Dan Huh, Wilf Family Term Assistant Professor in the Penn Department of Bioengineering, has received the Cancer Research Institute (CRI) Technology Impact Award. Dr. Huh, whose research attempts to model cancer-immune cell interactions in microphysiological systems, will receive $1 million over the next three years for direct costs of his research.
“This award will provide us with an exciting opportunity to explore the potential of our organ-on-a-chip technology for the study of cancer immunotherapy, which is one of the most promising yet poorly understood clinical strategies for cancer treatment,” Dr. Huh said. “I am honored to receive this major award and excited with the prospect of contributing to this rapidly emerging area of medicine using innovative bioengineering technologies.”
by Kaila Helm, Biological Basis of Behavior ’20; Kathleen Givan, Bioengineering and Political Science ’20; Katharine Cocherl, Bioengineering ’20; Hope McMahon, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering ’18; and Dave Pontoriero, Biotechnology MS ’18
Students gather around the fetish priestess (left) as she describes her practice of spiritual healing.
David Issadore, a faculty member in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania teaches an engineering course ENGR566 – Appropriate Point of Care Diagnostics. As part of this course, he and Miriam Wattenberger from CBE, have taken nine Penn students, most of them majoring in Bioengineering, to Kumasi, Ghana, to study the diagnosis of pediatric tuberculosis. While in Ghana, these students are blogging daily on their experiences.
Our day started out early with a trip back to the fetish priestess’s house. Just as we were arriving at her compound, the rainy-season storm drops began to fall. Over breakfast (and for a few more hours after that), we chatted and watched both the rain and a group of small children running in, out, and around the area we were sitting.
Penn student Danielle Tsougarakis snaps of a picture of palm, used for treatment of multiple diseases and often reserved for kings due to its resiliency.
After exhausting our entire repertoire of team-bonding games and revisiting the implementation of our medical diagnostic tools with the Ghanaian program coordinator Nana Yaa, we began the serious portion of the day with a jungle tour that focused on the plants used by the priestess. She eased us in, warming us up to her knowledge by taking a strange fruit, banging it authoritatively on the wall, and offering the white flesh inside to us. Suck on the beans, she instructed. Don’t chew them. Later we learned that it was in fact the fruit of the cacao plant — yum. We give it an APOC 2017 official 5-star recommendation.
The rest of the plant tour led us into her enchanted forest of sorts. We loved hearing about how one plant could be used in so many ways. The uses ranged from curing an upset stomach to helping witches fly. She explained to us how she acquired her spiritual powers from a local river deity and how her spiritual “sight” helped her treat her patients. She even elaborated on which leaves to look for if you have a low red blood cell count. After we worked up an appetite hiking through her garden, we took a break for lunch, which consisted of yams and garden egg (eggplant) stew that the priestess herself made. She cooked all of the meals for us, and she was very welcoming to our group, greeting us hospitably.
The fetish priestess (left) leads the APOC group through her forest to point out medicinal herbs and describe their respective healing potentials.
When we arrived back at KCCR, we spent some time chatting in groups and meeting the newest resident of the guest house, a rising second-year Pitt medical school student. Others tested out the handmade slingshots gifted to them in the village we visited. After visiting one of the Ghanaian students’ dorm room, in what they call their hostels, we arrived back at KCCR to watch an episode of Black Mirror and to make some homemade chocolate-chip cookies — a perfect way to end our most jam-packed day of the trip.
New research by faculty in the University of Pennsylvania Department of Bioengineering is examining the interplay between cells and their environment and how they impact the cells’ ability to grow and spread, showing that stiffness is not the only factor researchers should consider when studying this process.
The relationship between cellular adhesion and spread is a key factor in cancer metastasis. Better understanding of this dynamic would improve diagnosis of the disease and provide a potential target in combating it; reducing the ability of cells to grip their environment could keep them contained.
Vivek Shenoy (left) and Jason Burdick
The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was led by Vivek Shenoy, professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, co-director of Penn’s Center for Engineering Mechanobiology, and a secondary faculty member in the Department of Bioengineering, along with Xuan Cao and Ehsan Ban, members of his lab. They collaborated with Jason Burdick, professor in the Department of Bioengineering, Boston University’s Christopher Chen, the University of Michigan’s Brendon Baker and the University of Hong Kong’s Yuan Lin.
This collaboration reflects work of The Center for Engineering Mechanobiology, a National Science Foundation-funded Science and Technology Center that supports interdisciplinary research on the way cells exert and are influenced by the physical forces in their environment.
Previous work from Shenoy’s group has shown that the relationship between cancer cells and the extracellular matrix is dynamic, containing feedback mechanisms that can change the ECM’s properties, including overall stiffness. One earlier study investigated how cancer cells attempt to strike a balance in the density of the fibrous netting surrounding them. If there are too few fibers to grip, the cells can’t get enough traction to move. If there are too many, the holes in the net become too small for the cells to pass through.
by Ethan Zhao, Bioengineering ’19; and Jason Grosz, Bioengineering ’19
The APOC group awaits the arrival of the Ghanaian herbalist with the hope of learning more about an alternative method of healing relative to Orthodox medicine (left to right: Nana Yaa, David Pontoriero, Hope McMahon, Danielle Tsougarakis, Katharine Cocherl, Salim, Kaila Helm, Ethan Zhao, Dr. Miriam Wattenbarger, Benjamin, Jason Grosz).
David Issadore, a faculty member in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania teaches an engineering course ENGR566 – Appropriate Point of Care Diagnostics. As part of this course, he and Miriam Wattenberger from CBE, have taken nine Penn students, most of them majoring in Bioengineering, to Kumasi, Ghana, to study the diagnosis of pediatric tuberculosis. While in Ghana, these students are blogging daily on their experiences.
One of the main objectives of this trip has been to observe the impact of limited resources on the ability of hospitals to treat diseases. However, today, we left the Western perspective on medicine to take a look at alternative methods of treating disease, visiting an herbalist and a fetish priestess. Upon entering the herbalist’s compound, we were struck by the size and upkeep of his residence, giving off the impression of wealth. Interestingly, he claimed that he does not charge for treatment but instead only asks that people pay if the treatment works.
Our group posing with herbalist Dr. Boadi after a tour of his site and a demonstration of herbal methods of healing (left to right: Nana Yaa, Salim, Katharine Cocherl, Kate Panzer, David Pontoriero, Danielle Tsougarakis, Kathleen Givan, Jason Grosz, Hope McMahon, herbalist Dr. Boadi, Kaila Helm, Ethan Zhao, Dr. Miriam Wattenbarger).
He often quoted the Bible and claimed that he got the gift of “sight” from God— sight that allows him to see the diseases that different plants could be capable of healing. For example, he explained that, even though grapes are not indigenous to the region, he could see that they would be good for healing cardiac problems, from hypertension to cardiac disease to even cardiac arrest. Coconuts represented the human head; therefore, the skin of the coconut could heal problems associated with the skin, the shell could heal problems associated with bone, the coconut meat could help to heal the brain, and the water inside could heal problems associated with the blood. He also claimed that he can cure HIV/AIDS and cancer regardless of how serious the patient’s condition is.
Penn students (left to right) Kaila Helm, Hope McMahon, and Danielle Tsougarakis enjoying a filling meal of banku and chicken with light soup, cooked by the fetish priestess herself.
After visiting the herbalist, we visited a fetish priestess. Similar to the herbalist, she had appeared to be extremely wealthy. She had a large house on a large plot of land next to a river and was in the process of developing a hotel/resort for her patients across the road. The priestess treated us extremely nicely, fed us lunch, and let us relax at her resort. We didn’t have time, however, to speak to her about her spiritual beliefs and practices, so we returned to KNUST. We planned to visit her again the next day to discuss her beliefs.
With the fetish priestess (left) and Nana Yaa (right) in the background, we tasted the sweet fruit of the cacao tree, which surrounds the bitter, raw cocoa bean.
Danielle Bassett, Eduardo D. Glandt Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor in the departments of Bioengineering and Electrical and Systems Engineering, recently collaborated with colleagues from the Perelman School of Medicine on a study that looks at how brain networks change as children develop into adolescence. Bassett’s previous work on applying network science principles to neuroscience has suggested that the organization of these networks helps lead to “cognitive control” and that they reorganize as children age, improving executive function.
In a new paper published in Current Biology, Bassett and her colleagues delve deeper into the network changes that lead to this improvement.
“The work,” Bassett says, “significantly extends our understanding of the role of modular network organization in development, and its importance for executive function.”
by Kaila Helm, Biological Basis of Behavior ’20; Kathleen Givan, Bioengineering and Political Science ’20; Katharine Cocherl, Bioengineering ’20; Hope McMahon, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering ’18; and Dave Pontoriero, Biotechnology MS ’18
A set of classrooms within the campus of Achinakrom Senior High School (ACHISS), a rural high school in Kumasi.
David Issadore, a faculty member in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania teaches an engineering course ENGR566 – Appropriate Point of Care Diagnostics. As part of this course, he and Miriam Wattenberger from CBE, have taken nine Penn students, most of them majoring in Bioengineering, to Kumasi, Ghana, to study the diagnosis of pediatric tuberculosis. While in Ghana, these students are blogging daily on their experiences.
Dr. Miriam Wattenbarger tutoring a class on soil conservation.
Today was a day of reflection. To our great sadness, two of our fabulous leaders, Dr. Issadore and Dr. Ocek, left early this morning. We then split into teams to work on our projects for the remainder of the early afternoon. Given our newfound knowledge of the Ghanaian healthcare infrastructure and the standards of care for tuberculosis-related symptoms, our designs were altered to optimize their value. It was interesting to pull up our old classwork from Philly and realize how much it needed to be edited.
Penn student Jason Grosz discusses the math curriculum with a teacher of Achinakrom Senior High School (ACHISS).
Following our intense project meetings, the group shared a lunch of ground nut soup and rice balls, one of our favorites. The advantage of cooking food ourselves is that we can tolerate the spice level and learn how to cook another delicious meal ourselves. We then left to do our community service at the rural high school we visited last week, Achinakrom Senior High School (ACHISS). Each APOC student led a class on a topic of interest to both him- or herself and the class. The focus of these classes spanned mathematics, science, and English. It’s a great opportunity to learn more about the Ghanaian education system and talk to more of the students about their day-to-day lives, while exposing us to the problems faced with both cross-cultural communication and teaching.
Penn student David Pontoriero tutoring a classroom filled with high school students attending Achinakrom Senior High School (ACHISS), a rural high school in Kumasi.
After returning home, we enjoyed a relaxing evening. One highlight was trying a traditional Ghanaian snack, mashed fante kenkey, which was prepared by our trip leader, Nana. (We love you Nana!) We ended the night with a group ab workout, a roundtable discussion, and yet another fun-filled team-bonding activity. It was a good day!
A group of students studying French at Achinakrom Senior High School (ACHISS).
Penn has one of the most distinctive graduate programs in the country, and is proud to graduate the first Ph.D. in Bioengineering in the United States. With such a history, our alumni have succeeded as professors, entrepreneurs, policy leaders, and industry pioneers. One recent example of this Penn tradition is leadership in national organizations.
Withing the field of biomaterials, the preeminent international organization is the Society for Biomaterials (SfB). Dedicated to the advancement of biomaterials science, the SfB was created more than four decades at nearly the same time the Bioengineering department was established at Penn. Many of our alumni are now part of the senior leadership in the SfB, including the following.
President: David Kohn
President-elect: Andrés García
Member-at-large: Helen Lu
In fact, of the three officers elected this year, two were from Penn (Andrés and Helen). We also have strong alumni representation across the various committees within the SfB. We extend our congratulations — with great pride — to our Penn family.
by Danielle Tsougarakis, Bioengineering ’20; and Kate Panzer, Bioengineering ’18
The majestic ram that was given to King Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II as a greeting gift.
David Issadore, a faculty member in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania teaches an engineering course ENGR566 – Appropriate Point of Care Diagnostics. As part of this course, he and Miriam Wattenberger from CBE, have taken nine Penn students, most of them majoring in Bioengineering, to Kumasi, Ghana, to study the diagnosis of pediatric tuberculosis. While in Ghana, these students are blogging daily on their experiences.
Today we had the honor of meeting Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II, the current Asante (also spelled Ashanti) king. The Ashanti Region is one of Ghana’s 10 administrative regions and expands across the southern part of the country. Once a large empire, the Ashanti kingdom now serves as a state union. After getting off the bus, we walked through the scenic palm tree-lined palace grounds, observing beautiful peacocks roaming the gardens. We entered the historic Asante museum and toured through generations of leaders, seeing sculptures of past kings, ancient artifacts, sacred Kente cloths, and more. Afterwards, we gathered outside the king’s palace, awaiting his presence. Many guests were dressed in their finest traditional African garb. We donned our vibrantly colored dashikis and other newly acquired traditional clothing. Groups of guests went up to the king and presented him with various gifts. Our group brought some high-quality Coca-Cola and Malta beverages, while other groups garnished him with bottles of wine, spirits, and even a large majestic ram. We all had the opportunity to individually bow to the king and shake his hand.
The APOC crew visiting the Asante museum in Kumasi during our opportunity to meet the king. Dr. David Issadore is centered as he signs a book to document our visit (Left to right: Jason Grosz, David Pontoriero, Salim [KNUST student], Professor Ellis, Kaila Helm, Hope McMahon, Dr. David Issadore, Danielle Tsougarakis, Ethan Zhao, Dr. Miriam Wattenbarger, Benjamin [KNUST student], Kathleen Givan, Katharine Cocherl, Kate Panzer, Nana Yaa, Dr. Ocek Eke).Following our royal visit to meet the king, we returned to KCCR and attended to our laundry and assignments. Some of us went for a run before dinner and got caught in a torrential downpour. We have come to know that such rapid onset of rain is quite common in Ghana, particularly during the rainy season. Despite the quick change in weather, the rain was cool and refreshing as we ran throughout the expansive campus.
The APOC crew posing at the Golden Tulip hotel in Kumasi. (Left to right: Dr. Miriam Wattenbarger, Dr. David Issadore, David Pontoriero, Danielle Tsougarakis, Benjamin [KNUST student], Uncle Ebo, Hope McMahon, Kaila Helm, Ethan Zhao, Kathleen Givan, Katharine Cocherl, Jason Grosz, Kate Panzer, Nana Yaa)In the evening, we had our own feast fit for royalty at a fancy hotel called the Golden Tulip (shout-out to Dr. Eke for the special connection). The restaurant in the hotel reminded us more of a Western-style arrangement, with a wide variety of international food, including salad, noodles, squid, and fruit, along with American pop music playing lightly in the background. Even dessert was served, including caramel flan, red velvet cake, and cheesecake, which is a rare sight in Ghana.
Susan S. Margulies, Ph.D., currently professor of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, has been named the Wallace H. Coulter Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech/Emory University and the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Injury Biomechanics. Her appointment begins August 1.
Dr. Margulies’s history at Penn goes back to 1982, she arrived at Penn to earn a master’s degree in the bioengineering department, followed by her Ph.D. in 1987. In 1993, she returned to Penn as an assistant professor, with promotion to associate in 1998 and full professor in 2004.
“At GT-Emory BME I will lead 72 faculty and 1,500 students, and look forward to creating impact in a new environment,” Dr. Margulies says. “As a Penn alum and emeritus faculty member, my ties here run deep. I look forward to keeping in touch.”
Dr. Margulies’s has deep roots at Penn indeed, and her accomplishments are broad and distinctive. They include:
Creating new faculty mentoring programs across the university, including the Penn Faculty Pathways program
Teaching a broad number of courses spanning Introduction to Bioengineering through to Pedagogical Methods in Engineering Education
Establishing many new research initiatives that extended into Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and significant relationships with industry
Activity with several national leadership positions
On Dr. Margulies’s departure, David Meaney, the department chair, said, “We will miss Susan’s wisdom and insight, but we wish her the very best in her next step.”
by Kaila Helm, Biological Basis of Behavior ’20; and Hope McMahon, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering ’18
During the seven-hour drive from Mole National Park to Kumasi, students take the opportunity to catch up on their Zs.
David Issadore, a faculty member in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania teaches an engineering course ENGR566 – Appropriate Point of Care Diagnostics. As part of this course, he and Miriam Wattenberger from CBE, have taken nine Penn students, most of them majoring in Bioengineering, to Kumasi, Ghana, to study the diagnosis of pediatric tuberculosis. While in Ghana, these students are blogging daily on their experiences.
This morning we ended our three-day trip to Mole National Park. For breakfast, we had omelets and toast with some spread for bread and jam paired with our usual combination of coffee, tea, or Milo (Australian chocolate milk). After packing up the bus with water in hand, we set out for another long car ride (but not before seeing some elephants swimming in the lake and baboons leisurely walking around the property). On the way back to Kumasi, we stopped at a rest stop to use the washroom and have another delicious Ghanaian meal. Some ate jollof rice and chicken; others were more adventurous with goat and fufu with peanut soup. After our long journey, we arrived back to KNUST, pleasantly surprised by the petrichor and rainbows after a brief burst of rain.
A few of us decided to take a walk around campus, stopping by a convenience store and walking around the Guss Hostel. When we arrived back at KCCR, we soon learned we would be joining Dr. Ellis for the evening. After greeting Dr. Ocek Eke, we all ran to our rooms to quickly change. We headed to dinner. There we tried different combinations of smoothies, with a fútbol game projected on a screen in the background. We ate a lot: chicken kebabs, gizzard, liver, joloff rice, fish, and even some French fries. To end our jam-packed day, we headed back to KCCR, greeted at the door by a praying mantis.
