McGowan Institute RetreatThe McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine held its 2015 Scientific Retreat March 8-10, 2015. The focus was on peer-to-peer networking, and the retreat provided many opportunities to explore collaborative endeavors with other researchers, participating guests, and external partners who are working to bring regenerative medicine technologies to clinical use.

The participation and contributions of the guests and external collaborators – along with McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine affiliated faculty and trainees – provided for insightful discussions and identification of opportunities for partnerships. This year’s program was chaired by Fabrisia Ambrosio, PhD, MPT, Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh.

Program Highlights

The retreat program included special presentations by the following guests:
McGowan Institute Distinguished Lecture, “Tissue Engineering: Into the Era of Personalized Medicine,” Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, PhD, Makati Foundation Professor, Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Sciences, Columbia University; Plenary Session, “The Road to Technology Implementation Including FDA Experiences—Introduction of the Medical Product Development Lifecycle, The Pathway from Innovation to Application,” Patsy Trisler, JD, RAC, Principal Consultant—Medical Devices, Trisler Consulting LLC; and Highlights of emerging clinical therapies introduced by Lawrence Wechsler, MD; Christian Bermudez, MD, and William Federspiel, PhD; and
Vijay Gorantla, MD, PhD.
The Retreat program also included a great cross-section of scientific presentations given by invited researchers from other institutions and agencies who are not formally affiliated with the Institute.

Poster Session

The poster session was effective in introducing the focus of the Retreat and interests of the trainees, faculty and the guests. Andrew Duncan, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology, Division of Experimental Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, and his committee organized the session and judged the posters. The winners of the poster session were:

Category: Cellular Therapy

McGowan Institute Poster Contest Winners Winner: Rebecca Ball
Mentor: Kathryn Whitehead, PhD
Title: Lipidoid siRNA Nanoparticles for Intestinal Disease Therapeutics Department of Chemical Engineering (Carnegie Mellon)

Runner-up: Elizabeth Stahl
Mentor: Johnny Huard, PhD
Title: Controlled Delivery of Hepatocyte Growth Factor by Heparin-based Coacervate Reduces Necrosis and Fibrosis in Dystrophic Muscle Department of Orthopaedic Surgery (Pitt)

Category: Computation and Modeling

Winner: Shibin Mathew
Mentor: Ipsita Banerjee, PhD
Title: Mechanistic insights into early endoderm differentiation of human embryonic stem cells using systems level analysis of signaling interactions Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering (Pitt)

Runner-up: Kory Blose
Mentor: David Vorp, PhD
Title: Elastin Production Slows Aneurysm Enlargement in a Constrained Mixture Model of Aneurysm Growth and Remodeling (Department of Bioengineering, Pitt)

Category: Medical Devices

Winner: Megan Jamiolkowski
Mentor: William Wagner, PhD
Title: The effect of crevice size on thrombus formation on Ti6Al4V (Department of Bioengineering, Pitt)

Runner-up: Kathryn Farraro
Mentor: Savio Woo, PhD, DSc, DEng
Title: A Novel Magnesium Ring for Regeneration of an Injured Anterior Cruciate Ligament — In Vitro and In Vivo Studies in Goats (Department of Bioengineering, Pitt)

Category: Tissue Engineering

Winner: Denver Faulk
Mentor: Stephen Badylak, DVM, PhD, MD
Title: Engineering Functional Hepatic Tissue Using Biologic Scaffolds Composed of Liver Extracellular Matrix (Department of Bioengineering, Pitt)

Runner-up: Mark Langhans
Mentor: Rocky Tuan, PhD
Title: Wdpcp suppresses hedgehog signaling to facilitate cartilage condensation in the limb bud (Center for Cellular and Molecular Engineering, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Pitt)

Runner-up: Aneesh Ramaswamy
Mentor: David Vorp, PhD
Title: Smooth Muscle Cell Elastin Generation Stimulated by Adipose-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells (Department of Bioengineering, Pitt)

CATER Poster Session Winners

CATER Poster Contest Winners Winner (first place): Ricardo Londono
Mentor: Stephen Badylak, DVM, PhD, MD
Title: Evaluation of Biomaterials as Lumpectomy Fillers (McGowan Institute, Pitt)

Runner-up 1 (second place): Mehwish Khaliq
Mentor: Donghun Shin, PhD
Title: Id2a regulates hepatic outgrowth during liver development and biliary epithelial cell number in biliary driven liver regeneration in zebrafish (Department of Cell Biology, Pitt)

Runner-up 2 (third place): Megan Jamiolkowski
Mentor: William Wagner, PhD
Title: The effect of crevice size on thrombus formation on Ti6Al4V (Department of Bioengineering, Pitt)

Runner-up 3 (fourth place): Samuel LoPresti
Mentor: Bryan Brown, PhD
Title: Effects of Age-Related Changes in Biochemical Properties Upon Host Response to ECM (Department of Bioengineering, Pitt )

Winners of the door prizes were Charles Sfeir, DDS, PhD, Sayuri Yoshizawa, DDS, PhD, DMD, and Ilea Swinehart. Prizes were courtesy of Nemacolin Woodlands.

A special thank you is extended to all who made this year’s Retreat a success!

See the full Retreat Program here.

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