Category Archives: BioEngineering

Climate scientists have been drawing red lines in the sand for some time, pointing out various thresholds we dare not cross for fear of doing irreparable damage to the planet and our future on it. And yet we continue to do not enough, and one by one those milestones are falling behind us. Few experts now believe we'll be able to avoid warming the earth past the 1.5C increase that's expected to signify irreversible catastrophe. To the horror of experts who have been desperately trying to get our attention in the hopes that we may still have time to change our ways, more and more scientists are switching to Plan B. Their attitude is essentially, "Okay, the battle may already be lost. Let's see if we can geoengineer our way out of this mess." And now researchers at Harvard are about to begin the largest geoengineering experiment ever, a $20 million project to see if they can simulate the cooling effects of a natural volcano in the atmosphere.

There are basically two objections to bioengineering experiments like this.

First is that they take scarce financial resources away from clean energy research and other projects to mitigate the damage we're doing. Indeed, the Harvard team envisions a man-made solar shield covering the earth for $10 billion a year.

Alaskas Pavlov volcano (NASA/GODDARD)

Second, bioengineering can be an extremely dangerous thing to experiment with. Kevin Trenberth, of the UNs intergovernmental panel on climate change, recently told The Guardian that he understood researchers' growing desperation, "But solar geoengineering is not the answer, he said. Cutting incoming solar radiation affects the weather and hydrological cycle. It promotes drought. It destabilizes things and could cause wars. The side effects are many and our models are just not good enough." We have plenty of evidence that the volcanic cooling Harvard wants to learn to replicate can be devastating: The Mount Tambora eruption in 1815 caused crop failures, resulting in famine and outbreaks of disease during Europe's "year without a summer."

The Harvard scientist leading the project, Frank Keutsch, doesn't especially disagree, but he says, At the same time, we should never choose ignorance over knowledge in a situation like this." When Harvards scientists look at the intersection between our energy and climate systems, they dont see how we can switch to cleaner fuels in time, and theve produced a video to make their case.

The first test Harvard has planned is a $10 million "stratospheric controlled perturbation" (SCoPEX) test. In the experiment, a StratoCruiser suspended from a balloon would spray a mix of water and small, reflective sulphate particles into the stratosphere 20km up to generate a 100-meter wide and 1-kilometer long ice plume.

(DYKEMA)

The craft has an engine, aerosol generator, and detection equipment. What they want to observe is if there are harmful side-effects to our injecting sulphur into the atmosphere as volcanoes do. If they see a sudden drop in ozone vital for shielding us from the suns radiation they'd shut the experiment down. They say the test wont put any more sulphur into the stratosphere than an intercontinental flight from Europe to the U.S.

The scientists are currently lab-testing a limestone compound for its aerosol properties with the plan to send that up next in a StratoCruiser. By 2022, they hope to deploy two small scale water dispersals, followed by calcium carbonate particles. Aluminum oxide and diamonds are other possible materials to be aerosolized and injected into the skies at some point down the road.

(PENN STATE)

Geoengineering advocates recognize that large scale tests are too dangerous to attempt, and theres no clear-cut way to extrapolate large-scale outcomes from small-scale test results. So the only option left is to conduct so many small experiments that scientists can feel at least somewhat more confident about what to expect in larger deployments.

To me, solar geoengineering is terrifying, says Daniel P. Schrag in Harvards video. Were talking about an engineering project that will affect every living thing on this planet. The possibility that something could go wrong is really scary and yet, as scary as that is, and uncertain as some of the impact of solar engineering may be, I think the evidence is clearer and clearer that not doing climate bioengineering, and letting climate change proceed, may be actually worse.

parag-khanna-on-climate-change-and-connectivity

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Harvard Scientists Admit Geoengineering Is Scary, But It's Time to ... - Big Think

Tyler Bylsma 17 was playing on both the offensive and defensive lines on the Calvin High School varsity football team when the most unfortunate of circumstances altered the course of his life.

During a game in his junior year, Bylsma broke his wrist.

The injury ended both his football and wrestling seasons that year but it also spurred a medical journey that has inspired him to this day. In the days following his injury, Bylsma got an MRI, underwent ultrasound therapy and eventually needed surgery to implant screws into his wrist.

Going through all of that got me interested in the medical field and how machinery can diagnose and heal people, Bylsma said. Thats what got me interested in Biomedical Engineering.

Bylsma was healed and ready to wrestle and play football in his senior year of high school but his experiences from the previous year helped guide his decision to pursue engineering in college.

I had two cousins who graduated from Kettering and they both work at General Motors right now. One of them really convinced me that I should go to Kettering because of the co-op experience, Bylsma said. Im getting real world experience and thats the thing that set me over.

Bylsma left the Grand Rapids, Michigan area for the first time in his life to pursue a Mechanical Engineering degree at Kettering while completing his co-op at Boston Scientific in Spencer, Indiana.

During his first co-op term, Bylsma was conducting tests to validate a medical device process. His second rotation was assisting with the development of a manufacturing process. The device he worked on - LithoVue, a digital flexible ureteroscope - is now on the market in the United States. He also worked on SureDrive, a steerable ureteral stent deployment device that is now popular in Europe.

We only want to make good products, Bylsma said. We validate the process to make sure we only make good parts. We dont want the surgeon to take out a piece of equipment that isnt working. We need to make sure everything is manufactured correctly.

Bylsma spent the next three terms at Boston Scientific working on a confidential thesis project that involved creating a new tool for doctors to heal patients with kidney stones. In fall 2016, Bylsma brought his work experiences to Kettering when he engaged in an independent study alongside Dr. Patrick Atkinson in the Mechanical Engineering department. For this study, Bylsma wanted to design and produce a prosthetic hand that responded to biological signals.

I thought it was a good project because I would cover areas of Biomedical Engineering such as Biomechanics for the hand, and bio-signal processing in more depth, Bylsma said. Your body sends out signals, I used those signals to turn the motor of the hand on and off.

Bylsma demonstrated the results of his independent study in Mech 350 Introduction to Bioengineering in February 2017, a class he had also taken the previous year which further cemented his desire to pursue Biomedical Engineering. After attaching sensors on his elbow and forearm, Bylsma showed how a response from his arm resulted in a movement in the prosthetic hand.

Mech 350 is the first of five required classes for the Biomedical Engineering concentration at Kettering. Atkinson describes the concentration as a holistic approach to the field as it provides a strong foundation in both Engineering and Biology. For example, students are able to take classes related to the mechanics of the body while also completing coursework in the Crash Safety Center on campus to see how the body responds to trauma in extreme circumstances.

The curriculum complements the experiences that our students have in their co-op positions and the combination of the two sets them up for future success, Atkinson said. Tyler has an enormous amount of knowledge of the biomedical industry which will provide him with multiple career opportunities in the medical and engineering fields.

Bylsma will graduate in June 2017 and is currently in the process of applying to graduate schools in Biomedical Engineering. Whether in industry or in higher education, he ultimately hopes to work on the potential therapeutic properties of ultrasound as a non-invasive surgery tool.

Written By Pardeep Toor | Contact: Pardeep Toor - ptoor@kettering.edu - (800) 955-4464 ext. 5970

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Kettering University student creates prosthetic hand for Bioengineering independent study - Kettering University News

Everyone knows that eating vegetables is great for maintaining heart health, but what about using leafy greens to create part of a human heart?

Although the research is still in its infancy, a group of scientists from Massachusettss Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has been able to successfully grow heart tissue on the leaves of spinach with the aim of one day being able to use the plant to replace diseased tissue in human hearts, such as those affected by a heart attack.

In a study published online ahead of its release in next months journal Biomaterials, senior author and bioengineering professor Glenn Gaudette and his team at WPI report being able to grow human heart cells that could contract or beat after five days for a total of 21 days straight.

With a chronic shortage of donor organs, researchers have resorted to engineering large-scale human tissue using techniques such as 3-D printing. One complex problem that has impeded this research, however, is how to recreate a small, intricate vascular system in order to deliver oxygen and nutrients required for proper tissue growth.

One of the big problems in tissue engineering today is getting blood supply to the newly-created tissue, Gaudette explained to CTVNews.ca in a phone interview from Worcester, Mass.

To overcome this problem, scientists have started looking at plants for a potential solution. Bioengineering researchers have begun experimenting with growing organs on different plants using their branching network of veins, which delivers water and nutrients to the leaves.

The University of Ottawas Pelling Lab has been testing plant-based biomaterials for growing tissue for the past four years. The labs work of cultivating a human ear on an apple slice made headlines last year and attracted international attention to the emerging field.

Its just funny. A few years ago I was literally presenting our work and being laughed at in conferences and now other groups are actually saying, Hey it wasnt so crazy, Andrew Pelling, the labs founder remarked during a phone interview from Ottawa.

Why spinach?

The scientists at WPI have been working in the field of cardiac research for a number of years and realized the potential in plants, and spinach in particular, just by looking at them. Joshua Gershlak, a graduate student and the studys lead author, said they were inspired to use spinach when they noticed it looks pretty similar to a human hearts aorta, the main artery extending from the heart.

When you look at spinach, when you hold it up to the light, you can see the nice veins passing through the leaf. It turns out that the system of pipes, the vasculature in the leaf, is very similar to human muscle tissue, Gaudette added.

In order to create the right conditions on the spinach for human heart cells to grow, the researchers used a process called decellurization to strip the plant of its cells. To do this, Gershlak said the team used detergents and soaps found in body wash, but in a much higher concentration, and pumped them through the leafs veins. The spinachs plant vasculature made up of primarily cellulose is all thats left once the stripping process is complete.

Gaudette said the nice thing about the decellurization process is that it rids the biomaterial of its natural cells, which the human body ordinarily rejects during a transplant. He cited the example of a heart transplant and how its the new organs cells that are rejected by the recipient. In the case of spinach, its cells would be stripped away, making it potentially easier for the body to accept; however, biocompatibility tests still need to be conducted.

The material thats left behind, the cellulose, is actually pretty compatible. Its been used in a bunch of different applications, Gaudette said.

More research needed

Andrew Pelling, from the University of Ottawa, cautioned against reading too much into studies in their early stages, such as the one from WPI. He said the research shows promise but that its still a relatively small experiment.

I dont want people to get their hopes up when its still way too early, Pelling said.

The researcher said media coverage on plant-based biomaterials can be overblown or over-interpreted and theres still a lot of work to be done in the field.

If as a scientific community, we want our opinion and knowledge to be respected by decision makers then we have to make sure that whats being put out there is the truth and not hype because thats not much better than putting out nonsense, he warned.

Pelling did say, however, that hes encouraged that other groups, such as the WPI researchers, are delving into this field.

This is how science works. Other groups reproduce your work, they extend it and they move in new directions, he said. Thats the cool part about science and discovery.

Gaudette acknowledged his team has a lot of work to do before spinach is used to grow tissue for a human heart. He said the next steps for the researchers will be to conduct biocompatibility tests to understand how the body would react to this type of plant material inside it. He said they also still need to solve some issues surrounding blood flow in a plants vascular network.

Despite its early stages, Gaudette said hes optimistic about the future possibilities of plant-based bioengineering.

One of the exciting things for me about this area of research is really the dreaming, he said. I think were just on the tip of the iceberg here and I hope well see a lot more applications.

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Why a group of scientists grew human heart tissue on spinach - CTV News

Srivatsan Uchani, Staff Reporter March 24, 2017 Filed under News

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Some people usually dont see biology and physics as having many inherent similarities. Herbert Levine, physicist and professor of bioengineering at Rice University, seeks to challenge that view.

In a talk on March 8 at the Euclid Tavern, Levine described in detail the ways in which computational modeling can be used to develop a detailed understanding and appreciation of the mechanics underlying cell movement. In his estimation, his work in this area is a key example of how physics can profoundly inform and enhance our knowledge of biology.

The talk was called Cells that Figure out Where to Go: Smart Behavior from Amoebae to our Immune System, and dealt with the methods employed by cells of varying degrees of complexity to ensure accurate navigation. According to Levine, organisms such as amoebae and white blood cells can be broadly grouped together when it comes to motion. This is because they both rely on the same general mechanisms in order to move to target locations within their respective environments.

Cells figure out where to go by using primitive senses, mostly smelldetecting chemicalsand touchdetecting the hardness of surfaces, said Levine. [Of course] for cells, chemical detection is usually more important than any mechanical stimulus.

According to him, such methods of detection are crucial for cells to establish which parts of their surroundings are favorable to move towards, and to distinguish such desirable areas from more unfavorable locations. He provided an example: In much the same way that human beings are attracted to fragrant scents and repulsed by putrid stenches, cells know to move to certain places because such locations emit chemical signals that are attractive to them.

Cells are incredibly sophisticated in terms of their overall capabilities as compared to almost anything synthetic, said Levine. [They] can forage for food, can move to higher ground when faced with stressors [and can even] delay division when faced with other needs for resources.

Levine went on to explain that in contrast to the popular view of such self-preserving activities as being purely the domain of so-called higher organisms, many of these complex behaviors developed much earlier in the evolution of life than most people realize. Moreover, a significant number of the abilities displayed by microorganisms easily outstrip not only those of higher-order species, but even those of the most advanced machines.

With all the progress on self-driving cars and the like, we still cannot build robots that refuel themselves off the land, reproduce, respond to a wide range of different stimuli and survive in a wide range of environments, Levine declared.

It was the realization of how much more complicated cells can be than even technology that led Levine to focus much of his work on computerized models of cellular movement. This approach to studying cell motility is unorthodox, to say the least, due in no small part to the amount of guesswork and speculation involved.

Because of the tiny scale of their subjects and the very subtle nature of their activities, Levine and his team must work by first developing plausible-sounding models of cell motion, and then testing their accuracy in real life. It is meticulous but often precarious work.

We usually [begin by formulating] a series of computer models, starting from a simple one and proceeding to more realistic ones, that challenge us to see if we really understand how it might work, said Levine.

Once he and his colleagues have determined that a model accurately captures the specific cellular phenomena under observation, they can extrapolate it to predict hypothetical alternative scenarios, such as the potential response of cells to chemical signals that are received in staggered bursts rather than in one continuous wave.

This strategy of build something simple, test it and then try to have it fail by devising increasingly sophisticated tests is not a typical approach for someone without a physical science background, he admitted. [However], in our opinion it does lead to a more complete and quantitative understanding of how something like directed cell movement actually works [than a traditional biological approach might allow].

Levine believes that his research exemplifies an often underappreciated link between physics and biology. In his opinion, other than the obvious technological contributions made by physics to the life sciences (such as microscopes and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology), the full potential for cooperation between the two fields is not often grasped by the public. This is something he aspires to change.

I hope to show with my work that physics can also contribute new conceptual ways of thinking about the possible ways in which complex [biological] systems can carry out complex functions, said Levine.

He stresses that neither field can work in a vacuum, and that each would only be enriched by fully utilizing the other.

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Bioengineering professor gives talk on biology, physics working together - The Observer

Heart tissue grown on spinach leaves: Researchers turn to the ... Science Daily Researchers face a fundamental challenge as they seek to scale up human tissue regeneration from small lab samples to full-size tissues and organs: how to ... and more »

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Heart tissue grown on spinach leaves: Researchers turn to the ... - Science Daily

Researchers at UCLA have developed an improved method to detect the presence of DNA biomarkers of disease that is compatible with use outside of a hospital or lab setting. The new technique leverages the sensors and optics of cellphones to read light produced by a new detector dye mixture that reports the presence of DNA molecules with a signal that is more than 10-times brighter.

Nucleic acids, such as DNA or RNA, are used in tests for infectious diseases, genetic disorders, cancer mutations that can be targeted by specific drugs, and fetal abnormality tests. The samples used in standard diagnostic tests typically contain only tiny amounts of a diseases related nucleic acids. To assist optical detection, clinicians amplify the number of nucleic acids making them easier to find with the fluorescent dyes.

Both the amplification and the optical detection steps have in the past required costly and bulky equipment, largely limiting their use to laboratories.

In a studypublished onlinein the journal ACS Nano, researchers from three UCLA entities the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, the California NanoSystems Institute, and the David Geffen School of Medicine showed how to take detection out of the lab and for a fraction of the cost.

The collaborative team of researchers included lead author Janay Kong, a UCLA Ph.D. student in bioengineering; Qingshan Wei, a post-doctoral researcher in electrical engineering; Aydogan Ozcan, Chancellors Professor of Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering; Dino Di Carlo, professor of bioengineering and mechanical and aerospace engineering; andOmai Garner, assistant professor of pathology and medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

The UCLA researchers focused on the challenges with low-cost optical detection. Small changes in light emitted from molecules that associate with DNA, called intercalator dyes, are used to identify DNA amplification, but these dyes are unstable and their changes are too dim for standard cellphone camera sensors.

But the team discovered an additive that stabilized the intercalator dyes and generated a large increase in fluorescent signal above the background light level, enabling the test to be integrated with inexpensive cellphone based detection methods. The combined novel dye/cellphone reader system achieved comparable results to equipment costing tens of thousands of dollars more.

To adapt a cellphone to detect the light produced from dyes associated with amplified DNA while those samples are in standard laboratory containers, such as well plates, the team developed a cost-effective, field-portable fiber optic bundle. The fibers in the bundle routed the signal from each well in the plate to a unique location of the camera sensor area. This handheld reader is able to provide comparable results to standard benchtop readers, but at a fraction of the cost, which the authors suggest is a promising sign that the reader could be applied to other fluorescence-based diagnostic tests.

Currently nucleic acid amplification tests have issues generating a stable and high signal, which often necessitates the use of calibration dyes and samples which can be limiting for point-of-care use, Di Carlo said. The unique dye combination overcomes these issues and is able to generate a thermally stable signal, with a much higher signal to noise ratio. The DNA amplification curves we see look beautiful without any of the normalization and calibration, which is usually performed, to get to the point that we start at.

Additionally, the authors emphasized that the dye combinations discovered should be able to be used universally to detect any nucleic acid amplification, allowing for their use in a multitude of other amplification approaches and tests.

The team demonstrated the approach using a process called loop-mediated isothermal amplification, or LAMP, with DNA from lambda phage as the target molecule, as a proof of concept, and now plan to adapt the assay to complex clinical samples and nucleic acids associated with pathogens such as influenza.

The newest demonstration is part of a suite of technologies aimed at democratizing disease diagnosis developed by the UCLA team. Includinglow-cost optical readout and diagnostics based on consumer-electronic devices,microfluidic-based automationandmolecular assays leveraging DNA nanotechnology.

This interdisciplinary work was supported through a team science grant from the National Science Foundation Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation program.

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UCLA researchers make DNA detection portable, affordable using cellphones - University of California