BME MONDAY ROUNDTABLE

OCTOBER 31, 2022

Happy Halloween to those who celebrate!

HEADS NOTE

Hello Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering,

 

We have a lot going on this week so be sure to check the list below!  First,  we have a special seminar tomorrow at 11:00 AM with a visiting faculty member from Université de Montpellier.  Later in the day at 5:30 PM the BMEGSA is hosting a celebration for Dia de los Muertos- be sure to attend and learn about traditions and culture from around the world and enjoy snacks and activities.  Wednesday, our colleague Joy Wang, an expert in responsible AI, will be presenting her research on Fair and Explainable Machine Learning.  Have a great week and see you around MJIS.

 

UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES

 

Week of October 31

Tues., Nov. 1: Special BME Seminar: 11:00-12:00 p.m., MJIS 2001. Pierre Sicard, PhD, Research Engineer at Universite de Montpellier, INSERM, France will present “Cerebrovascular Hypoxia During Experimental Traumatic Brain Injury.”

Tues., Nov. 1: Proposals due for WL-Indy Collaborative Seed Grant. (From Jay Akridge): “We are happy to announce a collaborative seed grant competition, which is focused on establishing new research collaborations between faculty located at our two campuses. Please review the attached guidelines and reach out to colleagues to start building new research collaborations.  Proposals are due November 1, 2022. See attached RFP.

Tues., Nov. 1: Mentoring and the Dissertation Process for faculty and postdocs, 2:00-3:30 p.m. . You must have a GoSignMeUp account to register for this free workshop. See details below.

Tues., Nov. 1: Celebrate Dia de los Muertos with BMEGSA, 5:30 p.m., MJIS 2001. Enjoy traditional food! Everyone is welcome!

Wed., Nov. 2: BME Seminar Series, 9:30 a.m. MJIS 1001 or via Zoom. Xiaoqian (Joy) Wang, Assistant Professor of ECE, Purdue, will present “Fair and Explainable Machine Learning.”

Wed., Nov. 2: COE “Celebrating our Associate Professors” Session, 11:30 a.m. This event features recently tenured associate professors making a 10-minute presentation on some aspect of their teaching/learning, research and/or engagement activities, followed by an opportunity to discuss the presented work with other colleagues in attendance. IE/BME’s very own Ramses Martinez will be one of the presenters on this date. Go to https://purdue.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4GXBqUDu1DZdTn0 to register. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Wed., Nov. 2:  Frontiers in Biophysics Seminar, 1:30 p.m., via Zoom. Thomas Wollert, Institut Pasteur Paris will present “Formation of autophagosomes by a concerted action of ATG16L1 and LC3B.” Co-sponsored by Structural and Computational Biology & Biophysics (SCBB) in the Department of Biological Sciences and the NIGMS-funded Molecular Biophysics Training Program (MBTP, in partnership with the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Biochemistry, Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry, and Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology; and the following institutes: PI4D, PCCR, and PIDD. Register in advance for Zoom presentation at: https://purdue.edu/zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUtd-2rrTlqEt28s1D20iZPi-9RRDGj76V5

Wed., Nov. 2: Seminar for Neurotrauma and Diseases, 4:00 p.m. via Zoom. Philip Low, Presidential Scholar for Drug Discovery and Ralph C. Corley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Purdue University will present “Targeted therapies for inflammatory, malignant and infectious diseases.” The Seminar for Neurotrauma and Diseases is sponsored by Plexon, a leading neuroscience technology company, and is supported by the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience and Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery. Join the Center for Paralysis Research and our set of amazing speakers as we explore various facets of neurotrauma and diseases and build a community to make long-lasting impacts on neurotrauma research. Zoom link: https://bit.ly/3QN4YL.

Thurs., Nov. 3:  Seminars in Hearing Research, 10:30 a.m. in LYLE 1150 and via Zoom. Sarthak Mangla will present "IndivHear: An Individualized Adaptive Deep Learning-based Hearing Aid."

Thurs., Nov. 3: Travel Workshop will be held in the 1st floor computer lab on Thursday, November 3 from 1:00-3:00 p.m. Please plan to attend if you would like assistance with creating or submitting an expense report in Concur (e.g., those of you who went to BMES). Please email Pam Lamb lambp@purdue.edu if you will be attending. Depending on your status, reimbursement might mean processing your travel receipts for reimbursement through Concur (for faculty, staff & graduate students) or through a combination of tax-related forms along with the paid receipts (up to the amount allowed for reimbursement) being submitted for undergraduates.  FYI, we would prefer all receipts be a pdf rather than an image as the ideal mode of submission.

Thurs., Nov. 3:  BMS 692/CPB 697 Graduate Seminar, 3:30 p.m., LYNN 1136. Xavier Ramos Cardona – Graduate RA, CPB – will present “Canine CAR T-Cells Therapy for Solid Tumors in Dogs.” Emeka Nwanochie – IBSC Student, BME – will present “Point-of-Care Molecular-Based Platforms to Detect HIV in Blood Samples.” Ying Cheng Chen – Graduate Student, BMS – will present “Adipose Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells as Oncolytic Adenovirus Carriers to Treat Prostate Cancer.” Diprasom Das – Graduate RA, CPB – will present “Broad Spectrum Antibiotic Treatment Increases the Susceptibility to Candida Auris Intestinal Colonization in Mice.” The seminar series is hosted by the Purdue College of Veterinary Medicine.

 

Upcoming important deadlines and info.

Mon., Nov. 7: BRAG Meeting for BME postdocs, visiting scientists and research staff, 2:00-3:00 p.m., MJIS 2001. Dr. Tamara Kinzer-Ursem, Associate Professor and Associate Head of Academic Programs in BME will discuss “Time Management in the Unstructured World of Research”. The session will be in the format of a short presentation followed by Q&A, and the speaker has specifically asked us to send suggestions on topics, questions and thoughts ahead of time to best tailor the sessions to us. Please RSVP and email your suggestions to kejendal@purdue.edu. You are of course welcome with spontaneous questions as well! Welcome! Bring a postdoc friend!

Wed., Nov. 9:  Frontiers in Biophysics Seminar, 1:30 p.m., MJIS 1001 and via Zoom. Andrei Fokine, Purdue University will present “Structure and assembly of Myoviridae bacteriophages.” Co-sponsored by Structural and Computational Biology & Biophysics (SCBB) in the Department of Biological Sciences and the NIGMS-funded Molecular Biophysics Training Program (MBTP, in partnership with the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Biochemistry, Physics and Astronomy, Chemistry, and Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology; and the following institutes: PI4D, PCCR, and PIDD. Register in advance for Zoom presentation at: https://purdue.edu/zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUtd-2rrTlqEt28s1D20iZPi-9RRDGj76V5

Wed., Nov. 9: Seminar for Neurotrauma and Diseases, 4:00 p.m. via Zoom. Wen Jiang, Professor of Biological Sciences and Scientific Director of Purdue Cryo-EM Facility will present “Cryo-EM structural characterization of amyloid fibrils in neurodegenerative diseases.” The Seminar for Neurotrauma and Diseases is sponsored by Plexon, a leading neuroscience technology company, and is supported by the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience and Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery. Join the Center for Paralysis Research and our set of amazing speakers as we explore various facets of neurotrauma and diseases and build a community to make long-lasting impacts on neurotrauma research. Zoom link: https://bit.ly/3QN4YL.

Wed., Nov. 9: Graduate Mentorship Seminar Series: Diversity and Inclusion in Mentorship Relationships, 4:30 p.m., WALC 2051. Learn about how identity and culture are crucial components to recognize in faculty mentor-student advising relationships. Faculty members welcome!

Wed., Nov. 9 – Sat., Nov. 12: The is a go-to conference for underrepresented groups in STEM fields. Scientific or professional development session submissions due July 29.

Thurs., Nov. 10: BME Faculty Coffee Chats for Grad Students, 9:30-10:30  a.m., MJIS 3041. Faculty hosts: Hugh Lee, Taimoor Qazi, Steve Steinhubl. Potential discussion topics: ask me anything/ healthcare, academic jobs/academia, visas/international students

Tues., Nov. 29: BRAG Meeting for BME postdocs, visiting scientists and research staff, 2:00-3:00 p.m., MJIS 2001. Dr. Elsje Pienaar, Assistant Professor in BME will discuss “Strategies and challenges in learning about DEI”. The session will be in the format of a short presentation followed by Q&A, and the speaker has specifically asked us to send suggestions on topics, questions and thoughts ahead of time to best tailor the sessions to us. Please RSVP and email your suggestions to kejendal@purdue.edu. You are of course welcome with spontaneous questions as well! Welcome! Bring a postdoc friend!

Thurs., Dec. 8: BME Faculty Coffee Chats for Grad Students, 2:00-3:00 p.m., MJIS 2041. Faculty host: Deva Chan. Potential discussion topics: AMA work-life, teaching & diversity statements, time management

Thurs., Dec. 15 The BME Senior Design Expo will be from 3:30 - 5:30pm in MJIS 1097, 1001, and Atrium. There will be 24 projects presented followed by awards ceremony. Stay tuned for additional details.

 

PROTECT PURDUE

https://protect.purdue.edu/updates/fall-2022-what-you-need-to-know/

 

Committee Updates

 

Business Services Update

 

Thurs., Nov. 3: Travel Workshop will be held in the 1st floor computer lab on Thursday, November 3 from 1:00-3:00 p.m. Please plan to attend if you would like assistance with creating or submitting an expense report in Concur (e.g., those of you who attended BMES). Please email Pam Lamb lambp@purdue.edu if you will be attending. Depending on your status, reimbursement might mean processing your travel receipts for reimbursement through Concur (for faculty, staff & graduate students) or through a combination of tax-related forms along with the paid receipts (up to the amount allowed for reimbursement) being submitted for undergraduates.  FYI, we would prefer all receipts be a pdf rather than an image as the ideal mode of submission.

 

Academic Programs Update

 

We are writing to ask for your help in encouraging all instructors to make plans now for how they will approach providing final exam testing accommodations for those of their students who have this disability accommodation. Many instructors will plan to provide these accommodations themselves. That is great and often the best approach. However, some will want the DRC’s Accommodated Testing staff to administer their final for these students. In these cases, it is important that instructors are aware of three critical deadlines.

 

 

If these deadlines are met, DRC Testing will make every effort to administer the instructor’s exam.

 

One last consideration: While DRC Testing does everything it can to work with instructors, they cannot promise to administer the instructor’s exams at the same time that their class is taking it in all cases. Instructors who are able to be flexible with the date and time for their final exam increase the likelihood that DRC Testing will be able to support them.

 

Please feel free to connect with the Director of the DRC, Randall Ward, as needed.

 

Undergraduate Programs Update

 

The Provost’s annual Instructional Equipment Program will proceed in 2022-23, with the timeline noted below.  This program provides funds to acquire new instructional equipment on the West Lafayette campus. The equipment should be directly tied to undergraduate courses and curricula. Funds will be awarded on a competitive basis with priority given to proposals that support innovative and high impact teaching models or student experiences.  Each college may submit up to three proposals and all proposals must be ranked by the dean in priority order.

 

The time line for this program is:

 

Proposal due date:  November 1, 2022

Award announcements:  December 1, 2022

Project period:  January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023

 

Detailed information about the application process, scope, format, criteria, and timeline are found at this link. 

 

The BME Senior Design Expo will be Thursday, December 15 from 3:30 - 5:30pm in MJIS 1097, 1001 and Atrium. There will be 24 projects presented followed by awards ceremony. Stay tuned for additional details.

 

Graduate Office Update

 

BME Coffee Chats

We are once again hosting are faculty coffee chats for grad students.  Remember, we need attendance for this event to be successful so get these on your calendars today😊.

 

These coffee chats will attempt to accomplish some priorities that have been shared with us by you:  

  1. First year students—what a great opportunity to find out more about other labs and find potential mentors for your qual committee.
  2. Grad student professional development—to learn/ask/chat about topics of interest to the student either about research or other topics.
  3. Increase faculty involvement with graduate students outside of their own lab.
  4. Help build community between grad students.

 

Here are the dates and faculty for fall:

November

Date:  November 10th

Time: 9:30 am-10:30 am

Location: MJIS 3041

Faculty hosts: Hugh Lee, Taimoor Qazi, Steve Steinhubl

Potential discussion topics: ask me anything/healthcare, academic jobs/academia, visas/international students

 

December:

Date:  December 8th

Time: 2:00 pm-3:00 pm

Location: MJIS 2041

Faculty host: Deva Chan

Potential discussion topics: AMA work-life, teaching & diversity statements, time management

 

Please plan to participate in as many as your schedule will allow.  There will be free snacks and drinks included.

 

Graduate Admissions Update

 

Fall 2022 (Fall 2023 Admit Term) BME Graduate Admissions

DateDATE

Activity

Now

Research Areas create a plan and potentially agree on dates to meet ranking deadlines.

December 19th—All Fellowship Nominations Due

Oct. 26

Deadline to sign up for a speaker slot during Nov 10th Virtual Event

Oct 27

Send invitation to all applicants for Virtual Recruiting Faculty Research Presentations

Nov 10

Virtual Recruiting Faculty Research Presentations (3-5:30 pm presentations)

Dec 1

Complete applications due for priority admission and funding consideration

Dec 2

Prescreening of eligibility of Purdue Doctoral and George Washington Carver sent to faculty

Dec 2

Spreadsheet and applications posted to Engineering Intranet for Research Area and faculty review

Dec 19

DUE: All Fellowship Nominations and Additional Invite Lists

Dec 20

Grad office to process admission for all fellowship-nominated applicants to the Purdue Graduate School and any additional applicants you would like to admit from the open house invitation list.

Dec 20

Tammy to send invitations to invited students to participate in our virtual open house.

Jan 3

Deadline for students to respond to Open House RSVP (hotels released today).

Jan 26

Agendas for all invited students due from faculty to Tammy and sent to student.

Feb 2-4

Weldon School Visitation Days (Hybrid)

Feb 8

Last chance for Research Areas / Faculty to remove students from fellowship consideration

Feb 10

Fellowship offers announced and complete rankings list made available to BME faculty; BME Graduate Office will notify students by email (offer letters distributed as soon as signed by BME Head and COE Dean)

Mar 10

DUE: All Master’s students to be decisioned as either admit, deny or hold

Mar 31

Due: All PhD students to be decisioned as either admit, deny or hold

April 15

Graduate applicant acceptance deadline

 

Research Area Update

 

The NIH OITE is pleased to offer the RAISING A RESILIENT SCIENTIST series for faculty, staff scientists, and administrators who mentor students and postdoctoral fellows in the biomedical, behavioral, and social sciences. A variety of topics will be covered with a specific focus on communication and shared problem-solving to help trainees deal with the inevitable setbacks experienced in high knowledge environments. The goal of the Raising a Resilient Scientist series is to promote the mental health and well-being of the academic research community by supporting faculty and administrators to develop self-management, relationship-management, and mentoring skills. There will be five units in the series and start on November 9th, 2022; each unit will consist of a 75-minute lecture followed by a 1-hour facilitated discussion with peers.

Previous participants found participation very valuable, and the tools presented practical and actionable. Here is what those who participated in series have to say:

  1. “Informative workshop that I think all faculty should be required to attend. Making this a requirement for mentoring teams for fellowship and training grants would be a great approach! They need to be invested in mentoring and training, as much as training fellows.”
  2. “Thank you! I've done a lot of mentoring workshops/training but feel like this one is already taking things to another level.”
  3. “This course needs to be offered again and again, such an important resource in any academic curriculum.”

 

There is no charge for participation, but advanced registration is required. For more information, and to register, please visit our webpage.  Participation in the entire series is recommended but is not required. Please do not hesitate to email us if you have any questions. 

 

Dr. Sharon L. Milgram

(she/her/hers)

Director, NIH Office of Intramural Training & Education

NIH Office of the Director

www.training.nih.gov 

 

Resources, attachments, further information

 

Special BME Seminar, Tues., Nov. 1, 11:00-12:00 p.m., MJIS 2001. Pierre Sicard, PhD, Research Engineer at Universite de Montpellier, INSERM, France will present “Cerebrovascular Hypoxia During Experimental Traumatic Brain Injury.”

Abstract

Background: Retrospective studies suggest that mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) in pediatric patients may lead to an increased risk of cardiac events. However, the exact functional and temporal dynamics and the associations between heart-brain pathophysiological trajectories are not understood.

Methods: A single impact to the left somatosensory cortical area of the intact cranium was performed on juvenile mice 17 days postnatal. Cerebral 3D photoacoustic imaging was used to measure the oxygen saturation (sO2) in the impacted area 4 hours after mTBI followed by 2D and 4D echocardiography at days 7, 30, 90, and 190 post-impact. At 8 months, we performed a dobutamine stress test to evaluate cardiac function. Lastly, behavioral analyses were conducted one year after initial injury.

Results:  We report a rapid and transient decrease in cerebrovascular sO2 and increased hemoglobin in the impacted left cortex. Cardiac analyses showed long-term diastolic dysfunction and a diminished systolic strain response under stress. We found linear correlations between brain oxygenation immediately post-mTBI and long-term cardiac strain after 8 months (r = -0.55, p = 0.03). We also found that initial cerebrovascular hypoxia chronic cardiac systolic dysfunction correlated with long-term behavioral changes, namely decreased time spent in the center of an open field and novel object recognition, hinting to anxiety-like and memory maladaptation.

Conclusion: Experimental juvenile mTBI induces time-dependent cardiac dysfunction that corresponds to the initial cerebrovascular sO2 dip and is associated with long-term behavior. These biomarkers of the heart-brain axis could be applied to improve clinical pediatric mTBI treatment. 

Biography

Dr. Pierre Sicard is a research engineer at INSERM in Montpellier (France) where he leads the ultrasound/photoacoustic platform on campus (IPAM/INSERM/ Montpellier University). Dr Sicard obtained in 2007, from the University of Burgundy, a PhD in Cardiovascular Physiology. He studied the interplay between oxidative stress, hypertension and their consequences on the heart. In 2007, he joined the cardiovascular division at St Thomas’ Hospital (King’s College London, UK) as a postdoctoral fellow to investigate the importance of p38 MAPK isoforms during experimental myocardial infarction. He continued his research in the Institute of Metabolic and Cardiovascular Diseases in Toulouse (France) in order to develop a bench to bedside project about the potential contribution of Gadd45 proteins in post-myocardial infarction remodeling. His current research interests focused on the mechanism involved in multiple-organ dysfunction after traumatic injury.

~BME Faculty Host: Craig Goergen~

 

Mentoring and the Dissertation Process for faculty and postdocs, Tues., Nov. 1, 2:00-3:30 p.m. Among the most consequential documents that writers produce in graduate school is the dissertation. Strong mentoring at specific critical junctures in the dissertation process can strengthen both the document itself and graduate students’ abilities to later support their own graduate students. Unfortunately, most faculty receive little to no training about the writing instruction central to the dissertation process, from invention to final deposit. Instead, they rely upon their own experiences producing a doctoral thesis, which might have been problematic and trauma producing or wonderful yet still mystifying. This workshop incorporates current research on graduate student writing and builds on insights about graduate student struggles that the Writing Lab gains through working with dissertation writers. Faculty will be offered actionable strategies for helping dissertation writers be more effective. The workshop also will offer faculty mentors guidance on when and how to direct their students to the Writing Lab for intensive and on-going support. This workshop is for faculty and postdocs only. You must have a GoSignMeUp account to register for this free workshop. Registration: https://gspd.gosignmeup.com/public/Course/browse?courseid=3923

 

BME Seminar Series, Wed., Nov. 2, 9:30 a.m. MJIS 1001 or via Zoom. Xiaoqian (Joy) Wang, Assistant Professor of ECE, Purdue, will present “Fair and Explainable Machine Learning.”

Abstract: Recent advances in machine learning have spawned innovation and prosperity in various fields. In machine learning models, nonlinearity facilitates more flexibility and ability to better fit the data. However, the improved model flexibility is often accompanied by challenges such as overfitting, less interpretability, and bias. Thus, my research has been focusing on designing new feasible nonlinear machine learning models to address the above different challenges, and bringing discoveries in both theory and applications. In this talk, I will introduce a new framework to improve the interpretability and fairness of deep learning models. From the model perspective, I will discuss our novel explainable and robust models, and provide rigorous theoretical guarantees on Pareto efficiency. From the data equity perspective, I will introduce our models to achieve fair predictions while being able to protect sensitive information. Last but not least, I will discuss the application of our framework in Alzheimer's disease study.

Bio: Xiaoqian Wang is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. She received her Ph.D. degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 2019, and the B.S. degree from Zhejiang University in 2013. She focuses on designing novel machine learning models to improve interpretability, fairness, and robustness. She also work on the intersection of machine learning and bioinformatics, healthcare.  She has published over 30 papers in top conferences and journals including NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, AAAI, IJCAI, KDD, CVPR, RECOMB, IPMI, MICCAI, Bioinformatics, etc. She received an NSF CAREER award in 2022.

~BME Faculty Host: Dr. Young Kim ~

Zoom link: https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/j/7731446991?pwd=RHdkZTVnRkxTM3J3dnRvY1VLWTlYUT09

NOTE: Students registered for the seminar are expected to attend in-person.

 

Seminars in Hearing Research, Thurs., Nov. 3, 10:30 a.m. in LYLE 1150 and via Zoom. Sarthak Mangla will present "IndivHear: An Individualized Adaptive Deep Learning-based Hearing Aid."

Abstract: Prior to coming to Purdue, motivated by his grandmother’s experience with hearing loss and hearing aids, Sarthak developed an inexpensive smartphone-based individualized adaptive hearing aid using deep learning. For patients with mild hearing loss, hearing aids have limited user benefits due to the low accessibility of professional help, limitations in fitting and diagnostic procedures of hearing devices, and the tedious process of setting up hearing aids. For patients with moderate to profound hearing loss, hearing support is inadequate due to limitations in the individualized fitting and diagnostic procedures of hearing aids, inadequacies in the functional capabilities of existing hearing aids, and limited human-machine interfaces to steer the device based on the patient’s individual needs. In an attempt to solve these problems, Sarthak created an end-to-end solution that utilizes a novel data collection approach to train individualized deep learning networks as hearing aids. Additionally, he also developed fully automated and remote versions of traditional fitting and diagnostic procedures like Pure Tone Audiometry and Speech Audiometry.

Zoom link for remote attendees: https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/j/4326340458  Meeting ID: 432 634 0458

The working SHRP schedule is available on the T32 TPAN website here: https://purdue.edu/TPAN/hearing/shrp_schedule

The titles and abstracts of the talks will be added here: https://purdue.edu/TPAN/hearing/shrp_abstracts