<![CDATA[Levine on Uncertain Stem Cell Policy]]> 27418 "Frequent policy changes and uncertainty over future policy have been a near constant for stem-cell researchers over the last decade or so," says Aaron Levine, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, about his research findings. Levine continues, "That has affected both scientists studying embryonic stem cells and those working on less controversial cell types, who we might expect not to be as affected." Source: Technology Review - February 3, 2011

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]]> Lauren Langley 1 1296832460 2011-02-04 15:14:20 1475893458 2016-10-08 02:24:18 0 0 hgTechInTheNews 2011-02-03T00:00:00-05:00 2011-02-03T00:00:00-05:00 2011-02-03T00:00:00-05:00
<![CDATA[States Now Fund Majority of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research]]> 27310 States, not the federal government, now fund the majority ofhuman embryonic stem cell research conducted in the United States, according toa recent study in the journal Nature Biotechnology.  In addition, states varied substantially inthe extent to which they prioritized human embryonic stem cell research, andmuch of the research performed in the states could likely have been funded bythe National Institutes of Health under federal guidelines established byPresident Bush in 2001.

“While the federal government still contributes more to stemcell research overall, each year since 2007 these six states have funded morehuman embryonic stem cell research than the federal government,” said AaronLevine, assistant professor at Georgia Tech.

Levine created an online searchable database (http://www.stemcellstates.net/) thatallows users to find detailed information about each grant given out by the sixstates that adopted programs specifically to fund stem cell research. Thedatabase currently covers grants given out by California, Connecticut,Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and New York from December 2005 to December 2009,and will be updated yearly with new information.

“From what I could tell, only a relatively small portion ofthe stem cell research supported by these states was clearly ineligible forfederal funding,” said Levine, who is on the faculty of the School of PublicPolicy in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Levine reasons this could be a result of the fact that thereare many incentives for scientists to work with existing human embryonic stemcell lines rather than creating new ones.

He said he was surprised at how great the difference wasamong states in the share of grants that supported human embryonic stem cellresearch. While Connecticut and California devoted 97 percent and 75 percent oftheir grants to this research, New Jersey and New York steered only 21 percentto this contentious field.

One reason for these differences may be the development ofinduced pluripotent stem cells, which are derived from adult body cells ratherthan from embryos.  More recent programs,such as New York’s, may be disproportionally focusing on this new technology.

“There’s no question that thesestate programs drew a lot of scientists into the field,” said Levine.  “An interesting question going forward is howcommitted these scientists are to stem cell research or if they are relatingtheir work to stem cells now simply to be eligible for state funding – that’sunknown right now.”

]]> David Terraso 1 1291887266 2010-12-09 09:34:26 1475896074 2016-10-08 03:07:54 0 0 news States, not the federal government, now fund the majority ofhuman embryonic stem cell research conducted in the United States, according toa study by Aaron Levine in the journal Nature Biotechnology.  In addition, much of the research performedin the states could likely have been funded by the National Institutes ofHealth under federal guidelines established by President Bush in 2001.

 

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2010-12-09T00:00:00-05:00 2010-12-09T00:00:00-05:00 2010-12-09 00:00:00 Georgia Tech Media Relations
Laura Diamond
laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu
404-894-6016
Jason Maderer
maderer@gatech.edu
404-660-2926

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58921 63103 63102 58921 image <![CDATA[Dr. Aaron Levine]]> image/jpeg 1449176204 2015-12-03 20:56:44 1475894517 2016-10-08 02:41:57 63103 image <![CDATA[State Stem Cell Programs v. Federal Programs]]> image/gif 1449176649 2015-12-03 21:04:09 1475894552 2016-10-08 02:42:32 63102 image <![CDATA[State Stem Cell Programs]]> image/png 1449176649 2015-12-03 21:04:09 1475894552 2016-10-08 02:42:32
<![CDATA[GA. in Stem Cell Focus]]> 27349 It was a matter of horrible happenstance that brought the first human trial involving embryonic stem cells to Atlanta this month.

Teams at both Atlanta’s Shepherd Center and Northwestern University in Chicago were standing by to begin the historic trial, each awaiting a newly injured patient. Sometime in the 14 days before Oct. 8, someone, presumably in the South, suffered a paralyzing spine injury, signed the papers and became Patient A.

The procedure occurred at Piedmont Hospital, which adjoins Shepherd. The patient’s name, age and sex are unknown. The news — abhorrent in some quarters, thrilling in others — immediately spread worldwide, seemingly thrusting Atlanta into the biomedical spotlight.

But the choice of an Atlanta institution to play a part in the landmark study was no accident. A confluence of factors has turned Georgia into a top-tier state for biotech research and development. There are learning centers such as Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia and Emory University, a pro-business climate that includes top-notch hospitals and the utility of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, among others.

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]]> Floyd Wood 1 1287446400 2010-10-19 00:00:00 1475896066 2016-10-08 03:07:46 0 0 news It was a matter of horrible happenstance that brought the first human trial involving embryonic stem cells to Atlanta this month. Teams at both Atlanta’s Shepherd Center and Northwestern University in Chicago were standing by to begin the historic trial, each awaiting a newly injured patient. Sometime in the 14 days before Oct. 8, someone, presumably in the South, suffered a paralyzing spine injury, signed the papers and became Patient A.

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2010-10-17T00:00:00-04:00 2010-10-17T00:00:00-04:00 2010-10-17 00:00:00 Floyd Wood
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66537 66537 image <![CDATA[Embryonic stem cells are a blank slate having the potential to turn into cells that build parts of the body. Their use is also among the nation's -- and Georgia's -- most hot-button political issues.]]> image/jpeg 1449177176 2015-12-03 21:12:56 1475894592 2016-10-08 02:43:12
<![CDATA[NSF Awards $3M Stem Cell Bio-Manufacturing Program to Georgia Tech]]> 27206 The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $3 million to the Georgia Institute of Technology to fund a unique research program on stem cell bio-manufacturing. The program is specifically focused on developing engineering methods for stem cell production, in order to meet the anticipated demand for stem cells. The award comes through the NSF's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Program, which supports innovation in graduate education in fields that cross academic disciplines and have broad societal impact.

While stem cell research is on the verge of broadly impacting many elements of the medical field -- regenerative medicine, drug discovery and development, cell-based diagnostics and cancer -- the bio-process engineering that will be required to manufacture sufficient quantities of functional stem cells for these diagnostic and therapeutic purposes has not been rigorously explored.

"Successfully integrating knowledge of stem cell biology with bioprocess engineering and process development into single individuals is the challenging goal of this program," said Todd McDevitt, an associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University and a Petit Faculty Fellow in the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences at Georgia Tech.

McDevitt is leading the IGERT with Robert M. Nerem, professor emeritus of the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. Nerem is also director of the Georgia Tech/Emory Center (GTEC) for Regenerative Medicine, which will administer this award.

Ph.D. students funded by Georgia Tech's stem cell bio-manufacturing IGERT will receive interdisciplinary educational training in the biology, engineering, enabling technologies, commercialization and public policy related to stem cells. Their research efforts will focus on developing innovative engineering approaches to bridge the gap between basic discoveries made in stem cell biology and therapeutic stem cell-based technologies.

"This program provides a unique opportunity for engineers to generate standardized and quantitative methods for stem cell isolation, characterization, propagation and differentiation," said Nerem. "These techniques must be developed in a scalable manner to efficiently produce sufficient numbers of stem cells and derivatives in accessible formats in order to yield a spectrum of novel therapeutic and diagnostic applications of stem cells."

The Georgia Tech program is centered around three main research thrusts, which focus on several critical technologies that must be developed to enable the application and use of stem cell-based products:

• Creating reproducible, controlled and scalable methods to expand and differentiate stem cells with defined phenotypes and epigenetic states.

• Developing reliable, rapid and quantifiable methods to characterize the composition and function of stem cells to be generated.

• Designing low-cost systems capable of producing large populations of defined stem cells and derivatives.

Students in the program will be able to take advantage of the core facilities provided by the new Stem Cell Engineering Center at Georgia Tech, which is directed by McDevitt. Technologies developed by the students supported through this IGERT will be rapidly integrated into academic and industrial stem cell practices and cell-based products.

The award will support 30 new Ph.D. students over the next five years and brings together more than two dozen faculty members from Georgia Tech, Emory University, the University of Georgia and the Morehouse School of Medicine. In addition, plans are being made for students to participate in international research collaborations with the National University of Ireland at Galway, Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge and the University of Toronto.

"We anticipate this program will produce the future leaders and innovators in the field of stem cell bio-manufacturing who will contribute significantly at the interface of stem cell engineering, biology and therapy," added McDevitt.

Research News & Publications Office
Georgia Institute of Technology
75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 314
Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA
Abby Vogel Robinson (404-385-3364; abby@innovate.gatech.edu) or John Toon (404-894-6986; jtoon@gatech.edu)

Media Relations Contacts:

Writer: Abby Vogel Robinson

]]> Abby Vogel Robinson 1 1281830400 2010-08-15 00:00:00 1475896035 2016-10-08 03:07:15 0 0 news The NSF has awarded $3 million to Georgia Tech to fund a unique research program on stem cell bio-manufacturing. The effort is focused on developing engineering methods for stem cell production to meet the anticipated demand for stem cells.

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2010-08-16T00:00:00-04:00 2010-08-16T00:00:00-04:00 2010-08-16 00:00:00 Abby Vogel Robinson
Research News and Publications
Contact Abby Vogel Robinson
404-385-3364

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60432 60433 60434 60432 image <![CDATA[Todd McDevitt]]> image/jpeg 1449176267 2015-12-03 20:57:47 1475894523 2016-10-08 02:42:03 60433 image <![CDATA[Robert Nerem]]> image/jpeg 1449176267 2015-12-03 20:57:47 1475894523 2016-10-08 02:42:03 60434 image <![CDATA[Robert Nerem & Todd McDevitt]]> image/jpeg 1449176267 2015-12-03 20:57:47 1475894523 2016-10-08 02:42:03 <![CDATA[Robert Nerem]]> <![CDATA[Todd McDevitt]]> <![CDATA[George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering]]> <![CDATA[Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering]]>
<![CDATA[Delivering Stem Cells Improves Repair of Major Bone Injuries in Rats]]> 27206 A study published this week reinforces the potential value of stem cells in repairing major injuries involving the loss of bone structure.

The study shows that delivering stem cells on a polymer scaffold to treat large areas of missing bone leads to improved bone formation and better mechanical properties compared to treatment with the scaffold alone. This type of therapeutic treatment could be a potential alternative to bone grafting operations.

"Massive bone injuries are among the most challenging problems that orthopedic surgeons face, and they are commonly seen as a result of accidents as well as in soldiers returning from war," said the study's lead author Robert Guldberg, a professor in Georgia Tech's Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. "This study shows that there is promise in treating these injuries by delivering stem cells to the injury site. These are injuries that would not heal without significant medical intervention."

Details of the research were published in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on January 11, 2010. This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

The study was conducted in rats in which two bone gaps eight millimeters in length were created to simulate massive injuries. One gap was treated with a polymer scaffold seeded with stem cells and the other with scaffold only. The results showed that injuries treated with the stem cell scaffolds showed significantly more bone growth than injuries treated with scaffolds only.

Guldberg and mechanical engineering graduate student Kenneth Dupont experimented with scaffolds containing two different types of human stem cells -- bone marrow-derived mesenchymal adult stem cells and amniotic fluid fetal stem cells.

"We were able to directly evaluate the therapeutic potential of human stem cells to repair large bone defects by implanting them into rats with a reduced immune system," explained Guldberg, who is also the director of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech.

Micro-CT measurements showed no significant differences in bone regeneration between the two stem cell groups. However, combining the two types of stem cells produced significantly higher bone volume and strength compared to scaffolds without cellular augmentation.

Although stem cell delivery significantly enhanced bone growth and biomechanical properties, it was not able to consistently repair the injury. Eight weeks after the treatment, new bone bridged the gaps in four of nine defects treated with scaffolds seeded with adult stem cells, one of nine defects treated with scaffolds seeded with fetal stem cells, and none of the defects treated with the scaffold alone.

"We thought that the functional regeneration of the bone defects may have been limited by stem cells migrating away from the injury site, so we decided to investigate the fate and distribution of the delivered cells," said Guldberg.

To do this, Guldberg labeled stem cells with fluorescent quantum dots -- nanometer-scale particles that emit light when excited by near-infrared radiation -- to track the distribution of stem cells after delivery on the scaffolds and completed the same experiments as previously described.

Throughout the entire study, the researchers observed significant fluorescence at the stem cell scaffold sites. However, beginning seven to 10 days after treatment, signals appeared at the scaffold-only sites. Additional analysis with immunostaining revealed that the quantum dots present at the scaffold-only sites were contained in inflammatory cells called macrophages that had taken up quantum dots released from dead stem cells.

"While our overall study shows that stem cell therapy has a lot of promise for treating massive bone defects, this experiment shows that we still need to develop an improved way of delivering the stem cells so that they stay alive longer and thus remain at the injury site longer," explained Guldberg.

The researchers also found that the quantum dots diminished the function of the transplanted stem cells and thus their therapeutic effect. When the stem cells were labeled with quantum dots, the results showed a failure to enhance bone formation or bridge defects. However, the same low concentration of quantum dots did not affect cell viability or the ability of the stem cells to become bone cells in laboratory studies.

"Although in vitro laboratory studies remain important, this work provides further evidence that well-characterized in vivo models are necessary to test the ability of regenerative tissue strategies to effectively integrate and restore function in complex living organisms," added Guldberg. "Improved methods of non-invasive cell tracking that do not alter cell function in vivo are needed to optimize stem cell delivery strategies and compare the effectiveness of different stem cell sources for tissue regeneration."

Guldberg is currently exploring alternative cell tracking methods, such as genetically modifying the stem cells to express green fluorescent protein and/or other luminescent enzymes such as luciferase. He is also investigating the addition of programming cues to the scaffold that will direct the stem cells to differentiate into bone cells. These signals may be particularly effective for fetal stem cells, which are believed to be more primitive than adult stem cells, according to Guldberg.

Lessons learned from the current work are also being applied to develop effective stem cell therapies for severe composite injuries to multiple tissues including bone, nerve, vasculature and muscle. This follow-on work is being conducted in the Georgia Tech Center for Advanced Bioengineering for Soldier Survivability in collaboration with Ravi Bellamkonda and Barbara Boyan, professors in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

Other authors on the paper include Andres Garcia, professor and Woodruff Faculty Fellow in Georgia Tech's Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience; Georgia Tech research scientist Hazel Stevens, Georgia Tech graduate student Joel Boerckel; and National University of Ireland medical student Kapil Sharma.

This work was funded by grant number R01-AR051336 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and by grant number EEC-9731643 from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The content is solely the responsibility of the principal investigator and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH or NSF.

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Media Relations Contacts: Abby Vogel (avogel@gatech.edu; 404-385-3364) or John Toon (jtoon@gatech.edu; 404-894-6986).

Writer: Abby Vogel

]]> Abby Vogel Robinson 1 1263171600 2010-01-11 01:00:00 1475895844 2016-10-08 03:04:04 0 0 news 2010-01-11T00:00:00-05:00 2010-01-11T00:00:00-05:00 2010-01-11 00:00:00 Abby Vogel
Research News and Publications
Contact Abby Vogel
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48924 48925 48926 48924 image <![CDATA[Robert Guldberg bone regeneration]]> image/jpeg 1449175408 2015-12-03 20:43:28 1475894463 2016-10-08 02:41:03 48925 image <![CDATA[Bone regeneration with stem cell scaffold]]> image/jpeg 1449175408 2015-12-03 20:43:28 1475894463 2016-10-08 02:41:03 48926 image <![CDATA[Robert Guldberg bone regeneration]]> image/jpeg 1449175408 2015-12-03 20:43:28 1475894463 2016-10-08 02:41:03 <![CDATA[Robert Guldberg]]> <![CDATA[George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering]]> <![CDATA[Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience]]>
<![CDATA[McDevitt Named 2010 Young Investigator for SFB]]> 27224 Todd C. McDevitt, PhD, has been awarded the 2010 Young Investigator Award from the Society of Biomaterials. The Young Investigator Award recognizes an individual each year who has demonstrated outstanding achievements and leadership in the field of biomaterials research. Dr. McDevitt will receive the award at the 2010 Annual Meeting to be held in Seattle, WA, next April where he will also be provided the opportunity to address the whole society.
This marks the fourth time in the last seven years that a Georgia Tech faculty member has received the SFB Young Investigator award. Niren Murthy (BME) received the award in 2008, Julia Babensee (BME) in 2005 and Andrés García (ME) in 2004.

The McDevitt Laboratory for the Engineering of Stem Cell Technologies is focused on the development and application of engineering principles to translate the potential of stem cells into viable regenerative therapies and in vitro diagnostics. Biomaterials-based approaches are used to engineer the microenvironment of stem cells in order to improve the efficiency and homogeneity of directed stem cell differentiation strategies. In addition, the McDevitt laboratory’s research focuses on development of novel regenerative molecular therapies from natural biomaterials produced by stem cells. The combination of directed stem cell differentiation and development of stem cell-derived biomaterials is expected to yield fresh insights into stem cell biology, facilitate new regenerative therapies, and create novel cell diagnostic platforms. The McDevitt laboratory research is supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, American Heart Association, and the Georgia Research Alliance, among others.

In addition to the being named the 2010 Society for Biomaterials Young Investigator, McDevitt was appointed as a Petit Faculty Fellow in the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience in September 2009 and named the Director of the new Stem Cell Engineering Center at Georgia Tech, which is scheduled to officially launch in 2010. The establishment of the first center of its kind in the United States will bring together expertise from different engineering disciplines to address key technical challenges that currently limit the translation of stem cells and to innovate new technologies that will enhance basic stem cell research. The center will include Georgia Tech faculty from the College of Engineering, College of Sciences, and Ivan Allen College, in addition to collaborative partnerships with stem cell researchers at the University of Georgia, Emory University and other partnering institutions throughout the state of Georgia.

Since August of 2004, McDevitt has been an Assistant Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology / Emory University. McDevitt graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) from Duke University in 1997 with a double major in Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Bioengineering in 2001 working in the laboratory of Patrick Stayton, Ph.D., on protein engineering, micropatterning and tissue engineering. From 2002-04, McDevitt conducted post-doctoral research in Chuck Murry's lab in the Department of Pathology at the University of Washington where he focused on mechanisms of stem cell growth and differentiation for myocardial repair.

]]> Megan McDevitt 1 1260838800 2009-12-15 01:00:00 1475895971 2016-10-08 03:06:11 0 0 news Todd C. McDevitt, PhD, has been awarded the 2010 Young Investigator Award from the Society of Biomaterials. The Young Investigator Award recognizes an individual each year who has demonstrated outstanding achievements and leadership in the field of biomaterials research.

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2009-12-15T00:00:00-05:00 2009-12-15T00:00:00-05:00 2009-12-15 00:00:00 Colly Mitchell
Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience
Contact Colly Mitchell
404-894-5982

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<![CDATA[Visit the McDevitt Lab- Engineering Stem Cell Technologies]]> <![CDATA[Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience]]>
<![CDATA[New Stem Cell Lines Approved for Tax-paid Research]]> 27195 By LAURAN NEERGAARD - The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Scientists can start using taxpayer dollars to do research with 13 batches of embryonic stem cells and the government says dozens more cell lines should be available soon, opening a new era for the potentially life-saving field.

President Barack Obama lifted eight years of restrictions on these master cells last spring. But $21 million-and-counting in new projects were on hold until the National Institutes of Health determined which of hundreds of existing stem cell lines were ethically appropriate to use.

Full article

]]> Colly Mitchell 1 1259888400 2009-12-04 01:00:00 1475895971 2016-10-08 03:06:11 0 0 news 2009-12-02T00:00:00-05:00 2009-12-02T00:00:00-05:00 2009-12-02 00:00:00 Colly Mitchell
Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience
Contact Colly Mitchell
404-894-5982]]>
56468 56468 image <![CDATA[tqu04840.jpg]]> image/jpeg 1449175653 2015-12-03 20:47:33 1475894501 2016-10-08 02:41:41
<![CDATA[Delivery of Adult Versus Fetal Stem Cells for Bone Regeneration]]> 27349 Engineered Delivery of Adult Versus Fetal Stem Cells for Bone Regeneration

Alexandra Peister and her collaborators received an NIH program project grant which will support research at Morehouse, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Rochester, Emory University, and the University of Queensland in Australia. The grant will be funded for the next two years and will support research at Morehouse at a level of $36,000 per year. Co-Investigator, NIH Challenge Grant (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funded): Engineered Delivery of Adult Versus Fetal Stem Cells for Bone Regeneration in collaboration with Georgia Tech. The grant will be funded September 2009.

]]> Floyd Wood 1 1255478400 2009-10-14 00:00:00 1475895971 2016-10-08 03:06:11 0 0 news 2009-10-14T00:00:00-04:00 2009-10-14T00:00:00-04:00 2009-10-14 00:00:00 Floyd Wood
IBB
Contact Floyd Wood]]>
56456 56456 image <![CDATA[Dr. Alexandra Peister]]> image/jpeg 1449175653 2015-12-03 20:47:33 1475894501 2016-10-08 02:41:41
<![CDATA[Labs report progress in regrowing bones]]> 27224 ATLANTA — As military doctors in Iraq and Afghanistan have seen more horrific injuries involving skin, nerve, vascular and bone losses from explosions, they have tried to think of what more could be done for the victims besides bandaging things up and hoping for the best.

Maybe they could regrow the tissue: Grow the cartilage, grow the blood vessels, grow the nerves and even grow the bone.

View full article

]]> Megan McDevitt 1 1255305600 2009-10-12 00:00:00 1475895966 2016-10-08 03:06:06 0 0 news 2009-10-12T00:00:00-04:00 2009-10-12T00:00:00-04:00 2009-10-12 00:00:00 Megan McDevitt
IBB
Contact Megan McDevitt
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<![CDATA[McDevitt and Nerem Discuss Georgia Stem Cell Research Debate]]> 27195 "Cell Division"
Georgia Trend - September 2009

.. . It’s a debate fraught with irony. Georgia has some of the nation’s leading researchers in the area of embryonic stem cells, scientists recruited and paid for by the state as eminent scholars; and state leadership has identified the life sciences as a strategic industry of interest. And yet, many of Georgia’s elected officialshave made it clear that they do not want new research in embryonic stem cells happening in Georgia,... “Induced pluripotent cells are a great success story, but it’s owed wholly to the fact that we had a starting basis in embryonic stem cells,” says Todd McDevitt, a Georgia Tech scientist who directs stem cell technology research in his lab and focuses most of his attention on ES cells... For Georgia Tech professor Bob Nerem, research needs to move forward in all areas. “At some point we will know about what makes the most sense from a patient point of view,” says Nerem, director of both the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Tech, and the Georgia Tech-Emory Collabora-tion for Regenerative Medicine (GTEC)... But for a young scientist like Todd McDevitt, whose lab at Georgia Tech has attracted some $2 million in federal funds and employs 10 other researchers, a differing opinion that has the potential to criminalize his work forces him to consider other options.

Full article

McDevitt lab

Nerem lab

]]> Colly Mitchell 1 1251936000 2009-09-03 00:00:00 1475895966 2016-10-08 03:06:06 0 0 news 2009-09-01T00:00:00-04:00 2009-09-01T00:00:00-04:00 2009-09-01 00:00:00 Colly Mitchell
Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience
Contact Colly Mitchell
404-894-5982]]>
56422 56422 image <![CDATA[Georgia debates stem cell research]]> image/jpeg 1449175629 2015-12-03 20:47:09 1475894501 2016-10-08 02:41:41
<![CDATA[New Center Aims to Improve Recovery of Soldiers with Severe Injuries]]> 27206 When a soldier is wounded during combat, surgeons must focus on reducing infection and reconstructing damaged bone and tissues. Technologies that could improve the repair and regeneration processes are being developed in research laboratories across the country, but they are not being moved quickly enough into military trauma centers.

Organizers of the recently established Georgia Tech Center for Advanced Bioengineering for Soldier Survivability want to change that.

"The goal of the center is to rapidly move new technologies from the laboratory to patients so that we can improve the quality of life for our veterans as they return from the wars the United States is fighting," said center director Barbara Boyan, the Price Gilbert, Jr. Chair in Tissue Engineering at the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

The center will leverage the expertise of Georgia Tech researchers in musculoskeletal biology and regenerative medicine to quickly move tools that are clinically valuable, safe and effective from laboratories to use in trauma centers. To reduce the amount of time from invention to clinical use, engineers and scientists in the center work in teams that include a clinician with experience in combat medical care and a medical device industry partner.

Support for the center is provided by the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research's Orthopedic Trauma Research Program, the U.S. Department of Defense and industry.

Researchers in the center will initially focus on ways to improve the healing of wounds, segmental bone defects and massive soft tissue defects. Traumatic injuries that affect the arms, legs, head and neck require technologies for treatment at the time of injury and in the ensuing days and months.

"These combat injuries are complicated to treat because they are large and typically infected, so even determining when a soldier should be treated for optimal recovery is a challenge," said Boyan, who is also the associate dean for research in Georgia Tech's College of Engineering and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar. "It is not known whether a regenerative therapy will be most effective if used immediately following injury or at some later time after scar tissue has been established at the wound site."

By developing models that accurately reflect the complex aspects of injuries sustained by soldiers in combat, the researchers will be able to test assumptions about when to employ specific strategies and how to ensure their effectiveness. The models must also allow them to examine the use of technologies on both male and female patients, and on complex tissues that consist of nerves, a blood supply and multiple cell types.

"Since the processes of bone, vascular and neural formation are naturally linked during normal tissue development, growth and repair, our approach is to harness this knowledge by developing delivery strategies that present the right biologic cues in the right place at the right time to promote functional regeneration of multiple integrated tissues," said associate director of the center Robert Guldberg, a professor in Georgia Tech's Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

To enhance tissue repair and regeneration following a traumatic injury, the researchers are focusing their efforts on stem cells. Even though stem cells have tremendous potential for repairing such defects, effective methods do not yet exist for delivering them to an injury site and of ensuring that they survive and remain at that site long enough to impact the regeneration process.

"Clinicians currently inject stem cells into a vein and hope that the cells will migrate to sites of injury and remain at those sites long enough to participate in the repair process. While some cells certainly do migrate to injury sites, the actual percentage is very small and those that arrive at the site do not remain to engraft with the host tissue," explained Boyan.

This limited effect may be the result of the injection process, according to Boyan, so researchers in the center are developing ways to protect the cells from damaging forces they might encounter when inserted into the body.

"Studies in our laboratory have shown that when stem cells are encapsulated in microbeads, they can be injected by needle without loss of cell viability and they remain at the injury site for at least two months," said Boyan.

Protecting the cells during insertion is just the first step toward improved tissue repair. The researchers must also examine whether the stem cells will turn into cells typical of the implanted tissue and if they produce or should be paired with molecules that can enhance the healing of the implanted tissues.

Center researchers are also investigating whether bone marrow-derived stem cells can be used in the body to heal large defects in bone and cartilage if they are inserted in fiber mesh scaffolds and silk sponges during a surgical procedure.

Additional projects in the center include assessing tissue viability, preventing the growth of bone in the soft tissues of the body and improving pre-hospital care of orthopedic injuries. Since effective treatment of traumatic injuries is an important goal for the general public as well as the military population, the researchers also hope to adapt their technologies for use in hospitals.

Other researchers in the center include Ravi Bellamkonda, a professor in the Coulter Department; Andres Garcia, the Woodruff Faculty Fellow in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering; Robert Taylor, a professor in the Coulter Department and Emory's Division of Cardiology; Zvi Schwartz, a visiting professor in the Coulter Department; and U.S. Army surgical medicine consultants Michael Yaszemski and David Cohen.

Research News & Publications Office
Georgia Institute of Technology
75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 100
Atlanta, Georgia 30308 USA

Media Relations Contacts: Abby Vogel (404-385-3364); E-mail: (avogel@gatech.edu) or John Toon (404-894-6986); E-mail: (jtoon@gatech.edu).

Writer: Abby Vogel

]]> Abby Vogel Robinson 1 1243296000 2009-05-26 00:00:00 1475895794 2016-10-08 03:03:14 0 0 news 2009-05-26T00:00:00-04:00 2009-05-26T00:00:00-04:00 2009-05-26 00:00:00 Abby Vogel
Research News and Publications
Contact Abby Vogel
404-385-3364]]>
46313 46314 46315 46313 image <![CDATA[Barbara Boyan]]> image/jpeg 1449174375 2015-12-03 20:26:15 1475894416 2016-10-08 02:40:16 46314 image <![CDATA[bone defect]]> image/jpeg 1449174401 2015-12-03 20:26:41 1475894416 2016-10-08 02:40:16 46315 image <![CDATA[Robert Guldberg]]> image/jpeg 1449174401 2015-12-03 20:26:41 1475894416 2016-10-08 02:40:16 <![CDATA[Barbara Boyan]]> <![CDATA[Robert Guldberg]]> <![CDATA[Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering]]> <![CDATA[George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering]]>
<![CDATA[Video Archive - Engineering Stem Cell Technologies]]> 27195 Todd McDevitt, PhD - Assistant Professor, Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering

Abstract: Stem cells are poised to stimulate significant advances in regenerative medicine therapies and in vitro cell-based diagnostics based upon their inherent ability to differentiate into an array of cell phenotypes. Beyond cell replacement technologies, stem cells may also serve as a unique source of potent morphogenic factors capable of improving the wound healing of injured tissues and treatment of chronic diseases. Thus, our laboratory is focused on the engineering of innovative approaches to translate the potential of stem cells into effective cellular and molecular technologies for regenerative medicine. In order to improve the efficiency and homogeneity of directed differentiation strategies, we are developing biomaterials-based approaches to spatiotemporally control the presentation of molecular cues within the stem cell microenvironment that influence morphogenesis. The ability of hydrodynamic forces to manipulate environmental conditions and modulate stem cell fate is also being examined as a novel, scalable means to direct differentiated cell phenotypes. In addition to directing stem cell differentiation, we also seek to develop novel regenerative molecular therapies from morphogens uniquely produced by stem cells. For this reason, we are assessing the production of morphogenic factors by pluripotent embryonic stem cells undergoing differentiation and producing stem cell-derived matrices for acellular tissue therapies. It is expected that engineering of stem cell differentiation and derivation of stem cell biotherapeutics will yield fresh insights into stem cell and developmental biology, as well as new regenerative medicine therapies and in vitro diagnostic technologies.

Visit the McDevitt ESCT Laboratory

To view video: McDevitt - Breakfast Club Seminar

]]> Colly Mitchell 1 1240963200 2009-04-29 00:00:00 1475895971 2016-10-08 03:06:11 0 0 news 2009-04-21T00:00:00-04:00 2009-04-21T00:00:00-04:00 2009-04-21 00:00:00 Colly Mitchell
Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience
Contact Colly Mitchell
404-894-5982]]>
<![CDATA[View Video Here]]>
<![CDATA[McDevitt Research Highlighted in Nature Materials]]> 27195 "Materials in a Cellular World"

Biological factors are not the only influence on stem-cell behaviour

]]> Colly Mitchell 1 1219881600 2008-08-28 00:00:00 1475895966 2016-10-08 03:06:06 0 0 news 2008-08-01T00:00:00-04:00 2008-08-01T00:00:00-04:00 2008-08-01 00:00:00 Colly Mitchell
Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience
Contact Colly Mitchell
404-894-5982]]>
<![CDATA[Todd McDevitts Research Highlighted on Live Science]]> 27195 Live Science, an NSF supported online publication, features the stem cell research of Todd McDevitt, PhD.

Behind the Scenes: Stem Cell Research Goes Beyond Biology

To read article: http://www.livescience.com/space/080523-bts-mcdevitt-stem-cells.html

]]> Colly Mitchell 1 1211846400 2008-05-27 00:00:00 1475895966 2016-10-08 03:06:06 0 0 news 2008-05-23T00:00:00-04:00 2008-05-23T00:00:00-04:00 2008-05-23 00:00:00 Colly Mitchell
Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience
Contact Colly Mitchell
404-894-5982]]>