Suggestions for potential speakers are always welcome, please contact Marissa Cooke

Taby Ahsan, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Tulane University and a member of the FDA Cell, Tissues, and Gene Therapies Advisory Council (CTGTAC). She got her B.S.E. degree at the University of Pennsylvania, PhD in Bioengineering with Robert Sah, PhD, at the University of California, San Diego, and completed her postdoctoral training with Robert Nerem, PhD, at Georgia Tech. In addition, Ahsan worked in industry for a few years at the tissue engineering company Advanced Tissue Sciences. The Ahsan research laboratory focuses on using the physical microenvironment to control stem cell fate in the context of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Suggestions for potential speakers are always welcome, please contact Marissa Cooke

Harvard University

Age-related loss of muscle mass and function, also known as sarcopenia, is a significant problem that has serious implications for quality of life in the elderly. Although the precise mechanism of sarcopenia is not completely understood, several lines of evidence suggest that the functional decline in skeletal muscle stem cells and inability to repair after injury, contribute directly to age-associated deterioration of skeletal muscle. Our data using heterochronic parabiosis and stem cell transplantation models suggests that the circulatory system serves as an important source of such signals. In particular, exposure of aged muscle, to a “youthful” systemic environment appears to reverse many indicators of age-related pathology and restores robust muscle regeneration after injury. Our ongoing analyses of the molecules responsible for these effects point to discrete metabolic and hormonal mediators as key effectors of this systemic rejuvenating response. Systemic regulators also appear to influence age-related changes in the integrity of neuromuscular junctions and presynaptic motor neurons, either directly or through perturbation of myofiber stability and repair. Interestingly, we have found significant differences in the impact of denervation on muscle stem cell function in a mouse model based on muscle stem cell transplantation, suggesting an age-dependent influence of motor neuron damage/degeneration on muscle repair potential. Taken together, these data point to complex regulatory interactions within the muscle stem cell niche in determining muscle repair potential in aged individuals, and suggest that targeting these interactions could provide new avenues to reverse age-dependent loss of muscle function and accelerate recovery after muscle injury.

Advisor
Todd Sulchek, PhD
 
Committee
Wilbur Lam, MD, PhD
Todd McDevitt, PhD
John McDonald, PhD
Paula Vertino, PhD (Emory University)

Mesenchymal and embryonic stem cells hold great potential in tissue engineering and patient-specific cell therapy, but the lack of phenotype-specific molecular markers hinders purification of target cell types for safe and efficient therapeutic technologies.  Cancer stem cells, a rare subset of tumor cells that may be responsible for tumor relapse after chemotherapy, are difficult to purify for biological characterization and future chemotherapeutic improvement.  Utilization of cell mechanical properties may represent a novel approach to identify and purify target cells, such as mesenchymal or embryonic stem cell-derived cells or cancer stem cells, even though appropriate phenotypic biomarkers are not well established.
 
Although it has been established that cellular stiffness can change as a stem cell differentiates, the precise relationship between cell mechanics and other phenotypic properties remains unclear.  Single-cell analysis will be employed to determine how changes in cell stiffness correlate with changes in molecular biomarkers during differentiation.  Secondly, microfluidic technology will be utilized to enrich target cell types based on their mechanical properties.  Revelation of additional differentiation indicators, such as cell stiffness, can improve identification and collection of starting cell populations, with applications to stem cell-based therapies and tissue engineering.
 

TERMIS-Americas Conference and Expo 2013 offers the industry's most dynamic forum for reporting on new discoveries, sharing data and insights and advancing collaborative efforts. The scientific program design will again feature today's most promising academic research efforts, combined with new developments and discoveries -- all setting the standards for achieving far-reaching impacts our roles in tissue engineering.

Please join us in Atlanta as we celebrate the past and report scientific discovers that will define the future of the tissue engineering and regenerative medicine industry.

"We are thrilled to be hosting the TERMIS-AM 2013 conference in Atlanta. This year's meeting will open with a special plenary session to commemorate 25 years since the first federally-funded tissue engineering meeting and explore the current impact and future promise of our field. Please save the date and we look forward to seeing you all in November!" - TERMIS-AM 2013 Atlanta Conference Chair, the TERMIS-AM Chapter Chair, and the Executive Director Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience - Robert E. Guldberg, PhD

"We are developing an exciting scientific program based upon the fundamental principles, emerging strategies and applications of the latest advances in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. In addition to focusing on the critical issues that broadly impact different tissue and organ systems, the program will include workshops and symposia on clinical and commercial translation. Greater opportunities for trainee participation are also being planned for scientific, networking, and outreach activities." TERMIS-AM 2013 Scientific Program Chair and the Director, Stem Cell Engineering Center at Georgia Tech - Todd C. McDevitt, PhD

Adam J. Engler, PhD, is an assistant professor of Bioengineering at UC San Diego and is affiliated with the Material Science and Biomedical Sciences Programs. He also is a resident scientist at the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. His research focuses on how physical properties of the niche influence stem cell function and misregulate muscle function and heart performance during disease and aging. Engler earned his B.S.E. degree in bioengineering and a PhD in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics at the University of Pennsylvania in the lab of Dennis Discher, PhD. Engler then moved to Princeton University's Department of Molecular Biology as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the lab of Jean Schwarzbauer, PhD, where his work was funded by the National Cancer Institute. Engler is the 2008 recipient of the Rupert Timpl and Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Awards from the International Society for Matrix Biology and the Biomedical Engineering Society, respectively. He is also a 2009 NIH Innovator Award recipient, a 2010 Young Investigator Awardee from the Human Frontier Science Program, and 2013 DoD IDEA awardee for his work on the extracellular matrix and cancer stem cells.

Suggestions for potential speakers are always welcome, please contact Marissa Cooke

Probing and manipulating stem cell fate in microarrayed artificial niches

Abstract
Proper tissue maintenance and regeneration relies on intricate spatial and temporal control of biochemical and biophysical niche cues, instructing stem cells to acquire particular fates. Despite rapid progress in the identification of relevant niche proteins and signaling pathways using in vitro models, to date, many stem cell types cannot be efficiently cultured in vitro. To address this challenge, we have been developing biomaterial-based approaches to display and delivery stem cell regulatory signals in a precise and near-physiological fashion, serving as powerful artificial microenvironments to study and manipulate stem cell fat. In this talk I will discuss some of our recent efforts to develop 'microarrayed artificial niches' allowing key biochemical and biophysical characteristics of stem cell niches to be mimicked and the physiological complexity deconstructed into a smaller, experimentally amendable number of distinct signaling interactions. The systematic deconstruction of stem cell niches may serve as a broadly applicable paradigm for defining and reconstructing artificial niches to accelerate the transition of stem cell biology to the clinic.

Biography:

Matthias Lutolf is Head of the Laboratory of Stem Cell Bioengineering at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EFPL). He was trained as a Materials Engineer at ETH Zurich where he also carried out his Ph.D. studies on the development of a novel class of biomaterials for tissue engineering and cell biology (awarded with ETH medal, 2004). In 2005, with fellowships from the Swiss National Science Foundation and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Lutolf joined the Baxter Laboratory in Stem Cell Biology at Stanford University to study microenvironmental regulation of adult stem cells. In 2007, Lutolf received a European Young Investigator (EURYI) award to start up his independent research group at EPFL. By interfacing advanced biomaterials engineering, microtechnology and stem cell biology, a major goal in his lab is to uncover mechanisms of stem cell fate regulation by developing and applying 'artificial niches' which allow probing stem cell biology at the single cell level under well-defined biochemical and biophysical conditions.

The Stem Cell Engineering seminar series brings leaders in the field to Georgia Tech to share their most recent work and advances.  The seminars are open to all faculty, trainees and staff interested in stem cell engineering research.  Please visit the Stem Cell Engineering Center website or the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience website for a list of upcoming and previous speakers. Suggestions for potential speakers are always welcome - email Megan Richards.

Biography
William L. Murphy is currently Harvey D. Spangler Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Co-Director of the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Center at the University of Wisconsin. He received his B.A. in Physics from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1998, Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2002, and was a postdoctoral fellow in Chemistry at the University of Chicago from 2002-2004. His research interests focus on designing and synthesizing “bioinspired” materials, which actively regulate stem cell behavior. Murphy’s research group is using new materials to address a variety of regenerative medicine challenges, including stem cell differentiation, tissue regeneration, and controlled drug delivery. He has published more than 90 manuscripts and book chapters, filed over 20 patents, and received awards that include the National Science Foundation Career Award and the Wisconsin Vilas Associate Award. He serves on numerous industrial and academic advisory boards.

Suggestions for potential speakers are always welcome - email Megan Richards.

**Seminar to be videoconferenced at Emory University Hospital, Hurst conference room, 4th floor, E450

Abstract:
Spatial organization and intercellular (between cell) communication networks are important components of the stem cell microenvironment. These higher order interactions maintain homeostasis and coordinate regenerative and developmental cues in multicellular organisms. We have developed a number of new tools to measure and control cell-cell interactions. These include: high throughput systems for screening paracrine interactions between cells; network analysis strategies (and toolboxes) to depict and analyze ligand connectivity between stem cells, their progeny and cells in their microenvironment; and artificial stem cell niches to regulate and control the context and impact of these interactions. In this presentation I will review the key design principles of these tools, and discuss their application in two short examples. In the first example I will describe our recent work in controlling feedback signaling from differentiated cells to grow human blood stem cells in a clinical relevant bioprocess. In the second example I will present our efforts to formulate human pluripotent derived cardiac cells into micro-tissues that allow for high-throughput functional analysis of responses to drug candidates.

Biography:
Research in the Zandstra Laboratory is focused on the generation of functional tissue from adult and pluripotent stem cells. His groups’ quantitative, bioengineering-based approach strives to gain new insight into the fundamental mechanisms that control stem cell fate and to develop robust technologies for the use of stem cells and their derivatives to treat disease. Specific areas of research focus include blood stem cell expansion and the generation of cardiac tissue and endoderm progenitors from pluripotent stem cells. Dr. Zandstra is a Professor in the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, and the Donnelly Centre at the University of Toronto. He is also a member of the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine and the Heart and Stroke/Richard Lewar Centre of Excellence. He currently acts as Chief Scientific Officer for the Centre for the Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (www.CCRM.ca). Dr Zandstra’s accomplishments have been recognized by a number of awards and accolades including a Guggenheim Fellowship and the McLean Award. Dr Zandstra’s strong commitment to training the next generation of researchers is evidenced by his role as the Director of the undergraduate Bioengineering Program.

Robert Lanza, MD - Chief Scientific Officer, Advanced Cell Technology

Keynote Speakers
Elliot Chaikof, MD, PhD - Chairman of the Roberta and Stephen R. Weiner Department of Surgery and Surgeon-in-Chief, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Johnson and Johnson Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School, Harvard Stem Cell Institute

Antonios G. Mikos, PhD - Louis Calder Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Director of John W. Cox Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering, Director of Center for Excellence in Tissue Engineering, Rice University

David J. Mooney, PhD - Robert P. Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University

Kenji Sunagawa, MD, PhD - Professor, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kyushu University

James G. Tidball, PhD - Director, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Research Center, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Integrative Biology and Physiology, Chair of Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology IDP, University of California Los Angeles

Thomas N. Wight, PhD - Member and Director, Hope Heart Matrix Biology Program, Benaroya Research Institute, Virginia Mason Medical Center

Joseph C. Wu, MD, PhD - Associate Professor, Department of Medicine (Cardiology) and Department of Radiology, Stanford University School of Medicine

Workshop information/registration

Forecasting and steering stem cell fates in engineered microenvironments

Abstract:
How stem cells parse microenvironmental cues and make functional decisions is one of the major research endeavors in the Moghe laboratory at Rutgers.  This talk will be divided into two parts.  The first part, focused on profiling of stem cells, will review a high content imaging approach to obtain multidimensional descriptors of stem cell organization.  These descriptors of the stem cell phenotypes and mechanobiology can be used to parse stem cell subpopulations and gene expression much earlier than readouts enabled by traditional biochemical assays.  An example of how this strategy can be used to rank-order differentially osteogenic polymeric biomaterials will be highlighted.  The toolbox can also be applied to track the evolution of lineage restriction, cancerous transformation of adult stem cells, or follow minute organizational changes in nuclear proteins regulating cell cycle and epigenetic modifications.  The second part of the talk will focus on understanding how three-dimensional substrates regulate stem cell phenomena, including self-renewal and directed differentiation, with an emerging focus on neural reprogramming of human pluripotent stem cells.

Biography:

Prabhas Moghe is a Professor and Vice Chair of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering (Bioengineering) at the University of Minnesota and completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital prior to joining the Rutgers faculty in 1995.

Professor Moghe’s recent research efforts have been focused on the elucidation of stem cell-biomaterial interactions and nanomedicine. He and his colleagues have pioneered the design of polymer therapeutics called nanolipoblockers; advanced a new formalism for high content imaging for profiling of the stem cell phenotype in the emerging field of bio-materiomics; and developed a new generation of rare earth nanoprobes for optical disease tracking. An elected International Fellow of Biomaterials Science and Engineering and of the AIMBE, Professor Moghe has directed two NSF IGERT programs at Rutgers, on Biointerfaces and Integrative Science and Engineering of Stem Cells (www.igert.rutgers.edu), currently co-directs a NIH T32 Postdoctoral Training Program on Translational Regenerative Medicine (www.njbiomaterials.org), and leads a major core, within RESBIO: a National Biomedical Technology Resource Center, funded by the NIH/NIBIB, on Cell Profiling of Polymeric Biomaterials.

The Stem Cell Engineering seminar series brings leaders in the field to Georgia Tech to share their most recent work and advances.  The seminars are open to all faculty, trainees and staff interested in stem cell engineering research.  Please visit the Stem Cell Engineering Center website or the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience website for a list of upcoming and previous speakers. Suggestions for potential speakers are always welcome - email Megan Richards.

Advanced microscale technologies for the in vitro study of stem cells

Elisa Cimetta obtained her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Padua (Italy) in 2009, with research focused on the design and development of microscale technologies and microfluidic platforms for the in vitro culture of stem cells. She then worked as a post-doctoral research scientist on the design and development of advanced cell culture technologies for the production of functional cardiac human tissue (2009-2010). She is now an Associate Research Scientist in the laboratory of Dr. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, further pursuing her research in the development of advanced technologies for the spatial and temporal regulation of culture microenvironments to study and direct stem cell differentiation. Since 2010, she has been working as a New York Stem Cell Foundation-Druckenmiller Fellow. In 2011, Dr. Cimetta graduated from the Postbaccalaureate Business Program from Columbia University.

Every year, the Stem Cell Engineering Center welcomes approximately six keynote speakers to Georgia Tech to discuss current advances in the stem cell engineering field. The center's mission is to cultivate researchers from the basic sciences along with investigators from various engineering disciplines to address key hurdles and technological challenges currently impeding the development of stem cell therapeutics and diagnostics. These seminars are open to all faculty or trainees interested in stem cell research.

Placental models from human pluripotent stem cells

Dr. Balaji Rao is focused on manipulating molecular interactions through engineered proteins to understand and ultimately control cellular processes. Stem cells are “master” cells that can self-renew as well as develop into many different cell types. Stem cells have great potential in regenerative medicine. They can also be used as a basis to develop model systems for drug evaluation. One of the major challenges in this area is to understand and control the molecular decisions that control stem cell fate. Dr. Rao's approach involves the use of engineered proteins to quantitatively study and ultimately control molecular interactions that govern stem cell fate.

Every year, the Stem Cell Engineering Center welcomes approximately six keynote speakers to Georgia Tech to discuss current advances in stem cell engineering. The center's mission is to cultivate researchers from the basic sciences along with investigators from various engineering disciplines to address key hurdles and technological challenges currently impeding the development of stem cell therapeutics and diagnostics. These seminars are open to all faculty or trainees interested in stem cell research.

• Biomedical Engineering
• Chemistry
• Biology
• Regenerative Medicine/Tissue Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Materials Science & Engineering

The popular annual event, hosted by the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience and the Bioengineering and Bioscience Unified Graduate Students (BBUGS), is held for high school students to come and engage their interest in science and biotechnology. Students will be able to participate in interesting - and fun! - hands-on demonstrations, take tours of state-of-the-art Georgia Tech laboratories and attend short scientific seminars on a variety of biotechnology topics.  Visitors will even have an opportunity to talk with GT Admissions representatives who will be on hand for the event.

For complete event information and for FREE registration, visit the Buzz on Biotechnology website. 

Attendance will be limited, so register today!

Synthetic signaling systems for biological discovery and design

Sarkar strives to elucidate fundamental principles that underlie individual biomolecular interactions and molecular networks within cells and to apply this knowledge to the design of new molecular and cellular therapeutics. His research couples techniques from the fields of molecular biology, protein biochemistry, microbiology, and mammalian cell biology with mathematical modeling, engineering analyses, and synthetic biology to develop quantitative, predictive frameworks for the biological processes that he interrogates. Current thrusts in Sarkar's laboratory include designing novel protein therapeutics, engineering cell biosensors, and dissecting signaling networks implicated in cell decision making.

Every semester, the Stem Cell Engineering Center welcomes a keynote speaker to the Georgia Tech stem cell research community to speak on behalf of their university, institution, industry, or research lab in regards to stem cell engineering. This experience is meant to broaden the stem cell research alliance between local researchers and worldwide experts for the purposes of communicating stem cell advancements across the globe while developing future collaborative opportunities.

This year, IGERT trainee Jenna Wilson is competing the online 2012 IGERT video and poster competition with co-presenter and IGERT trainee Josh Zimmermann. Graduate students from each of the 114 NSF-funded IGERT programs are presenting videos and posters through the online forum describing their innovative, interdisciplinary research. The winners of the online competition will be announced at an awards ceremoney during the IGERT Annual Conference held in Washington, D.C. on May 30th - June 1st.

The online competition invites everyone to browse the posters and watch the videos provided by the presenters while contributing to research discussions and voting on their favorite presentations. Twenty-five projects/posters will be chosen as finalists and receive an award of $2,000 per winning poster to support the professional development activities of the trainees. Twenty finalist will be selected by judges, four finalists will be selected by an IGERT community choice vote, and one finalist wil be selected by the general public. The general public judging is based on which presenter was the most effective in disseminating science to a broad community.

Jenna and Josh are presenting on the challenges in stem cell-derived therapies. Despite the great promise of stem cells, the lack of processes to manufacutre viable and homogenous cell populations is one of the difficult challenges to overcome. Currently, the industrial production of mammalian cells occurs in large scale bioreactors, which impart hydrogynamic forces that can damage stem cells and influence their differentiation. Jenna and Josh are working on a possible solution to microencapsulate stem cells in hydrogels, such as alginate beads, which can protect  ells from hydrodynamic shear forces found in the reactor environment, prevent agglomeration of stem cell aggregates, and allow for diffusion of nutrients and oxygen through the encapsulation material. Their research goal was to examine the impact of alginate microencapsulation on the viability and phenotype of ESC and MSC populations.

Please visit the link below between May 22nd - May 25th to view Jenna and Josh's poster & video presentation detailing their research findings. Voting will be open for the entirety of the three day long competition.

Thursday, May 31st

8:30 - 9:00 AM: Welcome and Agenda Overview

9:00 - 10:00 AM: Keynote Address - Creating an Innovating Ecosystem. C. Daniel Mote, Jr., Regents Professor & Glenn L. Martin, Institute Professor of Engineering, Former President of University of Maryland, College Park

10:15 AM - 12:15 PM: PI Technical Session Presentations - Nanoscience & Materials Science, Bioinformatics and Bioengineering: Climate, the Environment, and Ecology

1:15 - 2:15 PM: Broadening Participation: Effective Practices from successful IGERT PIs

2:15 - 3:15 PM: Annual reporting and managing your IGERT, Career Development, Part 1 plenary with IGERT alumni

3:15 - 5:15 PM: Communicating Science Workshop for trainees

Friday, June 1st

8:15 - 9:15 AM: Keynote Address - Collaboration Networks. Griffin Webber, CTO Harvard Medical School

9:30 - 11:30 AM: PI Technical Session Presentations - Energy and Sustainable Development & Cognitive, Social and Economic Science; Computation, the Environment, and Ecology

1:00 - 2:00 PM: Institutionalizing your IGERT, Career Development, Part 2 Federal Post-Doctoral Opportunities for trainees

2:00 - 3:00 PM: IGERT of the Future

Topics to be covered:

• Lab equipment and techniques – e.g. confocal microscopy, western blotting, PCR, micro CT, suture lab, animal studies, MRI, Project Management/Research Tools
• Software and analysis – e.g. IGOR, MATLAB, Systat, EndNote, Biostatistics
• Communication – e.g. technical writing, presentations, resume writing, interviewing, library research tools

For complete symposium and registration information, visit:  2012 Techniques Symposium

We have an exciting day planned with our prospective students which will include:

• Research Area Overviews
• Opportunities to interview with Research Faculty
• Lunch with our current graduate students and faculty
• Reception and Poster session showcasing the latest in BioEngineering research.