{"419521":{"#nid":"419521","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Marr Making Tracks Across Europe","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ECatching up with Lizzie Marr could be a challenge this summer. Following a year at the Georgia Institute of Technology that saw her earn multiple honors and accolades, she\u2019s giving her passport a good workout and making tracks across Europe as part of the Oxford Study Abroad Program.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cA once in a lifetime experience,\u201d is how Marr, an undergraduate in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), describes her summer following several weeks of jaunting from city to city, as part of \u201ca highly interactive study abroad program that exposes students to a vast range of European cities, as well as historical art, architecture and music.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EOverall, not a bad way to cap a busy and eventful year of university study and research. The highlights for Marr during the 2014-2015 academic campaign include the President\u2019s Undergraduate Research Award and being named Mentor of the Year in BME Mentoring Program. The culmination of it all for Marr was taking first place for research poster presentation in the College of Engineering\u2019s annual Undergraduate Research Spring Symposium.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cIt was such an honor,\u201d says Marr, who represented the labs of Bob Guldberg, executive director of the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, and former Petit Institute faculty member Todd McDevitt. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cThey provide so many opportunities and unrelenting support to their researchers,\u201d says Marr, who also credits the influence of fellow researcher, Ph.D. student Olivia Burnsed. \u201cI could not have achieved what I did without her support and influence. She is such a powerful role model and without her guidance I could not have been awarded these opportunities.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EMarr\u2019s poster was entitled \u201cDetermining the phenotypic stability \u0026amp; ex vivo expansion of human chondrocytes on decellularized cartilage microcarriers\u201d and focused on improving treatment of osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, which affects 13.9 percent of U.S. adults aged 25-65 and 33.6 percent of those over 65. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EConventional surgical treatments do not promote cartilage regeneration and are therefore ineffective in the long-run, often leading to consequences like total knee or hip replacement. Plus, these surgeries require long recovery periods and residual weakness is typically detected years after the procedure. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cMy project focused on improving chondrocyte expansion, a process necessary to the success of cell based regenerative therapies used to treat osteoarthritis,\u201d explains Marr (who also is part of the BME Learning Commons leadership team). \u201cWe utilized the extracellular matrix that surrounds chondrocytes in vivo and created microcarriers that utilized influential physiological components to aid in successful expansion of healthy chondrocytes.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EThe data from this experiment yielded successful results. Marr and her fellow researchers hope to further explore expansion platforms in future projects. \u201cWith further success in these projects, we hope to improve regenerative therapies used to treat patients affected by osteoarthritis,\u201d she says.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBut first, there is Europe. Marr has seen a lot of it this summer. Specifically, she\u2019s visited the countries of Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, and their cities, some of Europe\u2019s greatest cultural centers: Paris, Zurich, Venice, Rome, Florence, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Prague, Offenbach, Bruges.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cWith each destination we are exposed to multiple museums and timeless monuments, as well as operas, symphonies and other musical varieties the city has to offer,\u201d Marr says. \u201cThe program does a fantastic job of immersing us in the cultures of the very different regions of Europe, while allowing us to reflect on how all art forms are influenced by history and other cultures.\u201d\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EBefore coming back to the States, Marr and her fellow students abroad will spend five weeks at Oxford University in England.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u201cI\u2019m excited to see what the next half of the program brings,\u201d she says.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECONTACT:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"BME undergrad caps banner year by studying abroad in Oxford program"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBME undergrad caps banner year by studying abroad in Oxford program\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"BME undergrad caps banner year by studying abroad in Oxford program"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2015-06-30 12:26:43","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:18:52","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-06-30T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-06-30T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"419511":{"id":"419511","type":"image","title":"Lizzie Marr","body":null,"created":"1449254269","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 18:37:49","changed":"1475895157","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:37","alt":"Lizzie Marr","file":{"fid":"202605","name":"lizziemarr.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/lizziemarr_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/lizziemarr_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":166316,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/lizziemarr_0.jpg?itok=IpI02-z4"}}},"media_ids":["419511"],"groups":[{"id":"1254","name":"Wallace H. Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"14927","name":"Oxford Study Abroad Program"}],"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=\u0022http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJerry Grillo\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr \/\u003EParker H. Petit Institute for\u003Cbr \/\u003EBioengineering and Bioscience\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jerry.grillo@ibb.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}