McDevitt has been an assistant professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering Department since August of 2004, and since this time he has exhibited a sincere dedication for undergraduate research in many different ways. His passion for undergraduate research stems from the significant impact such an experience had on his own career path, as he had the opportunity to conduct research as an undergraduate at Duke University. This experience led him to graduate school to pursue a Ph.D. and ultimately landed him at Georgia Tech.
McDevitt has supervised more than 25 undergraduate researchers in his laboratory. Many of these students have presented at national meetings, co-authored peer-reviewed publications, and received numerous awards and honors for the research they conducted. McDevitt’s philosophy is to train undergraduates to be independent researchers with projects of their own and not to simply serve as an extra set of hands within the laboratory. Due largely to their experience working in the McDevitt laboratory, several undergraduates have gone on to pursue graduate degrees in engineering, science and medicine at leading international institutions. Notably, 3 of 3 eligible students who formerly worked in the McDevitt laboratory received NSF Graduate Research Fellowships and are currently enrolled in top 10 Bioengineering graduate schools.
As a result, 13 students received one or more Georgia Tech Presidential Undergraduate Research Awards (PURA) during their tenure with the McDevitt laboratory and 4 of those undergraduate students successfully wrote and received Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) grants for additional materials and supplies to support their research. Five students were selected for the Petit Undergraduate Research Scholars Program and 3 BME undergraduates were named Birnbaum Scholars--the most of any laboratory in the department since the inception of the award in 2006. In the spring of 2009, Scott Seaman, who worked in the McDevitt laboratory for nearly 2 years, received the Most Outstanding Researcher award from the Department of Biomedical Engineering and also the College of Engineering.
In addition to directly mentoring undergraduate students in his personal laboratory, McDevitt has been an active leader in several other facets of undergraduate research at Georgia Tech. For the past 3 years, he has voluntarily served as the faculty advisor for the Petit Undergraduate Research Scholars program. McDevitt has successfully reinvigorated the program by increasing the quality and quantity of undergraduate student applicants, as well as, the number of labs interested in mentoring students, in order to elevate the stature of the program. Additionally, with the help of the IBB staff, new mechanisms were implemented to track students’ progress and career development in order to quantify the outcomes of participation in the program.
For more information visit the McDevitt Lab - Engineering Stem Cell Technologies - www.mcdevitt.bme.gatech.edu
]]>Several critical factors regulate whether a PSC chooses to self-renew or differentiate. Soluble signals bind receptors and stimulate chemical pathways that lead to global changes in gene transcription and cell differentiation state. Likewise, immobilized extracellular matrix cues synergize with soluble signals to control cell signaling and differentiation. Cell-cell communication is also an important consideration in PSC culture; at low cell densities cell growth rates diminish while at high cell densities spontaneous differentiation occurs. Finally, mechanical signals have recently been shown to affect self-renewal and differentiation. I will discuss examples that illustrate how each of these microenvironmental stimuli can be incorporated in culture systems to expand or differentiate PSCs along desired lineages. We have developed materials that confine PSC colonies to specific sizes and shapes to assess how colony morphology affects self-renewal and differentiation toward therapeutically-relevant lineages. We have found that colony morphology affects activity of signaling pathways that have been implicated in development, and efficiency of cardiac myocytes differentiation. I will also discuss how the temporal presentation of soluble differentiation factors (e.g. retinoic acid and bone morphogenic proteins) and regulation of tyrosine kinase signaling pathways can be utilized to obtain pure populations of stratified epithelial progenitors, which can then differentiate to terminal cells such as epidermal keratinocytes.
]]>The McDevitt Laboratory for the Engineering of Stem Cell Technologies is focused on the development and application of engineering principles to translate the potential of stem cells into viable regenerative therapies and in vitro diagnostics. Biomaterials-based approaches are used to engineer the microenvironment of stem cells in order to improve the efficiency and homogeneity of directed stem cell differentiation strategies. In addition, the McDevitt laboratory’s research focuses on development of novel regenerative molecular therapies from natural biomaterials produced by stem cells. The combination of directed stem cell differentiation and development of stem cell-derived biomaterials is expected to yield fresh insights into stem cell biology, facilitate new regenerative therapies, and create novel cell diagnostic platforms. The McDevitt laboratory research is supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, American Heart Association, and the Georgia Research Alliance, among others.
In addition to the being named the 2010 Society for Biomaterials Young Investigator, McDevitt was appointed as a Petit Faculty Fellow in the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience in September 2009 and named the Director of the new Stem Cell Engineering Center at Georgia Tech, which is scheduled to officially launch in 2010. The establishment of the first center of its kind in the United States will bring together expertise from different engineering disciplines to address key technical challenges that currently limit the translation of stem cells and to innovate new technologies that will enhance basic stem cell research. The center will include Georgia Tech faculty from the College of Engineering, College of Sciences, and Ivan Allen College, in addition to collaborative partnerships with stem cell researchers at the University of Georgia, Emory University and other partnering institutions throughout the state of Georgia.
Since August of 2004, McDevitt has been an Assistant Professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology / Emory University. McDevitt graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) from Duke University in 1997 with a double major in Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in Bioengineering in 2001 working in the laboratory of Patrick Stayton, Ph.D., on protein engineering, micropatterning and tissue engineering. From 2002-04, McDevitt conducted post-doctoral research in Chuck Murry's lab in the Department of Pathology at the University of Washington where he focused on mechanisms of stem cell growth and differentiation for myocardial repair.
]]>WASHINGTON — Scientists can start using taxpayer dollars to do research with 13 batches of embryonic stem cells and the government says dozens more cell lines should be available soon, opening a new era for the potentially life-saving field.
President Barack Obama lifted eight years of restrictions on these master cells last spring. But $21 million-and-counting in new projects were on hold until the National Institutes of Health determined which of hundreds of existing stem cell lines were ethically appropriate to use.
]]>Abstract: Stem cells are poised to stimulate significant advances in regenerative medicine therapies and in vitro cell-based diagnostics based upon their inherent ability to differentiate into an array of cell phenotypes. Beyond cell replacement technologies, stem cells may also serve as a unique source of potent morphogenic factors capable of improving the wound healing of injured tissues and treatment of chronic diseases. Thus, our laboratory is focused on the engineering of innovative approaches to translate the potential of stem cells into effective cellular and molecular technologies for regenerative medicine. In order to improve the efficiency and homogeneity of directed differentiation strategies, we are developing biomaterials-based approaches to spatiotemporally control the presentation of molecular cues within the stem cell microenvironment that influence morphogenesis. The ability of hydrodynamic forces to manipulate environmental conditions and modulate stem cell fate is also being examined as a novel, scalable means to direct differentiated cell phenotypes. In addition to directing stem cell differentiation, we also seek to develop novel regenerative molecular therapies from morphogens uniquely produced by stem cells. For this reason, we are assessing the production of morphogenic factors by pluripotent embryonic stem cells undergoing differentiation and producing stem cell-derived matrices for acellular tissue therapies. It is expected that engineering of stem cell differentiation and derivation of stem cell biotherapeutics will yield fresh insights into stem cell and developmental biology, as well as new regenerative medicine therapies and in vitro diagnostic technologies.
Visit the McDevitt ESCT Laboratory
To view video: McDevitt - Breakfast Club Seminar
]]>Biological factors are not the only influence on stem-cell behaviour
]]>Behind the Scenes: Stem Cell Research Goes Beyond Biology
To read article: http://www.livescience.com/space/080523-bts-mcdevitt-stem-cells.html
]]>More than 750 professionals attended the October 3 Summit at the Georgia World Congress Center and a record 60 companies exhibited. More than 100 scientists participated in the poster competition from universities and companies throughout the state. Five winners were selected and each received a $500 prize. Graduate school students from Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology also made business plan presentations for start-up companies they founded.
The 2007 Summit, whose theme was Growing Georgia
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