msepostdoc-list Fwd: BME Seminar Announcement: November 2, 9:30am, MJIS 1001 (teleconferenced to SL-220 at IUPUI)

[Donna Bystrom]

BME Seminar Series
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
9:30-10:20am
MJIS 1001
The seminar will be teleconferenced to SL-220 at IUPUI.
Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering
Purdue University
Engineering Approaches for Functional Nerve Regeneration
Christine E. Schmidt
Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Chemical Engineering
Texas Materials Institute
The University of Texas at Austin
Damage to spinal cord and peripheral nerve tissue can have a devastating 
impact on the quality of life for individuals suffering from nerve 
injuries. Our research is focused on analyzing and designing 
biomaterials that can interface with neurons and specifically stimulate 
and guide nerves to regenerate. These biomaterials might be required for 
facial and hand reconstruction or in trauma cases, and potentially could 
be used to aid the regeneration of damaged spinal cord.
New technologies to aid nerve regeneration will ultimately require that 
biomaterials be designed both to physically support tissue growth as 
well as to elicit desired receptor-specific responses from particular 
cell types. One way of achieving such interactive biomaterials is with 
the use of natural-based biomaterials that interact favorable with the 
body. In particular, our research has focused on developing advanced 
hyaluronan-based scaffolds that can be used for peripheral and spinal 
nerve regeneration applications. Hyaluronic acid (HA; also known as 
hyaluronan) is a non-sulfated, high molecular weight, glycosaminoglycan 
found in all mammals and is a major component of the extracellular 
matrix in the nervous system. HA has been shown to play a significant 
role during embryonic development, extracellular matrix homeostasis, 
and, most importantly for our purposes, in wound healing and tissue 
regeneration. HA is a versatile biomaterial that has been used in a 
number of applications including tissue engineering scaffolds, clinical 
therapies, and drug delivery devices. Our group has devised novel 
techniques to process this sugar material into forms that can be used in 
therapeutic applications. For example, we are using advanced laser-based 
processes to create "lines" of specific proteins within the hyaluronan 
materials to provide physical and chemical guidance features for the 
individual re-growing axons. We have found that these materials 
facilitate neuron interactions and are thus highly promising for 
regenerating peripheral and spinal nerves in vivo.
In a parallel approach to foster nerve regeneration, our group has 
developed natural tissue scaffolds termed "acellular tissue grafts" 
created by chemical processing of normal intact nerve tissue. These 
grafts are created from natural biological tissue -- human cadaver 
nerves -- and are chemically processed so that they do not cause an 
immune response and are therefore not rejected in patients. These grafts 
have been optimized to maintain the natural intricate architecture of 
the nerve pathways, and thus, they are ideal for promoting the re-growth 
of damaged axons across lesions. These engineered, biological nerve 
grafts are currently used in the clinic for peripheral nerve injuries 
and are being explored for spinal cord regeneration.
/****Coffee and juice will be provided at West Lafayette****/
*Christine E. Schmidt* is the B.F. Goodrich Endowed Professor of 
Materials Engineering in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and 
Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Schmidt 
received her B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of 
Texas at Austin in 1988 and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from The 
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1995. She conducted 
postdoctoral research at MIT as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, joining the 
UT Austin faculty in 1996.
Dr. Schmidt is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and 
Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and a Fellow of the Biomedical 
Engineering Society (BMES), and serves on the Editorial Boards for /Acta 
Biomaterialia/, /Journal of Biomedical Materials Research/, /Journal of 
Biomaterials Science, Polymer Edition/,/International Journal of 
Nanomedicine, /and//the/Nanomedicine. /She has received numerous 
research, teaching, and advising awards, including the American 
Competitiveness and Innovation (ACI) Fellowship from NSF's Division of 
Materials Research, the Chairmen's Distinguished Life Sciences Award by 
the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation and the U.S. Chamber of 
Commerce, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and a Whitaker 
Young Investigator Award.
Dr. Schmidt's research is focused on developing new biomaterials and 
biomaterial composites (e.g., electronic polymer composites, natural 
material scaffolds and processed tissues) that can be used to physically 
guide and stimulate regenerating nerves. In addition, her group is 
investigating neuron-electronic interfacing using electrically 
conducting polymers as a means to ultimately develop new bioprosthetics.