BME Monday ROUNDTABLE

JUNE 26, 2023

 

DEPUTY HEAD’S NOTE

 

In the most recent College of Engineering Heads meeting, the Dean talked about Faculty Research Expenditures and showed some data. The key question is how we might increase research expenditures per faculty. This is a clear signal from the Dean on how to measure our faculty’s research productivity. Strategies were brought up by several department heads. In the past, our School has made good progress both strategically and operationally. With the recent message from the dean loud and clear, I would like to solicit creative ideas on how we can better create camaraderie and collaboration among us to encourage our research impact.    

 

UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES

 

Week of June 26

 

Wed., June 28: BME Summer Seminar Series, 9:30 a.m. via Zoom. Damilola Lawore (Doug Brubaker and Leopold Green, advisors) will present “Characterizing the Anti-Cancer Potential of Vaginal Microbes and Metabolites.” Zach Davis (Deva Chan, advisor) will present “MRI to determine interface mechanics in soft tissue.”

 

MJIS UPDATES

 

Just a reminder:  If you eat/snack in any of the seating areas in MJIS, please take a moment when you are finished to spray and wipe down the tables and make sure all trash is in the trash bins. We are seeing quite an infestation of ants that are attracted to food residue and crumbs! There are cleaning supplies available in each area. PLEASE remember to clean up after yourself each time.

 

Also, we are seeing a lot of backpacks, bookbags and personal items being left in the sitting areas. The Purdue Police have notified us that the theft ring has made a reappearance on campus, and are working their way through campus building. This particular group works on a “theft by convenience” mode – entering unlocked offices, and taking whatever is readily available. If you have high school students or others working in your labs this summer, please make sure they keep their personal belongings on the provided hooks inside the secure lab block. Don’t allow yourself to be the victim of a convenience crime!

 

Upcoming Opportunity for Fun!

 

Do you play a band instrument? Purdue Bands and Orchestras has just opened registration for the 2023 Purdue University Summer Band! This ensemble is open to all area musicians that are high school age and up. Participation in Purdue’s Summer Band is FREE to all. We plan to begin rehearsals on Tuesday, June 20, and rehearse on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 4:00-5:30 PM in Hagle Hall, Room 178. Our concert will be held on Thursday, July 20, 6:30 PM at Columbian Park Memorial Island Amphitheater immediately prior to a performance by the Lafayette Citizens' Band.

Register Here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd8v47EEuzyl070XPk4QyH0fIBflpdLywlCfrGKLKZTtr4Stw/viewform

 

Important deadlines and information

 

Thurs., July 6: BME Master’s Defense Announcement for Zada B. Anderson (B. Duerstock, advisor), 2:00 p.m., via Zoom. Title of presentation:  Cardiac Effects of Recurring Autonomic Dysreflexia.

 

Sat. July 15th: Nominations submitted from faculty and staff for Purdue Engineering Fellows. The Purdue Engineering Fellows program is designed to recognize the accomplishments, contributions and potential of seven outstanding seniors who make a difference in the college and in the lives of others by bringing creative thinking to their academic activities, demonstrating distinctive problem-solving abilities, and are respected by their peers and faculty. In summary, Purdue Engineering Fellows will be students who demonstrate impressive abilities to think creatively and to develop innovative solutions to problems—whether in the classroom, in student life, or in the community. We are now asking our faculty and staff to submit nominations through the Qualtrics survey: https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7ZZLY4ioCfXwjb0 by July 15th. 

Students must be in their senior year and graduating in May of 2024 (December grads are not eligible). Upon graduation, each recipient will receive $20,000 to use as they see fit. A nomination letter and copy of the student’s resume are required for full consideration.  Contact Darshini Render (render@purdue.edu) if you have questions, including verifying your student nominee eligibility. You can find information about previous Purdue Engineering Fellows here: https://engineering.purdue.edu/Engr/AboutUs/News/Spotlights/2022/2022-0923-purdue-engineering-fellows

 

Mon., July 24: Final Grade Entry Begins. (Ends promptly at 5:00 p.m., Tues., August 8th).

 

Wed., Sept. 6:  BMES Early Bird Registration Deadline! Register now to lock in savings with early-bird pricing for the 2023 BMES Annual Meeting (to be held in Seattle, WA, October 11-14). Thousands of biomedical engineers will attend this year’s meeting to learn, collaborate, and network. As a BMES member, you can save more than 10% with reduced early bird rates, so if you’re not already a member, now would be a good time to join! Click here for details: https://mailchi.mp/e3958bb463f2/o8cvhb9q5x-9335625?e=ea10e317a2

NOTE:  We recommend booking your room at the Hyatt Regency Seattle because it’s closer to the convention center AND it’s where university receptions will be held (in addition to some being held inside the convention center).  Here’s the link to reserve with the $259 discount rate.  This rate only lasts until the allotted number of rooms have been sold. https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/group-booking/SEARS/G-BMES

 

Committee Updates

 

Academic Programs Update

 

Summer Grading Deadlines:

 

  1. Final Grading windows are found here:
    1. Full 12-week summer session (includes all undergrad and grad-level research students)
      1. Grade entry begins at 8 a.m. Monday July 24th and ends promptly at 5 p.m. Tuesday August 8th.
  2. Guidance on Final grading
  3. Now is the perfect time for faculty to take the 15 minutes to get all your required certifications up to date BEFORE the deadline approaches.
      1. FERPA
      2. GLBA
      3. Data Handling
      4. Protecting SSNs
  4. This page provides myPurdue grade entry instructions.
  5. This page provides BrightSpace final grade submission instructions.
    1. Those not making the deadline must use the Grade Change Workflow to submit a grade for each student.
      1. Instructions may be found here.

 

 

Resources and further information

 

BME Summer Seminar Series, Wed., June 28, 9:30 a.m. via Zoom. Damilola Lawore (Doug Brubaker and Leopold Green, advisors) will present “Characterizing the Anti-Cancer Potential of Vaginal Microbes and Metabolites.” Zach Davis (Deva Chan, advisor) will present “MRI to determine interface mechanics in soft tissue.”

Characterizing the Anti-Cancer Potential of Vaginal Microbes and Metabolites

Abstract: Several studies have shown interactions between the human microbiome and health, but the functions of the microbiome and its products are not fully elucidated, in part because systematic methods to functionally characterize microbes and their functions are lacking. Here, we propose a systems biology concept to characterize microbes and their products termed the Pharmacobiome. The Pharmacobiome is the characterization of a microbe and its products in terms of known drugs and pathways by studying associations between the microbiome and disease states, phenotypes, pathways, networks, known drug functions and how the human clinical demographic characteristics impact the above associations. One application of this concept could be for the precision treatment of cancers using microbial products by characterizing the Anti-cancer Pharmacobiome. Here, we examine this concept by integrating vaginal microbiome multi-omics data from patients with and without bacterial vaginosis with cell line drug screening transcriptomics data to identify vaginal microbes and microbial products with therapeutic potential against female reproductive cancers.

The correlations calculated from the human data (Microbiome composition-protein; microbiome composition-RNA; metabolite-protein; metabolite-RNA), generated gene and protein lists upregulated or downregulated by microbes and metabolites. The microbes/metabolites gene signatures were further compared to the gene signatures of Cisplatin and Paclitaxel to assess which microbes and metabolites has similar host fingerprints to the drugs. The microbes and metabolites with p £ 0.05 were considered significantly similar to the drug and were classified into 2 tiers.

 Although the drug perturbations were on breast cancer cells and the omics data were from the vaginal tract, literature suggests that both origins share some similar gene expression patterns due to hormonal regulations, making them comparable but also capable of exhibiting type-specific behavior. Our results suggest that some microbes and metabolites might be capable of inducing mucosa gene expression patterns similar to some known chemotherapeutic drugs.

Evaluation link for Damilola Lawore: https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eDrJMoYL3pBuYV8

 

MRI to determine interface mechanics in soft tissue

Abstract: Articular cartilage is a soft-tissue that covers the ends of bones and lubricates motion within the joints. Defects in the articular cartilage affect almost 1 million Americans per year and can lead to major disabilities such as osteoarthritis. Many of the surgical interventions to repair these defects include implants that contain cells, tissue, healing agents, and other factors to restore biochemical content and mechanical function throughout its depth. It is necessary to confirm that both mechanical function and biochemical content are restored through both benchtop and in vivo tests. For confirming mechanical integration on the benchtop, a pushout test is used to determine the failure force of a suspended repair defect. However, this method cannot be used in vivo since it is destructive. An MRI method called displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE) has been used to look at strain responses to physiological loads non-invasively. DENSE has been used to look at cartilage mechanics in vivo, in situ, and in vitro. The next stage in developing DENSE for repair applications is to optimize the post-processing to look at the interface, or the area where the repair fill meets with native cartilage. Currently, we are developing an MRI safe loading device to apply cyclic loads within an MRI to be run in sync with the DENSE sequence. We will make gels that contain different stiffness ratio of “native” to “repair” portions to create a mechanical interface similar to ones used in repairs. Image processing pipelines will be tested to determine the optimal pathway to view the interface. Non-invasively determining the strains at an interface can be used to evaluate the mechanical integration not only in cartilage, but in other soft tissues as well.

Evaluation link for Zach Davis: https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2fUdVWt2rkmmQPI

 

*Join Zoom Meeting

https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/j/98231659969?pwd=T21Oa1B6QzFyQzFvckMzS1doNGlJUT09

Meeting ID: 982 3165 9969    Passcode: biomedical

 

BME Master’s Defense Announcement for Zada B. Anderson (B. Duerstock, advisor), Thurs., July 6, 2:00 p.m., via Zoom. Title of presentation:  Cardiac Effects of Recurring Autonomic Dysreflexia.

Advisory Committee: Bradley S. Duerstock, Chair; Riyi Shi; Thomas H. Everett IV

Abstract: Persons with a spinal cord injury (SCI) above the sixth thoracic vertebrae commonly experience autonomic dysreflexia (AD), 90 percent of individuals with this level of injury are susceptible to AD which is associated with an increase in sympathetic nerve activity. Left untreated AD causes a paroxysmal rise in blood pressure that may result in seizures, heart attack, or even death. This project investigates how AD affects QT interval, RR interval, P wave height, heart rate, and QRS width both during an event and long term to help identify potential cardiac risks for individuals with SCI who experience chronic AD. Sympathetic tone has been shown to influence QT interval changes that can be indicative of an increased risk of arrhythmia, which can be exacerbated by recurring episodes of AD. A rat spinal cord injury model at the T3 level undergoing colorectal distention (CRD) was used to induce AD. Electrophysiological recordings from an implanted ECG sensor and noninvasive skin nerve activity (SKNA) sensor array during normal baseline and three trials of CRD were collected on days 5, 7, 9, 11, 14, 16, 19, and 21 post-SCI. QT interval measurements were taken for 2 minutes of baseline and for 2 minutes after the initiation of each CRD trial. Corrected QT interval (QTc) was calculated using normalized Bazett’s formula to account for the impact of heart rate on QT interval. It was found that the rats’ susceptibility and reaction to AD events varied between subacute (5-14 days) and chronic phases of SCI. During the chronic phase the incidence of AD events increased during regular occurrences of CRD as indicated by above-threshold (≥15 mmHg) blood pressure spikes. AD events also resulted in increased QT interval short term variability marking an increased risk of arrythmias. Baseline P-wave height and QTc interval were also increased resulting in potentially detrimental cardiac effects. This rat model showed that humans who experience recurrent AD during the chronic phase of SCI may be at increased risk for arrythmia.   

Location: Zoom - https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/j/93427795215