Archive of 2014 BME News
December 12, 2014
Patent Issued to Professor Yarmush and Colleagues
A patent was issued to Professor Martin Yarmush, Eric Wallenstein, and Rene Schlossentitled, "Media Conditioning for Improving Gene Delivery Efficiency To Differentiating Embryonic Stem Cells". The invention provides systems and methods for improving the efficiency of transient gene delivery to differentiating embryonic stem cells by serum starvation. Dr. Eric Wallenstein graduated from Rutgers BME with a PhD in 2008 under Professor Yarmush`s supervision, and currently works as a Principal Scientist at Merck.
November 11, 2014
BME Students in Cardiovascular Engineering Lab Won Aresty Research Assistantships for 2014-2015
Three BME students from the Cardiovascular Engineering Lab won Aresty undergraduate research assistantships for the 2014-2015 academic year. Jeanette Caronia is working on Emerging Cardiovascular Technology, Priya Mohan is working on Model-based Hypertension Diagnosis and Amara Colonia is working on New Approaches to Monitoring Stenosis and Hypertension. Their mentor is BME Distinguished Professor John K-J. Li.
November 10, 2014
BME Undergraduate Students Receive Aresty Awards for Fall 2014
The following BME undergraduate students were recently awarded grants for their undergraduate research with BME faculty:
1) Christopher Bargoud working with Professor William Craelius on "Brain-Controlled Dexterous Upper Extremity Prosthesis"
2) Robert Battikha working with Professor Jeffrey Zahn on "Graded Spinal Cord Injury in Microfluidic Platform"
3) Emma Fleisher working with Professor Joseph Freeman on "Optimization of Braided Ligament Scaffold Mechanics"
4) Alexander Gorshkov working with Dr. Timothy Maguire on "The Design And Implementation Of A Rapid Blood Fractionation System For Integration With An Automated Venipuncture Device"
5) Paul Lee working with Professor Jeffrey Zahn on "Microfluidic Device For Neuron Maturation And Observation"
6) Jennifer McHale working with Dr. Timothy Maguire on "The Development of Anaesthetic Drug Release Hydrogel for Implementation with and Automated Venipuncture Device"
7) Marco Mingozzi working with Professor Mark Pierce on "Low Cost Computer-aided Automatic Malaria Diagnosis Technique Using Customized Raspberry Pi Microscopy"
8) Ian Reucroft working with Professor David Shreiber on "Fabrication Of Highly Aligned Scaffolds From Self-Assembled Fibrillar Collagen Gels"
9) Caresse Simmonds working with Professor Joseph Freeman on "Scaffold Building for Interface Tissue Engineering"
10) Subha Srikanth working with Dr. Timothy Maguire on "Developing Improved Vein Imaging Devices for Difficult Venous Access"
11) Joseph Vavra working with Professor Jeffrey Zahn on "Red Blood Cell Deformation and Indexing via Varying Geometric Channels and Flow Resistance"
October 29, 2014
Graduate Student Chris Lowe Wins Best Poster at BMES
BME PhD Graduate Student Christopher Lowe was awarded the Bioconjugate Chemistry (BC) Best Poster at the BMES Annual Meeting in San Antonio Texas during October 22-25, 2014. Associate Editor Erin Lavik from BC evaluated 60 posters and Chris was one of 3 graduate students from all other BME programs to win. Chris`s poster was on "Fabricating Highly Aligned Collagen Sponges From Self-Assembled, Fibrillar Collagen Gels" and he is advised by Professor David Shreiber. Other Rutgers BME students selected were undergraduate senior Shiv Mistry and Graduate student Kathryn Drzewiecki.
October 16, 2014
Professor John Li Elected IEEE Princeton Engineering in Medicine and Biology Chair
BME Distinguished Professor John K-J. Li has been elected to serve on the Executive Committee of the IEEE Region I Princeton-Central Jersey Section. He will take on the role of Chairman of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology (EMB-18) Chapter with Vice Chair Dr. Wenyu Wei from GE Healthcare and Co-Vice Chair Dr. Brett BuSha from the College of New Jersey. EMB serves the biomedical engineering community, medical devices, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, promoting professional interactions and STEM education.
October 15, 2014
Dr. Serom Lee Wins Best Poster
Recent BME PhD graduate, Dr. Serom Lee, was awarded first prize in the poster competition at the Innovations in Dermatological Sciences 2014 Conference held at the Heldrich Hotel in New Brunswick, NJ on October 8. Posters were peer-reviewed by members of a distinguished Poster Committee based on originality, significance, quality, and clarity. For her poster entitled, "In Vitro Method to Identify Skin Sensitizers", Serom was awarded a $1000 cash prize and a one year membership to the Controlled Release Society. Serom is mentored by Professors Martin Yarmush and Rene Schloss.
October 08, 2014
Professor John Li Invited to Serve as Associate Editor for IEEE
BME Distinguished Professor John K-J. Li was invited to serve as an Associate Editor for the publication of the 2014 Proceedings of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) International Conference with more than 2000 papers. EMBS held its most recent international conference in Chicago. Professor Li is responsible for reviews and contributes to session organization in cardiac mechanics, hemodynamics, heart valves and cardiac assist devices. Accepted papers are published and accessible online via IEEE Xplore.
September 22, 2014
Rutgers Team Receives a $2M NIH Grant for Graduate and Postgraduate Training
A team of Rutgers faculty led by Professor Martin Yarmush is one of seven new groups in the country selected by the NIH to receive this year`s BEST Award � a 5-year $2 million grant designed to expose many of the university`s most promising biomedical sciences graduate trainees to career opportunities that go beyond the academic path that they have traditionally taken. The award funds development of the Rutgers Interdisciplinary Job Opportunities for Biomedical Scientists (iJOBs) program, which includes courses, seminars, shadowing, mentoring and networking activities to better prepare doctoral students and postdoctoral scientists for a broad spectrum of careers within the biomedical science and engineering ecosystem, including those with established companies, government agencies, entrepreneurial ventures and nonprofit institutions. The university`s successful application to participate in BEST, which stands for Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training, was submitted jointly by the Center for Innovative Ventures of Emerging Technologies (CIVET) and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS). Joining the Principal Investigators, Martin Yarmush and James Millonig, senior associate dean of GSBS, in leading the implementation are Susan Engelhardt, executive director of CIVET; Stephen Garrett, assistant dean of curriculum at GSBS; Janet Alder, director of graduate academic and student affairs at GSBS; and Fran�ois Berthiaume, research coordinator of CIVET and associate professor of biomedical engineering. A more extensive university press release can be found here: http://news.rutgers.edu/news/rutgers-receives-2-million-grant-prepare-to...
September 15, 2014
BME Graduate Students Receive FASEB/MARC Travel Awards
BME Graduate Students Antoinette Nelson and Brittany Taylor were selected as recipients of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB)/ Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) travel award to attend the 2014 Institute on Teaching and Mentoring Workshop in Atlanta, GA. The purpose of the conference is to provide scholars with the skills necessary to succeed in their graduate studies and to prepare them for successful careers as faculty members within academia. Brittany works in the laboratory of professor Joseph Freeman in BME and Antoinette works with professor Patrick Sinko in Pharmacy.
September 15, 2014
BME Graduate Student ReceivesTravel Award for BMES Conference
BME Graduate Student Brittany Taylor received the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB)/ Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) travel award to attend the BMES 2014 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX. The MARC program Travel Award is a component of a Federal Grant from the Minority Access to Research Careers Program of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The award covers all the expenses for Brittany to attend the conference. Brittany works in Professor Joseph Freeman`s laboratory.
September 11, 2014
Professor Olabisi Wins Best Poster
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign hosted this year's Frontiers in Bioengineering Symposium, which included speakers who are luminaries in bioengineering and related fields. As part of the program, The University of Illinois hosted a poster session to highlight outstanding young investigators at that event. Assistant ProfessorRonke Olabisi won a Best Poster Award for her poster entitled "Tissue Engineering Using Synthetic Materials and Cues from Nature."
September 09, 2014
Yarmush Awarded 3-Year $5.8M Grant from NIH
Professor Martin Yarmush and collaborators at the University of Pittsburgh have been awarded a 3-year, $5.7M UH3 grant from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the NIH for a project entitled, "A 3-D Biomimetic Liver Sinusoid Construct for Predicting Physiology and Toxicity". This project, which includes investigators from Johns Hopkins, Baylor College of Medicine and Vanderbilt, is continuation funding to 1) construct a microfluidic liver module which mimics the functions and responses of the human liver, and 2) to integrate this module with other organ compartments. This grant is part of "The Tissue Chip for Drug Screening Initiative", the first interagency collaboration launched by NCATS, which aims to develop 3-D human tissue chips that accurately model the structure and function of human organs, such as the lung, liver and heart.
September 02, 2014
Professor Yarmush Featured in "International Innovation"
An article describing Professor Martin Yarmush`s contributions to many areas of bioengineering and biotechnology appeared in the August 2014 issue of the e-journal, International Innovation. In an accompanying interview, Professor Yarmush discusses the benefits of his unique and diverse educational background, and highlights some of his most significant innovations.The article can be found at the following address: http://digimag.internationalinnovation.com//launch.aspx?eid=97c910d3-705...
August 11, 2014
Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering Ranked No. 1 again by ISI
For over a decade, articles in the Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering (ARBME) were cited more often than papers in any of its peer journals, according to ISI`s 2013 Journal Citation Report, giving it the highest Impact Factor in its peer group. The ARBME had a 2013 Impact Factor of 12.450 placing it #1 in the category "Engineering, Biomedical," of 75 journals, and #3 among all engineering journals (905 in total). Professor Martin Yarmush serves as the founding editor-in-chief of the ARBME which published its first volume in 1999.
July 29, 2014
Organ Storage Breakthrough from the Yarmush Lab Published in Nature Medicine
Research performed in Professor Martin Yarmush`s lab at Rutgers University and Massachusetts General Hospital has yielded a novel strategy to extend the time for liver storage. By using a combination of supercooling (subzero nonfreezing preservation) and extracorporeal machine perfusion, the group was able to transplant rat livers which had been preserved for up to four days � four times the traditional viable preservation period. The study was published in the July issue of Nature Medicine. For more information, the reader should consult the full publication: Nature Medicine 2014; 20: 790�793.
July 21, 2014
Freeman Team Awarded NSF Grant
Professor Joseph Freeman, director of the MOTR (Musculoskeletal Tissue Regeneration) Laboratory, just received a 3 year award from the NSF for the project entitled, "Microelectronically Stimulating and Actuating Nanofibers for Muscle Replacement and Regeneration". In this project Professor Freeman and Co-PI Dr. Laleh Najafizadeh, from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, will design and fabricate implantable, degradable devices to functionally replace muscle and regenerate new muscle tissue.
July 21, 2014
BME and MAE Faculty Collaborate on NSF Award for Instrumentation Development
BME faculty David Shreiber and Jeffrey Zahn and MAE faculty Hao Lin and Jerry Shan have been awarded an Instrumentation Development for Biological Research (IDBR) grant from the NSF for $425k. The team is developing a lab-on-a-chip device for automated, single-cell electroporation. The award is co-funded with the Nano-Biosensing program in CBET (Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems).
July 18, 2014
Professor Yarmush Honored With The 2015 Robert A. Pritzker Distinguished Lecture Award
BMES Board of Directors has selected Professor Martin Yarmush as the recipient of the 2015 Robert A. Pritzker Distinguished Lecture Award. The BMES Robert A. Pritzker Distinguished Award is awarded each year to recognize outstanding achievements and leadership in the science and practice of biomedical engineering. The award lecture is schedule for October 7, 2015 at the BMES Annual Meeting in Tampa, FL.
May 17, 2014
Professor Moghe and Team are awarded US Patent for Tissue Matrix Engineering and Nanomedicine
Professor Prabhas Moghe (CBE/BME) and Rutgers co-inventors were granted Patent Number 8,715,718 entitled "Extracellular Matrix Production from Nanoscale Substrate" on May 6, 2014. Other co-inventors include his lab alumni, including CBE graduate student, Dr. Ram Sharma (currently faculty at University of Bath, UK) and his T32 postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Marian Pereira Guelakis (currently Senior Scientist, Skin R&D, Unilever).
May 07, 2014
BME Sophomore Awarded Summer Fellowship
BME sophomore Mahir Mohiuddin was offered a New Jersey Space Grant Consortium (NJSGC) Summer Undergraduate Fellowship, sponsored by NASA. NJSGC awards summer fellowships for undergraduate students in New Jersey universities to conduct research in space sciences at NJ universities or industry. The fellowship will award Mahir $4k and require him to attend a conference at the end of the summer to present his research. Mahir is a member of Dr. Joseph Freeman`s laboratory and he will be investigating wound healing response under various physiological conditions.
May 05, 2014
Rutgers Team Receives a $2.2M NIH R01 Grant for Next Generation Nanoprobes for Biomedical Imaging
Rutgers bioengineers led by Professor Prabhas Moghe (BME/CBE) were awarded a $2.2 M R01 grant entitled "RARE EARTH NANOPROBES FOR OPTICAL IMAGING AND DISEASE TRACKING" by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). The other key faculty on the team include multi-PIs, Charles Roth (CBE/BME) and Richard Riman (MSE), Vidya Ganapathy (BME), and collaborators, Mark Pierce (BME) and Shridar Ganesan (CINJ).
May 02, 2014
Boustany Receives NJCBIR Grant
Professor Nada Boustany in BME has just been awarded a 2-year $180k pilot research grant from the New Jersey Commission on Brain Injury Research (NJCBIR) for her work involving "Quantifying the Structure-Function Relationship of Neurons Following Mechanical Injury & Repair".
April 29, 2014
Graduate Student Awarded NJCBIR Fellowship
Christopher Lowe, a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering, has been awarded a 3-year, $100,000 fellowship from the New Jersey Commission on Brain Injury Research (NJCBIR). Chris aims to improve neural cell survival and regeneration following injury using biomaterials that include different peptide fragments of BDNF. Chris is advised by Dr. David Shreiber.
April 28, 2014
BME Senior Awarded Fellowship
BME senior Michael Medini was offered the NASA sponsored New Jersey Space Grant Consortium (NJSGC) Summer Undergraduate Fellowship. The NJSGC was established in 1991 by a grant from NASA. The objectives of the Consortium are to develop programs to further space science, aerospace and general STEM education, as well as to foster research and development in New Jersey. The fellowship awards $4,000 per student and requires that students attend a fellowship conference at the end of the summer to present their research. Michael works in the laboratory of Professor Ronke Olabisi where they investigate bone tissue engineering, which is a NASA research priority since bone is resorbed in space.
April 28, 2014
Pierce Receives 2013-2014 EGC BME-UG Teaching Excellence Award
Professor Mark Pierce has been awarded the annual Engineering Governing Council (EGC) BME Teaching Excellence Award. This award is given out to a professor in each department who the students feel have done an excellent job in teaching this past academic year 2013-14. This award was given at the annual EGC Leadership Conference on April 27th.
April 22, 2014
Recent Graduate Student Wins Outstanding Student Award
Recent BME graduate student, Jeremy Scheff, was just awarded the School of Engineering`s Outstanding Graduate Student Award for 2014. This award features students who have finished with a significant number of published papers, previous awards, and/or conference presentations. Jeremy will be given a certificate, an award prize and have VIP seating at the SoE Convocation on May 18th in High Point Solution Stadium on Busch Campus. Jeremy was advised by Professor Yannis Androulakis in BME and he received his PhD in October 2013.
April 07, 2014
BME Faculty Members Promotion and Reappointment
Faculty promotions and reappointment have been announced. The Rutgers Board of Governors has approved promotions of Professors Ioannis (Yannis) Androulakis and David Shreiber to Professor rank effective July 1, 2014. Also, Professor Mark Pierce's reappointment as an Assistant Professor for next three years has been approved. Our heartiest Congratulations to all.
April 02, 2014
BME Graduate Student Wins Postdoctoral Fellowship Award
Melissa Przyborowski Olekson has been awarded a 1-year, $48,000 National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Award to carry her proposed project "Biofilms Impaired Wound Healing" at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research in Fort Sam Houston, TX. Melissa is advised by Professor Francois Berthiaume.
March 31, 2014
Agnes Yeboah Awarded "Faculty for the Future" Fellowship
Graduate student, Agnes Yeboah, was awarded a 1-year, Schlumberger Foundation "Faculty for the Future" Fellowship to complete her PhD studies on developing an enhanced nanoparticle-based wound healing therapy. This program, now in its tenth year, supports women scientists from developing countries through grants to enable them to pursue PhDs and postdoctoral studies in scientific and engineering disciplines at leading universities worldwide. Agnes is advised by Professor Martin Yarmush.
March 21, 2014
Alvin Chen Awarded NIH F31 Grant
BME graduate student, Alvin Chen, was awarded a 2-year, $66,230, NIH F31 Predoctoral Fellowship to support his PhD dissertation project entitled, "A Low-Cost Compact and Portable Robot for Autonomous Intravenous Access using Near Infrared and Tactile Image Guidance". Alvin is leading a team of students developing a portable and lightweight autonomous medical robot that combines 3D near-infrared vein imaging and computer vision software to perform blood draws and other IV procedures for situations where medical professionals are unable to successfully access the veins. Alvin is advised by Professors Martin Yarmush and Tim Maguire.
March 20, 2014
Yarmush Receives Grant Supplement from NIH
Professor Martin Yarmush and collaborators at the University of Pittsburgh and Vanderbilt University have been awarded a 1-year, $176,000 supplement to their parent grant from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) for a project entitled, "A 3-D Biomimetic Liver Sinusoid Construct for Predicting Physiology and Toxicity". The goal of this project is to construct a microfluidic liver module which mimics the functions and responses of the human liver, with readouts designed to indicate both normal liver function and toxic responses. The supplement provides additional support for integrating the liver-on-a chip platform with Vanderbilt`s pumping, controller, integrated casing and electrochemistry technologies.
March 19, 2014
4 BME Undergrads in the Yarmush/Maguire Lab Won Aresty Grants
Four BME undergraduate students recently won Aresty Awards for their work on the venipuncture robot under the guidance of BME graduate students Alvin Chen and Max Balter in the Martin Yarmush and Timothy Maguire laboratories. Their names and projects are: 1. Anish Vaghela - "Real-time needle segmentation in 2D B-mode ultrasound images for autonomous venipuncture" 2. Jonathon Sparrow-Hood - "Robotic end effector for an automated venipuncture system" 3. Narasimha Kuchimanchi - "Blood flow detection and quantification in 2D ultrasound acoustic imaging" 4. Dhananjay Tanikella - "Real-time vessel segmentation and tracking in 2D B-mode ultrasound images"
March 13, 2014
BME Graduate Student Wins Bevier Award for 2014-2015
BME PhD Student Ana Rodriguez has been awarded a Louis A. Bevier Graduate Fellowship for 2014-2015. This is a Graduate School of New Brunswick prestigious fellowship given to advanced PhD students working towards finishing their dissertations. Ana works in the laboratory of Professor Bonnie Firestein.
March 13, 2014
BME Graduate Student Honored by Wound Healing Society
BME PhD Student Melissa Przyborowski Olekson has been awarded a Wound Healing Research Scholarship by the Wound Healing Society to attend the Spring 2014 Symposium on Advanced Wound Care. Her presentation abstract entitled "STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING GROWTH FACTOR FUNCTION IN DIABETIC WOUNDS", was ranked as the best submitted in the research category. Melissa is advised by Professor Francois Berthiaume.
March 12, 2014
Professor Troy Shinbrot's research on "earthquake lights" receives international coverage
Prof. Troy Shinbrot's research into electrostatics in powder flows has been covered by the BBC, Washington Post and other international news outlets including Russia, China, Austria, Germany, Turkey, Slovenia, Chile, Indonesia, Romania, Uruguay and Peru. This research was initiated as a study of mixing of pharmaceutical powders, and has now been extended to demonstrate a new possible explanation for earthquake lights: lightning flashes that precede some large earthquakes.
March 12, 2014
BME undergraduate and Honors Academy member receives Aresty Award
BME undergraduate and Honors Academy member Shaili Tanna was awarded an Aresty Research Fellowship for her project, "The Effect of HIF 2-alpha silencing on glioma stem cells", under the direction of Professor Charles Roth.
March 07, 2014
BME Graduate Student Wins Postdoctoral Fellowship Award
BME graduate student Serom Lee was awarded a one-year $40,000 postdoctoral fellowship grant from the American Fund for Alternatives to Animal Research (AFAAR). Serom`s research is focused on developing a microfabricated in vitro alternative to animal testing to screen skin sensitizers. Her proposal was acknowledged for its commitment to scientifically superior, more humane non-animal research and the promise it holds for science, animal well-being and human health. Serom is advised by ProfessorsMartin Yarmush and Rene Schloss.
March 05, 2014
BME Undergraduate Students Receive Aresty Awards for Spring 2014
Two BME undergraduate students were awarded Aresty grants for their work. Nikhil Agarwal on "Gene Expression Analysis of Central Nervous System Injury" and Neda Kabi on "A cis-element in the Notch1 Locus Regulated Gene Expression in Retinal Cells". Both of them are working under the guidance of Professor Li Cai.
February 20, 2014
Graduate Student Wins Best Poster at J&J 2014 Engineering Showcase
BME graduate student Corina White won "Best Graduate Poster" with her poster titled "Retinal Tissue Engineering Using Cell-Responsive Poly(ethylene) Glycol Hydrogel Scaffolds" at the J&J 2014 Engineering Showcase. This was at J&J Headquarters in New Brunswick on February 19th for Engineers Week. 8 students were chosen from Rutgers-SoE and only select posters were presented from Rutgers, Stevens Institute and NJIT. Corina is advised by Professor Ronke Olabisi in BME.
February 19, 2014
BME Graduate Student Nominated for CASE Workshop
BME graduate student Maria Qadri is one of two nominees from Rutgers to attend the "Student Workshop on Catalyzing Advocacy in Science and Engineering (CASE)" in Washington DC from March 31-April 2. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a coalition of science and engineering societies and higher education associations including the AAU, has created an exciting new opportunity for graduate students in science, mathematics, and engineering disciplines to learn about science policy and interacting with federal policy makers. It will also provide an opportunity for Rutgers to meet with Members of Congress and to describe the important relationships between graduate education and federal research support.
February 17, 2014
Research Performed by BME Graduate Students Spotlighted
Research performed by BME graduate students Nir Nativ, Alvin Chen, and Gabriel Yarmush on a new automated method for monitoring the state of steatotic livers was featured on the February cover of the journal Liver Transplantation. The key finding of the paper is that a combination of lipid droplet size and lipid droplet nuclear dislocation significantly improves the ability to separate small droplet versus large droplet steatosis. This study is a first step towards standardizing pathologists` scores among different medical centers, which will help in the overall process of determining graft transplantability. The full paper describing this work can be found in the Liver Transplantation 2014; 20: 228-236. The work was supervised by Professors Martin Yarmush and Francois Berthiaume.
February 12, 2014
Professor Olabisi will present before the US Department of State.
Prof. Ronke Olabisi has been invited by the US Department of State to speak on Monday, March 24, 2014 at an event entitled "Showcasing the Bioeconomy". The event is co-sponsored by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the U.S. Department of State and it aims to engage industry executives, diplomats and government officials in a dialogue on opportunity in areas comprising the global bioeconomy: agricultural, biomedical and industrial biotechnologies.
February 10, 2014
John Li Appointed as Associate Editor of IEEE
BME Distinguished Professor John K-J. Li has been appointed an Associate Editor for the publication of the Proceedings of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) International Conference. EMBS is the largest international society for biomedical engineers and held its 2013 conference in Osaka, Japan. Professor Li is responsible for reviews in hemodynamics, cardiac mechanics, prosthetic heart valves and cardiac assist devices. Accepted papers are published and accessible online in IEEE Xplore.
February 06, 2014
Research Performed by Nir Nativ and Gabriel Yarmush Spotlighted
Research performed by BME graduate students Nir Nativ and Gabriel Yarmush on "methodology to defat steatotic (fatty) hepatocytes" was featured on the December 2013 cover of the Journal of Hepatology. The paper described a novel macrosteatotic hepatocyte culture system and the use of this system to explore the impact of accelerated macrosteatosis reduction on cell viability and the recovery of cell function. The motivation for the work is that macrosteatotic livers generally fail to transplant and are thus discarded from the donor pool. The full paper describing this work can be found in the Journal of Hepatology 2013; 59: 1307--1314. The work was supervised by Professors Martin Yarmush and Francois Berthiaume.*