Category Archives: News

IN A PROOF-OF-CONCEPT STUDY WITH MICE, SCIENTISTS AT THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY SHOW THAT A NOVEL COATING THEY MADE WITH ANTIBIOTIC-RELEASING NANOFIBERS HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BETTER PREVENT AT LEAST SOME SERIOUS BACTERIAL INFECTIONS RELATED TO TOTAL JOINT REPLACEMENT SURGERY.

A Titanium Implant (Blue) Without A Nanofiber Coating In The Femur Of A Mouse. Bacteria Are Shown In Red And Responding Immune Cells In Yellow.

A report on the study, published online the week of Oct. 24 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was conducted on the rodents’ knee joints, but, the researchers say, the technology would have “broad applicability” in the use of orthopaedic prostheses, such as hip and knee total joint replacements, as well pacemakers, stents and other implantable medical devices. In contrast to other coatings in development, the researchers report the new material can release multiple antibiotics in a strategically timed way for an optimal effect.

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EACH YEAR, BIRTH DEFECTS, TRAUMA OR SURGERY LEAVE SOME 200,000 PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES IN NEED OF REPLACEMENT BONES IN THE HEAD OR FACE. TRADITIONALLY, THE BEST TREATMENT REQUIRED SURGEONS TO REMOVE PART OF A PATIENT’S FIBULA, CUT IT INTO THE GENERAL SHAPE NEEDED AND IMPLANT IT IN THE RIGHT LOCATION. BUT THIS PROCEDURE NOT ONLY CREATES LEG TRAUMA BUT ALSO FALLS SHORT—BECAUSE THE RELATIVELY STRAIGHT FIBULA CAN’T BE SHAPED TO FIT THE SUBTLE CURVES OF THE FACE VERY WELL.

Cooking Up Bones.

This has led researchers like biomedical engineer Warren Grayson to look to 3-D printing, or so-called additive manufacturing, which creates 3-D objects from a digital\computer file by piling on successive, ultrathin layers of materials. The process excels at making extremely precise structures—including anatomically accurate ones—from plastic, but “cells placed on plastic scaffolds need some instructional cues to become bone cells,” says Grayson. “The ideal scaffold is another piece of bone, but natural bones can’t usually be reshaped very precisely.”

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BIOMEDICAL ENGINEER JENNIFER ELISSEEFF WAS WORKING ON A WAY TO PROMOTE HEALING IN TRAUMA PATIENTS WHEN A FRIEND OF A CANCER PATIENT VISITING ELISSEEFF’S LAB TOLD HER THAT SIMILAR APPROACHES WERE REPORTED TO FIGHT CANCER.

Jennifer Elisseeff

A few years later, Elisseeff began research that promised to bridge the fields of immunology and biomedical engineering. She called the emerging field regenerative immunology. It led her to a new use for her trauma-targeted therapy.

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JULY 2016—IT WAS A REGULAR JANUARY DAY FOR JOHNS HOPKINS STEM CELL BIOLOGIST HONGJUN SONG WHEN THE LIGHT BULB CAME ON. HE WAS IN THE LAB, CHATTING WITH GRADUATE STUDENT XUYU QIAN AND POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW HA NAM NGUYEN, WHO HAD BEEN TOILING FOR THREE YEARS ON A NEW WAY TO REPLICATE BRAIN DEVELOPMENT IN THE LAB. NOW THEY HAD A GOOD SYSTEM GOING AND NEEDED AN INITIAL PROBLEM TO SOLVE.

Aedes Aegypti Mosquito. Credit: CDC/ Dr. Frank Hadley Collins, Center For Global Health And Infectious Diseases, University Of Notre Dame
Photo By: James Gathany

“We could genetically modify the brain cells to mimic inherited developmental disorders,” suggested Song.

“What about Zika virus?” asked Qian, pointing to his computer screen with the big red letters “CNN” on top. Another alarming headline proclaimed a surge in babies born with microcephaly in South America. The group talked about what little they knew about the Zika epidemic and continued to mull it over.  There was a clear association between Zika infection and microcephaly but no hard evidence indicating that the one caused the other. It could be the perfect test case for their new system, but they had no experience working with viruses, so Song started reaching out to collaborators to find someone working on Zika.

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TTEC RESEARCHER HAI-QUAN MAO USES ELECTROSPINNING TO CREATE A WAY TO DELIVER INFECTION-PREVENTING DRUGS AFTER EYE SURGERY. (PAGES 3-5)

Kunal Parikh’s In-House Spinning System Produces A Multifilament Suture That Is Capable Of Releasing Incorporated Drugs Over Long Periods Of Time.

Laura Ensign-Hodges, Ph.D., an assistant professor at Wilmer and a chemical and biomedical engineer like Hanes, helped investigate various electrospinning methods with a team of talented faculty members and students that also included biomedical engineering professor Hai-Quan Mao, Ph.D., and graduate student Kunal Parikh.

Read the full article in Sightline (PDF).