Biomaterials Commons^™

Pet Mobility Project, John Shelby, Lily-Rose Jolie Bacon, Andrea Yasmine Reyes

Biomedical Engineering

The Pet Mobility Project, sponsored by Terri Smith and Jasper Jackson, is an initiative aimed at providing a custom mobility aid to a pet in the San Luis Obispo community. Amber Rappozo’s young German Shepherd, LeDoux, was selected as the project’s recipient. LeDoux suffers from hindleg weakness and, as a result, has limited mobility. This document provides a comprehensive overview of the Pet Mobility Project, detailing the motivation, background, and design approach behind the development of a LeDoux’s custom mobility aid.

Stentrx, Emma Barna, Minuthi Cooray, Bruce Newlands, Joseph A. Sabetta

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project aims to develop a biodegradable, drug-eluting biliary stent for the treatment of biliary cancers. Current metal stents that restore bile flow bit are non-degradable, prone to migration, and unable to deliver drugs locally. The proposed stent will be biocompatible, biodegradable, and capable of controlled drug release to both maintain bile flow and treat tumors. The end goal is to produce a functional prototype that can be deployed via a minimally invasive catheter and maintain bile duct patency for at least three months. The project is expected to be involved in the NEOMED Bench-to-Bedside competition and provisionally patented.

A Wearable-Based Approach To Spinal Posture Tracking And Assessment, Sydney Marie Sherman, Noah Jeffery

Biomedical Engineering: Graduate Reports and Projects

This paper describes the design, manufacturing, and testing of a novel spinal posture tracking wearable device with embedded sensors. Currently on the market, most of the spinal posture tracking devices only focus on one segment of the spine and therefore do not track the entirety of human posture. The objective for this project was to create a wearable device in the form of a “smart shirt” that offers insights into posture trends throughout the day by tracking the entire spine. To begin the project, multiple designs were developed for the sensor array and wearable materials. These concepts were compared against …

Contribution Of Collagen Type I To The Mechanical Properties Of Myocardial Tissues At The Micron Level, Adam Baker

All Dissertations

Collagen is a critical component of the organization and one of the key factors contributing to the mechanical stability of the myocardium. Where cardiomyocytes actuate to contract the heart and deliver blood to the lungs and the entire body, the local collagen network must be able to support the mechanical needs of the heart by enhancing rigidity, reducing the mechanical responsibility of cells, and increasing compliance to add loading capacity during diastole. At an organ-wide level, this has been measured and modeled in many ways. At the tissue level, the mechanical properties have been evaluated using techniques such as bi-axial …

Engineering Nanofibers: Laboratory Characterization, Microstructural Analysis, And Image Processing Insights, Sayed Ahmadreza Razian, Mohammad Arjomandi, Kaspars Maleckis

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Polymer nanofibers have attracted high interest in a wide array of applications, including biomaterial scaffolding, textiles, sensors, reinforcement in composites, and filtration systems. Many of these applications combine nanofibers into non-woven fabrics for better properties and easier manipulation. The properties and performance of nanofiber-based fabrics are affected by various microstructure parameters, including fiber alignment, diameter, and gap sizes between the nanofibers. These structural parameters can be controlled by adjusting various process parameters during manufacturing process, but the exact process parameter-microstructure relationships vary depending on the polymer system and need to be studied individually. The goal of this study is to …

Matrix Stiffness Sensing By Nascent Adhesions And The Role Of Riam In Adhesion Assembly, Nikhil Mittal

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Mechanical stiffness of the extracellular matrix (ECM) impacts many cellular functions such as proliferation, migration, and differentiation. ECM stiffness is sensed by a cell via integrin-based focal adhesions (FAs) by changing conformation and biochemical activities of molecules within FAs by the exchange of the force between the ECM and filamentous actin (F-actin). Cells in turn respond to this stiffness by generating traction force that plays an important role in many biological events such as tissue morphogenesis, stem cell differentiation, wound healing, and cancer cell metastasis. The stiffness of the extracellular matrix induces differential tension within integrin-based adhesions. Understanding stiffness sensing …

Getting Off On The Right Foot: Addressing Severe Lymphedema Through A Novel Shoe Design, Carl R. Russell Iii, Anjollie M. Ramakrishna, Christopher H. Johns Iii, Alana V. Van Wijnen

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) is a service-learning design program run by the College of Engineering at Purdue University. EPICS teaches students design skills by providing solutions for individuals, communities, and organizations in the surrounding area while mirroring engineering industry standards. Biomedical Engineering is a team within EPICS that strives to serve community partners through biomedical applications. HR is a patient who suffers from severe lymphedema. This condition results in her foot swelling three times its original size and requires her to utilize weekly leg compression therapy. Prescription shoes are slightly adequate. However, they lead to sores and pain …

Air-Jet Bioprinting Of Stem Cell-Encapsulated Alginate Micro-Droplets For Organoid Biomanufacturing, Mirabella B. Stump

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biomanufactured 3D-organoids show promise for modeling and treating various conditions, particularly insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (type-1 diabetes). Pancreatic islet organoids serve as sustainable sources of insulin-producing β-cells, potentially restoring insulin regulation in patients and providing a long-term solution for diabetes. Hydrogel droplet printing is an emerging technique in regenerative medicine due to its advantageous tunability and biocompatibility; however, challenges of consistency, quality control, and scalability persist. To address these issues, we developed a novel air-jetting based droplet bioprinting system for the generation of monodispersed alginate micro-droplets. The objective of this project was to incorporate human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into …

Prevention And Reversal Of Elastin-Associated And Phosphate-Dependent Arterial Calcification Using Targeted Nanotherapeutics In Pre-Clinical Models, Fatema Tuj Zohora

All Dissertations

Vascular calcification can be life-threatening, involving calcium phosphate crystal deposits in the blood vessels. The calcification in the intimal layer of the arterial wall is usually associated with atherosclerotic plaque build-up that, in the advanced stage, harbors ‘dispersed’ and ‘spotty’ deposits of calcium phosphate crystals in the necrotic core of the plaque. In contrast, medial arterial calcification (MAC) can form independently of atherosclerosis and appears as ‘Railroad-like’ calcific deposits along degraded elastin lamellae in the medial layer of arteries. The mechanisms of such elastin-associated medial arterial calcification and potential therapies are the key concerns of this dissertation. MAC is common …

A Magneto-Rheological Platform To Dynamically Control Afterload In Engineered Micro Heart Muscles, David Schuftan

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death is the United States, accounting for nearly 1 in 5 deaths. Many types of cardiovascular disease are linked to the mechanical forces placed on the heart. However, how these mechanical forces exactly affect the cellular biology of the heart is not well defined. In vitro models using cardiomyocytes derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells enable researchers to develop medium throughput systems to study cardiac mechanobiology at the cellular level. Previous models have been developed to enable the study of mechanical forces such as cardiac afterload. However, most of these models require …

Polymeric Biomaterials Approaches For Engineering The In Vitro Cellular Microenvironment For Mscs, Mahsa Letter-Mahsa Haseli

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cell therapy is a technology that relies on replacing diseased or dysfunctional cells with healthy functioning ones. One of the cells used for such advanced therapies are stem cells, owing to their ability to differentiate into specific cells required for repairing damaged or defective tissues or cells. The majority of cell-based products are intended to transiently persist in the patient, secreting factors which then allow the patient’s body to heal; in these products, the cells are subsequently eliminated from the body. Furthermore, unique manufacturing platforms, in addition to novel commercialization strategies, will be required to create a successful, sustainable cell …

Histological Evidence For The Therapeutic Effect Of Chitosan Nanofibrous Dressing On Acute Skin Wounds In A Rat Model, Mahboubeh Ghanbari, Sayed Ahmadreza Razian, Sara Cartwright, Yury Salkovskiy, Jason Mactaggart, Mark A. Carlson

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Introduction: Large-area skin traumas, such as thermal burns, are among the most severe health issues that decrease patients’ quality of life and burden healthcare systems. The CDC estimates that there are 1.1 million burns requiring medical attention each year, with more than 20,000 cases involving at least 25% of the body surface, resulting in 4,500 deaths. In addition, about 10,000 people die from burn-related infections. A promising solution to alleviate this problem is using wound dressings based on biopolymers with inherent wound healing properties and biodegradability. One of these biopolymers is chitosan, which is derived from arthropod shells and exhibits …

Development Of A Crosslinked Osteochondral Xenograft And A Collagen Stabilizing Intra-Articular Injection To Remediate Cartilage Focal Lesions To Prevent Osteoarthritis, Mark Lewis Mosher

Theses and Dissertations

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common causes of disability in adults in America. It is a progressive and degenerative disease where the articular cartilage is broken down and lost from the surfaces of bones causing chronic pain and swelling in the joints, and currently has no cure. The most commonly osteoarthritis starts from a focal lesion on the cartilage surface, which will expand on the surface and downwards through the thickness of the tissue. The current gold standard for correcting cartilage focal lesions is the osteochondral autograft/allograft transplantation (OAT), which replaces the defect with a fresh osteochondral graft. The …

Recent Advances In Bone Research 2022 Edition, Jean-Philippe Berteau, Laurent Pujo-Menjouet

Publications and Research

More and more scientific and engineering applications in bone research make pivotal advances in treating patients with orthopedics issues. Hence, bone research in the 21st century combines, inter alia, biology, chemistry, mathematics, and mechanics with complementary characteristics that help a holistic approach to bone-related pathologies. Nowadays, it is hard to connect new evidence when jargoning and money remain two significant obstacles to sharing knowledge. “Recent Advances In Bone Research” is a free book – no money involved at any stage - that combines the most recent efforts in bone research from several experts with different backgrounds, every expert seeks to …

Surface Laser Texturing Of Cocrmo Alloys, Gabriel Dharwadker

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Artificial orthopedic implants such as hip joints suffer from excessive wear due to excess friction between the polyethylene and cobalt-chromium-molybdenum surfaces of the device. This increase in friction causes a fraction of them to give out within ten years. Therefore, to minimize the probability of this happening, recent research has been conducted regarding laser surface texturing of the cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy components of artificial joints. These surface textures serve to mimic the native lubrication mechanisms of cartilage in natural joints, which, in a natural joint, lowers the friction. However, the production of these laser surface textures is still a field of …

The Interaction Of Angiotensin I And Ii On Calcified Aortic Valve Cells, Fah Sysavanh

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Cardiovascular diseases affect the older population with limited treatments available. Aortic valve stenosis is a cardiovascular disease in which the aortic valve narrows, causing blood flow constriction and calcification.¹ The only treatment is to replace the valve, which can be costly and lead to other health complications.

The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) is a pathway that helps with maintaining cardiovascular homeostasis. Angiotensin I (ANGI) and II (ANGII) are hormones in the RAS that cause an increase in inflammation, stress, and blood pressure by binding to the Angiotensin Type 1 Receptor (AT1R).¹ Gelatin-based valve thin film (vTF) platforms were fabricated to investigate …

Alternative Fixation Of Venous Valves For Bioprosthetic Applications, Makenzie Kapales

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Venous valve failure allows for the retrograde, or backward, flow of blood into the lower extremities, which leads to Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI). CVI infringes upon quality of life through ulceration and can result in death due to Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT), or blood clots, causing pulmonary embolism. A successful treatment of CVI restores valve function and prevents retrograde blood flow; however, current bioprosthetic venous valves exhibit low patency and high calcification. To improve upon bioprosthetic venous valves and CVI treatment, the University of Arkansas’s Cardiovascular Biomechanics Lab conducts studies with the purpose of comparing the properties and performance of …

Release Kinetics Of Metronidazole From 3d Printed Silicone Scaffolds., Sydney E. Herold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sustained local administration of active agents has been proposed to cure bacterial vaginosis in the female reproductive tract and restore the resident bacterial fauna. Bioprinting has shown promise for the development of systems for local agent delivery. In contrast to oral ingestion, agent release kinetics can be fine-tuned by bioprinting specialized scaffold designs tailored for particular treatments while enhancing dosage effectiveness via localized sustained release. It has been challenging to establish scaffold properties for sustained release as a function of fabrication parameters. Towards this goal, we evaluate 3D printed scaffold formulation and feasibility to sustain release of metronidazole, a representative …

Insole Fall Prevention Device, Nick M. Hughes, Andrew M. Slaboda

Biomedical Engineering

Falls among the aging population occur every single day, with 1 in every 5 resulting in some injury and 300,000 hospitalized every year with a hip fracture [1]. The most popular and effective way to mitigate these falls is through physical therapist intervention. However, with the increased popularity in telerehab, many patients at risk for falls cannot accurately convey their gait tendencies to their physical therapists from the comfort of their home or while not in direct contact with the PT. A device like an insole, implanted with force sensors, which measures different parts of a patient’s foot, could convey …

Breaks In Longitudinal Elastic Fibers Of Human Femoropopliteal Arteries, Elham Zamani

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Breaks in Longitudinal Elastic Fibers of Human Femoropopliteal Arteries

Elham Zamani1, Majid Jadidi1

1 Department of Biomechanics, University of Nebraska Omaha, Omaha, NE

Introduction: Elastin is a major protein in the body with half-life >50 years. It is thought that elastic fibers are formed before the postnatal period. In the femoropopliteal artery (FPA), the main artery in the leg, longitudinal elastic fibers are present in External Elastic Lamina (EEL). Our team has studied more than 1000 cadaveric human FPA and has noticed that there are big breaks in their longitudinal elastic fibers in some subjects. Our goal in this work …

Impact Of Percutaneous Transluminal Intervention On Vascular Hypoxia And The Role Of Micro-Calcifications On Atherosclerotic Plaque Rupture, Andrea Corti

Dissertations and Theses

Atherosclerotic disease is initiated by cholesterol build-up beneath the endothelium, which evolves into a fibroatheroma, a lipid-rich plaque covered by a fibrous cap. Many of these plaques are considered as vulnerable, as they grow to occlude the luminal section of the artery (chronically stenotic) or become mechanically unstable with a higher chance of rupturing (rupture-prone). On one hand, chronically stenotic vulnerable plaques are symptomatic lesions that are often treated with Percutaneous Transluminal Intervention (PTI). Unfortunately, approximately 10% of PTI procedures are followed by severe Neointima Hyperplasia (NH), which causes a new occlusion and failure of the implant. A significant precursor …

Nano-, Encapsulated Manganese Oxide (Nemo) Particles For Mri Enhancement In Microfluidic Tumor Models, Kasey Alexis Freshwater

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Breast cancer is among the deadliest cancers in women, with approximately 2.3 million new cases and 685,000 deaths reported globally in 2020 alone. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is commonly used to diagnose, stage, and develop treatment plans for patients predisposed to breast cancer. However, current MRI-based screening of breast cancer has high false-positive rates up to 25%, leading to unnecessary invasive follow-up screening and testing. The gold-standard intravenous gadolinium (Gd)-based contrast agents (GBCAs) account for false-positive rates because they are always “ON”, providing a constant MRI signal that highlights both benign and malignant tumors. The work detailed in this thesis …

Effect Of Viscoelasticity On Cellular Morphology And Activity, Thomas J. Petet Jr

Theses and Dissertations

It has been well established that there is a link between substrate stiffness and cellular activities such as proliferation, migration, and differentiation. Less characterized is the link between the time-dependent viscosity of a substrate with those cellular activities. To explore this, PDMS substrates were created with predictably tunable stiffness and viscosity parameters. A simulated model was also developed in parallel to explore the potential effects of viscosity in a computationally predictive way. It was found that the inclusion of viscosity caused a major paradigm shift to a non-zero substrate equilibrium that was sensitive to increases in the substrate stiffness. Finally, …

A Single Cell Pair Mechanical Interrogation Platform To Study Cell–Cell Adhesion Mechanics, Amir Monemianesfahani

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Cell-cell adhesion complexes are macromolecular adhesive organelles that integrate cells into tissues. Perturbations of the cell-cell adhesion structure or relatedmechanotransduction pathways lead to pathological conditions such as skin and heart diseases, arthritis, and cancer. Mechanical stretching has been used to stimulate the mechanotransduction process originating from the cell-cell adhesion and cell-extracellular matrix (ECM) complexes. The current techniques, however, have limitations on their ability to measure the cell-cell adhesion force directly and quantitatively. These methods use a monolayer of cells, which makes it impossible to quantify the forces within a single cell-cell adhesion complex. Other methods using single cells or cell …

Developing Aligned Nerve Scaffolds In A 3d Type-I Collagen Gel, Gabriel David

Biomedical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Despite significant progress in the field of peripheral nerve repair, clinical success is still limited, leaving millions to suffer from peripheral neuropathy with billions spent every year for treatment. Nerve repair methods that are capable of maximizing the regenerative properties of peripheral nerves are greatly desired in the field of medical science. This research aims to fill the gap between modern methods and the future of nerve repair by creating type-I collagen scaffolds with aligned degradation pores that will assist and nurture nerves growing through them. This is achieved by incorporating adipose stem cells into type-I collagen hydrogels and aligning …

Development Of Light Actuated Chemical Delivery Platform On A 2-D Array Of Micropore Structure, Hojjat Rostami Azmand, Hojjat Rostami Azmand

Dissertations and Theses

Localized chemical delivery plays an essential role in the fundamental information transfers within biological systems. Thus, the ability to mimic the natural chemical signal modulation would provide significant contributions to understand the functional signaling pathway of biological cells and develop new prosthetic devices for neurological disorders. In this paper, we demonstrate a light-controlled hydrogel platform that can be used for localized chemical delivery in a high spatial resolution. By utilizing the photothermal behavior of graphene-hydrogel composites confined within micron-sized fluidic channels, patterned light illumination creates the parallel and independent actuation of chemical release in a group of fluidic ports. The …

Injectable Gelatin-Silk Fibroin Composite Hydrogels For In Situ Cell Encapsulation, Ryann D. Boudreau

Honors Theses and Capstones

Hydrogels are widely used tools for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Characterized as biofunctional, water-based polymer matrices with tunable mechanical properties, hydrogels have promising but limited applications in biomedical engineering, due to poor and static matrix strength. Here we plan to rectify this issue by introducing a new hydrogel made from a composite of gelatin and silk fibroin crosslinked by microbial transglutaminase (mTG) instantly and beta sheet formation gradually, respectively. This interpenetrating network (IPN) shows enhanced mechanical stiffness and strength compared to gelatin hydrogels, and is capable of encapsulating human cells with high viability demonstrated by the encapsulation of human …

Development Of A Biaxial Testing System For Research Of Soft Tissue Biomechanics Using Laboratory Models, Tariq Shameen

Dissertations and Theses

The rupture of the cap tissue layer of a fibroatheroma in human coronary vessels is considered the key event leading to the formation of a thrombus and myocardial infarction, resulting in more than half a million deaths in the US every year. In this study, we are interested in investigating the biomechanics of different elastomer materials that can be used as laboratory models to replicate coronary arteries’ ultimate tensile stress (0.2 - 2.08 MPa). To this end, we developed a biomechanical testing system that allows us to characterize the material properties of small samples with high accuracy and precision. We …

Pandemic Healthcare: Face Shield Modification, Nathan Giunto, Sefra Manos, Brandon Ross, Catherine Seno, Catherine Howell

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Current face shields used in home and institutional healthcare settings create hardships for their wearers, which makes normal work routines more difficult. Recent mandates require healthcare workers to wear both surgical masks as well as plastic face shields when tending to patients. Unfortunately, the majority of face shields have been designed for hospital settings, which does not address the specific requirements for in-home therapist use. Some of the issues include their restrictive size, tendency to fog, susceptibility to glare, and sterilization and re-use issues. Our team proposes to design a face shield for homecare occupational therapists that addresses their unique …

The Effects Of Solution Condition On Virus Filtration Performance, Fnu Namila

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Virus filtration is an integral part of the downstream purification of mammalian cell culture-derived biotherapeutics to assure the viral safety of the products. Virus filtration membranes remove viruses based on a size-exclusion mechanism. Commercial parvovirus filers possess unique membrane structure and are designed to remove smaller non-enveloped parvoviruses with size 18-26 nm. However, some filters face issues, such as pre-mature fouling, the decline of filtrate flux, and reduction in virus retention. This doctoral dissertation focused on identifying the factors that influence the filtrate flux and the virus retention capability of commercial virus filters. The effects of solution pH and ionic …