Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Engineering Stealthy Exosomes For Drug Delivery, Chris Olson, Mika Domingo

Bioengineering Senior Theses

Exosomes, a class of extracellular vesicles (EVs) are emerging as a new scientific and therapeutic tool for imaging, disease diagnostics, and drug delivery. Exosomes' excellent biological properties make them a strong candidate for surface modification as well as exogenous drug loading. While exosomes have excellent natural biocompatibility properties as well as low immunogenicity, they are still eliminated in the patient’s body through the immune system, mainly through phagocytosis by macrophages. In this report, we aim to aid exosomes in avoiding this elimination method by modifying them through surface display with antiphagocytic factors. We will use CD24 and CD47 “don't eat …

Accelerating Peripheral Nerve Regeneration Using Electrical Stimulation Of Selected Power Spectral Densities, Wei-Ming Yu, Madelyn Mccullen, Vincent Chiun-Fan Chen

Engineering Science Faculty Publications

Peripheral nerve injuries are common consequences of extremity trauma or chronic compression with a prevalence of 43.8 per 1 million people (on average) reported in the United States annually, accompanied by a yearly increase in cost of care. Patients suffering from these injuries require surgical procedures and rehabilitative strategies to reinforce their extensive recovery. Several studies have found that the application of electrical stimulation can accelerate peripheral nerve regeneration, thus shortening the time of peripheral nerve growth and reducing the cost of care (Willand et al., 2016). The electrical stimulation paradigms that effectively enhanced functional recovery in most studies employed …

Skin Phantom For Wearable Device Benchtop Testing, Laura Apolloni, Vindhya Mullapudi, Takumi Simon

Bioengineering Senior Theses

The biowerables constitute one of the fastests growing sectors of the medical device industry. Novel approaches for rapid prototyping have increased design and development speeds. However, in vivo testing that is currently used for many medical devices makes testing time-consuming, costly, and presents ethical issues. As an alternative, benchtop testing tools promise to alleviate these concerns. Artificial tissue phantoms that are capable of mimicking the characteristics of human tissues are required for demonstrating a medical device’s safety and efficacy in benchtop tests. While there are many hydrogels that are able to mimic these relevant properties of human tissue, creating a …

Impulse, Spring 2022, University Marketing And Communications, Jerome J. Lohr College Of Engineering

Impulse (Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering Publication)

2 | Ahmed Leads Construction and Operations Management
4 | Faculty News
8 | Kelley Steps Aside After 44 Years
12 | Boggs Retires From Mechanical Engineering
14 | Looking At Covid-19 Numbers
16 | Students Help College of Nursing
18 | Midwest Applied Materials Symposium Debuts
20 | Fourth Data Science Event Takes Place
24 | College Achievements
26 | Hard Work Pays Off
28 | Spotlight Shines on Students
30 | Mentoring Program Takes Off
32 | Robotics Club Busy With Activities
34 | The Numbers
36 | Brown, Sieve Honored
38 | Alumna Leads NASA Division
40 …

Engineering And Optimization Of An Aav Based Viral Vector To Limit The In-Vitro Expression Of Sars-Cov-2 Spike-Protein, Ronald Anderson Smithwick

Theses and Dissertations

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus-2, also known as SARS-CoV-2, is a newly emerged respiratory viral pathogen. The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 started in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and rapidly transformed into a pandemic. Several vaccines have been developed and are available to the public on an unprecedented timeline, protecting individuals from a severe infection and saving precious lives. However, none of the vaccines can provide a sterile immunity, and the SARS-CoV-2 transmission cycle continues. Additionally, because of the mutation-prone RNA genome and immunological selection pressure, SARS-CoV-2 is rapidly mutating, especially the Spike(S) protein, and new viral strains are arising …

Interrogating The Role Of Ing4 In Hematopoietic Stem Cells And Cancer, Zanshé Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

We recently identified the tumor suppressor, Ing4, as a critical regulator of hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) homeostasis. The mis-regulation of Ing4 in human cancers has also been shown to lend malignant cells specific advantages that support carcinogenesis and tumor progression. This activity is, in part, due to Ing4 mediated regulation of overlapping signaling pathways that regulate stem cell activity and cancer cells, including NF-B and c-Myc. In a two-part study, we have investigated the role of Ing4 in murine hematopoiesis and human malignancies. While the specific mechanisms of stem cell self-renewal, maintenance, and differentiation are poorly characterized, we have determined …

Overcoming Supply Disruptions During Pandemics By Utilizing Found Hardware For Open Source Gentle Ventilation, S. Oberloier, N. Gallup, J. M. Pearce

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

This article details the design of an open source emergency gentle ventilator (gentle-vent) framework that can be used in periods of scarcity. Although it is not a medical device, the system utilizes a wide range of commonly-available components that are combined using basic electronics skills to achieve the desired performance. The main function of the gentle-vent is to generate a calibrated pressure wave at the pump to provide support to the patient's breathing. Each gentle-vent permutation was tested using a DIY manometer as it would be utilized in the field in low-resource settings and validated with an open source VentMon. …

Process- And Product-Related Foulants In Virus Filtration, Solomon Isu, Xianghong Qian, Andrew L. Zydney, S. Ranil Wickramasinghe

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Regulatory authorities place stringent guidelines on the removal of contaminants during the manufacture of biopharmaceutical products. Monoclonal antibodies, Fc-fusion proteins, and other mammalian cell-derived biotherapeutics are heterogeneous molecules that are validated based on the production process and not on molecular homogeneity. Validation of clearance of potential contamination by viruses is a major challenge during the downstream purification of these therapeutics. Virus filtration is a single-use, size-based separation process in which the contaminating virus particles are retained while the therapeutic molecules pass through the membrane pores. Virus filtration is routinely used as part of the overall virus clearance strategy. Compromised performance …

The Submission Of A Section 513(G) Request For Information, Morgan Ashley Lano

Theses and Dissertations

The Food and Drug Administration designates all medical devices into one of three general classes contingent on their intended use, indications for use, and potential risk to the user. This classification dictates the further path the device must take to be approved for the commercial market. Section 513(g) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 360c(g)) is submitted in order to gain the agency’s unofficial classification and suggested regulatory requirements. The Coagulation Companion (MicroVide) is a device designed to fluorescently quantify a key enzyme involved in the coagulation cascade, plasmin, in pediatric patients. clot formation and degradation …

A Meshless Approach To Computational Pharmacokinetics, Anthony Matthew Khoury

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The meshless method is an incredibly powerful technique for solving a variety of problems with unparalleled accuracy and efficiency. The pharmacokinetic problem of transdermal drug delivery (TDDD) is one such topic and is of significant complexity. The locally collocated meshless method (LCMM) is developed in solution to this topic. First, the meshless method is formulated to model this transport phenomenon and is then validated against an analytical solution of a pharmacokinetic problem set, to demonstrate this accuracy and efficiency. The analytical solution provides a locus by which convergence behavior are evaluated, demonstrating the super convergence of the locally collocated meshless …

Modelling And Validation Of A Gas-Solid Fluidized Bed Using Advanced Measurement Techniques, Sebastián Uribe, Haidar Taofeeq, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

With a Euler-two-phase (E2P) approach, through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques, a mathematical model for the prediction of the local hydrodynamic behavior of a gas-solid fluidized bed was implemented. Simulations are conducted for a fluidized bed of 0.14 m internal diameter packed with Gerdart B glass beads particles, with an average diameter of 365 μm, at dimensionless inlet velocities ranging from (Formula presented.). The implemented model considers the multiphase and multiscale interactions through the inclusion of three sub-models, which allows the model to have a broad range of applicability. Predictions were compared against experimental measurements reported on previous contributions for …

Baseball Pitching Arm Three-Dimensional Inertial Parameter Calculations From Body Composition Imaging And A Novel Overweight Measure For Youth Pitching Arm Kinetics, Dalton J. Jennings, Scott K. Reaves, Jeffrey Sklar, Colin Brown, John Mcphee, Scott Hazelwood, Stephen M. Klisch

Biomedical Engineering

Many baseball pitching studies have used inverse dynamics to assess throwing arm kinetics as high and repetitive kinetics are thought to be linked to pitching injuries. However, prior studies have not used participant-specific body segment inertial parameters (BSIPs), which are thought to improve analysis of high-acceleration motions and overweight participants. This study's objectives were to (1) calculate participant-specific BSIPs using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) measures, (2) compare inverse dynamic calculations of kinetics determined by DXA-calculated BSIPs (full DXA-driven inverse dynamics) against kinetics using the standard inverse dynamics approach with scaled BSIPs (scaled inverse dynamics), and (3) examine associations between …

Noninvasive In Vivo Optoacoustic Imaging Of Alcohol Use Disorder Using A Mouse Model Of Alcohol Use Disorder, Augustine Meombe Mbolle

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research has two parts. The first part focuses on the use of photoacoustic imaging (PAI) to study alcohol-induced effects in the cerebral vasculature of selectively bred alcohol-preferring mice. Part two extends the application of PAI by developing a novel Photoacoustic imaging guided system for repetitive low intensity focused ultrasound (PAI-LIFU) stimulation treatment for alcohol use disorder in crossed high alcohol preferring (cHAP) mice.

Photoacoustic imaging is an emerging hybrid non-invasive optical imaging modality which relies on optical absorption contrast to visualize deep tissue structures and function. It combines the high contrast associated with pure optical imaging and the high …

Bioai For Anti-Infective Drug Discovery, Maria Esquivel, Johann Fernando, Anna Fisher, Cameron Leong, Adam Weaver

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Modern antibacterial drugs are quickly becoming insufficient for medical, agricultural and veterinary use, and the drug design techniques used to supplement the supply are not able to adequately and quickly produce enough effective candidates. We took a multi-pronged approach to remedying this problem, including shifting the target mechanism from antibiotic drugs in favor of anti-infective drugs, developing an AI which aimed to predict the interactions of small molecule fragments with the target protein, and refining wet lab testing protocols in order to make the drug design process holistically more efficient and effective. We have shown that there is potential in …

Neurogen: Eeg And Near-Infrared Light Stimulation Control System, Karina Sanchez, Sruthi Sakthivel, Michael Bose, Evan Jennings

Interdisciplinary Design Senior Theses

Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease are widespread, affecting millions of people worldwide. These diseases occur when neurons in the brain or peripheral nervous system progressively lose function and deteriorate. Current pharmacological treatments manage some of the neurological symptoms, but there is no cure yet. Interventions that mitigate or restore loss of function can fill the void until that goal is met. Light stimulation, or transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) therapy, can help treat people with neurodegenerative diseases, as it has been shown to improve sleep, attention, memory, and cognitive function.

The objective of this project is to develop …

Integrated Direct Air Capture And Oxidative Dehydrogenation Of Propane With Co2 At Isothermal Conditions, Shane Lawson, Khaled Baamran, Kyle Newport, Turki Alghamadi, Gary Jacobs, Fateme Rezaei, Ali A. Rownaghi

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Developing routes of utilizing CO₂ emissions is important for long-term environmental preservation, as storing such emissions underground will eventually become unsustainable. One way of utilizing CO₂ emissions is as a light-oxidant feedstock for oxidative dehydrogenation of propane (ODHP) to propylene. However, the adsorption and reaction steps typically occur at widely different temperatures, meaning that the thermal gradients – and by extension process energy requirements – are often unreasonably high. In recent years, dual-functional materials (DFMs) – i.e., materials comprised of a high temperature adsorbent phase alongside a heterogeneous catalyst – have been employed for combined CO₂ adsorption …

Macrophage-Targeted Anti-Ccl2 Immunotherapy Enhances Tumor Sensitivity To 5-Fluorouracil In A Balb/C-Ct26 Murine Colon Carcinoma Model Measured Using Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy, Shelby N. Bess, Gage J. Greening, Narasimhan Rajaram, Timothy J. Muldoon

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

Immunotherapy in colorectal cancer (CRC) regulates specific immune checkpoints and, when used in combination with chemotherapy, can improve patient prognosis. One specific immune checkpoint is the recruitment of circulating monocytes that differentiate into tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and promote tumor angiogenesis. Changes in vascularization can be non-invasively assessed via diffuse reflectance spectroscopy using hemoglobin concentrations and oxygenation in a localized tumor volume. In this study, we examine whether blockade of monocyte recruitment via CCL2 (macrophage chemoattractant protein-1) leads to enhanced sensitivity of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in a CT26-Balb/c mouse model of CRC. It was hypothesized that the blockade of TAMs will …

Biomechanical Analysis Of Athletes Sprinting With Varying Degrees Of Resistance, Michaela Ott

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Utilizing resistance methods for sprinters is a common approach to their training. In this study, six athletes from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Women’s Track and Field Team ran a series of sprints using a resistance machine to collect data regarding the change in power output, stride length, level of trunk tilt with respect to the ground, and acceleration throughout a distance of ten meters when different amounts of resistant forces were applied to the athlete. It was hypothesized that as resistance increased, power output would increase, stride length would decrease, the runners would become more horizontal resulting in a larger …

The Tin Man Needs A Heart: A Proposed Framework For The Regulation Of Bioprinted Organs, Linda Foit

Fordham Law Review

Each day, seventeen people die in the United States while waiting for an organ transplant. At least part of this need could be met by bioprinting, a technology that allows the on-demand production of custom-sized organs from a patient’s own cells. The field of bioprinting is progressing rapidly: the first bioprinted organs have already entered the clinic. Yet, developers of bioprinted organs face significant uncertainty as to how their potentially lifesaving products will be regulated—and by which government agency. Such regulatory uncertainty has the potential to decrease investment and stifle innovation in this promising technological field. This Note examines how …

Biomechanical And Psychological Predictors Of Failure In The Air Force Physical Fitness Test, Jeffrey Turner, Brent T. Langhals, Torrey J. Wagner

Faculty Publications

Physical fitness is a pillar of U.S. Air Force (USAF) readiness and ensures that Airmen can fulfill their assigned mission and be fit to deploy in any environment. The USAF assesses the fitness of service members on a periodic basis, and discharge can result from failed assessments. In this study, a 21-feature dataset was analyzed related to 223 active-duty Airmen who participated in a comprehensive mental and social health survey, body composition assessment, and physical performance battery. Graphical analysis revealed pass/fail trends related to body composition and obesity. Logistic regression and limited-capacity neural network algorithms were then applied to predict …