Posts Tagged ‘Medical School’
Stem cells + nanofibers = promising nerve research
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Every week in his clinic at the University of Michigan, neurologist Joseph Corey, M.D., Ph.D., treats patients whose nerves are dying or shrinking due to disease or injury. He sees the pain, the loss of ability and the other effects that nerve-destroying conditions cause – and wishes he could give patients more effective treatments than what’s available, or regenerate their nerves. Then he heads to his research lab at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, where his team is working toward that exact goal. In new research published in several recent papers, Corey and his colleagues from the U-M Medical School, VAAAHS and the University of California, San Francisco report success in developing polymer nanofiber technologies for understanding how nerves form, why they don’t reconnect after injury, and what can be done to prevent or slow damage. Using polymer nanofibers thinner than human hairs as scaffolds, researchers coaxed a particular type of brain cell to wrap around fibers that mimic the shape and size of nerves found in the body. They’ve even managed to encourage the process of myelination – the formation of a protective coating that guards larger nerve fibers from damage. They began to see multiple concentric layers of the protective substance called myelin start to form, just as they do in the body. Together with the laboratory team of their collaborator Jonah Chan at UCSF, the authors reported the findings in Nature Methods. The research involves oligodendrocytes, which are the supporting actors to neurons — the “stars” of the central nervous system. Without oligodendrocytes, central nervous system neurons can’t effectively transmit the electrical signals that control everything from muscle movement to brain function. Oligodendrocytes are the type of cells typically affected by multiple sclerosis, and loss of myelin is a hallmark of that debilitating disease. The researchers have also determined the optimum diameter for the nanofibers to support this process – giving important new clues to answer the question of why some nerves are myelinated and some aren’t. While they haven’t yet created fully functioning “nerves in a dish,” the researchers believe their work offers a new way to study nerves and test treatment possibilities. Corey, an assistant professor of neurology and biomedical engineering at the U-M Medical School and researcher in the VA Geriatrics Research, Education and Clinical Center, explains that the thin fibers are crucial for the success of the work. “If it’s about the same length and diameter as a neuron, the nerve cells follow it and their shape and location conform to it,” he says. “Essentially, these fibers are the same size as a neuron.” The researchers used polystyrene, a common plastic, to make fibers through a technique called electrospinnning. In a recent paper in Materials Science and Engineering C, they discovered new techniques to optimize how fibers made from poly-L-lactide, a biodegradable polymer, can be better aligned to resemble neurons and to guide regenerating nerve cells. They’re also working to determine the factors that make oligodendrocytes attach to the long narrow axons of neurons, and perhaps to start forming myelin sheaths too. By attaching particular molecules to the nanofibers, Corey and his colleagues hope to learn more about what makes this process work — and what makes it go awry, as in diseases caused by poor nerve development. “What we need to do for multiple sclerosis is to encourage nerves to remyelinate,” he says. “For nerve damage caused by trauma, on the other hand, we need to encourage regeneration.” In addition to Corey, the research has been led by Chan, the Rachleff Professor of Neurology at UCSF, VAAAHS lab team member and U-M graduate Samuel J. Tuck, U-M biomedical engineering graduate student Michelle Leach, UCSF’s Stephanie Redmond, Seonook Lee, Synthia Mellon and S.Y. Christin Chong, and Zhang-Qi Feng of U-M Biomedical Engineering. Peripheral nerves, which have neurons at the center surrounded by cells called Schwann cells, can also be studied using the nanofiber technique. The system could also be used to study how different types of cells interact during and after nerve formation. Toward creating new nerves, Corey’s lab has collaborated with R. Keith Duncan, PhD, Associate Professor of Otolaryngology. Published in Biomacromolecules, they found that stem cells are more likely to develop into neurons when they are grown on aligned nanofibers produced in Corey’s lab. They eventually hope to use this approach to build new nerves from stem cells and direct their connections to undamaged parts of the brain and to muscle. Eventually, Corey envisions, perhaps nerves could be grown along nanofibers in a lab setting and then transferred to patients’ bodies, where the fiber would safely degrade. The research was supported by a VA Merit funding grant, the US National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Harry Weaver Neuroscience Scholar Award, the Paralyzed Veterans of America and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NS062796-02). References: Nature Methods 9, 917–922, (2012) doi:10.1038/nmeth.2105 Biomacromolecules, Article ASAP, DOI: 10.1021/bm301220k Materials Science and Engineering: C, Volume 32, Issue 7, 1 October 2012, Pages 1779–1784 Important note for patients: This research is still in the laboratory stages, and there are no immediate plans to perform studies in human patients. If you are interested in finding other opportunities to take part in medical research studies at U-M, please visit http://www.umclinicalstudies.org .
Media Contact: Kara Gavin 734-764-2220
Original Link: http://www.uofmhealth.org/news/archive/201211/stem-cells-nanofibers-promising-nerve-research
Tags: Joseph Corey, Medical School, nanofibers, nanotechnology, neurology, Stem Cells, UCSF
Posted in All News, Faculty News
New U-Mich joint biomedical department holds promise for better healthcare technologies
Bringing engineers and physicians together under new structure will accelerate discovery and improve training
ANN ARBOR, Mich.– In an effort to develop more technologies that improve health care, the University of Michigan will established a Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) with footholds in its top-ranked College of Engineering and Medical School, in an action approved by the U-M Board of Regents today. The change takes effect Sept. 1, 2012.
The department is currently housed in engineering, though its researchers regularly collaborate with medical doctors and a number of Medical School faculty hold joint appointments there. The change in academic structure is designed to bring biomedical engineering researchers closer to the patients their technologies aim to benefit, say leaders in both schools.
“As engineers, one of our goals is to invent and develop technologies that make a difference in society,” said Douglas Noll, the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Professor of Biomedical Engineering and current department chair. “By linking ourselves in the Medical School, we will establish closer connections for our faculty and students to practicing clinicians and the health care system, which will allow us to better identify and translate our discoveries to medical care and to offer new educational opportunities for our students.”
As part of this plan, BME will expand over the next five years from approximately 20 primary faculty members to 35 Most of the new hires will be Medical School appointments. The department will retain its space on North Campus in engineering and in the North Campus Research Complex. It will also open a space at the Medical School in the future. Already at the NCRC, a new biointerfaces laboratory has opened that allows medical, engineering and physics researchers to collaborate on projects.
“Patients everywhere already benefit from the work of engineers and physicians working together, but closer cooperation will bring even greater potential to develop new devices and technologies to improve human health, while training students in a collaborative environment that maximizes exposure to both fields,” said James O. Woolliscroft, M.D., dean of the Medical School and Lyle C. Roll Professor of Medicine.
U-M provost Phil Hanlon notes, “The new department will enhance partnerships between educational programs, laboratory research and clinical medicine, leveraging the strengths of both schools and accelerating technology development.”
Noll said U-M joins about 10 other institutions across the country with similar joint set-ups, though each case is unique. In some instances, two universities collaborate to form a joint department. At Michigan, the schools are across the road from one another, and they are both ranked in U.S. News & World Report’s top ten, as is the Biomedical Engineering Department.
For more information:
Department of Biomedical Engineering: http://www.bme.umich.edu/
College of Engineering: http://www.engin.umich.edu/
Medical School: http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/
Contacts: Kara Gavin, 734-764-2220, kevagin@umich.edu
Nicole Casal Moore, 734-647-7087, ncmoore@umich.edu
Tags: BME, engineering, Joint Department, Medical School, Top-ranked
Posted in All News, Faculty News, Spotlight