{"142011":{"#nid":"142011","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Petit Institute awards seed grants to three interdisciplinary teams","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (Petit Institute) awarded $50,000 to three interdisciplinary teams under its Petit Bioengineering and Bioscience Collaborative Seed Grant program, which was created to support early-stage innovative biotechnology research. Proposals were submitted by teams comprised of two Petit Institute faculty with appointments in different academic colleges. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cThe overall quality of the twelve collaborative proposals submitted this year was exceptionally high and we are very excited about the three projects selected for funding. In each case, we are bringing together a scientist and an engineer who have not previously worked together,\u201d said Robert E. Guldberg, PhD, executive director of the Petit Institute. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOne team, Andrew Lyon, PhD, professor in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Wilbur Lam, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, proposed a project which aims to reduce hemorrhage in trauma-related injuries by developing a new targeted drug-delivery system that uses the patient\u0027s own platelets as \u201cnanomachines\u201d to trigger controlled release of drugs and induce clotting at sites of active bleeding. This new \u201csmart\u201d drug delivery system has the potential to overcome the limited specificity and efficacy of current nanoparticle-based systems and could lead to much needed novel treatment strategies for acute bleeding. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBrandon Dixon, PhD, assistant professor from George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and Fredrik Vannberg, PhD, assistant professor from the School of Biology are partnering on a project entitled, \u201cNon-invasive NIR imaging towards establishing a role for lymphatic trafficking of exosomes in vivo.\u201d Although exosomes, vesicles 40-100 nanometers in size, were discovered over a decade ago their functional role in vivo is still uncertain. The hope of this project is to combine near-infrared imaging tools developed in the Dixon lab with exosomal biology and transcriptional regulation research from the Vannberg lab to establish lymphatic transport of exosomes as a universal mechanism to promote communication at a distance between cells outside of the lymph node with those in the node. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIn addition, Lena Ting, PhD, associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering and Randy Trumbower, PT, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Division of Physical Therapy at Emory and the School of Applied Physiology at Georgia Tech, will explore a non-invasive approach to improving motor recovery after incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) using a novel breathing intervention. Combining Ting\u2019s expertise in neuromechanics of movement with Trumbower\u2019s expertise in spinal cord injury rehabilitation, they will use state-of-the-art computational methods to test whether acute intermittent hypoxia, or breathing low oxygen levels, induces neural plasticity in the spinal cord, altering muscle coordination in a manner that improves walking function in persons with incomplete SCI. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EFunding for the new seed grants comes chiefly from the Petit Institute\u0027s endowment as well as contributions from the College of Sciences and the College of Engineering. Each team will receive $50,000 a year for two years; however, the second year of funding will be contingent on submission of an external collaborative grant proposal. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cThis initiative embraces the Petit Institute\u2019s mission, funding cutting-edge research at the interface of bioengineering and the biosciences,\u201d Guldberg added. \u201cWe look forward to seeing the progress made by these teams as they establish preliminary results to apply for large external grant proposals.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"$50,000 seed grants awarded to support early-stage innovative biotechnology research"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E$50,000 seed grants awarded to support early-stage innovative biotechnology research.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"$50,000 seed grants awarded to support early-stage innovative biotechnology research."}],"uid":"27195","created_gmt":"2012-07-23 13:30:51","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:12:33","author":"Colly Mitchell","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2012-07-23T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2012-07-23T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"69773":{"id":"69773","type":"image","title":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience","body":null,"created":"1449177264","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:14:24","changed":"1475894611","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:31","alt":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience","file":{"fid":"192836","name":"10c3041-p1-266.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/10c3041-p1-266_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/10c3041-p1-266_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2271177,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/10c3041-p1-266_0.jpg?itok=aplnv5pz"}}},"media_ids":["69773"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/ibb.gatech.edu\/","title":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"497","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"id":"38701","name":"Petit Institute awards seed grants"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:mcdevitt@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EMegan McDevitt\u003C\/a\u003E, CMP\u003Cbr \/\u003EDirector of Communications and Marketing\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering \u0026amp; Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["mcdevitt@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}