UIC Bioengineering Spring 2016 Newsletter

SPRING 2016 NEWSLETTER

IN THIS ISSUE: Bioengineering Industry Day

BMES Updates

Interdisciplinary Medical Product Development

Recent Graduates

A 50-Year Retrospective by John W. Ahlen

Faculty, Student and Alumni News

New Faculty Profiles

UBSJ Journal

Bioengineering Industry Day

Why we had it?

We created Bioengineering Industry Day to help our students learn more about the types of industry opportunities available to them for internships and their future careers. It also gave them a chance to network with bioengineering professionals working in the field.

Who came?

The inaugural event was attended by 15 professionals from 10 different companies: Abbott, AbbVie, Baxter, Endotronix, FDA Chicago, Hollister Incorporated, iBIO, Midmark Corporation, Pfizer (Hospira) and Sequence QCS. Many of the professionals were UIC Bioengineering alums. There were 86 students who attended, both from the undergrad and graduate level. We anticipate holding this or a similar event each semester. We welcome new company representatives in the future. If you would like to participate, please contact Tom Cicero (tcicero@uic.edu), assistant director of the Engineering Career Center.

BioE students interacting with industry professionals at BioE Industry Day held on April 1, 2016.

Alumnus recipient of 2016 40 Under 40 award The 40 Under 40 award is given to 40 nonresidential building industry professionals age 40 and younger who stand out in personal and professional aspects of their lives. Candidates are nominated by a professional colleague or mentor and judged based on areas including their commitment to excellence in their academic, professional, personal, and community involvement.

Cover Page Research Image

Suraj Soudagar, (MS Bioengineering 2003) is a recipient of the 2016 40 under 40 and Soudagar joined KJWW Engineering Consultants in 2007 and within 3 years became a senior medical equipment planner. He is now a project executive. In addition to holding the largest project portfolio among the firm’s medical equipment team, he assists with business development and plays a major role in developing and presenting for client interviews. For more information visit http://www.csemag.com/ events-and-awards/40-under-40/2016-40-under-40-winners/single-profile/2016-40-under-40-suraj-soudagar-leed-ap36/8275b6d38691d0de77a8cd11fcb61f3f.html From the lab of Associate Professor Salman Khetani, PhD Top row: Left: The interactions between human liver cells can be precisely controlled by micropatterning them onto protein-coated circular spots. These cells were obtained from individuals whose livers were donated for research.

Middle: The micropatterned human liver cells become fatty (green dye stains fats inside the cells) when exposed to high glucose, just as what occurs in the body of a diabetic patient.

Right: High glucose also causes the human liver cells to store glycogen (purple-magenta color), a polymer of glucose that can be broken down to provide the entire body with glucose during periods of starvation or fasting.

Bottom row: Left: Several colonies of human liver cells can be micropatterned simultaneously for screening multiple drugs for any toxicity, which is a major reason for why drugs fail in the marketplace.

Right: The micropatterned human liver cells with nuclei (blue dye) form channels between them (green dye) that export bile, a critical substance that is produced by the liver but aids in digestion of fats in the intestine.

Interdisciplinary Medical Product Development Daniel Helm still has a few weeks before he graduates, but he’s already had a taste of real-world workplace interactions. Helm is among more than 30 students in bioengineering, business and industrial design who are working together — and learning from each other in the process — to solve complex medical problems in a two-semester course called Interdisciplinary Product Development.

“It’s really great to get that team-based type of environment right before going into the workforce because that’s what you’re going to be dealing with your entire life,” said Helm, a senior in industrial design. During the course, which has been offered since 2002, students typically develop products to suit the needs of a corporate partner. This semester, however, the course partnered with Mark Rosenblatt, professor and head of ophthalmology, to address health care problems identified by faculty members.

“We want to create a culture of innovation within our department, think differently and take risks to do important things,” Rosenblatt said. “I’ve been tremendously impressed with the Innovation Center and what’s happening there.”

Students gather in the Innovation Center to tackle their product development projects under the direction of three professors: Stephen Melamed, industrial design, Miiri Kotche, bioengineering, and Jelena Spanjol, business. Students collaborate to develop an idea for a product, create and test it, and formulate a marketing plan. They are tackling five complex problems on topics such as helping patients with macular degeneration see better, relieving dryness related to computer vision syndrome, and screening babies for an eye disease in a more cost-effective way, among other projects.

Rosenblatt is impressed with the students’ work so far. “It’s a wonderful group of people working in concert, with multidisciplinary understandings of the problems,” he said. “They’re making great progress and have a lot of passion and see how they can actually help people. Things they had only imagined are really starting to happen.” Rich Hickey’s group is working on developing a more effective way to administer eye drops. “We thought it was an inspiring problem,” said Hickey, a senior in bioengineering. His group includes two industrial designers, two bioengineers and two marketers. “We have a good dynamic,” he said. “We’ve learned how to distribute the work amongst the different disciplines. I’ve learned a lot about how to design something and what considerations you need to sell it, and that’s something as engineers that we don’t talk a lot about when solving problems.”

Students in the Interdisciplinary Product Development course work on their projects in the Innovation Center. “It’s really great to get that team-based type of environment right before going into the workforce,” says senior David Helm.

Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin the students individually, but also how they are able to come together and really leverage each other.” Melamed has taught the course since its inception in 2002, and is one of the three founding faculty members of the IPD Program.

“We thought it was important to expose our students to best practices and give them the experience they would have in the working world while still in the academic institution,” said Melamed, clinical professor in the School of Design.

Collaboration among faculty members from three disciplines has also been a tremendous learning opportunity, he said. “It’s a lot more work than teaching your own class but the rewards are immense,” he said. “It has really broadened my perspective on my own discipline.” Course materials are jointly developed and delivered by the faculty team, said Spanjol, who has taught the class for five years. “We get to model for students how to work across functional boundaries,” said Spanjol, associate professor of marketing. The class will expand next year to include second-year medical students from the innovation medicine program.

“The addition of medical students will be fantastic and serve to integrate health care provider experiences into the innovation development process,” Spanjol said. “It’s very unique to have this many different perspectives onto the same problem and project.”

Adapted from UIC News “East Meets West Series” available at https://news.uic. edu/east-meets-west-designing-medical-products

Louis Panozzo, a senior in marketing, is working with his group on developing a device that would help physicians more quickly diagnose conditions related to corneal sensitivity, such as dry eye syndrome. “Working with other disciplines really helps the project come to fruition, where everyone is working toward the same goal,” he said.

The course instills a sense of confidence in its students, said Kotche, who has taught the class for four years.“ There are only one or two people from each discipline on a team, so you can’t hide behind someone else,” said Kotche, clinical associate professor of bioengineering. The students’ work could enhance existing patent applications or potentially generate new intellectual property, Melamed said. In past years, students’ work has been further developed and even commercialized by corporate sponsors. “Every year we are stretching the boundaries of the course,” Spanjol said. “These are very high-level problems. I’m incredibly impressed by the technical capabilities of

Students in bioengineering, industrial design and marketing are developing products to address health care problems identified by UIC faculty members in ophthalmology. Next year, medical students will join the two-semester course.

Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin

Bioengineering: A 50-Year Retrospective by John W. Ahlen INTRODUCTION I began a professional adventure 50 years ago as one of the first bioengineering students at the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle. It really was an adventure.

The campus was brand new; the bioengineering program was brand new; and I was an inexperienced student exploring an academic frontier. The following are the remarks originally prepared for the symposium on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the bioengineering program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Because the symposium was running long and these were the last of the formal remarks to be delivered, the formal presentation was only a subset of these speaking notes.

WE ARE WHAT WE DO AND WHERE WE HAVE BEEN The novelist James Lee Burke says, we are what we do and where we have been. I have no doubt that having been in the bioengineering program influenced the trajectory of what I was to do and shaped who I was to become.

So in many ways, this retrospective is a personal story about the forces applied to my educational direction, which determined the professional direction I was to take. The educational forces were gentle; some were memorable while others might easily have remained overlooked without studied reflection.

A view of the Campus, still under construction in 1965 (Photo: University of Illinois at Chicago; Cabanban_20227_26)

AUSTIN My earliest trajectory was determined by being born, raised, and educated in the west side Chicago neighborhood of Austin. My father was a carpenter and my mother was a nurse. They grew up during the Great Depression and as young adults played their respective parts during World War II. It would not have been uncommon for their two sons, my brother and me, to have become tradesmen, but they wanted us to have opportunities they did not have. They told us, “If you get good grades in school and stay out of trouble with the police and girls, then you can go to the college of your choice.” I decided during a career assembly in the eighth grade at Henry Nash School that I would study engineering.

As a senior at Austin High School, I considered where I would go to college after my mid-term graduation in January 1965.

John Ahlen then and now

UICC The University of Illinois at Chicago Circle (UICC) would be located just southwest of the Loop, near the open-air, second-hand market on Maxwell Street. The campus would open soon after my graduation and it had a College of Engineering. Attending classes would involve a convenient commute on the CTA (Chicago Transit Authority).

Application and registration activities for the campus, known simply as the Circle, were at Navy Pier. The Circle would be brand new; it was still under construction and hadn’t yet opened. The Pier, on the other hand, was old and gritty, but had energy and excitement. Circle was the university I wanted to attend.

Engineering students were required to declare a major at registration. I knew that I wanted to be an engineer, but I didn’t know what kind, so I selected the first major on the list: aerospace engineering. It didn’t really make that much difference since entering freshmen initially took about two years of required courses in the engineering common core curriculum.

Mayor Richard J. Daley cuts the ribbon on opening day at UICC, February 22, 1965 (Photo University of Illinois at Chicago Circle; 086 UA 90-999 0305)

My first day on the new Circle campus was February 22, 1965, which was a federal holiday marking the birthday of George Washington. It was a cold day and the Chicago Circle Center was neither completed nor open, so I walked to the student center in the Roosevelt Road Building where I could warm up while waiting for the official opening of the campus. Many officials were on hand, but the only one I remember was Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley.

A typical day during my first semester saw me arriving at the Halsted Street Station of the then Congress Street El and walking up the ramp to the broad, elevated campus walkway and then to the Lecture Center or to Lincoln Hall.

The core campus boundaries were the Congress Street Expressway (now the Eisenhower) and Taylor, Halsted, and Morgan Streets. All of the campus buildings were connected by the elevated walkway. There were very few places on campus that could be reached on ground level that first semester.

Physical Education classes were at Navy Pier. It took two class periods for one hour of PE because one had to take a shuttle bus from campus to the Pier and back.

After my last class of the day, I would take the El home.

When I started at the Circle, it was on the semester system, but shifted to the quarter system in the fall of 1965.

THE SLIDE RULE, FOCUS, & DISCIPLINE Entering freshman engineering students were required to take a one-hour non-credit course on the slide rule. Assistant Dean of Engineering Herb Stein taught the course in which I was a student. The course content contained critical pieces of information and left a lasting memory: If you want to be an engineer, you need to know how to use the slide rule. His graphic language would probably not be used in an engineering classroom today. The class that day was exclusively white males. The freshman engineering class in February 1965 may have had a single female student. As the class on the slide rule wrapped up, I recall Dr. Stein saying, “If you don’t master the slide rule, there will be consequences . . . they will be involuntary; they will be painful; and you will not want to talk about them.”

My first semester at Circle was a lot like my last semester as a senior in high school. I lived in the same home in the same neighborhood. I had the same friends. I commuted and spent my days at school, where I took subjects similar to those I took in high school. I spent evenings and weekends doing the same things I had done in high school. At mid term, I saw that my grades were below my expectations and realized that I had to make some changes if I was to succeed as an engineering student. I gave up doing things that were distractions and became more focused and self-disciplined in my commitment to engineering.

BIOENGINEERING During my first semester, the College of Engineering was reorganized into functional areas of energy, materials, information, and systems engineering, each with its own department. The names of the degree programs changed and were expanded to include new fields of concentration. I visited with my advisor at the time, Dr. Jim Hartnett, and discussed changing my major to the

new bioengineering program. He suggested that I see Dr. Bert Zuber in the Information Engineering Department. Their offices were both in University Hall.

I decided to sign up for the bioengineering program in 1965. It was clear to me that this would change my career trajectory. I did not realize at the time that, more importantly, the decision put me in the sphere of Dr. Zuber. Even though I was in bioengineering, I continued to take courses in the common core curriculum. It wasn’t until the Fall Quarter 1967 that I took Information Engineering 100, my first biology course.

EXPECTATIONS My expectation as a freshman was that I would graduate and find a job as a bioengineer, probably in a Chicago firm. It didn’t occur to me that I would someday leave Chicago.

In December 1965, my cousin, Nels Swanson, was killed in action in Vietnam.

Many classmates from Austin High were drafted into the military and served in Southeast Asia. Ron Jonsson and Matt Goossens, high school friends, also lost their lives in the conflict.

The Vietnam War altered expectations. Most male college students could count on being drafted into military service after their student deferments ended. As I neared graduation, my idea of finding a job changed to enlisting in the Air Force, where there was the opportunity to go to Officer Candidate School and fulfill my military obligation as an Air Force officer.

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH Being in Dr. Zuber’s sphere led to the opportunity to do an undergraduate research project with him the Spring Quarter 1968. This was followed by another research project with him in the Winter Quarter 1969. Doing undergraduate research put me in a lab in SEL (Science and Engineering Laboratories) doing work which I found satisfying. I spent time in conferences with Dr. Zuber where I began, with his help, to see that there was another opportunity to be explored. Though it was a longshot, I applied to pursue

John Ahlen’s Picket slide rule from UICC (Photo: John Ahlen)

TURBULENCE During a 10-day period in June 1969, four things happened in quick succession: •June 9, I had my Air Force physical and was rejected because of a hernia that – I learned later – I didn’t actually have.

•June 13, thinking that I would not be drafted, I accepted an appointment as a United States Public Health Service Trainee in the Department of Physiology at the University of Illinois at the Medical Center.

•June 15, I was one of three graduates, with David Rish and Sam Shponka, to receive a B.S. degree in bioengineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle.

•June 19, I had my previously scheduled, pre-induction physical for the Selective Service System. There was no sign of a hernia. I passed the physical, was classified 1-A, and became available for military service.

Stu Abrams, John Ahlen, Les Laskowski, and Hollis Sunderland (Photo: Hollis Sunderland)

I entered the bioengineering program in the Graduate College at the University of Illinois at the Medical Center (UIMC) Fall Quarter 1969. The uncertainty about what might happen regarding the draft continued for the next seven months.

It turned out that the decision to accept the Public Health Service Traineeship was significant. My Local Board gave me a 2-A occupational deferment in September, based in large part on information about the Traineeship provided

by Drs. Arne Troelstra, and Zuber. The first draft lottery since World War II was held December 1, 1969 and I drew number 215. I was reclassified 1-A on January 20, 1970 and was subject to the lottery for the remainder of the year.

The highest number called in 1970 was 195.

UIMC While a first-year graduate student of Physiology (actually Bioengineering) at the Medical Center, I divided my time among the Medical Center, in classes; Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Hospital, in the biomedical engineering office; and the Circle, in the research lab where I studied eye movements during reading. Bert Zuber was my thesis advisor.

As my research moved forward, I spent more time in the lab at SEL (Science and Engineering Laboratories) and in an office in the bioengineering program on the 11th floor of SEO (Science and Engineering Offices). I wrote progress reports on my work. In both the lab and the office, I was in close contact, and shared a special bond, with other graduate students, especially Stu Abrams, Les Laskowski, Hollis Sunderland, and Sam Hohmann.

In early 1973, I began looking for a position and had interviews in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. At the suggestion of Dr. Irv Miller, I applied for the first science internship with the Illinois Legislative Council. This wasn’t a perfect fit professionally but, being in Springfield, Illinois, it was the opportunity closest to Chicago. I would not have applied for the science internship in 1973 without the suggestion by Dr. Miller, who knew me from the graduate bioengineering program. Dr. Miller’s nudge in this direction was valid – in my view, at least – because I knew from Engineering Dean George Bugiarello that engineering was a liberal education and engineers’ training allowed them to do things other than engineering. Making what would become a pivotal decision, I applied for the science internship.

I was selected as the first Legislative Staff Science Intern and began the internship in October 1973. For six months I had two jobs. I did the science internship during the days at the Illinois Legislative Council and worked on finishing my thesis – Spatial and Temporal Aspects of Visual Information Processing During Reading – in the evenings. Hollis Sunderland and I received our Ph.D.s in Physiology from UIMC on May 31, 1974.

THE CAREER PATH I enjoyed the science internship. It was an exciting and meaningful experience, and I was well prepared for its challenges. Following the internship, I accepted the position of staff scientist with the Legislative Council in July 1974 and spent the next 10 years providing information to Illinois legislators on science policy issues. I did a six-month “sabbatical” in 1978 with the University of Illinois’ Institute of Government and Public Affairs, where Sam Gove was the director.

I left Illinois in 1984 to become the first president of the Arkansas Science & Technology Authority where, for almost 29 years, I gave science and technology advice to governors and legislators and directed technology-based economic development programs. In 1997, I did a year-long ASME Fellowship at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy where I worked on the U.S. Innovation Partnership.

Bob Kenyon, Bert Zuber, and John Ahlen at the Bioengineering Symposium, November 20, 2015 (Photo: Rebecca Zuber)

PROFESSOR FOR THE DAY In 2004, I came back to the campus as a Professor for the Day. In my lecture, I reflected on 11 important lessons I learned during my career. Three of them were from the time I was in the bioengineering rogram: •Engineering is a liberal education. This was a message that the Dean of Engineering, George Bugliarello, frequently delivered to engineering students.

•If it is your decision to make, don’t let others make it for you. I learned from personal experience as a graduate student at the Medical Center that, if the decision will effect you, you have to be in the room when it is being made.

•You know more than you think you know. I learned this lesson from my thesis adviser, Prof. Bert Zuber, who also advised me to Think before you speak.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION Fifty years ago, I was one of the first bioengineering students at what is now the University of Illinois at Chicago. I spent eight and a half years at the Circle and the Medical Center – all but one semester of that time in the bioengineering program. The credentials I earned, especially the Ph.D., have been important professionally. I would not have been as effective in my professional positions without them.

The bioengineering program provided more than just credentials. It was the pivot point around which my expected professional direction became better informed and nudged by faculty toward the unpredictable course that defined what I would do.

I entered the University expecting to earn a B.S. and become an engineer in industry. I left with graduate credentials in bioengineering and headed for another frontier – the Illinois General Assembly where I would be the first legislative staff science intern in the country. I would not have gone in this direction based solely on my own vision.Looking back, it appears to me that a string of four decisions led to Springfield: • Selecting bioengineering as my major • Conducting undergraduate research, due to Dr. Zuber • Applying to graduate school, because of Dr. Zuber • Applying for the legislative staff science internship, because of Dr. Miller While the decisions were mine, bioengineering program faculty (Drs. Zuber and Miller in particular) pointed out decision points I otherwise would not have considered in my line of sight. By the time I left the Circle Campus and the bioengineering program in 1973, I had acquired the professional values of engineering, knew how to define problems, and had the confidence to find factual solutions and communicate them quickly and clearly. With the credentials, values, and skills from the bioengineering program, I was well prepared to meet whatever professional challenges I would meet.

John W. Ahlen Biographical sketch John W. Ahlen, Ph.D. is retired and lives in Maumelle, Arkansas. He serves on the board of Little Rock’s eStem Public Charter School and is a charter member of the Maumelle Lions Club and has consulted with the Arkansas Public School Resource Center on broadband connectivity for public schools. He enjoys fishing and writing and belongs to book and current affairs discussion groups.

Ahlen retired from the Arkansas Science & Technology Authority as president in 2013. He held this position for 29 years, beginning six months after the Authority was created to bring the benefits of science and advanced technology to the people and state of Arkansas. As the organization’s first chief executive officer, he directed a staff that managed a broad range of job creating programs to advance the talent and innovations necessary for Arkansas to prosper. Its interests included math and science education, scientific research, technology transfer and development, risk capital investments, growth entrepreneurship, and technology extension services to manufacturers. In his position, he served in the Cabinets of four Arkansas Governors and on numerous boards and commissions. The Authority made numerous noteworthy contributions to the state and had a national reputation.

He spent a year (1997-98) during President Bill Clinton’s second term as an ASME Fellow at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy where he worked on state-federal technology partnerships. His career focus on science policy began in 1973 at the Illinois Legislative Council, where he was the state’s first legislative staff science intern and subsequently held increasingly more responsible positions. As Assistant Director for Science and Technology he directed the Science Unit’s work on energy, environmental, and natural resource issues.

He spent six months as an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Illinois’ Institute of Government and Public Affairs (1978-79) where he managed projects exploring the failure of science advisory mechanisms and improved executive branch decision making. He has a B.S. in bioengineering and Ph.D. in physiology/bioengineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a member of the Arkansas Academy of Mechanical Engineering.

Consilience of Conscience – A Book Review of “Lab Girl” by Hope Jahren, published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2016 As an academic, a research engineer and a committed tree hugger, I found much to like in the 2016 memoir, “Lab Girl” by Hope Jahren, currently a Geology and Geophysics professor at the University of Hawaii. The book intertwines three themes that span her life and career: a love of plants, a passion for hard work, and a commitment to her friend Bill, her first and only laboratory manager. The themes develop chronologically beginning with Hope’s first experience as a toddler in her father’s community college physics laboratory.

They mature as she tries to live up to her mother’s keen intellect and high expectations, and reach full flower as she finds a home in the geology and soil science research laboratories at the University of Minnesota and the University of California at Berkeley. It is at Berkeley where she meets Bill and they become engaged in a shared pursuit of new knowledge, academic excellence, and a whole lot of just plain fun. This sense of fun pervades the book. It is fun for Hope to ‘explain’ the intricacies of photosynthesis to undergraduates. It is fun for Hope to ‘think like a tree’ in trying to develop research proposals that probe how trees must learn to cope with global warming and rising carbon dioxide levels. And it is fun for Bill and Hope to dig a six-foot deep hole that exposes the innermost secrets of soil.

The book is divided into three sections (Roots and Leaves, Wood and Knots, Flowers and Fruit) that are each a metaphor for stages in her life and career.

Unlike her first love – a blue spruce that grew outside her bedroom window – she can move on when snow and gales blow, so she charts a course as an academic research scientist that forces her to reseed her mass spectrometry laboratory three times; first at Georgia Tech, second at Johns Hopkins and currently at the University of Hawaii. In each microclimate she absorbs nutrients (and an occasional toxin), basks in the sunshine of surprising discoveries, goes dormant enduring the cold shoulders of a few colleagues and more than a few granting agencies, but ultimately prevails. Along her life’s trajectory, Hope

learns, as we all do, more about herself and more about how to symbiotically interact with her surroundings. Spoiler alert: This is a thoroughly honest memoir that speaks directly to the reader on an up-close-and-personal level.

Hope is too good of a scientist and too skilled as a writer to cut corners or prune unflattering branches from the edges of her story. Nevertheless, there is a tone of consilience, in the sense that biologist Edward O. Wilson used it (“a conviction, far deeper than a mere working proposition, that the world is orderly and can be explained by a small number of natural laws.”) that flows through her life and career. Thus, now successful and settled professionally, happily married with a young son, and with time to write about her journey, she can look back with a clear vision and conscience.

Looking back, she reflects on the love and devotion that her parents, her mentors, her husband, Clint, and her lab partner, Bill, have showered on her.

She mentions near the end of the book that, “I used to pray to be made stronger; now I pray to be made grateful.” I certainly am grateful to her for sharing her book and her life. In closing, as a scientist, I feel obligated to quantify my opinion of this book. Since, unlike temperature, there is not an absolute scale of literature, I will place this book in the warm colors of the spectrum of nature writing that spans, in my experience, the writers Rachael Carson (“Silent Spring”) for her lyrical scientific style, Annie Dillard (“Pilgrim at Tinker Creek) for her poetic description of the natural world, Roger Deakin (“Wildwood: A Journal Through Trees”) for his immersive love of trees and soil, Aldo Leopold (“A Sand County Almanac”) for his commitment to conservation and environmental restoration, and Helen Macdonald (H is for Hawk) for her fierce honesty in confronting all living things. I enjoyed the book very much, and I hope that you will also make its acquaintance.

- Richard L. Magin

Regenerative Medicine And Disability Research Laboratory, Rockford The UI College of Medicine at Rockford recently started a Regenerative Medicine and Disability laboratory located within the Department of Biomedical Sciences. The aim of the laboratory is to use the latest advances in the field of regenerative medicine to find a cure or preventive measure for disability associated conditions. The laboratory is made possible by a gift from Blazer Foundation and matching funds from the College of Medicine. The laboratory is headed by two scientists, Dr. Xue-Jun Li and Dr. Mathew Thoppil-Mathew. Dr. Li is working on human embryonic stem cells to differentiate them into motor neurons that can be eventually used for transplanting into human who have spinal muscle atrophy and who have hereditary spastic paraplegia. Currently there is no effective cure for these conditions. Dr. Li is collaborating with scientists at NIH, Harvard and University of Connecticut in this project. Dr. Mathew is developing new materials for hip replacement, knee replacement and jaw replacement. Current materials used for joint replacements corrode over time and fail. Typical life of a hip replacement is 10-15 years. Dr. Mathew’s research investigates the various causes of the joint corrosion after replacement to develop newer technologies to minimize the wear and tear to the joint. His studies are also aimed at regenerating the joint tissues. Dr. Mathew is collaborating with scientists from Brazil, Germany, South Africa, Rush Medical School and the UIC College of Dentistry. Both Dr. Li and Dr. Mathew have joint appointments in the Richard and Loan Hill Department of Bioengineering.

New Faculty Profiles Mathew Mathew, PhD, Recipient of Blazer Foundation Professorship

Mathew Thoppil-Mathew, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford and in the Richard and Loan Hill Department of Bioengineering at UIC. His main research areas are simulation of human artificial joints, biomechanics and tribocorrosion aspects of implant biomaterials in dentistry and orthopedics. As the behavior of metal biomedical implants in the body is a complex issue, he seeks to find an optimum solution related to longevity, biocompatibility and stability by adopting an interdisciplinary approach. He is currently focusing on developing new diagnostic techniques and tools.

He has given several talks nationally and internationally and has chaired international conferences and workshops related to biomedical implants and tribocorrosion. He is Editor-in-chief of “Journal of Bio and Tribo-corrosion (JBTC)” and an editorial board member for several other international journals. An active member of Orthopedic Research Society (ORS) and tribocorrosion international network, he was instrumental in initiating an international research institute, “Institute of biomaterials, tribocorrosion and nanomedicine” (IBTN), a joint venture between the University of Illinois (UIC) and UNESP, Brazil. He received his PhD in mechanical engineering from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK, and completed his postdoctoral training in tribocorrosion at University of Minho, Portugal. He holds adjunct positions at the College of Dentistry and the Rush University Department of Orthopedic Surgery.

Xue-Jun (June) Li, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford and in the Richard and Loan Hill Department of Bioengineering at UIC. She studies human stem cells and motor neuron diseases to find a cure for these debilitating diseases.

Her research focuses on differentiating neuronal subtypes from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) and using these stem cell-derived neurons to study motor neuron diseases.

Dr. Li has published over 37 peer-reviewed manuscripts and three book chapters. As the lead author, she published the seminal report on the specification of spinal motor neurons from hPSCs (Nature Biotechnology, 2005). This paradigm she developed has been widely used in motor neuron research (>600 citations; Google Scholar 01/2016). Her lab has successfully established human stem cell models for spinal muscular atrophy (Cell Research, 2013; Disease Models & Mechanisms, 2016) and hereditary spastic paraplegias (Stem Cells, 2014; Human Molecular Genetics, 2014). Her research is supported by the National Institute of Health, the Connecticut Stem Cell Research Program, the Spastic Paraplegia Foundation and the ALS Association.

Dr. Li has a patent on the method of in vitro differentiation of neural stem cells and spinal motor neurons. Dr. Li has been invited to present her findings in national and international meetings and serves on several grant review panels. She received her PhD in Neurobiology from Shanghai Medical School of Fudan University.

Xue-Jun Li, PhD, Recipient of Blazer Foundation Professorship

Institute for Biomaterials, Tribocorrosion, and Nanomedicine (IBTN) In 2012, Drs. Christos Takoudis, Tolou Shokuhfar, Mathew Mathew and Cortino Sukotjo together founded the Institute for Biomaterials, Tribocorrosion, and Nanomedicine (IBTN) which has two branches: A US branch and a Brazilian branch (co-founded by Dr. Luis Rocha from Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP)).

IBTN serves as a research and educational institute with its main focus on the research and teaching related to the development and characterization of biomaterials for clinical applications. The team consists of clinicians, material scientists and engineers from bioengineering, chemical engineering and restorative dentistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Orthopedics at Rush University Medical Center (RUMC) and UNESP and Instituto Nacional de Metrologla (INMETRO) in Brazil with more than 15 universities involved as associate members of the Brazilian branch of IBTN. IBTN’s Mission is to contribute to the advance of scientific knowledge in biomaterials (development, surface modifications and characterization) for versatile clinical applications for generating and maintaining implants with required durability and multifunctional performance. IBTN aims to be a leading research institute in the area of biomaterial and bioengineering for multifunctional, durable and safer implants in the health care sector, particularly in dentistry and orthopedics. Currently, IBTN researchers meet on a weekly basis to discuss findings from the ongoing projects.

Each year, within its mission and vision, IBTN holds a symposium that is free and open where invited speakers and IBTN members present their research and discoveries. IBTN students are heavily involved in organizing the event. IBTN symposia are supported by Bioengineering and Dentistry at UIC and sponsored

by TMJ Concepts, UIC-Office of International Affairs, ORAL-B, College of Dentistry, UIC, DUCOM Instruments and Springer. This year on Friday Feb 19th 2016, IBTN held its 3rd international symposium at the UIC-College of Dentistry, which was attended by about 50 researchers from different universities in the Chicago area and a team from IBTN - Brazil. The opening ceremony started with remarks by Dr. Tom Royston, Head of UIC Bioengineering, Dr. Stephan Campbell, Head of Restorative Dentistry at UIC-COD, Dr. Ramaswamy Kalyanasundaram, Chair of Biomedical Science, UI-School of Medicine, Rockford, and Dr. Markus Wimmer, Associate Chair of Research, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago. The symposium was followed by 11 invited lectures given by researchers from the UIC College of Engineering, College of Medicine, College of Dentistry, Rush Orthopedics, INMETRO, and the State University of Sao Paolo; the IBTN student members presented their research posters and participated in the student poster competition. In 2016, the winners of the student completion were Sweetu Patel (PhD Candidate, Advisor Dr. Tolou Shokuhfar), and Luciana Trino (PhD Student, Advisors, Drs Mathew Mathew and Paulo Filho (UNESP-Brazil)). The IBTN team is looking forward to seeing enhanced participation from bioengineering faculty and students in the next IBTN symposium (early in 2017). For more details please see: http://ibtn.lab.uic.edu/. Email contact: ibtn.usa@gmail.com

Organizers, members, and Invited Speakers at the 3rd IBTN symposium

Richard and Loan Hill Department of Bioengineering doctoral graduates in Fall 2015 and Spring 2016 Moria Fisher Bittmann, PhD in Bioengineering Customized Robotic Training Approaches Using the Statistics of Reaching Errors Advisor: James Patton, PhD Matthew Adam Bochenek, PhD in Bioengineering Immuno-Isolation Strategies for Islet Transplantation into Rodent and NonHuman Primate Models Advisor: Jose Oberholzer, MD Diana Gutierrez, PhD in Bioengineering The Study of Non-Viral Nanoscale Delivery Systems for Islet Transplantation Advisor: Jose Oberholzer, MD Saeed Khayatzadeh, PhD in Bioengineering Effect of Sagittal Malalignment on Cervical Spine Biomechanics Advisor: Avinash Patwardhan, PhD Xenia Meshik, PhD in Bioengineering Quantum Dot- and Aptamer-Based Nanostructures for Biological Applications Advisor: Michael Stroscio, PhD Mohammad Nourmohammadzadeh, PhD in Bioengineering Application of Microfluidics in the Field of Diabetes and Islets Advisor: Jose Oberholzer, MD Julia Zelenakova, PhD in Bioengineering Effect of Binge Alcohol Exposure on Intervertebral Disc Structure and Mechanical Properties in adult Rats Advisor: Richard Magin, PhD

Richard and Loan Hill Department of Bioengineering master’s graduates with Thesis in Fall 2015 and Spring 2016 Sithichai Chaichanavitchakij, MS in Bioengineering Comparison of Lumbar Disc Degeneration, Fusion and Disc Arthroplasty on Biomechanics of Adjacent Segment Advisor: Raghu Natarajan, PhD Hemanti R Chavada, MS in Bioengineering In Vitro Magnetic Resonance Assessment of Tissue Engineered Bone and Cartilage Advisor: Richard Magin, PhD & Mrignayani Kotecha, PhD Tanvishri Jatla, MS in Bioengineering A Non-Invasive Method for Tracking Retinal Motion During Pars Plana Vitrectomy Advisor: Yannek Leiderman, PhD Johnwesly A Kanagaraj, MS in Bioengineering Cellular Reparative Effects of Poloxamer P188 in Blunt Force Trauma to Brain Tissue Advisor: Michael Cho, PhD Joseph R Lancaster, MS in Bioengineering Identification of Motor Impairments Using Movement Distributions Advisor: James Patton, PhD Biswajit Maharathi, MS in Bioengineering Non Stochastic Propagation of Interictal Spikes as a Measure of Human Brain Connectivity Advisor: James Patton, PhD

(since our last newsletter in Fall 2015)

Student awards and Honorable Mentions

Carlos Francisco Ng Pitti, MS in Bioengineering Characterization Of A Microfluidic Bubble Removal System Using A Converging-Diverging Nozzle Advisor: David Eddington, PhD Abdul Rahman A Abutaleb, MS in Bioengineering Predictors Of Outcomes And Cost After Spinal Fusion Surgery And Construction Of Patient Risk Calculators Advisor: David Eddington, PhD Esther Jeeyoung Shin, MS in Bioengineering Characterizing the Parameter Space of an Oxygen Gradient between Hypoxic and Normoxic Gas Networks Advisor: David Eddington, PhD Michael R Tan, MS in Bioengineering Movement Learning With Isometric Training Through Virtual Reality Advisor: James Patton, PhD Mengqi Xing, MS in Bioengineering Connectome Analyses of Functional Brain Networks in Patients with Psychiatric Disorders Advisor: Alex Leow, MD, PhD

Richard and Loan Hill Department of Bioengineering master’s graduates Non-Thesis in Fall 15 and Spring 16

Richard and Loan Hill Department of Bioengineering bachelor’s graduates in Fall 15 and Spring 16

Undarmaa Bat-Erdene Lauren Ann Curie Pratik Dilip Chaudhari Shweta Gopaulakrishnan Palash Jha Elena M Kulikova Mounika Reddy Kata Jarrett A Mickens Pooja Neogi Yahia Zakaria Rawash Catherine Santis James B Steele Martin J Strama Faisal M Waseem

Ahmad Khaled Abualleil Nathan J Albaugh Ossama Anis Wali Badar Genesis A Contreras Samuel John Dreyer Ramon A Espino Jesse W Gerringer Gizzel Gomez Erik A Gottardo Richard James Hickey Mark Edward Hillstrom Pedro H Hurtado Nazir S Hussain Mohammed Said Hussein Jagan Jimmy Christine R Joseph Sharif Kurdi Gary L Ling Mark Lopez

Vishal Varma was the recipient of 2015 FACSS Student Poster Award for his presenation on New Routes for Tissue Pathology using Quantum Cascade Laser Based Imaging Microscopes

Alessandro Scotti was the recipient of CCTS Multidisciplinary Team Science award for his College of Medicine Research Forum project, “B0-calibrated and motion-registered dynamic CEST-MRI during calf muscle exercise.” His project was co-authored

by Drs. Rong-Wen Tain, Kejia Cai and Xiaohong Joe Zhou.

Ahmed Metwally won the Fall 2015 Chancellor’s Graduate Research award. He has also won the Graduate Research Award at the 2016 Student Research Forum. He was also a recipient of travel award to the Phylogenomics Symposium.

Maziyar M Khansari won the Student Presenter Award and the GSC Travel Award from graduate college.

Minhaj Nur Alam won a Fellowship of $6,000 from the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Bangladesh. This fellowship supports outstanding students to pursue their research work outside the nation.

Natalia E Lyda Jeff F Marsh Michael S Moauro Marisol Montoya Mananga Mutombo Lavanya Nese Michael J Oneill Marianne B Palczewski Ray Pizarro Arjav M Patel Binit Nitin Patel Tirth S Patel Jaskaran S Rajput Gregory R Roytman Namrata Saha Raaed Shaban Kyle S Sierzega Lovepreet Singh Nirav D Soni Adithyan Subramanian Dan Andrei Gloda Teleron Julie Catherine Wagner Jinying Weng Taiylar Jordane White Tiana Jasmine Wong

Jesse Gerringer won the UIC Honors College Undergraduate Research Fellowship Grant for Fall 2015.

Samuel Dreyer has won the Spring 2016 Chancellor’s Student Service and Leadership Award.

He was also recognized as one of the “Fifty for the future” by the Illinois Technology Foundation.

Vidyani Suryadevara has won the 2016 Midwestern region Scholar for her work on “Role of Phospholipase D in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis”. She has also won the 2016 Trainee Travel Award for the CSCTR/MWAFMR Combined Annual Meeting. She was also awarded the Chancellor’s Student Service Award 2016.

Naomi Faulk won the UIC Honors College Undergraduate Research Fellowship Grant for Spring 2016.

Recipients of Pre-doctoral Education for Clinical and Translational Scientists Scholarship.

Anthony Felder Cierra Hall Brian Henry Michael Mkrtschjan Maziyar Mohammadtalab Khansari

BMES Updates UIC Bioengineering Student Journal

The Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) has enjoyed a productive semester. At the beginning of the semester, our members partnered with Be the Match to add people to their registry of potential bone marrow donors. We were able to enroll over 35 people, which is the second most successful day the organization has had on UIC campus. With the help of the Engineering Career Center, BMES was proud to assist in hosting the very first Bioengineering Industry Day. This was an opportunity for students to meet and network with alumni and local employers and engage in a discussion about life after graduation. We were also very thankful to welcome speakers from Baxter and Rush Graduate School throughout the semester. In our final event of the semester, a group of BMES members visited the Round Lake campus of Baxter for a tour of the facilities.

The BMES group has had three very active projects this semester:

This is the EEG Arm Wrestling application of the BCI project. Here, competitors James Steele (left) and Martin Strama (right) work to generate alpha-waves in the occipital regions of their brain. The competitor that is able to generate stronger and more consistent alpha waves causes the arms to rotate to their side, signaling a victory.

1) The 3D printed prosthetics team has designed, manufactured, and delivered two different prosthetist arms. One prosthetist arm was built for a young boy in North Carolina, and the second prosthetist was built for a young girl in Vietnam.

2) The Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) group has developed multipole projects to harness the power of EEG brain waves in order to control external devices and perform various cognitive tasks.

3) The Tongue-Computer Interface (TCI) team has developed a device that allows for a computer mouse to be controlled via the tongue muscle. This group received a provisional patent for their design. The TCI project was also accepted for presentation during the Student Design Competition at the ASAIO 62nd Annual Conference in San Francisco, and at this point they are guaranteed to be placed amongst the top three finalists.

Written by co-editors Cierra Hall, Brynne Nicolsen and Christine Joseph The UBSJ was founded by former department head and University Distinguished Professor Richard Magin in Fall 2008 and has been published in six subsequent issues with the goal of providing students with more opportunities to practice all aspects of the technical writing, reviewing and editing process. The journal has succeeded in bringing together students at different levels of education, from freshman undergraduates to the graduate members of the editorial board. Students submit articles that discuss original research or review research published elsewhere. This allows students to hone their writing skills without being limited by a lack of data. The journal also provides students with an opportunity to be involved as editors and reviewers, giving students an overall appreciation of the processes involved in disseminating scientific findings. Additionally, the journal finally serves to expose the authors, reviewers and readers to current trends in the bioengineering field.

Completed research projects are not necessary for publication, nor does publication in the UBSJ preclude later publication of the results in a more complete presentation. Articles are intended to document research accomplishments to date, and it is expected that many of the articles that appear in the journal will later be expanded to full-length studies and published elsewhere. Submissions can range from original research articles and technical reviews to book reviews relevant to bioengineering. Students often publish papers which were written to fulfill a class assignment, and a few of the issues have focused primarily on a single course, such as Biomedical Imaging (BioE 421) or Biological Systems Analysis (BioE 310). By using a previously written paper, students are able to further experience the process of reviewing and revising their written work, an opportunity which is not often presented within the context of a class.

After submitting an article, authors work closely with a number of students to improve their work through a number of review processes. Authors, reviewers and editors meet at biweekly meetings to review the progress of the articles and discuss any suggestions about which reviewers and authors disagree. After this process is completed, the editorial board performs the final review of the articles and composes the official document which is sent to the printing company. The editorial board also works together to locate and work with a graphic designer for the unique cover art of each issue. At the end of the year, the authors, reviewers and editors celebrate another successful issue at the publication party, where students and professors alike can discuss the articles over refreshments. A number of professors also vote on the recipient of the Best Author award, which is presented at the party.

Through peer review, personal authorship and management of the publication by the board, students are able to hone a wide degree of the type of skills needed by professional engineers and scientists post-graduation. These include learning to incorporate constructive feedback during article review, learning to manage one’s time well, developing attention to detail during the review process and working well together in groups, among many others. We hope that the UBSJ continues to flourish in the years to come through the hard work and dedication of UIC bioengineering students.

Download the newest version at: http://www.bioe.uic.edu/bin/view/BIOE/BioeUbsj

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