TEBL member Javier Navarro spoke at the IX Seminary on Biomedical Engineering (SIB) at the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. The event took place May 16 – 19, 2018. Javier’s talk was entitled “Assessment of the Effects of Energy Density in Crosslinking of Keratin-Based Photo-Sensitive Resin.”

The presentation was about keratin and the creation of a resin designed for 3D printing keratin. This resin was then used to determine how much energy projected during curing defines different properties of keratin hydrogels. Navarro and other TEBL members Jay Swayambunathan, Marco Santoro, and John P. Fisher found that energy density regulated the chemical reaction needed to crosslink keratin and determines how much the hydrogels crosslink. This, when taken together with its saturation nature, determine microstructural properties of the hydrogel. By understanding the role of energy density in creating the crosslinked network, they were able to adjust the printing parameters of the resin in a cDLP 3D printing system.

For more information, the IEEE proceedings article can be found here.

TEBL lab member Navein Arumugasaamy was awarded 3^rd Place for the SYIS Oral Presentation Award at the TERMIS World Congress. The award was for his presentation given during the conference, which took place September 4 – 7, 2018 in Kyoto, Japan.

The presentation was entitled “A Placenta-Fetus Model to Evaluate Maternal-Fetal Transmission and Fetal Neural Toxicitiy of Zika Virus.” The topic of the talk relates to recent TEBL publication “Biomimetic Placenta-Fetus Model Demonstrating Maternal-Fetal Transmission and Fetal Neural Toxicity of Zika Virus.” When asked about the award, Arumugasaamy shared, “It’s wonderful to be recognized for our project assessing Zika Virus effects with a placental barrier tissue model, and I’m humbled by the award. It was a great team effort across multiple labs and institutions, and I’m very appreciative of the opportunity to present our work and have it so well received.” Congratulations, Navein!

Journal of Biomedical Materials Research has recently announced that “Collagen Hydrogel Scaffold Promotes Mesenchymal Stem Cell and Endothelial Cell Coculture for Bone Tissue Engineering” was one of the journal’s top 20 most downloaded recent papers. The journal examined the number of downloads within the first 12 months of online publication for papers published between July 2016 and June 2018. The article was written by TEBL members Bao-Ngoc B. Nguyen, Rebecca Moriarty, Tim Kamalitdinov, Julie M. Etheridge, and John P. Fisher and looks at the role of collagen hydrogel scaffolds and microenvironments in bone tissue engineering. This article helped advance the field of tissue engineering as well as brought visibility to both the journal and our lab. Congratulations, Bao, Becca, Tim, Julie, and John!

Sarah Van Belleghem was awarded Most Innovative Graduate Student Presentation at the Fischell Department of Bioengineering’s annual retreat, which took place on Wednesday, August 22.

Her presentation was entitled ““Development of a 3D Printing Strategy for the Reconstruction of Nipple-Areola Complexes for Breast Cancer Survivors”

Congratulations, Sarah!

Ting Guo has successfully defended her thesis entitled “Engineering Cellular Microenvironment for Cartilage Regeneration”.  Congratulations, Ting!