Spring 2020

Engineering a Medical Career

Anonymous — Fri, 08 May 2020 18:35:17 +0000

Engineering a Medical Career Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/08/2020 - 12:35

Architectural engineering alumna finds her light as an OB-GYN

Ragan Gage, right, at East Cascade Women's Group in Bend, Ore.

I was really good at cardiology, and you could say, in a way, it's similar to electrical systems for buildings but it's involving a body.

Regan Gage thought she would be an engineer when she left Boulder with her bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering in 2000.

After all, she had a passion for lighting design, and she was starting work for engineering firm Flack + Kurtz in San Francisco during the dot-com boom, even designing lighting for the education center at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

But the light for her ultimately was somewhere else.

“I had fun projects to work on, but I decided I needed a different connection with people,” she said. “I found that as an OB-GYN.”

That’s not to say that she doesn’t use her skills from her undergraduate days.

“My engineering education taught a way to think, and you could see application,” she said. “Take when I was in medical school. I was really good at cardiology, and you could say, in a way, it’s similar to electrical systems for buildings but it’s involving a body.”

She added that engineering taught her how to problem-solve when problems occur in the operating room.

“It can be many things, even figuring out how to get someone’s ovary out in a difficult situation,” Gage said.

She is one of several doctors at East Cascade Women’s Group in Bend, Oregon, where wondrous mountains are never far away. If she has a bit of the home field advantage, it might not be just because she spent so much time here on vacations growing up. Her grandfather Al was the first pediatrician in town and even served as mayor.

“Of course, they let many people be mayor,” she said, laughing. “It was kind of like, ‘OK, it’s your turn.’”

Although, not everyone has a park in town named after them. And not everyone will have a legacy that stretches to a granddaughter seeing patients who once saw him.

Gage’s journey also includes walking in the footsteps of Darwin, living in the Galapagos Islands in 2003 and returning multiple times as a guide.

“I heard a friend’s experiences, and I liked the idea that it was so remote, so I had to do it,” she said. “The animals were amazing. Hammerhead sharks everywhere. Being woken by sea lions near your door. Snorkeling every day and seeing great sea life. It was incredibly special.”

That adventurous spirit came in handy when she decided to finally take the leap into medicine. It would mean returning to school at 29, while many that age were already into their medical careers. Still, she enrolled in George Washington University’s medical school in 2007 ready to tackle her studies as one more challenge.

“I don’t know if I realized how hard it was going to be,” she said. “If I had gone sooner, I don’t know if I would have stayed with it. I may have had wanderlust. You feel there’s a reason for things.”

She looks back on her time at CU Boulder in a similar way, particularly appreciating the encouragement of professors who often let her go where her passions took her.

“They really encouraged us to be creative, and I felt I could express myself while addressing technical aspects of projects we were working on,” she said. “It made my undergraduate experience more freeing.”

Gage doesn’t know when her next Galapagos Islands-like adventure will be, as she enjoys life with her daughters, ages 2 and 6, and her many patients. But she realizes adventure is in wonderful relationships as much as unusual locales.

“People are trusting you when they make you their OB-GYN,” she says. “They can have nerves and can have anxiety, postpartum depression, so many things. They rely on you to help them through. I know I’m very lucky to be invited into people’s lives as much as I am. I take it all in and think: This is a gift.”

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Academia Meets Activism

Anonymous — Thu, 07 May 2020 15:06:37 +0000

Academia Meets Activism Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 05/07/2020 - 09:06

Student group tackles antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial resistance—the ability of bacteria, viruses and fungi to adapt to common remedies, leading to increasingly difficult-to-treat superbugs—represents a looming threat to global health.

In labs at CU Boulder and around the world, researchers are exploring strategies for revamping antibiotics to work in the face of resistant superbugs and investigating new, adaptive therapies that work in completely different ways.

Graduate student Colleen McCollum spreads the word about antimicrobial resistance mediation on campus at CU Boulder.

Antimicrobial Resistance, Mitigation and Outreach - (ARMOR)

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Now, a group of student researchers at CU Boulder is taking steps to improve public awareness of antimicrobial resistance. They hope to show that the average person doesn’t have to wait around, fingers crossed that scientists and policymakers will offer a solution—we all can play a role in curbing the problem.

In early 2019, they created ARMOR, which stands for Antimicrobial Resistance Mediation Outreach. The organization, which has a half-dozen core members, meets weekly to discuss tactics for spreading the word on campus and beyond. ARMOR was created under the Antimicrobial Regeneration Consortium initiative, which aims to bring together global scientific expertise in academia and industry to tackle this major health crisis.

“We kind of decided that we needed to do more,” said Colleen McCollum, a PhD student in chemical and biological engineering. “There’s a lot that you can do in academia, but without the public behind you, there’s only so far you can go.”

Each year in the U.S. alone, at least 2.8 million people are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and more than 35,000 die as a result, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The evolution of resistant microorganisms occurs naturally, but scientific consensus suggests that human activity is accelerating the pace.

At its worst, antimicrobial resistance could make today’s curable infections more difficult or impossible to treat. Common conditions like a urinary tract infection or stomach bug could spell hospitalization, while procedures like chemotherapy, joint replacement or C-section births could become impossibly risky. In this scary scenario, even a paper cut could lead to death.

ARMOR is taking several steps to address these urgent and emerging issues.

The members have created informational pamphlets about antibiotic resistance now being distributed at the campus’s Health and Wellness Services that explain how antibiotics work and why they might not be prescribed for every illness.

They visited the Boulder County Farmers Market to talk to local producers about their approaches to antibiotic use, and they talked with people at the Boulder County wastewater treatment facility to understand how antimicrobials accumulate in our water and ecosystem.

They even hosted a soap-making event to provide natural alternatives to antibacterial soaps that have flooded the market.

“There is a disconnect between discoveries in academia and what’s actually making it to the public,” PhD student Dana Stamo said. “The value of ARMOR is bridging that gap and finding out, how do we bring those discoveries to the public?”

Small Steps You Can Take

At the doctor’s office

Keep in mind that antibiotics can treat only bacterial infections. The common cold, flu and many coughs and sore throats stem from viruses, so antibiotics won’t be effective. Wait until tests confirm the source of your illness, or ask your doctor if there are steps you can take to feel better without using antibiotics.

In your home

Don’t use hand soaps marked “antibacterial.” For most healthy people, they aren’t necessary and have not been proven to be any more effective than plain soap and water, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Over time, less demand may lead to less supply of these products.

At the grocery store

Consider purchasing meat and dairy products from sources that don’t treat animals with antibiotics. The FDA already monitors antibiotic residue in meat, so the problem isn’t ingesting residual drugs – it’s about the other ways that resistant bacteria can enter the food chain during the slaughtering process.

At the gym

Wipe down your gym equipment after use with cleaners that don’t use antimicrobial chemicals. Bacteria on your skin or in your sweat could be resistant, and shared equipment at the gym is an easy place to pick up a bug the last user left behind.

Dana Stamo, left, and Anshuree Chatterjee in the lab in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at CU Boulder.

In the Lab

In Professors Anushree Chatterjee and Prashant Nagpal’s labs in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, several promising strategies have already been identified to fight antibiotic resistance.

First, the team devised a way to use quantum dots – minuscule crystals of semiconductors, activated by light—to produce a substance toxic to bacteria that doesn’t harm surrounding healthy cells. The dots are cheap and easily manufactured, making them excellent candidates to fight superbugs around the globe.

More recently, the Chatterjee lab found a way to use CRISPR DNA editing techniques to alter genes in bacteria that stunt their ability to evolve and reproduce. The tweaked gene expressions build up stress in the bacterial cell until it fails and becomes susceptible once again to current treatments. The technique is called Controlled Hindrance of Adaptation of OrganismS, or CHAOS, because of the mayhem it produces in the resistant cells.

Chatterjee’s lab also has developed a Facile Accelerated Specific Therapeutic platform, or FAST, that can generate novel antimicrobial therapeutics in less than a week to counter multi-drug-resistant bacteria.

Those techniques together, along with other promising therapies being developed around the world, may one day stop antibiotic resistance in its tracks.

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Special Delivery

Anonymous — Fri, 01 May 2020 18:32:27 +0000

Special Delivery Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/01/2020 - 12:32

Researchers exploring ways to make drug delivery safer and more effective

By looking at health problems through an engineering lens, CU Engineering researchers are creating ways to make drug therapy delivery safer and more effective. By working across departments, disciplines and research units, our engineers are innovating solutions for the world’s health challenges.

Associate Dean for Research Massimo Ruzzene said these new delivery systems and techniques are just a few of the ways students and faculty are changing how patient treatment occurs “at every level.”

“These outstanding results are great examples of how the combined expertise of our college—coupled with partners across campus, the nation and the world—are drastically impacting this important area of medicine.”

Light-activated polymers for blood biostasis

Storing and transporting critical organic materia—including donated organs, blood and vaccines—requires a complex logistical “cold chain” of refrigeration. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Army Research Office are investing more than $7 million into the research of Professors Kristi Anseth and Chris Bowman of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Sabrina Spencer of biochemistry to meet this challenge.

If this approach is successful, we would enable better potential treatment of disease, infections or traumatic wounds where buying time could be beneficial.

Anseth, Bowman and Spencer are working on a method of injecting biological material such as blood with specialty light-activated molecules. When exposed to one type of light, these molecules gel and fill blood cells to prevent their degradation. This creates a biostasis that can be reversed when exposed to a second type of colored light.

“If this approach is successful, we would enable better potential treatment of disease, infections or traumatic wounds where buying time could be beneficial.” Bowman said.

Breaking the vaccine cold chain

Other researchers are exploring another method to break the cold chain, specifically for vaccines. Professor Robert Garcea of the BioFrontiers Institute and Professor Theodore Randolph of chemical and biological engineering are combining extant particle atomic layer deposition technology – developed by their colleague Professor Al Weimer – with new thermostabilization techniques to create vaccine formulations that do not require refrigeration. They recently received $1.2 million in grant funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

They have stabilized vaccine formulations for anthrax, botulinum toxin, ricin and, most recently, the Ebola virus. By creating vaccines with this unique thermal stability characteristic, the researchers hope to provide solutions to supply chain problems in war, cases of bioterrorism and remote, rural health care.

Microbubbles deliver therapies

Alec Thomas began his research into biomaterial that can be formed into microscopic bubbles while he was a PhD student studying under Associate Professor Mark Borden of the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering. Since earning his PhD, he has continued that research at Oxford University.

When injected with a blood clotting agent, Thomas’ magnetically controlled microbubbles provide a noninvasive method to deliver their payload to a trauma site, halting internal bleeding.

The method can eliminate the need for surgery in certain situations. It also creates a contrast easy to spot on an ultrasound, which helps medical professionals see and understand what is happening at the trauma site.

Fluid dynamics in aerospace may lead to breakthroughs in drug delivery

Research Professor Jim Brasseur of the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences is working to apply the mechanical principles of fluid flow and molecular transport that underlie rocket science to the release and delivery of drug molecules – particularly biologics like insulin.

Brasseur is leveraging his expertise in both aerodynamics and gastrointestinal physiology to analyze the transport and absorption of these drug molecules.

“The release, transport and absorption of drug molecules is essentially a mathematical mechanics problem,” Brasseur said.

Many biological molecules are too large to pass across the barrier of intestinal lining and must be taken intravenously. Overcoming this obstacle by developing an orally administered tablet is considered by some researchers to be the holy grail of this field of research.

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DNA: Goldmine for Hackers?

Anonymous — Fri, 01 May 2020 18:12:45 +0000

DNA: Goldmine for Hackers? Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/01/2020 - 12:12

The team performs penetration testing on a gene sequencing machine at Colorado State University.

�鶹��Ժ explore security risks around genetic data collection

Genetic data is some of the most valuable personal information we have. But protections and assurances around its collection and storage lag behind those built into consumer products, like Social Security numbers.

Shifting that dynamic to favor user security is a problem that students in the Technology, Cybersecurity and Policy Program are exploring as part of a graduate capstone project funded by GeneInfoSec. The goal is to research and document potential security vulnerabilities in this area, starting with the genetic sequencing machines used to collect and process this data through the interconnected ecosystem of labs and servers where it is stored and accessed.

Their work could eventually help protect those who have willingly shared their DNA to better understand their ancestry and those who need genetic testing to help with treatment of rare diseases or cancer.

“This project is a very good opportunity for us to apply the skills we have learned during the program and also contribute comprehensively,” master’s student Arya Thaker said. “This is absolutely the kind of work I—or any student pursuing cybersecurity—would love to do as a career.”

Thaker and his team visited sequencing centers all along the Front Range, including at Colorado State University, CU Anschutz Medical Campus and industry providers. At each stop, they conducted interviews and gathered data to understand existing security measures and problems that may not have been considered at all.

What they find will be collected into a comprehensive report—a sort of “state of the union” of interest to many parties working in this area.

The need for heightened security

Sharing of personal genetic information has become common. According to MIT Technology Review, consumers purchased the same number of at-home DNA tests in 2018 as in all previous years since 2012 combined.

If that trend continues, companies like 23andMe could house the genetic information of more than 100 million people within two years. That total doesn’t include those who shared data for medical reasons.

It also means there’s more incentive for bad actors to try to access the data. Genetic information can be used to identify personal traits like height and ethnicity or diseases you are predisposed to. It can even be used to simulate your face or voice.

Securing that information is vital, since it could be used to tailor a disease to attack only certain portions of the population or to find and hack into people’s bank accounts.

TCP students looking at those possibilities found that potential protections required consideration of health privacy standards in addition to traditional cybersecurity concerns, which start with hardware in each lab space.

From left, Ashish Yadav, Cory Cranford, Arya Thaker and Garrett Schumacher.

‘Setting the tone’

Garrett Schumacher is a co-founder of GeneInfoSec and a staff member with TCP. He is co-advising students on the project and said that in the near future, you won’t be able to get medical treatment until you get your DNA tested. That means the pool of people potentially at risk will only increase over time.

“If you have a financial data breach, you can change numbers and accounts—you can react to that,” he said. “But your DNA? You can’t change that.”

The work has implications for industry, as well. Genetic data from those with rare diseases is valuable in a medical research setting and could be stolen by competitors. Concealing genetic information can also secure animal breeding programs and hide private knowledge about breeding stocks.

Schumacher said the project was a great example of the interdisciplinary work going on in the TCP Program.

“The findings these students come up with need to be understood by policymakers, IT specialists, electrical engineers and biologists, to name just a few interested parties,” he said. “The students understand that and are among the first working on this problem through that lens. We are really setting the tone for this work going forward.”

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Biomedical Boost

Anonymous — Fri, 01 May 2020 17:24:40 +0000

Biomedical Boost Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/01/2020 - 11:24

New undergraduate major and graduate degrees build on college’s strengths

A 3D-printed heart? A robotic surgeon? Biomedical engineering has come a long way from the invention of the scalpel. And now, it’s getting a boost at CU Boulder with a new undergraduate major and graduate programs launching in fall 2020.

Mechanical engineering Professor Mark Borden served on the committee that brought the program to fruition and will serve as its first director.

“This a terrific opportunity for our high-ranking program,” said Borden, who teaches Introduction to Biomedical Engineering as part of the existing minor. “�鶹��Ժ are going to have their eyes opened by the type of subject matter offered, and they will be inspired.”

The career opportunities won’t hurt, either, he said.

“In fact, Forbes ranked this the No. 1 major, and its national median annual wage is $88,000. For Colorado, it’s even higher at $96,000.”

It’s also a STEM major that attracts a diverse student body, Borden added.

“So many people who go down this route have a story of someone close to them that was affected by a medical issue,” he said. “It moves people to make a difference. Our inaugural class is actually projected to have 50 to 60 students, so right away it’s keeping up favorably with the other majors in the engineering school.”

Anushree Chatterjee, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering, is excited about how the program will bolster research opportunities for both students and faculty.

“We have a quality medical school for students to have a larger involvement with, and they can find themselves matching up further with professorial research,” she said. “There are technologies they can understand for clinical applications. If they have the skills, they can have valuable additional experience for their résumé, and they can be incredibly helpful in our work.”

Won Park, professor in electrical, computer and energy engineering whose research focuses on biomedical uses for nanomaterials, also sees the major as a key interdisciplinary opportunity.

“The school has very strong programs in chemical engineering, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, and these are the three disciplines that have a strong component that are relative to biomedical engineering,” said Park, who, like Chatterjee, also served on the committee. “Aerospace and computer science are also important contributors. In my work in bladder cancer, it could help a great deal. We will now be even more free to pursue greater amounts of interdisciplinary research in biology and medicine (with the help of students).”

And who knows how many people will have their quality of life improved by the work of an inspired biomedical engineering student or maybe even owe their lives to their ingenuity someday?

“It’s an exciting avenue,” Borden said. “And our students are just the people to take on its challenges.”

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Western Buffs

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 14:18:02 +0000

Western Buffs Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/29/2020 - 08:18

When I heard about the (partnership) program, it was the best of both worlds.

Partnership Program

Partnership program helps students engineer their own CU experience.

In 2018, the CU Boulder College of Engineering and Applied Science launched a partnership program with Western Colorado University’s Paul M. Rady School of Computer Science and Engineering. The program allows students to earn Bachelor of Science degrees in computer science or mechanical engineering as graduates of CU Boulder. They complete their first two years as Western students, and the balance of their education as CU Boulder students, all while remaining on the Western campus in Gunnison, Colorado.

Forty students enrolled in the inaugural class in fall 2019, and they’re already making their mark.

“We are fortunate to have these talented students as part of our CU Engineering community,” Interim Dean Keith Molenaar said. “We look forward to working with them on their journey to becoming professional engineers and scientists.”

Here is a look at two of the stand-out students of the Class of 2023 who are taking advantage of the opportunity to get their CU Boulder degrees in a small-school atmosphere.

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Genomics + Machine Learning

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 22:49:44 +0000

Genomics + Machine Learning Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/28/2020 - 16:49

‘30 under 30’ winner’s startup focuses on pinpointing why pharmaceuticals work

Joey Azofeifa (PhDCompSci’18) is bringing together machine learning and state-of-the-art RNA sequencing technology to create better, safer prescription drugs.

Joey Azofeifa

Azofeifa is the founder of Arpeggio Biosciences, a startup company that grew out of his research as a graduate student at CU Boulder.

“It’s a general problem in pharmaceutical work that we don’t understand the mechanism of why a particular drug works for a particular person,” Azofeifa said. “We can see that a drug is working, but not why.”

The company’s work is earning national attention. Forbes magazine recently named Azofeifa to its 2020 “30 under 30” health care leaders list.

Arpeggio pinpoints a drug’s mechanism of action by distinguishing primary drug targets from aftereffects that can obscure the message. This is priceless information for pharmaceutical companies, which waste millions of dollars and years of research and development on drug candidates that fail due to misunderstood mechanisms.

The key for Arpeggio is combining genomics with machine learning.

“We’re collaborating across disciplines. Half of the company team is software and half is in a lab with pipettes,” Azofeifa said.

The company’s patent-pending process monitors how RNA changes over time when exposed to drugs. Past researchers have looked at RNA—which acts as a messenger carrying instructions from DNA to where proteins are assembled—but only at the end of experiments. Arpeggio is doing it continuously to pick up on changes throughout a drug’s action.

Its algorithms are able to transform a sea of previously indecipherable genomic data—the human genome has some 3.2 billion base pairs—into a gold mine of crucial information for drug development and patient selection in medical trials.

With seven employees, six of whom are CU Boulder graduates, Arpeggio is a small but growing company. Its offices will be familiar to many engineering alumni; it’s located in the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building, one of several businesses with university connections sharing campus facilities.

Arpeggio has already worked with more than 20 companies and completed a round of fundraising last summer that brought in $3.2 million.

“I originally wanted to just do science for science’s sake, but I love that we are solving real-world problems in health and medicine,” Azofeifa said. “Creating safer and more effective drugs? Heck, yeah.”

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Biomedical Breakthroughs

Anonymous — Mon, 27 Apr 2020 14:43:47 +0000

Biomedical Breakthroughs Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/27/2020 - 08:43

From machine learning to real-time imaging, CU Engineering researchers are changing the way medical treatment is imagined, designed and delivered

A new approach to stopping the spread of cancer

Assistant Professor Maureen Lynch
Mechanical Engineering

The three most common cancers in the United States are breast, lung and prostate cancer, all of which preferentially spread to the bone. To combat metastasis, or the spread of cancer from one site to another, Assistant Professor Maureen Lynch is exploring the problem through the lens of a mechanical engineer. Her team researches how forces applied to bone affect not only skeletal health but management of cancer. Their data suggests that mechanical forces have an anti-tumorigenic effect in bone metastatic breast cancer. To understand this effect, Lynch develops loading platforms, creates three-dimensional models of tissues and studies how cancer in mice responds when exposed to forces that simulate exercise. “Current cancer treatments have been able to slow down metastasis and bone fragility, but they haven’t figured out a way to turn it off completely,” she said. Because mechanical loading turns on cell pathways that prevent metastasis, Lynch hopes her research will lead to a new drug that turns on the same pathway with the same cancer-fighting effect.

Imaging technique allows earlier diagnoses of osteoarthritis

Associate Professor Corey Neu
Mechanical Engineering

Neu is working with colleagues at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus to detect early osteoarthritis, allowing younger patients to seek treatment earlier and possibly ward off the most severe treatment plans. To do this, his team is determining whether functional imaging methods—which focus on assessment of cartilage health and elasticity in the knee—can predict osteoarthritis in humans. Early prediction would allow patients to begin treatments like physical therapy or minimally invasive arthroscopy long before something as serious a joint replacement is their only option. To do the work, Neu will be leveraging a state-of-the-art MRI scanner and focusing on patients younger than 45 who will be undergoing ACL reconstruction. That is because those with ACL injuries are likely to develop cartilage degeneration, enabling researchers to track early progression of the disease more reliably. An MRI will be taken with the patient’s leg connected to a device that applies force on the knee to mimic walking. As the leg moves, changes in cartilage are mapped over time. Steady levels of strain or material properties indicate a healthy joint, while large, abnormal measurements indicate early stages of osteoarthritis.

Studying odor navigation in animals to understand brain function

Professor John Crimaldi
Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering

Since 2015, Crimaldi and his team have been leading a multi-university effort to study how animals use their sense of smell to determine the location of an odor source. The work is focused primarily on developing an understanding of brain function at different organizational levels—within the brain and across species. This is done by studying how various animals identify, detect and follow odors. Results from the work will be important for practical applications, including human rescue in natural disasters or locating natural resources. The resulting data is also used in analytical studies to identify embedded information to drive virtual-reality systems that permit researchers to study brain function in actively searching animals. Crimaldi is leading a larger international team of investigators that seeks to understand more generalized animal responses to odors. They are finalists in the NSF Next Generation Networks for Neuroscience competition. He also recently started working with other CU Engineering faculty developing advanced miniature microscopes to record information from the brain of freely moving animals.

Real-time imaging of living tissue

Professor Rafael Piestun
Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering

Controlling the process by which light waves travel into and through complex media, such as blood and skin, is a growing area of imaging research. Unfortunately, spatial light modulation devices, which allow this by varying the properties of a beam of light in useful ways, are limited in speed. This prevents real-time applications such as imaging of live tissue or imaging through turbulent flow, which are constantly changing by the millisecond. Piestun’s lab has created impressive improvements in this area, developing a light wave control technique that is faster than any other available technology by more than one order of magnitude and demonstrating a record high-speed wave shaping. Applications for this technique in the medical field are as varied as they are intriguing. By enabling imaging through multimode fibers, which are thinner and more efficient than existing endoscopes, this technique could open a window into previously inaccessible regions of the human body. Another potential application is in focusing light deeper into skin tissues for medical evaluation.

Machine learning to identify and treat infections faster

Randolph and Calderon Groups
Chemical and Biological Engineering

Researchers in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering have developed a machine-learning-based technique that may help doctors identify pathogens in blood samples in a fraction of the time of current methods. This could lead to faster deployments of life-saving treatments in patients suffering from sepsis. Professor Theodore Randolph, Adjunct Assistant Professor Christopher Calderon and graduate student Austin Daniels originally developed the technique to identify and characterize types of particles found in pharmaceutical formulations of therapeutic proteins. They soon realized that they could use this same analysis method to detect and identify invasive bacteria in a single drop of blood. Blood samples are sent through microfluidic channels under a microscope, and millions of photographs are taken of objects slightly larger than one-tenth of a micron in length. These images are then reviewed by the machine learning algorithm, which can identify specific microbial organisms in a fraction of the time of traditional tests. This process could be particularly valuable when treating sepsis in newborns, where methods currently used for identifying blood infections are slow in comparison to the rapid, frequently fatal progression of the disease, forcing physicians to take best guesses as to which antibiotic might provide the most appropriate course of therapy.

Speeding up clinical trials around Type 1 diabetes

Associate Professor Sriram Sankaranarayanan
Computer Science

Sankaranarayanan’s group has created virtual clinical trials for an artificial pancreas that could significantly improve treatments for those with Type 1 diabetes. People with this disease can’t make insulin with their own pancreas and require frequent doses of the hormone to regulate blood glucose levels, either through injections or a pump system. Creating an artificial pancreas to autonomously deliver the insulin is complicated, requiring sophisticated computer, electronic and physical components. At its core is an algorithm that must automatically decide how much insulin to provide based on available health and timing data—but a wrong decision could be dangerous. Sankaranarayanan’s project tested a variety of artificial pancreas designs to see if they could fail, break or otherwise harm a patient by giving them too much or too little insulin. They did this by using a formal verification tool called S-Taliro that his group had previously helped develop to check the correctness of car vehicle systems. These virtual trials are much cheaper than clinical trials and may allow patients to select the best device for their needs or better tune the device they are using.

Improving cancer detection and therapy

Professor Wounjhang Park
Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering

Park’s lab is using plasmonic nanostructures to diagnose and treat cancer. If successful, the technique they are developing could simultaneously image and kill cancer cells. Their work and testing focus on bladder cancer, the fourth most common non-skin cancer among men in the U.S. The team uses a gold nanorod bonded with an antibody that targets bladder cancer cells. When inserted into the bladder, it selectively binds to cancer cells, which can then be destroyed through irradiation by laser induced heating. Another application is through irradiation where a laser would create a hole in the cancer cell through which a chemotherapy drug can be delivered to destroy the cell. This process would allow for a highly targeted chemotherapy. Park and his collaborators have new patents related to this technique, which was recently described in Materials Science and Engineering C.

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A Path Back to Teaching

Anonymous — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 21:21:17 +0000

A Path Back to Teaching Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/24/2020 - 15:21

My PhD is ultimately a path back to teaching. The three years I taught at West Point were the most rewarding years of my military career.

Veteran will apply skills from PhD research to mentoring West Point cadets.

For PhD student Brodie Hoyer, the opportunity to instruct and mentor cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point is well worth the rigor of getting his PhD in three years.

Having attended West Point himself, he wanted to return to share with students what he learned during deployments to Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and various locations throughout the U.S.

After receiving his master’s degree from Stanford University in 2013, Hoyer taught at West Point for three years. Soon, he’ll be returning with his mechanical engineering PhD and tons of research experience.

“My PhD is ultimately a path back to teaching,” Hoyer said. “The three years I taught at West Point were the most rewarding years of my military career.”

Associate Professor Mark Rentschler, Hoyer’s PhD advisor, said he recognized a sense of purpose in Hoyer from the very beginning.

“Brodie’s goal was clear in that he wants to be an instructor,” Rentschler said. “When you’re committed and know why you’re doing what you’re doing, you’ll make it happen.”

He said there are no shortcuts to receiving a PhD at CU Boulder. Hoyer is doing what most do in about half the time.

Bill Doe, a research development officer with the College of Engineering and Applied Science, went through a very similar program 30 years ago and also graduated from West Point. He said Hoyer is a clear leader among his peers, an intelligent, diligent and humble engineer of deep character.

Hoyer’s research investigates how microtextured surfaces interact with soft tissue, particularly useful in improving the efficiency of medical robots inside the gastrointestinal tract.

“Imagine treads on a small mobile robot,” Hoyer said. “We’re trying to predict what qualities those treads need in order to move efficiently and without damaging tissue.”

The lab group aims to model how these treads create traction, so they can predict how a robot will move inside the body.

“It’s always energizing to be in an environment where people are excited to come to the lab and are passionate about their research,” Hoyer said.

A scaled-up prototype of a medical robot in the Rentschler Lab.

Many skills Hoyer acquired as a leader in the military translate well to his research.

“Being a leader in the military generally entails being confronted with vague or poorly defined problems that can change rapidly with potential for catastrophic consequences,” Hoyer said. “I think leaders develop a sense of when they have enough information to make the best decision possible.”

Hoyer said there is a saying that a 70 percent solution now is better than a 100 percent solution later.

Hoyer said he also believes the military does a good job in helping leaders and soldiers develop their ability to express themselves confidently and clearly in speaking and writing, a skill that will continue to impact his teaching career to come.

“Whether it’s briefing your soldiers on a combat mission or teaching beam theory to a classroom of cadets, there is a common need to speak clearly and concisely, understand your audience and encourage active listening,” Hoyer said.

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