Spring 2018
All seminars take place on Mondays from 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm in LEEP2 2420, unless otherwise specified.
January 22nd:
4:00pm in LEEP2 2420
Speaker: Steve Gehrke, PhD
New Spring 2018 students only
Colloquium review
February 5th:
Speaker: Sara Wilson, PhD
Low back pain and low back injuries are common workplace injuries. In this presentation, Dr. Wilson will discuss the approach she and members of her laboratory have taken to use control theory to understand the etiology of these injuries. In particular, she will discuss the roles of occupational exposures, such as vibration, as well as subjects specific characteristics, like coordination patterns, in the dynamics of the lumbar spine.
February 12th: KU Environment, Health & Safety
Speaker: Mike Russell
What you need to know about Environment, Health, & Safety at KU
March 5th: Polymeric Micelles for Delivery of Gaseous Signal-Transmitter Molecules
Speaker: Urara Hasegawa, PhD
Assistant Professor // Department of Chemical Engineering, Kansas State University // hasegawa@ksu.edu
Gaseous signal-transmitter molecules such as nitric oxide (NO), carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) have recently emerged as therapeutic gases with potential applications in treatment of various pathological conditions like cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Despite their interesting biological functions, the therapeutic potential of these gases has not been well explored due to the difficulty in handling of these gases. One common approach is to use small compounds (gas donors) that release gases under physiologically relevant conditions. However, most of gas donors reported so far show relatively fast gas release, which is not desirable for therapeutic applications that require sustained gas release. Another drawback is that small gas donors and/or their decomposition byproducts often show side effects, which blur the real biological activities of therapeutic gases.
To address the issues associated with the small gas donors, we have developed polymeric micelle-based gas donors. These gas donor micelles enable controlled release of gases within cells, inhibit toxic side effects and exhibit much higher biological activities in different cells compared to the corresponding small gas donors. In this talk, the design, synthesis and characterization of the block copolymer micelles as well as their biological evaluation in cell culture and the chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay will be presented to highlight the potential applications of the gas donor micelles in wound healing and cancer therapy.
March 26th: Bioprinting: Implementation, Process Dynamics, and Process-Induced Cell Injury
Speaker: Yong Huang, PhD
Professor // Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering // University of Florida
Maskless (including extrusion-, laser-, and inkjet-based) three-dimensional (3D) cell bioprinting is a revolutionary advance for printing arbitrary cell patterns as well as creating heterogeneous living constructs. More importantly, bioprinting provides a promising solution to the problem of organ donor shortage by providing printed tissue/organ constructs for transplantation, resulting in what is known as organ printing. Using representative jet-based model printing systems (laser-induced forward transfer and inkjetting), we have been investigating their process dynamics as well as studying the printing-induced cell injury. In this talk, the perspective of ongoing bioprinting research is first introduced. Then the investigation of bioink printability and the modeling of cellular droplet formation and landing processes during printing are discussed. The relationship between the mechanical loading information and the post-transfer cell injury/viability is further established through an apoptosis signaling pathway-based modeling approach. Finally, this talk shares some thoughts regarding basic scientific challenges during bioprinting.
“Dr. Huang's Profile.” Dr. Yong Huang | Center for Manufacturing Innovation, mtrc.mae.ufl.edu/huang.php.
April 2nd:
Speaker: Ryan Hansen, PhD
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April 16th: Preparation for PhD Qualifying Exam
All students taking the exam in 2018 should attend. All others are optional.
April 23rd: Professors As “Entrepreneurs” And Related Ethics Considerations/Questions
Speaker: Val Stella, PhD
Valentino Stella is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Kansas with a BPharm from the Victorian College of Pharmacy, now Monash University, and his PhD from the University of Kansas in 1971. He is internationally recognized for his research involving novel ways of formulating and delivering problematic drug candidates, especially those used to treat cancer and AIDs. He is the inventor or co-inventor of the approved drugs fosphenytoin (Cerebyx®), Viread®, Lusedra®, the formulation covering Velcade®, and Captisol®, the solubilizer used in the injectable forms of Vfend®, Geodon®, Abilify®, Nexterone®, Kyprolis (carfilzomib)®, Noxafil-IV® and Cerenia. His many honors include the American Pharmacists Association’s Takeru Higuchi Research Prize, Distinguished Scientist award from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists and is a Fellow of the AAAS and the National Academy of Inventors. Stella has more than 300 publications, reviews and book chapters. He holds 45 issued U.S. Patents and many foreign patents.
April 30th: Can Engineers Read Minds?
Speaker: Dave Thompson, PhD
Dr. Thompson’s research lies at the intersection of electrical and biomedical engineering. Most of his work is measuring neural signals (usually scalp electro-encephalogram or EEG), trying to guess a user’s communicative intent or emotional state. These technologies hold the promise to restore communication to the most severely paralyzed people, as well as add to the body of knowledge about everyone’s decision making processes. Additionally, Dr. Thompson works with other non-invasive sensing technologies relevant to health care, including load cells and film sensors for sleep studies. Currently, he is collaborating with Dr. Warren, Dr. Prakash and Dr. Natarajan on an NSF grant studying sleep in children with Autism Spectrum disorders at Heartspring in Wichita, Kansas.