Category Archives: BioEngineering

The Craig H. Neilsen Foundation is inviting applications for its Spinal Cord Injury Research on the Translational Spectrum (SCIRTS) grants program. Through the program, grants will be awarded to novel approaches to improving function and developing curative therapies after SCI. SCIRTS Grants support research projects that include but are not limited to the following areas:

Three types of grants will be awarded:

Postdoctoral Fellowships: Grants of $100,00 per year for up to two years will be awarded to encourage early-career training and specialization in spinal cord injury research.

Pilot Research Grants: Grants of up to $200,000 per year for up to two years will be awarded to establish new investigators in spinal cord injury research and assume the risk inherent when established investigators undertake new directions in their work.

Senior Research Grants: Grants of up to $800,000 over up to three years will be awarded to encourage senior-level investigators to expand the scope of their work into new directions through targeted studies with high potential to move the field forward.

Eligible candidates must have a doctoral or equivalent terminal degree such as an MD, DVM, or PhD and conduct research at a nonprofit academic and/or research institution or rehabilitation facility in the United States or Canada.

Letters of intent must be received by June 9, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. ET. Upon review, selected applicants will be invited to submit a full application, due November 10, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. ET.

For complete program instructions and application instructions, see the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation website. Link to complete RFP

Please contact Melissa Hey (melissa.cobleigh@yale.edu) in the Office of Development if you are interested in applying.

Submitted by Isabella Backman on May 10, 2023

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Spinal Cord Injury Research on the Translational Spectrum (SCIRTS ... - Yale School of Medicine

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciencesby a University of Maryland-led team has opened the door to seeing how cells respond to physical signals.

We elucidated a cell's sense of touch, said Wolfgang Losert, a professor of physics at UMD and a team leader of the study. We think how cells sense the physical environment may be quite distinct from how they sense the chemical environment. This may help us develop new treatment options for conditions that involve altered physical cellular environments, such as tumors, immune disease and wound healing.

A major difference between chemical signals, which are more fully understood, and physical signals is size. Chemical signals are 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Physical cues are the heavyweights in the ring.

Were really answering a kind of long-standing mystery of how cells react to cues in their environment that are on a physical rather than chemical-size scale, said paper co-author John T. Fourkas, a professor in UMDs Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, who, like Losert has a joint appointment in the Institute for Physical Science and Technology.

The Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative, funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, includes researchers in physics, chemistry, biology, bioengineering and dermatology from UMD and several other institutions. The team studied the major players in a cells interaction with its physical environment: the cytoskeleton, a network of proteins that surround a cell and acts as a direct sensor of the physical environment; actin, the protein that keeps cells connected; and the cells signaling pathway. They found that the networks that guide cell migration are upstream for chemical sensing and downstream for physical, topographic sensing; and that actin is the direct sensor for both types of signals.

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UMD-led Study on How Cells Get Signals From Physical Senses ... - Maryland Today

By BZ Zuniga

There will be two CSUMB Provost Award winners at graduation this year. Spencer Hart Winter has been chosen for the Provosts Award for Exemplary Academic Achievement, and Ana Maria Treadwell-Delgado is receiving the Provosts Graduate Award for Exemplary Academic Achievement.

Ana Maria Treadwell-Delgado

Treadwell-Delgado is a multilingual and culturally competent instructional designer with experience in project analysis, development, and implementation. She is passionate about instructional theory, learning design, adult learning, performance improvement, and educational technology.

She has earned a masters in instructional science and technology, and a bachelor of art in world languages and cultures from CSUMB. As an instructional designer, Treadwell-Delgado says her mission is to design and implement solutions that lead to improvement and change.

She considers her greatest accomplishment, being a mother of two: As I see them grow and become their own [people], my heart swells with pride. I hope to have served them well.

During her undergrad time at CSUMB, one of her favorite professors was Maria Zielina. She enjoyed analyzing Latin-American literature in Zielinas courses, especially deciphering symbolism.

Literature has been beyond fascinating ever since, Treadwell-Delgado said.

During her grad school years she enjoyed learning and working with all of the MIST faculty.

After graduation, she is going on a trip with her husband and children to Spain, Italy and, finally, to Colombia to visit her family.

Spencer Hart Winter

Spencer Hart Winter is graduating with a dual major in molecular biology and human development and family science.

He was a WAVE Fellow at the Qian Lab at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena this past summer, where he worked on projects which improved the function and behavior of catalytic DNA-based logic circuits and designed and implemented DNA-based circuitry.

He was a Undergraduate Research Opportunity Center, Barry Goldwater, and Sally Casanova scholar. He was the Vodopia-Hasson poster competition winner at Caltech, and won the CSU Trustees Award for Outstanding Achievement.

He used his Bunkyo Gakuin travel scholarship from Cabrillo College to work in a cultural development internship in Bunkyo Gakuin University in Tokyo, Japan. And his NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program will help fund his PhD program in bioengineering at Caltech.

In his career, he hopes to advance intelligent behavior in DNA-based soft robots. Winter encourages students to not be afraid of exploring new subjects.

I came to CSUMB as a preschool teacher doing a bachelors degree late in order to improve my job prospects, he said. I'm leaving as a scientist heading to one of the top engineering schools in the world for my PhD.

He is getting married in June and will be starting his PhD program in bioengineering at Caltech this fall.

The two winners of this year's Provost Award both plan to remain in California.

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Two extraordinary students are graduating with 2023 Provost Awards - CSUMB

Two undergraduate student speakers will share their journeys and insights with UC Merceds graduating class and their families and friends at two commencement ceremonies to be held this weekend.

Gehad Elhanafy, a bioengineering major from Merced, will speak at the May 13 ceremony for the schools of Natural Sciences and Engineering.

During her time on campus, she served two terms as the internal vice president of the Associated Students of UC Merced and as president of the Muslim Students Association. Additionally, she conducted research in the Victor Muoz group as a Center for Cellular and Biomolecular Machines NSF-CREST Fellow. Additionally, she worked as an intellectual property intern for the Office of Research and Economic Development.

In 2021,Elhanafyreceived the Distinguished Volunteer Scholarshipfrom the University Friends Circle for her community service work.

Looking back to 2013, when I first arrived in the United States and didn't know a word of English, to now having the opportunity to be the commencement speaker is an achievement that represents my struggles and triumphs, she said. My journey and success are a testament to the continued support I felt from my parents, and the community I built in Merced, especially at UC Merced.

It will be an absolute honor to share with my fellow graduates what being a Bobcat means to me and how it has left a lasting impression on my life, she said.

Through the Community Engagement Centers Projects with Purpose program, Elhanafy completed four summer internships.

I worked with the community to encourage engagement in a time where social disconnection and limited resources were prevalent, she said. UC Merceds efforts in serving the community are reflected in my work to ensure that my community and I carried this mentality for my remaining three years both internally and externally.

After graduation, Elhanafy will apply to law school to pursue corporate law to help contribute to the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem at UC Merced and in the Central Valley.

Kimberly Farias, a first-generation Mexican American student from Madera who double majored in political science and psychology, will speak at the May 14 ceremony for School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts graduates.

While at UC Merced, Farias was a lead resident assistant of four residence halls, a member of the International Honors Society in Psychology Psi Chi, and a member of Phi Alpha Delta Professional Law Fraternity where she served as treasurer and community service chair. She also interned at the External Affairs Office of Governor Gavin Newsom.

She participated in research with Professor Courtenay Conrads Political Science Lab and Professor Linda Camerons Health Communication Interventions Lab. She also received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Center and she had two of her research papers published in UC Merceds Undergraduate Research Journal.

It is a tremendous privilege for me to be selected as the commencement speaker. I am deeply grateful for this chance to address my fellow classmates and the UC Merced community, and to share the incredible ways in which UC Merced has contributed to my personal, academic growth and achievements. Farias said. I want to thank my family, specifically my mother. Gracias mami por todo tu apoyo incondicional, por tus sabios consejos y por estar siempre presente. No habra logrado esto sin ti. Te quiero mucho y esto es para ti.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to my UC Merced professors, Dr. Courtney Conrad and Dr. Linda Cameron; thank you for always believing in me and for all your endless support and mentorship.

After graduation, Farias plans to attend graduate school to earn a Ph.D. in political science and then pursue law school.

I hope to use my education and experiences to serve and advocate for underrepresented minority communities and first-generation students, she said.

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Student Speakers will Impart Words of Wisdom at Commencement ... - University of California, Merced

Studying patients in the safety of the operating room, an innovative researcher unlocks some secrets of fentanyl, one of the worlds most used and misused opioids.

With the pandemic exacerbating an already devastating opioid epidemic, efforts to stop it have taken on new urgency. Now, an innovative study by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital is providing new hope in this ongoing battle.

The research, led by Patrick L. Purdon, PhD, the Nathaniel M. Sims Endowed Chair in Anesthesia Innovation and Bioengineering at Mass General, suggests that fine-tuning or titrating the dosing of fentanyl (an opioid widely used during surgery) to a patients specific drug requirements can help prevent chronic opioid use afterwards a tragic, unintended result for some patients.

Many people who chronically use opioids trace their usage to narcotics prescribed for pain after surgery. While most people stop taking their medication as their pain eases, others dont, either because their pain persists, and/or they have developed a dependence on their medication.

Some become addicted, experiencing physical cravings and a compulsion to take opioids even when it interferes with work, family, and other life responsibilities. Indeed, between 9 and 13 percent of surgical patients chronically use opioids after surgery, says Dr. Purdon.

It turns out if patients arent sufficiently medicated during surgery, they are more likely to experience increased pain afterwards. They also are more likely to take pain-dulling opioids and for a longer period than patients with less post-surgical pain. Their risk for chronic use rises.

If we can do a better job of controlling pain in surgery, we can reduce post-operative pain and the chance of addiction, Dr. Purdon says. Every percentage point matters, he says, referring to the people behind the grim statistic.

Working across multiple brain circuits, opioids such as fentanyl provide powerful pain relief and sedation. In the event of surgery or placement on a ventilator, they help patients tolerate intubation and surgical procedures.

With fentanyl, its a challenge to determine the best dose for each patient, says Dr. Purdon. Too much fentanyl may cause over-sedation and labored breathing; too little may fail to control the bodys response to the scalpel.

To monitor fentanyls impact, anesthesiologists look in real-time at each patients blood pressure and heart rate. But this, too, can prove difficult. Changes can be subtle, driven by blood loss and other factors. Unconscious patients cant communicate.

Finding an objective clinical biomarker could help health care professionals in these settings properly adjust doses to each patients body chemistry.

As part of their study, Dr. Purdon and his team also scrutinized each patients respiration rate. To their surprise, when patients received their first dose of fentanyl 1,700 times lower than needed for sedation their breathing became more shallow and less frequent. After four minutes, their respiration rate plummeted even though their hearing remained intact. This was a surprise secondary finding of their study, and one that has major public health implications.

When people unknowingly ingest fentanyl, commonly laced into heroin, cocaine and other illicit street substances, their breathing can become quickly compromised.

This explains why fentanyl is so deadly. You stop breathing even before you realize it, says Dr. Purdon. There is no amount of fentanyl in street drugs that can possibly be safe.

Inspired by the life-saving potential of these findings, Dr. Purdon is now working to share them and encourage support for more research, which was initially funded through the Nathaniel M. Sims Endowed Chair and later the National Institutes of Healths National Institute on Drug Abuse.

His other goal is to develop software that will help medical professionals accurately track and titrate fentanyl administration for all patients.

With that technology, we think we can reduce the number of surgical patients who end up chronically using opioids. Ultimately, we hope to prevent addiction and the risk of dying from opioids, bought on the street and tainted with fentanyl.

This story was originally published on giving.massgeneral.org. View it here

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Discovery Yields New Hope in Preventing Chronic Opioid Use - Massachusetts General Hospital

The pole vault must be one of the most difficult events in track and field. Imagine running down a long path with a 10- to 17-foot-long pole made out of fiberglass or carbon fiber stuck out in front. Then at the right time its placed into a slot in the ground, called the box, and youre sprung heavenward with the goal of having enough coordination to stick your feet straight up in the air, pushing off the pole enough to bend your body over a small metal bar, release the pole and fall downward into a big cushion. Hopefully, you never touched that horizontal bar suspended more than 10 feet in the air.

It takes strength and coordination to do this. Few can accomplish the goal. Most are likely too chicken to try.

Not Abigail Wagner. The Pleasant Grove High School senior not only pole vaults well, but shes the favorite to win the event in this weeks Sac-Joaquin Section Master Track and Field Meet in Davis.

This spring Wagners best vault of 12 feet, three inches has been the best in the Section. Now, the Boston University signee thinks if she can repeat that jump she may punch her ticket to the CIF State Track and Field Championships, May 26-27 at Buchanan High School. That mark is the minimum vault needed to be at least an at-large entrant into the State meet.

Her coach, Tony Gates, called Wagner a type of a trailblazer for his excellent track program at Pleasant Grove because there are now several underclassmen following in her footsteps at the pole vault pit.

She is a fixture on the team, Gates said during Thursdays Letter of Intent ceremony for all Pleasant Grove athletes. When kids look to her, they react, Well, I better do it, too. Weve been able to build a strong pole vault program with Abby at the center. Our pole vault program has become the top of the Section. We have a phalanx of younger pole vaulters in the program that are younger Abbys.

Wagners leap of five feet, 3.25 inches in the high jump this spring has been one of the best in the Section in that event, too. She had to scratch from that event in this weeks Division I meet because it conflicted with an AP Physics exam. Its one of the hazards of a spring sports athlete. Those kind of exams cannot be postponed nor made up.

A former basketball player, she says the pandemic almost forced her to change sports and go out for the track team.

COVID shut down all indoor sports and I was originally a basketball player and basketball got shut down and I decided to join track and field, Wagner said. I went to high jump to improve my vertical for basketball and I ended up doing pole vault, almost as a joke.

Her parents said shes so long and lanky, she should try it. Wagner did and has had success.

I ended up loving it so much I didnt go back to basketball, she said.

Whether she wins a medal or not this season at either the Masters or the State meet, Wagner has her career goals set she wants to get into bioengineering as a student at B.U.

I want to get into synthetic organs, she explained. Instead of an organ transplant, I want to create technology that can 3D-print organs that can be used in a transplant.

But, before she heads into that burgeoning field of medicine, there are a few more sprints down the runway carrying her pole. If she can equal or even top her best vault at the Masters, she thinks shell win the event.

I think could win it with low 12s (feet), as long as I have a clean slate and no misses, Wagner said. But, if I jump mid- to high-12s Ill for sure get it.

Division I Track and Field Championships - Results

(local athletes)

Boys Triple Jump - Jordan Redmond (Franklin) 3rd, 39-6.5

Girls Discus - Amanda Javellana (Pleasant Grove) 1st, 109-06; Elizabeth Byars (Cosumnes Oaks) 3rd, 98-03.

Boys High Jump - Sean Rowing (Pleasant Grove) 2nd, 6-02.

Girls Pole Vault - Abigail Wagner (Pleasant Grove) 2nd, 11-11.

Girls 4x100m relay - Franklin 2nd, 49.03

Girls 100m hurdles - Addy Velasco (Pleasant Grove) 4th, 15.66

Boys 400 meters - Elias Weathers (Cosumnes Oaks) 2nd, 49.41

Girls 100 meters - Aniaya Bishop (Cosumnes Oaks) 2nd, 12.12; Favour Iyasere (Pleasant Grove) 5th, 12.36

Boys 100 meters - Ian Dossman (Franklin) 1st, 10.52; Kalil Powers (Cosumnes Oaks) 3rd, 10.85

Girls 800 meters - Lilly Escorcia (Elk Grove) 1st, 2:15.15; Theone Divinagracia (Franklin) 4th 2:17.87

Boys 300m hurdles - Stephen Dahdouh (Pleasant Grove) 2nd, 39.71; Matthew McHale (Pleasant Grove) 4th 41.18

Boys 200m - Ian Dossman (Franklin) 1st 21.42; Andrew Bishop (Cosumnes Oaks) 4th 22.35

Boys 3200m - Matthew McDonald (Cosumnes Oaks) 7th, 9:44.96

Girls 4x400m relay - Franklin, 3rd 4:02.06

Boys 4x400m relay - Cosumnes Oaks, 1st 3:22.05

Boys Pole Vault - Sean Rowing (Pleasant Grove) 7th, 13-00

Girls High Jump - Favour Iyasere (Pleasant Grove) 2nd, 5-04

Boys Discus - Luke Stuckey (Pleasant Grove) 2nd, 127-08

Boys Long Jump - Sean Rowing (Pleasant Grove) 5th, 19-05

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Wagner pole vaults her way into track and field post-season - Elk Grove Citizen