{"301361":{"#nid":"301361","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech\u0027s Training Program for Rationally Designed, Integrative Biomaterials Gets Bigger","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ENational Institutes of Health renew training grant, adds slots for more students.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003EThe Georgia Tech Training Program for Rationally Designed, Integrative Biomaterials, or GTBioMAT, just got a substantial vote of confidence from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EGTBioMAT, designed to train pre-doctoral students in the development of the next generation of integrative biomaterials, was launched five years ago with a grant from the NIH\u2019s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cThe good news is, the grant has been renewed for another five years, but what\u2019s really exciting is, we got an increased number of slots, which I think shows that the NIH is excited about what we\u2019re doing,\u201d says Johnna Temenoff, associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, and one of GTBioMAT\u2019s co-directors. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe grant, which previously covered four trainee slots will now support six (the next group of trainees will be announced later this summer). GTBioMAT is a two-year program, with a new group of trainees selected each year. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cThey get hands-on experience that they can use in their own research or in their careers,\u201d says GTBioMAT co-director Julia Babensee, associate professor in the Coulter Department. \u201cPart of the rationale for this grant is that we, as biomaterial scientists, need to develop new biomaterials that will function in smarter ways and interact in the body in better ways, and we need to address those issues through training students who will be able to make their own materials and become competent in that.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe continuing support of the GTBioMAT program by the NIH is also an acknowledgement of the Georgia Institute of Technology\u2019s stature in the field, according to Babensee. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cWe\u2019ve got the strongest biomaterials faculty in the U.S., if not the world, right here,\u201d she says. \u201cMany of the faculty have won Society for Biomaterials awards. We\u2019re recognized as thought leaders, and one of our aims is to train future leaders for the biomaterials community. I think this training grant is a recognition of that.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience is currently home to four different training grant programs. But this one is unique because, Temenoff says, \u201cit requires students to do at least two semester-long lab rotations before they pick their advisor.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EIt\u2019s all about exposure, giving trainees a glimpse into different worlds within the biomaterials universe. One lab rotation focuses on biomaterials synthesis, the other on applications. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cSome of these students will go into industry, some into academia,\u201d Babensee says. \u201cThe lab rotations give them a chance to have broader contact with the research going on here, and to make better, more informed decisions about what direction they\u2019ll ultimately go in.\u201d \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe program is only five years old, and it typically takes someone four or five years to get a Ph.D. So there is no clear sense yet of what direction GTBioMAT trainees are going in. Check back in another five years or so, suggests Babensee, who is helping to plan another potential route for Georgia Tech\u2019s scientists in training, which could lead to broader opportunities for moving therapeutic concepts toward commercialization. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cWe\u2019ve been talking about an immunoengineering training grant,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is another area, like biomaterials, that has sort of grown from the grassroots here at Georgia Tech. We\u2019re uniquely positioned. A lot of biomaterials work is in the immunoengineering area, so there\u2019s going to be crossover, which means translational strength.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"National Institutes of Health renew training grant, adds slots for more students."}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ENational Institutes of Health renew training grant, adds slots for more students.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"National Institutes of Health renew training grant, adds slots for more students."}],"uid":"27195","created_gmt":"2014-06-05 07:53:14","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:16:33","author":"Colly Mitchell","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-06-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-06-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"302141":{"id":"302141","type":"image","title":"Johnna Temenoff, PhD - Co-director of GTBioMAT program, associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering","body":null,"created":"1449244592","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:56:32","changed":"1475895007","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:07","alt":"Johnna Temenoff, PhD - Co-director of GTBioMAT program, associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering","file":{"fid":"199573","name":"temenoffjohnna1-smallersquare.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/temenoffjohnna1-smallersquare_0.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/temenoffjohnna1-smallersquare_0.png","mime":"image\/png","size":435407,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/temenoffjohnna1-smallersquare_0.png?itok=5MxVxyGm"}},"302151":{"id":"302151","type":"image","title":"Julia Babensee PhD - Co-director of GTBioMAT program, associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering","body":null,"created":"1449244592","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:56:32","changed":"1475894833","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:47:13","alt":"Julia Babensee PhD - Co-director of GTBioMAT program, associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering","file":{"fid":"199574","name":"babenseejulia-square.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/babenseejulia-square_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/babenseejulia-square_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1594887,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/babenseejulia-square_0.jpg?itok=7-LixmDH"}}},"media_ids":["302141","302151"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.ibb.gatech.edu\/about-gt-biomat","title":"GT BioMAT program"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.ibb.gatech.edu\/","title":"Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"groups":[{"id":"1292","name":"Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience (IBB)"}],"categories":[{"id":"42911","name":"Education"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"14370","name":"Johnna Temenoff"},{"id":"14197","name":"Julia babensee"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering \u0026amp; Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}