2017 B.S. Bioengineering graduate Jasmine Fuerte-Stone is among four UW students to receive internships through a partnership with the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship and the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI).
UW Bioengineering is among several UW departments ranked in the world's top 10 in their respective fields in the Global Ranking of Academic Subjects list for 2017.
Xiaohu Gao and other UW researchers have discovered a simple way to increase the accuracy of commonly used diagnostic tests. By adding polydopamine — a material first isolated from shellfish — the team was able to increase the sensitivity of these common bioassays such as ELISA, micrarrays, FISH and immunohistochemistry imaging, by as many as 100 to 1,000 times.
Fourth year UW Bioengineering Ph.D. student Nuttada Panpradist of Associate Professor Barry Lutz's lab has received a 2017 UW Medicine Graduate Discovery Fellowship to work with Dr. Shirit Einav of Stanford University. The experience will allow Nuttada to further pursue development and translation of diagnostic technologies.
Junwei Li, Madison A. Baird, Michael A. Davis, Wanyi Tai, Larry S. Zweifel, Kristina M. Adams Waldorf, Michael Gale Jr, Lakshmi Rajagopal, Robert H. Pierce, Xiaohu Gao. Nature Biomedical Engineering, 1, 0082 (2017). The researchers report a simple, universal "add-on" technology (EASE) that converts the ordinary sensitivities of common bioassays to extraordinary ones. They demonstrate that EASE facilitated increased sensitivity of ELISA-based detection of HIV, and enabled the direct visualization in tissues of the Zika virus and of low-abundance biomarkers for neurological diseases and cancer immunotherapy.
Alissa Bleem, Robyn Francisco, James D. Bryers, Valerie Daggett. NPJ Biofilms Microbiomes 2017; 3:16. The researchers have designed small proteins that can inhibit the formation of biofilms, common sources of infection for hundreds of patients worldwide, especially with those who have implanted medical devices. Their designed anti-a-sheet peptides suppressed the formation of biofilm in S. aureus, a bacteria resistant to many drugs, by about half, and prevented aggregation of infectious proteins through their binding mechanism.
Alec S. T. Smith, Hyok Yoo, Hyunjung Yi, Eun Hyun Ahn, Justin H. Lee, Guozheng Shao, Ekaterina Nagornyak, Michael A. Laflamme, Charles E. Murry and Deok-Ho Kim. Chemical Communications, 2017, 54, 7412-7415. Dr. Kim and colleagues demonstrate a method for producing cardiac tissue scaffolds with anisotropic electroconductive properties using PEG-graphene substrates.
Shichu Huang , Koji Abe, Steven Bennett, Tinny Liang, Paula D. Ladd, Lindsay Yokobe, Caitlin E. Anderson, Kamal Shah, Josh Bishop, Mike Purfield, Peter C. Kauffman, Sai Paul, AnneMarie E. Welch, Bonnie Strelitz, Kristin Follmer, Kelsey Pullar, Luis Sanchez-Erebia, Emily Gerth-Guyette, Gonzalo Domingo, Eileen Klein, Janet A. Englund, Elain Fu and Paul Yager. Analytical Chemistry, 2017, 89 (11), 5776-5783. The researchers demonstrate a prototype of a self-contained, automated, disposable device for chemically amplified protein-based detection of influenza virus from nasal swab specimens. The device was tested in a clinical setting and was well received by patients and clinicians, further inspiring further optimization of the device.
Jaehyung Park, Renuka Ramanathan, Linhchi Pham, Kim Woodrow. Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine, Volume 13, Issue 6, August 2017, 2015-2025. The researchers propose a method to achieve enhanced immune response against viral infections in the female reproductive tract. They demonstrate that intravaginal pre-treatment with chitosan significantly facilitates translocation of nanoparticles across the the multilayered vaginal epithelium to target draining lymph nodes.
Debobrato Das, Jasmin Chen, Selvi Srinivasan, Abby M. Kelly, Brian Lee, Hye-Nam Son, Frank Radella, T. Eoin West, Daniel M. Ratner, Anthony J. Convertine, Shawn J. Skerrett and Patrick S. Stayton. Molecular Pharmaceutics, 2017, 14 (6), 1988-1997. The researchers demonstrate a macromolecular therapeutic platform that provides sustained local delivery of ciprofloxacin. Their work addresses the unmet need for inhaled treatments for lung-based intracellular bacterial infections such as Franciscella tularensis pneumonia (tularemia), which are currently treated with oral or IV antibiotics that poorly achieve and sustain pulmonary drug bioavailability.
