and prosthetic control systems. The EPIC lab capabilities include the ability to characterize robotic devices and controller implementation from the ground up, starting at fabrication and bench-top testing, to controller optimization, and measuring the effects on human performance outcomes.

The goal of the CDMRP OPORP is to improve understanding and advance the implementation of the most effective prescriptions for prosthetic and orthotic devices, treatment, rehabilitation, and secondary health effect prevention options for patients, clinicians, other caregivers, and policymakers. 

- Christa Ernst

]]> Christa Ernst 1 1610632978 2021-01-14 14:02:58 1610632978 2021-01-14 14:02:58 0 0 news 2021-01-14T00:00:00-05:00 2021-01-14T00:00:00-05:00 2021-01-14 00:00:00 642931 642931 image <![CDATA[Kinsey Herrin]]> image/jpeg 1610632803 2021-01-14 14:00:03 1610632803 2021-01-14 14:00:03
<![CDATA[New Instrument Will Uncover Structure and Chemical Composition on Sub-Cell Scale]]> 27303 A new imaging instrument able to simultaneously study both the surface of a biological sample and its chemical composition is the goal of a three-year, $1.2 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) research award. Combining information from analysis of the chemical composition and physical structure of the surface of cells, tissues and even individual biomolecules inside the cells could provide a new way to study tumor growth, disease progression, cell function, and other key issues.

The technology being developed, termed Beam Enabled Accurate Mapping & Molecular Analyte Profiling (BeamMap), combines data from scanning electron microscopy and a new mode of desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI-MS) to simultaneously determine surface topology and chemical makeup. BeamMap uses an electron beam and a focused nanospray of electrified liquid to gather the two types of information, which is correlated with help of image processing software. The research is funded by the National Institute of Health’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS).

“To make this breakthrough tool, we need to be able to provide both topological and chemical information at resolutions on the scale of micrometers and sub-micrometers to be able to discover molecular makeup and biological function at a sub-cellular level,” said Andrei Fedorov, Professor and Rae S. and Frank H. Neely Chair in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “This will require simultaneous advances, and we will be pushing the limits of both imaging tools and what mass spectrometers can do.”

Because of the use of mass spectrometry for molecular sensing, BeamMap will be able to characterize proteins, metabolites, and lipid chemistry without requiring an a priori knowledge of what chemical species are present. With its ability to correlate chemical information with topological information acquired with focused electron and ion-spray beams in vacuum, the new instrument is expected to provide an order of magnitude improvement in the resolution of electrospray-based techniques, with chemical imaging resolution of approximately 250 nanometers and electron microscopy topological resolution of about 50 nanometers. BeamMap should be useful in fundamental and clinical biology, medicine, analytical chemistry, and bioengineering. 

“Processes that are currently invisible to us could actually be seen using BeamMap, so we will have evidence for things we can only speculate about now,” Fedorov said. “Being able to see what is happening at the subcellular level will allow us to get a better understanding of how biological systems behave. That will allow us to create hypotheses for how cells and tissues interact with the environment, potentially leading to a whole host of new therapeutic applications.”

Among the major challenges that require an innovative research approach are the creation of soft ionization and highly local sample extraction necessary for keeping the biomolecules intact and the ability to effectively deliver the charged molecules to the vacuum environment of the mass spectrometer, he said. 

“We will need to fine-tune the energy of the beam that sprays on the substrate to provide the resolution we need,” Fedorov said. “We need to extract live biomolecules and ionize them without disrupting their structure. To do this, we will have to use the softest possible ionization.”

The instrument will use the electrospray technique to create charged molecules of solvent focused in a beam about 100 nanometers in diameter. As the beam of charged solvent molecules hits the surface of the biological sample, it will ablate molecules from sample’s surface and move them into the surrounding vacuum environment of the SEM imaging chamber. The molecules will be charged and volatilized by the impinging nano-electrospray at a precisely tuned energy input, and then be extracted for immediate analysis in the mass spectrometer.

In parallel, an electron beam that can be focused down to 10 nanometers will be scanning and profiling the structures and features of the surfaces from which the molecules are being extracted by the electrospray. Correlating data from the two beams will provide information about the chemical makeup of the cell surface, the organelles and intracellular structures being imaged topologically.

Using multiple passes of the two beams will allow removal of layers from the samples, allowing internal structures to be mapped. Fedorov said producing each image will require several minutes, the timing limited by the speed at which the samples can be moved into the mass spectrometer and analyzed.

The characterization will be done in an electron microscope vacuum chamber, with the samples on a stage that can be moved in three dimensions. The stage will also provide cooling and hydration for the living samples during the imaging process.

The idea for the instrument came from a discussion with Andrés García, Regents' Professor in the George Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and executive director of Georgia Tech’s Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. García studies pancreatic cells as part of research into diabetes, and plans to use information from the new technique to develop a better understanding of the disease.

“BeamMap is an exciting technological advance that will provide unparalleled biological and chemical information with high spatial resolution to analyze complex biological processes,” García said. “We are very much looking forward to applying it to understand diabetes disease progression.”

This research was supported by Award 1R01GM138802-01 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) of the National Institutes of Health. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NIH.

Research News
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Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu)

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1610415135 2021-01-12 01:32:15 1610415193 2021-01-12 01:33:13 0 0 news A new imaging instrument able to simultaneously study both the surface of a biological sample and its chemical composition is the goal of a three-year, $1.2 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) research award. Combining information from analysis of the chemical composition and physical structure of the surface of cells, tissues and even individual biomolecules inside the cells could provide a new way to study tumor growth, disease progression, cell function, and other key issues.

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2021-01-11T00:00:00-05:00 2021-01-11T00:00:00-05:00 2021-01-11 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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642823 642824 642823 image <![CDATA[BeamMap combines electron beam and electrospray]]> image/jpeg 1610414387 2021-01-12 01:19:47 1610414387 2021-01-12 01:19:47 642824 image <![CDATA[Mass spectrometer and scanning electron microscope]]> image/jpeg 1610414498 2021-01-12 01:21:38 1610414498 2021-01-12 01:21:38
<![CDATA[Bridging the Genomic Divide: King Jordan Lab Focusing on Precision Public Health in the U.S.]]> 35185 The study of pharmacogenomics – the merger of pharmacology with genomics – is an exploration of how an individual’s genes respond to certain drugs, with the hope of developing effective drugs and doses tailored to a patient’s genetic makeup, therefore advancing personalized precision medicine.

But just as there are well-documented disparities in health and health care, there is a pharmacogenomic research gap.

“The vast majority of clinical genomics research that serves as the foundation for the potential revolution in personalized health care is conducted on people of white European ancestry,” noted Georgia Institute of Technology researcher King Jordan. “Under-represented minorities are not participating as much in this research, people who already bear a disproportionate health burden. If we don’t address this genomic research gap, it has the potential to exacerbate existing disparities.”

Jordan and his collaborators work to bridge the divide in a paper they recently published in the journal BME Biology, entitled, “Population structure and pharmacogenomic risk stratification in the United States.” This research follows up on a similar pharmacogenomic study the lab published in 2019, addressing the concept of precision public medicine in Colombia.

“We broaden our lens from the focus on individuals – which is really the focus of precision medicine – to a focus on the level of populations,” said Jordan, a professor in the School of Biology and director of the Bioinformatics Graduate Program at Tech, whose collaborators on the study were lead author Shashwat Deepali Nagar (a Bioinformatics graduate student in Jordan’s lab) and Andrew Conley (a scientist with the Applied Bioinformatics Laboratory, ABiL, a collaboration between Georgia Tech, IHRC, Inc., and ASRT, Inc.).

“Whereas precision medicine is built around the mantra of ‘the right treatment to the right patient at the right time,’ the mantra with precision public health is ‘the right intervention for the right population at the right time,’” explained Jordan.

For the U.S. study, his team set out to compare the utility of self-identified race/ethnicity (SIRE, the kind of information that is readily available to clinicians) with genetic ancestry (GA, the kind of information that isn’t), identifying pharmacogenomic variants, which mediate how individuals respond to drugs.

“We hypothesized that genetic ancestry would provide higher resolution for stratifying pharmacogenomic risk,” said King, whose team focused on the three largest SIRE groups in the U.S. – White, Black (African-American), and Hispanic (Latino). They analyzed a cohort of 8,628 individuals for whom the team had both SIRE information and whole genome genotypes – data that had been collected from the University of Michigan’s Health and Retirement Study.

King and his colleagues found that genomic ancestry did, in fact, provide a higher resolution for stratifying risk at the population level – but not my much. Ultimately, they report, genetic ancestry provided only a marginal increase over SIRE in pharmacogenomic risk stratification. In light of such concordance, the researchers conclude that SIRE is clinically valuable for stratifying risk, supporting the concept of population pharmacogenomics, and consequently, precision public health.

“The idea is to use population structure as a surrogate or a proxy for genetic information, in making clinical decisions on, say, which drug to prescribe,” said King, who quickly points out that the concept of population pharmacogenomics is just a temporary solution to help address health disparities.

“We point out that it this is a suboptimal solution, albeit one that will benefit those groups that are underrepresented in biomedical research,” said King. “We’re working toward a best case scenario, when everyone will have access to their genetic or genomic information. The reality is, we aren’t there yet. So the hope is that this genomic research gap will begin to close and more people will have access to their genomic information, in which case this population stratification will become obsolete.”

Basically, the approach King and his team are advocating would avoid what he calls, “the one-size fits all approach to drug prescription. The populations that currently are underrepresented in medical research stand the most to gain by considering population structure when making treatment decisions. Conversely, they stand the most to lose when it isn’t considered.”

CITATION: Shashwat Deepali Nagar, Andrew B. Conley, I. King Jordan, “Population structure and pharmacogenomic risk stratification in the United States.” (BMC Biology, 2020) https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-020-00875-4

]]> kpietkiewicz3 1 1609782188 2021-01-04 17:43:08 1609806394 2021-01-05 00:26:34 0 0 news In a paper recently published in the journal BME Biology, Jordan and his collaborators work to bridge the pharmacogenomic research gap.

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2021-01-04T00:00:00-05:00 2021-01-04T00:00:00-05:00 2021-01-04 00:00:00 Jessica Hunt-Ralston
Communications Director
College of Sciences 
404-385-5207

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622542 642474 622541 642475 622542 image <![CDATA[King Jordan]]> image/jpeg 1560789513 2019-06-17 16:38:33 1560789513 2019-06-17 16:38:33 642474 image <![CDATA[Race, ethnicity, and genetic ancestry in the US.]]> image/png 1609782323 2021-01-04 17:45:23 1609782323 2021-01-04 17:45:23 622541 image <![CDATA[Shashwat Nagar]]> image/jpeg 1560789484 2019-06-17 16:38:04 1560789484 2019-06-17 16:38:04 642475 image <![CDATA[Andrew Conley]]> image/png 1609782442 2021-01-04 17:47:22 1609782442 2021-01-04 17:47:22 <![CDATA[King Jordan Lab]]> <![CDATA[Population structure and pharmacogenomic risk stratification in the United States]]>
<![CDATA[Spontaneous Robot Dances Highlight a New Kind of Order in Active Matter]]> 27303 Predicting when and how collections of particles, robots, or animals become orderly remains a challenge across science and engineering.

In the 19th century, scientists and engineers developed the discipline of statistical mechanics, which predicts how groups of simple particles transition between order and disorder, as when a collection of randomly colliding atoms freezes to form a uniform crystal lattice.

More challenging to predict are the collective behaviors that can be achieved when the particles become more complicated, such that they can move under their own power. This type of system — observed in bird flocks, bacterial colonies, and robot swarms — goes by the name "active matter.”

As reported in the January 1, 2021 issue of the journal Science, a team of physicists and engineers have proposed a new principle by which active matter systems can spontaneously order, without need for higher level instructions or even programmed interaction among the agents. And they have demonstrated this principle in a variety of systems, including groups of periodically shape-changing robots called "smarticles" — smart, active particles.

The theory, developed by Postdoctoral Researcher Pavel Chvykov at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while a student of Prof. Jeremy England, who is now a researcher in the School of Physics at Georgia Institute of Technology, posits that certain types of active matter with sufficiently messy dynamics will spontaneously find what the researchers refer to as "low rattling" states.

“Rattling is when matter takes energy flowing into it and turns it into random motion,” England said. “Rattling can be greater either when the motion is more violent, or more random. Conversely, low rattling is either very slight or highly organized — or both. So, the idea is that if your matter and energy source allow for the possibility of a low rattling state, the system will randomly rearrange until it finds that state and then gets stuck there. If you supply energy through forces with a particular pattern, this means the selected state will discover a way for the matter to move that finely matches that pattern.”

To develop their theory, England and Chvykov took inspiration from a phenomenon — dubbed thermophoresis — discovered by the Swiss physicist Charles Soret in the late 19th century. In Soret's experiments, he discovered that subjecting an initially uniform salt solution in a tube to a difference in temperature would spontaneously lead to an increase in salt concentration in the colder region — which corresponds to an increase in order of the solution. 

Chvykov and England developed numerous mathematical models to demonstrate the low rattling principle, but it wasn't until they connected with Daniel Goldman, Dunn Family Professor of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology, that they were able to test their predictions. 

Said Goldman, "A few years back, I saw England give a seminar and thought that some of our smarticle robots might prove valuable to test this theory." Working with Chvykov, who visited Goldman's lab, Ph.D. students William Savoie and Akash Vardhan used three flapping smarticles enclosed in a ring to compare experiments to theory. The students observed that instead of displaying complicated dynamics and exploring the container completely, the robots would spontaneously self-organize into a few dances — for example, one dance consists of three robots slapping each other's arms in sequence. These dances could persist for hundreds of flaps, but suddenly lose stability and be replaced by a dance of a different pattern.

After first demonstrating that these simple dances were indeed low rattling states, Chvykov worked with engineers at Northwestern University, Prof. Todd Murphey and Ph.D. student Thomas Berrueta, who developed more refined and better controlled smarticles. The improved smarticles allowed the researchers to test the limits of the theory, including how the types and number of dances varied for different arm flapping patterns, as well as how these dances could be controlled. "By controlling sequences of low rattling states, we were able to make the system reach configurations that do useful work," Berrueta said. The Northwestern University researchers say that these findings may have broad practical implications for micro-robotic swarms, active matter, and metamaterials.

As England noted: “For robot swarms, it’s about getting many adaptive and smart group behaviors that you can design to be realized in a single swarm, even though the individual robots are relatively cheap and computationally simple. For living cells and novel materials, it might be about understanding what the ‘swarm’ of atoms or proteins can get you, as far as new material or computational properties.”

The study’s Georgia Tech-based team includes Jeremy L. England, a Physics of Living Systems scientist who researches with the School of Physics; Dunn Family Professor Daniel Goldman; professor Kurt Wiesenfeld, and graduate students Akash Vardhan (Quantitative Biosciences) and William Savoie (School of Physics). They join Pavel Chvykov (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), along with professor Todd D. Murphey and graduate students Thomas A. Berrueta and Alexander Samland of Northwestern University.

This material is based on work supported by the Army Research Office under awards from ARO W911NF-18-1-0101, ARO MURI Award W911NF-19-1-0233, ARO W911NF-13-1-0347, by the National Science Foundation under grants PoLS-0957659, PHY-1205878, PHY-1205878, PHY-1205878, and DMR-1551095, NSF CBET-1637764, by the James S. McDonnell Foundation Scholar Grant 220020476, and the Georgia Institute of Technology Dunn Family Professorship. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agencies.

CITATION: Chvykov & Berrueta, et al., “Low rattling: A predictive principle for self-organization in active collectives,” (Science 2021). https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6524/90/tab-pdf

]]> John Toon 1 1609442532 2020-12-31 19:22:12 1609442995 2020-12-31 19:29:55 0 0 news Researchers have proposed a new principle by which active matter systems can spontaneously order, without need for higher level instructions or even programmed interaction among the agents. And they have demonstrated this principle in a variety of systems, including groups of periodically shape-changing robots called "smarticles."

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2020-12-31T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-31T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-31 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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<![CDATA[Ethier Wins Lissner Medal]]> 28153 C. Ross Ethier recently became the fourth researcher from the Georgia Institute of Technology to win the prestigious H.R. Lissner Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. All four have been part of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

“I’m really honored. This is a big deal for me, since this is my professional community,” said Ethier, who follows previous winners from Tech, Bob Nerem (1989), Don Giddens (1993), and Ajit Yoganathan (1997). “I’m proud to join some illustrious names on the list. It’s kind of cool because it speaks to the tradition, history, and impact of Georgia Tech in biomechanics.”

The Lissner Medal, established in 1977 by the Bioengineering Division of ASME, “is the highest honor bestowed by the division and it’s based on a career’s worth of achievement,” noted Michele Grimm, Michigan State professor who chairs the medal committee.

The former head of the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London, Ethier was originally trained as a mechanical engineer and his research homes in on the biomechanics and mechanobiology of cells, tissues, and organs, with the goal of understanding how cells respond to mechanical stimuli, and how that response affects the function and properties of tissues and organs. His lab focuses specifically on understanding and developing treatments for glaucoma and VIIP, a condition affecting astronauts’ visual health.

“I was fortunate to have supervised Ross early in my career, as he set the gold standard for all students afterward,” said Roger Kamm, Ethier’s former advisor and former Lissner Medal winner. Kamm is a professor of biological and mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Ethier earned his Ph.D.

“I mean this not only in terms of his uncanny ability to identify and pursue the most critical research questions, but also his personal integrity and his ability to inspire those around him: Ross was and has continued to be the kind of researcher, leader, and person that we all strive to be,” Kamm added. “He epitomizes what the Lissner Medal is all about.”

In nominating Ethier for the medal, University of Minnesota Biomedical Engineering Professor Victor Barocas wrote that his contributions to the bioengineering community are deep and wide: associate editor of the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, program chair for numerous conferences, division chair, service on award committees, all while making “major research contributions (especially in the area of ocular mechanics), being an outstanding educator, and taking leadership roles at his home institutions.”

“Very few people in the biomedical engineering business share Ross’s commitment to good science, positive social impact, and education of the next generation of engineers,” Barocas wrote.

Ethier said the honor is a testament to other people who share in the heavy lifting: “All the folks who have worked in my lab over the years. It’s the students and other researchers, my valued collaborators, and the people who mentored me that make this special. It takes a village.”

 

]]> Jerry Grillo 1 1609123207 2020-12-28 02:40:07 1609123353 2020-12-28 02:42:33 0 0 news BME professor honored by ASME for a “career’s worth of achievement”

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2020-12-27T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-27T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-27 00:00:00 642321 642321 image <![CDATA[Ross Ethier]]> image/jpeg 1609123184 2020-12-28 02:39:44 1609123184 2020-12-28 02:39:44
<![CDATA[NIH-Funded Project Will Use Micro and Macro to Understand Our Dynamic Brains]]> 28153 Shella Keilholz and Garrett Stanley both study the brain, but sometimes it’s like they’re looking at two completely different organs. Keilholz works at the systems level, the whole organ. Stanley gets down to the individual neuron.

With the support of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), they’re going to work to marry the two approaches and unlock new understanding of how our brains function — macro and micro.

“The goal is to develop an entirely new theoretical and computational framework for connecting different scales of complex brain activity through cutting-edge approaches in brain imaging and electrophysiology, data sciences, and machine learning,” said Stanley, Carol Ann and David D. Flanagan Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. “We have assembled a team of investigators who will span experimental and computational areas.”

The team will be led by Keilholz, principal investigator for the project titled “Crossing Space and Time: Uncovering the Nonlinear Dynamics of Multimodal and Multiscale Brain Activity,” which has been awarded $1.1 million over three years through the NIH’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative. Assistant Professor Chethan Pandarinath also is part of the research team.

The team intends to avoid the limitations of previous brain studies, which have focused on individual cells or circuits, instead approaching the brain, “as a complex, dynamic system with activity occurring at many different space and time scales, from single synapses at a millisecond to whole brain modulation at minutes, days, even years,” said Keilholz, herself on a second BRAIN Initiative project. “To tie these things together, you need different imaging modalities, because you can’t measure the same sort of activity across scales with the same approach.”

It’s a collaboration that Keilholz and Stanley have been contemplating for about 10 years, since they first taught a class together.

“Garrett works more at the cellular level, and I work more at the systems level, and we want to try to meet in the middle,” Keilholz said.

Stanley added: “Shella is coming from the human-imaging side of things, and I’m coming from the single-cell side. She was coming from one angle and I was coming from another, and over time, we started to speak each other’s language.”

Stanley’s lab at Georgia Tech listens to the brain’s conversations at the cellular level, focusing on the pathways and circuits underlying sensory activity, using multisite, multielectrode recording, optical imaging, behavior, and patterned stimulation with the long-term goal of providing some surrogate control for circuits involved in sensory signaling, for normal function and for pathways injured through trauma or disease.

The Keilholz Mind Lab, which is located at Emory, uses noninvasive functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) “to cover the whole brain, but you’re not looking at neural activity directly, you’re looking at things related to the hemodynamic response instead. With this BRAIN Initiative proposal, the idea is to nudge up to what Garrett’s doing.”

The idea, essentially, is to merge Keilholz’s systems-wide imaging with Stanley’s more invasive localized probing at the neuron level, “something we can bridge over into a noninvasive technique that can ultimately be applied in humans,” she said.

Pandarinath’s Systems Neural Engineering Lab, with its deep expertise in machine learning, “is expected to develop the tools we need to go from one scale to another and from invasive to noninvasive,” Keilholz said.

It’s the latest effort in trying to eavesdrop, look at, and understand the human brain, with its complex galaxy of 100 billion chattering neurons holding cellular conversations through more than 100 trillion synaptic connections — a dense and noisy communication network wrapped within a three-pound mass of tissue packed snugly inside our skulls.

Keilholz, Stanley, and Pandarinath are hoping to make more sense of the whole package, therefore developing a better understanding of the problems underlying disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, autism, depression, traumatic brain injury, and a rogues’ gallery of other of other maladies that continue to take a devastating toll on people and society.

“Ultimately, we are focused on human health and neurological diseases and disorders, which currently do not have adequate treatments, because these things occur in such complex ways, affecting entire circuits and networks,” Stanley said.

Keilholz said she thinks in terms of what she called “brain weather, using these things to know it’s likely to be a sunny day or a stormy day, to look for long-term changes in climate that might be mental health problems or other problems.

What we all really want to do is be able to look at a person’s brain and say, ‘This is why you are depressed,’ or ‘This is why this is happening, so let’s drive that back to normal,’” she said. “That’s what we’re ultimately going for.”

]]> Jerry Grillo 1 1609121885 2020-12-28 02:18:05 1611011164 2021-01-18 23:06:04 0 0 news Keilholz, Stanley, Pandarinath ‘Crossing Space and Time’ in New $1.1M Collaboration

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<![CDATA[Dissecting Atherosclerosis at the Single Cell Level: Tasting Each Piece of a Fruit Salad]]> 27446 By Quinn Eastman, Emory University Research News

More than a decade ago, Hanjoong Jo and colleagues developed an elegant animal model allowing the dissection of atherosclerosis. It was the first to definitively show that disturbed patterns of blood flow determine where atherosclerotic plaques will later appear.

In atherosclerosis, arterial walls thicken and harden because of a gradual build-up of lipids, cholesterol and white blood cells, which occurs over the course of years in humans. The Jo lab’s model involves restricting blood flow in the carotid artery of mice, which are fed a high-fat diet and also have mutations in a gene (ApoE) involved in processing fat and cholesterol. The physical intervention causes atherosclerosis to appear within a couple weeks. Inflammation in endothelial cells, which line blood vessels, is visible within 48 hours.

Now Jo’s lab has combined the model with recently developed techniques that permit scientists to see molecular changes in single cells. The results were published Dec. 15 in Cell Reports.

Jo’s lab is in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Emory and Georgia Tech.

Previously, when they saw inflammation in blood vessels, researchers could not distinguish between intrinsic changes in endothelial cells (ECs) and immune or other cells infiltrating into the blood vessel lining.

A video made by Harvard scientists who developed the single cell techniques describes the difference like this. Looking at the molecules in cells with standard techniques is like making a fruit smoothie – everything is blended together. But single cell techniques allow them to taste and evaluate each piece of fruit individually.

With the single cell analysis, researchers in Jo’s lab saw that under disturbed flow conditions, endothelial cells begin to display surprising changes in their gene activity. It’s not only that endothelial cells are becoming more pro-inflammatory, they look like they are changing into immune cells. There were also signs of some endothelial cells de-differentiating – becoming more like mesenchymal (stromal) or progenitor cells. In terms of development, endothelial cells are derived from mesoderm and are thus related to hematopoetic (blood forming) cells, but it’s still striking how “plastic” or changeable they are.

“Disturbed flow reprograms ECs to take up a new profile that matches to that of immune cells,” said coauthor and assistant professor Sandeep Kumar. “Whether they completely transform to immune cells is not clear yet.”

He added: “The novel role of disturbed flow that induces ECs to take up a new profile that matches to that of either mesenchymal cells, immune cells or a mix of the two. This also emphasizes the profound effect of mechanical cues on ECs in addition to the biochemical/ humoral cues that are contributed by metabolism and genetics.”

The single cell techniques are fascinating. Cells are encapsulated in droplets, and droplets carry DNA “barcodes” that uniquely labels cDNAs from a single cell. In a related technique, a transposase enzyme inserts adapters into accessible regions of chromatin. However, Kumar said that the most difficult aspect of the single-cell analysis was isolation of healthy viable single cell preparations from carotid tissues: “Good cells lead to good data.”

The first author of the paper is postdoctoral fellow Aitor Andueza Lizarraga. This work was supported by the National Heart Lung Blood Institute (HL119798, HL095070, and HL139757), and the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance (UL1TR002378), the Emory Integrated Genomics Core and the Wallace H. Coulter Distinguished Faculty Chair Professorship.

]]> Joshua Stewart 1 1608224012 2020-12-17 16:53:32 1608323165 2020-12-18 20:26:05 0 0 news Disturbed blood flow in arteries can lead endothelial cells reprogram themselves and take on characteristics of immune cells.

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2020-12-17T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-17T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-17 00:00:00 Quinn Eastman

Emory University Research News

404.727.7829

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642195 642196 642195 image <![CDATA[Bowl of Fruit Salad]]> image/jpeg 1608223311 2020-12-17 16:41:51 1608223311 2020-12-17 16:41:51 642196 image <![CDATA[Mouse Aorta Diagram]]> image/jpeg 1608223370 2020-12-17 16:42:50 1608223370 2020-12-17 16:42:50 <![CDATA[Endothelial Reprogramming by Disturbed Flow Revealed by Single-Cell RNA and Chromatin Accessibility Study]]>
<![CDATA[Santangelo Using NIH Grant to Prevent HIV in Women]]> 28153 Around the world, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has infected about 36 million people, and 1.8 million new cases emerge every year, with more than 90 percent of the infections spread through sexual contact. It remains a disease embedded in social and economic inequality, affecting impoverished communities across the globe at a disproportionately high rate.

There have been hopeful developments – anti-retroviral therapy has improved the outlook of HIV-infected patients. And recently approved pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis regimens have proven to work. But these preventive measures have potential side effects, require strict daily adherence, don’t really prevent other sexually transmitted infections, and they’re expensive.

Addressing the need for a better, more affordable approach, Georgia Institute of Technology researcher Phil Santangelo has been awarded a $3.5 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop a low-cost, self-applied, durable system based on messenger RNA (mRNA) to deliver neutralizing antibodies to prevent HIV in women.

The Santangelo team’s approach provides protection within a few hours, and one application lasts at least a month. And it might be just the beginning of what Santangelo calls, “next-generation mRNA drugs on the horizon. We’re also working on expressing antibodies against other infectious agents and hope to create a suite of mRNA-based prophylaxis to prevent infection from a wide range of pathogens,” said Santangelo, a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

This is the latest phase of his lab’s work using synthetic mRNA as a delivery system for therapeutic antibodies. In a 2018 study, the team explored using mRNA to supply antibodies directly to the lungs, via aerosol, to prevent respiratory syncytial virus infection. And last year, Santangelo won an NIH/National Institute of Child Health and Development grant to develop a new mRNA-mediated system in which antibodies are introduced into the female reproductive tract to inhibit sperm function.

This new R01 grant, awarded in September, will support work Santangelo and his colleagues described earlier this year in the journal Molecular Therapy. The title of the paper also provides an apt description of the team’s approach: “Aerosol Delivery of Synthetic mRNA to Vaginal Mucosa Leads to Durable Expression of Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies against HIV.”

The vaginal mucosa are mucous membranes that protect the skin inside the vaginal cavity. It makes a good platform for delivering drugs locally and systemically because of its large surface area, high degree of vascularization, avoidance of first-pass metabolism by the liver, good drug permeability, and its accessibility for self-application. Santangelo’s team hypothesized, based on previous work, that aerosolizing mRNA diluted in water could transfect the female genital tract, where infected cells rapidly permeate. The use of water as a solvent increased the rate at which small-molecule drugs and nanoparticles reached the vaginal epithelial surface.

Using the mucosa as a platform, the team demonstrated in animal models that aerosolized mRNA induced the expression of antibody PGT121 at high concentrations in the vagina and cervix.

“Overall, we present a new paradigm to deliver neutralizing antibodies to the female reproductive tract for the prevention of HIV infections,” the researchers wrote.

Easy to apply as a spray, expression is achieved quickly through aerosol delivery and the preventive effects last at least a month, according to the team’s data.

“We’re working on increasing that durability,” Santangelo said. “The whole point is to develop approaches that give women some control over their health. There’s lots of work to do in this space, but I think we can make a real difference in women’s lives.”

 

 

]]> Jerry Grillo 1 1608209348 2020-12-17 12:49:08 1608209348 2020-12-17 12:49:08 0 0 news BME researcher developing low-cost, self-applied, durable system based on mRNA

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<![CDATA[FDA Enlists Georgia Tech to Establish Best Practices for RNA-sequencing]]> 27303 Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has emerged as an important high throughput technology in biomedical research and translation for its ability to accurately capture genetic information. But choosing proper analysis methods for identifying biomarkers from high throughput data remains a critical challenge for most users. 

For instance, RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) is an NGS technology that examines the presence and quantity of RNA in biological samples, and it requires bioinformatics analysis to make sense of it all. However, there are hundreds of bioinformatics tools with different data analysis pipelines that result in various results for the same dataset. This can significantly hinder the ability to reliably reproduce RNA-seq related research and applications, especially for the regulatory approval process by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 

Choosing the right analysis model and tool to do the proper job for high throughput data analysis remains a great challenge. So the FDA invited a team of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology to conduct a comprehensive investigation of RNA-seq data analysis pipelines for gene expression estimation to recommend best practices. 

“No common standard for selecting high throughput RNA-seq data analysis tools has been established yet. This has been a huge challenge for studying hundreds of tools that form tens of thousands of analysis pipelines,” noted May Dongmei Wang, a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University who led the investigation.

Wang and her colleagues presented their results in the journal Nature Scientific Reports. In their study, the researchers developed three metrics – accuracy, precision, and reliability – and systematically evaluated 278 representative NGS RNA-seq pipelines. 

“We demonstrate that those RNA-seq pipelines performing well in gene expression estimation will lead to the improved downstream prediction of disease outcome. This is an important discovery,” said Wang, corresponding author of the paper, “Impact of RNA-seq Data Analysis Algorithms on Gene Expression Estimation and Downstream Prediction.”

She added, “Because the FDA is a regulatory agency for approving novel medical devices for NGS-genomics to be utilized in daily clinical practices for personalized and precision medicine and health, it is critical to see whether gene expression generated from RNA-seq acquisition and analysis pipeline are reproducible and reliable.”

The team’s comprehensive investigation revealed that the high throughput RNA-seq data quantification modules – mapping, quantification, and normalization – jointly impacted the accuracy, precision, and reliability of gene expression estimation, which in turn affected the downstream clinical outcome prediction (as shown in two cancer case studies of neuroblastoma and lung adenocarcinoma).

“Clinicians and biomedical researchers can use our findings to select RNA-seq pipelines for their clinical practice or research,” Wang said. “And bioinformaticians can use these benchmark datasets, results, and metrics to develop and evaluate new RNA-seq tools and pipelines.”

But one size does not fit every need, as in any machine learning paradigm, Wang noted. 

“The machine learning and algorithms are heavily dependent on goals,” she said. “Thus, based on our extensive experience in biomedical big data analytics and AI for almost two decades, we suggested that the FDA identify top goals for clinical genomics applications first. Based on different needs, different RNA-seq pipelines will be selected to achieve the optimal performance.”

In addition to Wang, the research team included lead author Li Tong, Po-Yen Wu, John H. Phan, Hamid R. Hassazadeh, Weida Tong, and members of the FDA’s Sequencing Quality Control project (Wendell D. Jones, Leming Shi, Matthias Fischer, Christopher E. Mason, Sheng Li, Joshua Xu, Wei Shi, Jian Wang, Jean Thierry-Mieg, Danielle Thierry-Mieg, Falk Hertwig, Frank Berthold, Barbara Hero, Yang Liao, Gordon K. Smyth, David Kreil, Pawel P. Tabaj, Dalila Megherbi, Gary Schroth, and Hong Fang).

This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (U54CA119338, R01CA163256, and UL1TR000454), the National Science Foundation (EAGER Award NSF1651360), Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and Georgia Tech Partnership Grant, Giglio Breast Cancer Research Fund, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Carol Ann and David D. Flanagan Faculty Fellow Research Fund.

CITATION: Li Tong, et al., “Impact of RNA-seq Data Analysis Algorithms on Gene Expression Estimation and Downstream Prediction.” (Nature Scientific Reports 2020)

Writer: Jerry Grillo

]]> John Toon 1 1607996720 2020-12-15 01:45:20 1607997091 2020-12-15 01:51:31 0 0 news Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has emerged as an important high throughput technology in biomedical research and translation for its ability to accurately capture genetic information. But choosing proper analysis methods for identifying biomarkers from high throughput data remains a critical challenge for most users. 

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2020-12-14T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-14T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-14 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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<![CDATA[Borodovsky-Boguslavsky's Gift: Georgia Tech Couple Funds Prize for Bioinformatics ]]> 34528 After devoting almost 35 years to the field of bioinformatics, Mark Borodovsky, a Regents Professor and director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics, and his wife, Nadia Boguslavsky, a research scientist who recently retired after 25 years at Georgia Tech, are launching an Endowment for the Prize for Excellence in Bioinformatics. Open to Ph.D. students, the prize will both recognize and encourage successful research in bioinformatics at Tech.

“This recently established field of science develops new computational methods to analyze biological data generated by high-throughput technologies,” Borodovsky said. “We are talking about DNA sequences of genomes, the carriers of the genetic code of life evolving through millions and billions of years.”

The burgeoning field of bioinformatics “connects biology, computer science, math, physics, and chemistry, and is attractive to anyone who wants to understand the fundamental principles of the development of the whole tree of life,” Borodovsky said. Bioinformatics has great potential to solve real-world problems and improve people’s quality of life. One of the applications, for example, “is to help analyze genomic sequences of the Covid-19 virus determined in different countries, and to find segments important for vaccine development as well as to trace the patterns of the virus’s evolution” he said.

Borodovsky created the bioinformatics graduate program at Georgia Tech in 1999. It was the first Master of Science program in bioinformatics in the United States. The Ph.D. program followed in 2003, and “is interdepartmental, while the master’s program is based in the School of Biological Sciences,” he said. Georgia Tech currently has more than 400 bioinformatics program alumni — 351 from the master’s program and 57 from the Ph.D. program. Graduates work in industry, academia, and national laboratories across the country. 

“The bioinformatics program affords students remarkable interdisciplinary training that leaves them with a range of options for meaningful careers once they leave Georgia Tech,” said Susan Lozier, College of Sciences dean and Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair. “The College of Sciences is grateful to Mark Borodovsky and Nadia Boguslavsky for this gift — a sure sign of their dedication to the Institute and its students.”

The winner of the Prize for Excellence in Bioinformatics will be chosen by the dean of Sciences on the recommendation of a bioinformatics program committee of three faculty members representing three separate colleges.

In addition to their scientific and teaching work, Borodovsky and Boguslavsky have contributed to the Institute in other capacities. Boguslavsky has long been an active member of the Georgia Tech Faculty Women’s Club and served as a board member for the past three years. From 1997 to 2017 Borodovsky organized 11 Georgia Tech International Conferences in Bioinformatics, firmly placing Georgia Tech on the map as a key player in the field. In 1990, Borodovsky’s group was the only one conducting bioinformatics research at Georgia Tech. Today, more than 60 labs Institute-wide have bioinformatics and computational biology among their research directions. For developing novel and efficient algorithms for gene prediction in genomes of all domains of life — research work supported by multiple federal grant awards — Borodovsky was named a Fellow of the International Society of Computational Biology, recognition that he considers “the highest honor of the bioinformatics community.”

“Mark was instrumental in developing bioinformatics research and education at Georgia Tech, and we hope the prize, which we established to honor his 30 years at Georgia Tech, will keep that legacy alive,” Boguslavsky said.

“Bioinformatics is an exciting science presenting high intellectual challenge, along with potential for immediate applications in biotechnology and biomedicine. The enthusiasm I had when I started working in bioinformatics was very strong and continues to be so,” Borodovsky said. “I hope that new generations of researchers share the same enthusiasm for this fast growing field of science.”

Article by Jennifer Carlile, Institute Communications

]]> jhunt7 1 1607623265 2020-12-10 18:01:05 1607623421 2020-12-10 18:03:41 0 0 news After devoting almost 35 years to the field of bioinformatics, Mark Borodovsky, a Regents Professor and director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics, and his wife, Nadia Boguslavsky, a research scientist who recently retired after 25 years at Georgia Tech, are launching an Endowment for the Prize for Excellence in Bioinformatics. Open to Ph.D. students, the prize will both recognize and encourage successful research in bioinformatics at Tech.

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2020-12-10T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-10T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-10 00:00:00 Lisa Redding, Bioinformatics Program Coordinator

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<![CDATA[The Tension Between Awareness and Fatigue Shapes Covid-19 Spread]]> 34528 In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, two human factors are battling it out: awareness of the virus’s severe consequences and fatigue from nine months of pandemic precautions. The results of that battle can be seen in the oddly shaped case, hospitalization, and fatality-count graphs, a new study suggests.

The tension between awareness and fatigue can lead to case-count plateaus, shoulder-like dynamics, and oscillations as rising numbers of deaths cause people to become more cautious before they let down their guard to engage once again in behaviors that increase risk for transmission, which, in turn, leads to rising death counts — and renewed awareness.

“Epidemics don’t necessarily have a single peak after which the risk subsides,” said Joshua Weitz, Patton Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences and founding director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “People’s behaviors are both influenced by and influence epidemic dynamics, potentially driving plateaus, and oscillations in incidence.”

A paper describing the connection between human behavior and viral spread was published this month in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It was authored by researchers at Georgia Tech, McMaster University, Princeton University, and Texas A&M.

In the early days of the pandemic, many scientists turned to traditional epidemiological studies, which showed epidemic cases could rise to a peak and then fall smoothly as immunity to the infection reached high levels in a population in the absence of large-scale interventions. Public health messages urged the population to “flatten the curve” to prevent disease from overwhelming hospitals.

“We were concerned that a focus on ‘the peak’ was potentially misguided because it implied that the shape was a feature of the disease alone without considering the consequence of behavior,” Weitz said. “In reality, there does not have to be a single peak during an epidemic.”

“If people are aware of the severity of the epidemic, they may change their behavior, and if they change their behavior, there will be fewer severe outcomes,” Weitz said. “But if awareness is short-term, individuals may tire of public health regulations and the virus will come roaring back. Instead of a single peak in cases, there can be plateaus or oscillations balanced between cautious behavior and relaxation.”

The research team analyzed data from the early phase of the epidemic and found evidence that the decrease in fatalities after a peak was slower than the rise toward it. However, in contrast to simple models of awareness-driven behavior, the research team also found evidence that individuals tended to increase their activity — as measured by mobility indicators — before epidemic severity waned. This means that individuals may have grown fatigued, worsening the epidemic severity. The study also found that other preventive measures, like mask wearing, have the potential to avert worst-case outcomes in disease transmission even as mobility increases in light of fatigue.

“This study underlines the importance of human behavior in driving epidemic outcomes,” said Jonathan Dushoff from the Department of Biology at McMaster University. “To make good predictions beyond the short term, we need to understand all of the factors driving human responses to the virus — fear, fatigue, information, misinformation, and so forth. We have a long way to go.” 

Weitz and Dushoff share optimism as well as concerns on the potential effects of anticipation of imminent vaccine distribution on behavior associated with transmission.

“It’s hard to be sure what impacts vaccine distribution will have on behavior,” Dushoff said. “There is concern in public health circles that people who think the vaccine is just around the corner could relax their guard. Human behavior is complicated.”

Lessons for future public health responses may help focus on the role of human behavior as well as communications that make disease impacts personal, fostering long-term awareness and changes in behavior that can reduce collective transmission.

Weitz and Dushoff coauthored the study with Sang Woo Park from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University and Professor Ceyhun Eksin from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Texas A&M.

This research was supported by the Simons Foundation (SCOPE Award ID 329108), the Army Research Office (W911NF1910384), National Institutes of Health (1R01AI46592-01), and National Science Foundation (1806606 and 1829636). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies.

CITATION: Joshua S. Weitz, Sang Woo Park, Ceyhun Eksin, and Jonathan Dushoff, “Awareness-driven Behavior Changes Can Shift the Shape of Epidemics Away from Peaks and Towards Plateaus, Shoulders and Oscillations.” (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2020) https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2009911117

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Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).

]]> jhunt7 1 1607527643 2020-12-09 15:27:23 1607535467 2020-12-09 17:37:47 0 0 news In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, two human factors are battling it out: awareness of the virus’s severe consequences and fatigue from nine months of pandemic precautions. The results of that battle can be seen in the oddly shaped case, hospitalization, and fatality-count graphs, a new study suggests.

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2020-12-08T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-08T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-08 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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<![CDATA[Hydrogel Could Open New Path for Glaucoma Treatment Without Drugs or Surgery]]> 27303 Researchers have developed a potential new treatment for the eye disease glaucoma that could replace daily eyedrops and surgery with a twice-a-year injection to control the buildup of pressure in the eye. The researchers envision the injection being done as an office procedure that could be part of regular patient visits.

The possible treatment, which could become the first non-drug, non-surgical, long-acting therapy for glaucoma, uses the injection of a natural and biodegradable material to create a viscous hydrogel — a water-absorbing crosslinked polymer structure — that opens an alternate pathway for excess fluid to leave the eye. 

“The holy grail for glaucoma is an efficient way to lower the pressure that doesn’t rely on the patient putting drops in their eyes every day, doesn’t require a complicated surgery, has minimal side effects, and has a good safety profile,” said Ross Ethier, professor and Georgia Research Alliance Lawrence L. Gellerstedt Jr. Eminent Scholar in Bioengineering in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. “I am excited about this technique, which could be a game-changer for the treatment of glaucoma.”

The research, which was supported by the National Eye Institute and the Georgia Research Alliance, was published Dec. 7 in the journal Advanced Science. The research was conducted in animals, and shows that the approach significantly lowered the intraocular pressure.

As many as 75 million people worldwide have glaucoma, which is the leading cause of irreversible blindness. Glaucoma damage is caused by excess pressure in the eye that injures the optic nerve. Current treatments attempt to reduce this intraocular pressure through the daily application of eyedrops, or through surgery or implantation of medical devices, but these treatments are often unsuccessful.

To provide an alternative, Ethier teamed up with Mark Prausnitz, professor and J. Erskine Love Jr. Chair in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech, to use a tiny hollow needle to inject a polymer preparation into a structure just below the surface of the eye called the suprachoroidal space (SCS). Inside the eye, the material chemically crosslinks to form the hydrogel, which holds open a channel in the SCS that allows aqueous humor from within the eye to drain out of the eye through the alternative pathway.

There are normally two pathways for the aqueous humor fluid to leave the eye. The dominant path is through a structure known as the trabecular meshwork, which is located at the front of the eye. The lesser pathway is through the SCS, which normally has only a very small gap. In glaucoma, the dominant pathway is blocked, so to lessen pressure, treatments are created to open the lesser pathway enough to let the aqueous humor flow out.

In this research, the hydrogel props open the SCS path. A hollow microneedle less than a millimeter long is used to inject a droplet (about 50 microliters) of the hydrogel-precursor material. That gel structure can keep the SCS pathway open for a period of months.

“We inject a viscous material and keep it at the site of the injection at the interface between the back of the eye and the front of the eye where the suprachoroidal space begins,” Prausnitz said. “By opening up that space, we tap a pathway that would not otherwise be utilized efficiently to remove liquid from the eye.”

The injection would take just a few minutes, and would involve a doctor making a small injection just below the surface of the eye in combination with numbing and cleaning the injection site. In the study, the researchers, including veterinary ophthalmologist and first author J. Jeremy Chae, did not observe significant inflammation resulting from the procedure.

The pressure reduction was sustained for four months. The researchers are now working to extend that time by modifying the polymer material — hyaluronic acid — with a goal of providing treatment benefits for at least six months. That would coincide with the office visit schedule of many patients.

“If we can get to a twice-a-year treatment, we would not disrupt the current clinical process,” Prausnitz said. “We believe the injection could be done as an office procedure during routine exams that the patients are already getting. Patients may not need to do anything to treat their glaucoma until their next office visit.”

Beyond extending the time between treatments, the researchers will need to demonstrate that the injection can be repeated without harming the eye. The procedure will also have to be tested in other animals before moving into human trials.

“The idea of having a ‘one-and-done’ treatment that lasts for six months would be particularly helpful for those whose access to healthcare is non-optimal,” Ethier said. “Having a long-acting therapy would have an additional advantage during times of pandemic or other disruption when access to healthcare is more difficult.”

This research was supported by a grant from the National Eye Institute (R01 EY025286) and by the Georgia Research Alliance. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies.

Mark Prausnitz serves as a consultant to companies, is a founding shareholder of companies, and is an inventor on patents licensed to companies developing microneedle-based products (Clearside Biomedical). These potential conflicts of interest have been disclosed and are being managed by Georgia Tech. J. Jeremy Chae, Jae Hwan Jung, Ethier, and Prausnitz are listed as co-inventors on an IP filing related to this study.

CITATION: J. Jeremy Chae, et al., “Drug-free, Non-surgical Reduction of Intraocular Pressure for Four Months After Suprachoroidal Injection of Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogel.” (Advanced Science, 2020) https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202001908

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Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu)

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1607369225 2020-12-07 19:27:05 1607369444 2020-12-07 19:30:44 0 0 news Researchers have developed a potential new treatment for the eye disease glaucoma that could replace daily eyedrops and surgery with a twice-a-year injection to control the buildup of pressure in the eye. The researchers envision the injection being done as an office procedure that could be part of regular patient visits.

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2020-12-07T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-07T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-07 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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641902 641903 641902 image <![CDATA[Close-up of Eye]]> image/jpeg 1607368440 2020-12-07 19:14:00 1607368440 2020-12-07 19:14:00 641903 image <![CDATA[Microneedle and eye]]> image/jpeg 1607368518 2020-12-07 19:15:18 1607368518 2020-12-07 19:15:18
<![CDATA[McCamish Foundation Commitment Funds Research of Parkinson’s Disease at Georgia Tech and Emory ]]> 35059 Approximately 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease every year, and more than 10 million people worldwide are living with the disease, according to the Parkinson’s Foundation (parkinson.org).

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University have received a landmark commitment to accelerate the scope and impact of Parkinson’s disease studies and to position Georgia as a hub for collaborative research on this and other neurological diseases.

The multiyear commitment from the McCamish Foundation will drive transformational research that harnesses science, engineering, and technology at Georgia Tech and Emory to better analyze the complexities of the brain and transform the treatment of Parkinson’s and other disorders of the nervous system. The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), an academic collaboration between Georgia Tech and Emory, is uniquely positioned to lead this new kind of translational neuroscience discovery driven by engineering innovation.

“For 22 years, Georgia Tech and Emory University have collaborated to improve the lives of individuals diagnosed with many of the world’s most challenging diseases. Through the sustained support of transformational philanthropy, the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering has become a national model for academic partnerships,” said Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera. “This visionary and generous commitment from the McCamish Foundation will allow us to expand and accelerate collaboration and discovery to the point that an exciting new treatment for Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders could be within our reach.”

Emory President Gregory L. Fenves added, “This generous commitment will enable Emory and Georgia Tech to build on our powerful biomedical partnership as we work to combat Parkinson’s and other devastating neurological diseases. New treatments and cures require a deep commitment — I am grateful for our friends at the McCamish Foundation who will help us make the progress and find the answers that patients and families so urgently need.”

Gordon Beckham Jr. has felt the impact of Parkinson’s personally, with the loss of his father, Hank McCamish, to the disease. Beckham now sits on the board of directors of the Parkinson’s Foundation and works to raise awareness to beat the disease. He said his goal is to build a strong research community in Georgia that will create new frontiers in the treatment of the degenerative disease.

“The McCamish Foundation has been in discussions on and off with Georgia Tech, since my dad’s passing, about innovative approaches to dealing with Parkinson’s,” said Beckham, CEO of the Atlanta-based McCamish Group LLC and president of the McCamish Foundation. “We have always been impressed by the amazing depth of talent at Tech.”

The McCamish name is well-known at Georgia Tech. Alumnus Hank McCamish, IM 1950, is the namesake of Tech’s basketball arena, McCamish Pavilion. Over the years, the family has supported numerous causes at Georgia Tech. This commitment is one of the largest in the Institute’s history and is the first of its kind for the Institute.

“More recently, we met Susan Margulies and learned of the formal biomedical engineering collaboration between Tech and Emory, two of the top institutions in the country in their respective fields,” Beckham said. “At the same time, the University of Georgia (UGA) is making major investments in Parkinson’s research. Given all this momentum within the state of Georgia, with BME as a nexus, the McCamish Foundation felt the timing was right to try something new at Tech and Emory while also leveraging the existing powerful collaboration between Tech, Emory, and UGA.”

“We already participate in robust research collaborations with Georgia Tech and Emory,” said UGA President Jere W. Morehead. “We look forward to expanding our partnerships in order to leverage the complementary strengths of our three institutions to bring new hope to those who suffer from this terrible disease.”

Beckham said The McCamish Foundation dreams of a day when all Parkinson’s related conversations begin with, “Remember when.”

The McCamish commitment will support faculty research on neurological diseases, including establishing a seed fund to support high-risk, high-reward research ventures. It will also provide fellowships for graduate students and create regular interactions among researchers at Tech, Emory, and UGA, including an annual national conference focused on Parkinson’s disease. The idea is to give researchers space to collaborate and brainstorm unconventional ideas that hold the greatest promise for significant discoveries.

“Our vision is to create the next frontier in neuroscience and neurotechnology by confronting the enormous complexities of the dynamic brain and nervous system,” said Susan Margulies, the Wallace H. Coulter Professor and Chair in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. “Our brains engage with, adapt to, and are influenced by the world around us. Studying the changing chemical and electrical brain dynamics is a direct path to detecting and treating Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders.”

###

About the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering

The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering is a partnership between Georgia Tech and Emory University. Combining the best of research and education, the department is dedicated to improving health and well-being by creating medical breakthroughs driven by engineering innovation and translational research. To learn more, visit bme.gatech.edu

]]> Denise Ward 1 1607360597 2020-12-07 17:03:17 1607438739 2020-12-08 14:45:39 0 0 news 2020-12-07T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-07T00:00:00-05:00 2020-12-07 00:00:00 Denise Ward
Institute Communications

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<![CDATA[Coronavirus Vaccine Approval Will Launch Unprecedented Public Health Initiative]]> 27303 When one or more coronavirus vaccines receives FDA emergency use authorization, it will launch a public health and logistics initiative unlike any in U.S. history. 

Hundreds of millions of doses will have to distributed nationwide and kept cold until healthcare professionals can administer not one, but two doses to each person. And enough skeptical members of the population will have to be persuaded to receive the vaccine to slow virus transmission.

Beyond those challenges, the distribution effort will have to adapt to unexpected and uneven demand; accommodate recipients who may not return on time for a second dose; train hundreds of thousands of staff from clinics, pharmacies, doctor’s offices, and hospitals; prioritize serving high-risk groups first while encouraging others to wait — all while under tremendous pressure to get the much-anticipated vaccines into use as case counts and the death toll continue rising.

“Time is of the essence because the virus is already so widespread,” said Pinar Keskinocak, the William W. George Chair and professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) and director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “With the pressure on our timeline, knowledge of how quickly the disease is spreading, and the broad U.S. and global need, I can’t think of a comparable public health initiative that has ever been undertaken.”

Shipping and Keeping Hundreds of Millions of Doses Cold

Three vaccines, produced by Moderna, Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, and Oxford-AstraZeneca, are expected to be available first. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will need to be kept ultra-cold — minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit — on its journey to individual Americans. The Moderna drug won’t have such demanding conditions, but both it and the Pfizer vaccine will tax the existing “cold chain” that keeps vaccines and other temperature-sensitive products in a narrow range of conditions during transport and storage. 

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine will have much less stringent requirements and faster ramp-up in capacity, though early testing suggests its efficacy may be lower than the others. That will create tradeoffs between efficacy versus access and speed in distribution.

Plans already exist to get the vaccines from manufacturers to the states, each of which has developed its own distribution plan. Keskinocak worries mostly about “last mile” plans — getting the vaccines to where they will be injected — and getting individuals to those locations.

“Access is going to be a challenge,” she said. “You may be able to get it to locations where it can be distributed, but you have to make sure the people who really need the vaccine can easily access those locations.”

Cold chain transportation, tracking, tracing, and storage already exist in most areas, but refrigeration could be challenging for rural areas that may be at the end of the chain, especially for the vaccine requiring very cold temperatures beyond the capability of freezers found in most doctor’s offices and clinics. And cold can sometimes be too cold, Keskinocak said.

“We often think about keeping it cold, but sometimes it may be too cold, which is not good. It’s not just whether the temperature exceeded the required level, but also whether it went below that. It is important to keep the vaccine exactly at the required temperature level.”

Pfizer has developed a shipping container that includes a temperature tracking device — and 50 pounds of dry ice to maintain the right temperature during transit. Because it is contained in small vials and the liquid vaccine is diluted for use, the overall volume being shipped will be relatively small, limiting the number of packages that will be moved and stored, Keskinocak noted.

Ultimately, the cold chain may play a significant role in vaccine effectiveness. Currently, the vaccines being produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna are reported to have a higher efficacy than the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine — but only if they can be maintained at the proper temperatures. The timing, magnitude, and duration of temperature fluctuations during transport and before administration could affect that in ways that may be difficult to assess.

“Our current modeling shows that a vaccine that is less effective but that can be distributed more quickly and more widely might work better in some settings than a more effective vaccine, thereby reducing the total number of infections in the population,” Keskinocak said.

If You Build It, Will They Come?

Expectations are that the nation is hungry for a vaccine to escape the horrors of Covid-19. But a recent Gallup survey shows that only 58% of respondents said they planned to receive the vaccine when it becomes available. Boosting that percentage will require a massive communications effort to overcome vaccine reluctance and concerns fueled by the uneven nature of the U.S. pandemic response.

“If we can get the vaccine to locations where people can access it, and we have the necessary syringes, supplies, and PPE, as well as the healthcare staff to administer the injections, it’s not clear that people will come to receive it in large enough numbers,” Keskinocak said. “That’s one major component missing from a lot of the plans that I see at the state level.”

The communications program will have to run in parallel to the vaccine distribution, and they have to be coordinated so that supply meets demand.

“Public health communication and dissemination of information at the right time and in the right language is going to be at least as important and challenging as the logistics of distributing the vaccine,” Keskinocak said. “Communication is going to shape demand to a large extent. If one is more effective than the other, we will have a mismatch between demand and supply.”

Different demographic populations have different levels of trust for medicine in general and vaccines in particular, she said, so communications campaigns will have to focus on issues of concern to those groups. Unexpected variations in vaccine demand caused by these concerns could also create logistical uncertainties.

“We can try to forecast demand, and ship supplies to those locations,” she said. “But historically, we have seen that demand can exceed supply in one location while inventory builds up in another location. We need to avoid this situation of unmet demand and unused vaccine.”

Another issue will be the two doses necessary for the vaccine. The second dose must be received within a narrow range of time for the two-dose vaccine to be effective. Should a second dose be reserved for every person receiving a first dose, or should the goal be to get as many doses out as possible?

“Some people may never show up to be vaccinated, while others will receive the first dose, but may not come back for the second dose,” she said. 

Getting the Program Started

The first available doses will likely go to healthcare workers and first responders who are on the front lines of battling Covid-19. That is expected to be the easier part of vaccination logistics, and the lessons learned there should help with the much more massive vaccination campaign for high-risk individuals and the general public.

As vaccine production and distribution capacity ramp up, other groups will be next in line. While distributing small batches as manufacturers produce it can create some supply challenges, that also allows the system to more easily adjust to unexpected demand.

Even though distributing and administering vaccines is something the U.S. healthcare system does routinely, the size and timeline of this project are unprecedented, Keskinocak noted.

Beyond the logistical and communications needs, the vaccination program will also have a strong information technology component. Administration will likely be by appointment, and each injection will have to be reported to a vaccine registry to provide a record of which vaccines people have received and when.

Vaccinating People Who May Already Be Immune

It’s estimated that the number of reported Covid-19 cases may be just 10% of the actual number of infections in the U.S. Assuming recovery from the virus confers immunity for some period of time means there may be quite a few people who don’t actually need the vaccine right away to be protected. But there are currently no plans to determine whether recipients are already immune before they receive the vaccine.

“There are a lot of people out there who have some level of immunity to the coronavirus,” Keskinocak said. “The plans I’ve seen don’t include the serological testing that would be needed to identify people with some level of immunity, which could be around 30% of the population by the time the vaccine gets out to the general public.”

Testing for immune antibodies could be done ahead of the vaccination program, but that would create an extra step in a process that is already quite complicated. Healthcare systems such as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or certain private insurance plans could include that step, especially if vaccine supplies lag behind demand.

“The big complexity is timing,” she said. “Once vaccines become available, you’ll want to deliver them as quickly as possible to as many people as possible in a very short time frame.”

Annual vaccination campaigns for the seasonal flu set ambitious goals for the population levels they want to reach, but the time challenges will be much greater for the coronavirus vaccine.

“The seasonal flu vaccine becomes available months before the virus spreads broadly, so we have quite a bit of time to administer it before we get into the peak of the flu season,” she said. “We have been in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic for several months now. We are really late in the game, so we don’t have the luxury of time.”

Keskinocak is cautiously optimistic that the challenges will ultimately be addressed.

“There are certainly still lots of unknowns,” she said. “But the state plans I have seen look reasonable from a supply chain standpoint. Some of the decisions will be made once the states receive the vaccine, and exactly how they do it will be somewhat up to the local jurisdictions. There are still many things that need to be decided to make this unprecedented initiative live up to its goals.”

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Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu)

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1606760571 2020-11-30 18:22:51 1606760854 2020-11-30 18:27:34 0 0 news When one or more coronavirus vaccines receives FDA emergency use authorization, it will launch a public health and logistics initiative unlike any in U.S. history. 

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2020-11-30T00:00:00-05:00 2020-11-30T00:00:00-05:00 2020-11-30 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404-894-6986)

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641699 641700 641701 641699 image <![CDATA[Vaccine Vials Logistics]]> image/jpeg 1606759751 2020-11-30 18:09:11 1606759751 2020-11-30 18:09:11 641700 image <![CDATA[Vaccine Administration]]> image/jpeg 1606759836 2020-11-30 18:10:36 1606759836 2020-11-30 18:10:36 641701 image <![CDATA[Researcher Pinar Keskinocak]]> image/jpeg 1606759995 2020-11-30 18:13:15 1606759995 2020-11-30 18:13:15
<![CDATA[Extraction of Largely Unexplored Bodily Fluid May Provide New Biomarkers]]> 27303 Using an array of tiny needles that are almost too small to see, researchers have developed a minimally invasive technique for sampling a largely unexplored human bodily fluid that could potentially provide a new source of information for routine clinical monitoring and diagnostic testing. 

Biochemical information about the body most commonly comes from analysis of blood — which represents only 6% of bodily fluids — but valuable information may also be found in other bodily fluids that are traditionally hard to get. Researchers have now developed a way to extract dermal interstitial fluid (ISF), which circulates between cells in bodily tissues, using a simple through-the-skin technique that could provide a new approach for studying the metabolic products of cells, obtaining diagnostic biomarkers, and identifying potential toxins absorbed through the skin. Because the dermal interstitial fluid doesn’t clot like blood, the microneedle-based extraction could offer a new approach for continuous monitoring of glucose and other key health indicators.

Results of a human trial on the microneedle-based ISF sampling is reported Nov. 25 in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The study, conducted by researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

“Interstitial fluid originates in the blood and then leaks out of capillaries to bring nutrients to cells in the body’s tissues. Because interstitial fluid is in direct communication with the cells, it should have information about the tissues themselves beyond what can be measured from testing the blood,” said Mark Prausnitz, Regents Professor and J. Erskine Love Jr. Chair in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “This microneedle-based technique could provide a minimally invasive and simple way to access this interstitial fluid to make it available for medical diagnostic and research applications.” 

ISF has been difficult to sample. Indwelling instruments for monitoring glucose in ISF already exist, and other researchers have used surgically implanted tubing and vacuum-created blisters to extract ISF through the skin, but these techniques are not suitable for routine clinical diagnostic use. 

The researchers, led by first author Pradnya Samant, used a patch containing five solid stainless steel microneedles that were a hundredth of an inch in length. By pressing the patch at an angle into the skin of 50 human subjects, they created shallow micropores that reached only into the outer layer of skin containing ISF. The researchers then applied a suction to the area of skin containing the pores and obtained enough ISF to do three types of analysis. For comparison, they also took blood samples and obtained ISF using the older blister technique.

To accurately determine the biomarkers available in the ISF, the researchers needed to avoid getting blood mixed with the ISF. Though major blood vessels don’t exist in the outer layers of skin, capillaries there can be damaged by the insertion of the microneedles. In their studies, the researchers found that if they slowly ramped up the suction after inserting the microneedles, they could obtain fluid clear of blood.

The overall extraction procedure took about 20 minutes for each test subject. The procedure was well tolerated by the volunteers, and the microscopic pores healed quickly within a day, with minimal irritation.

The extracted fluid was analyzed at Emory University using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry techniques to identify the chemical species it contained. Overall, there were about 10,000 unique compounds, most of which were also found in the blood samples. However, about 12% of the chemical species were not found in the blood, and others were found in the ISF at higher levels than in the blood.

“The skin is metabolically active, and it is full of cells that are changing the fluid,” Prausnitz said. “We found that some of the compounds were unique to the ISF, or enriched there, and that is what we were hoping to find.”

While not all the compounds unique to the ISF could be analyzed, the research team identified components of products that are applied to the skin — such as hand lotions — and pesticides that may enter the body through the skin. This discovery could set the stage for use of the microneedle technique for dermatological and toxicology studies.

“If you want to look at what accumulates in the skin over time, this may provide a way to obtain information about those kinds of exposures,” Prausnitz said. “These are materials that may accumulate in the tissues of our body, but are not found in the bloodstream.”

The researchers also determined the pharmacokinetics of caffeine and the pharmacodynamics of glucose — both small molecules — from the ISF, indicating that that dynamic biomarker information could be obtained from the technique. Those measurements suggested that ISF could provide a means for continuously monitoring such compounds, taking advantage of the fact that the fluid does not clot.

“We were encouraged that we found a good correlation between the blood and interstitial fluid glucose, which suggests we might be able to have a continuous glucose monitoring system based on this technology,” Prausnitz said. A microneedle-based system could provide a less invasive alternative to existing implantable glucose sensors by allowing the sensing components to remain on the surface of the skin.

In future research, Prausnitz would like to reduce the time required to extract the ISF and simplify the process by eliminating the vacuum pump. Additional study of the compounds found in the fluid could also show whether they have medical diagnostic value.

“We’d like to make this microneedle-based technique available to the research community to make ISF routinely available for study,” he said. “Tissue interstitial fluid could be a novel source of biomarkers that complements conventional sources. This research provides a means to study this further.”

The research team also included Nicholas Raviele and Juan Mena-Lapaix from Georgia Tech; and Megan M. Niedzwiecki, Douglas I. Walker, Gary W. Miller, Vilinh Tran, Eric I. Felner, and Dean P. Jones from Emory University.

CITATION: Pradnya P. Samant, "Sampling interstitial fluid for human skin using a microneedle patch." (Science Translational Medicine, 25 November 2020) https://stm.sciencemag.org/content/12/571/eaaw0285

This work was supported in part by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (U2CES026560, P30ES020953, R01ES023485, P30ES019776, S10OD018006) and by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies.

Mark Prausnitz is an inventor of patents licensed to companies developing microneedle-based products, is a paid advisor to companies developing microneedle-based products, and is a founder/shareholder of companies developing microneedle-based products (Micron Biomedical). This potential conflict of interest has been disclosed and is managed by Georgia Tech. Pradnya P. Samant and Prausnitz are inventors on a patent application (WO2019126735A1) submitted by Georgia Tech Research Corporation that covers ISF collection methods presented in this study.

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Media Relations Contact: John Toon (jtoon@gatech.edu) (404-894-6986)

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1606333127 2020-11-25 19:38:47 1606337485 2020-11-25 20:51:25 0 0 news Using an array of tiny needles that are almost too small to see, researchers have developed a minimally invasive technique for sampling a largely unexplored human bodily fluid that could potentially provide a new source of information for routine clinical monitoring and diagnostic testing. 

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2020-11-25T00:00:00-05:00 2020-11-25T00:00:00-05:00 2020-11-25 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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641659 641660 641660 641666 641667 641659 image <![CDATA[Interstitial fluid compared to blood]]> image/jpeg 1606332406 2020-11-25 19:26:46 1606332406 2020-11-25 19:26:46 641660 image <![CDATA[Microneedle patches for extracting interstitial fluid]]> image/jpeg 1606332502 2020-11-25 19:28:22 1606332502 2020-11-25 19:28:22 641666 image <![CDATA[Interstitial fluid compared to blood - 2]]> image/jpeg 1606336868 2020-11-25 20:41:08 1606336868 2020-11-25 20:41:08 641667 image <![CDATA[Size comparison of a microneedle patch and hypodermic needle]]> image/jpeg 1606336986 2020-11-25 20:43:06 1606336986 2020-11-25 20:43:06
<![CDATA[Faces of Testing]]> 35185 This story was originally published on the Georgia Tech News Center website.

When faced with the spread of Covid-19, Georgia Tech’s entire community sprang into action to develop and implement a way to test the campus community. The extensive and ambitious saliva-based surveillance test is conducted entirely on campus. Everything, from packing test kits and self-administering tests to analyzing samples and providing incentives to encourage testing, was developed and executed by faculty, staff, students, and partners. Last month, Georgia Tech surpassed 100,000 cumulative tests, a figure that has helped the Institute identify positive cases and take appropriate action to slow the transmission of the virus.

Here, we introduce you to a handful of the hundreds of people who have been working day in and day out to ensure that the testing program runs smoothly. These dedicated individuals are among the many who took part in developing and scaling the test so that Georgia Tech can collect and test hundreds of samples a day. They are the people who pack the test kits and drive them across campus to the Institute’s on-site testing facility. They are the people who stand by to assist students, faculty, and staff who show up each week at one of several on-campus testing locations. Each of their contributions represents a critical component of Tech’s testing program — one that speaks directly to Georgia Tech’s commitment to solving challenges through innovation around the world and right here at home.

Greg Gibson

Greg Gibson knew testing had to be part of the solution to managing the coronavirus on campus, but he didn’t imagine we would be doing it on the large scale that we are. “Testing on campus seemed to be the obvious thing to do but no one was doing it,” Gibson explains. He credits senior research scientist Anton Bryskin for pushing him to use the technology we already had in place on campus to help combat Covid-19. Gibson says the science came together easily, but the logistics were difficult. He acknowledges individuals like Mike Shannon of GTRI and JulieAnne Williamson, executive director of Sustainability and Building Operations, for scaling up the testing model.

"This could be done anywhere but it was done at Georgia Tech because of the will of everyone here." - Greg Gibson. Professor, School of Biological Sciences and School of Physics. Research led for development of the coronavirus testing program.

Joshua Weitz

Weitz, a professor at Georgia Tech, focuses on epidemics and their behavior. His interest lies in how modeling transmissions, coupled with crowd control and testing, can lead to improved disease mitigation tactics. “A virus may be small, but it can reshape populations and ecosystems on different scales,” Weitz explains. He believes he was able to make a difference on campus and in public health, but maintains, “This is only possible with many people working together with a common purpose.” Now his goal is to take lessons learned at Tech to help others protect themselves and their communities.

"A virus may be small, but it can reshape populations and ecosystems on different scales." - Joshua Weitz. Professor, School of Biological Sciences and School of Physics. Research focused on modeling the spread of viral infectious diseases.

Read the remainder of the story here. 

]]> kpietkiewicz3 1 1605566343 2020-11-16 22:39:03 1605566874 2020-11-16 22:47:54 0 0 news When faced with the spread of Covid-19, Georgia Tech’s entire community sprang into action to develop and implement a way to test the campus community.

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2020-11-16T00:00:00-05:00 2020-11-16T00:00:00-05:00 2020-11-16 00:00:00 Writer: Evan Atkinson
Photography: Allison Carter

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641362 641363 641365 641362 image <![CDATA[Faces of Testing]]> image/png 1605563208 2020-11-16 21:46:48 1605563208 2020-11-16 21:46:48 641363 image <![CDATA[Greg Gibson Testing]]> image/jpeg 1605563316 2020-11-16 21:48:36 1605563316 2020-11-16 21:48:36 641365 image <![CDATA[Joshua Weitz Testing]]> image/jpeg 1605563489 2020-11-16 21:51:29 1605563489 2020-11-16 21:51:29 <![CDATA[Helping Stories]]> <![CDATA[Safety guidlines, information, and updates.]]>
<![CDATA[Home for the Holidays: Know the Travel Risks Before You Go]]> 35185 This story was originally published by Zoe Kafkes on the website of the School of City & Regional Planning.

As Covid-19 outbreaks surge in several states, the choice to see family this holiday season gets more complicated by the day. Thankfully, there’s a tool—developed by Georgia Tech faculty, scientists, GIS specialists, and graduate students—that can help estimate the potential risk of exposure involved with a trip home for a turkey dinner. 

Joshua S. Weitz, Patton Distinguished Professor in the School of Biological Sciences, and Clio Andris, assistant professor in the Schools of City and Regional Planning and Interactive Computing, created the “Covid-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool.”

They launched the tool in July, and since then it has generated more than 2 million unique visitors, been featured in national and international media, and spurred the development of related sites in Spanish and Italian. A multi-authored scientific article describing the tool was published in Nature Human Behaviour on November 9, 2020.

“We are starting to see the traffic ramp up again as people plan for the holidays,” Andris said.

A Useful Spatial Tool

The tool breaks down the risk of attending events, no matter the size, based on county-level Covid-19 case reports in the U.S. and parts of Europe. Users can select the county they are interested in and the size of the event they wish to attend.

Weitz, the founding director of Tech’s Quantitative Biosciences Graduate Program, and an ardent Atlanta United fan, was having trouble deciding whether or not to go to a home game when the Mercedes-Benz stadium in Atlanta reopened after the Covid-19 lockdown.

He developed a statistical model based on the odds of encountering one infected individual amongst many. Weitz quickly realized that the model would also be useful in the form of an interactive map.

“I reached out to Andris, given her expertise in spatial visualization and analysis,” he said. 

“Clio and I were already collaborating on modeling Covid-19 epidemic spread in Georgia. I knew she would be an ideal partner, particularly given the strong visualization background of her team of Master of Science in Geographic Information Science and Technology students.”

Andris’ Friendly Cities Lab works on a number of Covid-19 projects meant to assist cities and the people that live in them. 

“At that point in the summer, and even now, the Covid-19 case rates change based on location,” she said. “Early on, people only had national-level data, and we wanted to drill down to the county level. This allows people to decide whether to attend an event based on the risk level in their locality.”

While the interactive tool works well for large-scale events, users can also select smaller event sizes like 10 or 15 people—the size of many family gatherings during the holidays. 

Read the rest of the story on the website of the School of City and Regional Planning.

]]> kpietkiewicz3 1 1605561489 2020-11-16 21:18:09 1605562497 2020-11-16 21:34:57 0 0 news As Covid-19 outbreaks surge in several states, the choice to see family this holiday season gets more complicated by the day. Thankfully, Georgia Tech developed a tool that can help estimate the potential risk of exposure.

“Think of our research and the risk assessment tool like a weather map. We aren’t telling you to get your umbrella or to stay inside, but we are telling you that outside it is raining," said Clio Andris.

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2020-11-16T00:00:00-05:00 2020-11-16T00:00:00-05:00 2020-11-16 00:00:00 Zoe Kafkes
Marketing & Events Coordinator
School of City & Regional Planning
E-mail Zoe
+1 404-894-2354

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641360 635045 624725 641360 image <![CDATA[Covid-19 Weather Map]]> image/jpeg 1605561312 2020-11-16 21:15:12 1605561312 2020-11-16 21:15:12 635045 image <![CDATA[Joshua Weitz, professor, School of Biological Sciences ]]> image/jpeg 1588625892 2020-05-04 20:58:12 1588625892 2020-05-04 20:58:12 624725 image <![CDATA[Aroon Chande ]]> image/jpeg 1566225131 2019-08-19 14:32:11 1566225131 2019-08-19 14:32:11 <![CDATA[Campus Surveillance Testing Update: Tracking Cases and Taking Action]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Surveillance Testing Update and Early Interpretations, NOVID App, and Your Questions — Answered]]> <![CDATA[Testing Townhall: Covid-19 Cases Rise, Holiday Travel and Stopping the Spread]]>
<![CDATA[Flicker Treatment for Alzheimer’s Gets a Test Run]]> 28153 Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University have reported promising results from a small initial human feasibility trial studying the effects of flickering light and pulses of sound in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Annabelle Singer, the principal investigator from Georgia Tech, presented the work on Friday, Oct. 9, at the American Neurological Association annual meeting.

“This stimulation harnesses our brain’s natural tendency to entrain to stimuli, to then manipulate neural activity, recruit the brain’s immune system, and clear pathogens,” Singer explained to a virtual audience in her recorded video presentation.

The work is based on previous animal studies by Singer and her colleagues, in which they discovered that a light flickering at 40 hertz (40 cycles per second) stimulates gamma waves, significantly cutting down on amyloid beta, an Alzheimer’s pathogenic hallmark. Gamma waves are associated with high-level cognitive functions, like perception and memory. Disruptions to these kinds of brain waves have been found in various neurological disorders.

“We found that one hour of gamma stimulation reduced amyloid beta and recruited microglia, the primary immune cells of the animals’ brains,” said Singer, assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory. She added that the treatment, “even rescued spatial memory behavior in mice. That led to our next key question. Does this translate to humans?”

To answer that question, Singer initiated the Phase I feasibility trial with James Lah, principal investigator of the study for Emory, where he is associate professor and vice chair in the Department of Neurology and director of the Cognitive Neurology Program.

“We went into this preliminary pilot study with the primary goal of learning whether or not sustained use of this device would be tolerable in humans, and whether or not people would use it,” Lah explained. “The results were promising. Everybody tolerated the devie and we were able to tune it to the level of light and sound that was not only tolerable, but successfully provoked the underlying brain response that was desired.”

The initial feasibility study, an eight-week trial entitled, “Gamma Sensory Flicker for Patients with Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease: A Phase I Trial,” involved 10 people who were organized into two groups of five each. One group underwent no flicker treatments for the first four weeks, followed by four weeks of treatment. The other group received eight weeks of flicker treatments.

First, the research team assessed the safety of treatment, which required participants to wear an experimental visor and head phones that exposed them to 40 Hz of light and sound. There were no overall severe adverse events among participants during pre-trial screening, in the study, or during the 10-month open label extension (some patients volunteered to continue being monitored and assessed). There were some mild adverse effects that could be flicker related (dizziness, tinnitus, headache, worsened hearing loss). But overall, Singer said, the safety profile was excellent.

Of major concern to the researchers was whether participants would tolerate the treatment, and stick with it over eight weeks or more. Again, Singer and her team were satisfied with the results: Most participants tolerated it well, and adherence was greater than 88 percent among all participants.

The researchers found that there were no clear changes in the presence of Alzheimer’s pathogens (amyloid beta and p-Tau), but saw strong EEG entrainment (brain wave synchronization) at 40 Hz when gauging participants’ neural responses during flicker, and a significant increase in neural network functional connectivity (which is weakened in Alzheimer’s) after eight weeks.

Also, as they had previously observed in studies with mice, the researchers noted the activity of cytokines (small proteins used in cell signaling), which indicated that flicker is also engaging the brain’s immune system in humans.

“These are interesting but preliminary biological effects of gamma flicker,” Singer said. “All of this is gearing us up for our next larger and longer study coming soon.”

 

The study was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health (R01-NS109226-01S1), by the Packard Foundation, the Friends and Alumni of Georgia Tech, the Lane Family, the Wright Family, and Cognito Therapeutics. Any findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the researchers and not necessarily of the sponsors.

Competing interests: Annabelle Singer owns shares in Cognito Therapeutics, which funded the human study at Emory Brain Health Center. Cognito aims to develop gamma stimulation-related products. These conflicts are managed by Georgia Tech’s Office of Research Integrity Assurance.

 

 

]]> Jerry Grillo 1 1605285554 2020-11-13 16:39:14 1605285554 2020-11-13 16:39:14 0 0 news Georgia Tech and Emory researchers collaborate on human feasibility trial

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2020-11-13T00:00:00-05:00 2020-11-13T00:00:00-05:00 2020-11-13 00:00:00 641292 641292 image <![CDATA[Annabelle Singer]]> image/jpeg 1605285160 2020-11-13 16:32:40 1605285246 2020-11-13 16:34:06
<![CDATA[Ground Control to Professor Thom: Inside Orlando’s Interstellar Inquiries]]> 34434 Thomas Orlando is a professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and co-founder and former director of the Georgia Tech Center for Space Technology and Research (CSTAR).

And over the past couple of months, he’s been quite busy. 

In a story widely carried by major media outlets, last month NASA announced that a study published in the journal Nature Astronomy shows evidence of water on the sunlit portions of the moon, through an effort involving the use of the NASA SOFIA flying observatory. Orlando is one of the study’s co-authors — he’s been working on the lunar water issue for many years and some of his research group’s modeling was critical to the paper.  

Orlando is also principal investigator for the Radiation Effects on Volatiles and Exploration of Asteroids and Lunar Surfaces (REVEALS) team based at Georgia Tech, part of a NASA project which is researching not only water on the moon, but also how to better protect astronauts from the dangers of space exploration. Orlando collaborates with University of Notre Dame colleagues on this project, and last month he learned he would be featured in a short “infomercial” about the research, which ran during halftime of the NBC national telecast of the Nov. 7th Notre Dame-Clemson game. 

He’s also the recent winner of a major award from the American Vacuum Society (the national surface science society) for his work on integrating surface chemistry and physics into planetary science. The award is named for an un-official mentor who Orlando collaborated with in the early 1990’s. Add to that the renewal of Department of Energy funding for his research looking into minimizing the dangers of nuclear waste storage, and other NASA projects on future astronaut habitats, and you’ve got the makings of a busy 2021 for Orlando.

Add to that the renewal of Department of Energy (DOE) funding for his research looking into minimizing the dangers of nuclear waste storage, and other NASA projects on future astronaut habitats, and you’ve got the makings of a busy 2021 for Orlando.

Other than finding molecular water on the Moon, all of these projects gravitate towards Orlando’s fascination with radiation: either protecting astronauts from it in space, or finding new ways to deal with nuclear waste radiation on Earth. 

“My emphasis has always been on understanding radiation, how it affects surfaces and interfaces,” Orlando says. “For decades now, we have been moving these tools we’re using in different scientific communities to try and unravel what happens when you’re in a star-forming region, or on the Moon, and being irradiated by solar wind, or anywhere where you’re not protected from radiation.

“A big part of my portfolio is a strange mixture of atomic and molecular physics mixed in with surface physics and chemistry,” he says. “In fact, the program at DOE is all of these. The safe storage of nuclear waste, which is a very important environmental and potential national security issue, is essentially a very complicated solid-liquid interface problem that gets worse when you add radiation.”

An award honoring a mentor, research partner

Orlando, who has an adjunct appointment with the School of Physics, is the winner of the 2021 Theodore E. Madey Award, presented by the American Vacuum Society (AVS) and the Polish Vacuum Society. Madey, a physicist and longtime professor at Rutgers University, was a pioneer in expanding physics and chemistry to include the study of surfaces. 

According to the AVS website, the Madey Award is presented to scientists showing “outstanding theoretical and/or experimental research in areas of interest to the AVS and PVS, including surface science.” In Orlando’s case, the Madey Award is primarily for integrating surface physics and chemistry with planetary sciences – the kind of research Orlando is conducting with REVEALS.

Orlando will travel to Poland for a series of lectures in the summer of 2022; typically the Madey Award winner would make those appearances in 2021, but Orlando says the pandemic has forced changes to the schedule.

For Orlando, the Madey award represents a truly unique honor; it’s named for someone Orlando knew and worked with, a former colleague he called “a gifted and kind person.” They met when Orlando was a postdoctoral fellow at Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico. Soon after they would begin research together, with Orlando helping Ted Madey organize conferences such as the Desorption Induced by Electronic Transitions (DIET) conference held in Callaway Gardens, Georgia, in April 2009 — an event that ultimately occurred some months after Madey’s death in summer 2008.  

“We were doing work on inelastic electron scattering, and I’ve never stopped doing it since then,” Orlando says. “But what I’ve done is move the tools necessary to study this, and that problem (electron-bombarded surfaces and interfaces) to the planetary sciences community. Ted did sort of the same thing, but towards the latter part of his career. He was very interested in planetary science. He, I, and a few others were sort of moving this area of surface science forward by directly linking it to problems in space science.”

REVEALS gets the NBC spotlight

Orlando has recently made significant progress in moving that combination of surface physics, chemistry, and planetary sciences: He currently leads the REVEALS team of scientists from Georgia Tech and other higher education institutions in its mission of finding potential resources such as water on the Moon. His team is also researching new materials and technologies to protect future astronauts from radiation bombardment as they explore the Moon, Mars, or near-Earth asteroids. 

One of those partner institutions is Notre Dame, which helped create a recent NBC video that aired during its nationally-telecast November 7th football game with Clemson.

Notre Dame professor Jay LaVerne is a good friend of Orlando’s, which is how LaVerne ended up as a part of the original REVEALS team. “He’s the first guy I thought of when I wanted to simulate cosmic rays and the proton bombardment coming from solar winds,” Orlando says. “We can simulate the low energy part of this, but he can simulate the high energy part better. Together we can do a very good and comprehensive study.”

NBC is focusing mostly on the Notre Dame Radiation Laboratory, but did bring a crew to Georgia Tech’s Marcus Nanotechnology Building to shoot an interview with Orlando. The NBC crew observed all campus virus protection protocols during videotaping, so it did not shoot in Orlando’s REVEALS lab, which is in tighter quarters. Instead, he’s given time to speak in the video about the project’s mission.

“Developing a spacesuit is a multi-decade process, and it’s really complicated,” he says. “If it doesn’t stand up to radiation, it’s pretty useless. We’re looking at using nanocomposite materials, which offer stronger protection, but also lighter weights and more flexibility. The suits that we want to make will be good for protecting them from radiation, but also protecting them from dust. That’s also a serious problem when astronauts go exploring. The philosophy is risk mitigation,” he adds. The suit work is carried out in collaboration with other GT-REVEALS researchers in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, School of Materials Science and Engineering, and School of Physics and is indeed a multidisciplinary effort.

Orlando shares that, eventually, he and the REVALS team hope to develop and use materials that will turn the entire spacesuit into a radiation detector.  

Water, water everywhere – even on the moon

The recent discovery of molecular water on the moon also ties into REVEALS. The “V” in REVEALS refers to volatiles — molecules like hydrogen or water that are needed and can be produced by the bombardment of lunar regolith (the fine, fragmented soil that covers lunar bedrock) by solar wind or micrometeorites. REVEALS studies how this process could happen. If there are enough useful volatiles, could they somehow be ‘mined’ by astronauts to be used on site? This is critical for long term human exploration and presence on the moon, which is the goal of the NASA Artemis program.

Orlando explains that that’s why the October Nature Astronomy research paper is so important. “We’re very, very active in understanding how water is formed on the moon, how water moves on the moon, how water is lost from the moon, and how it’s kept on the moon,” he says. “The paper says water is kept in higher abundances than what most people think — and subsurface too. It (the research) does really contribute significantly to the overall possibility of extracting water and using it as a resource for a longer-term presence.”

The researchers discovered this by asking for observation time from SOFIA – the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, that NASA flies on a modified Boeing 747 so it can observe space above the clouds.  

That fact, and SOFIA’s Faint Object Infrared Camera, were the primary factors in helping to find evidence of water on the moon, Orlando says. “When you’re above the cloud layer, you automatically subtract out your water background (from the clouds), so you could do a real mapping of what’s on the moon with the telescope without water interference. That’s number one, a background-free measurement.”

The second factor is the infrared camera’s ability to capture optics on a particular 6 micron-based spectrum that helped show evidence of actual molecular water, and not just its separate components of hydrogen and oxygen. As the Nature paper puts it, water has been detected before by other spacecraft, but “whether the hydration is molecular water (H2O) or other hydroxyl (OH) compounds is unknown, and there are no established methods to distinguish the two using the 3 µm (microns) band of specialized telescopes and spectroscopes. However, a fundamental vibration of molecular water produces a spectral signature at 6 µm (microns) that is not shared by other hydroxyl compounds.” Using SOFIA, observations reveal “a 6 µm feature at high lunar latitudes, due to the presence of molecular water on the lunar surface.”

“It (SOFIA) was mostly used for astrophysics. We’d never pointed it at the moon before to look for water,” Orlando says. Co-author Paul Lucey and graduate student Casey Honniball (first author of the study) were awarded time on SOFIA. Orlando and Brant Jones, a Georgia Tech REVEALS co-investigator, did computer modeling to help explain the results and to determine how much water could be there — either on the soil grains, trapped between the grains, or in the grains themselves. Jones and Orlando are measuring this directly, now, in Orlando’s Electron and Photon Induced Chemistry on Surface (EPICLS) Lab.

Radiation waste on Earth, radioactive-free habitats in space

Orlando’s interest in radiation is also a part of a Department of Energy Office of Science contract that funds the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Interfacial Dynamics in Radioactive Environments and Materials (IDREAM2) Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC). IDREAM2 is looking into the fundamental physics and chemistry associated with the storage of nuclear wastes across the DOE complex. This includes relics of Cold War weapons production.

Orlando is the science lead on the radiation cross cutting theme in IDREAM2. “Safe storage, treatment and monitoring the radioactive waste legacy is an important problem set the DOE is dealing with,” he says. “We look very carefully at what happens at the interfaces. We (Georgia Tech) have been active in this for a very long time.” An important waste issue is the production of molecular hydrogen and the radiation induced damage of water and the waste forms. “It is actually the reverse of what we’re doing for NASA. It’s the splitting and breaking up of water and the buildup of hydrogen, and that needs to be understood and controlled.”

Orlando is hoping that his team’s studies will help scientists predict how nuclear waste will behave and ‘age’ so that governments can know how to best deal with the longer term storage and treatment options.

His interest in radiation also explains his involvement in another NASA program, HOME (Habitats Optimized for Missions of Exploration). This program involves interdisciplinary groups of scientists at seven universities, all with the goal of designing and manufacturing what NASA is calling “SmartHabs,” fully autonomous habitats that will “keep astronauts alive while they are resident, and keep the vehicle/habitat alive (operational) while they are not,” according to Georgia Tech’s HOME website. 

]]> Renay San Miguel 1 1604436104 2020-11-03 20:41:44 1605278064 2020-11-13 14:34:24 0 0 news The School of Chemistry and Biochemistry professor, a principal investigator for a key NASA-funded space exploration project at Georgia Tech, wins an award, has a research paper published that's picked up by major media outlets, and recently had his NBC network closeup.

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2020-11-03T00:00:00-05:00 2020-11-03T00:00:00-05:00 2020-11-03 00:00:00 Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer/Science Writer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

 

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627761 623931 589194 640947 627761 image <![CDATA[Thomas Orlando]]> image/jpeg 1571398648 2019-10-18 11:37:28 1571398648 2019-10-18 11:37:28 623931 image <![CDATA[A NASA delegation led by Administrator Jim Bridenstine visited Thom Orlando’s REVEALS research lab July 31, 2019. (Photo by Renay San Miguel)]]> image/jpeg 1564690375 2019-08-01 20:12:55 1564764452 2019-08-02 16:47:32 589194 image <![CDATA[The REVEALS Team Logo]]> image/png 1490292556 2017-03-23 18:09:16 1490365478 2017-03-24 14:24:38 640947 image <![CDATA[Theodore Madey (1937-2008) (Photo Rutgers University)]]> image/png 1604500275 2020-11-04 14:31:15 1604500275 2020-11-04 14:31:15 <![CDATA[NASA Administrator Gets Closeup Look at Georgia Tech’s Role in Future Space Missions]]> <![CDATA[Silica May Have Helped Form Protein Precursors in Prebiotic Earth]]> <![CDATA[Can Solar Winds Form Water on the Moon and Mercury?]]> <![CDATA[Solar Photons Drive Water Off the Moon]]>
<![CDATA[Covid-19 Interventions Can Cut Virus Infections, Severe Outcomes, and Healthcare Needs ]]> 27303 Non-pharmaceutical interventions such as voluntary shelter-in-place, quarantines, and other steps taken to control the SARS-CoV-2 virus can reduce the peak number of infections, daily infection rates, cumulative infections, and overall deaths, a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE has found.

“High compliance with voluntary quarantine – where the entire household stays home if there is a person with symptoms or risk of exposure in the household – has a significant impact on reducing the spread,” said Pinar Keskinocak, the William W. George Chair and professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) and director of the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “Shelter-in-place (SIP) puts the brakes on the spread for some time, but if people go back to ‘business as usual’ after SIP, the significant impact is lost, so it needs to be followed up by voluntary quarantine and other physical distancing measures.”

Utilizing data from the state of Georgia, the study determined that a combination of non-pharmaceutical interventions, with various levels of compliance that change over time, could in some instances cut cumulative infections in half and reduce the peak number of infections to about a third of what could have been seen, “flattening the peak” to avoid overwhelming a state’s healthcare system. 

The study compared actual statistics to revised models of what could have happened in the state during the past seven and a half months without the physical distancing. As Covid-19 cases increase toward what may be a new peak this fall, the study could help public health officials evaluate the benefits of potential intervention strategies, for example, in the debate around K-12 school closure.

The study modeled the number of Covid-19 infections and resulting severe outcomes, and the need for hospital capacity under social distancing, particularly, school closures, shelter-in-place, and voluntary quarantine. 

“As one would expect, there is variation across the state in the observed data, which depends in large part on people’s behaviors,” said Nicoleta Serban, who is the Joseph C. Mello chair and professor in ISyE. “For example, mobility increased faster in some counties compared to others, which is likely to be correlated with increased physical and social interactions, and therefore faster spread of the coronavirus.”

The team, including Georgia Tech ISyE Ph.D. students Buse Eylul Oruc and Arden Baxter, developed and used an agent-based simulation model to project the infection spread. “This is a sophisticated mathematical model which mimics what might happen in practice – under different scenarios – by capturing the progression of the disease in an individual, as well as the interactions between people in the household, in peer groups such as schools or workplaces, or in community groups such as grocery stores,” Oruc said.

The model utilizes parameters specific to Covid-19 and data from Georgia on population interactions and demographics. The study covered a period starting February 18, evaluating different social distancing scenarios, including baselines in which no intervention would have taken place or the only intervention would have been K-12 school closure, comparing them to combinations of shelter-in-place and voluntary quarantine with different timelines and compliance levels. 

Outcomes were compared at the state and community level for the number and percentage of cumulative and daily new symptomatic and asymptomatic infections, hospitalizations, and deaths; Covid-19-related demand for hospital beds, ICU beds, and ventilators. 

The number of hospitalizations in Georgia turned out to be fewer than models last spring had forecast, but “models accurately predicted which hospital regions of the state that would have the largest gaps between number of people with severe outcomes and available care capacity – and therefore face potential shortages of ICU beds, hospital beds, and ventilators,” Baxter said. 

The results suggest that shelter-in place followed by voluntary quarantine reduced peak infections to less than a third of what we would have seen if no intervention had taken place and to less than a half if only schools had been closed. The models predicted correctly that the interventions would delay the peak from April to sometime between late July to mid-September, reducing the daily strain on health care systems.

According to the study, increasing shelter-in-place duration from four to five weeks yielded between 2% to 9% and 3% to 11% decrease in cumulative infection and deaths, respectively. Regardless of the shelter-in-place duration, increasing voluntary quarantine compliance decreased daily new infections and cumulative infections by about 50%. The cumulative number of deaths ranged from 6,660 to 19,430 under different scenarios. 

As infection rates rise in the United States during late October, the study could help public health officials select the best techniques for addressing the viral threat. Georgia’s total population is approximately 10.5 million, and Covid-19 related deaths have exceeded 7,600.

“The study further highlighted and quantified the impact of how compliance with public health measures impact infectious disease spread,” Keskinocak said. “The takeaway message is that each of us have the power to control our health by making the right choices.”

“As individuals and as a nation, we often expect technological or medical fixes or cures to health problems, whereas many of these problems, whether they are at the individual level or the public health level, are caused by or exacerbated by our choices and behaviors,” Keskinocak said. “For many of them, we don’t need a new fancy device, drug, or technology to make things better. As individuals, or households, or communities, we have the power and the responsibility to impact and improve our own health, and the public health, by making healthy choices.”

This research was supported in part by the William W. George endowment, the Virginia C. and Joseph C. Mello endowments, a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (DGE-1650044), an NSF grant to support the high performance computing facilities at Georgia Tech (MRI-1828187), and research cyberinfrastructure resources and services provided by the Partnership for an Advanced Computing Environment (PACE) at Georgia Tech, and the following Georgia Tech benefactors: Andrea Laliberte, Joseph C. Mello, Richard “Rick” E. & Charlene Zalesky, and Claudia & Paul Raines. The funders played no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, or in writing the manuscript.

CITATION: Pinar Keskinocak, Buse Eylul Oruc, Arden Baxter, John Asplund, and Nicoleta Serban, “The impact of social distancing on COVID19 spread: State of Georgia case study.” (PLOS ONE, 2020) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239798

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
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Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986)(jtoon@gatech.edu).
Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1603313733 2020-10-21 20:55:33 1603314188 2020-10-21 21:03:08 0 0 news Non-pharmaceutical interventions such as voluntary shelter-in-place, quarantines, and other steps taken to control the SARS-CoV-2 virus can reduce the peak number of infections, daily infection rates, cumulative infections, and overall deaths, a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE has found.

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2020-10-21T00:00:00-04:00 2020-10-21T00:00:00-04:00 2020-10-21 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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640464 640465 640464 image <![CDATA[Covid-19 Interventions Case Study]]> image/jpeg 1603313112 2020-10-21 20:45:12 1603313112 2020-10-21 20:45:12 640465 image <![CDATA[Covid-19 Interventions Can Cut Infections, Serious Outcomes]]> image/jpeg 1603313263 2020-10-21 20:47:43 1603313263 2020-10-21 20:47:43
<![CDATA[Specialized Cells or Multicellular Multitaskers? New Study Reshapes Early Economics and Ecology Behind Evolutionary Division of Labor ]]> 34434 A new research study from researchers in the School of Biological Sciences and School of Physics focuses on the evolution of reproductive specialization – how early single cells first got together to create more complex multicellular organisms. In particular, scientists leading the study sought to better understand how those early cells decided which ones would focus on reproduction, and which ones would get busy building parts of a larger organism.

The work, published this month in the journal eLife, references “division of labor,” “trade,” “productivity” and “return on investment,” (ROI) to describe those cellular activities. If that sounds like a paper destined for a business magazine instead of a peer-reviewed journal on biological sciences research, there’s a good reason. 

As the study, led by assistant professor Peter Yunker and associate professor Will Ratcliff, notes in the abstract, “A large body of work from evolutionary biology, economics, and ecology has shown that specialization is beneficial when further division of labor produces an accelerating increase in absolute productivity.” In other words, the prevailing theories state that specialization pays off only when it increases total productivity – whether it’s multicellular organism or widgets streaming out of a factory. 

What Yunker, from the School of Physics and the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, and Ratcliff, from the School of Biological Sciences and co-director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences (QBioS) have found is that the conditions for the evolution of specialized cells were actually much broader than previously thought. Absolute productivity be darned, the cells seem to say; specialization appeared to be a winning strategy, even under conditions that should favor cellular self-sufficiency. 

Why? It has to do with the topology of the network of cells within the organism – what Ratcliff calls a branchy structure. That topology determines that the division of labor can be favored, even if productivity suffers. 

“Topological constraints in early multicellularity favor reproductive division of labor” is the title of the team’s paper. Yunker and Ratcliff collaborated with several other Georgia Tech faculty and graduate students on the research: Joshua S. Weitz, Patton Distinguished Professor in the School of Biological Sciences and co-director of QBioS; School of Physics graduate students David Yanni and Shane Jacobeen; and School of Biological Sciences graduate student Pedro Marquez-Zacarias. All are members of Georgia Tech’s Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection.

Multicellular multitasking

As cells get more complex, they begin to specialize. Some cells are dedicated to reproduction, while others are devoted to other general tasks such as making and maintaining the organism’s body. “In this paper, what we’re trying to figure out is, when is it a good idea to specialize and have that pay off, and when it is a good idea for your cells to remain generalists?” Ratcliff says. “Under what conditions does evolution favor specialization, and in what conditions do simple multicellular organisms keep every cell a generalist?”

For centuries, scientists have known that specialization is very important for multicellularity. “Once we had microscopes, we were off to the races learning about specialization,” Ratcliff says. 

The thinking for the last few decades has been that more specialized cells evolve when specialization results in increasingly higher productivity. “That will push things to complete specialization because there’s more to be gained by specializing than not specializing.” 

Yet what if those cells are not interacting randomly with a lot of other cells, but only with a few cells over and over again? “This is actually the case for a little branchy structure that contains mom and all her kids. The only cells you are attached to are the ones that gave rise to you, and the ones that arise from you,” he says. Those “branchy structures” offer the topological constraints mentioned in the title of the research study. 

Branch banking of cellular products

Yunker explains that those tree-branchy structures can be thought of as similar to fractals, in which math functions are repeated again and again and are depicted as jagged borders stretching into infinity. 

“Mandelbrot sets and the broader study of fractals have been an inspiration for a lot of this,” Yunker says. “After the concepts behind fractals were identified, people eventually started to see them everywhere. Instead of some unique esoteric thing, it was pervasive. In a similar vein, the structures that we find make evolving division of labor easier, these sparse filaments and branched topologies, are common in nature,” including so-called snowflake yeast and some forms of algae.

Yunker agrees that it may seem counter-intuitive, but as you restrict cellular interactions, like swapping of products that can enhance reproduction or specialization, that specialization actually becomes easier according to his team’s mathematical models. 

Cells that produce the same products won’t interact or 'trade' with each other, since that would be a waste of energy and efficiency. “A redundancy comes into play here,” Yunker says. “If you have a lot of similar cells trading, that increased productivity doesn’t do you a lot of good. Whereas if you have dissimilar or opposites trading, even with lower productivity, they’re able to direct those resources in a more efficient manner.”

What can economists and cancer researchers learn from these cells?

Since economics has already figured into the study of how multicellular organisms evolved, with all of that labor and trade and ROI, could that discipline have something to learn from Yunker and Ratcliff’s new theory — could the lessons mean a more efficient way to make all kinds of products?

“Could this apply in economics? Could it apply elsewhere?” Yunker echoes. “This is something we would love to pursue going forward.”

Ratcliff notes the multidisciplinary approach his biophysics and biosciences team took to approaching the study, which also involved mathematical models developed by Weitz. “We were really motivated by understanding both how life got to be complex, and the rules for why it did,” he says. “This paper follows into the ‘why’ category. Fundamental mathematics tells you about the rules evolution plays by, and there are a lot of downstream applications, like cancer research, agriculture, and infectious disease. You never really can predict how someone will leverage basic insight.”

]]> Renay San Miguel 1 1600971772 2020-09-24 18:22:52 1708028766 2024-02-15 20:26:06 0 0 news Two Georgia Tech scientists are raising new questions about the development of specialized cells in early multicellular organisms. 

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2020-09-24T00:00:00-04:00 2020-09-24T00:00:00-04:00 2020-09-24 00:00:00 Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

 

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639523 639525 639523 image <![CDATA[A magnified view of the "branchy structure" found in snowflake yeast (Image: Will Ratcliff)]]> image/jpeg 1600972353 2020-09-24 18:32:33 1600978448 2020-09-24 20:14:08 639525 image <![CDATA[Peter Yunker (left) and Will Ratcliff. ]]> image/png 1600972479 2020-09-24 18:34:39 1600972479 2020-09-24 18:34:39 <![CDATA[Coffee Leads to Collaboration]]> <![CDATA[The More Complex, the Easier to Assemble]]> <![CDATA[William Ratcliff: 2018 Sigma Xi Young Faculty Award]]> <![CDATA[Harnessing the Power of Evolution]]>
<![CDATA[Ultra-Low-Cost Hearing Aid Could Address Age-Related Hearing Loss Worldwide]]> 27303 Using a device that could be built with a dollar’s worth of open-source parts and a 3D-printed case, researchers want to help the hundreds of millions of older people worldwide who can’t afford existing hearing aids to address their age-related hearing loss.

The ultra-low-cost, proof-of-concept device known as LoCHAid is designed to be easily manufactured and repaired in locations where conventional hearing aids are priced beyond the reach of most citizens. The minimalist device is expected to meet most of the World Health Organization’s targets for hearing aids aimed at mild to moderate age-related hearing loss. The prototypes built so far look like wearable music players instead of a traditional behind-the-ear hearing aids. 

“The challenge we set for ourselves was to build a minimalist hearing aid, determine how good it would be, and ask how useful it would be to the millions of people who could use it,” said M. Saad Bhamla, an assistant professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “The need is obvious because conventional hearing aids cost a lot and only a fraction of those who need them have access.”

Details of the project are described Sept. 23 in the journal PLOS ONE.

Age-related hearing loss affects more than 200 million adults over the age of 65 worldwide. Hearing aid adoption remains relatively low, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where fewer than 3% of adults use the devices — compared to 20% in wealthier countries. Cost is a significant limitation, with the average hearing aid pair costing $4,700 in the United States and even low-cost personal sound amplification devices — which don’t meet the criteria for sale as hearing aids — priced at hundreds of dollars globally.

Part of the reason for the high cost is that effective hearing aids provide far more than just sound amplification. Hearing loss tends to occur unevenly at different frequencies, so boosting all sound can actually make speech comprehension more difficult. Because decoding speech is so complicated for the human brain, the device must also avoid distorting the sound or adding noise that could hamper the user’s ability to understand.

Bhamla and his team chose to focus on age-related hearing loss because older adults tend to lose hearing at higher frequencies. Focusing on a large group with similar hearing losses simplified the design by narrowing the range of sound frequency amplification needed. 

Modern hearing aids use digital signal processors to adjust sound, but these components were too expensive and power hungry for the team’s goal. The team therefore decided to build their device using electronic filters to shape the frequency response, a less expensive approach that was standard on hearing aids before the processors became widely available. 

“Taking a standard such as linear gain response and shaping it using filters dramatically reduces the cost and the effort required for programming,” said Soham Sinha, the paper’s first author, who was born in semirural India and is a long-term user of hearing aid technology.

“I was born with hearing loss and didn’t get hearing aids until I was in high school,” said Sinha, who worked on the project while a Georgia Tech undergraduate and is now a Ph.D. student at Stanford University. “This project represented for me an opportunity to learn what I could do to help others who may be in the same situation as me but not have the resources to obtain hearing aids.”

The ability to hear makes a critical quality of life difference, especially to older people who may have less access to social relationships, said Vinaya Manchaiah, professor of speech and hearing sciences at Lamar University and another member of the research team. “Hearing has a direct impact on how we feel and how we behave,” he said. “For older adults, losing the ability to hear can result in a quicker and larger cognitive decline.”

The inexpensive hearing aid developed by Bhamla’s team can obviously not do everything that the more expensive devices can do, an issue Manchaiah compares to “purchasing a basic car versus a luxury car. If you ask most users, a basic car is all you need to be able to get from point a to point b. But in the hearing aid world, not many companies make basic cars.”

For Manchaiah, the issue is whether the prototype device provides sufficient value for the cost. The researchers have extensively studied the electroacoustic performance of their device, but the real test will come in clinical and user trials that will be necessary before it can be certified as a medical device.

“When we talk about hearing aids, even the lowest of technology is quite high in price for people in many parts of the world,” he said. “We may not need to have the best technology or the best device in order to provide value and a good experience in hearing.”

The electronic components of the LoCHAid cost less than a dollar if purchased in bulk, but that doesn’t include assembly or distribution costs. Its relatively large size allows for low-tech assembly and even do-it-yourself production and repair. The prototype uses a 3D-printed case and is powered by common AA or lithium ion coin-cell batteries designed to keep costs as low as possible. With its focus on older adults, the device could be sold online or over the counter, Bhamla said.

“We have shown that it is possible to build a hearing aid for less than the price of a cup of coffee,” he said. “This is a first step, a platform technology, and we’ve shown that low cost doesn’t have to mean low quality.”

Among the device’s drawbacks are its large size, an inability to adjust frequency ranges, and an expected lifetime of just a year and a half. The cost of batteries is often a hidden burden for hearing aid users, and the AA batteries are expected to last up to three weeks, which is still an improvement from the 4-5 day life expectancy of common zinc-air batteries in current hearing aids.

The researchers are now working on a smaller version of the device that will boost the bulk component cost to $7 and require a sophisticated manufacturer to assemble. “We’ll no longer be able to solder them ourselves in the lab,” said Bhamla, whose research focuses on frugal science. “This is a labor of love for us, so we will miss that.”

CITATION: Soham Sinha, Urvaksh D. Irani, Vinaya Manchaiah, and M. Saad Bhamla, “LoCHAid: An ultra-low-cost hearing aid for age-related hearing loss.” (PLOS ONE, 2020). https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0238922

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1600880689 2020-09-23 17:04:49 1600880946 2020-09-23 17:09:06 0 0 news Using a device that could be built with a dollar’s worth of open-source parts and a 3D-printed case, researchers want to help the hundreds of millions of older people worldwide who can’t afford existing hearing aids to address their age-related hearing loss.

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2020-09-23T00:00:00-04:00 2020-09-23T00:00:00-04:00 2020-09-23 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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639423 639424 639425 639426 639423 image <![CDATA[Electronics for low-cost hearing aid]]> image/jpeg 1600876356 2020-09-23 15:52:36 1600876356 2020-09-23 15:52:36 639424 image <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Assistant Professor Saad Bhamla]]> image/jpeg 1600876488 2020-09-23 15:54:48 1600876488 2020-09-23 15:54:48 639425 image <![CDATA[Saad Bhamla in laboratory]]> image/jpeg 1600876590 2020-09-23 15:56:30 1600876590 2020-09-23 15:56:30 639426 image <![CDATA[Components of the LoCHAid device ]]> image/png 1600876702 2020-09-23 15:58:22 1600876702 2020-09-23 15:58:22
<![CDATA[Nanoparticles Target Pediatric Cancer Tumors]]> 27195 Treatment of medulloblastoma, the most common malignant childhood brain tumor, includes surgery, whole brain and spine radiation, and chemotherapy, which leads to serious side effects, including profound neurocognitive deficits. In particular, the sonic hedgehog subtype of medulloblastoma, which represents approximately 30% of medulloblastoma, is associated with treatment failure and poor outcome in older children and those with metastatic disease.

In a recent paper published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) titled “Engineered biomimetic nanoparticle for dual targeting of the cancer stem-like cell population in sonic hedgehog medulloblastoma,” YongTae (Tony) Kim, Associate Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, discusses biomimetic nanoparticle technology for advanced targeted drug delivery to medulloblastoma cells as a promising alternative strategy to treat the pediatric tumor. 

Kim, whose research primarily leverages biomimetic microengineering and nanotechnology for the development of therapeutics for neurological diseases including Alzheimer’s and brain tumors, started the research project in 2014 in collaboration with Dr. Tobey MacDonald, Professor at Emory University School of Medicine and Director of the Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Program at Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center.

“When I met patient families of this fatal hard-to-cure pediatric tumor after I gave a seminar at Emory and Children’s hospital of Atlanta, I could not help deciding to do something to support the kids,” said Kim. “It is a blessing for engineers to help patients, which motivated me to work on these challenges.”

Current treatment strategies that utilize whole brain radiation therapy result in deleterious off-target effects on the normal developing childhood brain. Most conventional chemotherapies remain limited by ineffective blood-brain barrier penetrance. These challenges signify an unmet need for drug carriers that can cross the blood-brain barrier and deliver drugs to targeted sites with high drug-loading efficiency and long-term stability.

Kim’s research demonstrates that innovative bioinspired nanotechnology able to incorporate multiple agents into one nanocarrier can provide a solution to notorious brain tumors with minimal adverse side effects.

The study shows that an engineered biomimetic nanoparticle decorated with a targeting ligand and loaded with a sonic hedgehog inhibitor maintains its stability in the circulation, crosses the blood-brain barrier, and delivers drug molecules to the cancer stem-like cell population in sonic hedgehog medulloblastoma. Leveraging the natural capabilities of high-density lipoprotein, the nanoparticle enables the facilitated and targeted cellular uptake of drugs and receptor-mediated intracellular cholesterol depletion in medulloblastoma cells.

“This successful in vivo validation of our biomimetic nanoparticle performance will bring up a new viable strategy by which to effectively deliver many other drug candidates, which have been reportedly unable to cross the blood-brain barrier, have low bioavailability, or off-target effects for the treatment of brain tumors including medulloblastoma,” said Kim.

Kim, in collaboration with Dr. MacDonald, plans to apply the biomimetic nanotechnology to test many other potential therapeutic agents for the treatment of brain tumors in the near future. They will also extend their approach and apply for opportunities focused on other brain diseases including neurodegenerative diseases.
 

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) R21NS091682 (Y.K.), NIH Director’s New Innovator Award 1DP2HL142050 (Y.K.), National Institutes on Aging (NIA) R21AG056781 (Y.K.), and Ian’s Friends Foundation (T.J.M.). We also thank the core facilities at the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, and the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology at Georgia Institute of Technology, a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (ECCS-1542174).

 
 

]]> Colly Mitchell 1 1600261410 2020-09-16 13:03:30 1600363802 2020-09-17 17:30:02 0 0 news 2020-09-14T00:00:00-04:00 2020-09-14T00:00:00-04:00 2020-09-14 00:00:00 Ben Wright
Communications Manager

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639144 639144 image <![CDATA[GFP-expressing medulloblastoma organotypic tumor slice culture]]> image/png 1600261046 2020-09-16 12:57:26 1600261046 2020-09-16 12:57:26 <![CDATA[Kim profile]]>
<![CDATA[Coronavirus Test Kits? We’ve Got A Recipe For That]]> 34434 At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, an interdisciplinary group of College of Sciences researchers teamed up with colleagues in the College of Engineering and quickly pivoted away from their normal research areas – astrobiology, the evolution of RNA and DNA, the role of proteins in diseases like glaucoma – and began using their skills to produce more desperately-needed virus test kits for Georgia residents.

Other schools and colleges at Georgia Tech have also been involved in efforts to build virus tests, along with researching vaccines and therapeutic treatments, building personal protective equipment (PPE), sanitizer, virology modeling, and more.

Now the interdisciplinary efforts led by College of Sciences researchers to develop a “recipe” for creating virus test kits are detailed in a research paper published September 3 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, which has selected the work as a September "Editor's Pick".

Samantha Mascuch, a postdoctoral scholar with the School of Biological Sciences, and Sara Fakhrehtaha-Aval, a graduate student in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, are co-first authors of “A blueprint for academic labs to produce SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR test kits.”

Jennifer Glass, an associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and two professors from the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Loren Williams and Raquel Lieberman, are the co-corresponding authors of the paper. 

The Georgia Tech COVID-19 Test Kit Support Group includes researchers from the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences; the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering; the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (which Georgia Tech shares with Emory University); and the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology. The Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine also participated.

The group’s researchers are also part of the Georgia COVID-19 State Lab Surge Capacity Task Force, which is managed by the Georgia Tech Research Institute

The “RT-qPCR” in the paper’s title refers to quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, a form of virus testing that is considered “the most robust, sensitive, and specific assay currently available,” according to the paper’s abstract. 

In the spring, 35 volunteers helped turn campus labs into assembly lines for the components needed for virus test kits. The paper details how academic biochemistry and molecular biology labs equipped with appropriate expertise and infrastructure can produce the RT-qPCR assay and fill in shortages in testing pipelines. 

Lieberman, whose research includes studies of proteins involved in certain forms of childhood-onset glaucoma, says her experience with the group also helped her with her normal research goals. “My lab learned some new tricks for mass producing proteins,” she says. “One of those tricks has inspired us to revisit how we produce one of our workhorse proteins in the lab. We also learned about all sorts of cool instrumentation and expertise across campus -- instruments and folks we should have learned of or met years ago, but had not connected with prior to participating in this project. 

“Working on this project was a great way for my lab to leverage its expertise, and simultaneously learn a new area of biochemistry, one with the ultimate real-life application.”

“Our work with Covid-19 taught us to be expert at counting viral RNA molecules,” Williams says. “We see many applications of this technology in our research on ribosomal RNAs. We have now purchased our own QuantStudio, which is a machine we used for RT-qPCR analysis of viral RNA.”

 

Learn about spring test kit production, and Georgia Tech's new surveillance testing efforts.

]]> Renay San Miguel 1 1599156331 2020-09-03 18:05:31 1599572763 2020-09-08 13:46:03 0 0 news In the spring and summer, an effort led by researchers across three Sciences schools created SARS-CoV-2 test kits that helped fill testing gaps across Georgia. Now, they're sharing that test kit recipe in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, which has selected the research as a September "Editor’s Pick".

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2020-09-08T00:00:00-04:00 2020-09-08T00:00:00-04:00 2020-09-08 00:00:00 Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

 

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634432 638755 638756 638759 638762 638763 634432 image <![CDATA[Samantha Mascuch]]> image/jpeg 1586987511 2020-04-15 21:51:51 1586987511 2020-04-15 21:51:51 638755 image <![CDATA[Samantha Mascuch]]> image/png 1599156527 2020-09-03 18:08:47 1599156527 2020-09-03 18:08:47 638756 image <![CDATA[Sara Fakhrehtaha-Aval]]> image/png 1599156654 2020-09-03 18:10:54 1599156654 2020-09-03 18:10:54 638759 image <![CDATA[Raquel Lieberman ]]> image/png 1599156758 2020-09-03 18:12:38 1599156758 2020-09-03 18:12:38 638762 image <![CDATA[Loren Williams]]> image/png 1599157025 2020-09-03 18:17:05 1599157025 2020-09-03 18:17:05 638763 image <![CDATA[Jennifer Glass ]]> image/png 1599157102 2020-09-03 18:18:22 1599157102 2020-09-03 18:18:22 <![CDATA[The Williams Lab]]> <![CDATA[Lieberman Lab]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Produces Key Components for Governor’s Coronavirus Test Initiative]]> <![CDATA[Meet the Marine Biologist Helping Create Covid-19 Test Kits]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Responding to Covid-19]]> <![CDATA[Astrobiologists Aid in Georgia Covid-19 Test Initiative]]> <![CDATA[ScienceMatters S2 E3: Helping Glaucoma Patients]]>
<![CDATA[Wearable Device Could Help EMTs, Surgeons Assess Hemorrhage Blood Loss]]> 27303 Emergency medical technicians (EMTs), military medics, and emergency room physicians could one day be better able to treat victims of vehicular accidents, gunshot wounds, and battlefield injuries thanks to a new device under development that may more accurately assess the effects of blood loss due to hemorrhage.

A research team has now shown that it can accurately assess blood loss by measuring seismic vibrations in the chest cavity and by detecting changes in the timing of heartbeats. The knowledge, developed in the laboratory, could potentially lead to development of a smart wearable device that could be carried by ambulance crews and medics and made available in emergency rooms and surgical facilities.

“We envision a wearable device that could be placed on a person’s chest to measure the signs that we found are indicative of worsening cardiovascular system performance in response to bleeding,” said Omer Inan, associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “Based on information from the device, different interventions such as fluid resuscitation could be performed to help a victim of trauma.”

The research, supported by the Office of Naval Research, was reported July 22 in the journal Science Advances. It included collaborators from the Translational Training and Testing Laboratories in Atlanta, an affiliate of Georgia Tech, and the University of Maryland.

Blood loss can result from many different kinds of trauma, but the hemorrhage can sometimes be hidden from first responders and doctors. Heart rates are normally elevated in people suffering from trauma, and blood pressure — now the most commonly used measure of hemorrhage — can remain stable until the blood loss reaches a life-threatening stage.

“It’s very difficult because the vital signs you can measure easily are the ones that the body tries very hard to regulate,” Inan said. “Yet you have to make decisions about how much fluid to give an injured person, how to treat them — and when there are multiple people injured — how to triage those with the most critical needs. We don’t have a good medical indicator that we can measure noninvasively at an injury or battlefield scene to help make these decisions.”

Using animal models, Inan and graduate students Jonathan Zia and Jacob Kimball carefully studied seismic vibrations from the chest cavity and electrical signals from the heart as blood volume was gradually reduced. The researchers wanted to evaluate externally measurable indicators of cardiovascular system performance and compare them to information provided by catheters making direct measurements of blood volume and pressure. 

The key indicator turned out to be a seismocardiogram, a measure of the micro-vibrations produced by heart contractions and the ejection of blood from the heart into the body’s vascular system. But the researchers also saw changes in the timing of the heart’s activity as blood volume decreased, providing another measure of a weakening cardiovascular system. 

“The most important lower-level feature we found to be important in blood volume status estimation were cardiac timing intervals: how long the heart spends in different phases of its operation,” Inan said. “In the case of blood volume depletion, the interval is an important indicator that you could obtain using signals from a wearable device.”

In such a device, these noninvasive mechanical and electrical measures could be combined to show just how critical a patient’s blood loss was. Machine learning algorithms would use the measurements to generate a simple numerical score in which larger numbers indicate a more serious condition. 

“We would give an indicator that is representative of the overall status of the cardiovascular system and how close it is to collapse,” Inan said. “If one patient is rated 50 and another is 90, first responders could give priority to the patient with the higher number.”

Beyond emergency situations, the new assessment technique could be helpful with many types of surgery in which quickly identifying unseen blood loss could improve the outcome for patients.

In future work, Inan and his collaborators expect to create a prototype device that could take the form of a patch just 10 millimeters square. Additional electrical engineering will be needed to filter out the kinds of background noise likely to be found in real-world trauma situations, and for successful operation when the patient is being transported.

“Long-term, we want to partner with clinicians to do studies in humans where we would use the wearable patch and be able to take measurements when people were coming into the trauma bay, or even while EMTs were still deployed,” Inan said. “This could become a new way of monitoring hemorrhage that could be used outside of clinical settings.”

The researchers also want to study the opposite problem — how to determine when enough fluid has been provided to an injured patient. Too much fluid can cause edema, similar to the conditions of heart failure patients whose lungs fill with liquid.

This material is based on work supported by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) under grant N000141812579. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the ONR.
 

CITATION: Jonathan Zia, Jacob Kimball, Christopher Rolfes, Jin-Oh Hahn, and Omer T. Inan,” “Enabling the assessment of trauma-induced hemorrhage via smart wearable systems.” (Science Advances 2020) https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abb1708

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1598887419 2020-08-31 15:23:39 1598887547 2020-08-31 15:25:47 0 0 news Emergency medical technicians (EMTs), military medics, and emergency room physicians could one day be better able to treat victims of vehicular accidents, gunshot wounds, and battlefield injuries thanks to a new device under development that may more accurately assess the effects of blood loss due to hemorrhage.

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2020-08-31T00:00:00-04:00 2020-08-31T00:00:00-04:00 2020-08-31 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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638571 638572 638571 image <![CDATA[Measuring seismic vibrations and heart timing]]> image/jpeg 1598886739 2020-08-31 15:12:19 1598886739 2020-08-31 15:12:19 638572 image <![CDATA[Providing new information to EMTs]]> image/jpeg 1598886839 2020-08-31 15:13:59 1598886839 2020-08-31 15:13:59
<![CDATA[Antibody Research Could Boost Coronavirus Testing, Therapies, and Vaccines]]> 27303 Using simulated components of the coronavirus’s distinctive spike proteins, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers, along with colleagues at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are producing antibodies that could lead to improved testing techniques for the virus, potential treatments for those infected with it – and ultimately, perhaps, a vaccine that could prevent coronavirus infection altogether.

The antibodies are produced by mice that are exposed to peptides – short chains of amino acids – produced from the genetic code of the virus. The researchers choose distinctive components of the viral surface, create the peptide structures in the laboratory, and place them onto nanoparticles to create artificial immunogens designed to stimulate the immune systems of the mice. 

The antibodies are produced in collaboration with the CDC’s Immunodiagnostic Development Team, Reagent Diagnostic Support Branch, Division of Scientific Resources, National Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases. Scientists at both institutions are using the antibodies to study antigen binding in the coronavirus. So far, the work has produced hundreds of new antibodies against the virus spike protein.

“We do a series of immunizations with components of the proteins from the coronavirus that we believe are particularly important and able to be seen by the mouse immune system,” said M.G. Finn, who co-leads the project as chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “The immunizations and follow-up boosts allow us to provide samples of immune system cells from the mice. CDC researchers use them to generate thousands of candidate antibodies that we then use to test binding of the antibodies to portions of the virus.”

For more information on Georgia Tech's Covid-19 research, please visit our Responding to Covid-19 page.

Georgia Tech doesn’t have samples of the coronavirus in its labs, but instead generates the protein components from the genetic sequencing information that was developed early on in the pandemic by scientists who isolated the virus. 

Using Bacteria to Battle a Virus

The Georgia Tech researchers are using a common bacterium to help them develop new weapons against the coronavirus.

“We know the genome of the virus and what part of the genome codes for the amino acid sequences that make the spike protein,” Finn said. “From that we can create a piece of DNA that includes instructions for making that protein, but adapt those instructions to work best in bacterial cells such as E. coli that we can grow in the laboratory. We put the DNA into the bacteria, it gets converted to RNA, and the bacteria make as many copies of the spike protein component as we want. In our case, we cause those protein components to be attached to the outer surface of a nanoparticle, where the immune system can recognize them.”

The desired nanoparticles are then introduced into the mice. The rodent immune systems create antibodies that can be harvested from B cells, a key component of the animal immune systems. The antibodies take about a month to develop.

The work began in March and has so far produced hundreds of antibodies against the virus spike proteins. Preparations are underway to expand the work using robotic systems, and to explore sites on the virus where the most potent of the antibodies may attach.

Finn’s lab had been working with the CDC on antibodies for other diseases when the coronavirus pandemic began. The researchers changed course to support their CDC collaborators on the Covid-19 challenge. 

Antibodies Are Keys to a Complex Immune System

Antibodies are molecules produced by the immune system in response to a pathogen such as a virus, bacterium, or other invader. There are different kinds of antibodies; some serve as sentries patrolling the bloodstream in search of invaders. Others evolve to attack specific invaders such as viruses, while yet another kind keeps a record of invaders the body has fought off in case that attacker returns. Still other antibodies can block a pathogen’s attempt to bind to and infect cells.

“The reason why it takes you a few days to get over a cold,” he explained, “is that it takes the immune system a few days, when it is working well, to turn on the evolutionary process that generates antibodies that can bind to a new pathogen.”

Humans are born with certain antibodies that can attach themselves weakly to most invaders. But to battle a formidable foe, more specific antibodies must be created that can more strongly attach to the invader. For a new invader like the coronavirus, there’s a race against time between the speed of an infection’s spread and the body’s development of a successful response.

“The body makes changes in the general antibody structure continuously until it creates a molecule that is able to grab onto an invading pathogen in such as way that it signals to the rest of the body that it has found something that doesn’t belong,” said Finn. The signals from the antibody attract other immune system cells that kill the invader by engulfing it or spraying it with toxins.

When the immune system is working well, invasion by a virus might not even produce symptoms; the pathogen would simply be dispatched without anyone being the wiser.

Not All Antibodies Are Created Equal 

People who are vaccinated against or recover from measles often have a lifetime immunity from the virus – meaning they never are infected again. That requires an antibody system that is particularly strong and durable. But for some reason, the body does not respond to every infection with such vigor.

Researchers know that the coronavirus generates antibodies, but they don’t know yet what that actually means.

“We don’t yet have an answer as to whether or not, in general, the human immune response to the coronavirus protects against another exposure to this virus,” Finn said. “It’s likely that the answer is yes, but the scientific community hasn’t proven that yet.

Research to find out is certainly ongoing in animal models around the world, and with Covid-19 patients, analyzing the blood of those who have been infected and recovered.”

Because humans haven’t been exposed to the coronavirus before, their immune systems have no experience with it. While that experience is quickly learned, in the meantime humans are at a disadvantage in that struggle. The virus may also mutate, which would mean that antibodies developed through one exposure may not recognize the virus the next time it attacks.

“Some pathogens are just very difficult to kill, difficult for the immune system to get a handle on,” Finn said. “There is a wide disparity in how well the immune system handles viruses over time or over different levels of exposure.”

One key issue affecting the outcome of a coronavirus infection is the volume of virus particles to which the person is exposed. Inhaling particles from an infected person’s nearby sneeze is likely much more dangerous than touching virus particles that had been left on a surface perhaps hours earlier by that same person.

“The first situation you have to prevent with physical distancing; the second is harder to prevent, but also much less dangerous because the initial amount of virus you get is hugely important.”

Antibodies Used in Testing

The ability of an antibody to bind with an invader can be the basis for tests that can rapidly detect coronavirus, so one result of the Georgia Tech-CDC collaboration could be improved tests to determine who has Covid-19.

Many current tests use a process called polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which detects the presence of RNA from the virus based on samples taken from the nasal swabs. Those tests are fairly accurate, but must be done with costly and complex equipment. 

Finn hopes the Georgia Tech antibody research will lead to a faster and cheaper alternative. The antibodies would attach to the viral particles, and that attachment could be detected. Some coronavirus tests now use that technology, but improvements are needed.

“If you have an antibody that binds tightly to the virus, then you might be able to construct a paper strip test, in principle, that would be like a pregnancy test,” Finn said. “With some degree of sensitivity, such a test would be able to quickly tell if the virus is present or not.”

Because the body makes antibodies in response to an infection, antibody testing is also useful for identifying people who may have recovered from the coronavirus. This would be useful in studying how far the virus has spread, and potentially for determining who might have immunity to the virus. These antibody assays differ from the tests used to determine whether or not a person is actively infected by the virus.

“If the test is done properly and it indicates that you have antibodies to the new coronavirus, then it’s guaranteed that you have been infected, even if you didn’t have the classic symptoms,” Finn said. “But we don’t necessarily know what a specific antibody test is really seeing.”

After initially allowing the sale of many different antibody tests, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now requiring more proof of their effectiveness, which is evaluated by two measures: sensitivity and specificity. Sensitivity is the test’s ability to detect very small quantities of the virus, while specificity is its ability to detect the exact virus of interest. There are often tradeoffs between the two measures.

“The reason why it is good for multiple labs to be working on this is that the production of antibodies is a random exercise in many ways,” Finn said. “It’s the luck of the draw, so the more experiments going on, the more likely it is that someone will find the right one.”

Yet another type of antibody can prevent a virus from attaching to a cell. Such neutralizing antibodies could provide a therapy to help those who are already infected. “For someone who is infected, you might be able to administer an antibody and have that bind to your cells and take out the virus,” Finn explained. 

A Step Toward Vaccines, the Holy Grail

Understanding antibodies can also provide clues to the development of vaccines, which normally take years to develop, test, and produce in quantities large enough to protect billions of vulnerable people worldwide. Many vaccines that initially show promise fail to meet stringent requirements for safety and effectiveness, which is why so many coronavirus vaccines are currently in early stages of development.

Good vaccines trick the immune system into developing an antibody response to whatever pathogen it is designed to protect against. Vaccines have been made in different ways over time — sometimes from a killed or immobilized pathogen, and other times from a fragment of the pathogen. The world’s first vaccine, which helped eliminate the scourge of smallpox, was little more than infection by a related virus known as vaccinia. 

“The development of vaccines is the single greatest accomplishment of biomedicine in the modern age for saving people’s lives,” Finn said. “In general, vaccines are very safe because they are tested rigorously. Because they are given to healthy people to keep them healthy, you have to test it on many, many people to make sure the vaccine is well tolerated.”

Understanding the antibodies created in response to the coronavirus could identify weak points that could be attacked by a vaccine. It’s likely that there are many such locations on the viral surface where vaccine developers could find a target.

“It would be great if the work we are doing with antibodies could ultimately help identify a way to successfully attack this virus,” Finn said.

Research News
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Media Relations Assistance: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1598138661 2020-08-22 23:24:21 1598138826 2020-08-22 23:27:06 0 0 news Using simulated components of the coronavirus’s distinctive spike proteins, Georgia Institute of Technology researchers, along with colleagues at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), are producing antibodies that could lead to improved testing techniques for the virus, potential treatments for those infected with it – and ultimately, perhaps, a vaccine that could prevent coronavirus infection altogether.

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2020-08-22T00:00:00-04:00 2020-08-22T00:00:00-04:00 2020-08-22 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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638225 638226 638225 image <![CDATA[Electron microscope image of coronavirus particle]]> image/jpeg 1598137867 2020-08-22 23:11:07 1598137867 2020-08-22 23:11:07 638226 image <![CDATA[Transmission electron microscope image of coronavirus]]> image/jpeg 1598137996 2020-08-22 23:13:16 1598137996 2020-08-22 23:13:16
<![CDATA[Flies and Mosquitoes Beware, Here Comes the Slingshot Spider]]> 27303 Running into an unseen spiderweb in the woods can be scary enough, but what if you had to worry about a spiderweb – and the spider – being catapulted at you? That’s what happens to insects in the Amazon rain forests of Peru, where a tiny slingshot spider launches a web – and itself – to catch unsuspecting flies and mosquitoes.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have produced what may be the first kinematic study of how this amazing arachnid stores enough energy to produce acceleration of 1,300 meters/second2 – 100 times the acceleration of a cheetah. That acceleration produces velocities of 4 meters per second and subjects the spider to forces of approximately 130 Gs, more than 10 times what fighter pilots can withstand without blacking out. 

The Peruvian spider and its cousins stand out among arachnids for their ability to make external tools – in this case, their webs – and use them as springs to create ultrafast motion. Their ability to hold a ready-to-launch spring for hours while waiting for an approaching mosquito suggests yet another amazing tool: a latch mechanism to release the spring.

“Unlike frogs, crickets, or grasshoppers, the slingshot spider is not relying on its muscles to jump really quickly,” said Saad Bhamla, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering who studies ultrafast organisms. “When it weaves a new web every night, the spider creates a complex, three-dimensional spring. If you compare this natural silk spring to carbon nanotubes or other human-made materials in terms of power density or energy density, it is orders of magnitude more powerful.”

The study, supported by the National Science Foundation and National Geographic Society Foundation, was published August 17 in the journal Current Biology.

Understanding how web silk stores energy could potentially provide new sources of power for tiny robots and other devices, and lead to new applications for the robust material, the researchers say.

Slingshot spiders, known by the scientific genus name Theridiosomatid, build three-dimensional conical webs with a tension line attached to the center. The Peruvian member of that spider family, which is about 1 millimeter in length, pulls the tension line with its front legs to stretch the structure while holding on to the web with its rear legs. When it senses a meal within range, the spider launches the web and itself toward a fly or mosquito.

If the launch is successful, the spider quickly wraps its meal in silk. If the spider misses, it simply pulls the tension line to reset the web for the next opportunity.

“We think this approach probably gives the spider the advantage of speed and surprise, and perhaps even the effect of stunning the prey,” noted Symone Alexander, a postdoctoral researcher in Bhamla’s lab. “The spiders are tiny, and they are going after fast-flying insects that are larger than they are. To catch one, you must be much, much faster than they are.”

Slingshot spiders were described in a 1932 publication, and more recently by Jonathan Coddington, now a senior research entomologist at the Smithsonian Institution. Bhamla has an interest in fast-moving but small organisms, so he and Alexander arranged a trip to study the catapulting creature using ultrafast cameras to measure and record the movement.

“We wanted to understand these ultrafast movements because they can force our perspective to change from thinking about cheetahs and falcons as the only fast animals,” Bhamla said. “There are many very small invertebrates that can achieve fast movement through unusual structures. We really wanted to understand how these spiders achieve that amazing acceleration.”

The researchers traveled six hours by boat from Puerto Maldonado to the Tambopata Research Center. There is no electricity in the area, so nights are very dark. “We looked up and saw a tiny red dot,” Bhamla recalled. “We were so far away from the nearest light that the dot turned out to be the planet Mars. We could also see the Milky Way so clearly.”

The intense darkness raises the question of how the spider senses its prey and determines where to aim itself. Bhamla believes it must be using an acoustic sensing technique, a theory supported by the way the researchers tricked the spider into launching its web: They simply snapped their fingers.

Beyond sensing in the dark, the researchers also wondered how the spider triggers release of the web. “If an insect gets within range, the spider releases a small bundle of silk that it has created by crawling along the tension line,” Alexander said. “Releasing the bundle controls how far the web flies. Both the spider and web are moving backward.”

Another mystery is how the spider patiently holds the web while waiting for food to fly by. Alexander and Bhamla estimated that stretching the web requires at least 200 dynes, a tremendous amount of energy for a tiny spider to generate. Holding that for hours could waste a lot of energy.

“Generating 200 dynes would produce tremendous forces on the tiny legs of the spider,” Bhamla said. “If the reward is a mosquito at the end of three hours, is that worth it? We think the spider must be using some kind of trick to lock its muscles like a latch so it doesn’t need to consume energy while waiting for hours.”

Beyond curiosity, why travel to Peru to study the creature? “The slingshot spider offers an example of active hunting instead of the passive, wait for an insect to collide into the web strategy, revealing a further new functionality of spider silk,” Bhamla said. “Before this, we hadn’t thought about using silk as a really powerful spring.”

Another unintended benefit is changing attitudes toward spiders. Prior to the study, Alexander admits she had a fear of spiders. Being surrounded by slingshot spiders in the Peruvian jungle – and seeing the amazing things they do – changed that. 

“In the rainforest at night, if you shine your flashlight, you quickly see that you are completely surrounded by spiders,” she said. “In my house, we don’t kill spiders anymore. If they happen to be scary and in in the wrong place, we safely move them to another location.”

Alexander and Bhamla had hoped to return to Peru this summer, but those plans were cut short by the coronavirus. They’re eager to continue learning from the spider.

“Nature does a lot of things better than humans can do, and nature has been doing them for much longer,” she said. “Being out in the field gives you a different perspective, not only about what nature is doing, but also why that is necessary.”

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through award 1817334 and CAREER 1941933, by the National Geographic Foundation through NGS-57996R-19, and by the Eckert Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from the Georgia Tech School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding organizations.
 

CITATION: Symone L.M. Alexander and M. Saad Bhamla, “Ultrafast launch of slingshot spiders using conical silk webs” (Current Biology, 2020). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.076

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Georgia Institute of Technology
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Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu)

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1597716908 2020-08-18 02:15:08 1597717069 2020-08-18 02:17:49 0 0 news Running into an unseen spiderweb in the woods can be scary enough, but what if you had to worry about a spiderweb – and the spider – being catapulted at you? That’s what happens to insects in the Amazon rain forests of Peru, where a tiny slingshot spider launches a web – and itself – to catch unsuspecting flies and mosquitoes.

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2020-08-17T00:00:00-04:00 2020-08-17T00:00:00-04:00 2020-08-17 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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637992 637993 637994 637996 637995 637992 image <![CDATA[Hiking into the rain forest]]> image/jpeg 1597715739 2020-08-18 01:55:39 1597715739 2020-08-18 01:55:39 637993 image <![CDATA[Slingshot spider ready to launch]]> image/jpeg 1597715867 2020-08-18 01:57:47 1597715867 2020-08-18 01:57:47 637994 image <![CDATA[Slingshot spider ready to launch - 2]]> image/jpeg 1597715948 2020-08-18 01:59:08 1597715948 2020-08-18 01:59:08 637996 image <![CDATA[Cartoon explanation of slingshot spider]]> image/jpeg 1597716272 2020-08-18 02:04:32 1597716272 2020-08-18 02:04:32 637995 image <![CDATA[Preparing ultrafast camera]]> image/jpeg 1597716060 2020-08-18 02:01:00 1597716060 2020-08-18 02:01:00
<![CDATA[Catching Z’s, Capturing Data: Researchers Create DIY Device for Monitoring Sleep Patterns ]]> 34434 Audrey Duarte has spent most of her research career as a professor with the School of Psychology studying memory and aging. “It’s really my bread and butter,” Duarte says.

Soon, that research will focus on another aspect of daily — and nightly — life that changes as people grow older, in an area that often impacts their memory: sleep. 

“When you start thinking about what is underlying memory changes and aging, and individual differences in memory ability, there are certain factors that you can look at that are malleable – health-related factors, and sleep is a huge one,” Duarte says. 

The problem with gathering data from sleeping subjects is that many times, the devices that individuals have to wear can be cumbersome and make it difficult to attain a good night’s sleep. That can impact the quality of the data. That’s why Duarte is collaborating with assistant professor W. Hong Yeo, who researches micro and nano engineering in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. Together, the team is creating a much smaller, wearable electronics device that can read brain waves while allowing the wearer to easily drift off into the various stages of sleep. That device may be ready for home testing soon, Yeo says.

Currently, Duarte and Yeo are working on two projects. One is supported by a National Institutes of Health grant, which aims to develop an at-home sleep monitoring system that measures brain signals on the forehead. This single device platform will be used to find neural signatures related to early detection of Alzheimer’s disease. The other project is supported by Huxley Medical Inc., a company Yeo founded, to build a low-cost, wireless, polysomnography system. Polysomnography describes a certain kind of sleep study that involves measuring brain waves, heart rates, and other vital signs to help health professionals understand sleep disorders. 

Nanotechnology to the rescue 

Making this new device affordable, easy to manufacture on a wide scale, and above all, wireless would allow patients to place the device on their foreheads, in the comfort of their own homes versus a visit to an in-person sleep lab. 

Yeo says that nanotechnology helped him dream up a way to make the device small and unobtrusive enough that test subjects can forget they’re wearing a monitor.

“Basically, we will develop a new nanomanufacturing method that can print multiple nanomaterials to fabricate an integrated wireless sensor system,” Yeo says. “Overall, this device will have an exceptionally small form factor,” with a thickness less than five millimeters that weighs less than eight grams. “The device size is similar to or smaller than a credit card.”

The soft electronics, mounted on a patient’s forehead, will include multiple sensors to measure brain signals, as well as a Bluetooth circuit. “It's basically offering the similar wireless functionality as an Apple watch, such that this device can be connected with any smartphone or tablet to record brain signals up to 20 meters away from the device,” Yeo says. 

Waking up to a new way to monitor sleep 

The team’s project started in 2019 when Yeo contacted Duarte about his need to access a lab that measures electroencephalograms (EEGs), which show the electrical activity in the brain. Yeo wanted to check a different device he was working on, and Duarte says the connection led to thinking about other possible collaborations.

“I saw the potential right away,” she says, sharing that Yeo’s previous nanotechnology work grabbed her attention. “We just started talking when I saw what he was building.” 

Yeo focuses on “soft, wearable electronics for health monitoring and human-computer interfaces,” according to his research website. He has previously designed biomimetic materials, or “skin-like electronics.” One of his device proposals, placed under the chins of those with dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing, would read electronic impulses to the throat, and is designed to help patients learn how to swallow again. Another project uses ultra-thin membrane biosensors that could help patients wirelessly control robotic wheelchairs. 

“His devices, you forget they’re on,” Duarte says of the designs. And “they really send out high quality signals that you can record.”

She adds that while devices that monitor movements during sleep currently exist, “and you can learn things about sleep-wake cycles — it’s objective data, but it’s not brain activity. There were all of these reasons why I wanted to get to brain activity.”

The sleep-memory-health connection

Duarte explains that science has long known about the connection between memory and sleep. “Looking at brain activity when people are sleeping, you can see patterns of activities related to memory. Events we experience during the day are replaying during sleep, and memories can be strengthened.”

Consistent nights of good sleep can translate into health benefits like stronger immune systems and better cardiovascular health, along with improved memory, Duarte adds. 

She shares that Alzheimer’s patients are the subject of an unrelated sleep study. “There could be some things in sleep brain activities that serve as biomarkers of Alzheimer’s pathology,” she says. If that can be verified, a smaller sleep monitoring device could keep patients from requiring more invasive procedures like spinal taps or brain scans. “They could just wear this device at home.”

Both Duarte and Yeo say the Covid-19 pandemic has rearranged their testing schedule for the device. Test subjects, including older people, can’t come in to labs to try out the device and have their data taken, but the researchers say they are getting ready to send them out for home testing. 

“Due to Covid-19, overall progress is slow,” Yeo says. “However, we’ve made progress in device design and fabrication. I believe that we can start using one or two devices with human subjects in late August.”

“After we’re sure we have a design that’s high fidelity and doesn’t break easily, we’re going to start mailing it out to volunteers of different ages,” Duarte says. And with video chat platforms like “Blue Jeans or Zoom, we can answer questions as they’re placing it on their heads.”

Yeo is founder and shareholder of Huxley Medical, the company sponsoring this research. He is also an inventor of technologies that include wearable electronics for health monitoring, which Huxley licensed for commercialization. The outcome of this research could impact his personal financial interests. His financial conflicts of interest have been disclosed to and are managed by the Georgia Institute of Technology Office of Research Integrity Assurance.

 

]]> Renay San Miguel 1 1597253427 2020-08-12 17:30:27 1597698659 2020-08-17 21:10:59 0 0 news A new at-home polysomnography kit, built by Audrey Duarte and W. Hong Yeo, proposes a path to getting data and a better night’s sleep — thanks to a new, unobtrusive nanotech device.

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2020-08-17T00:00:00-04:00 2020-08-17T00:00:00-04:00 2020-08-17 00:00:00 Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

 

]]>
637800 637803 637795 637797 637800 image <![CDATA[Audrey Duarte, Professor, School of Psychology ]]> image/jpeg 1597255127 2020-08-12 17:58:47 1597255127 2020-08-12 17:58:47 637803 image <![CDATA[W. Hong Yeo, assistant professor, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering ]]> image/png 1597255420 2020-08-12 18:03:40 1597255420 2020-08-12 18:03:40 637795 image <![CDATA[The wearable sleep monitoring device developed by W. Hong Yeo ]]> image/png 1597254670 2020-08-12 17:51:10 1597254670 2020-08-12 17:51:10 637797 image <![CDATA[How the wearable sleep monitoring device compares to wearable body movement monitors. (Photo W. Hong Yeo)]]> image/png 1597254869 2020-08-12 17:54:29 1597254869 2020-08-12 17:54:29 <![CDATA[ScienceMatters Season One Episode 8: When People Age and Memory Fails]]> <![CDATA[YouTube Video: Georgia Tech Engineers Make Wireless, Wearable Health Monitor ]]> <![CDATA[Wearable Brain-Machine Interface Could Control a Wheelchair, Vehicle or Computer]]> <![CDATA[Audrey Duarte Memory and Aging Lab]]> <![CDATA[H. Wong Yeo Nanoengineering Lab]]>
<![CDATA[Georgia Tech, MIT Team Wins $1.5 Million NSF Grant]]> 27241 A team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have received a three-year, $1.5 millon grant for their project entitled “SemiSynBio-II: A Hybrid Programmable Nano-Bioelectronic System.” The target applications for this technology are environmental monitoring and healthcare. 

Living cells are equipped with highly versatile built-in toolkits of DNA, RNA, and proteins for molecular communication, computing, storage, and sensing/actuation in response to environmental stimuli. Synthetic biology has been remarkably successful in developing engineered living cells by harnessing the same biological toolkits with enhanced natural functions or new human-defined functions. 

According to Hua Wang, an associate professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and the project PI, these engineered cells can potentially serve as a “biological frontend” layer that naturally interfaces with the environment and acts as biosensors/actuators, molecular computing platforms, and molecular memory. In parallel, with decades of unprecedented technological advances, semiconductor technologies, such as Complementary-Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuits (ICs), can be employed as a “semiconductor backend” layer to interface with the living cell “biological frontend” layer for a wide variety of real-time control, communication, and computation functionalities.

“This project aims to advance the science and develop a first proof-of-concept programmable living nano-bioelectronic system that harnesses both the exquisite synthetic functionalities of engineered bacteria and the full functionalities of the ultra-low-power CMOS integrated circuit chips,” Wang said.

To develop this system, various bacteria strains will be engineered to perform wide-spectrum chemical sensing, such as heavy metal detections, in-bacteria DNA-based storage of analog/digital information, and molecular computation and encoding. CMOS IC chips with on-chip pixelated massively paralleled arrays will also be developed to provide real-time two-way, multi-modal interfaces with the living bacteria, which will read stored sensory information from the bacteria and write control signals to reprogram the living bacteria sensors. The bacteria strains and CMOS ICs will then be packaged together in 3D-printed microfluidics structures.

To address the multi-disciplinary aspects of this project, Wang is teaming with Tim Lu, an associate professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Faramarz Fekri, a Georgia Tech ECE professor; and Brian Hammer, an associate professor in the Georgia Tech School of Biological Sciences. Their roles are as follows:

• Wang and his team in the Georgia Tech Electronics and Micro-System Lab (GEMS) will lead the development of the multi-modal CMOS nano-electronics array IC chips for a two-way bacteria-nanoelectronics interface, as well as the packaging and integration of the hybrid programmable nano-bioelectronic system.

• Lu and the Synthetic Biology Group at MIT will lead the development of synthetic bacteria strains that monitor important analytes, such as chemicals and pollutants, and convert these into analog and digital signals for memory and signal transduction. They will interface with the outside world using convenient optical and/or electrical interfaces. 

“Engineered cells provide a natural interface with the living world, and will enable entirely new applications when paired with synergistic electronic systems that can compute and transmit environmental and health information beyond what biology can do on its own,” Lu said.

• Fekri and his Sensing, Processing, and Communication (SPC) Research Lab at Georgia Tech will lead the efforts on bio-computing, as well as signal coding for reliable storage. He will use a stochastic computing framework for computation using cells and will develop data-driven analog code designs for the in-bacteria DNA storage.

Nature is not purely digital and replicating the deterministic digital circuitries in biology is highly complex, according to Fekri. “Instead, we propose to use stochastic computing, which will explore the probabilistic nature of biology for computation,” he said. “Our intent is to demonstrate that bacterial cells engineered with genetically encoded logic gates can be exploited as a platform for stochastic bio-computing.”

• Hammer, from Georgia Tech's Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection, will provide support and consultation on related biological experimentation and hybrid system integration.

The target application of this system is to create an in-field living nano-bioelectronic sensor for environment monitoring and healthcare, according to Wang. “The project has potentials for long-term, broader impacts on basic science and technology,” he said. “It brings together expertise from synthetic biology, hybrid bioelectronics, integrated packaging, information theory, and computing in a very unique way to further our university research and education.”

Note: This research is, in part, funded by the U.S. Government. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the U.S. Government.

]]> Jackie Nemeth 1 1597411979 2020-08-14 13:32:59 1597669734 2020-08-17 13:08:54 0 0 news A team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have received a three-year, $1.5 millon grant for their project entitled “SemiSynBio-II: A Hybrid Programmable Nano-Bioelectronic System.” The target applications for this technology are environmental monitoring and healthcare. 

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2020-08-14T00:00:00-04:00 2020-08-14T00:00:00-04:00 2020-08-14 00:00:00 Jackie Nemeth

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

404-894-2906

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637866 637866 image <![CDATA[SemiSynBio-II: A Hybrid Programmable Nano-Bioelectronic System]]> image/jpeg 1597409278 2020-08-14 12:47:58 1597409278 2020-08-14 12:47:58 <![CDATA[Hua Wang]]> <![CDATA[Tim Lu]]> <![CDATA[Faramarz Fekri]]> <![CDATA[Brian Hammer]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Electronics and Micro-System Lab]]> <![CDATA[Synthetic Biology Group (MIT)]]> <![CDATA[Sensing, Processing, and Communication Research Lab]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection]]> <![CDATA[National Science Foundation]]>
<![CDATA[Observations of Lightning on Jupiter Featured in Nature Cover Story]]> 27241 The cover story for the August 6, 2020 issue of Nature features the optical observations of lightning flashes on Jupiter made by the Juno spacecraft. The article, “Small lightning flashes from shallow electric storms on Jupiter,” was written by select members of the NASA Mission Juno team. The team includes Paul G. Steffes, professor emeritus in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). A pdf of the full article may be downloaded here.  

An Atlas V rocket lofted the Juno spacecraft toward Jupiter from Space Launch Complex-41 on August 5, 2011 at NASA Kennedy Space Center. The four-ton (when launched) Juno spacecraft entered Jupiter’s orbit on July 4, 2016 and began sending data to the Juno mission team, so they can study its structure and decipher itshistory and that of other planets in the solar system. Steffes’ specific role in the mission is to study measurements from Juno’s microwave radiometer to examine Jupiter’s deep atmosphere in order to learn what Jupiter is made of. The prime Juno mission will end in June 2021, and NASA is now considering extending the mission. 

To learn more about past findings of the Juno mission, read the Georgia Tech news release, Juno Mission Reveals Jupiter’s First Surprises, which was published on May 25, 2017.  

For more details and highlights, the Mission Juno website contains a detailed history of the mission and highlights of the latest science results.

]]> Jackie Nemeth 1 1597341330 2020-08-13 17:55:30 1597341544 2020-08-13 17:59:04 0 0 news The cover story for the August 6, 2020 issue of Nature features the optical observations of lightning flashes on Jupiter made by the Juno spacecraft. The article was written by select members of the NASA Mission Juno team, including ECE Professor Emeritus Paul G. Steffes.

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2020-08-13T00:00:00-04:00 2020-08-13T00:00:00-04:00 2020-08-13 00:00:00 Jackie Nemeth

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

404-894-2906

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637855 634669 637855 image <![CDATA[Nature cover - August 6, 2020 ]]> image/png 1597341403 2020-08-13 17:56:43 1597341403 2020-08-13 17:56:43 634669 image <![CDATA[Paul Steffes]]> image/jpeg 1587599637 2020-04-22 23:53:57 1587599637 2020-04-22 23:53:57 <![CDATA[Paul Steffes]]> <![CDATA[School of Electrical and Computer Engineering]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech]]> <![CDATA[Nature]]> <![CDATA[Mission Juno]]>
<![CDATA[BME Researchers Contribute to National mHealth Covid Study]]> 28153 May Dongmei Wang, professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, is part of a 60-person expert task force that explored how mobile health technologies could be used to address Covid-19 and future pandemics.

Organized by researchers at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital (the teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation), the team set out to review mobile health (mHealth) technologies and wrote about it in a new study, “Can mHealth Technology Help Mitigate the Effects of the COVID 19 Pandemic?” in the latest issue of IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology. The team found that mHealth technologies are viable options to monitor Covid-19 patients and can be used to predict symptom escalation for earlier intervention.

Wang is the principal investigator of the Bio-MIBLab (Biomedical Informatics and Bioimaging Lab), where her team specializes in Biomedical and Health Informatics with a focus on predictive, preventative, pervasive, personalized, and precision health. The team’s specialty is developing advanced artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms for biomedical data quality improvement, data integration, causal inference, real-time decision making, and interpretable AI.

“We were invited to join to this large international task force to provide insight on mHealth data collection, harmonization, and infrastructure for analysis,” says Wang, a researcher in both the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, and the Institute for People and Technology at Georgia Tech. “The idea is to use mHealth effectively for Covid-19 patient precision staging, contact tracing, and monitoring to ultimately ease the effects of the global pandemic.”

Her lab has 10 years of research experience in mHealth data analytics for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. This made Wang’s team the perfect addition to the enterprise. During the pandemic, her lab has been developing advanced artificial intelligence techniques, such as deep learning-based algorithms for clinical decision support, assisting Covid-19 clinic physicians in fair resource allocation.

Paolo Bonato, director of the Spaulding Motion Analysis Lab, was the lead author on the study. “To be able to activate a diverse group of experts with such a singular focus speaks to the commitment the entire research and science community has in addressing this pandemic. Our goal is to quickly get important findings into the hands of the clinical community, so we continue to build effective interventions,” said Dr. Bonato.

Telehealth usage and mobile health technologies commonly called mHealth, has gained the attention of the public at large. While telehealth has allowed patients to stay connected for ongoing appointments and check-ins, wearable mHealth technologies provide a significant opportunity for data collection and mHealth technology could be used to monitor patients with mild symptoms who have tested positive for Covid-19. These patients are typically instructed to self-quarantine at home or undergo monitoring at community treatment centers.

However, a portion of them eventually experience an exacerbation, namely the sudden occurrence of severe symptoms, and require hospitalization. In this context, mHealth technology could enable early detection of such exacerbations, allowing clinicians to deliver necessary interventions in a timely manner thus improving clinical outcomes.

The Task Force paper concluded that Smartphone applications enabling self-reports and wearable sensors enabling physiological data collection could be used to monitor clinical personnel and detect early signs of an outbreak in the hospital/healthcare settings. They also reported similarly, in the community, early detection of Covid-19 cases could be achieved by building upon prior studies which showed that by using wearable sensors to capture resting heart rate and sleep duration it is possible to predict influenza-like illness rates as well as Covid-19 epidemic trends.

“The better data and tracking we can collect using mHealth technologies can help public health experts understand the scope and spread of this virus and most importantly hopefully help more people get the care they need earlier,” said Bonato. “Our hope is to build on more studies from here and continue to expand our understanding.”

 

]]> Jerry Grillo 1 1597328495 2020-08-13 14:21:35 1597407019 2020-08-14 12:10:19 0 0 news BioMIBLab provides key insights in massive study identifying technologies to dull the influence of a global pandemic

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2020-08-13T00:00:00-04:00 2020-08-13T00:00:00-04:00 2020-08-13 00:00:00 Jerry Grillo

Writer/Communicator

Georgia Tech

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637826 637826 image <![CDATA[BioMIBLab]]> image/png 1597328058 2020-08-13 14:14:18 1597329399 2020-08-13 14:36:39
<![CDATA[Microbes and Methane: Unlocking Clathrate 'Crystal Cages' with Chilly Protein Cocktails, Created from Deep Biosphere Bacteria ]]> 34434 When it comes to gas clathrates — collections of water molecules that can trap gas inside a lattice-like crystal structure — science sees them as potential friends and foes.

They’re friends because clathrate-trapped natural gas could be another source of energy for the oil and gas industry. Yet clathrates are also foes if they heat up too fast inside offshore wells. They can rapidly expand with dangerous results, as was suggested in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Clathrates buried deep within the Arctic permafrost can also trap methane, which is a major greenhouse gas, and rising global temperatures could unlock those chilly 'crystal cages' and add to climate change concerns. 

If science can figure out a safe, eco-friendly way to manipulate clathrates, then a wide range of disciplines and industries could benefit from the applications. A unique interdisciplinary team of Georgia Tech researchers may have found a way to accomplish that goal, using proteins embedded in bacteria from deep below the Earth’s surface to bind to clathrates and change them. 

“Mainly on the Plane: Deep Subsurface Bacterial Proteins Bind and Alter Clathrate Structure”, published July 23 in Crystal Growth & Design (an American Chemical Society publication) is the result of a 2018 grant from the NASA Exobiology program. The researchers are Abigail Johnson and Jennifer Glass from the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Dustin Huard and Raquel Lieberman from the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Priyam Raut from the School of Biological Sciences, and Sheng Dai and Jongchan Kim from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The petroleum industry currently tries to slow and cool off clathrates in pipelines and wells with synthetic compounds, but “there is a strong need for alternative, ‘green,’ antifreeze materials” to lower the temperature at which hydrates (clathrates) will form, says Lieberman, a professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “While antifreeze proteins derived from cold water fish show some promise, our unique proteins come from those found in microbes that natively inhabit gas clathrates, and thus hold promise as more potent and tailored inhibitors of natural gas clathrate.”

Making protein magic in the lab

The researchers found that their cocktail of protein-embedded bacteria changed the structure of clathrate crystal lattices to “polycrystalline and plate-like, instead of forming single, octahedral crystals,” as the study’s abstract notes. 

“A big takeaway here is that this is one of the very first times that any group has created proteins in the lab using bacterial gene sequences from Earth’s deep biosphere,” says Glass, an associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. “Deep biosphere” refers to organic materials found beneath the Earth’s surface. “Due to the great difficulty of culturing and isolating microbes from the deep biosphere, we have taken the approach of expressing these novel proteins recombinantly, using workhorse bacteria like E. coli.” 

Glass says the study shows scientists can make these proteins in the lab and that they are stable enough to use in experiments. “This opens up huge possibilities for exploring functions of novel proteins from the deep biosphere in our laboratories. It’s possible these proteins could have use in biotechnology, medicine, industry, environmental remediation, and many other fields.”

Huard, a research scientist in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, marvels at how nature is capable of evolving simple yet elegant solutions to complex problems like figuring out clathrate structure. A simple amino acid sequence, when blended into proteins that bind to clathrates, “allows for organisms to thrive in extremely harsh, cold environments,” he says. 

Huard adds that clathrates are known to exist elsewhere in the solar system. “Our clathrate-binding proteins, produced by bacteria, could provide a clue as to how life might survive on other planetary bodies that have gas clathrates, such as Mars.”

Don’t forget about discoveries in the past few years about the role methane clathrates may play in maintaining subsurface liquid oceans on icy moons and planetary bodies in the outer solar system, adds Glass. “Gas clathrates are thought to be possible habitable zones for microbial life. I’m very excited to connect our research to results from future [NASA] missions.”

The full extent of the capabilities of clathrate-binding proteins is not yet known, Huard says. For example, the food industry could benefit if the proteins also inhibit ice growth, since antifreeze proteins are already found in many food products. 

The perfect mix of Georgia Tech researchers and disciplines 

Huard researches in Lieberman’s lab, which has produced studies of the protein structure found in certain forms of glaucoma. Lieberman and Huard ended up being part of a team that Glass says illustrates Georgia Tech’s interdisciplinary strengths.

“This project is a perfect example of the exciting results that emerge when fields that often don’t talk come together to try something new,” Glass says. “Our team at Georgia Tech is truly one of the only in the world, to my knowledge, that has the scientific and engineering expertise to do this work.” 

The clathrate project brought together marine microbiologists and geochemists from the Glass Lab, bioinformaticians from the Georgia Tech Bioinformatics Graduate Program, and geosystems engineers. It was catalyzed by the Ocean Science and Engineering program (OSE), in which doctoral candidate Johnson is an inaugural class member. “OSE uniquely encourages graduate projects on ocean-related research that bridge the disciplinary divides between marine science and engineering,” Glass says. 

The impact of clathrates on climate science 

For Johnson, the study afforded her an opportunity to offer a better understanding of clathrates, which have trapped methane under the ocean floor and deep in the Arctic permafrost.

Clathrates “basically occur anywhere there is low temperature, high pressure, water, and sufficient gas concentrations,” Johnson says. “Gigatons of methane, a known potent greenhouse gas, are stored in gas clathrates. A warming global climate could cause clathrate dissociation, potentially leading to a disastrous snowball effect. This is why it’s so critical that we have a firm understanding on the forces controlling clathrate stability.

Johnson says the role microbiology plays in that stability is important to consider but has not been well researched. “Our study elucidates a potential role that bacteria have in stabilizing gas clathrates by producing CBPs (clathrate binding proteins). We found that CBPs bind and significantly change the morphology of the clathrate structure, which hints at a potential role in stability. Our future research will help us determine if these CBPs work to inhibit or nucleate (crystallize) gas clathrate. We hypothesize that CBPs are secreted by bacteria into their fluid habitat within the clathrate, and then bind to the clathrate, thereby inhibiting further clathrate growth; this mechanism would allow the bacteria to maintain their fluid habitat."

Watch: Researchers Transform Clathrate 'Crystal Cages' with Chilly Protein Cocktails

]]> Renay San Miguel 1 1596141836 2020-07-30 20:43:56 1596218277 2020-07-31 17:57:57 0 0 news If science can figure out a safe, eco-friendly way to manipulate clathrates, then a wide range of disciplines and industries could benefit from the applications. A unique interdisciplinary team of Georgia Tech researchers may have found a way to accomplish that goal, using proteins embedded in bacteria from deep below the Earth’s surface to bind to clathrates and change them.

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2020-07-31T00:00:00-04:00 2020-07-31T00:00:00-04:00 2020-07-31 00:00:00 Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209
 

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637427 637395 637400 637397 637399 623530 618425 637427 image <![CDATA[Clathrate crystals in various stages of growth, along with control treatments (top left, top middle samples).]]> image/jpeg 1596215831 2020-07-31 17:17:11 1596215831 2020-07-31 17:17:11 637395 image <![CDATA[A clathrate that is stable at atmospheric pressure, grown at the end of a pipette in the presence of a clathrate-binding protein (CBP). The clathrate surface glows, indicating that the CBP is indeed binding to the clathrate.]]> image/png 1596132001 2020-07-30 18:00:01 1596205125 2020-07-31 14:18:45 637400 image <![CDATA[Different stages of clathrate crystal growth. ]]> image/png 1596132655 2020-07-30 18:10:55 1596132655 2020-07-30 18:10:55 637397 image <![CDATA[Abigail Johnson, a doctoral student in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. ]]> image/png 1596132191 2020-07-30 18:03:11 1596132191 2020-07-30 18:03:11 637399 image <![CDATA[Abigail Johnson and Dustin Huard present their clathrate research at an Georgia Tech Astrobiology poster session. ]]> image/png 1596132393 2020-07-30 18:06:33 1596132393 2020-07-30 18:06:33 623530 image <![CDATA[Jennifer Glass, associate professor, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences]]> image/jpeg 1563544423 2019-07-19 13:53:43 1563544423 2019-07-19 13:53:43 618425 image <![CDATA[Raquel Lieberman]]> image/jpeg 1551122123 2019-02-25 19:15:23 1551122123 2019-02-25 19:15:23 <![CDATA[Watch: Researchers Transform Clathrate 'Crystal Cages' with Chilly Protein Cocktails]]> <![CDATA[Unlocking the Mysteries of Methane Clathrates]]> <![CDATA[Science Matters Season 2 Episode 3: Helping Glaucoma Patients]]>
<![CDATA[Eva Dyer Wins McKnight Technology Award]]> 28153 Minneapolis, MN – Eva Dyer, assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, has been named one of three recipients of the 2020 McKnight Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Awards. The McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience (MEFN) announced the three winners of $600,000 in grant funding today.

The researchers’ projects were recognized for their ability to fundamentally change the way neuroscience research is conducted. Each of the projects will receive a total of $200,000 over the next two years, advancing the development of these groundbreaking technologies used to map, monitor, and model brain function.

In addition to Dyer, the other winners are Rikky Muller (University of California-Berkeley) and Kai Zinn (California Institute of Technology).

Since the McKnight Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Award was established in 1999, the MEFN has contributed more than $14.5 million to innovative technologies for neuroscience through this award mechanism. The MEFN is especially interested in work that takes new and novel approaches to advancing the ability to manipulate and analyze brain function. Technologies developed with McKnight support must ultimately be made available to other scientists.

“It has been a thrill to see the ingenuity that our applicants are bringing to new neurotechnologies,” said Markus Meister, chair of the awards committee and professor of biological sciences at the California Institute of Technology. “This year, we faced a tough choice among many exciting developments, and our awards span a broad range, from computational methods for big data from the brain, to fancy optics for the control of light beams, to a clever molecular strategy for surveying protein expression in neurons.”

Dyer, a researcher in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech, focuses her work on the development of machine learning algorithms to compare large datasets of neural activity and find both macro- and neuron-level patterns that correspond to specific states and behaviors in freely-behaving animals.

The ability to observe and record neural data over large parts of the brain has resulted in enormous amounts of data, making it possible to find patterns in the data that can explain how many neurons work together to encode information about the world. Even with new advances in finding low-dimensional patterns in datasets, it is still challenging to compare multiple large-scale recordings, whether it be over long periods of time, or across different individuals solving the same or similar tasks, or across disease states.

Dyer’s experience using machine learning (ML) to decode brain activity has led her to a novel solution to identify patterns in multiple large neural datasets. New cryptography-inspired mathematical rules guide the algorithms to identify similar patterns in separate data sets, looking specifically to match the neural activity generated by different brain states as a starting point for bringing the data into alignment. Aligning neural activity can show how neural patterns are related to the behavior and state of the subject as well as prevent corruption by noise, and provides a critical stepping-stone for more powerful analysis techniques.

Her second aim will help researchers refocus on single neurons to understand how they contribute to the overall changes in neural activity, and whether they can be used to predict specific brain states. The research will further explore whether differences in behaviors can be traced back to specific cell types, and how the differences seen across datasets can be used to characterize variation across individual animals. The ability to decode and compare large neural datasets will prove invaluable in neurological research by indicating how neurodegenerative disease affects the brain’s processing of information.

 

About the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience

The McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience is an independent organization funded solely by The McKnight Foundation of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and led by a board of prominent neuroscientists from around the country. The McKnight Foundation has supported neuroscience research since 1977. The Foundation established the Endowment Fund in 1986 to carry out one of the intentions of founder William L. McKnight (1887-1979). One of the early leaders of the 3M Company, he had a personal interest in memory and brain diseases and wanted part of his legacy used to help find cures. The Endowment Fund makes three types of awards each year. In addition to the McKnight Scholar Awards, they are the McKnight Technological Innovations in Neuroscience Awards, providing seed money to develop technical inventions to enhance brain research; and the McKnight Neurobiology of Brain Disorders Awards, for scientists working to apply the knowledge achieved through translational and clinical research to human brain disorders.

 

]]> Jerry Grillo 1 1595432349 2020-07-22 15:39:09 1595432390 2020-07-22 15:39:50 0 0 news BME/Petit Institute researcher among three recipients of annual award supporting novel neuro research

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2020-07-22T00:00:00-04:00 2020-07-22T00:00:00-04:00 2020-07-22 00:00:00 611905 611905 image <![CDATA[Eva Dyer]]> image/jpeg 1537815761 2018-09-24 19:02:41 1537815761 2018-09-24 19:02:41
<![CDATA[Georgia Tech Team Targets Drug Delivery to Lymph Nodes]]> 28153 Most people are healthy most of the time because their immune systems defeat invading microbes every day. Much of this battle occurs in the lymphatics, a steadfast network of vessels routing lymph fluid through nodes all over the body. These lymph nodes filter the fluid, extract useful information from trapped invaders (like bacteria or cancer cells), and rally the body’s immune system to fight them off.

But sometimes the immune system needs help. Biomedical researchers have understood for years that the selective delivery of a therapeutic payload to the lymph nodes has the potential to address a variety of unmet clinical needs. Unfortunately, delivering cargo to specific cells in this environment is difficult, owing to the unique structure of the lymphatics and the size-restrictive nature of the lymph node reticular network.

But a team of Georgia Tech researchers who have been collaborating for seven years has found a way into the network and they tell all about it in a recently published paper in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

“If you want to help the immune system fight something off with the right drugs, it makes sense to deliver those drugs to the lymph nodes, since that is where the body’s immune response is developed,” reasons M.G. Finn, researcher in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience and chair of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Tech, and one of the paper’s authors.

The paper, “Programmable multistage drug delivery to lymph nodes,” provides the latest insights from the long collaboration between Finn’s lab and the lab of Susan Thomas, a Petit Institute researcher and associate professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Tech, with appointments in both the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory, and the School of Biological Sciences at Tech.

Basically, the team combined nanoparticles (developed in the Thomas lab) which are rapidly conveyed to draining lymph nodes after administration in peripheral tissues, with programmable degradable linkers (developed in the Finn lab), to overcome lymphatic and intra-lymph node transport barriers. Finn likens the process to a Trojan Horse drama at the molecular level, but with a twist. In this story, the city of Troy doesn’t bring the horse inside of its gates – but it doesn’t matter, because the payload gets in anyway.

“I love the metaphor because Susan’s particles, when administered in a certain way, go to the lymph node naturally and because of their size and how they behave, they’re like the Trojan Horse, efficiently carried to the gates,” Finn says as a way of explaining the delicate and complex dance of chemistry and engineering that brings the Thomas lab’s nanoparticles to the lymph node, where the Finn lab’s technology releases the drugs, which essentially diffuse into the lymph node.

“It’s a much more efficient than an injection into the bloodstream,” Finn says of the methodology. “And it’s unique because no one else has developed this kind of two-stage, Trojan Horse phenomenon for lymph nodes. It’s been done in many different ways for tumors.”

In fact, that was the team’s original intent years ago, after Thomas and Finn got acquainted through a monthly function at the Petit Institute, the monthly Breakfast Club Seminar, and their early work together was supported by a Petit Institute Seed Grant.

“The idea was to use our multistage approach for tumor drug delivery,” says Thomas. “We had a eureka moment when we decided to pivot in a slightly different direction. We started thinking of the lymph nodes as a drug target.”

While the concept of multistage delivery to tumor sites has been long explored, this work, broadly speaking, applies the technique to immunoengineering and immunotherapy. Essentially, the Thomas-Finn team has developed a way to deliver small, therapeutic molecules in a programmable manner, with the precision of a laser beam, ultimately improving immunotherapeutic effects.

Earlier this spring, as the paper was being finalized for publication, the team was awarded a five-year, $3.2 million R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. The grant will support further exploration of the multistage delivery platform to improve chemo-immunotherapy for follicular lymphoma. The Thomas-Finn team plans to use its collective expertise in biomaterials engineering, bioconjugate chemistry, drug delivery, and cancer therapy, to develop technology that will help patients fight an incurable disease. The hope is to develop a way to avoid or minimize the unpleasant side effects associated with the current available treatment options, such as radiation therapy, which can suppress the immune system.

Finn explains, “The problem with molecules has always been, you can’t focus them like you can focus radiation on a particular spot in the body. But this technology allows us to essentially do that for lymph nodes. We can release, in a targeted way, a variety of different molecules that have different effects, one of them replacing radiation. So in essence, we can replace the laser beam with the focused delivery of molecules.”

In addition to corresponding authors Thomas and Finn, the paper’s authors include: lead author Alex Schudel (postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, former graduate researcher in Thomas lab), Asheley Chapman (graduate researcher in the Thomas and Finn labs), Mei-Kwan Yau (senior scientist at Merck, former postdoc in Finn lab), Cody Higginson (senior scientist at BioCellection, former researcher in Finn lab), David Francis (graduate researcher in Thomas lab), Margaret Manspeaker (graduate researcher in Thomas lab), Alexa Avecilla (graduate researcher in Thomas lab), and Nathan Rohner (postdoc at Case Western, former researcher in Thomas lab).

]]> Jerry Grillo 1 1595258681 2020-07-20 15:24:41 1595448984 2020-07-22 20:16:24 0 0 news Multistage platform combines nanoparticles and programmable chemistry in transformative approach

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2020-07-20T00:00:00-04:00 2020-07-20T00:00:00-04:00 2020-07-20 00:00:00 Jerry Grillo
Communications Officer II

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<![CDATA[Membrane Technology Could Cut Emissions and Energy Use in Oil Refining]]> 27303 New membrane technology developed by a team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, and ExxonMobil could help reduce carbon emissions and energy intensity associated with refining crude oil. Laboratory testing suggests that this polymer membrane technology could replace some conventional heat-based distillation processes in the future.

Fractionation of crude oil mixtures using heat-based distillation is a large-scale, energy-intensive process that accounts for nearly 1% of the world’s energy use: 1,100 terawatt-hours per year (TWh/yr), which is equivalent to the total energy consumed by the state of New York in a year. By substituting the low-energy membranes for certain steps in the distillation process, the new technology might one day allow implementation of a hybrid refining system that could help reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption significantly compared to traditional refining processes.

“Much in our modern lives comes from oil, so the separation of these molecules makes our modern civilization possible,” said M.G. Finn, professor and chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Finn also holds the James A. Carlos Family Chair for Pediatric Technology. “The scale of the separation required to provide the products we use is incredibly large. This membrane technology could make a significant impact on global energy consumption and the resulting emissions of petroleum processing.”

Reported in the July 17 issue of the journal Science, the paper is believed to be the first report of a synthetic membrane specifically designed for the separation of crude oil and crude-oil fractions. Additional research and development will be needed to advance this technology to industrial scale. 

Membrane technology is already widely used in such applications as seawater desalination, but the complexity of petroleum refining has until now limited the use of membranes. To overcome that challenge, the research team developed a novel spirocyclic polymer that was applied to a robust substrate to create membranes able to separate complex hydrocarbon mixtures through the application of pressure rather than heat.

Membranes separate molecules from mixtures according to differences such as size and shape. When molecules are very close in size, that separation becomes more challenging. Using a well-known process for making bonds between nitrogen and carbon atoms, the polymers were constructed by connecting building blocks having a kinked structure to create disordered materials with built-in void spaces. 

The team was able to balance a variety of factors to create the right combination of solubility – to enable membranes to be formed by simple and scalable processing – and structural rigidity – to allow some small molecules to pass through more easily than others. Unexpectedly, the researchers found that the materials needed a small amount of structural flexibility to improve size discrimination, as well as the ability to be slightly “sticky” toward certain types of molecules that are found abundantly in crude oil. 

After designing the novel polymers and achieving some success with a synthetic gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel fuel mixture, the team decided to try to separate a crude oil sample and discovered that the new membrane was quite effective at recovering gasoline and jet fuel from the complex mixture.

“We were initially trying to fractionate a mixture of molecules that were too similar,” said Ben McCool, a senior research associate at ExxonMobil and one of the paper’s coauthors. “When we took on a more complex feed, crude oil, we got fractionalization that looked like it could have come from a distillation column, indicating the concept’s great potential.”

The researchers worked collaboratively, with polymers designed and tested at Georgia Tech, then converted to 200-nanometer-thick films, and incorporated into membrane modules at Imperial using a roll-to-roll process. Samples were then tested at all three organizations, providing multi-lab confirmation of the membrane capabilities. 

“We have the foundational experience of bringing organic solvent nanofiltration, a membrane technology becoming widely used in pharmaceuticals and chemicals industries, to market,” said Andrew Livingston, professor of chemical engineering at Imperial. “We worked extensively with ExxonMobil and Georgia Tech to demonstrate the scalability potential of this technology to the levels required by the petroleum industry.”

The research team created an innovation pipeline that extends from basic research all the way to technology that can be tested in real-world conditions.

“We brought together basic science and chemistry, applied membrane fabrication fundamentals, and engineering analysis of how membranes work,” said Ryan Lively, associate professor and John H. Woody faculty fellow in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “We were able to go from milligram-scale powders all the way to prototype membrane modules in commercial form factors that were challenged with real crude oil – it was fantastic to see this innovation pipeline in action.”

ExxonMobil’s relationship with Georgia Tech goes back nearly 15 years and has produced innovations in other separation technologies, including a new carbon-based molecular sieve membrane that could dramatically reduce the energy required to separate a class of hydrocarbon molecules known as alkyl aromatics. 

“Through collaboration with strong academic institutions like Georgia Tech and Imperial, we are constantly working to develop the lower-emissions energy solutions of the future," said Vijay Swarup, vice president of research and development at ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company. 

In addition to Finn, Livingston, Lively, and McCool, the paper’s authors include Kirstie Thompson and Ronita Mathias, Georgia Tech graduate students who are co-first authors; Daeok Kim, Jihoon Kim, Irene Bechis, Andrew Tarzia, and Kim Jelfs of Imperial; and Neel Rangnekar, J.R. Johnson, and Scott Hoy of ExxonMobil.

CITATION: Kirstie Thompson, et al., “N-Aryl Linked Spirocyclic Polymers for Membrane Separations of Complex Hydrocarbon Mixtures” (Science 2020). https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6501/310

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]]> John Toon 1 1594924407 2020-07-16 18:33:27 1594924632 2020-07-16 18:37:12 0 0 news New membrane technology developed by a team of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, and ExxonMobil could help reduce carbon emissions and energy intensity associated with refining crude oil. Laboratory testing suggests that this polymer membrane technology could replace some conventional heat-based distillation processes in the future.

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2020-07-16T00:00:00-04:00 2020-07-16T00:00:00-04:00 2020-07-16 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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637025 637026 637027 637029 637025 image <![CDATA[Membrane material could reduce carbon emissions]]> image/jpeg 1594923476 2020-07-16 18:17:56 1594923476 2020-07-16 18:17:56 637026 image <![CDATA[New membrane technology]]> image/jpeg 1594923602 2020-07-16 18:20:02 1594923602 2020-07-16 18:20:02 637027 image <![CDATA[Polymers used for membrane materials]]> image/jpeg 1594923754 2020-07-16 18:22:34 1594923754 2020-07-16 18:22:34 637029 image <![CDATA[Examining membrane materials]]> image/jpeg 1594923884 2020-07-16 18:24:44 1594923884 2020-07-16 18:24:44
<![CDATA[Ozone Disinfection Could Safely Allow Reuse of Personal Protective Equipment]]> 34528 A new study shows that ozone gas, a highly reactive chemical composed of three oxygen atoms, could provide a safe means for disinfecting certain types of personal protective equipment that are in high demand for shielding healthcare personnel from Covid-19.

Conducted by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology using two pathogens similar to the novel coronavirus, the study found that ozone can inactivate viruses on items such as Tyvek gowns, polycarbonate face shields, goggles, and respirator masks without damaging them — as long as they don’t include stapled-on elastic straps. The study found that the consistency and effectiveness of the ozone treatment depended on maintaining relative humidity of at least 50% in chambers used for disinfection.

“Ozone is one of the friendliest and cleanest ways of deactivating viruses and killing most any pathogen,” said M.G. Finn, chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, who led the study. “It does not leave a residue; it’s easy to generate from atmospheric air, and it’s easy to use from an equipment perspective.”

Findings of the research are described in a paper posted to the medRxiv preprint server and will be submitted to a journal for peer review and publication. Ozone can be produced with inexpensive equipment by exposing oxygen in the atmosphere to ultraviolet light, or through an electrical discharge such as a spark.

During local and regional peaks in coronavirus infection, shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) can force hospitals and other healthcare facilities to reuse PPE that was intended for a single use. Facilities have used ultraviolet light, vaporized hydrogen peroxide, heat, alcohol and other techniques to disinfect these items, but until recently, there had not been much interest in ozone disinfection, Finn said.

Ozone is widely used for disinfecting wastewater, purifying drinking water, sanitizing food items, and disinfecting certain types of equipment — even clothing. Ozone disinfection cabinets are commercially available, taking advantage of the oxidizing effects of the gas to kill bacteria and inactivate viruses.

“There was no reason to think it wouldn’t work, but we could find no examples of testing done on a variety of personal protective equipment,” Finn said. “We wanted to contribute to meeting the needs of hospitals and other healthcare organizations to show that this technique could work against pathogens similar to the coronavirus.”

Phil Santangelo, a virologist in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, recommended two respiratory viruses — influenza A and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) – as surrogates for coronavirus. The two are known as “enveloped” viruses because, like coronavirus, they are surrounded by a lipid outer membrane. Influenza and RSV are less dangerous than the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, allowing the Georgia Tech researchers to study them without high-containment laboratory facilities.

Santangelo, Finn, and their team devised a test procedure in which solutions containing the two viruses were placed onto samples of the PPE materials under study. The solutions were allowed to dry before the samples were placed in a chamber into which ozone was introduced at varying concentrations as low as 20 parts per million. After treatment for different lengths of time, the researchers tested the PPE samples to determine whether or not any of the viruses on the treated surfaces could infect cells grown in the laboratory. The entire test procedure required about a day and a half.

“The protocol we set up reports very sensitively on whether or not the virus could reproduce, and we found that the ozone was very successful in rendering them harmless,” Finn said. “Oxidizing biological samples to a significant extent is enough to inactivate a virus. Either the genetic material or the outer shell of the virus would be damaged enough that it could no longer infect a host cell.”

Loren Williams, a professor in School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, introduced the research team to a manufacturer of ozone disinfection chambers, which allowed evaluation of the equipment using the test protocol. During the test, the researchers learned that having sufficient relative humidity in the chamber — at least 50% — was essential for rapidly inactivating the viruses in a consistent manner.

After subjecting face masks and respirators to ozone disinfection, the team worked with Associate Professor Ng Lee (Sally) Ng from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering to evaluate the filtration capabilities of the items. The ozone treatment didn’t appear to negatively affect the N-95 filtration material.

But it did damage the elastic materials used to hold the masks in place. While the elastic headbands could be removed from the masks during ozone disinfection, removing and replacing them on a large scale may make the treatment technique impractical. Otherwise, however, ozone may offer an alternative technique for disinfecting other types of PPE.

“Ozone would be a viable method for hospitals and other organizations to disinfect garments, goggles, and gloves,” Finn added. “It is inexpensive to produce, and we hope that by sharing information about what we’ve found, healthcare facilities will be able to consider it as an option, particularly in low-resource areas of the world.”

Beyond those already mentioned, the research involved Emmeline Blanchard from the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University; Justin Lawrence, Taekyu Joo, and Britney Schmidt from the Georgia Tech School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences; Minghao Xu from the Georgia Tech School of Chemistry and Biochemistry; and Jeffrey Noble from the Parker Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience.

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
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Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu)

Writer: John Toon

]]> jhunt7 1 1594337173 2020-07-09 23:26:13 1594337196 2020-07-09 23:26:36 0 0 news A new study shows that ozone gas, a highly reactive chemical composed of three oxygen atoms, could provide a safe means for disinfecting certain types of personal protective equipment that are in high demand for shielding healthcare personnel from Covid-19.

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2020-07-09T00:00:00-04:00 2020-07-09T00:00:00-04:00 2020-07-09 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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636857 636858 636857 image <![CDATA[N-95 Masks]]> image/jpeg 1594326032 2020-07-09 20:20:32 1594326032 2020-07-09 20:20:32 636858 image <![CDATA[Testing ozone disinfection]]> image/png 1594326160 2020-07-09 20:22:40 1594326160 2020-07-09 20:22:40
<![CDATA[Georgia Tech Researchers Release County-Level Calculator to Estimate Risk of Covid-19 Exposure at U.S. Events ]]> 34528 Visit the web app: COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool
This web app is very popular, and its servers are being upgraded daily.
If the site is slow to load, see daily aggregate maps here.

An interactive dashboard that estimates Covid-19 incidence at gatherings in the U.S. has added a new feature: the ability to calculate county-level risk of attending an event with someone actively infected with Coronavirus (Covid-19). Previously, the dashboard estimated exposure for different size events by state.

The new “Covid-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool” is the work of Joshua Weitz, professor in the School of Biological Sciences and founding director of Georgia Tech’s Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences program, in collaboration with the lab of Clio Andris, an assistant professor in the School of City and Regional Planning with a joint appointment in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, and with researchers from the Applied Bioinformatics Laboratory (a public/private partnership between Georgia Tech, IHRC Inc., and ASRT Inc.).

“We have developed an interactive county-level map of the risk that one or more individuals may have Covid-19 in events of different sizes,” Weitz says. “The issue of understanding risks associated with gatherings is even more relevant as many kinds of businesses, including sports and universities, are considering how to re-open safely.”

The dashboard accounts for widespread gaps in U.S. testing for the Coronavirus, which can silently spread through individuals who display mild or no symptoms of illness. “Precisely because of under-testing and the risk of exposure and infection, these risk calculations provide further support for the ongoing need for social distancing and protective measures. Such precautions are still needed even in small events, given the large number of circulating cases,” states the dashboard’s website.

For example: As of Monday, July 6, for an event with 100 attendees in Fulton County, Georgia, the estimated risk of someone in attendance being actively infected with Coronavirus is 76 percent. For that same day at an event with 1,000 attendees, the estimated risk in all but 16 of Georgia’s 159 counties exceeds 99 percent.

The dashboard’s technical development was made possible by contributions from Seolha Lee, a master’s student in Andris' group, and Aroon Chande, a Ph.D. candidate in Bioinformatics at Georgia Tech.

The dashboard’s website, which is updated daily, incorporates data from The New York Times case count and Covidtracking.com dashboard (a resource led by journalist Alexis Madrigal of The Atlantic). Both of these databases record confirmed case reports from state-level departments of public health.

“The Covid-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool takes the number of cases reported in the past 14 days in each county, and multiplies these by an under-testing factor to estimate the number of circulating cases in a particular county,” Weitz explains. (In late June, Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stated on a press call that “now that serology tests are available, which test for antibodies, the estimates we have right now show about 10 times more people have antibodies in the jurisdictions tested than had documented infections.”)

Tracking tools developed earlier this year by Weitz and colleagues at Georgia Tech and other institutions are also factored into the team’s new county-level calculator. “The model is simple, intentionally so, and provided context for the rationale to halt large gatherings in early-mid March and newly relevant context for considering when and how to re-open,” states the dashboard website.

]]> jhunt7 1 1594133816 2020-07-07 14:56:56 1594923226 2020-07-16 18:13:46 0 0 news The new county-level calculator builds on the team’s interactive state-level tool, which estimates the daily risk that one or more individuals infected with Covid-19 are present in U.S. events of various sizes.

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2020-07-07T00:00:00-04:00 2020-07-07T00:00:00-04:00 2020-07-07 00:00:00 Jess Hunt-Ralston
Director of Communications
College of Sciences at Georgia Tech
jess@cos.gatech.edu

Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

]]>
636771 636773 636771 image <![CDATA[The team's interactive map shows the risk level of attending an event, given the event size and location (assuming 10:1 ascertainment bias). The risk level is the estimated chance (0-100%) that at least one Covid-19 positive individual will be present.]]> image/jpeg 1594134068 2020-07-07 15:01:08 1594134068 2020-07-07 15:01:08 636773 image <![CDATA[ For an event with 100 attendees in Fulton County on July 6, the estimated risk of someone in attendance being actively infected with Coronavirus is 76 percent. For 1,000 attendees, the estimated risk across most Georgia counties exceeds 99 percent.]]> image/jpeg 1594134260 2020-07-07 15:04:20 1594134260 2020-07-07 15:04:20 <![CDATA[ABiL scientists help develop COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool]]> <![CDATA[Collaborative Covid-19 Research Receives National Science Foundation RAPID Grant]]> <![CDATA[Immunity of Recovered COVID-19 Patients Could Cut Risk of Expanding Economic Activity]]> <![CDATA[Scientific American: Online COVID-19 Dashboard Calculates How Risky Reopenings and Gatherings Can Be]]> <![CDATA[National Geographic: See why keeping groups small can save lives in the era of COVID-19]]> <![CDATA[AJC: Scientists do the math to show how large events like March Madness could spread coronavirus]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Helping Stories: Responding to Covid-19]]> <![CDATA[COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool]]>
<![CDATA[Surfaces That Grip Like Gecko Feet Could Be Easily Mass-Produced]]> 31759 Why did the gecko climb the skyscraper? Because it could; its toes stick to about anything. Engineers can already emulate the secrets of gecko stickiness to make strips of rubbery materials that can pick up and release objects, but simple mass production for everyday use has been out of reach until now.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed, in a new study, a method of making gecko-inspired adhesive materials that is much more cost-effective than current methods. It could enable mass production and the spread of the versatile gripping strips to manufacturing and homes.

Polymers with “gecko adhesion” surfaces could be used to make extremely versatile grippers to pick up very different objects even on the same assembly line. They could make picture hanging easy by adhering to both the picture and the wall at the same time. Vacuum cleaner robots with gecko adhesion could someday scoot up tall buildings to clean facades.

“With the exception of things like Teflon, it will adhere to anything. This is a clear advantage in manufacturing because we don’t have to prepare the gripper for specific surfaces we want to lift. Gecko-inspired adhesives can lift flat objects like boxes then turn around and lift curved objects like eggs and vegetables,” said Michael Varenberg, the study’s principal investigator and an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

Current grippers on assembly lines, such as clamps, magnets, and suction cups, can each lift limited ranges of objects. Grippers based on gecko-inspired surfaces, which are dry and contain no glue or goo, could replace many grippers or just fill in capability gaps left by other gripping mechanisms.

Drawing out razors

The adhesion comes from protrusions a few hundred microns in size that often look like sections of short, floppy walls running parallel to each other across the material’s surface. How they work by mimicking geckos’ feet is explained below.

Up to now, molding has produced these mesoscale walls by pouring ingredients onto a template, letting the mixture react and set to a flexible polymer then removing it from the mold. But the method is inconvenient.

“Molding techniques are expensive and time-consuming processes. And there are issues with getting the gecko-like material to release from the template, which can disturb the quality of the attachment surface,” Varenberg said.

The researchers’ new method formed those walls by pouring ingredients onto a smooth surface instead of a mold, letting the polymer partially set then dipping rows of laboratory razor blades into it. The material set a little more around the blades, which were then drawn out, leaving behind micron-scale indentations surrounded by the desired walls.

Varenberg and first author Jae-Kang Kim published details of their new method in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces on April 6, 2020.

Forget about perfection

Though the new method is easier than molding, developing it took a year of dipping, drawing, and readjusting while surveying finicky details under an electron microscope.

“There are many parameters to control: Viscosity and temperature of the liquid; timing, speed, and distance of withdrawing the blades. We needed enough plasticity of the setting polymer to the blades to stretch the walls up, and not so much rigidity that would lead the walls to rip up,” Varenberg said.

Gecko-inspired surfaces have a fine topography on a micron-scale and sometimes even on a nanoscale, and surfaces made via molding are usually the most precise. But such perfection is unnecessary; the materials made with the new method did the job well and were also markedly robust.

“Many researchers demonstrating gecko adhesion have to do it in a cleanroom in clean gear. Our system just plain works in normal settings. It is robust and simple, and I think it has good potential for use in industry and homes,” said Varenberg, who studies surfaces in nature to mimic their advantageous qualities in human-made materials.

[Ready for graduate school with social distancing? Here's how to apply to Georgia Tech.

Gecko foot fluff

Behold the gecko’s foot. It has ridges on its toes, and this has led some in the past to think their feet stick by suction or some kind of clutching by the skin. 

But electron microscopes reveal a deeper structure – spatula-shaped bristly fibrils protrude a few dozen microns long off those ridges. The fibrils make such thorough contact with surfaces down to the nanoscale that weak attractions between atoms on both sides appear to add up enormously to create overall strong adhesion.

In place of fluff, engineers have developed rows of shapes covering materials that produce the effect. A common shape makes a material’s surface look like a field of mushrooms that are a few hundred microns in size; another is rows of short walls like those in this study. 

“The mushroom patterns touch a surface, and they are attached straightaway, but detaching requires applying forces that can be disadvantageous. The wall-shaped projections require minor shear force like a tug or a gentle grab to generate adherence, but that is easy, and letting go of the object is uncomplicated, too,” Varenberg said.

Varenberg’s research team used the drawing method to make walls with U-shaped spaces in between them and walls with V-shaped spaces in between. They worked with polyvinylsiloxane (PVS) and polyurethane (PU). The V-shape made in PVS worked best, but polyurethane is the better material for industry, so Vanenberg’s group will now work toward achieving the V-shape gecko gripping pattern in PU for the best possible combination.

Also read: Lung-heart super sensor on a chip tinier than a ladybug

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Writer & Media Representative: Ben Brumfield (404-272-2780), email: ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu

Georgia Institute of Technology

]]> Ben Brumfield 1 1588860514 2020-05-07 14:08:34 1588883564 2020-05-07 20:32:44 0 0 news 2020-05-07T00:00:00-04:00 2020-05-07T00:00:00-04:00 2020-05-07 00:00:00 635139 635138 635140 599834 635139 image <![CDATA[Gecko, gecko adhesion surface, and method]]> image/jpeg 1588859261 2020-05-07 13:47:41 1588860886 2020-05-07 14:14:46 635138 image <![CDATA[Gecko and gecko adhesion]]> image/png 1588859012 2020-05-07 13:43:32 1588859012 2020-05-07 13:43:32 635140 image <![CDATA[How gecko adhesion with 'wall' structure works]]> image/png 1588859449 2020-05-07 13:50:49 1588859449 2020-05-07 13:50:49 599834 image <![CDATA[Michael Varenberg]]> image/jpeg 1513174447 2017-12-13 14:14:07 1513174566 2017-12-13 14:16:06
<![CDATA[Centralized Ordering, Modeling Will Keep PPE Supplied to Research Labs]]> 27303 As America’s leading research universities ramp up laboratory operations that were shut down by Covid-19 in March, they’re encountering a perfect storm of challenges in providing personal protective equipment (PPE) – surgical masks, cloth face coverings, gloves, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant materials.

Global PPE supply chains have been severely disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, producing long lead times and unreliable deliveries. At the same time, Covid-19 precautions are mandating the use of PPE in laboratories where it wasn’t required before, such as computer and electronics labs. And as researchers, staff, and graduate students slowly come back to the lab, predicting how many people will be at work on any given day creates yet another unknown. 

At the Georgia Institute of Technology, supply chain and logistics experts have put their knowledge to work on the problem, using the kind of modeling and machine learning technologies that major retailers rely on to keep products on store shelves. In just one month, the research team has built an automated centralized system to replace traditional purchasing systems in which individual labs had to hunt for their own supplies.

By asking researchers to report details of the PPE they use each day, the labs will provide data the system needs to predict demand, allowing Georgia Tech to place large orders and stock a centralized warehouse that will help bridge the gap between supply chain hiccups. Based on usage data, the system will know when each lab’s stock of PPE needs to be resupplied from distribution centers located in 22 major laboratory buildings. The goal will be for each lab to have a robust three-day supply of PPE at all times.

“We need to make sure that every researcher, staff member, and graduate student is going to be protected properly,” said Benoit Montreuil, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISYE) and director of the Georgia Tech Supply Chain and Logistics Institute. “We are dealing with a very volatile situation for supply capacity, lead times, alternate sources, and reliability. With this system, we can ensure that the distribution of PPE throughout campus will be done in an efficient, seamless, responsive, and fair way.”

With $1 billion in sponsored activity during 2019, Georgia Tech has hundreds of research laboratories studying everything from viral antibodies and stem cells to robotics and electronic defense. In peak times, those researchers are expected to use 400,000 gloves a month and 20,000 surgical masks. With new sanitizing guidelines, they’re expected to use more than 4,000 gallons of hand sanitizer a month – but nobody really knows for sure, because this wasn’t widely required before.

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, most labs were responsible for purchasing their own PPE. But with so many labs worldwide now hunting for materials in the same disrupted supply chains, that’s no longer possible.

“Georgia Tech can ensure better success in obtaining PPE by buying in very large quantities instead of asking individual lab managers to try to find stock on their own,” said Robert Butera, Georgia Tech’s Vice President for Research Development and Operations. “We can track down the best suppliers and create a buffer in the system. We’ll also be able to identify who are the most reliable suppliers.”

From individual laboratories, the system needs daily reports of how many gloves, masks, and other PPE are used. The system aggregates the numbers and uses that information to predict future usage, allowing Montreuil and his team to provide information to Georgia Tech’s Environmental Health and Safety (EHS). Baseline information obtained during Phase 1 of the research ramp-up will help plan for PPE needs as the number of researchers increases during Phase 2.

Individual labs won’t need to place orders unless than they encounter an unexpected change in demand. 

“Rather than principal investigators requesting PPE for their labs and having to anticipate demand, they will log usage and the platform will do all the back-end work to make sure there’s a three-day supply in each lab and a two-week supply in the buildings,” Butera explained. “We are switching from making requests to logging usage in real time. People have to log their use of PPE on daily basis to make sure they are supplied.”

The new system will supply an estimated 95% of PPE needed on campus. Other items that are purchased less frequently, such as lab coats and shoe coverings, will continue to be ordered through traditional means. Those other supplies may be added to the system later.

“The idea is to focus right now on the key PPEs that are most critical from a supply perspective,” said Montreuil. “We will be revising consumption predictions on a daily basis and transferring this information into an overall demand forecast for PPEs.”

Georgia Tech’s research enterprise is ramping up in two phases over the summer. The first phase began June 18, and the second will start July 13. The new PPE supply system launches July 1.

To initiate the system, EHS has provided a stock of supplies to each lab, and that initial stock will be replenished based on the new system. In Phase 2 of the research ramp-up, the system will grow to include distribution centers in more than 50 campus buildings. At this point, Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) labs will receive their PPE through a separate supply system.

PPE distribution will begin at a campus warehouse managed by EHS. To meet the predicted demand, the warehouse will regularly distribute supplies to buildings, where managers will in turn supply individual labs. How labs receive their supplies will depend on building-level plans developed by managers, Butera said.

The centralized and automated system will for the first time allow administrators to know how much stock of each PPE item is available on campus. Ensuring adequate stock has become increasingly important with the protection needs of the Covid-19 environment.

While researchers who work with biological and chemical materials are accustomed to using and maintaining PPE stocks, keeping up with face masks and disinfectant stocks will be a new practice for others. 

“In my lab in ISYE, nobody was using PPE before Covid-19 because we are only around workstations and computer displays,” said Montreuil. “Now, ISYE researchers won’t be able to get into the lab unless they have masks and we will provide hand sanitizer. We will have to get used to this change.” 

Georgia Tech has one of the world’s best industrial engineering schools, and supply chain and logistics research is a key part of that. But even that expertise is challenged by the global logistics issues created by the pandemic, he added.

“The basics of inventory replenishment systems are well known,” Montreuil said. “But most of the time, the assumptions made in the models are very different from the environment we have now. With highly disrupted settings around the world, we find ourselves on a new frontier. It’s not a lab problem, a building problem, or a Georgia Tech problem. It’s a global challenge, and it affects everybody.”

Below are some frequently-asked questions about PPE supplies.

 

Where is the form to log use of PPE?

The form is available at this link

 

Which PPE items are covered by the system?

Consumption of the following items should be reported: Pairs of nitrile gloves by size (S/M/L/XL), pairs of latex gloves by size (M/L), pairs of vinyl gloves, individual surgical masks, individual cloth masks, hand sanitizer by bottle, disinfecting spray by bottle, and disinfecting wipes by package.

 

How should consumption be reported?

Reporting usage by individual lab occupant would be most useful to the system because it will provide the most detailed data for predicting future use. But if labs cannot report usage by individuals working in the lab, they should provide daily data on the entire lab.

 

When are labs expected to begin reporting their daily consumption of PPE?

The system is operational now, and labs will be expected to start using it July 1.

 

Will GTRI labs obtain their PPE through this system?

No, GTRI has a separate system for providing PPE.


How will PPE supplies be restocked from buildings to individual laboratories?

Building managers will receive supplies from EHS and will be responsible for determining how labs will receive replenishment.

 

What should labs do with empty hand sanitizer and disinfectant spray bottles?

Empty hand sanitizer and disinfectant spray bottles should be returned to building managers for refill from bulk supplies. There is a shortage of bottles and reuse will help prevent shortages.

 

What is the lead time for PPE materials ordered from suppliers?

That varies according to the item. The median lead time for nitrile gloves has ranged from 11 to 53 days depending on glove size, with shortest for various sizes ranging between 7 and 11 days while the longest ranged between 11 and 130 days, depicting a high volatility. Supply chain challenges for hand sanitizer led Georgia Tech to work with non-traditional suppliers to create an alternative supply chain based on ethanol rather than isopropyl alcohol.

 

If labs will be provided with a robust three-day stock, how much will be at building depots?

Buildings should have a robust two-week supply of critical PPE items. The adjective robust is important as the aim is not to keep a stock covering an average three-day demand in labs, and an average two-week demand in buildings, but rather enough to cover demand considering consumption and supply stochasticity with degree of confidence. The three-day and two-weeks targets will be dynamically adjusted according to learning of the overall demand and supply chain dynamics.

 

Where can I get more information about accessing the consumption reporting system?

Please visit https://ehs.gatech.edu/covid-19/isye.

 

What if labs need certain supplies immediately?

An urgent request can be made using the urgent request form. At this point, ISYE is monitoring the requests and will notify the building manager. In the near future, requests will go directly to the building manager (or other point of contact). 

 

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu)

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1593477152 2020-06-30 00:32:32 1593565792 2020-07-01 01:09:52 0 0 news Georgia Tech supply chain and logistics experts have developed an automated and centralized system for replenishing personal proective equipment (PPE) stock in research labs.

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2020-06-29T00:00:00-04:00 2020-06-29T00:00:00-04:00 2020-06-29 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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<![CDATA[Astrobiologists Aid in Georgia Covid-19 Test Initiative]]> 35185 This story by Aaron Gronstal initially appeared on the website of NASA Astrobiology. Content has been modified for the College of Sciences website.

At this time of year, the Georgia Tech campus would typically be buzzing with the activity of students and Institute staff. However, the campus is currently closed to everyone apart from those involved in essential activities. This includes the activity of a group of astrobiologists who are hard at work on research efforts to help aid with Covid-19 response.

Over the years, the Astrobiology Program has supported a number of projects at Georgia Tech. This includes the Center for Chemical Evolution (CCE), a joint program between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA Astrobiology, as well as a team of the former NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI). Today, NASA Astrobiology continues to support many scientists at the Institute across a wide range of topics, including prebiotic chemistry and the origin of life, evolution and the early Earth environment, and studies on the potential habitability of icy moons. Each of these researchers is contributing to our knowledge of the origins of life and the potential for life in the Universe. In the past few months, they have used their expertise to aid in our country’s healthcare response here at home.

Alongside their work supported by the NASA Astrobiology Program, this team has expanded their laboratory efforts to include the production of biochemical components for Covid-19 test kits. The researchers are part of the State of Georgia Covid-19 Lab Surge Capacity Task Force, and they are collaborating with a number of other university labs across the state of Georgia. The work of these dedicated scientists is helping to address gaps in the supply of testing kits that provide a vital step in identifying people who are carriers of the virus and may need care, or individuals who may need to remain isolated from other people even though they are asymptomatic.

Astrobiology at Georgia Tech

Loren Williams (School of Chemistry and Biochemistry) is leading the Georgia Tech Test Kit Support Group. Williams is currently a Co-Lead of an Astrobiology Program Research Coordination Network (RCN) dubbed the Prebiotic Chemistry and Early Earth Environment Consortium (PCE3). He also serves as Director of the NASA-funded Center for the Origin of Life (COOL). Additional principal investigators supported by the Astrobiology Program who are part of the initiative include Jennifer Glass (School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences), who is also on the steering committee of the Network for Ocean Worlds RCN and a co-lead on the NASA-funded Oceans Across Space and Time, and Nicholas Hud (School of Chemistry and Biochemistry) a current PI with the Exobiology Program and steering committee member for the PCE3 RCN.

“Research scientists, grad students, technicians, and postdocs in biochemistry labs at Georgia Tech have been working around the clock,” said Jennifer Glass. “They are the real heroes here. They include many astrobiologists from Loren Williams’ lab including Jessica Bowman, Anton Petrov, Brooke Rothschild-Mancinelli, Petar Penev, Rebecca Guth-Metzler, Kavita Matange, Santi Mestre-Fos, Sara Fakhretaha-Aval, and Moran Frenkel-Pinter, as well as Chiamaka Obianyor, a PhD candidate in Nick Hud and Martha Grover’s lab. Another is Justin Lawrence, an astrobiology PhD candidate in Britney Schmidt’s lab, who working on testing different disinfectants for masks.”

The work of Justin Lawrence and the team of scientists supported by the NASA Astrobiology program was also featured in a recent story from National Geographic.

The team at Georgia Tech is making components for test kits that work using a reaction called the ‘reverse transcription quantitative-polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR).’ This reaction is used to identify the presence of small amounts of viral RNA in samples from a patient by taking that RNA and converting it to DNA. The DNA is then amplified by PCR and tagged with fluorescent probes, making it easy to spot.

Raquel Lieberman is a protein chemist at Georgia Tech who is also a Co-I on my current NASA Exobiology grant,” said Glass. “In addition to us writing an exciting manuscript on our NASA project, she’s also an integral member of the Georgia Tech Test Kit Support Group. Her lab members are making the essential enzyme and protein components for the kit: reverse transcriptase, DNA polymerase, and ribonuclease inhibitor.”

The reverse transcriptase enzyme that Lieberman makes is the RTX enzyme developed by Andrew Ellington and his team at the University of Texas at Austin. This enzyme was developed in 2016 and has unique properties that allow scientists to replicate DNA and RNA faster and more accurately in the lab than previously before. (Further information on the RTX enzyme can be found in the accompanying article: Astrobiologists Aid in Fighting Coronavirus.)

“So far, the team has successfully synthesized, purified, and quality controlled the primers and primer-probes used in the reactions,” explained Glass. “These are [components of] the most common [test kits] currently being used in the US, but other types of tests that can give results in less time are coming online, and we might switch to working on those methods in the future.”

From Astrobiology to Virology

In utilizing their astrobiology skills to focus on the global pandemic, the team at Georgia Tech has faced a number of logistical challenges. As researchers continue their work in the laboratory, care is taken to make sure safety procedures are in line with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The team has remained connected by video chat, with each member performing tasks in isolation. An electronic ‘buddy system’ has been implemented so that the scientists, while isolated, still have access to emergency help if necessary.

“Research scientists, grad students, technicians, and postdocs in biochemistry labs at Georgia Tech are the ones doing the bulk of the work,” said Glass. “But they are social distancing, and all of the meetings are virtual. I miss the days when we could all talk science together on campus.”

The efforts of the team have required researchers to quickly adapt and learn new skills, expanding their work to research beyond their typical fields of expertise.

“It has been a steep learning curve,” Glass remarked. “The last six weeks have been a big crash course in virology and medical testing.”

Astrobiology includes experts from a myriad of scientific fields, and the multi- and cross-disciplinary nature of astrobiology is a strength when it comes to adaptability in the lab.

“Luckily a lot of the same basic methods apply,” Glass continued. “I did real-time quantitative polymerase chain reactions on cyanobacterial cultures as a grad student, so that background helped me to understand the principles behind the RT-qPCR test kits.”

The team at Georgia Tech isn’t testing patients themselves. Instead, they are working to equip other labs in Georgia that are specialized in working with human samples. With their efforts, the team has been able to deliver ingredients for hundreds of tests kits a day.

A View for the Future

Many scientists across the country are stepping forward to lend their expertise to aid with coronavirus response. Astrobiologists are no exception.

“We feel very fortunate to be able to contribute to these efforts,” said Glass. “We really hope our efforts can boost testing abilities in Georgia to help our state and our nation.”

Glass and her colleagues also hope to have testing capabilities in place at Georgia Tech by the fall to ensure the safety of the campus community once it is determined that students and University personnel can return. This includes the safety of campus activities and events, such as the 2021 Astrobiology Science Conference (AbSciCon), which will be hosted in Atlanta and is being organized by Georgia Tech.

“We have a long way to go, but we have come a long way and we have really bright minds working on the problem,” said Glass. “We are so excited to host AbSciCon in Atlanta one year from now. Please know we are working to do everything within our power to welcome colleagues to our city in 2021!”

Read the original story on the NASA Astrobiology website.

]]> kpietkiewicz3 1 1591892011 2020-06-11 16:13:31 1594579429 2020-07-12 18:43:49 0 0 news Astrobiologists are using their expertise to help produce necessary components for Covid-19 test kits in the state of Georgia.

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2020-06-09T00:00:00-04:00 2020-06-09T00:00:00-04:00 2020-06-09 00:00:00 Grace Pietkiewicz
Communications Assistant
College of Sciences
katiegracepz@gatech.edu

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636177 636178 636179 636180 636181 636177 image <![CDATA[Loren Williams (right) in his lab at Georgia Tech in 2018, where Marcus Bray (left) observes a sample inside a sealed atmospheric tent that simulates atmospheric gas mixtures during Earth's earliest eon. Photo: Allison Carter]]> image/jpeg 1591892064 2020-06-11 16:14:24 1591892064 2020-06-11 16:14:24 636178 image <![CDATA[Jennifer Glass in her lab at Georgia Tech. She is holding a stromatolitic ironstone full of iron that rusted out of early oceans. An eon ago, oceans appear to have been full of ferrous iron, which would have facilitated production of N2O (laughing gas).]]> image/jpeg 1591892099 2020-06-11 16:14:59 1591892099 2020-06-11 16:14:59 636179 image <![CDATA[Petar Penev is a bioinformatician at Georgia Tech who normally studies ribosomal proteins and evolution. Penev is currently working with the team to investigate SARS-CoV-2 primer specificity.]]> image/jpeg 1591892215 2020-06-11 16:16:55 1591892215 2020-06-11 16:16:55 636180 image <![CDATA[Sara Fakhretaha-Ava of the Williams Group in the Center for the Origin of Life at Georgia Tech. Fakhretaha-Ava works on optimizing the reaction condition for RTX reverse transcriptase enzyme in RT-qPCR.]]> image/jpeg 1591892264 2020-06-11 16:17:44 1591892264 2020-06-11 16:17:44 636181 image <![CDATA[Santi Mestre-Fos of the Williams Group in the Center for the Origin of Life at Georgia Tech. Mestre-Fos studies the rRNA expansion segments (ESs) of the human and yeast ribosomes.]]> image/jpeg 1591892307 2020-06-11 16:18:27 1591892307 2020-06-11 16:18:27 <![CDATA[Georgia Tech: Covid-19 Helping Stories]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Astrobiology Program]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Produces Key Components for Governor’s Coronavirus Test Initiative]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech research team wins NASA grant to study microbe/methane connection on Earth, planetary moons]]> <![CDATA[Center for Chemical Evolution]]> <![CDATA[PCE3 (NASA Astrobiology RCN)]]>
<![CDATA[Chemotherapy and Cancer Gang up to Cause a Neurological Side Effect, Study Says]]> 31759 Contrary to common medical guidance, chemotherapy does not appear to be the only culprit in neuropathy, a neurological side effect of cancer treatment, a new study says. Cancer itself contributes heavily, too, and the stresses on neurons appear far worse than the sum of the two causes.

“There was some distress caused by cancer alone and some distress from chemo alone, but when you put the two things together, it was off the charts, seven times the trauma to neurons of the two things added together,” said Nick Housley, first author of the study performed in rats at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “It turned out to be the first-ever evidence that there is this exacerbation going on.”

Every year in the U.S., there are 1.8 million new cancer diagnoses, and about half of patients receive platinum-based drugs, which are very effective. About 40 percent of patients receiving platinum chemotherapy come down with neuropathy, suffering strange sensations, pain, fatigue, or loss of muscle coordination that impedes day-to-day life. Neuropathy can persist for years after chemotherapy ends.

Hope for treatment

The new study also challenges established medical explanations that neuropathy is caused by structural damage to nerves alone and that it is untreatable.

“The idea of damage has been the standard explanation – that these neurons are dying back and that they are retracting. And we have found time and time again zero evidence of this in the neurons we studied here,” Housley said. 

“The evidence does not support physical damage as the basis for the disabilities we observe. We find functional problems that might be fixable,” said Tim Cope, one of two principal investigators of the study. Functional problems usually refer to neurons not firing properly versus actual tears or shrinkage in neurons.

Cope is a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Biological Sciences and in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. Housley is a postdoctoral researcher in his lab.

The researchers published their results in the journal Cancer Research on April 28, 2020. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute. John McDonald, the other principal investigator, is a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Biological Sciences and the director of Georgia Tech’s Integrative Cancer Research Center.

Gene expression surprises

To explore neuropathy’s causes, the researchers cast a broad net. They examined gene expression in neurons, protein expression, and neuron signaling, and they measured body movements, which became markedly uncoordinated.

Gene dysregulation went into overdrive in reaction to chemo and cancer, including boosting inflammatory responses while suppressing some of neurons’ protective mechanisms. But despite the plethora of gene regulation red flags, there were also surprising signs of intact neuron health. 

“Many things the neuron relies on to live and function were unscathed on the gene expression level. That’s potentially good news for patients and for fixing neuropathy because it means there may be just one thing or a few things to fix to restore normal functioning,” Cope said. “The downregulation of just a few genes may be responsible for the problems we’ve seen.”

Ion channel mystery

Clues from one downregulated gene took a twist that led to a new scientific discovery in neuronal biology before arriving at what appeared to be a pathology.

The downregulated gene is responsible for creating protein structures called ion channels that appear in a neuron’s cell wall and enable the neuron to fire electrical impulses, i.e. action potentials. Ion channels abruptly shuttle potassium ions (K+) and sodium ions (Na+) in and out of cells, flipping the net negative and net positive charges on either side of cell walls, which creates the action potentials.

This particular downregulated gene was for a potassium ion channel called Kv3.3, which was not previously known to exist in muscle spindles – neural receptors embedded in muscles to sense when they are contracting or stretching. The researchers found the channel to be prolific there.

“That was a discovery in its own right in basic neuroscience. Finding its involvement in this sensory-motor problem was also profound,” Housley said.

Most Kv3.3 expression disappeared under the combination of chemo and cancer. More research is needed to establish whether the lack of Kv3.3 is indeed an important contributor to neuropathy, but in this study, it strongly correlated with observed neural pathology.

“Despite the neurons still having the ability to fire action potentials, the process of neurons encoding information was really corrupted,” Housley said.

Also read: App Detects Harsh Side Effect of Breast Cancer Treatment

The following researchers from Georgia Tech coauthored the study: Paul Nardelli, Dario Carrasco, Travis Rotterman, Emily Pfahl, and Lilya Matyunina. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute (grants R01CA221363 and R01HD090642). Any findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and not necessarily of the NCI.

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Writer & media inquiries: Ben Brumfield (404-272-2780), ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu or John Toon (404-894-6986), jtoon@gatech.edu.

Georgia Institute of Technology

]]> Ben Brumfield 1 1591654369 2020-06-08 22:12:49 1591910027 2020-06-11 21:13:47 0 0 news 2020-06-08T00:00:00-04:00 2020-06-08T00:00:00-04:00 2020-06-08 00:00:00 636059 636057 636058 636059 image <![CDATA[NCI stock image of cancer patient 2]]> image/jpeg 1591653943 2020-06-08 22:05:43 1591653967 2020-06-08 22:06:07 636057 image <![CDATA[NCI stock image of cancer patient]]> image/jpeg 1591653655 2020-06-08 22:00:55 1591653655 2020-06-08 22:00:55 636058 image <![CDATA[Chemo and cancer team up for neuronal gene dysregulation]]> image/png 1591653819 2020-06-08 22:03:39 1591653819 2020-06-08 22:03:39
<![CDATA[A Problematic Pathogen Develops Antibiotic Tolerance — Without Previous Exposure]]> 34434 Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a particularly nasty pathogen. It can readily infect individuals with burn injuries, chronic wounds and hospital-acquired infections, like ventilator-associated pneumonia and sepsis. Pathogenic strains can build up in critical body organs, such as lungs, urinary tract, and kidneys, to fatal results. The problematic pathogen often finds a home in immunocompromised individuals who have serious underlying illnesses.

As populations of P. aeruginosa swell, they often aggregate into slimy biofilms that stick to one another and to various surfaces, from medical equipment to airways in the lungs and onto other organs. Thriving in humid environments, the bacteria can create chronic infections that are notoriously resistant to antibiotic treatment.

The pathogen is especially dangerous for cystic fibrosis patients. This genetic disease leads to an overproduction of thick mucus, which provides good growth conditions for microbes like P. aeruginosa, which can then produce antibiotic-resistant biofilms — blankets of microorganisms that cover lung tissue and provide a host environment for more damaging pathogens.

A team of Georgia Tech researchers from the School of Biological Sciences has released a study that points to another problem with Pseudomonas aeruginosa: in a synthetic media that mimics cystic fibrosis sputum, populations of cells can quickly evolve to develop tolerance and resistance to certain antibiotics — despite having no previous exposure to them.

“We were surprised that the antibiotic tolerance increased so quickly in our experiment” says Sheyda Azimi, a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow. “What our data tells us is that in a single species evolved population, with a mixture of diverse single isolates, becomes antibiotic tolerant even without the selective pressure of antibiotics.”

Azimi and four fellow School of Biological Sciences scientists – Steve Diggle (who served as Georgia Tech's lead in developing the project), Joshua Weitz, Samuel Brown, and graduate student Shengyun Peng, have published the results of their study, “Allelic polymorphism shapes community function in evolving Pseudomonas aeruginosa populations,” in The ISME Journal, the official journal of the International Society of Microbial Ecology. The team also includes two researchers from Swansea University Medical School and The University of Birmingham.

Azimi says the increase in tolerance to antibiotics is due to changes in the function of key genes that control social trait production in P. aeruginosa. “Simply put, the changes in population dynamics leads to the tolerance phenotype, so if the P. aeruginosa populations evolve in a chemical environment similar to lungs of individuals with cystic fibrosis, it can display the same phenotype of increased tolerance to certain antibiotics.” Those include beta-lactam antibiotics, one of the most commonly prescribed classes of clinical antibiotics, and the type researchers used in the study.

Even though P. aeruginosa is a well-studied microbe, fewer studies have explored its heterogeneity, or the diversity in its traits and characteristics, and how that diversity helps its cells communicate with one another. The team’s study sought to better understand these social behaviors and how they can influence the microbe’s development and evolution.

The team evolved P. aeruginosa in biofilms, growing the bacteria in a synthetic sputum medium, meant to mimic a mixture of saliva and mucus, for 50 days. “We measured social trait production and antibiotic tolerance, and used a metagenomic approach to analyze and assess genomic changes over the duration of the evolution experiment,” she writes in the article’s abstract (metagenomics is the study of genetic material recovered directly from environmental samples). The team found that evolutionary trajectories were reproducible in independently evolving populations, and that over 60% of that genomic diversity occurred within the first 10 days of selection.

The study showed emergent behavior and interesting interactions between different evolved isolates of P. aeruginosa — co-existing alongside each other and acting as one functional entity.  “You can imagine a team where each individual is equipped with particular skills,” says Azimi. “Not all members need to be the best at all functions. Some members of the team may produce lots of toxins, whereas some may be better at forming biofilms or resisting antibiotics. Put together they function more effectively as a unit.”

Azimi emphasizes that these interactions take place within a diverse population of the same species, a community that has evolved from a single ancestor. “The individuals are not teaching each other. I would call it more of ‘hand-waving’; they actually signal to and sense one another, and evolve in a certain way that appears to benefit the whole group.”

Learn more about Azimi’s work, sociomicrobiology, and The Diggle Lab at Georgia Tech.

 

 

The research team thanks the following funding sources: The Human Frontier Science Program (RGY0081/2012) and Georgia Institute of Technology, The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (DIGGLE18I0) to SPD, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for a Fellowship to SA (AZIMI18F0), and CF@latna for a Fellowship to SA (3206AXB). The team also thanks the National Heart Lung Blood Institute (R56HL142857) and The Simons Foundation (396001). 

 

 

]]> Renay San Miguel 1 1590593392 2020-05-27 15:29:52 1708028639 2024-02-15 20:23:59 0 0 news A study led by The Diggle Lab found that the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa can quickly evolve in a synthetic media that mimics cystic fibrosis sputum, to develop tolerance and resistance to certain antibiotics.

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2020-05-27T00:00:00-04:00 2020-05-27T00:00:00-04:00 2020-05-27 00:00:00 Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

]]>
635711 635710 635709 635711 image <![CDATA[Biofilms of P. aeruginosa ]]> image/jpeg 1590594869 2020-05-27 15:54:29 1590594869 2020-05-27 15:54:29 635710 image <![CDATA[Researchers used a congo red agar (CRA) test to detect biofilms formed by P. Aeruginosa.]]> image/jpeg 1590594699 2020-05-27 15:51:39 1590594699 2020-05-27 15:51:39 635709 image <![CDATA[Sheyda Azimi, Post-Doctorate Fellow, School of Biological Sciences ]]> image/png 1590594043 2020-05-27 15:40:43 1590594043 2020-05-27 15:40:43 <![CDATA[Bacterial Conversations in Cystic Fibrosis]]> <![CDATA[Study Shows How Bacteria Behave Differently in Humans Compared to the Lab]]> <![CDATA[The Diggle Lab]]>
<![CDATA[Professor Ajit Yoganathan, Cardiovascular Research Pioneer, Retiring in June 2020]]> 27513 Regents’ Professor Ajit P. Yoganathan, renowned for his work with cardiovascular technologies, will retire - effective June 1, 2020 - from his joint appointments in Georgia Tech’s Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) and the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering (ChBE). Yoganathan, a founding member of the Coulter Department, is also a founding member of Petit Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech.

For his achievements improving the biomechanics of prosthetic heart valves and the development of heart repair devices, Yoganathan was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2015. This is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer, and one of many Yoganathan has received, his most recent being an inaugural honorary fellowship from the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons (AATS).

After earning his PhD from the California Institute of Technology, Yoganathan joined the faculty of Georgia Tech in 1979, founding the Cardiovascular Fluid Mechanics (CFM) Lab that same year. In this lab, Yoganathan invented the science of prosthetic heart valve engineering.

Over the past four decades, he has made profound research contributions to native and artificial heart valves, structure function of the left and right sides of the heart, congenital heart diseases, and developing minimally invasive cardiovascular interventions. All prosthetic heart valves implanted in the U.S. – more than two dozen valve designs - have been studied and evaluated in Yoganathan’s lab.

Known by the nickname “Dr. Y,” Yoganathan, along with his collaborators, expanded cardiovascular knowledge beyond valves with years of flow and physiology data collected with ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging, modeling, and computer simulation. This work led to innovative planning software for challenging surgeries in babies and children born with serious heart/cardiac birth defects.

“There’s no part of the world that I go to where people don’t know of him,” said Pedro del Nido, professor of child surgery at Harvard Medical School and chairman of cardiovascular surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital, in a Georgia Tech Research Horizons feature story on Yoganathan earlier this year.

That article, titled “King of Hearts,” also quotes Phil Ebeling, retired chief technology officer at medical giant, Abbott Laboratories, who said of Yoganathan, “There just aren’t many people, frankly, in any industry with such universal name recognition and integrity.”

With innumerable accolades and titles to his credit, Yoganathan was named a Regents’ professor in 1994 and appointed to the prestigious Wallace H. Coulter Distinguished Faculty Chair in Biomedical Engineering 2004.

In his CFM Lab, he mentored more than 50 doctoral students, 35 master's students, and 40 post-doctoral trainees through the years.

Yoganathan has also published more than 450 peer-reviewed journal articles and 40 book chapters in leading biomedical journals and books.

For his contributions to the field of bioengineering, Yoganathan received the H.R. Lissner Award in Bioengineering from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1997. In 2005, he was awarded the Theo Pilkington Award for his contributions to biomedical engineering education by the American Society of Engineering Education. In 2012, the Biomedical Engineering Society bestowed Dr. Yoganathan the Pritzker Lecturer Award, the highest honor given to a BMES member.

It was del Nido who notified Yoganathan of his latest honor, from AATS, which Yoganathan called, "an honor beyond my wildest dreams, which would not have been possible without the dedicated contributions of more than 130 PLUS graduate students and post-doctoral trainees of the CFM lab." He was inducted at the 100th annual meeting of the AATS (held virtually, May 22-23).

 “Ajit leaves a remarkably impactful legacy on the field of cardiovascular research, and locally on our Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering,” said Professor Susan Margulies, the Wallace H. Coulter Chair of BME.

“He is a visionary member of our Coulter BME family, who was our first associate chair in translational research, launched our Master’s in Biomedical Innovation and Development, forged lasting relationships between our department and industry, and established an exemplar model for our Awards Committee. Ajit’s wisdom and generosity has touched us all and we are deeply grateful. Fortunately, with two recent NIH awards, Ajit will return to campus as an emeritus faculty member with an active research program.“

Professor David Sholl, the John F. Brock III School Chair of ChBE, said: “Ajit began his 40 year career at Georgia Tech in Chemical Engineering, which was his academic home for over 20 years until he became a founding member of what is now the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. In his career, Ajit served the Georgia Tech community in many ways, was an outstanding mentor to many graduate students and made technology and translational advances that have directly improved the lives of patients around the world. I am pleased to congratulate him.”

 

 


Media Contact:
Walter Rich
Communications Manager
Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology

]]> Walter Rich 1 1590587117 2020-05-27 13:45:17 1590669142 2020-05-28 12:32:22 0 0 news 2020-05-27T00:00:00-04:00 2020-05-27T00:00:00-04:00 2020-05-27 00:00:00 Walter Rich

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635703 635703 image <![CDATA[Regents’ Professor Ajit P. Yoganathan, renowned for his work with cardiovascular technologies, will retire - effective June 1, 2020]]> image/jpeg 1590586789 2020-05-27 13:39:49 1590586789 2020-05-27 13:39:49
<![CDATA[Cavity-causing Bacteria Assemble an Army of Protective Microbes on Human Teeth ]]> 34528 Story by Katherine Unger Baillie, Science News Officer, University of Pennsylvania

Studying bacteria in a petri dish or test tube has yielded insights into how they function and, in some cases, contribute to disease. But this approach leaves out crucial details about how bacteria act in the real world.

Taking a translational approach, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine and the Georgia Institute of Technology imaged the bacteria that cause tooth decay in three dimensions in their natural environment, the sticky biofilm known as dental plaque formed on toddlers’ teeth that were affected by cavities.

The work, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that Streptococcus mutans, a major bacterial species responsible for tooth decay, is encased in a protective multilayered community of other bacteria and polymers forming a unique spatial organization associated with the location of the disease onset.

“We started with these clinical samples, extracted teeth from children with severe tooth decay,” says Hyun (Michel) Koo of Penn Dental Medicine, a co-senior author on the work. “The question that popped in our minds was, how these bacteria are organized and whether their specific architecture can tell us about the disease they cause?”

To address this question, the researchers, including lead author Dongyeop Kim of Penn Dental Medicine and co-senior author Marvin Whiteley of Georgia Tech, used a combination of super-resolution confocal and scanning electron microscopy with computational analysis to dissect the arrangement of S. mutans and other microbes of the intact biofilm on the teeth. These techniques allowed the team to examine the biofilm layer by layer, gaining a three-dimensional picture of the specific architectures.

This approach, of understanding the locations and patterns of bacteria, is one that Whiteley has pursued in other diseases. 

“It’s clear that identifying the constituents of the human microbiome is not enough to understand their impact on human health,” Whiteley says. “We also have to know how they are spatially organized. This is largely under studied as obtaining intact samples that maintain spatial structure is difficult.”  

In the current work, the researchers discovered that S. mutans in dental plaque most often appeared in a particular fashion: arranged in a mound against the tooth’s surface. But it wasn’t alone. While S. mutans formed the inner core of the rotund architecture, other commensal bacteria, such as S. oralis, formed additional outer layers precisely arranged in a crownlike structure. Supporting and separating these layers was an extracellular scaffold made of sugars produced by S. mutans, effectively encasing and protecting the disease-causing bacteria.

“We found this highly ordered community with a dense accumulation of S. mutans in the middle surrounded by these ‘halos’ of different bacteria, and wondered how this could cause tooth decay,” Koo says. “

To learn more about how structure impacted the function of the biofilm, the research team attempted to recreate the natural plaque formations on a toothlike surface in the lab using S. mutans, S. oralis, and a sugar solution. They successfully grew the formations, with rotund-shaped architecture and crown-like structure, and then measured levels of acid and demineralization associated with them. 

“What we discovered, and what was exciting for us, is that the rotund areas perfectly matched with the demineralized and high acid levels on the enamel surface,” says Koo. “This mirrors what clinicians see when they find dental caries: punctuated areas of decalcification known as ‘white spots.’ The crown-like structure could explain how cavities get their start.” 

In a final set of experiments, the team put the community to the test, applying an antimicrobial treatment and observing how the bacteria fared. When the crown-like structures were intact, the S. mutans in the inner core largely avoided dying from the antimicrobial treatment. Only breaking up the scaffolding material holding the outer layers together enabled the antimicrobial to penetrate and effectively kill the cavity-causing bacteria.

The study’s findings may help researcher more effectively target the pathogenic core of dental biofilms but also have implications for other fields.

“It demonstrates that the spatial structure of the microbiome may mediate function and the disease outcome, which could be applicable to other medical fields dealing with polymicrobial infections,” says Koo. 

“It’s not just which pathogens are there but how they’re structured that tells you about the disease that they cause,” adds Whiteley. “Bacteria are highly social creatures and have friends and enemies that dictate their behaviors.” 

The field of microbial biogeography is young, the researchers say, but extending this demonstration that links community structure with disease onset opens up a vast array of possibilities for future medically relevant insights.

 

Dongyeop Kim was a research associate at Penn’s School of Dental Medicine’s Department of Orthodontics and is now an assistant professor at the Jeonbuk National University (Korea).

Hyun (Michel) Koo is a professor in Penn’s School of Dental Medicine’s Department of Orthodontics in the divisions of Community Oral Health and Pediatric Dentistry.

Marvin Whiteley is a professor of biological sciences, the Georgia Tech Bennie H. and Nelson D. Abell Chair in Molecular and Cellular Biology, and the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar co-director in Emory-Children’s CF Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Koo, Kim, and Whiteley’s coauthors were Penn Dental Medicine’s Rodrigo A. Arthur, Yuan Liu, Elizabeth L. Scisci, and Evlambia Hajishengallis; Georgia Tech’s Juan P. Barraza; and Indiana University’s Anderson Hara and Karl Lewis.

The work was supported in part by the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research (grants DE025220, DE018023, DE020100, and DE023193).

]]> jhunt7 1 1590106079 2020-05-22 00:07:59 1708028478 2024-02-15 20:21:18 0 0 news Examining bacteria growing on toddlers’ teeth, Marvin Whiteley and a team from the University of Pennsylvania found microbes’ spatial organization is crucial to how they cause tooth decay.

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2020-05-21T00:00:00-04:00 2020-05-21T00:00:00-04:00 2020-05-21 00:00:00 Jess Hunt-Ralston
Director of Communications
College of Sciences at Georgia Tech

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635577 635579 635578 635577 image <![CDATA[With powerful microscopy, researchers were able to visualize the structure of a tooth decay-causing biofilm growing on toddlers’ teeth. The organism primarily responsible for cavities, Streptococcus mutans, labeled in green, shields itself under layers of]]> image/jpeg 1590104051 2020-05-21 23:34:11 1590104051 2020-05-21 23:34:11 635579 image <![CDATA[Marvin Whiteley of Georgia Tech, a co-senior author on the work.]]> image/jpeg 1590104378 2020-05-21 23:39:38 1590104378 2020-05-21 23:39:38 635578 image <![CDATA[Hyun (Michel) Koo of Penn Dental Medicine, a co-senior author on the work.]]> image/jpeg 1590104276 2020-05-21 23:37:56 1590104276 2020-05-21 23:37:56 <![CDATA[Cavity-causing bacteria assemble an army of protective microbes on human teeth ]]> <![CDATA[The Whiteley Lab]]> <![CDATA[Bacteria seek safety before attacking teeth]]> <![CDATA[Periodontitis Bacteria Love Colon and Dirt Microbes]]> <![CDATA[Researchers Team Up for Microbial Dynamics and Infection]]>
<![CDATA[Researchers Receive NIH Funds for Adjuvant Research to Boost Coronavirus Vaccines]]> 27303 Researchers have received funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, to screen and evaluate certain molecules known as adjuvants that may improve the ability of coronavirus vaccines to stimulate the immune system and generate appropriate responses necessary to protect the general population against the virus.

“The adjuvants that we are studying, known as pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), are molecules often found in viruses and bacteria, and can efficiently stimulate our immune system,” explained Krishnendu Roy, a professor and Robert A. Milton Chair in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. “Most viruses have several of these molecules in them, and we are trying to mimic that multi-adjuvant structure.”

Adjuvants are used with some vaccines to help them create stronger protective immune responses in persons receiving the vaccine. The research team will screen a library of various adjuvant combinations to quickly identify those that may be most useful to enhance the effects of both protein- and RNA-based coronavirus vaccines under development.

“We are trying to understand how adjuvant combinations affect the vaccine response,” Roy said. “We will look at how the immune system shifts and changes with the adjuvant combinations. The ultimate goal is to determine how to generate the most effective, strongest, and most durable immune response against the virus. There are more than a hundred vaccine candidates being developed for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, and it is likely that many will generate initial antibody responses. It remains to be seen how long those responses will last and whether they can generate appropriate immunological memory that protects against subsequent virus exposures in the long-term.” 

The parent grant to Georgia Tech is part of a program called “Molecular Mechanisms of Combination Adjuvants (MMCA).” For the past four years, the agency has been supporting Roy and his research team to pursue studies to understand how adjuvants work, and this additional funding will allow them to apply their research to potential coronavirus vaccines.

For more coverage of Georgia Tech’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, please visit our Responding to COVID-19 page.

“It has been difficult to develop safe and durable vaccines against respiratory viruses,” explained Roy, who also directs the Center for ImmunoEngineering.  “Over the past several years, we have been looking mostly at the basic science and understanding how the immune system integrates signals from multiple adjuvants to create a unified immune response in mammals. This new funding will allow us to pursue more translational aspects related to COVID-19 and provide the scientific community with potentially new tools to fight this devastating pandemic.”

The team has developed a technique that uses micron- and nanometer-scale polymer particles to present both the vaccine antigen and adjuvant compounds to the mammalian immune system. The medical polymer that is the basis for the particles is used for other purposes in the body. 

The synthetic particles, which Roy’s team calls pathogen-like particles (PLPs), are designed to mimic real pathogens in terms of how they elicit immune responses – without causing infection. “They have an antigen and multiple synergistic adjuvants on a particle-structure that is very similar to how native pathogens present these molecules to our immune system,” he said. 

The PLPs combined with adjuvants encourage the immune system to develop antibodies and T cell responses that can battle the real pathogen if it attacks. Having existing antibodies and the appropriate virus-fighting T cells to the novel coronavirus will enable the body’s immune system to respond quickly to the threat of infection and potentially destroy the virus quickly.

The researchers will first evaluate how the adjuvants affect the interaction of specific immune cells, called dendritic cells and macrophages, with T cells – a key component of generating immune system response – and then follow up with animal studies using the promising combinations. Whether or not a vaccine can be created that will provide long-term protective immunity against the coronavirus is still an open question in the research community, and Roy said the research into adjuvants will help provide new tools to answer that question.

“Part of the knowledge gap right now is that we don’t know how the immune system is influenced by various adjuvants,” he said. “We need to look at how the vaccine formulations, our particles and the adjuvants affect T cell proliferation and T cell response, and how we can optimize that response to generate durable immunity.”

The adjuvant Alum has been used since the 1930s to boost the action of the immune system as it responds to antigens in vaccines that elicit protection against many pathogens. However, for those pathogens that require alternative adjuvants, only a few other adjuvants are currently used in commercial vaccines. Research on modern adjuvants aims to understand the way they specifically activate our immune systems and can be designed to protect against infections. Another approach is to find out if combinations of adjuvants are safe and more effective than a single adjuvant providing highly effective and long-lasting protective immunity.

Roy and his team will be evaluating existing adjuvants in combination, along with potential protein and RNA-based antigens currently under evaluation. The goal is to develop novel combinations of current adjuvants, including adjuvants approved for use and others that are still in development. “In this work, the strategy is to take existing platforms and see how we can pivot them to understand how to make the COVID vaccines better, and do it rapidly.”

As with other research into potential coronavirus vaccines, the work is being accelerated with the goal of creating a safe and effective vaccine against the pandemic virus as soon as possible.

“There are multiple efforts that the NIH and others are funding to really accelerate the pace of the work to see how many different approaches we can come up with and to evaluate the differences,” Roy said. “The goal is to determine what data we can generate very quickly to move toward a successful vaccine that is safe, durable, affordable, scalable, and effective. Evaluating different approaches will help increase the likelihood that we’ll find one or more that meet these criteria.”

This research is supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under supplemental funding to award number U01AI124270. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.


Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu)

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1590021842 2020-05-21 00:44:02 1590022041 2020-05-21 00:47:21 0 0 news Researchers have received funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, to screen and evaluate certain molecules known as adjuvants that may improve the ability of coronavirus vaccines to stimulate the immune system and generate appropriate responses necessary to protect the general population against the virus.

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2020-05-20T00:00:00-04:00 2020-05-20T00:00:00-04:00 2020-05-20 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404-894-6986)

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635549 635550 635549 image <![CDATA[Vaccine Vials]]> image/jpeg 1590021017 2020-05-21 00:30:17 1590021017 2020-05-21 00:30:17 635550 image <![CDATA[Krishnendu Roy Vaccine Adjuvants]]> image/jpeg 1590021254 2020-05-21 00:34:14 1590021254 2020-05-21 00:34:14
<![CDATA[Packing Foam Recycling Team Collects Campus Staff Award]]> 34528 Georgia Tech has systems in place to collect and recycle everything from cardboard and office paper, to plastic and glass. But until last year, there was no established process for recycling expanded polystyrene foam (EPS).

Used widely in take-out containers, coffee cups, packing blocks and "peanuts" to cushion fragile deliveries, EPS foam is perhaps better known by the recycling code stamped onto it — #6 PS — and often trades on the name of its extruded polystyrene cousin: Styrofoam.

Lightweight and bulky, the ubiquitous fossil-fuel foam is hard to recycle, takes up significant space in landfills, and does not biodegrade. It can be easily carried by wind and rain from storm drains to waterways, where it breaks into small pieces, can be mistaken for food by marine animals, and releases chemicals that bioaccumulate in the food chain.

The call for expanded polystyrene foam recycling prompted a wide-ranging group of campus staff members, facilities administrators, laboratory professionals, and others to form a #6 PS collection and recycling process from the ground up. The result diverted nearly a half-ton of it away from landfills over a six-month period, and that helped win the Styrofoam Recycling Pilot Team a 2020 Georgia Tech Staff Award.

The Process Improvement Excellence Award was presented by Georgia Tech Human Resources to College of Sciences Director of Facilities and Capital Planning Juan Archila, along with Ford ES&T Facilities Manager II Todd Clarkson and 12 other members of the team. Archila was nominated by team member Michelle Wong, assistant director at the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB). Archila gives Wong credit for designing the plan.

“I’d like to give a huge ‘thank you’ to Michelle for the vision and the ability to get the right people in the room to make this initiative a reality,” Archila says. “This program embodies Georgia Tech’s aspirations of breaking down invisible barriers between various departments across campus and goes to show that with a common goal and with buy-in from the start, we can begin to make transformational change despite budget challenges or the burden of ‘how we’ve always done things.’”  

Georgia Tech’s labs are a major source of expanded polystyrene foam waste, since a majority of their deliveries, such as glassware, come packed in the material. Yet it is difficult to recycle for several reasons: it’s bulky and hard to collect, clean, and process.

As part of an overall green initiative for IBB, Wong convened a diverse group of stakeholders throughout campus with a history of sustainable practices to start a new recycling programThe pilot team includes members of the Office of Campus Sustainability, Environmental Health and Safety, and the Office of Solid Waste Management and Recycling. They partnered with the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM) and chose to begin the recycling pilot program with two buildings: IBB and the Krone Engineered Biosystems Building (Krone EBB)

“Early concerns included communication to stakeholders in the buildings about the process and space for bins/areas for the Styrofoam to be placed. Together we implemented plans to address these concerns,” Archila says.

The members of the Styrofoam Recycling Pilot Team:

“I was super-excited to find out that we won the award,” says Brodzik, Campus Recycling Coordinator in the Office of Solid Waste Management and Recycling. “This project started as a small pilot that we never stopped. It has grown and we learned how to increase our capacity. I am encouraged by the momentum this will create to expand the project to collect Styrofoam at more labs in other buildings. I look forward to more in the future to divert our hard-to-recycle materials on campus.”

“The Office of Campus Sustainability is thrilled by the recognition of this group, a grassroots effort to address a problem that while not unique is uniquely problematic at Georgia Tech due to the large number of labs on campus,” adds Neville, Campus Sustainability Project Manager. “Our success with the Styrofoam Recycling Pilot highlights the passion of the Georgia Tech community for sustainability and the ability of individuals to come together to bring about real change.”

The Georgia Tech Staff Award was not the only honor for environmentally friendly efforts this year. The Kendeda Building’s sustainable construction and recycling efforts won Georgia Tech the top ranking in the Race to Zero Waste section of the 2020 RecycleMania Tournament, sponsored annually by Rubicon, a waste management company based in Atlanta. 300 U.S. and Canadian campuses took part in that competition. 

]]> jhunt7 1 1589770578 2020-05-18 02:56:18 1589771352 2020-05-18 03:09:12 0 0 news Juan Archila, Todd Clarkson and team diverted half a ton of expanded polystyrene foam from landfills, winning a 2020 Process Improvement Excellence Award

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2020-05-17T00:00:00-04:00 2020-05-17T00:00:00-04:00 2020-05-17 00:00:00 Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer
College of Sciences

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635417 635418 598081 635419 635417 image <![CDATA[Graduate student Hannah Viola using the Gaylord collection box in Krone EBB]]> image/jpeg 1589770686 2020-05-18 02:58:06 1589770686 2020-05-18 02:58:06 635418 image <![CDATA[Collected Styrofoam during the pilot in the Office of Solid Waste Management & Recycling’s storeroom]]> image/jpeg 1589770859 2020-05-18 03:00:59 1589770859 2020-05-18 03:00:59 598081 image <![CDATA[Juan Archila]]> image/jpeg 1509383633 2017-10-30 17:13:53 1509383633 2017-10-30 17:13:53 635419 image <![CDATA[Todd Clarkson, Ford ES&T Facilities Manager II]]> image/jpeg 1589771336 2020-05-18 03:08:56 1589771336 2020-05-18 03:08:56 <![CDATA[Work Green: Styrofoam Recycling Pilot at Krone Engineered Biosystems and Petit Biotechnology Buildings]]> <![CDATA[2020 Georgia Tech Staff Award Winners]]> <![CDATA[Office of Solid Waste Management & Recycling]]> <![CDATA[Renovated Science Labs in Boggs]]>
<![CDATA[Emory and Georgia Tech Create Barrier Protection Devices for Use During COVID-19]]> 27303 Medical staff treating patients on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic come face to face daily with the risk of exposure to the virus. Among the riskiest moments are inserting and removing breathing tubes, procedures that create a spray of respiratory droplets.

Now, two Atlanta universities have created barrier protection devices designed to contain that droplet spray and aerosol with a goal of reducing the risk of disease transmission.

Made of clear polycarbonate material, the four-sided box is placed on a bed over the patient’s head and shoulders. Protected hand openings allow physicians or other health care personnel to reach into the box to perform procedures such as intubating a patient who needs to be placed on a ventilator.  

“Intubation and extubation require a physician to work in extremely close proximity to a patient while simultaneously performing procedures known to generate a large amount of potentially infectious droplets,” said Cinnamon Sullivan, M.D., assistant professor of anesthesiology, Emory University School of Medicine and the director of Global Health Anesthesiology at Emory University Hospital. “The goal of this box is to block, to a large extent, the amount of droplets being aerosolized and serve as one more layer of protection in addition to our personal protective equipment (PPE).”

For more coverage of Georgia Tech’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, please visit our Responding to COVID-19 page.

In recent weeks, a cross-disciplinary team that included anesthesiologists and other physician specialists from Emory University and engineers from the Georgia Institute of Technology has worked quickly prototyping several devices, which were adapted from a basic design distributed widely throughout the medical community as the COVID-19 outbreak grew.

Two primary designs emerged from the effort. One of these devices is a fold-flat box, and the other device is a C-shaped frame. Both provide similar functionalities and are designed for dynamic hospital environments, such as in the emergency department. 

The box that can be folded flat when not in use also has a handle to enable easier transportation and includes more safety measures designed to protect clinicians from aerosols escaping through the access holes. These new features were critical to achieving a box that could be used without taking up as much space.

“The medical team that performs intubations moves from unit to unit where we’re needed, so the portability of this design is essential to making it work in actual patient care situations,” said Jeremy Collins, MBChB, FRCA, associate professor of anesthesiology and executive vice chair of anesthesia at Emory. “As well as protecting the anesthesia team, containment of aerosol and droplets generated can minimize contamination to the whole operating room and surrounding corridors.”

The overall goal of the project is to improve protection for medical staff as they work closely with COVID-19 patients, explained Christopher Saldana, associate professor in Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. “The goal is to shroud the patient and allow the clinicians to do the necessary procedures while adding an additional barrier from potential exposure,” he said.

The box also helps shield personal protective equipment (PPE) from contamination, potentially helping to maintain supplies.

“A need for such a box was identified during daily meetings with leaders of Emory departments responding to the COVID-19 emergency,” said Susan Margulies, chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering that is shared by Georgia Tech and Emory. From the meeting, Margulies identified problems that might be addressed by Georgia Tech researchers.

“My role is to think about how the expertise at Georgia Tech can be brought to bear on the needs of the medical community,” she said. “As a department truly embedded on both campuses, this collaboration gives us the opportunity to create a direct relationship between the problems and the solutions.”

Margulies brought the aerosol containment issue to Sam Graham, chair of the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, and Saldana, whose research focuses on manufacturing and materials. Saldana listened to the problem and worked with Margulies to quickly develop a concept that could be evaluated, based on a design used in Asia. 

Based on the initial concept, Saldana and graduate student Kentez Craig quickly built two prototypes and sent them to Emory for Sullivan, Collins and others to inspect and check whether the size of the box would work in an operating room environment. “Emory told us they really needed them,” Saldana said. “They showed us how this design would be used in practice and we talked about iterations.”

Sullivan and Collins immediately identified the need to make the devices more portable, as well as address how the access holes could be better closed off to prevent aerosols from escaping during use.

Since these developments, a team of graduate students, including Jaime Berez and Maxwell Praniewicz, quickly designed the final prototypes of the fold-flat box and the C-shaped frame. Review and testing of the C-shaped frame was completed with Russell Gore, M.D., an adjunct associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, Adam Klein, M.D., a professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at Emory University and David Wright, M.D., a professor and chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Emory University. To produce these designs, Siemens Corporation joined the team to lead the production of prototypes; Barry Powell and James Washburn at Siemens implemented an industrial manual assembly process with additional support from Georgia Tech’s Montgomery Machining Mall and the Georgia Tech Research Institute’s Machine Services. 

The boxes and frames are made from polycarbonate, a clear rigid material. The material was cut in Georgia Tech’s Flowers Invention Studio with a water-jet machine. A laser device was used to cut the hand holes. “You might need some specialized equipment, but most people could use general shop equipment to produce these,” Saldana said.

People who’ve worked in a research laboratory will recognize the concept behind the devices. “This is a lot like a glovebox that is used in many laboratories to separate laboratory technician from hazardous materials or environments inside the box or frame,” Saldana said. “The technician places their hands and arms into the gloves, allowing them to work separate from what’s inside.”

Unlike the face shields and respirators that are in such high demand, the barrier protection devices will be needed only in small quantities to shield clinicians during the specific procedure. Saldana says hospitals potentially could find it useful in emergency departments, intensive care units and operating rooms.

“We hope these barrier protection devices have utility beyond this outbreak,” Sullivan said. “They may be able to be used for any aerosolized disease, and with the modifications we are making, it could be taken to areas with fewer PPE resources both here in the U.S. and overseas.”

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

Media Relations Contacts: Georgia Tech – John Toon (jtoon@gatech.edu); Emory Healthcare – Josh Brown (joshua.g.brown@emoryhealthcare.org).

Writer: Joshua Brown

]]> John Toon 1 1589407152 2020-05-13 21:59:12 1590022248 2020-05-21 00:50:48 0 0 news Two Atlanta universities have created barrier protection devices designed to contain the droplet spray and aerosol produced during certain procedures involving COVID-19 patients with a goal of reducing the risk of disease transmission.

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2020-05-13T00:00:00-04:00 2020-05-13T00:00:00-04:00 2020-05-13 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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635346 635347 635348 635349 635350 635346 image <![CDATA[Folded barrier protection device]]> image/jpeg 1589406117 2020-05-13 21:41:57 1589406117 2020-05-13 21:41:57 635347 image <![CDATA[Demonstrating barrier protection device]]> image/png 1589406257 2020-05-13 21:44:17 1589406257 2020-05-13 21:44:17 635348 image <![CDATA[Using barrier protection device]]> image/png 1589406398 2020-05-13 21:46:38 1589406398 2020-05-13 21:46:38 635349 image <![CDATA[Assembling a barrier protection device]]> image/jpeg 1589406541 2020-05-13 21:49:01 1589406541 2020-05-13 21:49:01 635350 image <![CDATA[Barrier protection device team]]> image/jpeg 1589406660 2020-05-13 21:51:00 1589406660 2020-05-13 21:51:00
<![CDATA[Immunity of Recovered COVID-19 Patients Could Cut Risk of Expanding Economic Activity]]> 27303 While attention remains focused on the number of COVID-19 deaths and new cases, a separate statistic – the number of recovered patients – may be equally important to the goal of minimizing the pandemic’s infection rate as shelter-in-place orders are lifted. 

The presumed immunity of those who have recovered from the infection could allow them to safely substitute for susceptible people in certain high-contact occupations such as healthcare. Dubbed “shield immunity,” the anticipated protection against short-term reinfection could allow recovered patients to expand their interactions with infected and susceptible people, potentially reducing overall transmission rates when interactions are permitted to expand. 

New modeling of the virus’ behavior suggests that an intervention strategy based on shield immunity could reduce the risk of allowing the higher levels of human interaction needed to support expanded economic activity. The number of Americans infected by the novel coronavirus is likely much higher than what has been officially reported, and that could be good news for efforts to utilize their presumed immunity to protect the larger community.

However, there are two important caveats to the strategy. The first is that the duration of immunity to reinfection by SARS-CoV-2 remains unknown; however, individuals who survived infections by related viral infections, like SARS, had persistent antibodies for approximately two years – and those who survived infection to MERS had evidence of immunity for approximately three years. The second issue is that determining on a broad scale who has antibodies that may protect them from the coronavirus will require a level of reliable serological testing not yet available in the United States. 

“Our model describes ways in which serological tests used to identify individuals who have been infected by and recovered from COVID-19 could help both reduce future transmission and foster increased economic engagement,” said Joshua Weitz, professor in the School of Biological Sciences and founding director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “The idea is to think in advance about how identifying recovered individuals could help serve the collective good, using information collected on neutralizing antibodies in new ways.”

A paper describing the modeling behind the concept of shield immunity was published May 7 in the journal Nature Medicine by a team of researchers from Georgia Tech, Princeton University and McMaster University. The researchers studied the potential impacts of presumed immunity among recovered persons using a computational model of COVID-19 epidemiological dynamics, building upon a SEIR (susceptible-exposed-infectious-recovered) framework.

In a population of 10 million citizens, for example, the model predicts that in a worst-case transmission scenario, implementation of an intermediate shielding strategy could help reduce deaths from 71,000 to 58,000, while an enhanced shielding plan could cut deaths from 71,000 to 20,000. The model also suggests that shielding could enhance the effects of social distancing strategies that may remain in place once higher levels of economic activity resume.

Identification of individuals who have protective antibodies against the novel coronavirus has begun only recently. Antibody tests are not 100% specific, implying that tests can lead to false positives. However, targeted use of antibody testing in groups with elevated exposure will lead to increases in positive predictive value, even with imperfect tests. The serological antibody test differs from widespread polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing being done to determine whether people are actively infected with the virus. 

Among healthcare professionals, serological testing could identify recovered individuals who might then be able to interact with patients with reduced concern for infection. Other recovered individuals could be used to help reduce transmission risk in nursing homes, the food service industry, emergency medical services, grocery stores, retailing and other essential operations. Across society, the relatively small number of individuals with immunity could substitute for people whose immunity status isn’t known; reducing transmission risk both for recovered individuals and those who remain immunologically naive. 

“We want to think about serology as an intervention,” Weitz said. “Finding out who is immune to the coronavirus could make a big difference in trying to reduce the risk to people who would be vulnerable by interacting with someone who could pass on the disease.”

Serological testing to identify those with immunity might begin with healthcare workers, who may be more likely to have been infected by the coronavirus because of their exposure to infected persons, Weitz said. Because so many infections do not produce the distinctive COVID-19 symptoms, it’s likely that many people have recovered from the illness without knowing they’ve had had it, potentially expanding the pool of recovered persons.

“There may be a deeper pool of individuals who can help within their own fields and other fields of specialization to reduce transmission,” Weitz said. “The reality is that people within high-contact jobs probably are likely to have a higher incidence of infection than other groups.”

But using antibody information about individuals would create potential privacy issues, and require that those individuals make informed decisions about accepting additional risks for the greater good of the community. 

“What this model says is that if we could identify individuals who are immune, there is a chance that some individuals would not have to reduce their level of interaction with others because that interaction would be less risky,” he added. “Rather than trying to keep reducing interactions, which is helpful for reducing transmission but bad for what it does for the economy, we might be able to maintain interactions while reducing the risk, combined with other mitigation approaches.”

Ultimately, addressing the pandemic will require development and mass production of a vaccine that could boost immunity levels beyond 60 percent in the general population. Until that is available, Weitz believes that shield immunity could become part of the approach to the challenge.

“We don’t have a silver bullet,” he said. “Until we have a vaccine, we will have to use a combination of strategies to control COVID-19, and shield immunity is potentially one of them.”

In addition to Weitz, co-authors of the paper included Dr. Stephen J. Beckett, Ashley R. Coenen, Dr. David Demory, Marian Dominguez-Mirazo, Dr. Chung-Yin Leung, Guanlin Li, Andreea Magalie, Rogelio Rodriguez-Gonzalez, Shashwat Shivam, and Conan Zhao, all from Georgia Tech; Prof. Jonathan Dushoff of McMaster University, and Sang Woo Park of Princeton University.

This research was supported by the Simons Foundation (SCOPE Award ID 329108), the Army Research Office (W911NF1910384), National Institutes of Health (1R01AI46592-01), and National Science Foundation (1806606 and 1829636). Any findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and not necessarily of the sponsoring agencies.

CITATION: Joshua S. Weitz, et al., “Intervention Serology and Interaction Substitution: Modeling the Role of `Shield Immunity' in Reducing COVID-19 Epidemic Spread.” (Nature Medicine, 2020) http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0895-3

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

Media Relations Assistance: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1588854025 2020-05-07 12:20:25 1588854458 2020-05-07 12:27:38 0 0 news The presumed immunity of those who have recovered from the infection could allow them to safely substitute for susceptible people in certain high-contact occupations such as healthcare. Dubbed “shield immunity,” the anticipated protection against short-term reinfection could allow recovered patients to expand their interactions with infected and susceptible people.

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2020-05-07T00:00:00-04:00 2020-05-07T00:00:00-04:00 2020-05-07 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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635134 635135 635136 635134 image <![CDATA[Shield Immunity Graphic]]> image/jpeg 1588853108 2020-05-07 12:05:08 1588853108 2020-05-07 12:05:08 635135 image <![CDATA[Recovered Patients Could Substitute for Others]]> image/jpeg 1588853321 2020-05-07 12:08:41 1588853321 2020-05-07 12:08:41 635136 image <![CDATA[Professor Joshua Weitz]]> image/jpeg 1588853486 2020-05-07 12:11:26 1588853486 2020-05-07 12:11:26
<![CDATA[Triple-major Daniel Gurevich Wins Love Family Foundation Scholarship ]]> 28766

After four years at Georgia Tech, Daniel Gurevich will graduate this spring with bachelor’s degrees in industrial engineering, physics, and math. As a result of his academic excellence, he has been honored with the Love Family Foundation Scholarship, the highest honor Georgia Tech can give to a graduating student. Gurevich was nominated for the $10,000 award by both the College of Sciences and the College of Engineering.

“We couldn’t be prouder of Daniel for being granted this prestigious award,” said Steve McLaughlin, dean and Southern Company chair of the College of Engineering. “His excellent scholastic record, as well as his involvement in multiple research labs here at Tech, is an outstanding accomplishment that sets an exceptional example for all students.” 

For Gurevich, receiving the prestigious Love Family Foundation Scholarship is the culmination of his hard work and dedication while at the Institute. As a first-year physics major, he realized that the amount of college credit he had earned in high school would make a second major in industrial engineering manageable. When Gurevich shared his academic plans with his family, friends, and professors, everyone supported him. But a third major? 

Gurevich recalled talking with Fran Buser, an academic advisor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE), about his intention to study math as well.  

“She asked, ‘Well, are you sleeping? Are you eating? Is everything okay?’” Gurevich remembered. “When I said, “Yes, I'm doing fine. Everything is good,’ she said, ‘Go ahead.’” 

The commonality between Gurevich’s majors -- math, physics, and industrial engineering -- is applied mathematics. “The ability to explain how things work is something that really attracts me about math,” he explained. It is this passion for using mathematics to understand how the world and its people function that is driving him to graduate school. In the fall, Gurevich will begin his Ph.D. studies at Princeton University in applied and computational mathematics.  

He hopes to continue the research on cardiac arrhythmias he began at Georgia Tech. He was first attracted by the field's importance to society — arrhythmias are a leading cause of death worldwide — as well as its rich mathematical background. Now, Gurevich aims to develop low-energy defibrillation protocols that are more effective with fewer side effects. 

When not busy with his studies or research, Gurevich can often be found playing chess. Chess has been a major part of his life – he began playing at age five and became an international master in high school. At the beginning of his third year at Tech, Gurevich joined the chess club. The group’s Friday afternoon meetings comprise his favorite Tech memories.

“It was really the main source of challenge for me. I had to learn to work hard because competing against all these proven players is very tough,” he said. “It's definitely something that has helped me succeed in my academics.”

Gurevich is very appreciative for his undergraduate education, and the Institute will always hold a special place in his heart. 

“I can’t think of a more welcoming place that has such great people, and of course, Tech is an academically outstanding institution," Gurevich said. "My education here has been the best possible opportunity for me to lay a foundation of knowledge that will propel me forward.”

He is looking ahead to further learning, further research and – someday – to teaching the next generation of students.

 
]]> Shelley Wunder-Smith 1 1588272820 2020-04-30 18:53:40 1590333080 2020-05-24 15:11:20 0 0 news Gurevich, who is graduating with bachelor's degrees in ISyE, physics, and math, has been honored with the Institute's top award for a graduating senior.

 
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2020-04-30T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-30T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-30 00:00:00  

 
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Taylor Hunter

Communications Assistant

H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering

 
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634908 634908 image <![CDATA[Daniel Gurevich]]> image/jpeg 1588272233 2020-04-30 18:43:53 1588272233 2020-04-30 18:43:53 <![CDATA[ISyE Undergraduate Daniel Gurevich Selected as Petiti Scholar]]> <![CDATA[Triple Major Daniel Gurevich Represents Georgia Tech with Top USG Academic Honor]]>
<![CDATA[Atlanta Institutions Take Lead Role in Fast-Tracking COVID-19 Diagnostic Tests ]]> 27303 A trio of Atlanta health care and research institutions will play a leading role in helping to evaluate potential COVID-19 tests as part of a new federal initiative designed to rapidly transform promising technology into widely accessible diagnostic tools to detect the virus.

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the Emory University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics and the Georgia Institute of Technology are teaming up through the Atlanta Center for Microsystems Engineered Point-of-Care Technologies (ACME POCT)

The Atlanta center was selected by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to evaluate COVID-19 detection tests utilizing a portion of a $1.5 billion investment from federal stimulus funding under a newly launched Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics (RADx) initiative. This initiative will infuse funding into early, innovative technologies to speed development of rapid and widely accessible COVID-19 testing with a mandate that tests be deployed to Americans this fall.

“The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) is urging all scientists and inventors with a rapid testing technology to compete in a national COVID-19 testing challenge for a share of up to $500 million over all phases of development that will assist the public’s safe return to normal activities,” said Wilbur Lam, M.D., Ph.D., pediatric hematologist and oncologist at Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s and principal investigator of ACME POCT. 

As one of only five NIH-funded point-of-care technology centers in the nation within the Point-of-Care Technologies Research Network (POCTRN), ACME POCT will receive a $10 million to $20 million supplement to work closely with relevant technology developers and the medical diagnostics industry across the country to meet the deadline. The technologies will be put through a highly competitive, rapid three-phase selection process to identify the best candidates for at-home or point-of-care tests for COVID-19. The goal is to make millions of accurate and easy-to-use tests per week available to all Americans by the end of summer 2020 and in time for the flu season.

The Center will operate on the frontlines assessing, validating and conducting clinical trials as well as advising in manufacturing and scale-up of relevant COVID-19 tests. They expect hundreds of technology developers and companies to apply for the RADx program and will be involved in clinical validation and shepherding successful projects to meet this national need, making Children’s, Emory and Georgia Tech frontline warriors in this effort.

ACME POCT fosters the development and commercialization of microsystems (microchip-enabled, biosensor-based, microfluidic) diagnostic tests that can be used outside the traditional hospital setting, in places such as the home, community or doctor’s office. Lam and his team will evaluate the tests for the NIBIB as they urgently solicit proposals. 

Lam is the principal investigator of ACME POCT and also serves as associate professor of the Emory University School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. Greg Martin, M.D., is co-principal investigator along with Oliver Brand, Ph.D., executive director of Georgia Tech’s Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology and a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Together the team makes up the only point-of-care center in the nation dedicated to developing microsystems with sensors, smart phones and wearable technologies. Dr. Martin is also a professor with the Emory University School of Medicine and Chair of Critical Care for Grady Health System. 


About Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta: As the only freestanding pediatric healthcare system in Georgia, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is the trusted leader in caring for kids. The not-for-profit organization’s mission is to make kids better today and healthier tomorrow through more than 60 pediatric specialties and programs, top healthcare professionals, and leading research and technology. Children’s is one of the largest pediatric clinical care providers in the country, managing more than one million patient visits annually at three hospitals, Marcus Autism Center, the Center for Advanced Pediatrics and 20 neighborhood locations. Consistently ranked among the top children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has impacted the lives of kids in Georgia, across the United States and around the world for more than 100 years thanks to generous support from the community. Visit www.choa.org for more information.

About Emory University School of Medicine: Emory University School of Medicine is a leading institution with the highest standards in education, biomedical research and patient care, with a commitment to recruiting and developing a diverse group of students and innovative leaders. Emory School of Medicine has more than 2,800 full- and part-time faculty, 556 medical students, 530 allied health students, 1,311 residents and fellows in 106 accredited programs, and 93 MD/PhD students in one of 48 NIH-sponsored Medical Scientist Training Programs. Medical school faculty received $456.3 million in external research funding in fiscal year 2018. The school is best known for its research and treatment in infectious disease, neurosciences, heart disease, cancer, transplantation, orthopaedics, pediatrics, renal disease, ophthalmology and geriatrics.

About the Georgia Institute of Technology: The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the nation’s leading research universities — a university that embraces change while continually Creating the Next. The next generation of leaders. The next breakthrough startup company. The next lifesaving medical treatment. Georgia Tech provides a focused, technologically based education to more than 36,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The Institute has many nationally recognized programs, all top-ranked by peers and publications alike, and is ranked among the nation’s top five public universities by U.S. News & World Report. It offers degrees through the Colleges of Computing, Design, Engineering, Sciences, the Scheller College of Business, and the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech has more than 100 centers focused on interdisciplinary research that consistently contribute vital research and innovation to American government, industry, and business.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

 

]]> John Toon 1 1588293028 2020-05-01 00:30:28 1588293379 2020-05-01 00:36:19 0 0 news A trio of Atlanta health care and research institutions will play a leading role in helping to evaluate potential COVID-19 tests as part of a new federal initiative designed to rapidly transform promising technology into widely accessible diagnostic tools to detect the virus.

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2020-04-30T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-30T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-30 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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634922 634923 634924 634922 image <![CDATA[Wilbur Lam, principal investigator of ACME POCT]]> image/jpeg 1588291980 2020-05-01 00:13:00 1588291980 2020-05-01 00:13:00 634923 image <![CDATA[Oliver Brand, executive director of IEN]]> image/png 1588292128 2020-05-01 00:15:28 1588292336 2020-05-01 00:18:56 634924 image <![CDATA[Greg Martin, professor, Emory University]]> image/jpeg 1588292286 2020-05-01 00:18:06 1588292286 2020-05-01 00:18:06
<![CDATA[The Next Frontier in Immunoengineering]]> 27513 For patients undergoing transplant surgeries, there is always the immediate concern of the body rejecting the new organ – be it a lung, kidney or heart. There are a few different ways the body can reject an organ, one type being T cell mediated rejection. T cells are immune cells that recognize diseases, or in this case foreign organs, and attack because they sense a danger to the body. In the worst case scenario, the newly transplanted organ is rejected, leaving the patient back at square one.

Traditionally, to track and manage T cell response to organ transplants, also known as grafts, a biopsy is done to look at the tissue to monitor the health of the graft. These biopsies are highly invasive, using large needles that can lead to pain and excessive bleeding. They are also just a moment-in-time static snapshot of the health of the graft. That’s where Gabe Kwong’s research comes in with his Laboratory for Synthetic Immunity.

“What you really want to know is patient trajectory,” said Kwong, associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech. “With traditional biopsies, you don’t know if the transplant organ is getting better or if it’s going to get worse. The non-invasive platform that we are developing measures T cell activity. If T cells are being overactive, you can track that with our miniaturized biological sensors that probe the graft for early signs of transplant rejection. Our approach is a noninvasive solution to the biopsy.”

READ THE FULL STORY FROM THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

]]> Walter Rich 1 1588097113 2020-04-28 18:05:13 1588097113 2020-04-28 18:05:13 0 0 news 2020-04-28T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-28T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-28 00:00:00 Walter Rich

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634814 634814 image <![CDATA[Gabe Kwong, associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech.]]> image/png 1588096888 2020-04-28 18:01:28 1588096888 2020-04-28 18:01:28
<![CDATA[Christine Conwell, Alumna and Georgia Tech Director, Wins 2020 Outstanding Achievement in Research Enterprise Enhancement Award]]> 34434 It was nearly 10 years ago that the Center for Chemical Evolution, a joint research project of Georgia Tech, the National Science Foundation, and NASA, opened on campus to investigate the origins of life.

In 2020, the Center is now “the premier program in the world investigating compelling questions about how life arose on Earth,” says M.G. Finn, professor and chair of the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and James A. Carlos Family Chair for Pediatric Technology.

In honor of her near-decade of work as the managing director of the Center for Chemical Evolution (CCE), Christine Conwell has been announced as the winner of the 2020 Outstanding Achievement in Research Enterprise Enhancement Award.

The honor, presented by the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research, is given to “faculty whose research results have had a demonstrable and sustained societal impact,” according to the Office of the Provost website.

“This jewel in Georgia Tech’s crown would not have been possible without her efforts,” Finn says. “As a jointly funded center by the NSF and NASA, it has been both unique and uniquely successful, bringing together investigators from the U.S. and around the world. This demands administrative skill and leadership of the highest order, and Dr. Conwell has provided exactly that.”

Conwell, who earned her Ph.D. in biochemistry in 2004, returned to Georgia Tech in 2011 to take the reins of the CCE. “I did not appreciate at that point how being a part of this $40 million research enterprise would immerse me in the larger research efforts at Georgia Tech,” says Conwell. “I am absolutely honored to have been chosen for this award. I love what I do every day for the center. I get to interact with teams of amazing people at Georgia Tech and across the country, to do science that is changing the outlook of a field, and educate others about our efforts.”

In February 2020, the Strategic Energy Institute at Georgia Tech named Conwell its new Director of Planning and Operations. The SEI focuses its efforts on integrating, facilitating and enabling programs at Georgia Tech exploring the energy landscape.

The scientific objective of the Center for Chemical Evolution, as stated on its website, “is to demonstrate small molecules within a model inventory of prebiotic chemistry can self-assemble into polymers that resemble RNA and proteins.” It’s not just about the history of molecular evolution on Earth; it’s also about the possible creation of new biopharmaceutical drugs.

“Finding molecules with the ability to self-assemble into RNA- or protein-like polymers, regardless of whether these can be proven to be the ancestors, would undoubtedly create considerable excitement among scientists and the general public, represent a major advancement in the field of molecular self-assembly, and prove abundantly useful to synthetic chemists.”

Conwell worked with CCE Regents' Professor and Principal Investigator Nicholas Hud, and Education Outreach and Diversity Director Christopher Parsons. Conwell managed day-to-day operations of the CCE and its $40 million budget, led collaborative efforts with scientists, and represented the center to NSF and NASA, as well as others within the NSF’s Center for Chemical Innovation program, which CCE is part of.

Finn also praises Conwell’s efforts in engaging the public about the CCE’s role. He credits her passion, experience and communications expertise. Conwell says those aspects of the job, as well as collaborating on interdisciplinary projects with scientists, made the managing director’s position "a really perfect role."

"Beyond the official day-to-day efforts, I love being a part of the collaborative research environment that Tech has created. No day is boring, between chatting up the grad students and postdocs about life and dreams, working with other teams to develop large-scale collaborative teams, or just engaging with other staff to work on streamlining efforts, I could not have asked for a more rewarding experience," Conwell says. 

 

]]> Renay San Miguel 1 1587504882 2020-04-21 21:34:42 1587586129 2020-04-22 20:08:49 0 0 news Christine Conwell helped turn the Center for Chemical Evolution from an idea to a well-established research organization devoted to studying the origins of life. Her leadership over nearly 10 years won her the 2020 Outstanding Achievement in Research Enterprise Enhancement Award. 

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2020-04-22T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-22T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-22 00:00:00 Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

 

]]>
634622 634621 634622 image <![CDATA[Christine Conwell, former managing director of the Center for Chemical Evolution ]]> image/png 1587505181 2020-04-21 21:39:41 1587505181 2020-04-21 21:39:41 634621 image <![CDATA[Center for Chemical Evolution logo ]]> image/png 1587505056 2020-04-21 21:37:36 1587505056 2020-04-21 21:37:36 <![CDATA[Center for Chemical Evolution]]> <![CDATA[The Helix, from DNA Fame, May Have Arisen With Startling Ease]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Researchers Expand Utility of Common Reagent]]> <![CDATA[Silica May Have Helped Form Protein Precursors in Prebiotic Earth]]> <![CDATA[Asteroid “Time Capsules” May Help Explain How Life Started on Earth]]> <![CDATA[Pre-Life Building Blocks Spontaneously Align in Evolutionary Experiment]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Research Horizons: Center for Chemical Evolution]]>
<![CDATA[Joshua Weitz Discusses Past, Present, and Possible Futures of COVID-19 in New Talk and Interviews with AJC, WABE, GPB]]> 35185 Please note: This page is a compilation of faculty media mentions. For up-to-date information on Georgia Tech's response to coronavirus (COVID-19) please see http://health.gatech.edu/coronavirus.

The Weitz Group at Georgia Tech, led by Joshua Weitz, is primarily interested in understanding how viruses transform human health and the fate of our planet. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the group has created various models and figures to explain the virus' spread and epidemiology. Weitz, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences, has worked closely with local Atlanta and global media to explain his findings and discuss the challenges of containing the virus. 

 

Weitz Presents “Dynamics of COVID-19: Near- and Long-Term Challenges” Nonlinear Science Talk  

Joshua Weitz (summary by Renay San Miguel), April 15, 2020                     

Joshua Weitz says the U.S. doesn’t just need a lot more testing for those who may be currently infected with COVID-19. It also needs widespread serological antibody tests to determine those who have recovered from the disease — and may have some immunity — to begin restarting the economy.

Weitz, who also serves as director of the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Quantitative Biosciences program, discusses shield immunity and more in his “Nonlinear Science Talk,” held on April 15, as well as in a forthcoming research paper in the journal Nature.

Weitz’s talk, titled “Dynamics of CoVID-19: Near- and Long-Term Challenges”, was hosted by the School of Physics and the School of Biological Sciences at Georgia Tech.

“The scale and type of testing matters,” Weitz says. “PCR [polymerase chain reaction] testing provides a snapshot: Are you shedding virus now? Serological testing, when accurate, provides a history: Have you been infected recently or in the past?”

Weitz explains that serological testing not only reduces transmission, but that it helps enable safe economic recovery, by lessening social distancing and isolation for those who have immunity and antibodies that help keep them from contracting or carrying coronavirus again.

Weitz also emphasizes that a forecasting model’s purpose is “to explain the need, scope, and potential outcome of interventions.” Lower cases and deaths than predicted “should be a sign that people were taking it seriously, not that the models were wrong. That’s not what they were for.”

Weitz is the lead author in the forthcoming Nature research paper, “Intervention Serology and Interaction Substitution: Modeling the Role of ‘Shield Immunity’ in Reducing COVID-19 Epidemic Spread.”

The paper’s co-authors include Georgia Tech College of Sciences researchers and collaborators Stephen J. Beckett, Ashley R. Coenen, David Demory, Marian Dominguez-Mirazo, Chung-Lin Yeung, Guanlin Li, Andreea Magalie, Rogelio Rodriguez-Gonzalez, and Conan Zhao.

A preprint of the research is the subject of a video from Jennifer Leavey, principal academic professional in the School of Biological Sciences. Leavey explains the shield immunity concepts in Episode 7 of her “Stay at Home Journal Club” video series.

 

AJC: Georgia Tech expert: Brian Kemp’s plan to reopen economy could raise COVID-19 risks

Maureen Downey, April 21, 2020

In an opinion piece, Weitz discusses the possible dangers of re-opening Georgia's economy. Weitz voices concerns that the science of COVID-19 does not support Gov. Brian Kemp’s decision to allow some businesses to reopen starting Friday. Instead, Weitz suggests that Georgia waits "until the science, evidence, and infrastructure suggests we are ready to open up the economy – safely."

Read more on AJC.com.

 

WABE: Models Are Wrong, Some Are Useful

WABE Staff, April 22, 2020

Weitz chats with WABE Atlanta about the usefulness of models in tracking and predicting the spread of COVID-19. He explains that models can’t give us certainty about what will happen with the coronavirus pandemic, but they can still help tailor interventions to keep people safe. Weitz also discusses Governor Brian Kemp's reopening of the Georgia economy.

Read more and listen on WABE.org.

 

GPB: Political Rewind: Confusion Over Next Steps In Crisis

Bill Nigut, April 23, 2020

Weitz joins a panel with Kevin Riley, an editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Dr. Mark Rosenburg, retired CEO of the Task Force for Global Health. They discuss Governor Brian Kemp's decision to re-open Georgia's economy and the consequences of Georgians going out and attempting to resume life as normal.

Read more and listen on GPBnews.org.

 

Atlanta Magazine: Re-opening Georgia for business is a life or death decision - and the data doesn't help 

Karen Landman, April 23, 2020

Weitz discusses his concerns with the decision to re-open Georgia's economy. He suggests that officials wait until conditions allow a sustained downward curve to open the economy. Furthermore, he explains that even if Georgia has past the peak of the daily case counts and fatalities from the virus, there is the possibility that cases will peak again. To expidite the time to re-opening the economy, Weitz suggests increasing the availability of testing for the virus.  

Read more on AtlantaMagazine.com

 

WABE: While Georgia Begins To Open Again, Health Experts Urge Caution

Molly Samuel, April 24, 2020

Beginning Friday, April 25, certain businesses in Georgia are allowed to re-open under Governor Brian Kemp's direction. Weitz believes that the governor is opening certain businesses too quickly, and advises the governor to wait until the right safeguards and evidence are available. 

Read more on on WABE.org.

 

GPB: What You Need To Know: Could Georgia See A Second Peak?

Sam Bermas-Dawes, April 24, 2020

Weitz talks with Political Rewind's Sam Bermas-Dawes about whether Georgia is moving to fast to reopen the economy, and if there is a chance of cases peaking again. Weitz is concerned "about whether or not both the signals from cases and fatalities as well as the infrastructure to make sure that trends in the right direction continue to trend in that way are there in place at the moment."

Read more and watch the video interview at GPBNews.org.

Related Stories:

]]> kpietkiewicz3 1 1587663118 2020-04-23 17:31:58 1588004236 2020-04-27 16:17:16 0 0 news Joshua Weitz shares COVID-19 expertise with media in Atlanta and around the globe.

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2020-04-23T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-23T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-23 00:00:00 Renay San Miguel
Communications Officer
College of Sciences
404-894-5209

Grace Pietkiewicz
Communications Assistant
College of Sciences
katiegracepz@gatech.edu

]]>
634689 634692 634689 image <![CDATA[Dynamics of COVID-19: Near- and Long-Term Challenges]]> image/jpeg 1587663426 2020-04-23 17:37:06 1587668042 2020-04-23 18:54:02 634692 image <![CDATA[Governor Brian Kemp discusses the limited re-opening of sectors of Georgia’s economy. Photo: Alyssa Pointer]]> image/jpeg 1587663709 2020-04-23 17:41:49 1587663709 2020-04-23 17:41:49 <![CDATA[Scientists Discuss COVID-19 with GPB, 11Alive, Kurzgesagt, National Geographic]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Science Forum Spotlights Coronavirus Outbreak]]> <![CDATA[Virus, Microbes, and Their Entangled Fates]]>
<![CDATA[Georgia Tech Produces Key Components for Governor’s Coronavirus Test Initiative]]> 31759 Gaps in the supply of coronavirus tests are propelling initiatives to fill them across the country. At the Georgia Institute of Technology, bioscience researchers are burning the midnight oil to produce key components for tests in the state of Georgia.

The goal is to supply a broad initiative by the governor’s office involving multiple universities and partners to rapidly produce and administer more tests. At least 35 volunteers at Georgia Tech, while adhering to social distancing, are reorienting labs normally used for scientific discovery to do larger-scale production of biochemical components.

“We are inventing new ways of doing things like an electronic buddy system so people can be alone – but not alone – while they work in the lab. The technical part is actually the easiest. The logistics of testing, data security, and regulatory considerations – those things are more challenging,” said Loren Williams, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Williams and the researchers are supporting Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s COVID-19 State Lab Surge Capacity Task Force, which is a project managed through the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). GTRI is also leading the coordination and integration of data management across the lab surge effort.

“We are providing technical and project management of the effort which is focused on increasing the state’s ability to expand testing beyond current limitations,” said Mike Shannon, GTRI’s lead in the project and a principal research engineer at GTRI.

Exoplanets and coronavirus

The science behind coronavirus testing is complementary to the researchers’ usual work. That includes understanding proteins associated with glaucoma, figuring out how RNA and DNA evolved in the first place, or whether ribosomes – lumps of RNA and protein key to translating genetic code into life – may exist on exoplanets.

Williams’ research team studies the last topic, and some of their work is related to the core of coronavirus testing, a chemical reaction that amplifies the virus’ genetic fingerprint. It is called a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and it transcribes trace amounts of coronavirus’ RNA code into ample amounts of corresponding DNA in the lab for easy analysis.

“His lab members are very familiar with RT-PCR, and when the lack of tests became apparent, they swung into action. The group grew from there, based on the technical needs for the project,” said Raquel Lieberman, another leading scientist in the effort and also a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

“Every day, very talented, hardworking people with perfect skill sets come out of the woodwork and ask to help,” Williams said.

The group has teams that engineer the production of enzymes or other chemicals needed for RT-PCR to work: Two central enzymes are reverse transcriptase, which converts RNA to DNA and Taq polymerase, which rapidly replicates DNA. Another important component is ribonuclease inhibitor, which slows coronavirus RNA decay.

Global COVID allies

Other researchers develop processes for mass production or implementation of COVID-19 safety procedures; the list goes on. Some colleagues telework; others work in labs but spaced far from each other while they wear masks.

“The group is planning to produce enough enzyme components for hundreds of tests per day,” said Vinayah Agarwal, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and School of Biological Sciences. “Using these components, we will also build cheaper and more robust testing kits going forward.”

Instructions already exist for some of the ingredients for the test, but they are not readily available because the rights to them are exclusive.

“Intellectual property and other proprietary issues hinder our effort,” Lieberman said. “But we have received help from scientists all over the world to piece together protocols on how to make what we need.”

The state wants to increase current testing capacities by 3,000 more tests per day. The task force also includes teams from Augusta University Health System, Georgia State University, Emory University, University of Georgia, and the Georgia Public Health Laboratory. The task force lead is Captain Kevin Caspary who is with the Georgia National Guard.

Raw footage and images as press handouts for journalists. (No commercial or personal use)

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/f2wc2i74lz1lffl/AADLJ8dQnZMr4uEDxAiIMusoa?dl=0

Also read this: Interactive COVID-19 tool shows the importance of staying at home

External News Coverage: 

NPR - Sun Rays, Disinfectants And False Hopes: Misinformation Litters The Road To Reopening
News-Medical.Net - Georgia Tech researchers create key components for COVID-19 tests
Georgia Tech News Center- A New Normal: Researchers Across Georgia Tech Rally to Fight COVID-19 

Here's how to subscribe to our free science and technology email newsletter

Writer & Media Representative: Ben Brumfield (404-272-2780), email: ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu

Georgia Institute of Technology

]]> Ben Brumfield 1 1587559205 2020-04-22 12:40:05 1588081854 2020-04-28 13:50:54 0 0 news 2020-04-22T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-22T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-22 00:00:00 633641 633641 image <![CDATA[Coping with COVID]]> image/png 1584493388 2020-03-18 01:03:08 1584561934 2020-03-18 20:05:34
<![CDATA[Roy and Temenoff Win Outstanding Achievement in Research Program Development at Georgia Tech]]> 27513 Professors Krishnendu Roy and Johnna Temenoff have won Georgia Tech’s award for Outstanding Achievement in Research Program Development in 2020. They lead the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT) based at Georgia Tech. The vision of the center is to transform the manufacturing of cell-based therapeutics into a large-scale, lower-cost, reproducible, and high quality engineered process, for broad industry and clinical use. Both are professors in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, and are researchers in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience.

 

Professor Krishnendu Roy holds the Robert A. Milton Chair and is the director of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies. He is also the director of the  Marcus Center for Cell-Therapy Characterization and Manufacturing, and director of the Center for ImmunoEngineering at Georgia Tech.

 

Professor Johnna Temenoff holds the Carol Ann and David D. Flanagan Professorship and is the deputy director of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies.

She is also the associate chair for translational research in the Coulter Department.

 

For more information about CMaT, visit cellmanufacturingusa.org

 

 

Media Contact:

Walter Rich
Communications Manager
Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology

]]> Walter Rich 1 1586873117 2020-04-14 14:05:17 1586873331 2020-04-14 14:08:51 0 0 news 2020-04-14T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-14T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-14 00:00:00 Walter Rich

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634346 634346 image <![CDATA[Professors Krishnendu Roy and Johnna Temenoff have won Georgia Tech’s award for Outstanding Achievement in Research Program Development in 2020. ]]> image/jpeg 1586873006 2020-04-14 14:03:26 1586873006 2020-04-14 14:03:26
<![CDATA[Linda Ho Makes the Most of the Interdisciplinary Nature of Public Policy]]> 35266 In the course of her undergraduate studies as molecular cell and developmental biology major at UCLA, Linda Ho made an interesting discovery. She loved doing science, sure, but what she really loved was talking to people about science.

Ho worked on the UCLA Undergraduate Science Journal, advancing to co-editor in chief, and along the way developed a key interest in the applications of science to policy. When she started looking around at graduate programs, the interdisciplinary nature of Georgia Tech's School of Public Policy appealed to her immediately.

"It's the only (program) that has a really broad emphasis on science, and I think it's really unique, because it's a policy school that's in a large engineering school," Ho said. "You don't really get that anywhere else."

Ho has taken full advantage of the opportunity to work with scientific fields at Georgia Tech, exploring the policy dimensions of innovative medical procedures under the mentorship of Associate Professor Aaron Levine. And after she graduates this spring, she's set to head to Bethesda, Maryland to work at the National Institutes of Health as part of the prestigious Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) program.

"It’s been a real pleasure to work with Linda and see her research ability grow during her two years at Georgia Tech," Levine said. "Linda’s trajectory and success exemplifies the benefits of a Georgia Tech public policy education."

Ho's main project with Levine, working under the umbrella of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT), has been researching the policy implications of CAR-T cell therapy, which uses genetically modified T cells from a cancer patient to help fight the disease. Ho notes that while the treatment can be quite effective, but it's also extremely expensive, running in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for the drug and even more for related relocation and rehabilitation expenses.

To explore the specific sources of expenses for people receiving CAR-T cell therapy, Ho analyzed GoFundMe campaigns and the appeals people were using for funds. The results of that study were published last August in The Lancet Oncology.

"We're hoping to shed light on this issue for a large number of people, from clinicians to policy makers to insurance companies," Ho said. "...For example, insurance companies could come up with ways to reimburse patients for all these new expenses, like commuting time, gas money, and relocation expenses. They could offer higher reimbursement for the drug itself, and Medicare and Medicaid could also increase their reimbursement."

Ho has explored a number of other interests at Tech, including regulatory policy in a class taught by Richard Barke and, in another CMaT project, analysis of workforce development in the emerging cell and gene therapy industry.

In the PMF program, Ho is set to work in the NIH's Office of Rare Disease Research as a health specialist. The program is designed specifically for graduate and professional students entering the federal workforce, so Ho will have access to professional development and training and rotate through another worksite as well. 

"The beauty of my program is I get to decide what I want to work on," she said.

The diversity of study at Georgia Tech as a whole brought Ho to campus, and she has found that interdisciplinary collaboration in the School of Public Policy as well.

"I really like how everyone in my cohort, as well as my professors, come from all different disciplines – not just science and engineering, but also liberal arts," Ho said. "Everyone is really supportive, and I get to learn from everyone. So it's a great learning environment as well."

]]> ifrazer3 1 1584555896 2020-03-18 18:24:56 1585247372 2020-03-26 18:29:32 0 0 news 2020-03-18T00:00:00-04:00 2020-03-18T00:00:00-04:00 2020-03-18 00:00:00 Rebecca Keane
Director of Communications
rebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu
404.894.1720

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633653 633653 image <![CDATA[Linda Ho]]> image/jpeg 1584555363 2020-03-18 18:16:03 1584555363 2020-03-18 18:16:03
<![CDATA[Simple, Low-Cost Ventilator Builds on Available Resuscitation Bags]]> 27303 A simple, low-cost ventilator based on the resuscitation bags carried in ambulances – and widely available in hospitals – has been designed by an international team of university researchers. The device, which is powered by a 12-volt motor, could help meet peak medical demands in the industrialized world and serve resource-constrained countries that don’t have supplies of conventional ventilators.

“The high transmission rate and debilitating respiratory consequences of COVID-19 are creating an unmet demand for ventilators worldwide. It is heartwarming to see U.S. manufacturers open-source some of their FDA-approved designs to stimulate production.” said Susan Margulies, chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, an expert in ventilator-associated lung injuries. “Our strategy to rapidly expand the supply of ventilators focuses on a simple, low-cost design based on common resuscitation bags carried by ambulances.”

The device, which can serve two patients simultaneously, can be produced from inexpensive metal stock and plastic gearing. Power comes from standard wall adapters or 12-volt vehicle batteries. The research team is working with the Emory University Office of Technology Transfer to move the design into manufacturing.

“We are adapting the bag-valve-mask (BVM) resuscitators that are already in place, designed to be manually squeezed for reviving a patient,” said Shannon Yee, an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. “We are providing the mechanical assist that allows the bags to be squeezed continuously for days rather than for short periods of time. We are using infrastructure already in place.”

The device was designed at Cranfield University in the United Kingdom and built and tested at Georgia Tech in collaboration with Emory University. At Cranfield, Professor Leon Williams, head of the Centre for Competitive Creative Design, specializes in rapid prototyping, and has been iterating the designs with researchers in Atlanta. 

“We have paid special attention to the requirements of medical specialists to ensure that the system is fit for the purpose,” said Williams. “For example, we have ensured that the operator of the system is able to manually adjust the tidal volume – the volume of air delivered to the lungs with each breath – to safeguard the patient.”

Yee said the device is intended to meet the critical needs created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“What’s unique about our design is that we have two BVM’s per ventilator, which allows two people to breathe with each device that is built,” Yee said. “Our goal was to provide the bare essentials for a ventilator to help with patients who have COVID-19 or acute respiratory distress syndrome.”

Though each emergency ventilator can serve two patients simultaneously, their air flow is separate to avoid cross-contamination. Flow volumes can be controlled independently to meet the needs of each patient.

In addition to Yee and Williams, Kyle Azevedo, a research engineer with the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), has been supporting quality control and test procedures for the device, collaborating with GTRI researchers Jonathan Holmes and Wiley Holcombe. A small batch of the devices has already been assembled for bench testing and shared with Georgia hospitals for evaluation.

“We believe these devices can be mass manufactured in quantities that make a tangible impact on ventilator shortages nationally or worldwide,” Azevedo said. “Leveraging the BVM resuscitators reduces the need for complex electronics, and most of the parts can be cut from flat stock or 3D printed. Actuation is via a simple DC motor and regulator, which are widely available.”

GTRI has experience with bringing concepts to reality, and is advising on manufacturing scale-up for the devices. “It’s very important to pay attention to design for mass manufacture,” he said. 

The automated BVM ventilation system has been designed for use in emergency situations where all other ventilators are occupied, or in resource-restricted areas where traditional ventilators are simply not available. The systems are intended to be used on a temporary basis until a conventional ventilator becomes available.

The system is designed to be inexpensive to produce. “The BVM system is purposely designed to be modular and reconfigurable,” Williams said. “If we need to make further improvements to the system over time, this is possible.”

Because it is intended for global production and use, the BVM ventilator design emphasized using as few parts as possible, Yee said. The ventilator can supply oxygen from a hospital’s built-in supply system, or from a portable oxygen generator. The device must be used in conjunction with a pulse oximeter or other device that reliably provides a real-time reading of patient oxygen levels.

“We designed the ventilator to be simple to make, cut from sheets of steel,” Yee explained. “Kits can be assembled and packaged flat for shipping, then reassembled where needed. The manufacturing requires skills that are readily available, and hand tools could even be used.”

With just a few weeks until the demand for medical support from ventilators is expected to peak in some hard-hit communities, the researchers understand the race against time to get their engineering drawings out to manufacturers. “We really need to get this out to people,” Yee said. “Time is of the essence.”

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
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Media Relations Contact: Georgia Tech - John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu); Cranfield University – (mediarelations@cranfield.ac.uk)

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1586175911 2020-04-06 12:25:11 1586177166 2020-04-06 12:46:06 0 0 news A simple, low-cost ventilator based on the resuscitation bags carried in ambulances – and widely available in hospitals – has been designed by an international team of university researchers. The device, which is powered by a 12-volt motor, could help meet peak medical demands in the industrialized world and serve resource-constrained countries that don’t have supplies of conventional ventilators.

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2020-04-06T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-06T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-06 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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634061 634062 634063 634064 634061 image <![CDATA[Simple, Low-cost Ventilator]]> image/jpeg 1586174677 2020-04-06 12:04:37 1586174677 2020-04-06 12:04:37 634062 image <![CDATA[Evaluating Operation of the Ventilator]]> image/jpeg 1586174837 2020-04-06 12:07:17 1586174837 2020-04-06 12:07:17 634063 image <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Ventilator Team]]> image/jpeg 1586175099 2020-04-06 12:11:39 1586175099 2020-04-06 12:11:39 634064 image <![CDATA[Simple, Low-cost Ventilator-2]]> image/jpeg 1586175238 2020-04-06 12:13:58 1586175238 2020-04-06 12:13:58
<![CDATA[Tech Chosen for COVID-19 Rapid Testing Site]]> 27299 A parking deck on the Georgia Tech campus has been designated as the location for a new rapid COVID-19 mobile testing site in Georgia. The news was announced earlier today by federal and state governments in partnership with a national healthcare company.

The Georgia Tech Police Department and its Office of Emergency Management have assisted in site set up at 352 Peachtree Place and will manage traffic flow to keep individuals being tested isolated to one area. Logistics planning has been done in concert with state and federal health authorities who are leading this effort with CVS Health to provide an area for this testing and its required waiting period in accordance with strict health and safety standards.

Academic instruction is being held online and through distance learning until Fall semester, and campus operations have been modified to only include essential services. Given the currently reduced scope of campus operations, efficient visitor access to the test site with minimal impact on campus services is expected.

For more information about the test and drive-through testing program, visit www.cvs.com/minuteclinic/covid-19-testing.

]]> Michael Hagearty 1 1586181580 2020-04-06 13:59:40 1586181773 2020-04-06 14:02:53 0 0 news A parking deck on the Georgia Tech campus has been designated as the location for a new rapid COVID-19 mobile testing site in Georgia. The news was announced earlier today by federal and state governments in partnership with a national healthcare company.

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2020-04-06T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-06T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-06 00:00:00
<![CDATA[Gabe Kwong Wins Sigma Xi Best Paper Award]]> 27513 Gabe Kwong, associate professor Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering and a researcher in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, wins Georgia Tech’s 2020 Sigma Xi Best Faculty Paper award.

His award is based on his lab’s paper, “Non-invasive early detection of acute transplant rejection via nanosensors of granzyme B activity,” published February 18, 2019, in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

 

Paper Abstract:
The early detection of the onset of transplant rejection is critical for the long-term survival of patients. The diagnostic gold standard for detecting transplant rejection involves a core biopsy, which is invasive, has limited predictive power and carries a morbidity risk. Here, we show that nanoparticles conjugated with a peptide substrate specific for the serine protease granzyme B, which is produced by recipient T cells during the onset of acute cellular rejection, can serve as a non-invasive biomarker of early rejection. When administered systemically in mouse models of skin graft rejection, these nanosensors preferentially accumulate in allograft tissue, where they are cleaved by granzyme B, releasing a fluorescent reporter that filters into the recipient’s urine. Urinalysis then discriminates the onset of rejection with high sensitivity and specificity before features of rejection are apparent in grafted tissues. Moreover, in mice treated with subtherapeutic levels of immunosuppressive drugs, the reporter signals in urine can be detected before graft failure. This method may enable routine monitoring of allograft status without the need for biopsies.

 

Gabe Kwong’s Nature Biomedical Engineering paper can be found here: 
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-019-0358-7


Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, founded in 1886 at Cornell University, is the honor society of scientists and engineers that recognizes scientific achievement. Its mission is to enhance the health of the research enterprise, foster integrity in science and engineering, and promote the public’s understanding of science for the purpose of improving the human condition.

 

Media Contact:
Walter Rich
Communications Manager
Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology

]]> Walter Rich 1 1586182490 2020-04-06 14:14:50 1586182490 2020-04-06 14:14:50 0 0 news 2020-04-06T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-06T00:00:00-04:00 2020-04-06 00:00:00 Walter Rich

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634076 634076 image <![CDATA[Gabe Kwong, associate professor, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering ]]> image/jpeg 1586182369 2020-04-06 14:12:49 1586182369 2020-04-06 14:12:49
<![CDATA[Truckloads of Personal Protective Equipment Donated for Healthcare Workers]]> 28058 Responding to a call from the University System of Georgia (USG) to all its members, faculty and researchers across Georgia Tech’s campus spent a few days taking inventory of what kind of personal protective equipment (PPE) they had in their labs. On March 27, workers from Tech’s Department of Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) shipped at least eight pallets of the much-needed materials.

“It was incredible how this came together so quickly. We managed to collect this all in just a couple of days,” says Nazia Zakir, assistant vice president of Environmental Health and Safety.

EHS worked hand in hand with the Georgia Tech Police Department to gather PPE from buildings across campus. The teams included a small crew of only essential campus workers who pulled together 167,900 gloves, more than 3,700 surgical and N95 masks, 6,000 shoe covers, and thousands of other items like eye protection, protective coveralls, and cleaning supplies. All from scientific labs whose work is on pause.

 “The people who are here have been working non-stop,” says Zakir. “It’s just so reassuring to see the generosity of our faculty to donate this PPE.”

Under the USG’s leadership, Georgia Tech is working with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) and the Department of Public Health (DPH) to identify where PPE and other supplies might be gathered from university campuses across the state.

GEMA and DPH will determine where supplies are needed the most, and workers from agencies at all levels are assisting with that effort. The Georgia Department of Transportation answered the call when larger trucks were needed to haul the items from Georgia Tech’s campus.

“This was definitely a team effort,” Zakir says.

]]> Steven Norris 1 1585659630 2020-03-31 13:00:30 1593135043 2020-06-26 01:30:43 0 0 news Thousands of items that are in short supply for healthcare workers are now being dispatched across the state.

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2020-03-31T00:00:00-04:00 2020-03-31T00:00:00-04:00 2020-03-31 00:00:00 Institute Communications
socialmedia@gatech.edu
 

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633928 633928 image <![CDATA[PPE Donated to Help Healthcare Workers ]]> image/png 1585661444 2020-03-31 13:30:44 1585661444 2020-03-31 13:30:44
<![CDATA[Do-It-Yourself Medical Devices and Protective Gear Fuel Battle Against COVID-19]]> 27303 It’s a race against time that some participants liken to Apollo 13, the stricken NASA spacecraft for which engineers improvised an air purification system from available parts to get three astronauts back from the moon.

In this case, however, the race is to improvise ventilators, face shields, respirators, surgical gowns, disinfectant wipes, and other healthcare gear to help the hundreds of thousands of people expected to swamp hospitals with waves of critical COVID-19 illness over the next several weeks. The demand for ventilators alone could be four times more than already overwhelmed hospitals can provide.

Using 3D-printed parts, plastic-lined tablecloths intended for birthday parties, laser-cut gears, and similar substitutions, a research team from universities on two continents is racing to develop “do-it-yourself” healthcare gear that can be assembled where it’s needed from components available locally. Team members figure they have about two weeks to get the designs right and share them with anyone who can help with the needs.

“We’re trying to figure out how to get these things to scale in the time we have,” said Shannon Yee, an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering who’s working on the ventilator issue with a half-dozen colleagues at Georgia Tech and other universities. “We are looking at producing things very quickly and this is where having contacts with mature manufacturing sources is going to help.”

Supplying Face Shields to the Medical Community

The Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Emory and Georgia Tech serves as a bridge between healthcare needs and the broad technical know-how at Georgia Tech, and Georgia Tech researchers are talking regularly with hospital systems to discuss their needs. So far, hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, face shields, respirator masks, and ventilators have been identified as critical needs. Using resources of the Flowers Invention Studio – such as 3D printing – the group has already produced 1,000 face shields and is preparing to fabricate thousands more in the form of kits that hospitals can assemble. 

"With the significant challenges on our supply chain, we need strategies to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare staff," said Dr. Charles Brown, CEO of Physician Enterprise at Piedmont Healthcare. "We have mechanisms in place to develop ideas and are working with Georgia Tech and the Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI) to advance them to what we can use."

Georgia Tech faculty members, students and GCMI worked on multiple face shield designs, talking with clinicians at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory Healthcare and Piedmont to evaluate and iterate. The result was two different designs intended for specific uses in hospital facilities, where face shields protect clinicians from splashes and help extend the life of soft respirators intended to filter out virus particles.

“The team has worked hard to identify materials suppliers and define simple and scalable solutions to meet this challenge,” said Sam Graham, chair of the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. “We are fortunate to have partners ready to team up with us to help address some of the shortfalls in medical equipment that hospitals are experiencing."

To scale up fabrication beyond the Georgia Tech campus, the team focused on simple designs that could be shared with and produced by individuals with access to a makerspace – and major manufacturers with injection molding capabilities. The team plans to make the designs available for anyone with laser cutting or 3D printing capabilities.

“Initially we were just thinking about meeting the needs of Atlanta, but cities everywhere need them,” said Saad Bhamla, an assistant professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering who specializes in “frugal science” – creating inexpensive lab devices. “We have created great models that can be used to create a pipeline of instructions that others can use. The face shields will set the stage for other device models as they become available.”

The group is leveraging Georgia Tech contacts with companies to identify suppliers for alternative materials that can go into their “Apollo 13” devices. Team members, including Christopher Saldana, an associate professor in the Woodruff School, are working with GCMI on those issues, using equipment in Georgia Tech’s maker spaces and elsewhere.

"The Georgia Tech mechanical engineering team is working to modify open source face shield designs so they can be manufactured in high volumes for the rapid response environment that COVID-19 requires,” said Christopher Saldana, an associate professor in the Woodruff School. “Our team has modified these designs using a range of product and process optimization methods, including removing certain features and standardizing tool use. By working on cross-functional and cross-disciplinary teams and directly involving healthcare practitioners and high-volume manufacturers, we will be able to respond to this effort at the scale and speed required."

Bringing Georgia Tech’s expertise together to address the challenges – and develop collaborations – has been done behind the scenes by people like Sherry Farrugia, chief operating and strategy officer for the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Technology Center. 

“Serving as kind of a chief strategy officer, my work is to help bridge the gaps, focus the teams, rally the troops, and make critical connections,” she said. “Doing this requires a deep knowledge of who’s doing what on campus, as well as a strong network in the private sector.”

The Supply Chain Challenge

The team is launching a website (www.research.gatech.edu/rapid-response) to both quantify the needs for face shields and solicit supplies of materials. Because the world’s supply chains are unable to ship conventional PPE components, they are looking for alternatives that may not now be part of that production.

The challenge is that everyone is scrambling to find equipment and materials in an international supply chain that has already been depleted by months-long demands from countries that dealt with the virus earlier: China, Italy and South Korea. As the healthcare demands ramp up in the United States, hospitals will have to be more creative in meeting the needs that their traditional sources may not be able to supply.

"Countries on the trailing end of the pandemic are facing supply chain issues that countries with earlier pandemics didn't have to face," said Michael O'Toole, Executive Director of Quality Improvement at Piedmont and a Georgia Tech engineering graduate. "We've got to get these supplies, and its a critical need already. If we can't get them from commercial or government sources, we're going to have to make them ourselves."

With significant efforts going into design of locally sourced equipment, expertise on medical device prototyping and approval is needed. That is coming from a network of alumni and local companies and GCMI, a Georgia Tech-affiliated organization that works with device manufacturers around the world to translate designs into devices that can be manufactured quickly and cost effectively.

“The goal right now is to develop solutions that can be sourced locally and that we can produce now,” said Tiffany Wilson, GCMI’s CEO. “We are working with Georgia Tech and others on how we can suggest modifying the designs to optimize them for the current environment. We are helping make sure designs are clinically validated with an eye toward scalability.”

Beyond its experience with medical devices, GCMI is also helping source materials and components, and working with regulators at the FDA to help reduce risks in the responses.

“There have been changes in some of the standards and new guidance from the FDA to enable faster production to open up the supply chain to get more masks and respirators into the market,” Wilson said. “There are still levels of control and risk mitigations strategies that we need to focus on. We’re staying on top of those changes.”

Research on Possible Solutions for Other Shortages

While the face shield is the most mature project the team is developing, researchers are also looking at other needs of the medical community. Among them are ventilators, disinfecting wipes, and respirators. 

An example of an Apollo 13 project may be ventilators that are used to help critically ill patients breathe. Traditional equipment makers are working as fast as they can, but that may not be fast enough. To achieve a globally scalable makeshift ventilator will require minimizing the number of parts and thinking about mechanical simplicity, Yee said.

Leon Williams, head of the Centre for Competitive Creative Design at Cranfield University, is working with Georgia Tech researchers to create a makeshift ventilator based on the bag-valve-mask (BVM) – also known as an Ambu bag – a hand-held mechanical resuscitation device already available at hospitals.

Through a system of laser-cut gears and other components, the preliminary concept would use a simple three-volt motor to compress the bag and push air into the lungs of a critically ill patient. Among the challenges is extending the lifetime of the bags, which are not designed for long-term use. 

“We need to understand everything about the ventilators that are already in use,” said Susan Margulies, chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. “By understanding how everything works, we can modify the design to use the components we can get.”

As with face shields, the group expects to make its plans widely available for other groups to iterate and produce. “There is a lot of activity here that is going to move this forward,” said Devesh Ranjan, associate chair for research in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, who is coordinating several of the Georgia Tech Rapid-Response projects on campus.

Another identified need is for disinfecting wipes, which seem like a simple enough product: a nonwoven material and a solution based on either alcohol or bleach. The material and solutions seem to be available; the problem is locating the industrial-sized containers to hold them.

“We’ve been looking for containers for the wipes commercially,” said Graham. “What we are finding is that the issue is the containers, but we are looking at other solutions.” He’s working with David Sholl, chair of the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, to identify potential suppliers.

Respirators, Swabs and Gowns

Protecting healthcare workers from the coronavirus requires a special type of respirator, soft face masks that remove virus particles from the air. Because the virus particles are so small, hundreds of nanometers in diameter, that protection requires high-efficiency filtration materials that until recently were mostly manufactured in China.

“The filters are not being produced at the rates that are needed, so we have been thinking about what we can put together that approximates an N95 filter that’s needed to protect healthcare workers,” said Ryan Lively, an associate professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “We need to make something that can be produced out of homemade goods, then verify that it can do the filtering needed.”

Lively has been experimenting with alternatives, such as high-efficiency filtration materials manufactured for HVAC systems that could be sewn inside a fabric pouch. “There are journal papers out there showing filtration materials that are not as good as N95 are still effective at increasing rejection of the virus particles,” he said.

If these work as needed, Lively could produce limited numbers in his lab. “We have estimated that we can produce 700 masks per week using the pilot line that we have for research and repurposing it for cranking out hydrophobic fiber media,” he said. “That won’t solve the problem, but it will help meet a very critical need.”

The swabs used for COVID-19 testing are also in short supply, as are gowns designed to protect healthcare workers. Carson Meredith, director of the Renewable Bioproducts Institute, is tracking down alternative sources from among the many manufacturers who are members of the Georgia Tech interdisciplinary research institute.

“The idea is to take a basic material intended for a different function and transform it into the products that we need,” he said. One example is a material manufactured for party tablecloths - plastic on one side to prevent spills from going through, and paper on the other for festive designs. “We’re looking at whether the machinery that produces those can be rapidly turned into making a temporary gown.”

The research team meets by phone daily to update each other on what’s been done and to share ideas. They follow international Slack channels to know what other similar groups are doing across the U.S. and the world.

They know their prototype production equipment can’t meet the world’s needs, so they’re sharing plans with others who may have capabilities. Ultimately, major manufacturers will catch up, but that could take months – perhaps too long for the expected COVID-19 infection curve.

“The best thing we can do is share that information broadly to try to come up with solutions that use parts that can be sourced locally,” Yee said, referring to the ventilator project. “Simple solutions using motors that people can get anywhere, structures that can be 3D-printed and materials that can be hand-cut with saws may get us through this.”

Article updated March 26, 2020

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

Media Relations Contacts: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu) or Ben Brumfield (404-272-2780) (ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu)

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1584976736 2020-03-23 15:18:56 1585271669 2020-03-27 01:14:29 0 0 news The Georgia Tech community is working together to help meet the needs for personal protection equipment for health care workers. The first project is producing face shields.

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2020-03-23T00:00:00-04:00 2020-03-23T00:00:00-04:00 2020-03-23 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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633718 633719 633718 image <![CDATA[Laser-cutting face shields]]> image/jpeg 1584975824 2020-03-23 15:03:44 1584975824 2020-03-23 15:03:44 633719 image <![CDATA[Face shields produced at Georgia Tech]]> image/png 1584975959 2020-03-23 15:05:59 1584975959 2020-03-23 15:05:59
<![CDATA[App Detects Harsh Side Effect of Breast Cancer Treatment]]> 31759 Some 20 percent of breast cancer survivors will suffer from lymphedema, a potentially severe side effect of treatment that makes arms swell with lymph. The disease is often overlooked, but commercially available app-based technology now makes early detection easier, allowing for proactive treatment.

The lymphedema monitoring technology originated through research at the Georgia Institute of Technology and was further developed for market by the company LymphaTech, which also emerged from Georgia Tech. Now, a new study has benchmarked the technology, finding that it effectively detects early arm swelling associated with lymphedema in breast cancer patients.

The detection technology is intended to improve not only patients’ physical health but also their peace of mind and finances.

Severe depression

“The most immediate awful consequence of lymphedema is seen in mental health. Severe depression is very high,” said Brandon Dixon, who co-led the study and is an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. “If you detect it early, managing it could cost as little as $2,500 in a patient’s lifetime. If you catch it too late, the costs can rise as high as $200,000.”

“Lymphedema is under-researched, so we don’t know directly how it may lead to deadly health conditions, but there are more cases than AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease combined, and it diminishes patients’ health,” Dixon said.

The researchers published the detector’s test results in the journal Physical Therapy in February 2019. Dixon and Georgia Tech graduates founded LymphaTech through the initiative TI:GER, Technology Innovation: Generating Economic Results at Georgia Tech’s Scheller College of Business. The startup received early funding from the Georgia Research Alliance. 

No cure

Lymphedema can strike breast cancer survivors if surgery includes the removal of a lymph node, slowing the flow of lymph. The liquid waste can congest the arm, at first subtly but later so drastically that patients may no longer fit into their clothing.

“It makes the stigma of cancer stick out,” Dixon said. “And it is a very underappreciated disorder in medical treatment, so patients can feel stuck with it with no way out.”

A German device called a perometer accurately detects arm swelling caused by lymphedema, but perometers are seldom available in the U.S. The research team could find only one in metropolitan Atlanta to benchmark the LymphaTech system against. It was located at TurningPoint Breast Cancer Rehabilitation, a non-profit center that co-led the new study in collaboration with Dixon.

The advantages of the new technology over perometers are cost and convenience. Perimeters are bulky, costly machines, while the LymphaTech system runs on iPhone or iPad and requires only a $400 camera attachment and a paid smartphone app. Both perometers and the app technology simply determine total volume of the arm for swelling diagnosis.

The new app system performed comparably in its accuracy to the perometer in the study.

[Ready for graduate school? Here's how to apply to Georgia Tech.

Awareness barriers

Developing LymphaTech has faced a more challenging component – spreading lymphedema awareness – and a less challenging component – arriving at the technology to make the app measurements work.

“In the past 20 years, depth-sensor cameras have become significantly cheaper and better. Video games, self-driving cars, robotics – they have all required better depth sensors, and we took advantage of that by using a commercially available lens attachment,” Dixon said.

The camera attachment creates point clouds, 3D representations of objects, in this case of human arms, which the app uses to calculate the total arm volume. Usually, only one arm is afflicted with lymphedema, allowing clinicians to compare it with the unaffected arm for easier gauging of disease severity.

As with perometers, the LymphaTech technology avoids human error that creeps in when recording arm volume with a tape measure, a currently common method to assess lymphedema.

“The real battle has been to convince a medical market that has not much cared about lymphedema in the past or sought solutions to care,” Dixon said. “Hopefully, the high accessibility of our solution will make it easier to care.”

In a separate study involving the LymphaTech system, a research team traveled to Sri Lanka to measure lymphedema in legs, Dixon said. And in Germany, the technology is catching on with medical garment manufacturers to help them custom-fit compression sleeves to treat lymphedema.

Also read: Experimental flickering light device to treat Alzheimer's triggers special brain chemistry

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These researchers and clinicians co-authored the study: Jill Binkley and Lauren Bober from TurningPoint Breast Cancer Rehabilitation, and LymphaTech’s Michael Weiler and Nathan Frank, both of whom graduated from Georgia Tech. Paul Stratford from McMaster University also co-authored the study. Disclosures: B. Dixon owns equity in LymphaTech and may benefit financially from the technology. J.B. Dixon is affiliated with LymphaTech Inc and serves as a scientific advisor. Georgia Institute of Technology has licensed to LymphaTech technology that is related to this study and that is covered by patent applications for which J.B. Dixon is an inventor. In addition, J.B. Dixon is eligible to receive royalties under the license agreement for LymphaTech.

This content is a public domain news release and may also be republished without charge.

Writer & Media Representative: Ben Brumfield (404-272-2780), email: ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu

Georgia Institute of Technology

]]> Ben Brumfield 1 1584376624 2020-03-16 16:37:04 1591910468 2020-06-11 21:21:08 0 0 news Many breast cancer survivors suffer from lymph collection known as lymphedema. It causes arms to swell, and sufferers often become severely depressed. A new app detects it early, and its makers hope it will help spread awareness of the disease.

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2020-03-16T00:00:00-04:00 2020-03-16T00:00:00-04:00 2020-03-16 00:00:00 633607 633609 633608 590873 633607 image <![CDATA[App to detect lymphedema in breast cancer survivors]]> image/jpeg 1584375595 2020-03-16 16:19:55 1584375595 2020-03-16 16:19:55 633609 image <![CDATA[App to detect lymphedema in breast cancer survivors 2]]> image/jpeg 1584376458 2020-03-16 16:34:18 1584376458 2020-03-16 16:34:18 633608 image <![CDATA[App to detect breast cancer side effect uses point cloud]]> image/png 1584375725 2020-03-16 16:22:05 1584375725 2020-03-16 16:22:05 590873 image <![CDATA[Lymphatics]]> image/jpeg 1493125322 2017-04-25 13:02:02 1493125322 2017-04-25 13:02:02
<![CDATA[Microscopic STAR Particles Offer New Potential Treatment for Skin Diseases]]> 27303 Skin diseases affect half of the world’s population, but many treatments are not effective, require frequent injections, or cause significant side effects. But what if there was a treatment that eliminated injections, reduced side effects, and increased drug effectiveness? A skin therapy with these properties may be on the horizon from Mark Prausnitz’s Drug Delivery Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

In a study published on March 9, 2020, in the journal Nature Medicine, Prausnitz and his team of researchers report on research using a skin cream infused with microscopic particles, named STAR particles. To the naked eye, STAR particles look like a powder, but closer inspection reveals tiny microneedle projections sticking out from the particles like a microscopic star. A particle-containing cream could potentially facilitate better treatment of skin diseases including psoriasis, warts, and certain types of skin cancer.

Following the successful study of his microneedle patches for vaccination, Prausnitz and postdoctoral scholar Andrew Tadros have advanced the technology with the objective of treating skin conditions by simply rubbing STAR particles on the skin. In a study in mice, skin cancer tumors were treated with 5-fluorouracil, a cancer therapy drug that works by limiting replication of abnormal cells. Tumor growth was inhibited only when the drug was rubbed on the skin above the tumor in combination with STAR particles, whereas the drug without STAR particles was much less effective.

“Andrew [Tadros] and I teamed up to adapt the microneedle technology and make it useful, especially in dermatology,” said Prausnitz, Regents Professor and J. Erskine Love Jr. Chair in the Georgia Tech School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “Microneedle patches are good at administering drugs or vaccines to a small area of skin, but many dermatological conditions are spread over larger areas. Rather than trying to make really big patches, which would be difficult to use, we ultimately arrived at STAR particles that can be rubbed on the skin – just like any skin lotion – and poke tiny holes in the skin to better deliver drugs.” 

STAR particles are mixed into a therapeutic cream or gel and applied to the skin, painlessly creating micropores in the skin’s surface that dramatically – but temporarily – increase skin permeability to drugs. 

The problem is that most drugs are not absorbed well into skin, so often a drug needs to be given to the whole body by pill or injection just to treat the skin. Exposing the whole body to dermatological drugs often leads to unwanted side effects such as nausea or organ damage. Fortunately, the barrier layer of skin – called the stratum corneum – is thinner than the width of a human hair. While STAR particles are tiny, they are large enough to poke through this barrier layer when rubbed on the skin and let drugs enter the body through the micropores without pain.

More effectively delivering medicine directly to where it’s needed could improve treatments for patients dealing with many kinds of skin diseases. Oral methotrexate is a common course of treatment for psoriasis –  a dermatological condition in which skin cells build up and form scales and itchy, dry patches – but because the therapy is systemic, it exposes the whole body to a drug that can cause serious side effects like diarrhea, hair loss, and liver problems. 

Prausnitz said doctors must weigh the costs of exposing the whole body to a drug versus treating psoriasis topically, which may be less effective. That’s where STAR particles could provide value. 

“Based on our studies, you could feasibly combine methotrexate with STAR particles into a cream and localize the therapy where it is needed,” Tadros said. “The STAR particles in the cream would enable drugs to get into skin and treat diseases locally, right where it needs to be treated, and without exposing the whole body to the drug.”

Skin creams that deliver drug therapies could widen the range of compounds administered topically, Prausnitz and Tadros suggested. Non-medicinal creams infused with STAR particles have been tested on humans, who generally reported experiencing a mild and comfortable tingling sensation, but no pain or skin irritation. 

Each STAR particle is no larger than a millimeter, with sharp and strong microneedle structures protruding from the surface that are 100 to 300 microns long. While the particles are barely perceptible to the human eye, the microneedles on them are not.

Moreover, when mixed in with a cream, the STAR particles disappear from sight. The research team uses a laser to make the particles from ceramic materials like titanium dioxide, a common ingredient in sunscreens and other cosmetic products. 

“Titanium dioxide is a common material that we have adapted to make STAR particles,” said Prausnitz. “The material is well established, but it’s the star-shaped geometry of the particle that’s new.” 

Prausnitz said he hopes to scale the STAR particles for commercial use not only in dermatology, but for cosmetic purposes as well, where they could potentially deliver anti-aging treatments without injections or other harsh procedures. 

“Our research philosophy is to develop an understanding of biomedical science and engineering technology, and then bring them together to create something that is practical and can benefit patients,” Prausnitz said. 

Prausnitz and Tadros have started a new company called Microstar Biotech that’s working to commercialize the STAR particle technology. 

“Georgia Tech has been instrumental in enabling us to bring this research to the forefront of the medical field, but universities can only do so much,” said Prausnitz. “Commercialization by a company is the mechanism to bring this novel research to the public for their benefit, and I’m hopeful for the future of STAR particles.” 

Results of the study are published in the March issue of the medical journal Nature Medicine. This work was supported financially by the Georgia Research Alliance and as a joint project of the CDC Foundation and UNICEF. 

Prausnitz and Tadros are inventors of the STAR particle technology used in this study and have ownership interest in Microstar Biotech LLC, which is developing technology related to this study. They are entitled to royalties derived from Microstar Biotech’s future sales of products related to the research. These potential conflicts of interest have been disclosed and are overseen by the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).

Writer: Georgia Parmelee

]]> John Toon 1 1583761720 2020-03-09 13:48:40 1583769567 2020-03-09 15:59:27 0 0 news A new therapy using a skin cream infused with microscopic STAR particles and a therapeutic drug could facilitate better treatment of skin diseases. The therapy is described in the journal Nature Medicine.

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2020-03-09T00:00:00-04:00 2020-03-09T00:00:00-04:00 2020-03-09 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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633390 633392 633393 633390 image <![CDATA[STAR particles for treating skin diseases]]> image/jpeg 1583760641 2020-03-09 13:30:41 1583936496 2020-03-11 14:21:36 633392 image <![CDATA[Researchers with samples of STAR particles]]> image/jpeg 1583760794 2020-03-09 13:33:14 1640183960 2021-12-22 14:39:20 633393 image <![CDATA[STAR particles compared to U.S. penny]]> image/jpeg 1583760994 2020-03-09 13:36:34 1583936458 2020-03-11 14:20:58
<![CDATA[Georgia Tech Ph.D. Student Attempts to Qualify for US Olympic Marathon Team]]> 28058 Matt McDonald considered quitting running when he came to Georgia Tech in 2015. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to handle the stress of being a graduate student and racing at an Elite level. But that didn't last very long.

“I got sucked back into running pretty quickly,” McDonald told Runner’s World magazine. “I tried to just do it casually, but then I got sick of myself running poorly. I missed being fit.”

McDonald was an Ivy League champion in the 10,000 at Princeton University. While working on his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at Georgia Tech, McDonald started running with the Atlanta Track Club. Not only was he able to keep up his intense academic schedule, but he also started setting new personal records.

In November, McDonald finished the Chicago Marathon in 2:11:10, the fifth-fastest American finisher in the Elite race.

“Before the race, my coach told me, ‘You have nothing to lose here, Matt,’” McDonald said. “The plan was to go out with the group going 65-minute half marathon pace, then see if I could hang on. Around mile 20, we hit a headwind and the pace dropped, and I had to decide whether to stay with the group or move up.

He made that move.

“And I’m so glad I did,” he said.

He’s been able to juggle school and the rigorous training necessary to make it to this Olympic-qualifying pace.

His schedule begins with a 12-mile run at 6:15 a.m. every weekday. Afterward, he heads to Georgia Tech’s campus for meetings, running computer lab simulations, and studying the enzymatic synthesis of antibiotic drugs.

On days of doubled-up training sessions, he might start a lab experiment around 4 p.m., change into his running gear for a 6-mile run, and make it back in time to finish the experiment in the early evening.

“I tried to plan lab days for days that I didn’t have a hard workout, because I’m on my legs all day in the lab,” he said.

This year the Olympic trials are being held in Atlanta, and the timing couldn’t be better for McDonald, who has been training on the course. He says it’s a tough route with hills and 180-degree turns that will favor nimble runners.

Going into the race, he is the ninth-fastest runner in the field — a contender for one of three spots on the Olympic team.

Seeing where he stacks up, McDonald says his goals are shifting from just placing in the top of the pack.

“Originally I was aiming for the top 10,” he said. “But if I’m aiming for top 10, I might as well aim for top three.”

]]> Steven Norris 1 1582942600 2020-02-29 02:16:40 1582942950 2020-02-29 02:22:30 0 0 news Matt McDonald will attempt to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics while working on his doctorate in chemical engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology.

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2020-02-28T00:00:00-05:00 2020-02-28T00:00:00-05:00 2020-02-28 00:00:00 Steven Norris
Institute Communications

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633153 633152 633153 image <![CDATA[Matt McDonald: PhD Student and distance runner ]]> image/jpeg 1582942768 2020-02-29 02:19:28 1582942768 2020-02-29 02:19:28 633152 image <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Ph.D. Student Attempts to Qualify for US Olympic Marathon Team]]> image/jpeg 1582942695 2020-02-29 02:18:15 1582942695 2020-02-29 02:18:15
<![CDATA[Shriners Hospitals for Children and Georgia Tech Announce Research Affiliation ]]> 27303 You see and want the glass of milk on the table across the room. That’s no problem for most of us, who will simply walk to the table, grab the glass, and enjoy the milk. Triggering all of that limb movement is a complex set of coordinated neuromuscular commands and actions, which are not so simple for that segment of the population with, say, cerebral palsy or spinal cord injury.

To help young people struggling with those conditions – or orthopedic problems like clubfoot, scoliosis, and osteogenesis imperfecta, among other things – Shriners Hospitals for Children® and the Georgia Institute of Technology have launched an ambitious collaborative research effort to address these conditions, including the development of devices to facilitate limb movement and function.

The new research affiliation brings together the clinical, surgical, and scientific expertise of Shriners Hospitals for Children physicians and researchers with Georgia Tech’s cutting-edge expertise in biomedical engineering, robotics, and device development. The coordinated effort also will leverage the two organizations’ proficiency in big data and artificial intelligence tools for personalized medicine, according to Marc Lalande, Ph.D., vice president of research programs for Shriners Hospitals for Children.

“Our joint goals, through genetic and genomic data gathered by Shriners Hospitals for Children, are to improve patient therapeutic responses by optimizing individualized treatment regimens and reducing adverse events,” Lalande said.

Several joint projects already are underway.

Jaydev Desai, professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at Georgia Tech and Emory University, is working with Scott Kozin, M.D., chief of staff and hand surgeon at Shriners Hospitals for Children-Philadelphia, on a wearable customized robotic exoskeleton with voice recognition for children with cervical spine injury.

“This is a patient specific system for kids with spinal cord injury,” explained Desai, who is director of the Georgia Center for Medical Robotics and associate director of Georgia Tech’s Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines. “The system is designed to translate voice commands into actions, meaning the exoskeleton will conform to the proper shape and posture of the fingers, so to speak, depending on the task. The idea is to enhance the child’s ability to perform the activities of daily living.”

Kozin expects his patients with spinal cord injuries will benefit from Georgia Tech’s innovative pediatric prosthesis development – its utility, actuation, and dexterity. “Alternative pathways for the recovery of sensation will enhance their function and independence. We are excited about this new collaboration combining institutions with similar missions and visions devoted to improving the lives of children,” said Kozin, who also is collaborating with Georgia Tech’s Frank Hammond (assistant professor in BME and mechanical engineering) on wearable sensory transfer devices for patients with diminished peripheral sensation or amputations, improving their ability to use intuitively powered prostheses and orthoses. 

Additionally, Aaron Young, assistant professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech, is working with David Westberry, M.D., pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Shriners Hospitals for Children-Greenville, on a smart robotic exoskeleton designed to address excessive knee flexion (crouch gait), a condition common in patients with cerebral palsy. The condition can lead to permanent joint deformity if untreated, as well as reduced independence and locomotion capability.

“The device is basically a lightweight, wearable robot designed to assist physical therapists working on pediatric mobility – the idea is to essentially retrain the child’s neuroplasticity,” said Young, who is testing the device with Westberry at Shriners Hospitals for Children-Greenville in South Carolina. “The exciting thing about Shriners Hospitals for Children-Greenville is that it has an advanced motion analysis center where Shriners’ physicians and researchers are looking at not just the child’s gait, but also at the internal mechanics. It’s very rewarding to collaborate with the Shriners team – they are very quantitative in their approach to treatment.”

That quantitative approach includes the integration of biomedical informatics, data science, and artificial intelligence into the clinical research programs of the Shriners Hospitals for Children network of 14 pediatric motion analysis centers and the healthcare system’s newly launched Genomics Institute. As part of this process, researchers are collaborating with Dongmei Wang, BME professor at Georgia Tech, where she is director of the Biomedical Informatics and Bioimaging Lab.

“This collaboration is extremely important for us because not only have we committed to work on a major national need in youth health, but also because we have been planning to establish a pediatric big data center using advanced IT and AI,” said Wang, whose collaborators at Shriners Hospitals for Children include Gerald Harris (Motion Analysis, Shriners Hospitals for Children-Chicago) and Kamran Shazand (Shriners Hospitals for Children Genomics Institute, Tampa, Florida). 

“Our lab has piloted multiple pediatric projects,” Wang said. “But this project represents a quantum leap, taking our work to the next level, in a real-world pediatric care setting. Shriners Hospitals for Children is a perfect fit for us.”

Leanne West, Georgia Tech’s chief engineer of pediatric technologies, said she’s looking forward to “the unique research opportunities this relationship with Shriners Hospitals for Children will provide. It will be exciting to see what is possible for us to achieve together.”

About pediatric device research at Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech’s wide-ranging efforts in pediatric device development brings the institute’s engineers and scientists together with clinical experts and researchers to develop innovative technological solutions to problems in the health and care of children. The work provides opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration in pediatrics, creating breakthrough discoveries, enhancing the lives of children and young adults.

About Shriners Hospitals for Children 
Shriners Hospitals for Children is changing lives every day through innovative pediatric specialty care, world-class research, and outstanding medical education. Its healthcare system provides care for children with orthopedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate. All care and services are provided regardless of families’ ability to pay. Since opening its first location in 1922, the healthcare system has treated more than 1.4 million children. For more information, visit shrinershospitalsforchildren.org.

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).

Writer: Jerry Grillo

]]> John Toon 1 1582767846 2020-02-27 01:44:06 1582768027 2020-02-27 01:47:07 0 0 news You see and want the glass of milk on the table across the room. That’s no problem for most of us, who will simply walk to the table, grab the glass, and enjoy the milk. Triggering all of that limb movement is a complex set of coordinated neuromuscular commands and actions, which are not so simple for that segment of the population with, say, cerebral palsy or spinal cord injury.

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2020-02-26T00:00:00-05:00 2020-02-26T00:00:00-05:00 2020-02-26 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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633015 633016 633017 633015 image <![CDATA[Pediatric Knee Exoskeleton]]> image/jpeg 1582766700 2020-02-27 01:25:00 1582766700 2020-02-27 01:25:00 633016 image <![CDATA[Pediatric Knee Exoskeleton2]]> image/jpeg 1582766835 2020-02-27 01:27:15 1582766835 2020-02-27 01:27:15 633017 image <![CDATA[Researcher Aaron Young]]> image/jpeg 1582766961 2020-02-27 01:29:21 1582766961 2020-02-27 01:29:21
<![CDATA[Shimon: Now a Singing, Songwriting Robot]]> 27446 He has moves like Jagger (almost). And he’s coming to a music venue near you.

But he’s not like any performer you’ve ever seen. He’s not even human.

Shimon, the marimba-playing robot, has learned some new skills: He sings, he dances a little, he writes lyrics, he can even compose some melodies. Now he’s taking them on the road in a concert tour to support a new album — just like any other musician.

The new album will have eight to 10 songs Shimon wrote with his creator, Georgia Tech Professor Gil Weinberg. It will drop on Spotify later this spring.

“Shimon has been reborn as a singer-songwriter,” Weinberg said. “Now we collaborate between humans and robots to make songs together.”

[Listen to Shimon's first single, "Into Your Mind]

Weinberg will start with a theme — say, space — and Shimon will write lyrics around the theme. Weinberg puts them together and composes melodies to fit them. Shimon can also generate some melodies for Weinberg to use as he puts together a song. Then, with a band of human musicians, Shimon will play the songs and sing.

“I always wanted to write songs, but I just can’t write lyrics. I'm a jazz player,” Weinberg said. “This is the first time that I actually wrote a song, because I had inspiration: I had Shimon writing lyrics for me.”

Weinberg and his students have trained Shimon on datasets of 50,000 lyrics from jazz, prog rock, and hip-hop. Then Shimon uses deep learning, a class of machine learning algorithms, to generate his own words.

“There are lots of systems that use deep learning, but lyrics are different,” said Richard Savery, a third-year Ph.D. student who has been working with Shimon over the past year on his songwriting. “The way semantic meaning moves through lyrics is different. Also, rhyme and rhythm are obviously super important for lyrics, but that isn't as present in other text generators. So, we use deep learning to generate lyrics, but it's also combined with semantic knowledge.”

Savery offered this example of how it might work: “You'll get a word like ‘storm,’ and then it'll generate a whole bunch of related words, like ‘rain.’ It creates a loop of generating lots of material, deciding what's good, and then generating more based on that.”

When Shimon sings these songs, he really does sing, with a unique voice created by collaborators at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. They used machine learning to develop the voice and trained it on hundreds of songs.

Along with his new skills — all developed in Weinberg’s lab — Shimon has some new hardware, too, that changes how he plays and moves on stage. To be clear, he’s still mostly stationary, but he has a mouth, new eyebrows, and new head movements designed to help convey emotion and interact with his bandmates. He also has new “hands,” that have totally changed how he plays the marimba.

“Shimon plays much faster — about 25 to 30 hertz at the maximum — and also much more expressively, playing from a soft dynamic range to a strong dynamic range,” said Ph.D. student Ning Yang, who designed all-new motors and hardware for Shimon. “That also allows [Shimon] to do choreography during the music being played.”

For example, Shimon can count in at the beginning of songs to cue the band, and sometimes he’ll wave his mallets around in time to the music. New brushless DC motors mean he has a much greater range of motion and control of that motion. Yang accomplished that by bringing his engineering knowledge and musical background together to create human-inspired gestures.

“It's actually a very, very good example at Georgia Tech that we can actually combine tech and arts together to create something that's brand new,” Yang said.

He worked closely with fellow Ph.D. student Lisa Zahray, who created a new suite of gestures for the robot — including how he uses those new eyebrows.

“We have to think about his role at each time during the song and what he should be doing,” Zahray said. “We also want to make sure he's interacting with the other musicians around him to give that feel that he's performing with people.”

That partnership with people is key for Weinberg. Teaching Shimon new skills isn’t about replacing musicians, he said.

“We will need musicians, and there will be more musicians that will be able to do more and new music because robots will help them, will generate ideas, will help them broaden the way they think about music and play music,” Weinberg said.

Shimon, Weinberg, and the entire band are building a touring schedule now with the goal of taking their unique blend of robot- and human-created music to more people. Weinberg said he hopes those shows will prove to be more than a novelty act.

“I think we have reached a level where I expect the audience to just enjoy the music for music’s sake,” Weinberg said. “This is music that humans, by themselves, wouldn't have written. I want the audience to think, ‘There's something unique about this song, and I want to go back and listen to it, even if I don't look at the robot.’”

Shimon was originally developed with support from the National Science Foundation Cyber-Human Systems program, grants No. 0713269, and 1017169.

]]> Joshua Stewart 1 1582648899 2020-02-25 16:41:39 1587672190 2020-04-23 20:03:10 0 0 news The marimba-playing robot Shimon uses deep learning to compose lyrics and melodies with human collaborators and a synthesized voice to sing.

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2020-02-25T00:00:00-05:00 2020-02-25T00:00:00-05:00 2020-02-25 00:00:00 Joshua Stewart

404.894.6016

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632942 632943 632942 image <![CDATA[Shimon Singing]]> image/jpeg 1582660168 2020-02-25 19:49:28 1582660168 2020-02-25 19:49:28 632943 image <![CDATA[Shimon and the Band]]> image/jpeg 1582660267 2020-02-25 19:51:07 1582660267 2020-02-25 19:51:07 <![CDATA["Into Your Mind" - Shimon's first single]]> <![CDATA[Gil Weinberg]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology]]> <![CDATA[Connect with Shimon]]> <![CDATA[Freethink Raps with Shimon]]>
<![CDATA[The Human Brain’s Meticulous Interface with the Bloodstream now on a Precision Chip]]> 31759 A scrupulous gatekeeper stands between the brain and its circulatory system to let in the good and keep out the bad, but this porter, called the blood-brain barrier, also blocks trial drugs to treat diseases like Alzheimer’s or cancer from getting into the brain.

Now a team led by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology has engineered a way of studying the barrier more closely with the intent of helping drug developers do the same. In a new study, the researchers cultured the human blood-brain barrier on a chip, recreating its physiology more realistically than predecessor chips.

The new chip devised a healthy environment for the barrier’s central component, a brain cell called the astrocyte, which is not a neuron, but which acts as neurons’ intercessors with the circulatory system. Astrocytes interface in human brains with cells in the vasculature called endothelial cells to collaborate with them as the blood-brain barrier.

But astrocytes are a particularly fussy partner, which makes them a great part of the gatekeeper system but also challenging to culture in a physiologically accurate manner. The new chip catered to astrocytes’ sensibilities by culturing in 3D instead of in a flat manner, or 2D.

The 3D space allowed astrocytes to act more naturally, and this improved the whole barrier model by also allowing cultured endothelial cells to function better. The new chip presented researchers with more healthy blood-brain barrier functions to observe than in previous barrier models.

‘Astro’ in astrocyte

“You need to be able to closely mimic a tissue on a chip in a healthy status and in homeostasis. If we can’t model the healthy state, we can’t really model disease either, because we have no accurate control to measure it against,” said YongTae Kim, an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the study’s principal investigator.

In the new chip, the astrocytes even looked more natural in the 3D space, unfolding the star-like shape that gives them their “astro” name. In the 2D cultures, by contrast, astrocytes looked like fried eggs with fringes. With this 3D setting, the chip has added possibilities for reliable research of the human blood-brain barrier, where currently alternatives are few.

“No animal model comes close enough to the intricate function of the human blood-brain barrier. And we need better human models because experimental drugs that have successfully entered animal brains have failed at the human barrier,” Kim said.

The team published its results on January 10, 2020, in the journal Nature Communications. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health. Kim has founded a company with plans to mass-produce the new chip in the future for use in academic and potentially pharmaceutical research.

[Ready for graduate school? Here's how to apply to Georgia Tech.

Choosy, bossy astrocytes

The brain is the only part of the body outfitted with astrocytes, which regulate nourishment uptake and waste removal in their own, unique way.

“Upon the brain’s request, astrocytes collaborate with the vasculature in real-time what the brain needs and opens its gates to let in only that bit of water and nutrients. Astrocytes go to get just what the brain needs and don’t let much else in,” Kim said.

Astrocytes form a protein structure called aquaporin-4 in their membranes that are in contact with vasculature to let in and out water molecules, which also contributes to clearing waste from the brain.

“In previous chips, aquaporin-4 expression was not observed. This chip was the first,” Kim said. “This could be important in researching Alzheimer’s disease because aquaporin-4 is important to clearing broken-down junk protein out of the brain.”

One of the study’s co-authors, Dr. Allan Levey from Emory University, a highly cited researcher in neurological medicine, is interested in the chip’s potential in tackling Alzheimer’s. Another, Dr. Tobey McDonald, also of Emory, researches pediatric brain cancer and is interested in the chip’s possibilities in studying the delivery of potential brain cancer treatments.

Barrier acting healthy

Astrocytes also gave signs that they were healthier in the chip’s 3D cultures than in 2D cultures by expressing less of a gene triggered by pathology.

“Astrocytes in 2D culture expressed significantly higher levels of LCN2 than those in 3D. When we cultured in 3D, it was only about one fourth as much,” Kim said.

The healthier state also made astrocytes better able to show an immune reaction.

“When we purposely confronted the astrocyte with pathological stress in a 3D culture, we got a clearer reaction. In 2D, the ground state was already less healthy, and then the reaction to pathological stresses did not come across so clearly. This difference could make the 3D culture very interesting for pathology studies.”

Nanoparticle delivery

In testing related to drug delivery, nanoparticles moved through the blood-brain-barrier after engaging endothelial cell receptors, which caused these cells to engulf the particles then transport them to what would be inside the human brain in a natural setting. This is part of how endothelial cells worked better when connected to astrocytes cultured in 3D.

“When we inhibited the receptor, the majority of nanoparticles wouldn’t make it in. That kind of test would not work in animal models because of cross-species inaccuracies between animals and humans,” Kim said. “This was an example of how this new chip can let you study the human blood-brain barrier for potential drug delivery the way you can’t in animal models.”

Also Read: Flickering Light Mobilizes Brain Chemistry That May Fight Alzheimer’s

These researchers also coauthored the study: Song Ih Ahn, Yoshitaka Sei, Hyun-Ji Park, Jinhwan Kim, Yujung Ryu, and Jeongmoon Choi, and Hak-Joon Sung of Georgia Tech. The research was funded by National Institutes of Health’s Director’s New Innovator Award (1DP2HL142050), the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (grant R21NS091682), and the National Institutes on Aging (grant R21AG056781). Tony Kim is also affiliated with Georgia Tech’s Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory, Georgia Tech’s Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, and Georgia Tech’s Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology. Any findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and not necessarily of the National Institutes of Health.

Writer & Media Representative: Ben Brumfield (404-272-2780), email: ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu

Georgia Institute of Technology

]]> Ben Brumfield 1 1581355898 2020-02-10 17:31:38 1582114108 2020-02-19 12:08:28 0 0 news It can be the bain of brain drug developers: The interface between the human brain and the bloodstream, the blood-brain-barrier, is so meticulous that animal models often fail to represent it. This improved chip represents important features more accurately.

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2020-02-10T00:00:00-05:00 2020-02-10T00:00:00-05:00 2020-02-10 00:00:00 632250 632251 632252 596965 632250 image <![CDATA[Blood-brain barrier on a chip]]> image/jpeg 1581354402 2020-02-10 17:06:42 1581354402 2020-02-10 17:06:42 632251 image <![CDATA[Blood-brain barrier on a chip illustration]]> image/jpeg 1581354551 2020-02-10 17:09:11 1581354551 2020-02-10 17:09:11 632252 image <![CDATA[Blood-brain barrier illustration in natural setting]]> image/jpeg 1581354910 2020-02-10 17:15:10 1581354910 2020-02-10 17:15:10 596965 image <![CDATA[YongTae Kim holds up microfluidic chip]]> image/jpeg 1507148501 2017-10-04 20:21:41 1581356402 2020-02-10 17:40:02
<![CDATA[Four Georgia Tech Faculty Elected to National Academy of Engineering]]> 27303 Four Georgia Institute of Technology faculty members have been elected as new members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Marilyn Brown, Thomas Kurfess, Susan Margulies, and Alexander Shapiro join 83 other new NAE members for 2020 when they are formally inducted during a ceremony at the academy’s annual meeting on Oct. 4 in Washington, D.C.

Election of new NAE members, the culmination of a yearlong process, recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature" and to "the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."  

“It’s the honor of a lifetime to be recognized by the National Academy of Engineering for the impact we’ve have on understanding lung injuries in the critical care unit and traumatic brain injuries in children,” said Margulies, chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University and, with Brown, one of just three women on the Georgia Tech faculty accorded NAE membership – one of the highest professional distinctions an engineer can receive.

“Our work is deeply collaborative, and I am grateful to the engineers, scientists, physicians, and patients who are partners in our journey,” Margulies added.

Margulies, a researcher in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Tech and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Injury Biomechanics at Emory, was elected, “for elaborating the traumatic injury thresholds of brain and lung in terms of structure-function mechanisms,” according to the NAE announcement.

Using an integrated biomechanics approach, Margulies’ research program spans the micro-to-macro scales in two distinct areas, traumatic brain injury and ventilator-induced lung injury. Her work has generated new knowledge about the structural and functional responses of the brain and lungs to their mechanical environment. Margulies came to Georgia Tech in 2017 from the University of Pennsylvania, where she’d been a professor of bioengineering, and had earned her Master of Science in Engineering and Ph.D. in Bioengineering.

Brown, a Regents and Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems in the School of Public Policy, was co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 (for co-authorship of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group III Assessment Report on Mitigation of Climate Change, Chapter 6). 

She joined Georgia Tech in 2006 after a career at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she led several national climate change mitigation studies and became a leader in the analysis and interpretation of energy futures in the United States. Her research at Tech focuses on the design and impact of policies aimed at accelerating the development and deployment of sustainable energy technologies, emphasizing the electric utility industry. She was elected to NAE “for bridging engineering, social and behavioral sciences, and policy studies to achieve cleaner electric energy.” 
 
Brown, who earned her Ph.D. at the Ohio State University, co-founded and chaired the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance, served two terms as a presidential appointee on the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority – the nation’s largest public power provider – and also served two terms on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Electricity Advisory Committee, where she led the Smart Grid Subcommittee. 

“The most rewarding feature of my career has been working toward solutions with colleagues across disciplines,” Brown said.

Shapiro is the Russell Chandler III Chair and professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, where his research is focused on stochastic programming, risk analysis, simulation-based optimization, and multivariate statistical analysis.

In 2013, he was awarded the INFORMS Khachiyan Prize for lifetime achievements in optimization. He received the 2018 Dantzig Prize from the Mathematical Optimization Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Since earning his Ph.D. in applied mathematics-statistics from Israel’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in 1981, Shapiro has made substantial contributions to the fields of optimization and large-scale, stochastic programming, and he was elected to NAE “for contributions to the theory, computation, and application of stochastic programming.” 

Kurfess is professor and HUSCO/Ramirez Distinguished Chair in Fluid Power and Motion Control in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, where he has helped guide the evolution of technology as a pioneer in the digital transformation of manufacturing. 

Improving manufacturing technology is a pursuit that has roots in his childhood. “I grew up in my father’s machine shop,” said Kurfess, who has a special fondness for mom-and-pop operations. He was elected by the NAE “for development and implementation of innovative digital manufacturing technologies and system architectures.”

“I’m proud that the work we do has a positive impact on small and medium-sized enterprises, which are about 99% of the manufacturing operations, as well as large operations,” said Kurfess, who earned all of his degrees at MIT. “Our work targets people who are implementing the digital thread in manufacturing, and what the digital thread will do is make sure those smaller enterprises, those mom and pops, can have access to the latest and greatest technologies.”

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]]> John Toon 1 1581386566 2020-02-11 02:02:46 1590514753 2020-05-26 17:39:13 0 0 news Four Georgia Institute of Technology faculty members have been elected as new members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Marilyn Brown, Thomas Kurfess, Susan Margulies, and Alexander Shapiro join 83 other new NAE members for 2020 when they are formally inducted during a ceremony at the academy’s annual meeting on Oct. 4 in Washington, D.C.

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2020-02-10T00:00:00-05:00 2020-02-10T00:00:00-05:00 2020-02-10 00:00:00 John Toon

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(404) 894-6986

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635587 635587 image <![CDATA[2020 National Academy of Engineering Inductees]]> image/jpeg 1590163303 2020-05-22 16:01:43 1590163303 2020-05-22 16:01:43
<![CDATA[Flickering Light Mobilizes Brain Chemistry That May Fight Alzheimer’s]]> 31759 For over a century, Alzheimer’s disease has confounded all attempts to treat it. But in recent years, perplexing experiments using flickering light have shown promise.

Now, researchers have tapped into how the flicker may work. They discovered in the lab that the exposure to light pulsing at 40 hertz – 40 beats per second – causes brains to release a surge of signaling chemicals that may help fight the disease.

Though conducted on healthy mice, this new study is directly connected to human trials, in which Alzheimer’s patients are exposed to 40 Hz light and sound. Insights gained in mice at the Georgia Institute of Technology are informing the human trials in collaboration with Emory University.

“I’ll be running samples from mice in the lab, and around the same time, a colleague will be doing a strikingly similar analysis on patient fluid samples,” said Kristie Garza, the study’s first author. Garza is a graduate research assistant in the lab of Annabelle Singer at Georgia Tech and also a member of Emory’s neuroscience program.

One of the surging signaling molecules in the new study on mice is strongly associated with the activation of brain immune cells called microglia, which purge an Alzheimer’s hallmark – amyloid beta plaque, junk protein that accumulates between brain cells.

Immune signaling

In 2016, researchers discovered that light flickering at 40 Hz mobilized microglia in mice afflicted with Alzheimer’s to clean up that junk.  The new study looked for brain chemistry that connects the flicker with microglial and other immune activation in mice and exposed a surge of 20 cytokines – small proteins secreted externally by cells and which signal to other cells. Accompanying the cytokine release, internal cell chemistry – the activation of proteins by phosphate groups – left behind a strong calling card.

“The phosphoproteins showed up first. It looked as though they were leading, and our hypothesis is that they triggered the release of the cytokines,” said Singer, who co-led the new study and is an assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory.

“Beyond cytokines that may be signaling to microglia, a number of factors that we identified have the potential to support neural health,” said Levi Wood, who co-led the study with Singer and is an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

The team published its findings in the Journal of Neuroscience on February 5, 2020. The research was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health, and by the Packard Foundation.

Singer was co-first author on the original 2016 study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in which the therapeutic effects of 40 Hz were first discovered in mice.

Sci-fi surrealness

Alzheimer’s strikes, with few exceptions, late in life. It destroys up to 30% of a brain’s mass, carving out ravines and depositing piles of amyloid plaque, which builds up outside of neurons. Inside neurons, phosphorylated tau protein forms similar junk known as neurofibrillary tangles suspected of destroying mental functions and neurons. 

After many decades of failed Alzheimer’s drug trials costing billions, flickering light as a potentially successful Alzheimer’s therapy seems surreal even to the researchers.

“Sometimes it does feel like science fiction,” Singer said.

The 40 Hz frequency stems from the observation that brains of Alzheimer’s patients suffer early on from a lack of what is called gamma, moments of gentle, constant brain waves acting like a dance beat for neuron activity. Its most common frequency is right around 40 Hz, and exposing mice to light flickering at that frequency restored gamma and also appears to have prevented heavy Alzheimer’s brain damage.

Adding to the surrealness, gamma has also been associated with esoteric mind expansion practices, in which practitioners perform light and sound meditation. Then, in 2016, research connected gamma to working memory, a function key to train of thought.

Cytokine bonanza

In the current study, the surging cytokines hinted at a connection with microglial activity, and in particular, the cytokine Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor (M-CSF).

“M-CSF was the thing that yelled, ‘Microglia activation!’” Singer said.

The researchers will look for a causal connection to microglia activation in an upcoming study, but the overall surge of cytokines was a good sign in general, they said.

“The vast majority of cytokines went up, some anti-inflammatory and some inflammatory, and it was a transient response,” Wood said. “Often, a transient inflammatory response can promote pathogen clearance; it can promote repair.”

“Generally, you think of an inflammatory response as being bad if it’s chronic, and this was rapid and then dropped off, so we think that was probably beneficial,” Singer added.

Chemical timing

The 40 Hz stimulation did not need long to trigger the cytokine surge.

“We found an increase in cytokines after an hour of stimulation,” Garza said. “We saw phosphoprotein signals after about 15 minutes of flickering.”

Perhaps about 15 minutes was enough to start processes inside of cells and about 45 more minutes were needed for the cells to secrete cytokines. It is too early to know.

20 Hz bombshell

As controls, the researchers applied three additional light stimuli, and to their astonishment, all three had some effect on cytokines. But stimulating with 20 Hz stole the show.

“At 20 Hz, cytokine levels were way down. That could be useful, too. There may be circumstances where you want to suppress cytokines,” Singer said. “We’re thinking different kinds of stimulation could potentially become a platform of tools in a variety of contexts like Parkinson’s or schizophrenia. Many neurological disorders are associated with immune response.”

The research team warns against people improvising light therapies on their own, since more data is needed to thoroughly establish effects on humans, and getting frequencies wrong could possibly even do damage.

Also read:  A family coping with Alzheimer’s leads you through our fight against it 

Also read: Why Alzheimer’s research probably needs to shift focus 

Lu Zhang and Ben Borron from the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University co-authored the study. The research was funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health (grants NIH R01-NS109226 and R01-NS109226-01S1), by the Packard Foundation, the Friends and Alumni of Georgia Tech, and by the Lane family. Any findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and not necessarily of the sponsors.

Writer & Media Representative: Ben Brumfield (404-272-2780), email: ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu

Georgia Institute of Technology

 

]]> Ben Brumfield 1 1580746082 2020-02-03 16:08:02 1581021372 2020-02-06 20:36:12 0 0 news The hope of flickering light and sound to treat Alzheimer's takes another step forward in this new study, which reveals stark biochemical mechanisms: 40 Hertz stimulation triggers a marked release of signaling chemicals - cytokines.

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2020-02-03T00:00:00-05:00 2020-02-03T00:00:00-05:00 2020-02-03 00:00:00 632025 632027 632028 632026 632025 image <![CDATA[Experimental Alzheimer's treatment visor and sound]]> image/jpeg 1580745156 2020-02-03 15:52:36 1580745156 2020-02-03 15:52:36 632027 image <![CDATA[Flickering light strip for Alzheimer's studies on mice]]> image/jpeg 1580745499 2020-02-03 15:58:19 1580745499 2020-02-03 15:58:19 632028 image <![CDATA[Alzheimer's 40 Hertz flicker researchers]]> image/jpeg 1580745655 2020-02-03 16:00:55 1580746597 2020-02-03 16:16:37 632026 image <![CDATA[Annabelle Singer with experimental Alzheimer's treatment visor]]> image/jpeg 1580745355 2020-02-03 15:55:55 1580745355 2020-02-03 15:55:55
<![CDATA[New Discovery About Cathepsins May Improve Drug Research]]> 27513 Like motley bandits, certain enzymes implicated in cancer and other diseases also annihilate each other. A new study reveals details of their mutual foils in the hopes that these behaviors can be leveraged to fight the enzymes' disease potential.

The bandits are cathepsins, enzymes that normally dispose of unneeded protein in our cells. But in unhealthy scenarios, cathepsins can promote illnesses like cancer, atherosclerosis, and sickle cell disease. Many experimental drugs that inhibit them, while effective, have failed due to side effects that could not be well explained, so researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology abandoned the common focus on single cathepsins to model three key cathepsins as a system.

The researchers found that the cathepsins, denoted by the letters K, L, and S, not only degrade extracellular structures - proteins outside of cells that support cells - but also cannibalize, distract, and deactivate each other. Cathepsins are proteases, enzymes that degrade proteins, and since the cathepsins are themselves proteins, they can degrade each other, too.

Cathepsin Three Stooges

"Auto-digestion is my personal favorite. Think about it: You take a group of cathepsin Ks, and they eat each other. Why? Because they're just closer to each other than to what they would otherwise eat," said the study's principal investigator Manu Platt, an associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

In disease, cathepsins appear to be like The Three Stooges in a porcelain shop, tearing the shop down while they torment each other. As a result, early on, when the Georgia Tech researchers tried to influence a single cathepsin in the group, outcomes were puzzling, and the researchers felt they might be onto something relevant to past mysterious drug failures.

Through lab experiments and mathematical calculations, they arrived at a computational model that showed how single influences ripple through the system. They published the model as a tool online that other researchers can use to jigger the three cathepsins in group settings, their levels of available targets, and inhibitor chemicals. The tool contrasts cathepsin bungling with cathepsin effectiveness.

The researchers publish their research results in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the week of January 20, 2020. The research, which took a systems biology approach, was funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

Q&A

How do cathepsins go wrong?

The three cathepsins in this study are best known for their activity in cell organelles called lysosomes under healthy conditions, where they work like molecular woodchippers to cut protein down to amino acids.

"They also serve functions in specific cell types, such as cathepsin S helping the immune system to recognize what to attack and what not to," Platt said.

"Problems happen when cathepsins get overexpressed and end up in the wrong places. They're crazy powerful and degrade the structural proteins elastin and collagen that make up arteries, tendons, the endometrium, and many tissue structures."

"In healthy settings, cathepsin K breaks down old bone to recycle calcium. But when breast cancer comes, those cancerous cells make cathepsin K to destroy collagen around the tumor. And that allows the cells to escape and metastasize to the bone," Platt said.

How is this research relevant to drug development?

"I study cathepsins in illnesses like tendinopathy, endometriosis, atherosclerosis, cancer, and sickle cell disease," Platt said. "So, having a drug on the market to handle cathepsins would be a big deal."

"Many cathepsin inhibitor drugs that have failed clinical trials were very finely targeted but caused big side effects, and some of those cathepsin inhibitor drugs did not even cross-react with other cathepsins they were not targeting - which is usually a good thing - so the cause of the side effects was a mystery," Platt said. "By modeling a system of cathepsins, we think we have a good start toward uncovering that mystery."

"If we don't know how these cathepsins are working with and against each other in complex systems, similar to how they exist in our bodies, then we are going to have a hard time getting anything into the medicine cabinet to inhibit them."

The study floats ideas on new approaches to drug research. For example, cathepsin S could be strategically boosted in situations where it is not the culprit to break down cathepsins K and L.

What can other researchers expect from the online model?

"They can set up their own experiments and make predictions, including what inhibitors will do, so they can test inhibitors at varying strengths in this system," Platt said. "They can ask questions that they can't answer yet experimentally then test the model's predictions in the lab."

The model processes varying inputs into resulting changes in cathepsin levels and outcomes of degradation and indicates whether they have been deactivated or demolished. Scenarios can be exported as a report and a data spreadsheet.

###

These researchers coauthored the study: Meghan Ferrall-Fairbanks, a former graduate research assistant in Platt's lab; and Chris Kieslich, a former research engineer in Platt's lab. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation through the Science and Technology Center Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems (EBICS) (Grant CBET-576 0939511) and New Innovator Grant (1DP2OD007433-01) from the Office the Director, National Institutes of Health. Any findings, conclusions, or recommendations are those of the authors and not necessarily of the sponsors.

 

 

Media Contact

Ben Brumfield
ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu
404-272-2780

]]> Walter Rich 1 1579618207 2020-01-21 14:50:07 1579618368 2020-01-21 14:52:48 0 0 news 2020-01-21T00:00:00-05:00 2020-01-21T00:00:00-05:00 2020-01-21 00:00:00 Walter Rich

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631357 631361 631357 image <![CDATA[Cathepsins eat away at collagen and elastin in Manu Platt's Georgia Tech lab.]]> image/jpeg 1579617373 2020-01-21 14:36:13 1579617373 2020-01-21 14:36:13 631361 image <![CDATA[Manu Platt stands outside his lab at Georgia Tech.]]> image/jpeg 1579618284 2020-01-21 14:51:24 1579618284 2020-01-21 14:51:24
<![CDATA[Scientists Transform Barbecue Lighter Into a High-Tech Lab Device]]> 27303 Researchers have devised a straightforward technique for building a laboratory device known as an electroporator – which applies a jolt of electricity to temporarily open cell walls – from inexpensive components, including a piezoelectric crystal taken from a butane lighter. 

Plans for the device, known as the ElectroPen, are being made available, along with the files necessary for creating a 3D-printed casing. 

“Our goal with the ElectroPen was to make it possible for high schools, budget-conscious laboratories, and even those working in remote locations without access to electricity to perform experiments or processes involving electroporation,” said M. Saad Bhamla, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. “This is another example of looking for ways to bypass economic limitations to advance scientific research by putting this capability into the hands of many more scientists and aspiring scientists.”

In a study reported January 10 in the journal PLOS Biology and sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, the researchers detail the method for constructing the ElectroPen, which is capable of generating short bursts of more than 2,000 volts needed for a wide range of laboratory tasks.

One of the primary jobs of a cell membrane is to serve as a protective border, sheltering the inner workings of a living cell from the outside environment.

But all it takes is a brief jolt of electricity for that membrane to temporarily open and allow foreign molecules to flow in — a process called electroporation, which has been used for decades in molecular biology labs for tasks ranging from bacterial detection to genetic engineering. 

Despite how commonplace the practice has become, the high cost of electroporators and their reliance on a source of electricity have kept the technique mostly within the confines of academic or professional labs. Bhamla and undergraduate student Gaurav Byagathvalli set out to change that, with help from collaborators Soham Sinha, Yan Zhang, Assistant Professor Mark Styczynski, and Lambert High School teacher Janet Standeven.

"Once we decided to tackle this issue, we began to explore the inner workings of electroporators to understand why they are so bulky and expensive,” said Byagathvalli. “Since their conception in the early 1980s, electroporators have not had significant changes in design, sparking the question of whether we could achieve the same output at a fraction of the cost. When we identified a lighter that could produce these high voltages through piezoelectricity, we were excited to uncover new mysteries behind this common tool."

In addition to the piezoelectric lighter crystal – which generates current when pressure is applied to it – the other parts in the device include copper-plated wire, heat-shrinking wire insulator, and aluminum tape. To hold it all together, the researchers designed a 3D-printed casing that also serves as its activator. With all the parts on hand, the device can be assembled in 15 minutes, the researchers reported.

While the ElectroPen is not designed to replace a lab-grade electroporator, which costs thousands of dollars and is capable of processing a broad range of cell mixtures, the device is still highly capable of performing tasks when high volumes are not required.

The researchers tested several different lighter crystals to find ones that produced a consistent voltage using a spring-based mechanism. To understand more about how the lighters function, the team used a high-speed camera at 1,057 frames per second to view device mechanics in slow motion.

“One of the fundamental reasons this device works is that the piezoelectric crystal produces a consistently high voltage, independent of the amount of force applied by the user,” Bhamla said. “Our experiments showed that the hammer in these lighters is able to achieve acceleration of 3,000 G’s, which explains why it is capable of generating such a high burst of voltage.”

To test its capabilities, the researchers used the device on samples of E. coli to add a chemical that makes the bacterial cells fluorescent under special lights, illuminating the cell parts and making them easier to identify. Similar techniques could be used in a lab or in remote field operations to detect the presence of bacteria or other cells.

The team also evaluated whether the device was easy to use, shipping the assembled ElectroPens to students at other universities and high schools. 

“The research teams were able to successfully obtain the same fluorescence expression, which I think validates how easily these devices can be disseminated and adopted by students across the globe,” Bhamla said.

To that end, the researchers have made available the plans for how to build the device, along with digital files to be used by a 3D printer to fabricate the casing and actuator. Next steps of the research include testing a broader range of lighters looking for consistent voltages across a wider range, with the goal of creating ElectroPens of varying voltages. 

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant No. 1817334, the Mindlin Foundation under grant No. MF19-1T1P03, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under grant No. R01-EB022592. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring organizations.

CITATION: Gaurav Byagathvalli, Soham Sinha, Yan Zhang, Mark P. Styczynski, Janet Standeven, and M. Saad Bhamla, “ElectroPen: An ultralow-cost electricity-free, portable electroporator.” (PLOS Biology, January 2020) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3000589

Research News
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Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu)

Writer: Josh Brown

]]> John Toon 1 1578766022 2020-01-11 18:07:02 1579016913 2020-01-14 15:48:33 0 0 news Researchers have devised a straightforward technique for building a laboratory device known as an electroporator – which applies a jolt of electricity to temporarily open cell walls – from inexpensive components, including a piezoelectric crystal taken from a butane lighter. 

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2020-01-11T00:00:00-05:00 2020-01-11T00:00:00-05:00 2020-01-11 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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630925 630927 630926 630925 image <![CDATA[Researchers show ElectroPen examples]]> image/jpeg 1578765235 2020-01-11 17:53:55 1578765235 2020-01-11 17:53:55 630927 image <![CDATA[Researchers with Lighters used for ElectroPens]]> image/jpeg 1578765548 2020-01-11 17:59:08 1578765548 2020-01-11 17:59:08 630926 image <![CDATA[Lighters used to create ElectroPens]]> image/jpeg 1578765380 2020-01-11 17:56:20 1578765414 2020-01-11 17:56:54
<![CDATA[Origin of Life’s Handedness and Protein Biochemistry]]> 30678 By A. Maureen Rouhi

Examine your hands. The right is a mirror image of the left. They look very similar, but you know they’re not when you try to put your left hand inside a right glove.

The molecules of life have a similar handedness. Proteins for example are like your left hand, made up of amino acids that are all left-handed. This phenomenon is called chirality. How chiral systems emerged is one of the key questions of origins-of-life research.

Many explanations have been proposed. Now a Georgia Tech team examining the problem suggests that stability is what drove the emergence of chiral systems. Led by Jeffrey Skolnick, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences, the team includes  research scientists Hongyi Zhou and Mu Gao. The work was supported in part by the Division of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH Grant R35-118039) and published on Dec. 10, 2019, in PNAS.

They reached their conclusion from computer simulations examining the stability and properties of a prepared protein library made up of  

Their simulations showed that nonchiral proteins, even the demi-chiral ones, have many properties of chiral proteins. They fold and form cavities just like ordinary proteins. They could have performed many of the biochemical functions of ordinary proteins, especially the most ancient and essential ones. These nonchiral proteins also can adopt the structures of contemporary proteins including ribosomal proteins, necessary for protein transcription.

“This ability of nonchiral proteins to fold and function might have been an essential prerequisite for the life on Earth,” says Eugene Koonin, a senior investigator at the National Center for Biotechnology Information, in the National Institutes of Health. “If so, this result is a truly fundamental finding that contributes to our understanding of the origins of life.”

However, nonchiral proteins have fewer hydrogen bonds than those made of all D or all L amino acids. The demi-chiral ones have the fewest. Thus chiral proteins are much more stable than demi-chiral ones. “The biochemistry of life as we know it likely results from stability driven by hydrogen bonds,” says Skolnick, who is a member of the Parker H. Petit Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience.

The PNAS study examines the properties of proteins from the point of view of physics alone, without the intervention of evolution, Skolnick says. “It explains how the chemistry of life emerged from basic physical principles. It also strongly suggests that simple life might be quite ubiquitous throughout the universe.”

“I wish to understand how life emerged and to know its design principles,” Skolnick says. “On the most academic level, I wish to explain the origin of life based on physics with well-defined testable ideas.”

The newly published “work offers a non-intelligent-design perspective as to how the biochemistry of life might have gotten started,” Skolnick says. “It shifts the emphasis from evolution to the inherent physical properties of proteins. It removes that chicken-and-egg quandary that chiral RNA is required to produce chiral proteins. Rather, such excess chirality is shown to emerge naturally from a nonchiral system.”

What the work does not address is why L-amino acids and L-proteins emerged dominant on Earth. It is know that some meteorites have an excess of L-amino acids. “If one assumes that many primordial amino acids were seeded by meteorites, many of them have an excess of L over D amino acids,” Skolnick says. “All it would take is just a little bias to get the whole process started.”

Skolnick says the next step is to test the computer simulations by studying the emergent chemistry of nonchiral proteins.  A key unanswered question is how did replication emerge? “We can explain life’s biochemistry and many of the parts associated with replication from this study, but not replication itself,” he says. “If we can do this, then we have all of life’s components. If this works, ultimately I want to recreate what could be the early living systems in a test tube.” 

]]> A. Maureen Rouhi 1 1576002546 2019-12-10 18:29:06 1576005749 2019-12-10 19:22:29 0 0 news How chiral systems emerged is one of the key questions of origins-of-life research. Many explanations have been proposed. Now a Georgia Tech team examining the problem suggests that stability is what drove the emergence of chiral systems.

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2019-12-11T00:00:00-05:00 2019-12-11T00:00:00-05:00 2019-12-11 00:00:00 communications@cos.gatech.edu

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629890 629889 629890 image <![CDATA[(From left) Hongyi Zhou, Jeffrey Skolnick, and Mu Gao (Courtesy of Jeff Skolnick)]]> image/jpeg 1576002025 2019-12-10 18:20:25 1576002025 2019-12-10 18:20:25 629889 image <![CDATA[Chiral proteins (left and middle) form many more hydrogen bonds than a demi-chiral protein (right). (Courtesy of Jeff Skolnick)]]> image/jpeg 1576001805 2019-12-10 18:16:45 1576001805 2019-12-10 18:16:45 <![CDATA[Extraterrestrial Life May Be Ubiquitous, Georgia Tech Research Suggests]]>
<![CDATA[Aaron Levine Elected to Board of American Society of Bioethics and Humanities]]> 27167 Aaron Levine, associate professor in the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy was recently elected to the board of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH). During a three-year term, Levine is serving as a director at-large.

ASBH is the primary academic organization in the U.S. for scholars and practitioners working in clinical ethics, research ethics, and the health humanities. It aims to promote the exchange of ideas and foster multi-disciplinary, inter-disciplinary, and inter-professional scholarship in these fields.

Levine said that the ASBH role connects his teaching on biomedical ethics at both the undergraduate and graduate level with his research on ethical and policy issues associated with emerging biomedical technologies and health care.

"This is an excellent opportunity to raise the profile of Georgia Tech Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and in this area,” he said.

The School of Public Policy is a unit for Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts. 

]]> Rebecca Keane 1 1574803985 2019-11-26 21:33:05 1574803985 2019-11-26 21:33:05 0 0 news Aaron Levine, associate professor in the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy was recently elected to the board of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH). During a three-year term, Levine is serving as a director at-large.

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2019-11-26T00:00:00-05:00 2019-11-26T00:00:00-05:00 2019-11-26 00:00:00 Rebecca Keane
Director of Communications
rebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu
404.894.1720

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583582 583582 image <![CDATA[Aaron Levine]]> image/jpeg 1478540612 2016-11-07 17:43:32 1567618808 2019-09-04 17:40:08
<![CDATA[Metagenomics Unlocks Unknowns of Diarrheal Disease Cases in Children]]> 27303 Using advanced metagenomics techniques, researchers have found that conventional culture-based lab tests may misdiagnose as many as half of the microbial causes of diarrheal diseases in children. The study, based on samples from Ecuadorian children, also found that a common strain of the E. coli bacterium may be more virulent than previously believed.

The research, which used multiple lines of evidence to determine the microbe causing changes in the gut microbiome during a diarrheal episode, may be significant for applying new diagnostic technologies that could enable personalized medical treatments of intestinal diseases.

The project, led by researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Emory Rollins School of Public Health, and Universidad San Francisco de Quito, is part of a study funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) that integrates epidemiological, molecular, and metagenomic data to understand how enteric (food and waterborne) pathogens and the gut microbiome vary across an urban-rural gradient in Ecuador. Frequent illness can affect the growth and development of children during their critical early years.

“We wanted to understand where the illnesses are coming from and what the consequences are for the development of the children,” said Kostas Konstantinidis, a professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech. “Knowing more about the causative agent may allow us to prevent infections. This would be relevant not just for the developing world, but for children everywhere.”

The findings were reported Oct. 4 in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. The research team also included researchers from the Universidad Central del Ecuador.

Information the study provided on the likely causative agent of enteric diseases raises questions about long-held definitions of pathogenic agents, said Karen Levy, an associate professor at Rollins. Many so-called “pathogenic E. coli” infections are asymptomatic — not causing diarrhea — she noted. If a microbe considered a pathogen can be detected in a stool sample, but it is not causing disease, is it a pathogen? 

“The approach we used in this analysis helps to not only detect whether or not the pathogenic E. coli is present in the stool, but also if it is the likely cause of diarrhea experienced by study subjects,” she said.  “This holds promise that, in the future, we could use metagenomic approaches to diagnose not just the presence of the so-called ‘pathogenic E. coli,’ but also of the actual pathogenicity of these organisms.”

Enteric infections often go undiagnosed in children, though they can in some circumstances be fatal. For the study, researchers collected more than 1,000 samples from infected children in Ecuador and analyzed them using traditional culture-based methods in which samples are placed onto selective cell culture media, allowed to grow, and then studied to determine the pathogen present. 

A subset of 30 samples were also sent to the Konstantinidis lab at Georgia Tech, where his team has been developing new culture-independent genomics testing that can identify microbes that may not be detectable using standard culture techniques. The researchers examined the total gut microbiome and its shifts during diarrheal infections to assess the effects of three specific pathogenic genotypes of E. coli on the indigenous gut microbiota.

“We looked at the microbes in stool samples using culture-independent genomic techniques,” said Konstantinidis, who also has a faculty position in the Georgia Tech School of Biological Sciences. “We took the DNA out of the samples, sequenced it, and used bioinformatics tools to see what microorganisms were there. By looking at the entire microbiome, we can get more precise information about the pathogens that are causing disease and their effects on the commensal microbes of the gastrointestinal tract: the microbiome. We found that the effects were different for different E. coli pathogens, which is important for diagnosis and distinguishing among them.”

One major finding was that the metagenomics technique disagreed with the culture-based study. “In 50% of the cases where the lab suggested E. coli was the agent, we didn’t see evidence from metagenomics that this was the case,” Konstantinidis said. “We saw evidence that it was something else, potentially an enteric virus.”

The researchers were able to combine different diagnostic approaches in a way that could provide a more complete picture of the microbiome, creating signatures that could potentially identify the microbial agent of the disease. “Compared to the traditional approach, our technique uses multiple lines of evidence, including relative pathogen abundance, population clonality level and detection of virulence factors, and effects on the gut’s natural microbiome that haven’t been used together before,” Konstantinidis said. 

The researchers also discovered that a strain known as diffuse adherent E. coli (DAEC) was accompanied by large amounts of co-eluted human DNA in the stool sample. Though DAEC is not generally considered a particularly virulent strain, the presence of human DNA suggests that the DAEC may have been damaging epithelium cells in the gastrointestinal tract. 

“Understanding changes in the gut microbiome can help us understand how different strains cause distinct pathogenicity and symptoms such as the elution of high amount of human DNA and changes in the abundance of commensal microbiota,” Konstantinidis said. “If infections like this happen often, that could have implications for a child’s growth and development.”

The metagenomics technique could help provide a foundation for personalized medicine that would select therapies based on the specifics of the microbe – including its virulence and antibiotic resistance profiles. The study shows that the technology works and can be done quickly, but trained personnel are needed to make it more widely available.

“In the next five or 10 years, we are going to see some big changes in which these new methodologies are adopted in the clinic, and that could lead, in the long term, to innovation in diagnosis and treatment,” he added. 

Future work as part of another NIAID award will examine how environmental factors – such as water quality, presence of animals in the home, and the chemical environment – affect the microbiomes of small children. In this cohort of children from different geographic areas, the team will examine additional enteric pathogens, and follow children for their first two years of life. This will offer the opportunity to understand whether infections are cleared from the body – or if they continue to lurk in low levels.

In addition to those already mentioned, the authors included recent Georgia Tech School of Biological Sciences graduates Angela Peña-Gonzalez and Maria J. Soto-Girón, Shanon Smith, Jeticia Sistrunk, Lorena Montero, Maritza Páez, Estefanía Ortega, Janet K. Hatt, William Cevallos, and Gabriel Trueba.

Funding for the study was provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases through grant 1K01AI103544. The contents are solely the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

CITATION: Angela Peña-Gonzalez, et al., “Metagenomic signatures of gut infection caused by different Escherichia coli pathotypes” (Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 2019). https://aem.asm.org/content/early/2019/10/01/AEM.01820-19

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Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1574129369 2019-11-19 02:09:29 1574129487 2019-11-19 02:11:27 0 0 news Using advanced metagenomics techniques, researchers have found that conventional culture-based lab tests may misdiagnose as many as half of the microbial causes of diarrheal diseases in children. The study, based on samples from Ecuadorian children, also found that a common strain of the E. coli bacterium may be more virulent than previously believed.

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2019-11-18T00:00:00-05:00 2019-11-18T00:00:00-05:00 2019-11-18 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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629098 629099 629098 image <![CDATA[Chart of E. coli infections]]> image/jpeg 1574128457 2019-11-19 01:54:17 1574128457 2019-11-19 01:54:17 629099 image <![CDATA[E. coli bacteria]]> image/jpeg 1574128594 2019-11-19 01:56:34 1574128594 2019-11-19 01:56:34
<![CDATA[Q&A with Georgia Tech Professors on the Intersection of Science Fiction and the Chemical Elements]]> 35059 Can you still recite the elements of the periodic table?

Throughout this year, Georgia Tech has celebrated the International Year of the Periodic Table with a variety of events, forums and activities to spotlight the significance of the periodic table and the chemical elements. For the past 150 years, the periodic table has been a foundational element in classroom learning, scientific innovations and the global imagination.

To close out the yearlong celebration, the College of Sciences, as well as the School of Literature, Media, and Communication, and the Georgia Tech Library will host the panel discussion “From Myth to Marvel: The Role of Elements in Science, Fiction and Culture.” It will be held from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., November 7, in the Library.

Georgia Tech professors M.G. Finn and Deirdre Shoemaker are a part of the panel, which will explore how science and art have long influenced each other. We asked them to share their take on the astounding elements of the periodic table. 

How relevant is the use of the periodic table 150 years later — in the classroom and in our everyday lives?
DS: I think our students need to understand the basics of matter, the building blocks.  The elements influence sciences and engineering. We like to adorn ourselves in elements like gold and silver. Our universe is built from hydrogen and helium — at the heart of it all are elements.

Why do you think there has been such an emphasis on chemical elements among science fiction writers?

MGF: Science fiction creates alternate worlds or universes, but the elements are still what they have to be made from. Elements are fundamental in the deepest way — if you want to create something authentic, it helps to be familiar with the building blocks.
 

What are some creative ways you have used the periodic table in your work?
MGF: Many chemists, including me, look for elemental “analogies.” For example, a key insight of the periodic table is that elements in the same column have similar properties. They also have interesting differences. So, if we have a molecule made out of silicon, it is similar, but also tantalizingly different, from an analogous one made out of carbon. Sometimes, we can make medicines using this kind of similar-but-different trick, or new materials that improve on the properties of the old ones.

How has the periodic table affected your life?

MGF: I fell in love with the periodic table when I first started playing with matter in the chemistry laboratory. It was a necessary accompaniment — a framework — to seeing things combine to make new things. In time, I came to appreciate particular elements as having particular “personalities,” and, as a chemist, I can assign whatever expertise I may have to a deepening of that perception. 

DS: The elements impact us constantly. We are built from the elements created in supernovae and colliding neutron stars. There is no us without elements.

The title of the panel discussion is “From Myth to Marvel.” Can you explain how the periodic table has influenced this transformation? 

MGF: The most compelling creation of worlds in literature and film are those that connect in well-defined ways to the “real” world. And the most fundamental of those connections is to the elements that comprise the universe. I don’t think it’s an accident that vibranium is a Marvel creation.

DS: I do not know that the elements were ever a myth or a marvel. They do help us understand how humanity can start by making simple observations about the world around us and build up to understanding the universe using basic structures like the table of elements. For me, that is the true marvel.

 

]]> Denise Ward 1 1572881215 2019-11-04 15:26:55 1572962339 2019-11-05 13:58:59 0 0 news 2019-11-04T00:00:00-05:00 2019-11-04T00:00:00-05:00 2019-11-04 00:00:00 About the professors

M.G. Finn is a professor and chair of Georgia Tech’s School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, a faculty member in the School of Biological Sciences, and the James A. Carlos Family Chair for Pediatric Technology. In his research, his laboratory develops new vaccines, ways to find and kill cancer cells, new materials for drug delivery and membrane-based separations, and ways to evolve molecules with desired functions. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal ACS Combinatorial Science. His science fiction inspirations are decidedly old-school, ranging from Ray Bradbury to Ursula K. Le Guin to Dan Simmons.

Deirdre Shoemaker is the Dunn Family Professor of Physics in Georgia Tech’s School of Physics. She is the director of the Georgia Tech Center for Relativistic Astrophysics and associate director of the Institute for Data Engineering and Sciences. Black holes, spacetime wrinkles and gravitational waves — understanding these and other aspects of gravity drives Shoemaker’s research. She is a member of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Council and the NASA LISA Study Team. She is also a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, which detected gravitational waves for the first time on September 14, 2015, ushering in the era of gravitational wave astronomy. The strange and wondrous predictions of Einstein’s theory are playing out in the universe, and Shoemaker is watching.

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Denise Ward

Institute Communications

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628547 628548 628549 628547 image <![CDATA[From Myth to Marvel ]]> image/png 1572881289 2019-11-04 15:28:09 1572881289 2019-11-04 15:28:09 628548 image <![CDATA[M.G. Finn]]> image/jpeg 1572881327 2019-11-04 15:28:47 1572881327 2019-11-04 15:28:47 628549 image <![CDATA[Deirdre Shoemaker]]> image/jpeg 1572881363 2019-11-04 15:29:23 1572881363 2019-11-04 15:29:23
<![CDATA[3D-Printed Device Finds ‘Needle in a Haystack’ Cancer Cells by Removing the Hay]]> 27303 Finding a handful of cancer cells hiding among billions of blood cells in a patient sample can be like finding a needle in a haystack. In a new approach enabled by 3D-printed cell traps, researchers are removing the hay to expose the cancer cells.

Trapping the white blood cells – which are about the size of cancer cells – and filtering out smaller red blood cells leaves behind the tumor cells, which could then be used to diagnose the disease, potentially provide early warning of recurrence and enable research into the cancer metastasis process. The work, led by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, could advance the goal of personalized cancer treatment by allowing rapid and low-cost separation of tumor cells circulating in the bloodstream.

“Isolating circulating tumor cells from whole blood samples has been a challenge because we are looking for a handful of cancer cells mixed with billions of normal red and white blood cells,” said A. Fatih Sarioglu, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). “With this device, we can process a clinically-relevant volume of blood by capturing nearly all of the white blood cells and then filtering out the red blood cells by size. That leaves us with undamaged tumor cells that can be sequenced to determine the specific cancer type and the unique characteristics of each patient’s tumor.”

The research was reported September 20 in the journal Lab on a Chip, and was supported by a seed grant from the Integrated Cancer Research Center at Georgia Tech.

Other attempts to capture circulating tumor cells have attempted to extract them from the blood using microfluidic technology that recognizes specific surface markers on the cancer cells. But because the cancer can change over time, the malignant cells can’t be recognized with certainty. And even if they can be captured, the tumor cells must be removed from circuitous channels in the device and separated from the antigen without causing damage.

Sarioglu and collaborators, including ECE graduate student and first author Chia-Heng Chu, decided to take a different approach, building 3D-printed traps lined with antigens to capture the white blood cells in a sample. The 3D printed traps allowed the researchers to greatly expand the surface area for capturing the white blood cells as they pass by in blood samples. Zig-zagging fluid channels, some as much as half a meter long, increase the likelihood that every white blood cell would come into contact with a channel wall.

“Usual microfluidic devices have just a single layer with channel heights of 50 to 100 microns,” Sarioglu said. “They are thick, but most of it just empty plastic. Using 3D printing liberates us from the single channel and allows us to create many channels in three dimensions that better utilize the space.”

While the 3D printing allowed an increase in channel density, that came with a significant challenge. Earlier microfluidic devices could be designed with etched channels to carry the blood. But with 3D printing processes that are fabricated layer-by-layer, channels had to be filled with wax to allow more channels to be built atop them. The torturous channel structure, designed to maximize cell-wall interaction, made it virtually impossible to get the wax out after fabrication.

The solution was to design cell traps that fit into standard centrifuges designed to spin samples for separation. The traps were heated in the centrifuge and then spun to allow the melted wax to escape. After removing the liquid wax, the channels received the antigen coating.

After the white blood cells are removed, the smaller red blood cells pass through a simple commercial filter that traps the cancer cells and any remaining white blood cells. The tumor cells can then be removed from the filter, which is integrated into the 3D printed device.

Minimal processing of blood samples is a goal for the project to make the process available to clinics and hospitals without requiring specialized technician skills. Less processing also reduces the risk of damage to the tumor cells and minimizes other cellular changes that could skew the evaluation.

As part of the proof of principle testing, the researchers coated the white blood cells with biotin to accelerate testing. Future cell traps will use antigens designed to attract the cells to the channel walls without the biotin processing step.

The researchers tested their approach by adding cancer cells to blood taken from healthy people. Because they knew how many cells were added, they could tell how many they should extract, and the experiment showed the trap could capture around 90 percent of the tumor cells. Later testing of blood samples from prostate cancer patients isolated tumor cells from a 10-milliliter whole blood sample.

Testing included cells from prostate, breast and ovarian cancer, but Sarioglu believes that the device will capture circulating tumor cells from any type of cancer because the removal mechanism targets blood cells rather than cancer cells.

Next steps will be to narrow the channels in the device, test white blood cell removal without the use of biotin, boost the percentage of white cell extraction and connect cell traps to increase trapping capacity.

“We expect that this will really be an enabling tool for clinicians,” Sarioglu said. “In our lab, the mindset is always toward translating our research by making the device simple enough to be used in hospitals, clinics and other facilities that will help diagnose disease in patients.”

Other co-authors of the paper include Ruxiu Liu, Tevhide Ozkaya-Ahmadov, Mert Boya, Brandi E. Swain, Jacob M. Owens, Enerelt Burentugs, and John F. McDonald, all from Georgia Tech, and Mehmet Asim Bilen from Emory University.

CITATION: Chia-Heng Chu, et al, “Hybrid Negative Enrichment of Circulating Tumor Cells from Whole Blood in a 3D-Printed Monolithic Device.” (Lab on a Chip, 2019) http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C9LC00575G

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Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu)

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]]> John Toon 1 1572361745 2019-10-29 15:09:05 1572361817 2019-10-29 15:10:17 0 0 news Finding a handful of cancer cells hiding among billions of blood cells in a patient sample can be like finding a needle in a haystack. In a new approach enabled by 3D-printed cell traps, researchers are removing the hay to expose the cancer cells.

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2019-10-29T00:00:00-04:00 2019-10-29T00:00:00-04:00 2019-10-29 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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628245 628242 628243 628244 628245 image <![CDATA[3D printed blood cell trap]]> image/jpeg 1572361251 2019-10-29 15:00:51 1572361251 2019-10-29 15:00:51 628242 image <![CDATA[3D-printed blood cell trap]]> image/jpeg 1572360853 2019-10-29 14:54:13 1572360853 2019-10-29 14:54:13 628243 image <![CDATA[Examining cancer cells]]> image/jpeg 1572360988 2019-10-29 14:56:28 1572360988 2019-10-29 14:56:28 628244 image <![CDATA[3D printed cell trap]]> image/jpeg 1572361120 2019-10-29 14:58:40 1572361120 2019-10-29 14:58:40
<![CDATA[A Nobel Nod for How Cells Sense, Adapt to Oxygen]]> 30678 The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to William G. Kaelin Jr., Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe, and Gregg L. Semenza “for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.” Kaelin is a professor at Harvard Medical School. Ratcliffe is the director of clinical research at Francis Crick Institute in London. Semenza is a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Much of the life on Earth that we humans experience uses oxygen to convert food – carbohydrates, fats, and proteins – into energy to drive life’s processes. In complex, multicellular organisms, including humans, cells in various tissues and organs experience different levels of oxygen, says Amit Reddi, an assistant professor in the School of Chemistry. “As a consequence, every cell must have the ability to sense oxygen and adapt metabolism to changes in oxygen levels.”

Kaelin, Ratcliffe, and Semenza contributed to figuring out exactly how cells sense and respond to oxygen. “Their work has had profound implications for modern medicine, including understanding and treating various cancers, where cells may no longer synchronize energy metabolism to oxygen levels, as well as a number of vascular diseases, where oxygen transport is no longer efficient,” Reddi says. “I’m thrilled for the new Nobel laureates.”  

Reddi was an NIH Ruth L. Kirchstein postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University where Semenza is a faculty member. He says he often found inspiration from Semenza's studies on oxygen sensing, which guided his thinking on new conceptual paradigms for how life copes with oxygen.

Part of Reddi’s research is related to how reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are all derived from oxygen, can themselves signal metabolic changes in cells. “Our work is focused on how certain ROS are made and how they can be used to signal changes in metabolism and physiology,” Reddi says. “Because all ROS originate from oxygen, we believe that another layer of oxygen sensing is through the production and sensing of certain ROS.”

The Nobel Prize winners discovered how cells adapt to changes in oxygen level, particularly in low-oxygen conditions, says Young Jang, an assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences. “Their discoveries laid the foundation for our understanding of how cells generate energy, make new blood cells, and how cancer cells grow.” 

Jang’s research on stem cell metabolism and aging is directly related to oxygen sensing. Normally, mitochondria – the powerhouse of the cell – uses oxygen to generate ATP, the cell’s fuel. But in aged cells, regulation of oxygen is altered and mitochondria generate ROS. Excess ROS production and oxidative damage to proteins, lipids, and DNA/RNA are key culprits that cause cellular aging, Jang says.

Briefly, Jang overlapped with Kaelin in Harvard. He recalls that Kaelin’s lab “was interested in knowing whether oxygen sensing and metabolic changes can be communicated from one organ to another. He wanted to use parabiosis to test his idea.” Parabiosis is the physical joining of two individuals enabling cells, tissues, and organs to communicate through blood. It is another research area for Jang.

“I am very happy for Dr. Kaelin and his cowinners,” Jang says.

]]> A. Maureen Rouhi 1 1570535946 2019-10-08 11:59:06 1570545610 2019-10-08 14:40:10 0 0 news The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to William G. Kaelin Jr., Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe, and Gregg L. Semenza “for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.” Georgia Tech assistant professors Amit Reddi and Young Jang reflect on the downstream effects of the award-winning work.

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2019-10-08T00:00:00-04:00 2019-10-08T00:00:00-04:00 2019-10-08 00:00:00 A. Maureen Rouhi, Ph.D.
Director of Communications
College of Sciences

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627289 620445 624593 627289 image <![CDATA[Winners of 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (Credit: Nobel Media)]]> image/png 1570536347 2019-10-08 12:05:47 1570536347 2019-10-08 12:05:47 620445 image <![CDATA[Amit Reddi]]> image/jpeg 1555361121 2019-04-15 20:45:21 1555361121 2019-04-15 20:45:21 624593 image <![CDATA[Young Jang]]> image/png 1565903127 2019-08-15 21:05:27 1565903127 2019-08-15 21:05:27
<![CDATA[Shape-Shifting Robot Built from “Smarticles” Shows New Locomotion Strategy]]> 27303 Building conventional robots typically requires carefully combining components like motors, batteries, actuators, body segments, legs and wheels. Now, researchers have taken a new approach, building a robot entirely from smaller robots known as “smarticles” to unlock the principles of a potentially new locomotion technique.

The 3D-printed smarticles — short for smart active particles — can do just one thing: flap their two arms. But when five of these smarticles are confined in a circle, they begin to nudge one another, forming a robophysical system known as a “supersmarticle” that can move by itself. Adding a light or sound sensor allows the supersmarticle to move in response to the stimulus — and even be controlled well enough to navigate a maze.

Though rudimentary now, the notion of making robots from smaller robots — and taking advantage of the group capabilities that arise by combining individuals — could provide mechanically based control over very small robots. Ultimately, the emergent behavior of the group could provide a new locomotion and control approach for small robots that could potentially change shapes.

“These are very rudimentary robots whose behavior is dominated by mechanics and the laws of physics,” said Dan Goldman, a Dunn Family Professor in the School of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “We are not looking to put sophisticated control, sensing, and computation on them all. As robots become smaller and smaller, we’ll have to use mechanics and physics principles to control them because they won’t have the level of computation and sensing we would need for conventional control.”

The research, which was supported by the Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation, was reported September 18 in the journal Science Robotics. Researchers from Northwestern University also contributed to the project.

The foundation for the research came from an unlikely source: a study of construction staples. By pouring these heavy-duty staples into a container with removable sides, former Ph.D. student Nick Gravish — now a faculty member at the University of California San Diego — created structures that would stand by themselves after the container’s walls were removed.

Shaking the staple towers eventually caused them to collapse, but the observations led to a realization that simple entangling of mechanical objects could create structures with capabilities well beyond those of the individual components. 

“A robot made of other rudimentary robots became the vision,” Goldman said. “You could imagine making a robot in which you would tweak its geometric parameters a bit and what emerges is qualitatively new behaviors.”

To explore the concept, graduate research assistant Will Savoie used a 3D printer to create battery-powered smarticles, which have motors, simple sensors, and limited computing power. The devices can change their location only when they interact with other devices while enclosed by a ring.

“Even though no individual robot could move on its own, the cloud composed of multiple robots could move as it pushed itself apart and shrink as it pulled itself together,” Goldman explained. “If you put a ring around the cloud of little robots, they start kicking each other around, and the larger ring — what we call a supersmarticle — moves around randomly.”

The researchers noticed that if one small robot stopped moving, perhaps because its battery died, the group of smarticles would begin moving in the direction of that stalled robot. Graduate student Ross Warkentin learned he could control the movement by adding photo sensors to the robots that halt the arm flapping when a strong beam of light hits one of them.

“If you angle the flashlight just right, you can highlight the robot you want to be inactive, and that causes the ring to lurch toward or away from it, even though no robots are programmed to move toward the light,” Goldman said. “That allowed steering of the ensemble in a very rudimentary, stochastic way.”

School of Physics Professor Kurt Wiesenfeld and graduate student Zack Jackson modeled the movement of the these smarticles and supersmarticles to understand how the nudges and mass of the ring affected overall movement. Researchers from Northwestern University studied how the interactions between the smarticles provided directional control.

"For many robots, we have electrical current move motors that generate forces on parts that collectively move a robot reliably,” said Todd Murphey, a professor of mechanical engineering who worked with Northwestern graduate students Thomas Berrueta and Ana Pervan. “We learned that although individual smarticles interact with each other through a chaos of wiggling impacts that are each unpredictable, the whole robot composed of those smarticles moves predictably and in a way that we can exploit in software."

In future work, Goldman envisions more complex interactions that utilize the simple sensing and movement capabilities of the smarticles. “People have been interested in making a certain kind of swarm robots that are composed of other robots,” he said. “These structures could be reconfigured on demand to meet specific needs by tweaking their geometry.”

The project is of interest to the U.S. Army because it could lead to new robotic systems capable of changing their shapes, modalities and functions, said Sam Stanton. He is program manager of complex dynamics and systems at the Army Research Office, an element of U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory.

“Future Army unmanned systems and networks of systems are imagined to be capable of transforming their shape, modality, and function. For example, a robotic swarm may someday be capable of moving to a river and then autonomously forming a structure to span the gap,” Stanton said. “Dan Goldman's research is identifying physical principles that may prove essential for engineering emergent behavior in future robot collectives as well as new understanding of fundamental tradeoffs in system performance, responsiveness, uncertainty, resiliency, and adaptivity.”

In addition to those already mentioned, the research also included Georgia Tech graduate student Shengkai Li.

This material is based upon work supported by the Army Research Office under award W911NF-13-1-0347 and by the National Science Foundation under grants PoLS-0957659, PHY-1205878, DMR-1551095, PHY-1205878. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agencies.

CITATION: William Savoie, et al., “A robot made of robots: emergent transport and control of a smarticle ensemble,” (Science Robotics 2019). 

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Media Relations Assistance: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1568836455 2019-09-18 19:54:15 1568836658 2019-09-18 19:57:38 0 0 news Building conventional robots typically requires carefully combining components like motors, batteries, actuators, body segments, legs and wheels. Now, researchers have taken a new approach, building a robot entirely from smaller robots known as “smarticles” to unlock the principles of a potentially new locomotion technique.

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2019-09-18T00:00:00-04:00 2019-09-18T00:00:00-04:00 2019-09-18 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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626375 626376 626377 626378 626379 626375 image <![CDATA[Close-up of Smart Active Particle]]> image/jpeg 1568835251 2019-09-18 19:34:11 1568835251 2019-09-18 19:34:11 626376 image <![CDATA[Supersmarticle Based on Five Smarticles]]> image/jpeg 1568835406 2019-09-18 19:36:46 1568835406 2019-09-18 19:36:46 626377 image <![CDATA[Controlling a Supersmarticle]]> image/jpeg 1568835521 2019-09-18 19:38:41 1568835521 2019-09-18 19:38:41 626378 image <![CDATA[Researchers with Smarticles]]> image/jpeg 1568835643 2019-09-18 19:40:43 1568835643 2019-09-18 19:40:43 626379 image <![CDATA[Smarticle student researchers]]> image/jpeg 1568835760 2019-09-18 19:42:40 1568835760 2019-09-18 19:42:40
<![CDATA[Test for Life-Threatening Nutrient Deficit Made From Bacteria Entrails]]> 31759 In a remote village, an aid worker pricks a sickly toddler’s fingertip, and like most of the other children’s blood samples, this one turns a test strip yellow. That’s how an experimental malnutrition test made with bacterial innards could work one day in the field to expose widespread zinc deficiencies that kill thousands every year.

These innards include plasmids, which are loops of DNA. They are not the same DNA strands behind reproduction and cell construction, but function instead like nano-organs with genetic programs that normally guide bacterial cell processes. In a study led by the Georgia Institute of Technology, researchers engineered their own plasmids to direct other parts extracted from bacteria to make the blood test work.

The new technology showed high potential as a basis for an inexpensive, easy malnutrition test that could be expanded to include many vital nutrients and other health indicators.

The new, experimental test is freeze-dried to a powder that is kept at everyday temperatures, could be read in the field, and may be suitable for precise analysis with an applicable smartphone app. It could overcome the clinical and logistical travails of other tests, including refrigerated transport to the field or back to a lab, as well as lost time. 

The test not only detects zinc but also quantifies its clinically relevant levels, which is necessary to detect malnourishment and is one of the new test’s main innovations. Aid agencies could use a field version of the test to get immediate information to quickly influence policy decisions on nutritional interventions.

Hidden hunger

Two billion people worldwide suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, which claim millions of lives each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Zinc deficiency alone was blamed for more than 450,000 deaths in 2009, according to a study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

But spotting malnutrition is tricky.

“In the developing world today, many people may get enough calories but miss out on a lot of nutrients. You can look at someone and tell if they're getting enough calories but not if they're getting sufficient amounts of developmentally important nutrients,” said Mark Styczynski, who led the study and is an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

“The impact is greatest on pregnant mothers and children under the age of 5, which is when they have the highest mortality,” he said.

The research team, which included collaborators from Northwestern University, published their study in the journal Science Advances on September 25, 2019. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Air Force Research Laboratorythe Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, and the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Program.

[Ready for graduate school? Here's how to apply to Georgia Tech.

Small is huge

Engineering with bacterial innards is at least 25 years old, with research accelerating in the past decade. But this new test flags small molecules, like zinc or iodine, another big innovation.

The quantification of zinc ions in this particular study was the proof of concept for plans to measure many small molecules relevant to in-field tests. The researchers could quickly expand the test to assess levels of the six vital small-molecule nutrients, micronutrients, that are highly relevant to nutritional fieldwork.

“We may be able to reasonably quickly make new tests for iron, B12, folate, iodine, and vitamin A,” Styczynski said. “We could also quantify bigger molecules like DNA and proteins to help figure out how bad a viral outbreak is.”

“Detecting the presence or absence of something like Ebola or pregnancy is important. But being able to say how much of something you have, like a nutrient or a virus, without having to haul equipment through the field to do it has been lacking. The ability to do it could open a lot of doors in diagnostics and treatment,” Styczynski said.

Disemboweling bacteria

The ease of use of the experimental zinc test stands in stark contrast to the labors required to engineer it. The researchers started off using live bacteria that changed colors in reaction to zinc, but that approach hit snags.

“The test took too long, and the volume of blood and bacteria we would need was not clear,” Styczynski said. “So, we went cell-free. You take the bacteria and remove the outside and the genome –– the main DNA –– and you’re left with this rich mixture of heavily reactive parts, to which you can add your own genetic program on the plasmids.”

Cell-free approaches allow bacterial innards to be dosed like compounds in a chemical reaction, making the test predictable, reliable, and suitable for standardization. The researchers built two plasmids to drive the test's processes.

“One has the genes taken from E. coli for an enzyme that breaks down a big sugar into smaller sugars. The other one controls how much of a regulator gene is being turned on in response to levels of zinc,” Styczynski said.

Turning purple

The test uses a signal molecule that is partly a big sugar and starts out yellow, but once the plasmid makes an enzyme that cleaves the sugar, the molecule turns purple. Zinc levels regulate how much enzyme is made –– more zinc means more enzyme and more purple. If the test remains yellow, zinc is perilously low.

When tested in serum, i.e. blood, its rich biology clutters the reaction, and in the real world, that clutter differs from person to person and would skew color schemes from patient to patient.

The researchers solved this with a chemical trick to make a calibration system that flows with that skew. For the actual test, the zinc regulated how the plasmids alter the color, but the study’s first author, Monica McNerney, flipped things for the calibrator.

To make its reference points, she maxed out zinc levels and varied the levels of plasmids point by point, resulting in a scale of colors.

The test and the plasmid-varied calibration points both received the serum to be tested, and the clutter shifted the test and the calibration points in an identical manner. The changed color of the test could be accurately compared to the colors of the calibration points to ascertain zinc levels.

The colors are in the visible range, not fluorescent, so they require no device to read. The speed of color change could reveal more detail about nutrient levels, perhaps via an analysis of smartphone video taken of the test.

Also READ: Long-held view is wrong about microbiomes' exclusive, generous bacterial collaborations

These researchers coauthored the study: Yan Zhang and Paige Steppe from Georgia Tech, and Adam Silverman and Michael Jewett from Northwestern University. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (grants R01-EB022592 and R35-GM119701), the National Science Foundation (grants MCB-1254382 and DGE-1650044), the Air Force Research Laboratory Center for Excellence for Advanced Bioprogrammable Nanomaterials (grant FA8650-15-2-5518), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Living Foundries (award HR0011-15-C-0084) the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, and the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Program. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funders.

Writer & Media Representative: Ben Brumfield (404-272-2780), email: ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu

Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

]]> Ben Brumfield 1 1569438307 2019-09-25 19:05:07 1569948722 2019-10-01 16:52:02 0 0 news In crisis regions, people may get enough calories yet die because of nutritional deficiencies that kill millions every year. This new test for zinc deficiency would be handy, easy to use and inexpensive, and it could be expanded to include an array of deficiencies and disease markers. Aid workers could carry a future version in their pockets and read it on the spot.

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2019-09-25T00:00:00-04:00 2019-09-25T00:00:00-04:00 2019-09-25 00:00:00 626740 626743 626748 626744 626746 626740 image <![CDATA[Crisis region malnutrition]]> image/jpeg 1569436333 2019-09-25 18:32:13 1569436333 2019-09-25 18:32:13 626743 image <![CDATA[Zinc deficiency test held up ]]> image/jpeg 1569436862 2019-09-25 18:41:02 1569436918 2019-09-25 18:41:58 626748 image <![CDATA[Zinc test researchers in the Styczynski lab]]> image/jpeg 1569437338 2019-09-25 18:48:58 1569437338 2019-09-25 18:48:58 626744 image <![CDATA[Zinc test unused and used]]> image/jpeg 1569437020 2019-09-25 18:43:40 1569437020 2019-09-25 18:43:40 626746 image <![CDATA[Zinc test pipetting]]> image/jpeg 1569437192 2019-09-25 18:46:32 1569437192 2019-09-25 18:46:32
<![CDATA[Wearable Brain-Machine Interface Could Control a Wheelchair, Vehicle or Computer]]> 27303 Combining new classes of nanomembrane electrodes with flexible electronics and a deep learning algorithm could help disabled people wirelessly control an electric wheelchair, interact with a computer or operate a small robotic vehicle without donning a bulky hair-electrode cap or contending with wires.

By providing a fully portable, wireless brain-machine interface (BMI), the wearable system could offer an improvement over conventional electroencephalography (EEG) for measuring signals from visually evoked potentials in the human brain. The system’s ability to measure EEG signals for BMI has been evaluated with six human subjects, but has not been studied with disabled individuals.

The project, conducted by researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Kent and Wichita State University, was reported on September 11 in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence

“This work reports fundamental strategies to design an ergonomic, portable EEG system for a broad range of assistive devices, smart home systems and neuro-gaming interfaces,” said Woon-Hong Yeo, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering. “The primary innovation is in the development of a fully integrated package of high-resolution EEG monitoring systems and circuits within a miniaturized skin-conformal system.”

BMI is an essential part of rehabilitation technology that allows those with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), chronic stroke or other severe motor disabilities to control prosthetic systems. Gathering brain signals known as steady-state virtually evoked potentials (SSVEP) now requires use of an electrode-studded hair cap that uses wet electrodes, adhesives and wires to connect with computer equipment that interprets the signals.

Yeo and his collaborators are taking advantage of a new class of flexible, wireless sensors and electronics that can be easily applied to the skin. The system includes three primary components: highly flexible, hair-mounted electrodes that make direct contact with the scalp through hair; an ultrathin nanomembrane electrode; and soft, flexible circuity with a Bluetooth telemetry unit. The recorded EEG data from the brain is processed in the flexible circuitry, then wirelessly delivered to a tablet computer via Bluetooth from up to 15 meters away.

Beyond the sensing requirements, detecting and analyzing SSVEP signals have been challenging because of the low signal amplitude, which is in the range of tens of micro-volts, similar to electrical noise in the body. Researchers also must deal with variation in human brains. Yet accurately measuring the signals is essential to determining what the user wants the system to do.

To address those challenges, the research team turned to deep learning neural network algorithms running on the flexible circuitry.

“Deep learning methods, commonly used to classify pictures of everyday things such as cats and dogs, are used to analyze the EEG signals,” said Chee Siang (Jim) Ang, senior lecturer in Multimedia/Digital Systems at the University of Kent. “Like pictures of a dog which can have a lot of variations, EEG signals have the same challenge of high variability. Deep learning methods have proven to work well with pictures, and we show that they work very well with EEG signals as well.”

In addition, the researchers used deep learning models to identify which electrodes are the most useful for gathering information to classify EEG signals. “We found that the model is able to identify the relevant locations in the brain for BMI, which is in agreement with human experts,” Ang added. “This reduces the number of sensors we need, cutting cost and improving portability.”

The system uses three elastomeric scalp electrodes held onto the head with a fabric band, ultrathin wireless electronics conformed to the neck, and a skin-like printed electrode placed on the skin below an ear. The dry soft electrodes adhere to the skin and do not use adhesive or gel. Along with ease of use, the system could reduce noise and interference and provide higher data transmission rates compared to existing systems.

The system was evaluated with six human subjects. The deep learning algorithm with real-time data classification could control an electric wheelchair and a small robotic vehicle. The signals could also be used to control a display system without using a keyboard, joystick or other controller, Yeo said.

“Typical EEG systems must cover the majority of the scalp to get signals, but potential users may be sensitive about wearing them,” Yeo added. “This miniaturized, wearable soft device is fully integrated and designed to be comfortable for long-term use.”

Next steps will include improving the electrodes and making the system more useful for motor-impaired individuals.

“Future study would focus on investigation of fully elastomeric, wireless self-adhesive electrodes that can be mounted on the hairy scalp without any support from headgear, along with further miniaturization of the electronics to incorporate more electrodes for use with other studies,” Yeo said. “The EEG system can also be reconfigured to monitor motor-evoked potentials or motor imagination for motor-impaired subjects, which will be further studied as a future work on therapeutic applications.”

Long-term, the system may have potential for other applications where simpler EEG monitoring would be helpful, such as in sleep studies done by Audrey Duarte, an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Psychology.

“This EEG monitoring system has the potential to finally allow scientists to monitor human neural activity in a relatively unobtrusive way as subjects go about their lives,” she said. “For example, Dr. Yeo and I are currently using a similar system to monitor neural activity while people sleep in the comfort of their own homes, rather than the lab with bulky, rigid, uncomfortable equipment, as is customarily done. Measuring sleep-related neural activity with an imperceptible system may allow us to identify new, non-invasive biomarkers of Alzheimer's-related neural pathology predictive of dementia.”

In addition to those already mentioned, the research team included Musa Mahmood, Yun-Soung Kim, Saswat Mishra, and Robert Herbert from Georgia Tech; Deogratias Mzurikwao from the University of Kent; and Yongkuk Lee from Wichita State University.

This research was supported by a grant from the Fundamental Research Program (project PNK5061) of Korea Institute of Materials Science, funding by the Nano-Material Technology Development Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (no. 2016M3A7B4900044), and support from the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (grant ECCS-1542174).

CITATION: Musa Mahmood, et al., “Fully portable and wireless universal brain-machine interfaces enabled by flexible scalp electronics and deep learning algorithm.” (Nature Machine Intelligence, 1, 412-422, 2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-019-0091-7

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Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).

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]]> John Toon 1 1568988154 2019-09-20 14:02:34 1568988659 2019-09-20 14:10:59 0 0 news Combining new classes of nanomembrane electrodes with flexible electronics and a deep learning algorithm could help disabled people wirelessly control an electric wheelchair, interact with a computer or operate a small robotic vehicle without donning a bulky hair-electrode cap or contending with wires.

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2019-09-20T00:00:00-04:00 2019-09-20T00:00:00-04:00 2019-09-20 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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626484 626487 626484 image <![CDATA[Printed Sensor]]> image/jpeg 1568987383 2019-09-20 13:49:43 1568987383 2019-09-20 13:49:43 626487 image <![CDATA[Flexible wireless electronics-horizontal]]> image/jpeg 1568988612 2019-09-20 14:10:12 1568988612 2019-09-20 14:10:12
<![CDATA[Bathroom Scale Could Monitor Millions with Heart Failure]]> 31759 “Good morning. Bill. Please. Step onto the scale. Touch the metal pads.” The device records an electrocardiogram from Bill’s fingers and - more importantly – circulation pulsing that makes his body subtly bob up and down on the scale. Machine learning tools compute that Bill’s heart failure symptoms have worsened.

This is how researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology envision their experimental device reaching patients someday, and in a new study, they reported proof-of-concept success in recording and processing data from 43 patients with heart failure. A future marketable version of the medical monitoring scale would ideally notify a doctor, who would call Bill to adjust his medication at home, hopefully sparing him a long hospital stay and needless suffering.

The pulsing and bobbing signal is called a ballistocardiogram (BCG), a measurement researchers took more commonly about 100 years ago but gave up on as imaging technology far surpassed it. The researchers are making it useful again with modern computation.

“Our work is the first time that BCGs have been used to classify the status of heart failure patients,” said Omer Inan, the study’s principal investigator and an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Healthcare crisis

Heart failure affects 6.5 million Americans and is a slow-progressing disease, in which the heart works less and less effectively. Many people know it as congestive heart failure because a major symptom is fluid buildup, which can overwhelm the lungs, impeding breathing and possibly causing death.

Patients endure repeat hospitalizations to adjust medications when their condition dips, or “decompensates,” making heart failure a major driver of hospital admissions and healthcare costs. Home monitoring reduces hospitalizations but currently requires an invasive procedure.

Georgia Tech research was behind the launch of such an implantable heart failure home monitoring device in 2011. But this new solution would potentially dispense with the procedure, cost much less, and be much simpler to use – lowering patients’ resistance to home monitoring.

Given its early stage, the study’s BCG-EKG scale performed well in hospital tests but also in in-home tests, which was promising, since the solution principally targets eventual home use.

The research team, which included collaborators from the University of California, San Francisco, and Northwestern University, published their results in August 2019, in the journal IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. The research was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health. 

Ballisto scribble

The EKG part of the experimental scale is not new nor its great diagnostic information, but it alone does not say enough about heart failure. The BCG part is mostly new, and it appears valuable to heart failure monitoring but also challenging to record and interpret.

“The ECG (EKG) has characteristic waves that clinicians have understood for 100 years, and now, computers read it a lot of the time,” Inan said. “Elements of the BCG signal aren’t really known well yet, and they haven’t been measured in patients with heart failure very much at all.”

The EKG is electrical; the body conducts its signals well, and the recordings are clear.

The BCG is a mechanical signal; body fat dampens it, and it faces a lot of interference in the body like tissue variations and muscle movement. BCGs are also noisier in people with cardiovascular disease.

Patients with heart failure tend to be feebler, and initially, the researchers worried they would wobble on scales during home tests, adding even more noise to the BCGs. But the recordings were very productive.

Though a BCG read-out is scribble compared to an EKG’s near-uniform etchings, BCGs have some patterns that parallel an EKG’s. For example, the big upward spike in an EKG is followed by the BCG’s big "J-wave."

Inconsistent throbbing 

The researchers processed BCGs with three machine learning algorithms, revealing patterns that differ when a patient’s heart failure is compensated, that is, healthier, from when it is decompensated.

“In someone with decompensated heart failure, the cardiovascular system can no longer compensate for the reduced heart function, and then the flow of blood through the arteries is more disorderly, and we see it in the mechanical signal of the BCG,” Inan said. “That difference does not show up in the ECG because it’s an electrical signal.”

“The most important characteristic was the degree to which the BCG is variable, which would mean inconsistent blood flow. If you chop up the recording into 20-second intervals and the individual segments differ from each other a lot, that’s a good marker of decompensation,” Inan said.

Also READ: Six important cardiac solutions in preclinical, clinical and other human testing

These researchers coauthored the study: James Rehg, Burak Aydemir, Supriya Nagesh, and Mobashir Hasan Shandhi from Georgia Tech; Joanna Fan and Liviu Klein from the University of California, San Francisco; Mozziyar Etemadi and Alex Heller from Northwestern University. The research was funded by the Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (grant R01HL130619). Any findings, conclusions or recommendations are those of the authors and not necessarily of the NIH.

Writer & Media Representative: Ben Brumfield (404-660-1408), email: ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu

Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

]]> Ben Brumfield 1 1568985472 2019-09-20 13:17:52 1569332361 2019-09-24 13:39:21 0 0 news Millions of heart failure patients are readmitted to hospital every few months to adjust medications. It sends medical costs sky-high, and patients suffer needlessly. A new bathroom scale could give clinicians health data they need to preempt hospitalizations and treat patients remotely, easing patient suffering.

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2019-09-20T00:00:00-04:00 2019-09-20T00:00:00-04:00 2019-09-20 00:00:00 626476 626476 626472 626474 626475 626478 626473 626476 image <![CDATA[Bathroom scale Getty Images]]> image/jpeg 1568984715 2019-09-20 13:05:15 1568984715 2019-09-20 13:05:15 626472 image <![CDATA[Heart failure illustration]]> image/jpeg 1568983838 2019-09-20 12:50:38 1568983838 2019-09-20 12:50:38 626474 image <![CDATA[ECG (EKG) labeled diagram]]> image/jpeg 1568984224 2019-09-20 12:57:04 1568984224 2019-09-20 12:57:04 626475 image <![CDATA[Ballistocardiogram]]> image/png 1568984434 2019-09-20 13:00:34 1568984434 2019-09-20 13:00:34 626478 image <![CDATA[Experimental scale for heart failure monitoring]]> image/jpeg 1568985441 2019-09-20 13:17:21 1568985441 2019-09-20 13:17:21 626473 image <![CDATA[Heart failure symptoms]]> image/jpeg 1568984080 2019-09-20 12:54:40 1568984080 2019-09-20 12:54:40
<![CDATA[Periodontitis Bacteria Love Colon and Dirt Microbes]]> 31759 True or false? Bacteria living in the same space, like the mouth, have evolved collaborations so generous that they are not possible with outside bacteria. That was long held to be true, but in a new, large-scale study of microbial interactions, the resounding answer was “false.”

Research led by the Georgia Institute of Technology found that common mouth bacteria responsible for acute periodontitis fared better overall when paired with bacteria and other microbes that live anywhere but the mouth, including some commonly found in the colon or in dirt. Bacteria from the oral microbiome, by contrast, generally shared food and assistance more stingily with gum infector Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, or Aa for short.

Like many bacteria known for infections they can cause – like Strep – Aa often live peacefully in the mouth, and certain circumstances turn them into infectors. The researchers and their sponsors at the National Institutes of Health would like to know more about how Aa interacts with other microbes to gain insights that may eventually help fight acute periodontitis and other ailments.

“Periodontitis is the most prevalent human infection on the planet after cavities,” said Marvin Whiteley, a professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Biological Sciences and the study’s principal investigator. “Those bugs get into your bloodstream every day, and there has been a long, noted correlation between poor oral hygiene and prevalence of heart disease.”

Unnatural pairing

The findings are surprising because bacteria in a microbiome have indeed evolved intricate interactions making it seem logical that those interactions would stand out as uniquely generous. Some mouth microbes even have special docking sites to bind to their partners, and much previous research has tightly focused on their cooperations. The new study went broad.

“We asked a bigger question: How do microbes interact with bugs they co-evolved with as opposed to how they would interact with microbes they had hardly ever seen. We thought they would not interact well with the other bugs, but it was the opposite,” Whiteley said.

The study’s scale was massive. Researchers manipulated and tracked nearly all of Aa’s roughly 2,100 genes using an emergent gene tagging technology while pairing Aa with 25 other microbes — about half from the mouth and half from other body areas or the environment.

They did not examine the mouth microbiome as a whole because multi-microbial synergies would have made interactions incalculable. Instead, the researchers paired Aa with one other bug at a time — Aa plus mouth bacterium X, Aa plus colon bacterium Y, Aa plus dirt fungus Z, and so on.

“We wanted to see specifically which genes Aa needed to survive in each partnership and which ones it could do without because it was getting help from the partner,” said Gina Lewin, a postdoctoral researcher in Whiteley’s lab and the study’s first author. They published their results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Q & A

How could they tell that Aa was doing well or poorly with another microbe?

The researchers looked at each of Aa’s genes necessary for survival while it infected a mouse -- when Aa was the sole infector, when it partnered with a fellow mouth bacterium and when paired with a microbe from colon, dirt, or skin.

“When Aa was by itself, it needed a certain set of genes to survive – like for breathing oxygen,” Lewin said. “It was striking that when Aa was with this or that microbe that it normally didn’t live around, it no longer needed a lot of its own genes. The other microbe was giving Aa things that it needed, so it didn’t have to make them itself.”

“Interactions between usual neighbors — other mouth bacteria — looked more frugal,” Whiteley said. “Aa needed a lot more of its own genes to survive around them, sometimes more than when it was by itself.”

[Ready for graduate school? Here's how to apply to Georgia Tech.

How did the emerging genetic marking method work?

To understand “transposon sequencing,” picture a transposon as a DNA brick that cracks a gene, breaking its function. The brick also sticks to the gene and can be detected by DNA sequencing, thus tagging that malfunction.

Every Aa bacterium in a pile of 10,000 had a brick in a random gene. If Aa’s partner bacterium, say, E. coli, picked up the slack for a broken function, Aa survived and multiplied even with the damaged gene, and researchers detected a higher number of bacteria containing the gene.

Aa surviving with more broken genes meant a partner microbe was giving it more assistance. Aa bacteria with broken genes that a partner could not compensate for were more likely to die, reducing their count.

Does this mean the mouth microbiome does not have unique relationships?

It very likely does have them, but the study’s results point to not all relationships being cooperative. Some microbiomes could have high fences and share sparsely. 

“One friend or enemy may be driving your behavior, and other microbes may just be standing around,” Lewin said.

Smoking, poor hygiene, or diabetes — all associated with gum disease — might be damaging defensive microbiomes and allowing outside bacteria to help Aa attack gum tissue. It’s too early to know that, but Whiteley’s lab wants to dig deeper, and the research could have implications for other microbiomes.

Also read: Test for Life-Threatening Nutrient Deficit Made From Bacteria Entrails

These researchers coauthored the study: Apollo Stacy from the National Institute of Infectious Diseases and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Kelly Michie from Georgia Tech, and Richard Lamont from the University of Louisville. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases (grants R01DE020100, R01DE023193) and the National Institutes of Health (grants F32DE027281, F31DE024931). Any findings, conclusions or recommendations are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Institutes of Health. Whiteley is also a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and Co-Director of Emory-Children’s Cystic Fibrosis Center.

Writer & Media Representative: Ben Brumfield (404-660-1408), email: ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu

Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

]]> Ben Brumfield 1 1568054979 2019-09-09 18:49:39 1570200381 2019-10-04 14:46:21 0 0 news Mythbuster: The idea that bacterial collaborations within microbiomes, like in the mouth, have evolved to be generous and exclusive very much appears to be wrong. In an extensive experiment, lavish collaborations ensued between random microbes. And some bacteria from the same microbiome were stingy with one another.

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2019-09-09T00:00:00-04:00 2019-09-09T00:00:00-04:00 2019-09-09 00:00:00 625866 625867 625868 625866 image <![CDATA[Periodontitis culprit Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans by CC]]> image/jpeg 1568053316 2019-09-09 18:21:56 1568053316 2019-09-09 18:21:56 625867 image <![CDATA[Researcher looks at culture on dish]]> image/jpeg 1568053714 2019-09-09 18:28:34 1568053714 2019-09-09 18:28:34 625868 image <![CDATA[Anoxic chamber for anaerobic bacterial study]]> image/jpeg 1568053977 2019-09-09 18:32:57 1568054011 2019-09-09 18:33:31
<![CDATA[Stretchable Wireless Sensor Could Monitor Healing of Cerebral Aneurysms]]> 27303 A wireless sensor small enough to be implanted in the blood vessels of the human brain could help clinicians evaluate the healing of aneurysms — bulges that can cause death or serious injury if they burst. The stretchable sensor, which operates without batteries, would be wrapped around stents or diverters implanted to control blood flow in vessels affected by the aneurysms.

To reduce costs and accelerate manufacturing, fabrication of the stretchable sensors uses aerosol jet 3D printing to create conductive silver traces on elastomeric substrates. The 3D additive manufacturing technique allows production of very small electronic features in a single step, without using traditional multi-step lithography processes in a cleanroom. The device is believed to be the first demonstration of aerosol jet 3D printing to produce an implantable, stretchable sensing system for wireless monitoring.

“The beauty of our sensor is that it can be seamlessly integrated onto existing medical stents or flow diverters that clinicians are already using to treat aneurysms,” said Woon-Hong Yeo, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. “We could use it to measure an incoming blood flow to the aneurysm sac to determine how well the aneurysm is healing, and to alert doctors if blood flow changes.”

Inserted using a catheter system, the sensor would use inductive coupling of signals to allow wireless detection of biomimetic cerebral aneurysm hemodynamics. The research was reported August 7 in the journal Advanced Science.

Monitoring the progress of cerebral aneurysms now requires repeated angiogram imaging using contrast materials that can have harmful side effects. Because of the cost and potential negative effects, use of the imaging technique must be limited. However, a sensor placed in a blood vessel could allow more frequent evaluations without the use of imaging dyes.

“For patients who have had a procedure done, we would be able to tell if the aneurysm is occluding as it should without using any imaging tools,” Yeo said. “We will be able to accurately measure blood flow to detect changes as small as 0.05 meters per second.”

The six-layer sensor is fabricated from biocompatible polyimide, two separate layers of a mesh pattern produced from silver nanoparticles, a dielectric and soft polymer-encapsulating material. The sensor would be wrapped around the stent or flow diverter, which must be less than two or three millimeters in diameter to fit into the blood vessels.

The sensor includes a coil to pick up electromagnetic energy transmitted from another coil located outside the body. Blood flowing through the implanted sensor changes its capacitance, which alters the signals passing through the sensor on their way to a third coil located outside the body. In the laboratory, Yeo and his collaborators have measured capacitance changes six centimeters away from a sensor implanted in meat to simulate brain tissue.

“The flow rate is correlated really well with the capacitance change that we can measure,” Yeo said. “We have made the sensor very thin and deformable so it can respond to small changes in blood flow.”

Use of the aerosol jet 3D printing technique was essential to producing the stretchable and flexible electronics necessary for the sensor. The technique uses a spray of aerosol particles to create patterns, allowing narrower feature sizes than conventional inkjet printing. 

“We can control the printing speed, the printing width, and the amount of material being jetted,” Yeo said. “The parameters can be optimized for each material, and we can use materials that have a broad range of viscosities.”

Because the sensor can be fabricated in a single step without costly cleanroom facilities, it could be manufactured in higher volume at lower cost.

The next phase of the aneurysm sensor will be able to measure blood pressure in the vessel along with the flow rates. “We will be able to measure how pressure contributes to flow change,” Yeo explained. “That would allow the device to be used for other applications, such as intracranial pressure measurements.”

Yeo’s research team has also developed a flexible and wearable health monitor able to provide ECG and other information. He says the success of the monitoring technique demonstrates the potential for smart and connected wireless soft electronics based on nanomaterials, stretchable mechanics, and machine learning algorithms.

“We are excited that people are now recognizing the potential of this technology,” Yeo added. “There are a lot of opportunities to integrate this sensing mechanism into ultrathin membranes that are implantable within the body.”

Support for this research came from the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, and a seed grant from the Georgia Tech Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology. This work was performed in part at the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant No. ECCS 1542174).

CITATION: Robert Herbert, Saswat Mishra, Hyo, Ryoung Lim, Hyoungsuk Yoo, and Woon-Hong Yeo, “Fully Printed, Wireless, Stretchable Implantable Biosystem toward Batteryless, Real-Time Monitoring of Cerebral Aneurysm Hemodynamics” (Advanced Science, 2019) https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.201901034

Research News
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Media Relations Assistance: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1567027229 2019-08-28 21:20:29 1567091431 2019-08-29 15:10:31 0 0 news A wireless sensor small enough to be implanted in the blood vessels of the human brain could help clinicians evaluate the healing of aneurysms — bulges that can cause death or serious injury if they burst. The stretchable sensor, which operates without batteries, would be wrapped around stents or diverters implanted to control blood flow in vessels affected by the aneurysms.

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2019-08-28T00:00:00-04:00 2019-08-28T00:00:00-04:00 2019-08-28 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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625320 625322 625321 625320 image <![CDATA[Wireless Sensor Closeup]]> image/png 1567026442 2019-08-28 21:07:22 1567026442 2019-08-28 21:07:22 625322 image <![CDATA[Aerosol Jet Printing]]> image/png 1567026713 2019-08-28 21:11:53 1567026713 2019-08-28 21:11:53 625321 image <![CDATA[Stretchable Blood Flow Sensor]]> image/png 1567026595 2019-08-28 21:09:55 1567026595 2019-08-28 21:09:55
<![CDATA[Georgia Tech, Institut Pasteur Receive $2.5 M NIH Grant to Study Phage Therapy]]> 30678 An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Institut Pasteur has received a $2.5 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to advance the clinical potential of bacteria-killing viruses – also called bacteriophage, or phage.

Over the five years of the award, Joshua Weitz of the School of Biological Sciences at Georgia Tech and Laurent Debarbieux of the Institut Pasteur, in Paris, will jointly lead teams in the U.S. and France to research interactions between bacteriophage and the host’s immune response in treating acute respiratory infections caused by multi-drug-resistant bacteria.

The spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens represents a significant public health challenge.  In response, scientists and clinicians are exploring alternative ways to cure bacterial infections that cannot be treated with antibiotics. One approach is to use bacteriophage, which exclusively infect and eliminate bacteria. In a 2017 study published in Cell Host and Microbe, the teams of Weitz and Debarbieux showed that a synergy between an infected animal’s immune system and phage is essential to curing an infection.

Advancing the fundamental understanding of phage therapy will help advance its robust and reliable use in the clinic. The five-year NIH grant (1R01AI46592-01; Synergistic Control of Acute Respiratory Pathogens by Bacteriophage and the Innate Immune Response) will enable the U.S. and French teams to examine the dynamics of the synergy between phage and the immune response in treating acute respiratory infections.

“This project represents an important opportunity to integrate mathematical modeling into the foundations of phage therapy research,” Weitz says. “We look forward to extending our ongoing collaboration with the experimental phage therapy team led by Laurent Debarbieux to iteratively refine a mechanistic understanding of how phage therapy works in vivo and to develop candidate approaches to deploy phage therapy in translational settings.”

To achieve their goals, the principal investigators will combine mathematical modeling (at Georgia Tech) and animal experiments (at the Institut Pasteur). Building on their 2017 findings, the team will examine the interactions between therapeutic phage; neutrophils, which are the cells of the immune system involved in the synergy; and multi-drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in an acute respiratory pneumonia mouse model system. The project will focus on understanding and optimizing synergistic interactions between phage and neutrophils in eliminating bacteria, even when the animal host’s immune response is impaired.

Overall, this project aims to provide a framework for advancing principles of phage ecology and innate immunology in the rational design of phage therapy for therapeutic use.

]]> A. Maureen Rouhi 1 1566759470 2019-08-25 18:57:50 1567083770 2019-08-29 13:02:50 0 0 news The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $2.5 M grant over five years to advance the clinical potential of bacteria-killing viruses to treat antibiotic-resistant infections. Joshua Weitz of the School of Biological Sciences and Justin Debarbieux of Institut Pasteur will lead teams in the U.S. and France to research the interaction between bacteriophage, bacteria, and the innate immune response to enable use of phage therapy even with patients with impaired immune systems. 

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2019-08-29T00:00:00-04:00 2019-08-29T00:00:00-04:00 2019-08-29 00:00:00 A. Maureen Rouhi, Ph.D.
Director of Communications
College of Sciences

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618041 625122 618041 image <![CDATA[Joshua Weitz]]> image/jpeg 1550526179 2019-02-18 21:42:59 1550526179 2019-02-18 21:42:59 625122 image <![CDATA[Laurent Debarbieux]]> image/jpeg 1566758260 2019-08-25 18:37:40 1566759595 2019-08-25 18:59:55 <![CDATA[Bacteria-Killing Virus Teams Up with Animal Immune Response to Cure Acute Infections]]>
<![CDATA[Scurrying Roaches Help Researchers Steady Staggering Robots]]> 31759 Ew, a cockroach! But it zips off before the swatter appears. Now, researchers have leveraged the bug’s superb scurrying skills to create a cleverly simple method to assess and improve locomotion in robots.

Normally, tedious modeling of mechanics, electronics, and information science is required to understand how insects’ or robots’ moving parts coordinate smoothly to take them places. But in a new study, biomechanics researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology boiled down the sprints of cockroaches to handy principles and equations they then used to make a test robot amble about better.

The method told the researchers about how each leg operates on its own, how they all come together as a whole, and the harmony or lack thereof in how they do it. Despite bugs’ and bots’ utterly divergent motion dynamics, the new method worked for both and should work for other robots and animals, too.

The biological robot, the roach, was the far superior runner with neurological signals guiding six impeccably evolved legs. The mechanical robot, a consumer model, had four stubby legs and no nervous system but relied instead for locomotion control on coarse physical forces traveling through its chassis as crude signals to roughly coordinate its clunky gait.

“The robot was much bulkier and could hardly sense its environment. The cockroach had many senses and can adapt better to rough terrain. Bumps as high as its hips wouldn’t slow it down at all,” said Izaak Neveln, the study’s first author, who was a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Simon Sponberg at Georgia Techduring the study.

Advanced simplicity 

The method, or “measure,” as the study calls it, transcended these huge differences, which pervade animal-inspired robotics.

“The measure is general (universal) in the sense that it can be used regardless of whether the signals are neural spiking patterns, kinematics, voltages or forces and does not depend on the particular relationship between the signals,” the study’s authors wrote.

No matter how a bug or a bot functions, the measure’s mathematical inputs and outputs are always in the same units. The measure will not always eliminate the need for modeling, but it stands to shorten and guide modeling and avert anguishing missteps.

The authors published the study in the journal Nature Communications in August 2019. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation. Sponberg is an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Physics and in the School of Biological Sciences.

Centralization vs. decentralization

Often a bot or an animal sends many walking signals through a central system to harmonize locomotion, but not all signals are centralized. Even in humans, though locomotion strongly depends on signals from the central nervous system, some neural signals are confined to regions of the body; they are localized signals.

Some insects appear to move with little centralization -- such as stick bugs, also known as walking sticks, whose legs prod about nearly independently. Stick bugs are wonky runners.

“The idea has been that the stick bugs have the more localized control of motion, whereas a cockroach goes very fast and needs to maintain stability, and its motion control is probably more centralized, more clocklike,” Neveln said.

Strong centralization of signals generally coordinates locomotion better. Centralized signals could be code traveling through an elaborate robot’s wiring, a cockroach’s central neurons synching its legs, or the clunky robot's chassis tilting away from a leg thumping the ground thus putting weight onto an opposing leg.

Roboticists need to see through the differences and figure out the interplay of a locomotor’s local and central signals.

[Ready for graduate school? Here's how to apply to Georgia Tech.

Cool physics

The new “measure” does this by focusing on an overarching phenomenon in the walking legs, which can be seen as pendula moving back and forth. For great locomotion, they need to synch up in what is called phase-coupling oscillations.

A fun, easy experiment illustrates this physics principle. If a few, say six, metronomes – ticking rhythm pendula that piano teachers use -- are swinging out of sync, and you place them all on a platform that freely sways along with the metronomes’ swings, the swings will sync up in unison.

The phases, or directions, of their oscillations are coupling with each other by centralizing their composite mechanical impulses through the platform. This particular example of phase-coupling is mechanical, but it can also be computational or neurological -- like in the roach.

Its legs would be analogous to the swinging metronomes, and central neuromuscular activity analogous to the free-swaying platform. In the roach, not all six legs swing in the same direction.

“Their synchronization is not uniform. Three legs are synchronized in phase with each other -- the front and back legs of one side with the middle leg of the other side -- and those three are synchronized out of phase with the other three,” Neveln said. “It’s an alternating tripod gait. One tripod of three legs alternates with the other tripod of three legs.”

Useless pogoing

And just like pendula, each leg’s swings can be graphed as a wave. All the legs’ waves can be averaged into an overall roach scurry wave and then developed into more useful math that relates centralization with decentralization and factors like entropy that can throw locomotion control off.

The resulting principles and math benefited the clunky robot, which has strong decentralized signals in its leg motors that react to leg contact with the ground, and centralized control weaker than that of the stick bug. The researchers graphed out the robot's movements, too, but they didn't result in the neatly synced group of waves that the cockroach had produced.

The researchers turned with the principles and math to the clunky robot, which initially was out of sorts -- bucking or hopping uselessly like a pogo stick. Then the scientists strengthened centralized control by re-weighting its chassis to make it move more coherently.

“The metronomes on the platform are mechanical coupling, and our robot coordinates control that way,” Neveln said. “You can change the mechanical coupling of the robot by repositioning its weights. We were able to predict the changes this would make by using the measure we developed from the cockroach.”

Cockroach surprises

The researchers also wired up specific roach muscles and neurons to observe their syncopations with the scurry waves. Seventeen cockroaches took 2,982 strides to inform the principles and math, and the bugs also sprung surprises on the researchers.

One stuck out: The scientists had thought signaling centralized more when the roach sped up, but instead, both central and local signaling strengthened, perhaps doubling down on the message: Run!

Georgia Tech’s Amoolya Tiramulai coauthored the paper. The National Science Foundation funded the research (grant # NSF CAREER MPS/PoLS 1554790). Any findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the authors and not necessarily of the NSF.

Writer & Media Representative: Ben Brumfield (404-660-1408), email: ben.brumfield@comm.gatech.edu

Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

]]> Ben Brumfield 1 1566506845 2019-08-22 20:47:25 1566831962 2019-08-26 15:06:02 0 0 news To walk or run with finesse, roaches and robots coordinate leg movements via signals sent through centralized systems -- but utterly divergent ones. Despite their seemingly unbridgeable differences, researchers have devised handy principles and equations from studying roaches to assess how both beasts and bots locomote and to improve robotic gait.

]]>
2019-08-22T00:00:00-04:00 2019-08-22T00:00:00-04:00 2019-08-22 00:00:00 625034 625031 625035 625034 image <![CDATA[Off-the-shelf robot with four legs]]> image/jpeg 1566505226 2019-08-22 20:20:26 1566831950 2019-08-26 15:05:50 625031 image <![CDATA[The swings of cockroach legs as rough sine waves]]> image/png 1566505031 2019-08-22 20:17:11 1566505031 2019-08-22 20:17:11 625035 image <![CDATA[Cockroach Blaberus discoidalis]]> image/jpeg 1566506115 2019-08-22 20:35:15 1566506115 2019-08-22 20:35:15
<![CDATA[Gurel Chosen for NextProf Nexus Workshop]]> 27241 Nil Gurel has been selected to participate in the 2019 NextProf Nexus Workshop, sponsored by the University of Michigan, the University of California at Berkeley, and Georgia Tech. Gurel is a Ph.D. student in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE).

The NextProf Nexus Workshop is a three-day program that is part of a nationwide effort to strengthen and diversify the next generation of academic leaders in engineering. This preeminent event is designed to give participants the opportunity to explore and prepare for a faculty position in academia. The event will be held October 2-5, 2019 on the Georgia Tech campus. 

Gurel joined the Georgia Tech School of ECE in 2016, where she has been a member of the Inan Research Lab for the last two years. Her advisor is ECE Associate Professor Omer Inan. Gurel completed her M.S. degree in ECE at the University of Maryland at College Park in 2016, and she earned her B.S. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Bogazici University (Istanbul, Turkey) in 2014.

Gurel's Ph.D. research focuses on physiological modulation, monitoring, and active sensing. She works on noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation to artificially modulate the brain function without requiring surgery. This technique could be used to possibly treat autonomic nervous system or mental disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In particular, Gurel works on biomedical instrumentation, signal processing, and machine learning for mood and performance improvement and for understanding real-time noninvasive biomarkers to close the loop for treatment optimization and control.

]]> Jackie Nemeth 1 1565282158 2019-08-08 16:35:58 1565282158 2019-08-08 16:35:58 0 0 news ECE Ph.D. student Nil Gurel has been selected to participate in the 2019 NextProf Nexus Workshop, sponsored by the University of Michigan, the University of California at Berkeley, and Georgia Tech.

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2019-08-08T00:00:00-04:00 2019-08-08T00:00:00-04:00 2019-08-08 00:00:00 Jackie Nemeth

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

404-892-2906

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603944 603944 image <![CDATA[Nil Gurel]]> image/png 1521324243 2018-03-17 22:04:03 1521324243 2018-03-17 22:04:03 <![CDATA[Inan Research Lab]]> <![CDATA[School of Electrical and Computer Engineering]]> <![CDATA[Georgia Tech]]> <![CDATA[2019 NextProf Nexus Workshop]]>
<![CDATA[Soft Wearable Health Monitor Uses Stretchable Electronics]]> 27303 A wireless, wearable monitor built with stretchable electronics could allow comfortable, long-term health monitoring of adults, babies and small children without concern for skin injury or allergic reactions caused by conventional adhesive sensors with conductive gels.

The soft and conformable monitor can broadcast electrocardiogram (ECG), heart rate, respiratory rate and motion activity data as much as 15 meters to a portable recording device such as a smartphone or tablet computer. The electronics are mounted on a stretchable substrate and connected to gold, skin-like electrodes through printed connectors that can stretch with the medical film in which they are embedded.

“This health monitor has a key advantage for young children who are always moving, since the soft conformal device can accommodate that activity with a gentle integration onto the skin,” said Woon-Hong Yeo, an assistant professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “This is designed to meet the electronic health monitoring needs of people whose sensitive skin may be harmed by conventional monitors.”

Details of the monitor were reported July 24 in the journal Advanced Science. The research was supported by the Imlay Innovation Fund at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, NextFlex (Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute), and by a seed grant from the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology at Georgia Tech. The monitor has been studied on both animal models and humans.

Because the device conforms to the skin, it avoids signal issues that can be created by the motion of the typical metal-gel electrodes across the skin. The device can even obtain accurate signals from a person who is walking, running or climbing stairs.

“When you put a conventional electrode on the chest, movement from sitting up or walking creates motion artifacts that are challenging to separate from the signals you want to measure,” he said. “Because our device is soft and conformal, it moves with the skin and provides information that cannot be seen with the motion artifacts of conventional sensors.”

Continuous evaluation with a wireless health monitor could improve the assessment of children and help clinicians identify trends earlier, potentially facilitating intervention before a condition progresses, said Dr. Kevin Maher, a pediatric cardiologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta

“The generation of continuous data from the respiratory and cardiovascular systems could allow for the application of advanced diagnostics to detect changes in clinical status, response to therapies and implementation of early intervention,” Maher said. “A device to literally follow every breath a child takes could allow for early recognition and intervention prior to a more severe presentation of a disease.”

Used in the home, a wearable monitor might detect changes that might not otherwise be apparent, he said. In clinical settings, the wireless device could allow children to feel less “tethered” to equipment. “I see this device as a significant change in pediatric health care and am excited to partner with Georgia Tech on the project,” Maher added.

The monitor uses three gold electrodes embedded in the film that also contains the electronic processing equipment. The entire health monitor is just three inches in diameter, and a more advanced version under development will be half that size. The wireless monitor is now powered by a small rechargeable battery, but future versions may replace the battery with an external radio-frequency charging system.

Yeo and his collaborators, including first author and postdoctoral fellow Yun-Soung Kim, are focusing on pediatric applications because of the need for ambulatory monitoring in children. However, they envision that the health monitor could also be used for other patient groups, including older adults who may also have sensitive skin. For adults, there would be additional advantages.

“The monitor could be worn for multiple days, perhaps for as long as two weeks,” Yeo said. “The membrane is waterproof, so an adult could take a shower while wearing it. After use, the electronic components can be recycled.”

Two versions of the monitor have been developed. One is based on medical tape and designed for short-term use in a hospital or other care facility, while the other uses a soft elastomer medical film approved for use in wound care. The latter can remain on the skin longer. 

“The devices are completely dry and do not require a gel to pick up signals from the skin,” Yeo explained. “There is nothing between the skin and the ultrathin sensor, so it is comfortable to wear.”

Because the monitor can be worn for long periods of time, it can provide a long-term record of ECG data helpful to understanding potential heart problems. “We use deep learning to monitor the signals while comparing them to data from a larger group of patients,” Yeo said. “If an abnormality is detected, it can be reported wirelessly through a smartphone or other connected device.”

Fabrication of the monitor’s circuitry uses thin-film, mesh-like patterns of copper that can flex with the soft substrate. The chips are the only part not flexible, but they are mounted on the strain-isolated soft substrate instead of a traditional plastic circuit board.

As next steps, Yeo plans to reduce the size of the device and add features to measure other health-related parameters such as temperature, blood oxygen and blood pressure. A major milestone would be a clinical trial to evaluate performance against conventional health monitors.

For Yeo, who specializes in nano- and micro-engineering, the prospect of seeing the device in clinical trials – and ultimately used in children’s hospitals – is a powerful incentive.

“It will be a dream come true for me to see something we have developed be helpful to someone who is suffering,” he said. “We all want to see developments in science and engineering translated into improved patient care.”

In addition to those already mentioned, paper coauthors included Robert Herbert, Shinjae Kwon, and Musa Mahmood from Georgia Tech; Yongkuk Lee from Wichita State University; Nam Kyun Kim and Hee Cheol Cho from Emory University; and Donghyun Kim from Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine in South Korea.

This research was supported by a grant from the Imlay Innovation Fund at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, NextFlex (Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute), and the Georgia Tech Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology, a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure, which is supported by the National Science Foundation through award ECCS-1542174.

CITATION: Yun-Soung Kim, et al., “All-in-One, Wireless, Stretchable Hybrid Electronics for Smart, Connected, and Ambulatory Physiological Monitoring” (Advanced Science, 2019) https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.201900939

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia 30332-0181  USA

Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1564518896 2019-07-30 20:34:56 1564777457 2019-08-02 20:24:17 0 0 news A wireless, wearable monitor built with stretchable electronics could allow comfortable, long-term health monitoring of adults, babies and small children without concern for skin injury or allergic reactions caused by conventional adhesive sensors with conductive gels.

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2019-07-30T00:00:00-04:00 2019-07-30T00:00:00-04:00 2019-07-30 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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623828 623829 623828 image <![CDATA[Wearable health monitor]]> image/jpeg 1564517912 2019-07-30 20:18:32 1564518092 2019-07-30 20:21:32 623829 image <![CDATA[Wearable and stretchable health monitor]]> image/jpeg 1564518060 2019-07-30 20:21:00 1564518060 2019-07-30 20:21:00
<![CDATA[Georgia Tech Expert Raises Concerns About Medical Crowdfunding for Advanced Cancer Therapies]]> 34600 By Michael Pearson

Personalized medicines that harness the power of our own immune cells to beat back advanced cancers offer great promise, but also raise concerns about how patients will pay for these costly therapies. A new paper from the Georgia Institute of Technology shows some patients are turning to crowdfunding.

That troubles Aaron Levine, a bioethicist in the School of Public Policy. He has written a new paper in The Lancet Oncology’s August 2019 issue examining the use of crowdfunding for a particular kind of cell-based cancer therapy.

“It’s kind of a canary in the coal mine situation,” he said. “These are highly effective therapies for very sick patients. But if patients have to deal with costs in this way when the number of people undergoing these treatments is small, what will happen when these therapies become more broadly available?

Research is Part of NSF-Funded Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies

Levine’s paper, published online July 29, 2019, examines the growing use of crowdfunding to help pay for recently approved chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) cell therapies for two specific types of blood cancer, and even for expenses related to access to clinical trials of the treatments.

Levine studies ethical and policy issues surrounding the development of cell therapies as a researcher associated with the NSF Engineering Research Center for Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT), which is led by Georgia Tech. The center seeks to help transform cell-based therapeutics to expand the industry and lower costs.

His paper with graduate student Linda D. Ho and undergraduate research assistant Sarah O. Oso—funded by the NSF’s initial grant of nearly $20 million that established CMaT in 2017—is among the first to examine crowdfunding campaigns for FDA-approved cell therapies and high-quality clinical trials advancing this field.

“We’ve heard a lot about patients using crowdfunding to raise money for unproven stem cell-based treatments or other treatments not supported by scientific evidence,” Levine said. “What’s different here is that patients are turning to crowdfunding to support their participation in clinical trials and to gain access to an FDA-approved and often highly effective therapy.”

Ho, a second-year master's student in the School of Public Policy, said medical crowdfunding is a bandage covering up a important systemic problem in our health care system.

"On an individual level, we can see that crowdfunding campaigns can work, and we can immediately see where the donations go," Ho, a  Los Angeles resident, said. "But these campaigns represent only a fraction of the people who need help, and crowdfunding itself does not treat the underlying problem."

Paper Looks at CAR-T Crowdfunding Campaigns

Although sponsors of clinical trials typically provide treatment free of cost to patients, CAR-T trials often require participants to travel long distances. Because of concern about side-effects, they also must remain near the medical center that provided the treatment for several weeks, inflating costs.

Once approved, these therapies also are expensive, as much as $475,000. While insurance covers most of this cost for many patients, some still need help paying deductibles, co-pays, and coinsurance, as well as non-medical expenses.

Levine’s study found 143 campaigns associated with CAR-T therapies, with the average campaign aiming to raise $61,622 to help pay for everything from medical expenses to travel costs, lost wages, and living expenses.

The most successful campaigns were those shared most broadly on social media. Facebook users shared the three largest campaigns, which accounted collectively for just over half of the $1.9 million raised, more than 5,000 times each.

Levine also warned crowdfunding—which he said tends to favor people with large, well-heeled networks—might not only leave less well-connected patients in the cold, it could potentially skew the results of clinical trials by shifting the makeup of patients participating in them.

“As CAR-T cell therapy expands and moves from a last-resort therapy closer to the front-lines of cancer care, clinical trials will increasingly compare these novel cell therapies versus the existing standard of care,” Levine said. “These trials will yield more valuable information if the research participants are representative of the broader patient population, but the need for many patients to crowdfund to access such trials raises questions about how representative the clinical trial population will be.”

Possible solutions

Policy discussions about ways to handle crowdfunding in a medical context are still in their infancy, Levine said.

But he has suggestions about what could be done to help. One key is for sponsors to do more to cover patients’ non-medical expenses, such as travel and housing. Researchers should similarly provide their patients with more information about ways to defray costs associated with treatment, he said.

Over the long term, finding ways to make CAR-T cell care more widely available, cheaper, and carry less risk of side effects would also make a significant contribution to solving the problem, Levine said.

Fortunately, that is precisely what CMaT is seeking to do.

The School of Public Policy is unit of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

]]> mpearson34 1 1564411172 2019-07-29 14:39:32 1564606251 2019-07-31 20:50:51 0 0 news Personalized medicines that harness the power of our own immune cells to beat back advanced cancers offer great promise, but also raise concerns about how patients will pay for these costly therapies. A new paper from the Georgia Institute of Technology shows some patients are turning to crowdfunding.

]]>
2019-07-29T00:00:00-04:00 2019-07-29T00:00:00-04:00 2019-07-29 00:00:00 Michael Pearson
michael.pearson@iac.gatech.edu
404.894.2290

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583582 583582 image <![CDATA[Aaron Levine]]> image/jpeg 1478540612 2016-11-07 17:43:32 1567618808 2019-09-04 17:40:08 <![CDATA[Levine Named CMaT Co-Director of Workforce Development]]> <![CDATA[Aaron Levine Selected as a AAAS Leshner Fellow]]> <![CDATA[International Patients Increasingly Seek In Vitro Fertilization Treatment in U.S.]]>
<![CDATA[Tiny Supersonic Jet Injector Accelerates Nanoscale Additive Manufacturing]]> 27303 By energizing precursor molecules using a tiny, high-energy supersonic jet of inert gas, researchers have dramatically accelerated the fabrication of nanometer scale structures. The rapid additive manufacturing technique also allows them to produce structures with high aspect ratios. Now, a theory developed to describe the technique could lead to new applications for additive nanomanufacturing and new nanoscale materials.

Based on focused electron beam deposition, the technique allows structures to be fabricated from gas-phase precursors at rates approaching what could be expected in the liquid phase – all without raising the temperature of substrates. That could lead to manufacturing of the nanometer-scale structures at rates that could make them practical for use in magnetic memory, high-frequency antennas, quantum communication devices, spintronics and atomic-scale resonators.

“We are controlling matter on the atomic scale to bring about new modes of additive manufacturing,” said Andrei Fedorov, a professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. “This new science could bring about additive manufacturing applications that might otherwise be impossible. The resulting new technology will open up new dimensions for additive manufacturing at the atomic scale.”

The work grew out of frustration with trying to create small structures using the electron beams, which can be just a few nanometers in diameter. The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and was reported May 28 in the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics.

“When we went to the lab to use nanofabrication with focused electron beams, which are the size of a few nanometers, we could not grow structures that were just a few nanometers. They grew to be 50 or 100 nanometers,” Fedorov explained. “And it also took a long time to produce the structures, which meant that, without improvements, we’d never be able to produce them at high volume.”

Fedorov and collaborators Matthew Henry and Songkil Kim realized the reactions producing the structures were slow, and tied to the thermodynamic state of the substrate on which they are being grown. They decided to add some energy to the process to speed things up – as much as a hundred times faster.

The result was the invention of a micro-capillary injector just a few micrometers in diameter that could introduce tiny jets of gaseous molecules into the deposition chamber to activate the precursors for the nanometer-scale structures. Partly because the jet is entering a vacuum chamber, the gas accelerates to supersonic speeds. Energy from the supersonic jet excites the precursor molecules that are adsorbed to the substrate.

“This energetic thermal state allows the electrons from the beam to much more easily break chemical bonds, and as a result, structures grow much faster,” Fedorov said. “All of this amplification, both the molecule transport and the rate of reaction, are exponential, meaning a small change can lead to a dramatic increase in outcome.”

That much has been observed experimentally, but to understand how to control the process and expand its applications, the researchers wanted to create a theory for what they were seeing. They used nano-scale thermometric techniques to measure the temperature of the adsorbed atoms – also known as adatoms – subjected to the jet, and used that information to help understand the basic physics at work.

“Once we have a model, it essentially becomes a design tool,” Fedorov said. “With this understanding and the capabilities we have demonstrated, we can expand them to other fields such as directed self-assembly, epitaxial growth and other areas. This could enable a whole host of new capabilities to use this kind of direct-write nanofabrication.”

Development of the model and understanding of the first-principles physics behind it could also allow other researchers to find new applications.

“With this, you can have almost the same order of magnitude growth rate as you’d have with liquid phase precursors, but still have access to the richness of possible precursors, the ability to manipulate alloying, and all the experience that has been developed over the years with gas phase deposition,” Fedorov said. “This technology will allow us to do things at a scale that is meaningful from a practical standpoint and cost-effective.”

The ability to rapidly produce small, three-dimensional structures could open up a range of new applications.

“If you can adapt additive direct-write techniques, this could bring a lot of unique capabilities for magnetic memory, superconducting materials, quantum devices, 3D electronic circuitry, and many more things,” he said. “These structures are currently very hard to make using conventional methods.”

Beyond using the jets to accelerate deposition of precursor materials already on the substrate, the researchers have also created hybrid jets that contain both high-energy inert gas and precursor gases, which allow not only dramatic acceleration of nanostructure growth but also precisely control the material composition during growth. In future work, the researchers plan to use these hybrid approaches to enable formation of nanostructures with phase and topology that cannot be achieved by any existing nanofabrication techniques.

This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences (BES), under Award #DE-SC0010729.

CITATION: Matthew R. Henry, Songkil Kim and Andrei G. Fedorov, “Non-equilibrium adatom thermal state enables rapid additive nanomanufacturing.” (Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2019) http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c9cp01478k

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
177 North Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia  30332-0181  USA

Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu)

Writer: John Toon

]]> John Toon 1 1562087680 2019-07-02 17:14:40 1562087758 2019-07-02 17:15:58 0 0 news By energizing precursor molecules using a tiny, high-energy supersonic jet of inert gas, researchers have dramatically accelerated the fabrication of nanometer scale structures. The rapid additive manufacturing technique also allows them to produce structures with high aspect ratios. Now, a theory developed to describe the technique could lead to new applications for additive nanomanufacturing and new nanoscale materials.

]]>
2019-07-02T00:00:00-04:00 2019-07-02T00:00:00-04:00 2019-07-02 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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<![CDATA[$21.9 Million Gene Modulation Research Effort Targets Influenza Pandemics]]> 27303 A multifaceted research effort aimed at temporarily modulating gene expression using RNA-based techniques could help protect against pandemic flu by boosting lung resistance to infection, attacking the influenza virus directly, enhancing immune system response and improving the effects of existing vaccines. 

Drugs developed through the up to $21.9 million effort, which is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), would provide rapid response against a broad range of flu variants — and could potentially be used against other viruses in the future. The RNA-based drugs could be delivered to the lungs through a nebulizer or inhaler, which are well-established techniques.

Led by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the planned four-year initiative includes scientists from Duke University, Emory University, the University of Georgia, the University of Louisiana, Rockefeller University and Acorda Therapeutics. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will also partner with the team and will be funded separately by DARPA. The funding was announced June 27 as part of DARPA’s PREPARE (Preemptive Expression of Protective Alleles and Response Elements) initiative.

“Viruses are very good at adapting, but they are not very good at adapting when we can use orthogonal methods of fighting them,” said Philip Santangelo, a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. “If we can make this simple and easy for people to use, we will have the ability to fight the virus in multiple ways.”

Key to the project is modulating gene response — up-regulating or down-regulating certain gene expression — but not permanently affecting DNA. “We need for what we do to be transient,” Santangelo said. “The immediate threat from a flu pandemic won’t last that long, so we may need the RNA effects to last for a couple of weeks to months.”

The first line of defense would be equipping the lungs to better resist infection by the influenza virus. That strategy will involve first identifying genetic targets that could help ward off the virus by making the lungs very resistant to infection. Researchers will then develop drugs to bring about those changes. 

“Our major goal is to identify host genes that, when either suppressed or activated, make cells refractory to influenza virus infection,” said Nicholas Heaton, assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University Medical Center. “We will perform a series of genetic screens to identify these host factors, and then also perform a series of target validation studies both in-vitro and in-vivo.”

No drug works perfectly, however, so some people treated to boost resistance to the virus will be infected anyway. But that would open the door to another component of the strategy: drugs that destroy virus RNA.

“We have already shown that we can chew up viral RNA, and in this project we will demonstrate that first in small animal models,” said Santangelo.

Other strategies will be designed to boost the body’s immune system, modifying the neutrophils that respond to influenza to help them more effectively and more rapidly clear infection from the lungs.

“Neutrophils are the first white blood cells coming into the lung, within minutes of an encounter with the virus,” said Rabindra Tirouvanziam, associate professor in the Emory University School of Medicine. “Because neutrophils are fast acting, their ability to change RNA expression to adapt to particular conditions was thought to be limited. However, we discovered that neutrophils change their RNA very rapidly after coming into the lung, which opens a critical avenue for RNA-based modulation at the very beginning of inflammation, in order to minimize damaging side effects and maximize protection.”

Finally, the initiative will attempt to take advantage of influenza vaccines that most people have received during their lifetimes. Flu vaccines made available each year differ according to the expected flu variants, and their effectiveness is rarely more than about 45 percent.

“For people who have been vaccinated against flu, we want to strengthen the vaccine to boost the effectiveness of B cells and T cells,” Santangelo said. 

The research team will develop gene modulation tools that would alter expression in the lungs using RNA-based modulators. The task will involve identifying potential targets, verifying them, and developing drugs that can induce temporary changes. The goal is to have drugs ready for clinical trials by the end of the four-year period.

“This is incredibly ambitious,” Santangelo said. “This work should open a lot of doors for completely new classes of drugs. Conceptually, the ability to temporarily modulate genes to make people more resistant to a pathogen is incredibly exciting.”

Ultimately, the work will open up new means for protecting humans against the effects of viruses.

“Vaccines have a well-established protective capacity against seasonal flu, but they take time to act and become obsolete because of continuous evolution of the flu virus,” Tirouvanziam noted. “This project proposes to enact rapid modulation of host responses to the flu virus by manipulating RNA in cells. RNA is the transient template that cells use to make proteins, and rapid RNA regulation therefore has the potential to impact acute symptoms and transmission in settings of a flu epidemic with aggressive strains where vaccines would be largely ineffective.”

In addition to those already named, the research team will include: James Dahlman, Gabe Kwong and Krish Roy at the Georgia Institute of Technology; Rafi Ahmed, Richard Compans, Jacob Kohlmeier, Sanjeev Gumber and Eliver Ghosn at Emory University; Ian York from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Jessica Kissinger and Mustafa Nural at the University of Georgia; Charles Gersbach, Gregory Crawford, Timothy Reddy and Xiling Shen at Duke University; Francois Villinger at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Jeffrey Ravetch from Rockefeller University; and Michael Tauber at Acorda Therapeutics.

Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).

Writer: John Toon

Research News
Georgia Institute of Technology
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]]> John Toon 1 1561728038 2019-06-28 13:20:38 1561728259 2019-06-28 13:24:19 0 0 news A multifaceted research effort aimed at temporarily modulating gene expression using RNA-based techniques could help protect against pandemic flu by boosting lung resistance to infection, attacking the influenza virus directly, enhancing immune system response and improving the effects of existing vaccines. 

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2019-06-28T00:00:00-04:00 2019-06-28T00:00:00-04:00 2019-06-28 00:00:00 John Toon

Research News

(404) 894-6986

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622845 622845 622845 image <![CDATA[Microscope image of influenza virus particle]]> image/jpeg 1561727575 2019-06-28 13:12:55 1561727575 2019-06-28 13:12:55
<![CDATA[New Robot Musician]]> 27513 The robot medusai knows where you are. It must—because it plays music with you.

Made from beautifully fabricated steel and eight mobile arms, medusai can play percussion and strings with human musicians, dance with human dancers, and move in time to multiple human observers.

It uses AI-driven computer vision to know what human observers are doing and responds accordingly through snake gestures, music, and light. Gil Weinberg, the director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology, knows it’s unsettling. Wienberg is also a faculty member of the Institute for People and Technology.

Read the full story at Georgia Tech's Center for Music Technology.

]]> Walter Rich 1 1706021533 2024-01-23 14:52:13 1706022561 2024-01-23 15:09:21 0 0 news Made from beautifully fabricated steel and eight mobile arms, medusai can play percussion and strings with human musicians.

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2024-01-22T00:00:00-05:00 2024-01-22T00:00:00-05:00 2024-01-22 00:00:00 672840 672840 image <![CDATA[Robot Musician-3]]> Made from beautifully fabricated steel and eight mobile arms, medusai can play percussion and strings with human musicians.

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