I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

Dr. Ki Chon ~ New

BME Department

Head

1

Prof. Kris Billiar

Receives Fulbright

Scholarship

1

Prof. Rolle Receives

$215,962 NIH

Award

2

Prof. Gaudette

Receives $403,000

NIH Award

3

2009 Project

Presentation Day 3

2009-2010

BMES Officers 3

New Bioengineering

Education Center

Opens

4

BioDiscovery Camp 5

WPI‟s Angels in the

Outfield defeat

UMass

5

Grants, Publications

& Presentations 6

Students in the

News 6

diagnosis of decompression

sickness in divers; pioneering a

novel method for assessing

diabetic cardiac autonomic

neuropathy, one of the most

overlooked serious complica-

tion of diabetes; and the de-

velopment of a new algorithm

to detect the presence of

atrial fibrillation, one of the

most common clinical arrhyth-

mias, from either pulse pres-

sure or ECG signals. He has

received more than $3 million

in external awards for his

work and has published more

than 65 peer-reviewed journal

articles, nearly 30 book chap-

ters, and more than 30 peer-

reviewed abstracts. He is cur-

rently associate editor of IEEE

Transactions on Biomedical Engi-

neering Letters, IEEE Transac-

tions on Biomedical Engineering,

and the International Journal of

Bioelectromagnetism.

We are pleased to announce

that Dr. Ki Chon has been

hired as the new Department

Head. Dr. Mendelson has

agreed to continue and serve

as the interim Department

Head until Dr. Chon arrives

at WPI on January 1, 2010.

Dr. Chon joins WPI from

SUNY Stony Brook, where

he is a professor in the De-

partment of Biomedical Engi-

neering. He had been a fac-

ulty member at SUNY Stony

Brook since 1992. Prior to

that he had held a faculty

posts at City College of New

York (1998-2001) and Brown

University (1997-98) and

completed a postdoctoral

appointment in health sci-

ence and technology at MIT

and Harvard University

(1994-97). He also spent a

year as an electrical engineer

at Otis Elevator in Farming-

ton, Conn. Since 2004, he

serves as president of Ki Hi-

Tech, LLC. Dr. Chon holds

seven patents for devices and

methods for regenerating

skin tissue, monitoring ar-

rhythmia, and detecting auto-

nomic system imbalance,

among other discoveries.

With a research focus on

biosignal processing and

medical instrumentation, Dr.

Chon is currently pursuing

work in three major areas:

developing a monitoring de-

vice that will provide an early

Dr. Ki Chon ~ New BME Department Head

WPI Biomedical Engineer F A L L 2 0 0 9 V O L U M E 3 , I S S U E 1

Professor Billiar Receives Fulbright Scholarship Associate Professor Kristen L. Bil-

liar has been awarded a Fulbright

Scholarship to work at the National

University of Ireland Galway on

research and education related to

tissue engineering. Prof. Billiar, who

will be in Ireland with his family for

the 2009-2010 academic year, is

the 14th member of the current

WPI faculty to be awarded a Ful-

bright Scholar grant.

The Fulbright Program, the U.S.

government's flagship program in

international educational exchange, Continued on page 2

P A G E 2

W P I B I O M E D I C A L E N G I N E E R

Professor Billiar Receives Fulbright Scholarship (cont’d) is sponsored by the United

States Department of State,

Bureau of Educational and

Cultural Affairs. Each year, the

traditional Fulbright Scholar

Program sends 800 U.S. fac-

ulty members and other pro-

fessionals abroad to lecture

and conduct research in a

wide variety of academic and

professional fields.

"This significant honor is fur-

ther evidence of the high qual-

ity of the WPI faculty and the

important work they are do-

ing through their research and

scholarship," said Provost John

Orr. During his stay in Ireland,

Prof. Billiar will study the me-

chanics of nanoscale scaffolds

for tissue engineering with Dr.

Abhay Pandit, Director of the

Network of Excellence for

Functional Biomaterials. De-

veloping a detailed under-

standing of the relationship

between the structure and

mechanical functioning of con-

nective tissue is critical to

building engineered replace-

ments for diseased tissue. In

the research component of his

Fulbright work, Kris will seek

to develop novel techniques

for probing these relationships

at the scale or nanometers,

particularly as they relate to

the scaffolds, or support

structures, used in tissue engi-

neering. He will also design

inquiry-based biomechanics

and biomaterials teaching

laboratories based on these

techniques and then compile

them into a textbook.

Since joining WPI in 2002

Prof. Billiar research has fo-

cused on how the mechanical

forces due to tissue stretching

and cell contraction affect the

growth and healing of soft

tissue. His goal is to help

make engineered skin, heart

valves, and other tissues

behave more naturally and

reduce scarring during heal-

ing. His work has been sup-

ported by the Whittaker

Foundation and the Ameri-

can Heart Association. In

2005, he received WPI's

Romeo Moruzzi Young Fac-

ulty Award for Innovation in

Undergraduate Education

for developing a formal

mentoring system to meet

the challenge of providing

experiential learning oppor-

tunities for students in his

laboratory courses. He re-

ceived the Trustee‘s Award

for Academic Advising in

2008.

Marsha Rolle, PhD, was re-

cently awarded an Academic

Research Enhancement Award

(AREA; R15) from the Na-

tional Institutes of Health.

The award will provide

$215,962 over two years to

support an ongoing project

involving fabrication and bio-

mechanical analysis of three-

dimensional, ring-shaped tis-

sue constructs created from

aggregated cells. These scaf-

foldless tissue rings, made

from human vascular smooth

muscle cells, are strong

enough for mechanical testing

within 7 days of cell seeding

into custom, non-adhesive

culture wells and will serve as

model vascular tissues for

quantitative assessment of the

role of extracellular matrix

(ECM) molecules on tissue

mechanical properties. This

system, developed by Bio-

medical Engineering graduate

and undergraduate students,

can be used to optimize cul-

ture conditions to make tissue

engineered blood vessels

stronger and more compliant

in a shorter period of time,

and may also be used as a

basic research tool to evalu-

ate ECM synthesis and as-

sembly and its effects on

vascular tissue structure and

function. Prof. Kristen Bil-

liar is a collaborator and co-

PI on this project.

Professor Marsha Rolle Receives $215,962 Award

"This significant

honor is further

evidence of the

high quality

of the WPI

Faculty …,”

said Provost

John A. Orr

las Pelletier, Jennifer Richards

and Jonathan Shoemaker for

winning the Provost‘s Award

for their MQP presentation

―Development of a New

System to Treat Hip Disloca-

tion in Canines‖. We would

also like to congratulate two

MQP groups for Honorable

Mentions for their presena-

tions: ―Cardiac Scaffold for

Human Mesenchymal Stem

Cell Facilitated Autonomous

Pacing‖ by Helena Alfonzo,

Syed Ali, Brian Almeida, and

Katie Flynn, and ―Design of a

Co-culture System Using

Collagen Microthreads to

Facilitate Neovascularization‖

by Shawn Carey, Jonathan

Charest, Elizabeth Ellis, and

Jason Hu.

This year‘s external judges

included Kerry Malone '04

(Navilyst Medical), Ed Peter-

son (Stryker), Al Prescott

(Crescent Innovations), Mat-

thew Phaneuf (BioSurfaces),

P A G E 3 V O L U M E 3 , I S S U E 1

2009 Project Presentation Day

The 2009 Project Presenta-

tion Day recognized the sci-

entific and engineering ac-

complishments of our Bio-

medical Engineering Depart-

ment (BME) undergraduate

students. This year‘s Project

Presentation Day was held

on Thursday, April 23.

These presentations repre-

sent year-long efforts by our

undergraduates on their Ma-

jor Qualifying (Senior De-

sign) Proects. There were

sessions focusing on biomedi-

cal instrumentation, biome-

chanics, tissue engineering,

biofluids, transport, and bio-

materials.

Our external judges repeat-

edly told us that they were

VERY impressed with the

quality of ALL of the presen-

tations as well as the stu-

dents' work on their pro-

jects.

We would like to congratu-

late Meghan Pasquali, Nicho-

Harry Wotten '94 (Securos)

and Jack Wixted (Univ. Mass.

Med. Sch. - Orthopaedic Sur-

gery.

Pictures below are listed

respectively.

Professor Glenn Gaudette Receives $403,000 in NIH Research Award

The National Institutes of

Health (NIH) awarded Bio-

medical Engineering‘s Assis-

tant Professor Glenn Gau-

dette $403,000. Professor

Gaudette will receive this

award over two years to ad-

vance his work using bone

marrow derived stem cells to

restore function to damaged

hearts.

Professor Gaudette's lab explores

the potential for human mes-

enchymal stem cells (hMSCs),

which come from the bone

marrow, to regenerate cardiac

tissue, thereby helping a dam-

aged heart beat more effec-

tively. Heart attacks cause

significant scaring of cardiac

tissue, which in turn prevents

the scarred area of the heart

from contracting to pump

blood. Recent studies by Pro-

fessor Gaudette and others

have shown that when hMSCs

are injected into a damaged

heart, they help improve car-

diac function. Working with

BME colleagues Associate

Professor George Pins, and

Assistant Professor Marsha

Rolle, Professor Gaudette

developed a system for seed-

ing biopolymer microthreads

with hMSCs, then stitching

those threads directly into a

damaged heart. The technique

significantly improves the abil-

ity to place the hMSCs at pre-

cise points in the heart to

improve function in the dam-

aged area. The new study aims

to develop processes for

maximizing the number of

hMSCs that can be loaded

onto the threads, and then to

study the effect of the cells on

cardiac function in a rat

model.

President:

Liz Tuite

Vice President:

Lydia Bakalova

Secretary:

Fioleda Prifti

Treasurer:

Kushal Palkhiwala

Industrial Liaison:

Danice Chou

Membership Chair:

Deepti Kalluri

Social Chair:

Colleen Brinkmann

Public Relations:

Jay Bisa

Webmaster:

Aubrey Ortiz

2009-2010 BMES

Officers

P A G E 4 V O L U M E 3 , I S S U E 1

WPI Opens George I. Alden Life Sciences

and Bioengineering Educational Center

After one and a half years of construction

and redesign work, WPI dedicated the

new George I. Alden Life Sciences and

Bioengineering Educational Center, on

Thursday, August 27, 2009. Members of

the WPI community were invited to at-

tend the ribbon cutting ceremony which

began with a breakfast served on the lawn

behind the campus center. The event

included tours of the newly renovated

21,300 square foot open laboratory space,

which houses undergraduate teaching

laboratories for biology, biotechnology,

biomedical engineering, chemistry, bio-

chemistry and chemical engineering.

"This new center provides an ideal envi-

ronment for our innovative and engaging

project-based approach to education,

which instills a spirit of cooperation that is

critical for our students' future success.

We are deeply grateful to the George I.

Alden Trust for making this exciting new

center possible and for continuing to carry

on George Alden's legacy of support for

and partnership with this university," said

WPI President and CEO Dennis D.

Berkey.

The $11.5 million renovation of Goddard

Hall was made possible by a major gift

from the George I. Alden Trust, WPI's

most generous donor. The gift supports

WPI's goal of raising its undergraduate life

sciences education to a world-class level

and has enabled the university to trans-

form a dated building into a dynamic, well-

equipped learning center that promotes

cross-disciplinary teaching. The Alden Cen-

ter is designed to accommodate growing

interest in the life sciences and related engi-

neering programs at WPI -- enrollment in

these fields has increased by 86 percent

over the past four years -- and to prepare

students for success in the rapidly expand-

ing life sciences sector.

"WPI is making tremendous strides in the

life sciences and the Alden Trust is proud

to help the university take its undergradu-

ate offerings to a new level," said Susan B.

Woodbury, chair of the George I. Alden

Trust. "It is heartening to know that

George Alden's guiding principle of 'theory

in practice' is still as relevant today as it was

almost 150 years ago. WPI has embraced

this ideal and has

created an inspiring

educational ap-

proach that pro-

duces students

who make a real

and positive impact

upon the world.

The Alden Trust is

proud to support

such a fine institu-

tion."This facility

will maximize the potential of WPI's hands-

on approach to teaching, cross-training

among the disciplines, and the teamwork

that is an integral part of project-based

learning The center also features shared

computer space, a classroom, instrumenta-

tion, surgical tables and operating lights that

are easily accessible., and a variety of areas

for project meetings and informal interac-

tions among students and faculty. All of the

labs include screens and projectors that

allow professors to work with students

more effectively through the ―connected

lab‖ technology that was developed at WPI

through a grant from the Davis Educa-

tional Foundation.

Environmental sustainability is taken as

seriously at the Alden Center. Organic

paints and recycled tiles, benches, and

flooring were used throughout the build-

ing. The labs and classrooms come

equipped with energy-efficient windows,

energy-saving fluorescent lamps, and intel-

ligent controls that turn off lights when

rooms are empty. Additional energy effi-

cient features include a system that recov-

ers and re-circulates heat from exhaust air

and computer controls that adjust the

heating and cooling to maintain comfort

while minimizing energy use. The center‘s

bathrooms feature countertops made

from recycled milk bottles, low-flow sen-

sor faucets, and dual-flush toilets that con-

serve water. The men‘s rooms have wa-

terless urinals that save a minimum of one

gallon of water per use. In conjunction

with WPI‘s campus-wide recycling efforts,

recycling stations for paper, cardboard,

glass, plastic and metals are positioned

throughout the building.

BME Hosts “BioDiscovery” Camp P A G E 5

As part of a three-year NSF-

funded Research Experiences

for Undergraduates program

which began this summer

(REU EEC-0754996, PIs K.

Billiar and M. Rolle), we

hosted a one-week

―BioDiscovery‖ camp for

middle school girls. Angie

Throm, Ph.D. candidate, or-

ganized five busy days of fun

and learning for 10 girls en-

rolled in regional middle

schools. Each of the 9 REU

students (undergraduates

from around the country)

and one WPI summer intern

acted as mentors and in-

structors guiding students

through games and experi-

ments exploring the cardio-

vascular system, bone biome-

chanics, artificial skin, genet-

ics, and bacterial biofilms.

In addition to group activi-

ties, BioDiscovery campers

worked with undergraduate

student mentors on inde-

pendent research pro-

jects. At the end of the

week, campers showcased

their results and knowledge

to parents and guests at a

lunch reception and poster

session.

The BioDiscovery program

was designed to increase the

awareness of and interest in

the nature of the engineering

discipline and the opportuni-

ties it provides and to en-

courage middle school girls

to keep taking math and sci-

ence courses so that pursu-

ing engineering as a career

will remain an option for

them in high school, college,

and beyond. This is particu-

larly critical at a time (middle

school) when girls‘ attitudes

toward science are more

susceptible to negative im-

pacts by social pressure. The

purpose and power of offer-

ing BioDiscovery through the

WPI REU program is that it

provides opportunities for

undergraduate students to

learn and practice mentoring

skills and experience the

impact they can have on in-

fluencing and encouraging

young women in engineering,

while also providing positive

role models of aspiring engi-

neers.

Applications for the Summer

2010 REU program will be

available on the WPI BME

home page December 1. For

information and applications

for BioDiscovery (7th and 8th

grade girls attending

Worcester Public Schools)

visit the WPI Office of Sum-

mer Programs

(www.wpi.edu/Academics/

Summer).

The BioDiscovery

program was

designed to increase

the awareness of and

interest in the nature

of the engineering

discipline ...

The WPI Gateway student softball

team, The Angles in the Outfield won

the UMass league, at Foundation Field,

Shrewsbury, MA for the championship

series. The team featured many BME

graduate and undergraduate stu-

dents. They triumphed over ―The

Upper Deck-ers, (the second year

UMass Medical School Students) by winning the first 2 games, in a 2 out of 3 series. They

won the first game, a nail bitter comeback, 24-23 on a 2-out, inside the park homerun to

win with the last at-bat and dominated the second game with a score of 16-8. Their regu-

lar season record was 10-2, with a dominating exhibition game win against The WPI Pro-

fessors, 9-1 (not included in the regular season standings).

Triumphant Angles in the Outfield

Department of Biomedical Engineering

100 Institute Road

Worcester, MA 01609 (USA)

Office Phone: (508) 831-5447

Fax: (508) 831-5541

http://www.wpi.edu/+BME

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Grants, Publications & Presentations

“Theory and Practice”

Education”, Podium Presentation at the XII International Symposium

on Computer Simulation in Biomechanics, Cape Town, South Africa,

July 2 - 4, 2009.

Gielo-Perczak K., S Matz.: “Influence of Glenoid Fossa Geometry on

Shoulder Strength”, Podium Presentation at the XXII Congress of the

International Society of Biomechanics (ISB), Cape Town, South Africa,

July 5- 9, 2009.

Krystyna Gielo-Perczak was a Chair of the two sessions at the ISB

Congress ―Balance and Posture‖ and ―Ergonomics‖, Cape Town,

South Africa, July 5- 9, 2009.

Krystyna Gielo-Perczak was an invited speaker of a session

“Lessons Learnt in the Pursuit of Jobs” organized by the ISB Student

Council, Cape Town, South Africa, July 7, 2009.

George Pins gave a talk at the Neuroprosthetics 2009: Today‘s Pro-

gress, Tomorrow‘s Promise ― - September 16, 2009 at WPI. The title

was ―Designing Biomaterials Surfaces to Direct Keratinocyte Functions at

the Skin-Implant Interface.”

Publications

Grants Students in the News Jeremy Skorinko MS‘10 and Alex Christakis B‘09 both received a

honorable mention for their poster presentations at the Lake Tahoe

ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference June 17-21. Jeremy‘s was

entitled ―Short Term Cardiac Memory Results in Altered Regional

Mechanical Function‖ and Alex‘s was "Comparison of Cortical and

Cancellous Screws for Sternal Fixation" .

Lynn Worobey ‟08 received a Honorable Mention for the NSF Grad

Fellowship.

Harry Wotton ‗94 received the Icahabod Washburn Young Alumni

Award for Professional Achievement. Award recipients have demon-

strated solid professional advancement in his or her chosen field.

Qualifications sought in candidates include, but are not limited to,

demonstrated leadership skills, business acumen, innovative ap-

proaches to technical challenges, recognized leadership in teaching or

research, and/or entrepreneurship.

Megan Pasquali ‗09, Alex Christakis ‗09 and Shawn Carey ‗09

all received the 2009 Salisbury Award. This award is given to the

most meritorious seniors at WPI. It was established by Stephen Salis-

bury II, a WPI founder and the first President of the Board of Trus-

tees.

At the concluding ceremony at the 35th Annual Northeast Bioengi-

neering Conference hosted by MIT/Harvard April 3rd—5th, WPI won

three awards!

Third place, oral presentation - Kshama Doshi MS‘10

Third place, poster presentation - Shawn Carey „09, Jonathan

Charest, ‘09 Elizabeth Ellis „09, and Jason Hu ‗09

Honorable Mention, poster presentation - Paola Pinzon-Arango

BS‘05, MS‘08, Ph.D. candidate

Congratulations to everyone on their awards.

Kris Billiar was recently awarded $215,661 from the National

Institutes of Health for three years entitled, ―Regulation of

valvular interstitial cell fate: Role of stiffness and TGF-beta.‖

Kris Billiar (PI) and Marsha Rolle (co-PI) were recently

awarded $296,274 from the National Science Foundation for

nine months entitled, ―REU Site: Integrated Bioengineering Re-

search, Education, and Outreach Experiences for Females and

Underrepresented Minorities at WPI.‖

Gielo-Perczak, K., “Strength of Shoulder During One-Handed

Pushing in Constrained Conditions”, Human Factors and Ergonom-

ics in Manufacturing, 2009, Vol. 19 (5) 347–360.

Cohen, I.S., Gaudette, G.R. , “Regenerating the heart: new

progress in gene/cell therapy to restore normal mechanical and

electrical function‖ (Lead Article). Dialogues in Cardiovascular Medi-

cine 2009; 14(1): 7-25.

Presentations (Continued)

Presentations Glenn Gaudette gave a talk on “Regenerating the Heart” for

the Colleges of Worcester Consortium Research Showcase at

College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA, March 2009.

Glenn Gaudette gave a talk to entitled ―Engineering a New

Heart‖ to biotechnology and engineering students at Quincy

High School, Quincy, MA ; March 2009

Gielo-Perczak, K., S.J. Chen: “Applications of Computer Simula-

tion Software to Testing Biomechanics in Biomedical Engineering