Fall 2018
All seminars take place on Mondays from 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm in LEEP2 2420, unless otherwise specified.
August 20th:
4:00pm in LEEP2 2420
Speaker: Denise Bridwell
New Fall 2018 students only
Colloquium review
August 27th: The application of antivascular photo-mediated ultrasound therapy in removing microvessels
Speaker: Xinmai Yang, Ph.D.
Director: Bioimaging, Associate Professor: Mechanical Engineering
Abstract: Antivascular therapy represents a proven strategy to improve the prognosis of a variety of pathological conditions, including cancer and many eye diseases. By synergistically applying laser pulses and ultrasound bursts, we developed a novel photo-mediated ultrasound therapy (PUT) technique as a localized antivascular method. PUT takes advantages of the high native optical contrast between biological tissues, and has the unique capability to self-target microvessels without causing unwanted damages to the surrounding tissue. Through in vitro experiments and theoretical simulations, we demonstrate that cavitation might have played a key role in PUT. In animal experiments, we demonstrate that PUT can treat microvessels in target tissue via different mechanisms, which include blocking microvessels by inducing blood clots and disrupting microvessels by causing local hemorrhage. Moreover, PUT working at different optical wavelengths can selectively treat veins or arteries by utilizing the contrast in the optical spectra between deoxy- and oxy-hemoglobin. Specifically, PUT can be applied to precisely remove choroidal blood vessels in the eye, and result in significantly reduced blood perfusion in the choroidal layer which persisted to four weeks without causing collateral tissue damage, demonstrating that PUT is capable of removing choroidal microvasculature safely and effectively. With its unique advantages, PUT holds great potential for the clinical management of eye diseases associated with microvessels and neovascularization.
September 17th:
Speaker: Jim West, Ph.D.
October 1st: Two objectives, one goal: advance understanding of gap junctions’ role in coupled microcircuits
Speaker: Eduardo Rosa-Molinar, Ph.D.
Director of Microscopy and Analytical Imaging Research Resource Core Laboratory, Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Kansas
Abstract: My presentation will highlight two decades of simultaneously working to: 1) build a gap junction synaptome and 2) develop labels and new tissue preparation reagents and workflows to permit imaging the three-dimensional (3-D) nanoscale geometry and metal ions associated with GJs-coupled microcircuits. Achieving both objectives is required to elucidate gap junctions’ (GJs) role in regulating fast GJ-coupled microcircuits. Research supported by GM-115042, MH-106245, and HRD-1736019.
October 22nd:
Speaker: John Peter Ralston, Ph.D.
November 5th:
Speaker: Rachel Chevalier, M.D.
Volunteer Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
November 12th:
Speaker: Neil Segal, M.D.,M.S.
November 26th:
Speaker: Richard Barohn, M.D.
Director of Frontiers: The Hearthland Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Principle investigator on the National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award