{"434321":{"#nid":"434321","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Finding A New Way","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003ERobert Mannino and Yichen \u201cPayne\u201d Wang are like a couple of MacGyvers in the realm of scientific research. Like the famous TV secret agent, they\u2019ve managed to address a complex problem with ordinary items. The only thing missing in their bag of solutions is a Swiss Army Knife.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EWang is a Petit Undergraduate Research Scholar in the lab of Wilbur Lam, and Mannino, a grad student and a former Petit Scholar, is his mentor. The two biomedical engineering students, with a team of researchers in the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, have created a way to investigate biophysical cellular interactions in the circulation system using common, off-the-shelf lab materials.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cFor the last five years our lab has focused on developing fake blood vessels, so to speak, for research,\u201d says Lam, assistant professor in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (a joint department of Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology). \u201cWe\u2019ve developed a platform technology in which we use microfabrication technologies to make these \u003Cem\u003Ein vitro\u003C\/em\u003E models of blood vessels.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EEssentially, they use the same technologies that computer engineers and the software and computer hardware industries use to make microfluidics. Lam\u2019s group developed a process in which they grow endothelial cells (the interior surface of blood vessels and lymphatic vessels) in really small channels to allow cellular biophysics experimentation in an \u003Cem\u003Ein vitro\u003C\/em\u003E setting.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cThe process is not trivial,\u201d says Mannino, who as an undergrad started thinking about a simpler process to meet the same complicated needs, \u201cto make these systems more accessible to biologists and cardiovascular researchers who are really interested in questions of how different blood systems interact with each other and with the endothelium.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThis kind of research traditionally takes expensive equipment and engineering expertise in microfabrication. But now, researchers who want to understand biophysical cellular reactions and their relation to health and\/or disease have a more user-friendly path to enlightenment. \u201cRob came up with a brilliant technique which really only requires some silicone and some wire,\u201d says Lam.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EThe research team has recently published the recipe in the journal \u003Cem\u003ENature: Scientific Reports\u003C\/em\u003E, a paper entitled, \u201cDo-it-yourself \u003Cem\u003Ein vitro\u003C\/em\u003E vasculature that recapitulates \u003Cem\u003Ein vivo\u003C\/em\u003E geometries for investigating endothelial-blood cell interactions.\u201d In addition to Mannino (the lead author), Wang and Lam, the team of multidisciplinary authors\/researchers includes David R. Myers (postdoc in the Lam lab, and Mannino\u2019s former Petit Scholar mentor), Byungwook Ahn (former postdoc in the Lam lab), Margo Rollins (pediatric hematologist\/oncology fellow at Children\u2019s Healthcare of Atlanta), Hope Gole (former postdoc in the Lam lab), Angela Lin (research engineer in the Bob Guldberg lab), Bob Guldberg (executive director of the Petit Institute, professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering), Don Giddens (Dean Emeritus of the Coulter Department), and Lucas Timmins (former postdoc in the Timmins lab).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cThis process is accessible to biologists, not just experienced engineers, and it effectively enables us to observe the process by which the blood cells and endothelial cells function together in the human body\u201d says Wang.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EOne driving factor in the research, according to Mannino, was economics. \u201cWe\u2019ve reduced the time it takes and also the cost,\u201d he says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EAnd now Wang, the Petit Scholar, is taking the research to the next step. \u201cHe\u2019s studying sickle cell biomechanics,\u201d Mannino says. \u201cBasically, this will be the first practical application of the device.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EWang will leverage the advantages of the system Mannino conceived, \u201ctowards questions that really couldn\u2019t be answered with any other type of device,\u201d Lam says. \u201cThis kind of system is great for asking questions related to biophysics and how these cell interactions occur in normal processes and how they go awry in diseased processes.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EUsing the new system, Wang can make a model of an artificial blood vessel, with tight control of the geometry and curvature, and investigate how endothelial cells pathologically respond. This is important stuff, because while we know that blood vessels in sickle cell disease are, in fact, diseased, putting patients at risk for stroke, we really don\u2019t understand why.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cSo Payne is essentially asking this biophysical question of, how does the shape or curvature or the geometry of the blood vessel itself affect these cellular interactions in sickle cell disease and only an \u003Cem\u003Ein vitro\u003C\/em\u003E system like this can we answer that question. These experiments can\u2019t be conducted \u003Cem\u003Ein vivo\u003C\/em\u003E as there are too many other confounding issues,\u201d says Lam, also a physician with Children\u2019s Healthcare of Atlanta.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EWang is planning to present his research later this year at the Biomedical Engineering Society annual meeting in October, and also at the American Society of Hematology annual meeting in December. He says the Petit Scholarship experience is making it possible.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u201cThe Petit Scholarship has provided me the opportunity to carry on with my project,\u201d says Wang. \u201cAnd there\u2019s still a lot to be discovered in this area, a lot more work to do.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECONTACT:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\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":"Petit Scholar and mentor work on simple solution to complex problem"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003EPetit Scholar and mentor work on simple solution to complex problem\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Petit Scholar and mentor work on simple solution to complex problem"}],"uid":"28153","created_gmt":"2015-08-14 09:40:20","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:19:22","author":"Jerry Grillo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2015-08-14T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2015-08-14T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"434311":{"id":"434311","type":"image","title":"Wang and Mannino","body":null,"created":"1449256148","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 19:09:08","changed":"1475895174","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:52:54","alt":"Wang and Mannino","file":{"fid":"202958","name":"payne_and_rob.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/payne_and_rob_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/payne_and_rob_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2322485,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/payne_and_rob_0.jpg?itok=5HSCB3Ri"}}},"media_ids":["434311"],"groups":[{"id":"1254","name":"Wallace H. Coulter Dept. of Biomedical Engineering"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"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":""}}}