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Full-Text Articles in Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering

Development And Application Of A Microfluidic Platform For Quantifying Intra-Tumoral Compressive Stress., Zachary P. Fowler Aug 2023

Development And Application Of A Microfluidic Platform For Quantifying Intra-Tumoral Compressive Stress., Zachary P. Fowler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cancer progression is linked to the emergence of aberrant mechanical signaling in the tumor microenvironment. Modulation of extrinsic signals, such as ECM stiffness and composition, have been thoroughly explored. However, the development of solid stresses within the tumor remains poorly understood. To address this, we have developed a microfluidic platform that generates deformable alginate microbeads that allow for the quantification of compressive stresses generated within a growing glioblastoma (GBM) tumorsphere. PDMS microfluidic devices were fabricated via SU-8 mold with channels ranging from 10µm-40µm in diameter. Fluorescently labeled sodium alginate underwent a cross-linking reaction within the device to generate monodisperse beads …


Tumor Targeting Gold Nanoparticles For Delivery Of Rna And Dna Oligonucleotide Therapies For Glioblastoma., Nicholas Allen May 2023

Tumor Targeting Gold Nanoparticles For Delivery Of Rna And Dna Oligonucleotide Therapies For Glioblastoma., Nicholas Allen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Glioblastoma (GBM) brain tumors are highly aggressive gliomas due to genetic and cellular heterogeneity. Current GBM treatment consists of surgical resection of the tumor combined with radio- or chemo-therapies. While these treatments have increased the life expectancy for GBM patients up to 20 months, they have had little effect on the 5-year survival rate. The complex cellular and genetic composition of the tumor makes current treatments less effective long term. One approach to developing more effective GBM treatments is to customize nanoparticle-based drug delivery systems that can directly target the aberrant gene expression patterns within a particular GBM tumor. Delivery …


Radiation Therapy Of Glioblastoma: Experience Of A Moroccan Center, Hassani Wissal, El Ayachi Zineb, Farhane Fatim-Zahra, Alami Zenab, Bouhafa Touria Jan 2023

Radiation Therapy Of Glioblastoma: Experience Of A Moroccan Center, Hassani Wissal, El Ayachi Zineb, Farhane Fatim-Zahra, Alami Zenab, Bouhafa Touria

Health Sciences

Background: Glioblastomas are the most frequent and aggressive primary brain tumors. Their prognosis remains bleak, despite progress in management and understanding of the different biological mechanisms. Our objective is to highlight the impact of radiotherapy in improving the management of glioblastoma through the experience of the radiotherapy department at Hassan II University Hospital. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study analyzing the medical records of patients with glioblastoma over the period from August 2012 to January 2020. The data was analyzed using the epi-info software, therapeutic toxicities evaluated according to CTCAE V.4 scale, and overall survival estimated by the …


Focused Ultrasound-Enabled Blood-Based Liquid Biopsy (Sonobiopsy) For Brain Disease Diagnosis, Christopher Pham Pacia Aug 2022

Focused Ultrasound-Enabled Blood-Based Liquid Biopsy (Sonobiopsy) For Brain Disease Diagnosis, Christopher Pham Pacia

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Brain cancer severely threatens human health due to its disruption of neurological function, poor prognosis, and substantial reduction in quality of life. Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most devastating brain cancer; not only is it the most common malignant primary tumor in adults, but also it has a median survival of 14 months with a 5-year survival rate of less than 5%. Despite advances in multidisciplinary treatment that includes surgical resection, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, almost all patients experience tumor progression and nearly universal mortality within 2 years. However, advances in patient care have suggested that the accurate diagnosis of molecular …


Towards The Discovery Of Prognostic Biomarkers For Glioblastoma Using Resting-State Functional Connectivity, Andy G. S. Daniel Aug 2021

Towards The Discovery Of Prognostic Biomarkers For Glioblastoma Using Resting-State Functional Connectivity, Andy G. S. Daniel

McKelvey School of Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Gliomas are highly diffusive, primary brain tumors. The most malignant form, glioblastoma, has a dismal survival rate: 14-17 months following the current standard of care, which consists of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Insights into the molecular, cellular, and microenvironmental components of glioblastoma have revealed a vast array of factors utilized to support its proliferation, infiltration, and resistance to treatment. Recent advancements have also identified diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers that are now being used to guide treatment planning. However, survival has improved only marginally, thus emphasizing the continued need for novel biomarkers and treatment strategies. Given its delicate location in the …


Pathcnn: Interpretable Convolutional Neural Networks For Survival Prediction And Pathway Analysis Applied To Glioblastoma, Jung Hun Oh, Wookjin Choi, Euiseong Ko, Mingon Kang, Allen Tannenbaum, Joseph O. Deasy Jul 2021

Pathcnn: Interpretable Convolutional Neural Networks For Survival Prediction And Pathway Analysis Applied To Glioblastoma, Jung Hun Oh, Wookjin Choi, Euiseong Ko, Mingon Kang, Allen Tannenbaum, Joseph O. Deasy

Computer Science Faculty Research

Motivation: Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have achieved great success in the areas of image processing and computer vision, handling grid-structured inputs and efficiently capturing local dependencies through multiple levels of abstraction. However, a lack of interpretability remains a key barrier to the adoption of deep neural networks, particularly in predictive modeling of disease outcomes. Moreover, because biological array data are generally represented in a non-grid structured format, CNNs cannot be applied directly. Results: To address these issues, we propose a novel method, called PathCNN, that constructs an interpretable CNN model on integrated multi-omics data using a newly defined pathway image. …


Mechanism Of Therapeutic Efficacy Of New Drugs In Glioblastoma, Firas Hameed Khathayer Apr 2021

Mechanism Of Therapeutic Efficacy Of New Drugs In Glioblastoma, Firas Hameed Khathayer

Theses and Dissertations

Glioblastoma is the most malignant and prevalent brain tumor in adults. It can grow and spread quickly causing harm to brain health. The deregulation of epigenetic mechanisms is considered the main agent in the developing of GBM. One of the enzymes involved in epigenetic alternation and cancer development are histone deacetylases enzyme (HDAC) by removal acetyl group from histone and create condensed chromatin that suppresses transcription gene to histone and non-histone proteins involved in tumorigenesis. Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HADCi) are the most common therapeutic methods for many types of cancer treatments. In the present study, we used relative HDAC inhibitor …


Carbon Nanotube-Coated Scaffolds For Tissue Engineering Applications, Soham Dipakbhai Parikh Jan 2021

Carbon Nanotube-Coated Scaffolds For Tissue Engineering Applications, Soham Dipakbhai Parikh

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) have beneficial properties for cell scaffolding, which has translated into effective growth of bone, muscle, and cardiac cells. However, loose carbon nanotubes can cause in vivo toxicity. To reduce this risk, our team has developed biomimetic scaffolds with multiscale hierarchy where carpet-like CNT arrays are covalently bonded to larger biocompatible substrates. In this study, we have tested such scaffolds in two distinct types of biomedical applications involving glioblastoma and keratinocyte cells. The growth of glioblastoma (GBM) cells on our CNT-coated biomimetic scaffolds was evaluated to check their suitability as a potential chemotherapy-loaded implant for GBM patient treatment. …


Bioprinted In Vitro Model Of Human Glioblastoma, Rachel Lauren Schwartz Aug 2020

Bioprinted In Vitro Model Of Human Glioblastoma, Rachel Lauren Schwartz

Theses and Dissertations

Glioblastoma multiform (GBM) is one of the most aggressive forms of primary brain tumors. GBM is fast progressing and resistant to treatment, resulting in a low survival rate. Conventional 2-dimensional tissue culture models cannot fully replicate the complexities of cancer lesions that contain multiple cell types and structures (e.g. vessels composed of endothelial cells, cancer cells, normal cells, etc.) as well as an intricate scaffold of proteins comprising the extracellular matrix (ECM). In addition, animal models cannot translate into the clinical disease in patients. Thus, this study has developed a bioprintable organ-on-a-chip (OOAC) model that mimics the important ECM factors …


Influence Of The 3d Microenvironment On Glioblastoma Migration And Drug Response, Ruth Marisol Herrera Perez Apr 2016

Influence Of The 3d Microenvironment On Glioblastoma Migration And Drug Response, Ruth Marisol Herrera Perez

Open Access Dissertations

Glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly invasive brain cancer characterized by poor prognosis. Despite significant efforts by the basic and clinical research community our understanding of GBM progression and recurrence has been incremental. Improvements in therapeutic response have been dismal, and GBM continues to be the deadliest tumor of the central nervous system, with patient average survival rate of 12 months. Synergistic relationships that the tumor cells establish with the brain microenvironment have been proven fundamental for successful tumor progression and maintenance. Yet, many in vitro GBM studies are performed in formats that fail to recapitulate the most essential component of …


Brain Tumor In A Dish: Glioma/Astrocyte Co-Cultures As A Model For In Vitro Studies, Erin Eickman, Christina Wilson, Srivatsan Kidambi Apr 2016

Brain Tumor In A Dish: Glioma/Astrocyte Co-Cultures As A Model For In Vitro Studies, Erin Eickman, Christina Wilson, Srivatsan Kidambi

UCARE Research Products

This study seeks to engineer an in vitro co-culture model to elucidate the role of glioma-astrocyte interactions on molecular changes in the tumor microenvironment. The use of patterned co-cultures created with polyelectrolyte multilayers and micromolding in capillaries will allow tthe investigation of cell-cell communication. This study will lead to better understanding of the role of healthy cells in cancer progression and potential treatment options.


Engineering Microenvironments To Modulate Calcium Information Processing In Neuronal Cells, Kinsey Cotton Kelly Jan 2013

Engineering Microenvironments To Modulate Calcium Information Processing In Neuronal Cells, Kinsey Cotton Kelly

Doctoral Dissertations

Tissue engineered microenvironments were constructed to test the effects glial cells have on calcium information processing, and to mimic conditions in vivo for tumor invasion and residual cancer after resection of tumor. Submaximal, nM, glutamate (GLU) stimuli were applied to the engineered environments, and the resulting calcium dynamic behavior of neuronal cells was measured to help predict and interpret chaotic systems in the experimental realm. Calcium is a key signaling ion which signals through the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor on the neuronal membrane. GLU binding to the NMDA receptor (NMDAR) causes a large and dynamic increase in neuronal intracellular calcium. …


Effective Estimation And Computer Control Of Minimum Tumour Temperature During Conductive Interstitial Hyperthermia, J A. Deford, Charles F. Babbs, U H. Patel, M W. Bleyer, J A. Marchosky, C J. Moran Jan 1991

Effective Estimation And Computer Control Of Minimum Tumour Temperature During Conductive Interstitial Hyperthermia, J A. Deford, Charles F. Babbs, U H. Patel, M W. Bleyer, J A. Marchosky, C J. Moran

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

The goal of heat therapy in the treatment of malignant disease is to raise the temperature of all neoplastic tissue to a cytotoxic temperature for a predetermined period of time. This seemingly simple task has proved difficult in-vivo, in part because of nonuniform power absorption and in part because of nonhomogeneous and time varying tumour blood flow. We have addressed this difficulty first by utilizing the conceptually simple technique of conductive interstitial hyperthermia, in which the tumour is warmed by multiple, electrically heated catheters, and second by implementing on-line conu·ol of minimum tumour temperatures near each catheter, estimated on the …


Design And Evaluation Of Closed-Loop Feedback Control Of Minimum Temperatures In Human Intracranial Tumors Treated With Interstitial Hyperthermia, J A. Deford, Charles F. Babbs, U H. Patel, N E. Fearnot, J A. Marchosky, C J. Moran Jan 1991

Design And Evaluation Of Closed-Loop Feedback Control Of Minimum Temperatures In Human Intracranial Tumors Treated With Interstitial Hyperthermia, J A. Deford, Charles F. Babbs, U H. Patel, N E. Fearnot, J A. Marchosky, C J. Moran

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

The dynamic nature of blood flow during hyperthermia therapy has made the control of minimum tumor temperature a difficult task. This paper presents initial studies of a novel approach to closed-loop control of local minimum tissue temperatures utilizing a newly developed estimation algorithm for use with conductive interstitial heating systems. The local minimum tumor temperature is explicitly estimated from the power required to maintain each member of an array of electrically heated catheters at a known temperature, in conjunction with a new bioheat equation-based algorithm to predict the ‘droop’ or fractional decline in tissue temperature between heated catheters. A closed …