Category: Research

Given mankind’s limited ability to treat damage to the human nervous system, neural interface systems (NISs) have emerged as an attractive alternative to conventional therapies. For a NIS to work, a microelectrode array (MEA) must be surgically implanted into the brain to allow an external computer to read and interpret neuronal signals for various applications. Dr. Zhao’s Lab has recently published a review paper titled “A Critical Review of Microelectrode Arrays and Strategies for Improving Neural Interfaces” in Advanced Healthcare Materials.
https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.201900558

This review article, authored by Morgan Ferguson (MS student), Dhavan Sharma (PhD candidate), David Ross (former MS student), and Dr. Feng Zhao, provides critical insight into the recent advances in strategies for improving NIS microelectrode array biocompatibility and neural interfacing capabilities, including alterations in microelectrode array surface properties (both surface chemistry and topography), surface geometry, and stiffness. Individually, each strategy provides varying degrees of success in altering microelectrode array biocompatibility, electrical conductivity, signal maintenance, and/or overall longevity along with the severity of foreign body response. By using a multiprong design for MEAs (one combining modifications to the surface, geometry, and hardness into one MEA) instead of using a lone modification, it could allow NISs to operate for a much longer period.

Cardiovascular diseases are the major causes of death worldwide. As a part of their ongoing project to construct a tissue engineered cardiac patch to repair damaged heart muscle, Dr. Zhao’s Lab team has recently reviewed contemporary techniques to fabricate heart-specific matrices for cardiac patch engineering. This invited review titled “Constructing biomimetic cardiac tissues: a review of scaffold materials for engineering cardiac patches” was published by Dhavan Sharma (PhD candidate), Morgan Ferguson (MS student), Dr. Timothy J. Kamp (collaborator at University of Wisconsin Madison), and Dr. Feng Zhao in Emergent Materials, Springer. (https://doi.org/10.1007/s42247-019-00046-4)

Engineered tissues are composed of two major components: cells and the extracellular matrix. This review focuses on the latter one, which holds the cells in a 3D space. Recent advances in scaffold fabrication techniques have enabled scientists to a generate heart-specific microenvironment within the engineered tissue constructs. These cardiac-specific scaffolds can be developed using synthetic polymers or native tissues as well as cell sheets. This article will provide readers with a timely review about different fabrication methods that have been employed to develop scaffold materials which ultimately have been used to engineer cardiac patches.

Bruce Lee (BioMed), Rattapol Pinnaratip, and Md. Saleh Akram Bhuiyan attended the 2019 Gordon Research Conference on the Science of Adhesion in South Hadley, MA.

Lee gave an invited talk entitled “Smart Bioadhesive Inspired by Mussel Adhesive Chemistry.” Pinnaratip gave an oral and a poster presentation entitled “Regulation of Hydrogen Peroxide Concentration from Mussel-inspired Adhesive via Surface-modified Silica Particle Incorporation,” a project directed by Lee. Bhuiyan gave a poster presentation entitled “Direct Deactivation of Catechol-Containing Adhesive using Electrochemistry,” a project directed by Lee.

Advanced Health Materials published the article “Multifunctional Biomedical Adhesives,” by Bruce Lee, Rupak Rajachar, Rattapol Pinnaratip, Saleh Akram Bhuiyan, and Kaylee Meyers (Biomed). This article is an invited review that described recent advances in designing multifunctional bioadhesives for various biomedical applications.

https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.201801568

This review discusses strategies for engineering multifunctional biomedical adhesives, which involve two general approaches: passive and active design. Passive adhesives contain inherent structural elements that can carry out additional functions without external influences, whereas active adhesives are designed to respond to environmental changes. These adhesives exhibit new functionality such as antimicrobial properties, self‐healing ability, and the capacity to release drugs.

Keat Ghee Ong (BioMed) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $14,000 research and development grant from the University of Oregon.

The project is titled “Implementation of a Wireless Sensor System for Monitoring Mechanical Loadings at the Internal Fixation Plates of Rats with Segmented Bone Defects.”

This is the first year of a potential three year grant totaling $54,000.

By Sponsored Programs.

Jeremy Goldman (Bio Med) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $45,790 research and development grant from the Department of Health and Human Services-National Institutes of Health.

Jaroslaw Drelich (MSE) is the Co-PI on the project “Inhibition of Neointimal Hyperplasia by Zinc-Based Biodegradable Arterial Devices.”

This is the first year of a potential two-year project.

By Sponsored Programs.

Feng Zhao (Bio Med) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $459,000 research and development grant from Department of Health and Human Services – National Institutes of Health. Jeremy Goldman (Bio Med) is Co-PI on the project, “Development of Off-the-Shelf Completely Biological Small-Diameter Blood Vessel with Human Stem Cells.”

The is the first year of a potential three-year project.