McGowan Institute?
March 2007 | VOL. 6, NO. 3 | www.McGowan.pitt.edu
In the Spring 2007 edition of PITTMED magazine Joe Miksch highlights the work of Jorg Gerlach, MD, PhD who is developing an alternative approach to mend skin damaged by burns and abrasion-type injuries.
One of Dr. Gerlach's office interests is the development of bioreactors, "a three-dimensional breeding ground for cells". In Germany he has used bioreactors as a temporary liver for a person awaiting a transplant. A dozen patients with acute liver failure already bridged successfully to transplant in clinical trials with the help of the devices.
Dr. Gerlach is combining his bioreactor technologies with a cell spraying device that he and his colleagues have developed to mend skin damaged by burns and abrasion-type injuries. The expected protocol when a patient arrives at a hospital missing a sizable portion of skin would be as follows: surgeons take a sample from a healthy piece of skin and isolate skin cells, including skin stem cells, using a method Gerlach and his colleagues developed.
Then the cell-spraying device comes into play. A surgeon loads the stem cells into a sterile syringe, loads the syringe into the nozzle like a cartridge, and sprays the cells through the nozzle directly onto the wound.
"What we're doing is taking the cells, isolating them, and, in the same procedure on the same day, we're putting the cells onto the wound," Gerlach says. "The progenitor cells can act immediately. The most critical cells are present, and we are using those cells right away from the patient. We just need to take care that we are distributing the cells nicely over the wound." Hence the spray nozzle.
The other essential part of the Gerlach process is an innovative wound dressing. Enmeshed in what looks like a traditional dressing are tubes that are part of another bioreactor. Tubes extend from each end of the dressing--one does the work of an artery, the other a vein. When connected to an "artificial vascular system" the bioreactor bandage distributes glucose, sugar, amino acids, antibiotics, electrolytes to the treated area. It cleans the wound, provides nutrition, and better supports the precious stem cells in the wound until they start to grow and regenerate new skin for the patient.
Dr. Gerlach reports that the procedure has been performed successfully at the Berlin Burn Center where patients have regrown skin over a burned ear or an entire face in a matter of days.
The idea of regrowing skin isn't new, Gerlach says, though his method is. Other doctors harvest skin cells and send them to an external lab where they are grown into a sheet of new skin. The lab then sends the sheet of skin back to the hospital to be attached to the wound. The problem with that approach says Gerlach, is that blisters caused by secretions under the new sheet of skin can push the sheet up and damage it.
"This problem can be circumvented by spraying single cells," Gerlach says, allowing them to enter the wound and reproduce right then and there. The Department of Defense is funding animal studies of the wearable bioreactor at the U.S. Army Burn Center in Fort Sam Houston, Texas. The studies start in March and are expected to last a year.
"We have concerns that the bioreactor might stick to the wound," Gerlach says, when asked about problems the studies will help address. "We don't know how long is optimal to leave it on the patient. Twenty-four hours? Two weeks?" He's confident the system will work. It's just a matter of fine-tuning, he says.
Read PITTMED
Bioengineering graduate student, Timothy Maul who is conducting his dissertation research in Dr. David Vorp's lab, was invited by Provost Beeson to speak on behalf of all graduate and professional students at the Honors Convocation held on February 23rd The Honors Convocation celebrates the accomplishments of the University's faculty and students. Part of the ceremony this year was a 2 minute commendation of Pitt graduate/professional students by Dr. Beeson followed by a 2 minute response from Tim. The criteria for nomination/selection of a student speaker for the Honors Convocation are, "The person should be very accomplished; having received distinguished awards and/or fellowships, and should present his/herself well before an audience." Congratulations to Mr. Maul!
The 2007 McGowan Institute Retreat was held on March 5 and 6, 2007. The focus was on peer-to-peer networking and also provided opportunities to explore collaborative opportunities with participating prospective industrial partners who are working to bring regenerative medicine technologies to clinical use. Full Program
The participation and contributions of the commercial leaders along with McGowan Faculty and Trainees provided for insightful discussions and identification of opportunities for collaboration.
The highlights of the retreat program included special presentations by the following guests:
- "Overview of the NASA Tissue Engineering Program" by Neal R. Pellis, Ph.D. Associate Director – NASA Biological Sciences and Applications Office
- "Business Strategies for Bringing Stem Cell Products from Lab to Bedside: Lessons Learned to Date" by Linda Powers, Managing Director, Co-Founder, Toucan Capital
- Rebecca Bagley, Deputy Secretary for Technology Investment, PA Department of Economic and Community Development
- Arthur S. Levine, M.D.; Senior Vice Chancellor for the Health Sciences and Dean, School of Medicine
- "Funding and Exit Strategies for Regenerative Medicine Companies" by Gregory A. Bonfiglio, Proteus Venture Partners
The poster session was effective in introducing the focus and interests of faculty and the guests. Our thanks to Dr. Marra and her committee for organizing the session and judging the posters.
The winners of the poster session were:
Category A: Artificial Organs & Medical Devices & Modeling
First Place Winner:
"Reagent-free Aptamer Based Impedance Biosensor for In Vitro Monitoring" by Wei Liao and Xinyan Cui
Honorable Mention:
"Processing of Macroporous Ceramics for Bioreactor Cores" by C. Pekor, E. Magee, I. Nettleship,
D. McKeel and J. Gerlach
Category B: Bioengineering and Tissue Engineering
First Place Winner:
"Controlled Delivery Systems" by Siddharth Jhunjhunwala,
Jillian E. Tengood and Steven R. Little
Honorable Mention:
Functioning Engineering Cardiac Tissue from Skeletal Music Derived Stem Cells by
K. Clause, J. Tinney, B. Gharaibeh, B. Keller, J. Huard and K. Tobita
Category C: Cellular Therapies
First Place Winner:
"Muscle-derived stem cells promote peripheral nerve and skeletal muscle Repair but generate tumors in a niche dependent manner" by Mitra Lavasani, Jonathan Pollett, Arvydas Usas and Johnny Huard
Honorable Mention:
"Tenascin-C EGF-Like Repeats – Novel Matrikine Ligands for EGFR" by A. Iyer, K. Tran, C. Borysenko, M. Cascio, C. Camacho, H. Blair, I. Bahar, L. Griffith and A. Wells
The National Institutes of Health selected Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC as a Center of Excellence for training the nation's future leaders in pediatric research. There are only 20 such NIH-funded centers nationwide. These NIH Centers of Excellence — known as Child Health Research Centers — serve as hubs for training bright young scientists who are performing cutting-edge laboratory research into pediatric diseases such as cystic fibrosis, cancer and diabetes. Children's will establish its CHRC though a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Established physician-scientists in Children's CHRC will mentor and train up to four junior scientists annually.
Children's center will be led by principal investigator David H. Perlmutter, M.D., physician-in-chief at Children's and the Vira I. Heinz Professor and chair of the Department of Pediatrics. Children's CHRC will include 27 scientific mentors from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 14 of whom are NIH-funded investigators at Children's.
MOREIn honor of his late brother, Ronald Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) and UPMC Cancer Centers, has created the Harvey G. Herberman, MD, Memorial Cancer Research Fund to support all types of cancer research at UPCI.
Harvey Herberman was born in 1938 in Brooklyn, New York. He practiced as a urologist for 40 years in El Paso, Texas. He was diagnosed with lymphoma in 1987 and spent the last 10 years of his life in a battle against advanced disease, including a number of treatments at the Hillman Cancer Center.
Contributions may be made to the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Harvey G. Herberman, MD, Memorial Cancer Research Fund, UPCI Development Department, 5150 Centre Ave., Suite 1B, Pittsburgh 15232.
The Regenerative Medicine Podcasts continue to be well received. The most recent podcasts are:#29 - Stephen Badylak, D.V.M., M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Stephen Badylak revisits Regenerative Medicine Today to share updates on his exciting studies on tissue engineering. In February 2006, in Podcast #3 he described his use of tissue engineering materials that helps heal skin wounds, torn tendons, injured rotator cuffs, hiatal hernias, and other soft tissue. In that podcast, Dr. Badylak recounted how he first discovered SIS (or small intestinal submucosa), the world-wide effort that helped to usher SIS from the lab to clinical use, and how the material works.
Today, Dr. Badylak describes the work of his lab and collaboration with other colleagues to use tissue engineering to:
- Regenerate a diseased or damaged esophagus, and
- Technology that may lead to the regeneration of damaged or severed digits or limbs
Dr. Badylak is a professor at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh. For more information about Dr. Badylak's work, please visit Dr. Badylak's web site, and learn more about the technology that he discovered.
Visit www.regenerativemedicinetoday.com to keep abreast of the new interviews.
Based on the requests of faculty and graduate students for more and different types of networking sessions, the Moleculart project continues.
Our goal is to have a scientific gathering that fosters networking in a different environment.
The next session will be in on April 9, 2007, featuring artist Penny Oliver, wife of Chris Oliver, MD.
Please join us for this excellent networking opportunity surrounded by beautiful art; hors d’oeuvres will be served.
Please RSVP by April 2nd to Katy Wharton (412-235-5100 or whartonkm@upmc.edu)
Authors: |
Thomas W. Gilbert, Michael S. Sacks, Jonathan S. Grashow, Savio L.-Y. Woo, Stephen F. Badylak, Michael B. Chancellor |
Title: |
Fiber Kinematics of Small Intestinal Submucosa Under Biaxial and Uniaxial Stretch |
Summary: |
Improving our understanding of the design requirements of biologically derived collagenous scaffolds is necessary for their effective use in tissue reconstruction. In the present study, the collagen fiber kinematics of small intestinal submucosa (SIS) was quantified using small angle light scattering (SALS) while the specimen was subjected to prescribed uniaxial or biaxial strain paths. A modified biaxial stretching device based on Billiar and Sacks (J. Biomech., 30, pp. 753–7, 1997) was used, with a real-time analysis of the fiber kinematics made possible due to the natural translucency of SIS. Results indicated that the angular distribution of collagen fibers in specimens subjected to 10% equibiaxial strain was not significantly different from the initial unloaded condition, regardless of the loading path _p=0.31_. Both 10% strip biaxial stretch and uniaxial stretches of greater than 5% in the preferred fiber direction led to an increase in the collagen fiber alignment along the same direction, while 10% strip biaxial stretch in the cross preferred fiber direction led to a broadening of the distribution. While an affine deformation model accurately predicted the experimental findings for a biaxial strain state, uniaxial stretch paths were not accurately predicted. Nonaffine structural models will be necessary to fully predict the fiber kinematics under large uniaxial strains in SIS. |
Source: |
J. Biomech. Eng. 128, 890 (2006) |
PIs: |
Derek C. Angus, M.D., M.P.H |
| Co-PIs: | Donald M. Yealy, M.D and Mitchell P. Fink, M.D. |
Title: |
Protocolized Care for Early Septic Shock (ProCESS) |
Description: |
The Protocolized Care for Early Septic Shock (ProCESS) study will attempt to determine if there is a "golden hour" in the management of sepsis and septic shock when a prompt, rigorous, standardized treatment regimen can be used to improve clinical outcomes and halt the cascade of events that often lead to organ failure and death. The study takes a cue from the realm of coronary care, which has significantly reduced mortality from acute coronary diseases and dramatically reduced the costs of care by determining such best practices. The project is designed to generate comprehensive data on the clinical and biological aspects of standardized treatment for septic shock – data that can have an immediate impact on and improve the care of the critically ill. The trial, to be conducted at several leading hospitals around the country, will enroll up to 2,000 participants who present to the emergency department with septic shock. Participants will be randomized to receive alternative treatment protocols involving intravenous fluids, drugs that reverse the shock and hemodynamic monitoring during the first six hours of care. The protocols will be evaluated on three measures: clinical effectiveness as evidenced by improved mortality rates; effectiveness in reducing concentrations of biological markers that are associated with the four fundamental pathways of sepsis-related organ dysfunction – cellular hypoxia, oxidative stress, inflammation and coagulation/thrombosis; and cost effectiveness. Sepsis is among the top causes of death in the United States, affecting 750,000 Americans each year, of which 30 percent die. It also is one of the most expensive diseases, with a cost to U.S. hospitals of $17 billion each year. |
Source: |
NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences |
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