September 23, 2019

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is welcoming 15 new professors to the faculty for the 2019-2020 academic year.

Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson greeted returning and incoming faculty members during the annual Faculty Welcome Back reception, held this year at the Presidents Residence on September 18.

At the event, President Jackson explained that Rensselaer operates within an intellectual construct called The New Polytechnic, which comes from the Greek for skilled in many arts. Accordingly, two key tenets offer the structural underpinning for decisions made at the university.

First, we are collaborative and multidisciplinary, because the greatest opportunities and challenges cannot be addressed by even the most brilliant person working alone, nor by a single discipline, sector, nation, or generation. At Rensselaer, we unite a multiplicity of perspectives to do great work, Jackson said. The second factor that guides us is our focus on the most pressing global challenges surrounding our food, water, and energy supplies; our need for sustainable and resilient infrastructure, structures, and materials; human health and the mitigation of disease; national and global security; the allocation of valuable natural resources; and a changing climate.

Faculty joining Rensselaer during this academic year are:

Elizabeth Blaber, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, who investigates the role of gravity in regulating basic stem cell function using integrative physiology and molecular genomics approaches. At NASA, she worked to identify biological factors involved in the loss of stem cell functions in microgravity. She garnered significant grant funding for her research as well as won several awards, including the NASA Early Career Public Achievement Medal and the Thora W. Halstead Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research. Blaber received a bachelor of medical science (hons) in molecular biology and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular genetics, from the University of New South Wales, Australia.

Tianyi Chen, assistant professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering, joins Rensselaer as part of the Rensselaer-IBM Artificial Intelligence Research Collaboration. His background spans areas from machine learning and artificial intelligence to optimization, signal processing, and wireless networking, with applications to edge computing for IoT, cloud and data centers, and smart grids. Chen received a B.Sc. in communication science and engineering (with honors) from Fudan University in China and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Edwin Fohtung, associate professor of materials science and engineering, is an expert on the use of X-ray and neutron scattering methods to perform materials characterization at the molecular level aimed at understanding and quantifying structure-property relationships, as well as dynamics in advanced materials. His research focuses on developing and applying state-of-the-art Photon Science, such as coherent X-ray/optical scattering and imaging, and neutron techniques to probe emergent electronic and magnetic phases arising from competing/coupled charge-, spin-, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom in nanomaterials. Fohtung received a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in applied physics from the St. Petersburg State Polytechnic in Russia. In 2010, he earned a doctorate in physics and materials science from the Universitat Freiburg in Germany.

Fudong Han, Mukesh and Priti Chatter Career Development Assistant Professor, has performed exceptional work in the area of energy storage materials with applications to rechargeable batteries and fuel cells. He has published 55 peer-reviewed papers, in journals such as Nature Materials, Nature Energy, and Nanoletters, which are cited over 3,700 times with an H-index of 30 already. Han received B.S. and M.S. degrees in materials science and engineering from Shandong University and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Derya Malak, assistant professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering, addresses major challenges in wireless networks. She focuses on providing novel distributed caching and computation techniques (without onerous coordination across sources) for 5G networks by capturing the confluence of computing, communication, and storage. Malak received a B.S. in electrical and electronics engineering with a minor in physics from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, and an M.S. in the same field from Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey. She received a Ph.D. in 2017 in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Kristen Schell, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering, concentrates on the interface of engineering, operations research, and economics, with focus on sustainability. Her work has concentrated on renewable energy penetration from the modeling, optimization, resiliency, and policy perspectives. Schell received a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an M.S.E. in geography and environmental engineering from Johns Hopkins University. In 2016, she received a dual Ph.D. degree in engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University and the Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, in Portugal.

H. Keith Moo Young, vice provost and dean of undergraduate education, professor in civil and environmental engineering, is an expert in the area of solid and hazardous waste management, environmental containment, and remediation technologies. Moo-Young is a licensed Professional Engineer and is Board Certified in Environmental Engineering, which is the highest professional honor for a practicing environmental engineer. He was elected a fellow of National Academy of Inventors in 2017, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2013, and of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2012. Moo Young received a B.S. in civil engineering from Morgan State University in 1991, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Rensselaer in 1992 and 1995, respectively.

Lydia Manikonda, assistant professor of management, focuses on the areas of artificial intelligence (primarily automated planning) and machine learning, toward providing solutions to problems in real-world scenarios such as marketing, public health, and personal goals. Specifically, she builds intelligent systems to perform offline decision-making by utilizing the online footprints of individuals on social media. Dr. Manikonda earned a Ph.D. in computer science from Arizona State University. She received a bachelors (with honors) and a masters (with Thesis) degrees in computer science and engineering from the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H), India.

Gaetano Montelione, Constellation Professor in the Biocomputation and Bioinformatics Constellation, is an internationally recognized expert in structural genomics and protein NMR spectroscopy whose notable work includes elucidation of critical protein-protein interactions in cancer biology, and his key discoveries about the structure-function relationships of NS1 protein that form the basis for the use of live attenuated influenza vaccines in humans. For more than 16 years, he built and served as director of the NIH NIGMS Center for Structural Genomics at Rutgers. Montelione earned both bachelors and Ph.D. degrees in physical chemistry from Cornell University.

Trevor Rhone, assistant professor of physics, applied physics, and astronomy, concentrates on the interface of computational and experimental condensed matter physics. Rhone received his bachelors degree in physics from Macalester College. He earned a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University

Sasha Wagner, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, focuses on several areas of environmental science, one of which looks at the innovative use of isotope ratios to trace the geochemical history using the nature of dissolved organic matter. Wagner earned a bachelors degree in biochemistry from University of Delaware, and a Ph.D. in environmental chemistry from Florida International University.

Billur Aksoy, assistant professor of economics, has earned several teaching awards for her teaching of Microeconomics, Econometrics, and Economic Data Analysis. Her publications include Measuring Trust: A Reinvestigation and Can I Rely on You? featured in Games. Aksoy received a B.A. in economics (summa cum laude) from Ankara University in Turkey, an M.S. in economics from the University of Southampton in the U.K., and a Ph.D. in economics from Texas A&M University.

Ian Chadd, assistant professor of economics, specializes in the fields of microeconomic theory, decision theory, and experimental economics. He is currently working that examines the consistencies and inconsistencies displayed by a deterministic Network Choice model and a proposed stochastic Random Network Choice model. Chadd received a B.A. in economics and mathematics from Wittenberg University in Germany and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland-College Park.

Matthew Goodheart, assistant professor of arts, is a composer, improviser, and sound artist who. His teaching experience includes contemporary improvisation, multidimensional audio systems, music perception and cognition, and advanced chromatic harmony and post-tonal theory. Goodheart received a Ph.D. in music from the University of California at Berkeley.

Tomek Strzalkowski, professor of cognitive science, is an expert on artificial intelligence, computational linguistics and sociolinguistics, computational social science, and information retrieval. He is the author of five books and numerous book chapters, journal articles and technical papers. Strzalkowski received an M.Sc. in computer science from Warsaw University and a Ph.D. in computer science from Simon Fraser University.

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Incoming Faculty Bring New Areas of Research to Rensselaer - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

T cells in the bone marrow of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) over-express PD-1 leading to anti-tumor activity,1but checkpoint inhibitors have been shown to overcome this in mouse models.2 Cytarabine is known to suppress the expression of PD-1 allowing cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) to attack AML cells more efficiently, while idarubicin causes the release of antigens which prime CTLs to further promote anti-tumor activity. The combination of both idarubicin and cytarabine has resulted in remission rates of 80%, but despite this high initial response, only 3050% of patients with AML are disease-free long-term2. Alterations of dosing and treatment schedules of this standard induction method have had a limited effect on this outcome.

Professor Farhad Ravandi, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, US, and colleagues conducted a phase II trial to assess nivolumab in combination with idarubicin and cytarabine as a frontline treatment for patients with newly diagnosed AML. They hypothesised that the addition of a further anti-PD-1 agent may improve remission duration by enhancing the anti-tumor activity of CTLs2. Professor Ravandi previously presented this data at the 59th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition in 2017 in Atlanta (our interview with him can be found here).

In this single-arm phase II part of the phase I/II study (NCT02464657), 44 patients aged 1860 years (>60 years if eligible for intensive chemotherapy) with newly diagnosed AML (n=42) or high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (n=2) who had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance (ECOG) status of 02 were eligible for inclusion induction treatment.

Induction treatment included a 1.5g/m2, 24-hour infusion of cytarabine daily on Days 14 (three days only for patients >60 years), alongside 12mg/m2 daily on days 13 of idarubicin. Nivolumab was then given on Day 24 at a dose of 3mg/kg which was repeated every two weeks for a year in responders. Initially, a run-in phase was performed with patients with relapsed AML (n=3) who received 1mg/kg nivolumab with idarubicin and cytarabine and no toxicity was observed.

Responders were given consolidation cycles of attenuated doses of idarubicin and cytarabine (up to five) or allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). The primary endpoint was event-free survival (EFS), with relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) as secondary outcomes. The trial would have stopped if the median EFS was less than seven months or if there was significant toxicity associated with nivolumab use (>10%) at one year.

Grade 12

n (%)

Grade 3

n (%)

Grade 4

n (%)

Nausea

1 (2)

1 (2)

0

Diarrhea

3 (7)

7 (16)

0

Mucositis or stomatitis

1 (2)

0

0

Muscle weakness

0

1 (2)

0

Syncope

0

1 (2)

0

Elevated transaminases

3 (5)

1 (2)

0

Elevated bilirubin

0

1 (2)

0

Febrile Neutropenia

1 (2)

13 (30)

1 (2)

Rash

1 (2)

2 (5)

0

Pneumonitis

1 (2)

0

0

Colitis

1 (2)

1 (2)

1 (2)

Pancreatitis

1 (2)

1 (2)

0

Cholecystitis

0

1 (2)

0

Small bowel obstruction

0

1 (2)

0

Thrombosis or embolism

1 (2)

0

0

Despite a small sample size, short follow-up and a lack of comparator population, the study demonstrates that the use of nivolumab alongside idarubicin and cytarabine as an intensified induction therapy in patients with AML (including those over 60 years old) is safe and feasible. Patients undergoing subsequent allo-HSCT showed promising responses and no increase in complications such as severe GvHD. Whether this combination produces similar outcomes compared to standard induction therapy with or without allo-HSCT needs to be confirmed in larger, randomized trials.

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Nivolumab as an addition to frontline therapy of AML in younger patients - AML Global Portal

After quite a few teaser pictures on their social media platforms since August, BIOLIFE4D finally announced one of the biggest milestones for the company: they successfully 3D printed a tiny heart. But how small is the mini heart?Actually, it is about one quarter the size of a human heart.

The ability to 3D bioprint a mini-heart now gives the biotech firm a roadmap to achieve their ultimate goal: bioprinting a full-scale human heart viable for transplant. It is now a matter of optimizing processes and scaling up the technology for the pioneering company headquartered in Illinois.

Ravi Birla

With the structure of a full-sized heart and four internal chambers, the mini heart is replicating partial functional metrics compared to a full-sized heart as close as anyone has gotten to producing a fully functional heart through 3D bioprinting.The scientific milestone was accomplished at the companysresearch facility at JLABS in Houston, led by Ravi Birla, Chief Science Officer of BIOLIFE4D

3DPrint.com asked Birla about their achievement to understand how functional it is and how this project could lead to a fully beating organ in the future.

The functional performance of our mini-heart is not the same as a normal mammalian heart, though this is a future objective of the research, explained Birla. Our mini-heart is intended for use in drug cardiotoxicity screening, which means that the bar that it must achieve is less than the bar required for a viable transplanted organ. This is why the performance requirements for our mini-heart do not need to mimic a fully-functional animal heart at this point.

Bioprinting at BIOLIFE4D

As we move forward we will be optimizing our bioink as well as the bioprinting parameters which are needed for optimal functional performance, suggested the expert, who also previously served as the Associate Director of the Department of Stem Cell Engineering at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston.

So how did they do it? First on their list was developing a proprietary bioink using a very specific composition of different extracellular matrix compounds that closely replicate the properties of the mammalian heart. There is still no formal name to the bioinkas it was developed in-house and for now, it is currently intended for BIOLIFE4D use only.

Then, they got around creating a novel and unique bioprinting algorithm, consisting of printing parameters optimized for the whole heart. Coupling its proprietary bioink with patient-derived cardiomyocytes and its enabling bioprinting technology, BIOLIFE4D was able to bioprint a heart. Birla suggested that because of the strategic partnerships that they have developed, they have access to and utilize most of the commercially available printers which are on the market, but the mini-heart was essentially biofabricated in their labs using a CELLINK INKREDIBLE+.

We currently used a commercial source of human cells, through the expected use of the technology in using patient derived autologous cells, claimed Birla. Utilizing patient specific cells is really a cornerstone to our technology.

Currently those lucky enough to receive a donor heart transplant are really only trading one disease for another. The donor heart will save their life, but to prevent rejection the patient needs to take a large regiment of immunosuppressant therapy which causes many significant challenges for the patient. By bioengineering the heart out of the patients own cells we eliminate the need for that immunosuppressant therapy which could allow for a much better quality of life for the patient, he continued.

With this platform technology in place, BIOLIFE4D is now well-positioned to build upon it and work towards the development of a full-scale human heart. This latest milestone also positions the company as one of the top contenders at the forefront of whole heart bioengineering, a field that is rapidly advancing.

However, beyond the scientific advancements the mini-heart represents, this is also an opportunity to provide the pharmacological industry and drug discovery companies a new tool for cardiotoxicity testing of new drugs and compounds. Until now the model used for predicting the cardiotoxicity effects of a new drug or compound was essentially limited to the animal model.But BIOLIFE4D intends to ultimately provide the mini-hearts as a more reliable model of predicting cardiotoxicity, claiming that there is no better predictor of how a human heart will react than a human heart. This also represents an opportunity to reduce the number of animals used for testing purposes, something which is already banned in quite a few regions,including India, the European Union, New Zealand, Israel, and Norway.

We are already working closely with companies that provide cardiotoxicity testing services to the Pharma and drug discovery industries. All drugs, new compounds and anything else that currently undergoes cardiotoxicity testing requirements prior to entering the human market could be candidates for the mini-heart. After all, what would provide a better predictive model of how a human heart will respond than a human heart (albeit a scaled-down version)? revealed Birla.

The mini-heart has many of the features of a human heart even though BIOLIFE4D has not been able to recreate the full functionality of a human heart yet.

While we have bioengineered mini-hearts, and this in itself is a major accomplishment, a significant advancement in the field of whole heart engineering and moves us closer to bioprinting human hearts for transplantation, this accomplishment does not provide us with a specific time-line or a significant guidance on when the fully funcitional heart will be available.

According to Birla, the most difficult part to 3D print a human heart at this point is the valves, due to the complex tri-leaflet geometry. But as they begin to scale up, they can anticipate that the complex vasculature that is needed to keep an organ viable could prove to be a big challenge.

Birla is convinced that the algorithm used as a fundamental part of the mini-heart could change the way labs will bioprint organs in the future.Weused very specific and highly customized printing parameters to bioprint the mini-heart which we have customized for our use in our lab and for our specific purposes. Some of the process ultimately could be leveraged for the bioengineering of other organs, but our overall process to bioengineer a human heart is unique to a heart.

One of the huge advantages BIOLIFE4D enjoys is that they have been able to form strategic partnerships with various major research institutions and hospitals to provide them access to some of the most state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. Nevertheless, because of the highly confidential nature of their work, most of it is done in-house at the labs and by their own researchers.

The successful demonstration of a mini heart is the latest in a string of scientific milestones from BIOLIFE4D as it seeks to produce the worlds first 3D bioprinted human heart viable for transplant. Earlier in 2019, they successfully 3D bioprinted various individual heart components, including valves, ventricles, blood vessels, and in June of 2018 they 3D bioprintedhuman cardiac tissue(a cardiac patch).

The company states that their innovative 3D bioprinting process provides the ability to reprogram a patients own white blood cells to iPS cells, and then to differentiate those iPS cells into different types of cardiac cells needed to 3D bioprint individual cardia components and ultimately, a human heart viable for transplant.

This is crucial for a company that seeks to disrupt how heart disease and other cardiac impairments are treated, particularly by improving the transplant process so that in the future they can eliminate the need for donor organs. Heart disease is the number one cause of death of men and women in the United States each year. Heart diseases even claim more lives each year than all forms of cancer combined, yet countless individuals who need transplants are left waiting as there are not enough donors to meet demand and every 30 seconds, someone dies in the US of a heart disease-related event.

While we have come a long way, and we are moving forward at a fast pace, we just dont know how long it will take to achieve a full-scale heart. We have to keep in mind that mother nature had millions of years to perfect this process inside our bodies, while we just arent sure exactly how long it is going to take us to perfect the process outside of the body, concluded Birla.

At BIOLIFE4D, they know there are still challenges on the way to the full-size human heart viable for transplantation, however, this achievement signals that they are on the right path. They highlighted that their success, as well as the significant advancements they have been able to achieve already,are a result of an incredible team effort,a multi-disciplinary group of researchers working on the project, from bioengineers to life scientists.Their team consists of people with specific skill sets and areas of expertise, all working hard to bring this incredible life-saving technology to the market in the shortest time possible.

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Interview: BIOLIFE4D is The First US Company to Bioprint a Mini-Heart (for Cardiotoxicity Testing) - 3DPrint.com