BME WEEKLY ROUNDTABLE

WEEK OF October 2, 2023

 

INTERIM HEAD’S NOTE

                Congratulations to both of them!

 

UPCOMING IMPORTANT DATES

 

Week of October 2

 

Tues., Oct. 3:  EEE Research Seminar, 10:30 a.m., POTR 234 (Fu Room). Heather Liddell, PhD, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue will present “Should We Lightweight Electric Vehicles? An Environmental Life Cycle Perspective with an Outlook to 2050.

 

Wed., Oct. 4:  BME Research Seminar, 9:30 a.m., MJIS 1001 or via Zoom. Alex Chubykin, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and Member of Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience, Purdue Autism Research Center, will present “Familiarity-evoked theta oscillations in the mouse visual cortex.”

 

Wed., Oct. 4:  Seminar for Neurotrauma and Diseases, 4:00 p.m., DLR 131. Matthew P. Ward, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, IUSOM, will present “Cracking the Autonomic Neural Code for Precise Bioelectronic Control of Organ Physiology.” This seminar series is organized by the Center for Paralysis Research and supported by Plexon, the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience, and Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery. The Zoom link is: https://bit.ly/441Dllq. For additional information, see https://vet.purdue.edu/cpr/

 

Wed., Oct. 4-Thurs., Oct. 5, Center for Healthy Living Flu Shots. Seasonal flu shots are provided annually at no charge to all benefits-eligible Purdue faculty and staff, as well as spouses and dependents covered on a Purdue health plan, through a variety of means. The West Lafayette campus Center for Healthy Living, located at 1400 W. State St., Building B, Suite C, will begin distributing flu shots on Sept. 27 with convenient, drive-thru vaccines. No appointment is required to obtain a flu vaccine at CHL via drive-thru, walk-in or at on-campus events hosted by the CHL.

Drive-thru flu shots will be offered on the south side of CHL, with both morning and evening time slots available for added convenience. The CHL drive-thru schedule is below:

·         Oct. 4, 7-9 a.m.

·         Oct. 5, 4-6 p.m.

 

MJIS Updates

 

Our semi-annual air handling shutdown is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, October 10th. As a reminder: the entire building air handling system in MJIS will be turned off. ALL chemical hood activity, biosafety cabinet activity, autoclave work and activities in wet labs will need to STOP by 5 PM on Monday, October 9th. Any chemicals stored in the hoods will have to be sealed at that time. Signs will be posted on all hoods to remind users not to use the hoods Monday evening, and removed when the maintenance work is completed and normal operations can resume. Please plan ahead - DO NOT use chemicals in the lab areas that you would normally use in the hoods.

 

 

Graduate Programs Update

 

Twenty-four BME and IBSC PHD students presented on their research in the Summer 2023 virtual seminar series, and everyone did an excellent job. This year’s results for the outstanding presentation were so close, we needed to select two winners of the 2023 Fearnot-Laufman-Greatbatch Award. Each recipient received the highest average overall score and highest average of all survey questions.

 

Congratulations go out to Marvin Zhou for his presentation entitled “Assessing the Cost-Effectiveness of Public Health Policy for Smoking Control through Microsimulation Modeling on Cardiovascular Disease and Cameron Villarreal for his presentation entitled “The Gut Microbiome Modulates the Structure-function Relationship in Musculoskeletal Tissue: More than a gut feeling.”

 

Dr. Neal Fearnot established this award in 1992 to recognize the value of presentation skills learned as a student presenter.  The skills he learned served him well in his professional career, and therefore he wanted to encourage participation and reward excellence.  This award was originally named the Fearnot Prize, until 2010 when Dr. Fearnot received the AAMI Foundation/Laufman-Greatbatch Prize in recognition of his creativity and leadership in the medical device industry. He donated the funds he received from this award toward the newly renamed Fearnot-Laufman-Greatbatch Prize.

                                Marvin Zhou                                                                      Cameron Villareal

 

****************************************************************

 

As we prepare for the Engineering Virtual Graduate Showcase scheduled for October 1st and 2nd, we are rolling out Purdue Engineering GradMatch, a platform created for Purdue Engineering faculty and prospective graduate engineering students to search for and match with each other for undergraduate research and graduate study. This is an in-house platform built specifically for you to find the best graduate students. Use of this system is invite-only. This means that once GradMatch goes live, it will include only a select list of prospective students, registered for the grad showcase event, for faculty to review.

 

Please invite your faculty to publish their profiles in the system by Monday, September 18th. Directions on how to publish a faculty profile appear below:

  1. Visit the login page for Purdue Engineering GradMatch (https://engineering.purdue.edu/GradMatch)
  2. On the login page, submit your Purdue Career Account Username and Password.
  3. Go to Edit Profile.
  4. Complete each field and upload documents/links.
  5. Save changes.
  6. Click the Publish button when your profile is complete.

(Note that your profile will not be searchable by prospective students until you click the Publish button.)

 

Thank you for your continued support of our college recruitment efforts!

 

Colleen

Dr. Colleen L. Coulter

Assistant Director of Graduate Recruitment

 

Antimicrobial Resistance Seminar Series - Purdue

 

The College of Veterinary Medicine and Institute for Drug Discovery want to invite you to join fellow scientists at Purdue for the launch of the inaugural Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Seminar series. According to the U.S> Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur annually in the US, resulting in 35,000 deaths. Combating AMR requires multifaceted efforts both the healthcare and veterinary sectors. In response to this critical public health threat, scientists at Purdue are working together to increase awareness and discover solutions for advanced diagnostics, treatment, and prevention. Starting on September 13,the AMR Seminar Series will be held in person at the Lobby Conference Room at the Institute for Drug Discovery (from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.).  Please let us know if you are interested in giving a talk for the series. Faculty, graduate students and postdocs who want to participate are welcome to present; please send names and email addresses to amr-purdue@purdue.edu   A schedule will be coming soon.

 

Upcoming important deadlines and information

 

 

Mon., Oct. 9 – Tues., Oct. 10: The NSF I-Corps Hub Great Lakes is offering an Industry Connect Program,  on Oct 9-Oct 10 in Minneapolis for attendees participating in the Medical Design and Manufacturing Conference, MD&M Conference. The primary goal of the Industry Connect workshop is to provide teams with essential networking and customer discovery skills on how to introduce themselves, talk to technology decision-makers, set up follow-up meetings, acquire feedback, and identify key milestones, etc. Teams then participate in a tradeshow (MD&M Conference) to apply the skills they have acquired.

 

The hub is also offering a Medical Jumpstart Workshop, Sept 29-Nov 17 (offered virtually) to teams exploring the commercial viability of their Medical-based innovation idea. This course is for faculty, researchers, and students with Medical-based ideas or Intellectual Property and a strong interest in commercializing their technology. Teams participating in this workshop will receive funding up to $1000/team for Customer Discovery purposes. The funding can also be used to participate in the Industry Connect Program.

 

Please share this information with interested faculty and students. 

 

Feel free to reach out to me or Matthew Lynall (mlynall@purdue.edu) for any questions.

 

Thanks,

Geetali

 

Geetali Pradhan, Ph.D., MBA (gpradhan@purdue.edu)

Tech Commercialization Specialist, Daniels School of Business

Innovation and Outreach Specialist, NSF I-Corps Hub, Great Lakes Region

Purdue University

LinkedIn

Google Scholar

Great Lakes I-Corps Hub Website

 

Wed., Oct. 11:  BME PhD Preliminary Exam Announcement for Hao-Cheng Gao (F. Huang, advisor). Everyone is invited to attend the public presentation beginning at 2PM in MJIS 2001. Research title: Ultrahigh-Resolution Imaging and Quantitative Analysis Through Brain Tissue with High Accuracy.

 

Thurs., Oct. 12: BME PhD Preliminary Exam Announcement for Donghyun Yim (T. Kim, advisor). Everyone is invited to attend the public presentation beginning at 12:00 pm in MJIS 2001. Title: Computational modeling of chemotactic cell migration enhanced with stress fiber dynamics.

 

Wed., Oct. 18:  Seminar for Neurotrauma and Diseases, 4:00 p.m., NLSN 1995. Richard Rogers, MD, Neurosurgeon, Goodman Campbell Brain and Spine Neurosurgery Group will present “Traumatic Brain Injury Outcome Prediction from the ICU.” This seminar series is organized by the Center for Paralysis Research and supported by Plexon, the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience, and Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery. The Zoom link is: https://bit.ly/441Dllq. For additional information, see https://vet.purdue.edu/cpr/

 

Wed., Oct. 25:  Seminar for Neurotrauma and Diseases, 4:00 p.m., DLR 131. Wenjing Sun, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, The Ohio State University will present “Unraveling the Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms Controlling Activity-dependent Myelin Formation and Restoration in the Central Nervous System.” This seminar series is organized by the Center for Paralysis Research and supported by Plexon, the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience, and Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery. The Zoom link is: https://bit.ly/441Dllq. For additional information, see https://vet.purdue.edu/cpr/

 

Wed., Nov. 29:  Seminar for Neurotrauma and Diseases, 4:00 p.m., DLR 131. Koji Uchida, Professor of Food Chemistry, University of Tokyo will present “Conversion of Proteins into DNA Mimetics by Reactive Aldehydes.” This seminar series is organized by the Center for Paralysis Research and supported by Plexon, the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience, and Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery. The Zoom link is: https://bit.ly/441Dllq. For additional information, see https://vet.purdue.edu/cpr/

 

Fri., Dec. 1:  Indiana Human-Centered Design for Health Seminar Series, 12:00 p.m. via Zoom. Lean about research and best practices in HCD and health, promote the diverse HCD expertise in Indiana, and build a community of HCD researchers and practitioners focused on health, in Indiana and beyond. The speaker will be Jackie Linnes, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue. Register and learn about upcoming seminars at healthtechquitylab.org/hcd-seminar

 

Fri., March 1:  Indiana Human-Centered Design for Health Seminar Series, 12:00 p.m. via Zoom. Lean about research and best practices in HCD and health, promote the diverse HCD expertise in Indiana, and build a community of HCD researchers and practitioners focused on health, in Indiana and beyond. The speaker will be Andrew Miller, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Hunan-Centered Computing, IUPUI. Register and learn about upcoming seminars at healthtechquitylab.org/hcd-seminar

 

Fri., June 7:  Indiana Human-Centered Design for Health Seminar Series, 12:00 p.m. via Zoom. Lean about research and best practices in HCD and health, promote the diverse HCD expertise in Indiana, and build a community of HCD researchers and practitioners focused on health, in Indiana and beyond. The speaker will be Youngbok Hon, Professor, Herron School of Art and Design, IUPUI. Register and learn about upcoming seminars at healthtechquitylab.org/hcd-seminar

 

Resources and further information

 

Tues., Oct. 3:  EEE Research Seminar, 10:30 a.m., POTR 234 (Fu Room). Heather Liddell, PhD, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue will present “Should We Lightweight Electric Vehicles? An Environmental Life Cycle Perspective with an Outlook to 2050.”

Abstract: This seminar will explore and quantify the forward-looking opportunity space for lightweight structural materials in battery electric vehicles. Leveraging a dataset of over 250 model year 2018-2023 battery electric models sold in the United States, I apply a top-down statistical approach to assess the potential environmental benefits of lightweighting from a life cycle perspective. This work considers both the vehicle cycle (materials) and the fuel cycle (electric vehicle charging). I will discuss the impacts of materials selection and the sensitivity of results to vehicle characteristics such as size and drive range. Analytical results show that lightweighting of electric vehicles can contribute meaningfully to an overall strategy to meet economy-wide decarbonization goals, even 8nder rapid electric grid transition scenarios. However, net emissions impacts depend on specific material selections and manufacturing methods and benefits are not universally observed in all lightweighting scenarios. I will put these results in context to discuss the broader implications for environmentally conscious automotive materials development.

Bio: Heather Liddell joined Purdue in Fall 2023 as an Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in Mechanical Engineering and Environmental & Ecological Engineering. She studies resource use and environmental impacts in manufacturing, focusing on the identification and development of technical strategies for9 improving the sustainability of the U.S. industrial and transportation sectors. Core to this work is an integration of top-down strategies (e.g., supply chain modeling and sector-wide energy analysis) and bottom-up strategies (e.g., impact assessments at the technology, product or process level). Prior to joining Purdue, Dr. Liddell was a senior scientist and group leader at Energetics, where she worked closely with the U.S. Department of Energy to develop strategies for resource-efficient and decarbonized manufacturing in the United States. Liddell holds BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering and a PhD in materials science from the University of Rochester. She completed her postdoctoral training at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

 

Wed., Oct. 4:  BME Research Seminar, 9:30 a.m., MJIS 1001 or via Zoom. Alex Chubykin, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and Member of Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience, Purdue Autism Research Center, will present “Familiarity-evoked theta oscillations in the mouse visual cortex.”

Abstract: Recognizing familiarity and novelty in the environment is critical for animal survival. Surprisingly, very little is known about how animals distinguish familiar from novel stimuli. We have recently discovered persistent stimulus-triggered theta oscillations in the visual cortex of mice, which are specific to the familiarity and spatial frequency features of the stimulus. These oscillations are dependent on the cholinergic muscarinic receptors for both induction and expression. Familiarity-evoked oscillations lead to the decrease in suprathreshold responses to the non-preferred directions of the drifting sinusoidal gratings and to the improved direction selectivity in V1 neurons. We then used optogenetics to directly measure the synaptic strength of the light-triggered EPSCs in V1 neurons in head-fixed mice. We discovered the weakening of the thalamocortical projections coinciding with the strengthening of the intracortical projections in V1 following visual experience and emergence of the familiarity-evoked theta oscillations. Finally, we have discovered theta oscillations in the higher visual areas (HVAs) which are synchronized with the theta oscillations in V1 following visual experience. This synchronization varies between different HVAs and depends on the properties of the visual stimuli.

Biography: Alex Chubykin is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience, Purdue Autism Research Center. Dr. Chubykin’s research aims to understand how experience shapes neural circuits and affects their function in health and disease. His laboratory uses state-of-the-art techniques, such as in vitro circuit mapping, in vivo electrophysiology, optogenetics, and behavior, to investigate the synaptic and network properties of the visual cortex and other brain regions. Dr. Chubykin has made significant contributions to the understanding of synaptic plasticity and its role in sensory processing, learning, memory, and neurological disorders. He has published over 28 peer-reviewed papers in prestigious journals, such as Nature Methods, Neuron, Cell Reports, and Journal of Neuroscience. He has received several awards and honors for his research, such as the Whitehall Foundation Research Award, and the Showalter Young Investigator Award.

~ BME Host: Fang Huang ~

Zoom link:  https://purdue-edu.zoom.us/j/98537319265

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

 

Wed., Oct. 4-Thurs., Oct. 5, Center for Healthy Living Flu Shots. Seasonal flu shots are provided annually at no charge to all benefits-eligible Purdue faculty and staff, as well as spouses and dependents covered on a Purdue health plan, through a variety of means. The West Lafayette campus Center for Healthy Living, located at 1400 W. State St., Building B, Suite C, will begin distributing flu shots on Sept. 27 with convenient, drive-thru vaccines. No appointment is required to obtain a flu vaccine at CHL via drive-thru, walk-in or at on-campus events hosted by the CHL.

Drive-thru flu shots will be offered on the south side of CHL, with both morning and evening time slots available for added convenience. The CHL drive-thru schedule is below:

·         Oct. 4, 7-9 a.m.

·         Oct. 5, 4-6 p.m.

On-campus flu shot events planned as follows: 

·      Oct. 19, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Smalley West Conference Room

·      Oct. 20, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Dining Room, 2550 Northwestern Ave, Suite 1100

·      Oct. 25, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Stewart Center, Room 302

Walk-in flu shots at the CHL beginning Oct. 2. Patients can stop by to receive their flu shots; appointments are not required. Pediatric patients 6 months and older can also receive their flu shots at the CHL beginning Oct. 1. 

CHL vaccine information
The CHL on Purdue’s West Lafayette campus will be administering:

·         Fluzone quadrivalent vaccine, which is designed to protect against four different flu viruses; two influenza A viruses and two influenza B viruses. It is approved for anyone ages 6 months and older. 

·         Flublok quadrivalent vaccine, which is designed to protect against four different flu viruses; two influenza A viruses and two influenza B viruses. It is approved for use in ages 18 years and older. It is preservative- and egg-free.

 

Wed., Oct. 11:  BME PhD Preliminary Exam Announcement for Hao-Cheng Gao (F. Huang, advisor). Everyone is invited to attend the public presentation beginning at 2PM in MJIS 2001. Research title: Ultrahigh-Resolution Imaging and Quantitative Analysis Through Brain Tissue with High Accuracy.

Thesis Committee members: Fang Huang, Chair; Alexander A. Chubykin; Daniel M. Suter; Kevin J. Webb

Abstract: 4Pi single-molecule localization microscopy (4Pi-SMLM) enables the revealing of ultrastructure by combining interferometric coherent fluorescence imaging and single-molecule localization. Current methods model the interferometric point spread function (PSF) by scanning in-vitro beads on coverslips to infer in-situ 3D location of single-molecule fluorophores in specimens. Although a resolution of sub-20-nm throughout the whole cell has been achieved, imaging tissue specimens was impeded by the heterogeneous aberration and scattering in tissue environment. Here, we introduce 4Pi in-situ PSF retrieval method (4Pi-INSPR), which allows 12-nm-resolution visualization and quantitative analysis through brain tissue with high accuracy. 4Pi-INSPR incorporates sample-induced aberrations, previously unattainable by conventional 4Pi-SMLM. 4Pi-INSPR also minimizes reconstruction artifacts from instrumental imperfections such as objective and imaging-quadrant misalignments. We demonstrate 4Pi-INSPR capabilities by revealing the ultrastructure of dendrites and dendritic spines in 50-ìm mouse brain sections and quantifying their morphology changes and nanoscale molecular distribution. Together, 4Pi-INSPR provides potential in examining synaptic functions for brain development.

 

Thurs., Oct. 12: BME PhD Preliminary Exam Announcement for Donghyun Yim (T. Kim, advisor). Everyone is invited to attend the public presentation beginning at 12:00 pm in MJIS 2001. Title: Computational modeling of chemotactic cell migration enhanced with stress fiber dynamics.

Advisory Committee: Taeyoon Kim, Chair; Adrian Buganza-Tepole; Daniel M. Suter; Qing Deng

Abstract:  Directional cell migration is the essential ability of many cells and occurs in the guidance of different types of cues, including substrate stiffness, surface topology, and chemoattractant gradient. In particular, when the external chemotactic stimuli are present, chemoattractant successively activates signaling pathways in the cell, followed by the nucleation and polymerization of actin filaments (F-actins). As a result, F-actin establishment and protrusion are biased at the sites with the maximal concentration of chemotactic cues, leading to migration toward chemoattractant. For the migration, formation of focal adhesions between the cell and an extracellular environment is necessary. Chemotaxis has been studied in various computational studies. However, to our knowledge, the computational model of chemotaxis considering the dynamics of F-actins and focal adhesions still lacks. To address this gap, we introduce a two-dimensional cell migration model comprising nucleus, membrane, F-actins, and underlying substrate. In this model, it is assumed that the elongation rate of an individual F-actin is enhanced by the local chemoattractant level in order to capture the dependence of the F-actin polymerization rate on the chemoattractant concentration. Repulsive forces act between F-actin and the membrane to simulate the membrane protrusion driven by elongating F-actins. F-actins are allowed to bind to substrate via focal adhesions. In preliminary results, it was observed that a cell located in the middle of a linear concentration gradient for chemoattractant protrudes and then migrates toward the region with higher concentration. We expect the current concept of the model will provide better understanding of F-actin-mediated chemotaxis.

 

 

BME Weekly Research Seminars

 

Week #

Date

Speaker

Title

Host

Website

7

10/4/2023

Alexander Chubykin

Associate Professor Department of Biological Sciences Purdue University

Fang Huang

https://www.bio.purdue.edu/People/profile/achubyki.html

8

10/11/2023

Kyung Sung

Chief of Cellular and Tissue Therapy Branch, FDA

Young Kim

https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/biologics-research-projects/investigating-effects-cell-materials-interactions-safety-and-effectiveness-cell-based-products

9

10/18/2023

Alan Grodzinsky

Professor of Biological, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering Department of Biological Engineering, MIT

Deva Chan

https://be.mit.edu/directory/alan-j-grodzinsky

10

10/25/2023

Nian Wang

Assistant Professor of Radiology & Imaging Sciences, Indiana School of Medicine

Yunjie Tong

https://medicine.iu.edu/faculty/48212/wang-nian

11

11/1/2023

Ben Gaston

Billie Lou Wood Professor of Pediatrics Indiana University School of Medicine

George Wodicka

https://medicine.iu.edu/faculty/43800/gaston-benjamin

12

11/8/2023

Jean-Pierre Mobasser

Affiliate Clinical Faculty
Indiana University

Young Kim

https://www.goodmancampbell.com/our-team/team-member/jean-pierre-mobasser-md

13

11/15/2023

Jane Grande- Allen

Isabel C. Cameron Professor of Bioengineering, Rice University

Deva Chan

https://profiles.rice.edu/faculty/k-jane-grande-allen

14

11/29/2023

Sarah Wiehe

Jean and Jerry Bepko Professor of Pediatrics Indiana University School of Medicine

George Wodicka

https://medicine.iu.edu/faculty/16722/wiehe-sarah

15

12/6/2023

Robbee Wedow

Assistant Professor of Sociology and Data Science,
Purdue University Department of Sociology

David Umulis

https://www.robbeewedow.com/?_ga=2.88497945.389094989.1679581193-1816225309.1603576015

 

Postdoctoral Fellow Opportunity – IUSM Emergency Medicine

 

The laboratory of Dr. Nathan J. Alves, PhD, within the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM), is seeking a highly motivated and independent post-doctoral research fellow. Dr. Alves is a Chemical and Biomolecular Engineer, Associate Professor and the Director of Translational Research for the Department of Emergency Medicine in addition to having an affiliate faculty appointment at Purdue University in Biomedical Engineering. The Alves Lab explores highly interdisciplinary research interests applying engineering and biophysical principles and designs to create translational technologies and treatments in the area of blood coagulation and fibrinolysis. The primary focus of research in the laboratory is to develop targeted clot digesting therapeutic agents to more safely digest clinically relevant blood clots to treat pulmonary embolism (PE, blood clots in the lungs), deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and ischemic stroke. This interdisciplinary research utilizes diverse enzyme assays, chemical synthesis, blood clot formation and digestion assays under shear, and other novel testing/delivery platforms that include multivalent branched molecules and nanoparticle drug delivery systems. Projects Include: (1) Leveraging multivalency to modulate enzyme activity and improve inhibitor selectivity (nanoparticle drug delivery and targeting). (2) Ex-vivo flowing models of clot digestion under shear using in-vivo like fluorescently labeled blood clots from human whole blood. (3) Development of novel fibrinolytic diagnostics tools to assess coagulation state. (4) Mouse models of clot formation/targeting/digestion utilizing intravital microscopy. (5) Study the effects of environmental microplastic exposure on coagulation/fibrinolysis. Projects are funded both externally and internally.

For additional information and to apply, go to: https://indiana.peopleadmin.com/postings/19651

 

 

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