Category: awards

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Carl June to Receive 2024 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences

by Meagan Raeke

Image: Courtesy of Penn Medicine

CAR T cell therapy pioneer Carl June, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy in the Perelman School of Medicine and director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies (CCI) at Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center, has been named a winner of the 2024 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for the development of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapy, a revolutionary cancer treatment approach in which each patient’s T cells are modified to target and kill their cancer cells. The invention sparked a new path in cancer care, harnessing the power of patients’ own immune systems, a once-elusive goal that brought fresh options for those who could not be successfully treated with conventional approaches.

Founded in 2012, the Breakthrough Prizes are the world’s largest science awards, with $3 million awarded for each of the five main prize categories. June is the sixth Breakthrough Prize laureate from Penn, which joins Harvard and MIT among the institutions whose researchers have been honored with the most Breakthrough Prizes.

“This award is not only a testament to Dr. June’s outstanding contributions to science, but also a shining example of the caliber of discoveries and research which Penn faculty set their sights upon,” said Penn President Liz Magill. “We are immensely proud to have Dr. June as a member of the Penn academic community, and we know that CAR T cell therapy is just the first chapter in an inspiring and lifesaving new era of medicine.”

June is internationally recognized for his role in pioneering the CAR T cell therapy, which led to the first FDA-approved personalized cellular therapy, for children and young adults with the blood cancer known as acute lymphoblastic leukemia, in August of 2017—a step which has spurred five additional approvals of the technique in other blood cancers. June joined Penn in 1999, building momentum for Penn to become a global hub for cell and gene therapy. Gene-modified T cells engineered in June’s lab to retrain a patient’s own immune cells to attack cancer were used in the first clinical trial of CAR T cell therapy in 2010. Some of the earliest children and adults treated have experienced long-lasting remissions of 10 years or more. In addition to the FDA approvals that have made the therapy commercially available to patients across the world, thousands more have benefited from clinical trials testing these transformative treatments, including for the treatment of solid tumors and even autoimmune diseases like lupus.

“Dr. June’s tireless commitment to advancing T cell immunotherapy research has been life-changing for many patients affected by cancer, who have lived longer, fuller lives, thanks to the discoveries made in his lab,” said J. Larry Jameson,executive vice president of the University of Pennsylvania for the Health System and dean of the Perelman School of Medicine. “We are proud to see one of Penn’s most esteemed scientists recognized for the impact of his foundational work to develop a new class of cancer immunotherapy treatment.”

Read the full story in Penn Today.

June is a member of the Penn Bioengineering Graduate Group. Read more stories featuring June on the BE Blog here.

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Riccardo Gottardi Recognized for Airway Research

Matthew Aronson (left), Ph.D. student in Bioengineering, and Riccardo Gottardi, Assistant Proessor in Bioengineering and Pediatrics.

Riccardo Gottardi, Assistant Professor in Pediatrics in the Perelman School of Medicine and in Bioengineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, has been named a “Young Innovator of Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering” by Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering, the official journal of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). Gottardi is Chief Scientist in the Pediatric Airway Frontier Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). He leads the Bioengineering and Biomaterials (Bio2) Lab, and was recognized here for his research to prevent subglottic stenosis in children.

Gottardi’s work in subglottic stensosis, a severe narrowing of the airway in response to intubation, was recently profiled in CHOP’s Cornerstone Blog. CHOP’s award press release describes Gottardi’s innovative treatment:

“Prior studies by Dr. Gottardi’s lab used in vitro models to demonstrate that incorporating AMPs into polymer-coated tubes can inhibit bacterial growth and modulate the upper-airway microbiome. In a recent study in Cellular and Molecular Engineering, led by [Bioengineering] PhD student Matthew Aronson of the Gottardi Lab, the researchers went a step further and used both ex vivo and in vivo models to show how their patent-pending antimicrobial peptide-eluting endotracheal tube (AMP-ET) effectively targeted the local airway microbiota, reducing inflammation and resolving stenosis.

‘I am honored to be recognized by Cellular and Molecular Engineering for this exciting and notable award,” Dr. Gottardi said. “We are hopeful that our airway innovation will show similar success in human trials, so that we can improve outcomes for intubated pediatric patients.’”

Read CHOP’s full announcement of the award here.

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Penn Bioengineers Create Non-invasive Cartilage Implants for Pediatric Subglottic Stenosis

by Emily Shafer

Paul Gehret and Riccardo Gottardi accept the International Society for Biofabrication New Investigator Award onstage at the international conference.
Paul Gehret (left) and Riccardo Gottardi, PhD, at Biofabrication 2022, the International Conference on Biofabrication.

Bioengineering researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia are developing a less invasive and quicker method to create cartilage implants as an alternative to the current treatment for severe subglottic stenosis, which occurs in 10 percent of premature infants in the U.S.

Subglottic stenosis is a narrowing of the airway, in response to intubation. Severe cases require laryngotracheal reconstruction that involves grafting cartilage from the rib cage with an invasive surgery. With grant support from the National Institutes of Health, Riccardo Gottardi, PhD, who leads the Bioengineering and Biomaterials (Bio2) Lab at CHOP, is refining a technology called Meniscal Decellularized scaffold (MEND). Working with a porcine model meniscus, the researchers remove blood vessels and elastin fibers to create pathways that allow for recellularization. Dr. Gottardi and his team then harvest ear cartilage progenitor cells (CPCs) with a minimally invasive biopsy, combine them with MEND, and create cartilage implants that could be a substitute for the standard laryngotracheal reconstruction.

This work and similar work on the tympanic membrane earned Paul Gehret, a doctoral student in the Gottardi Lab, the International Society for Biofabrication New Investigator Award and the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Young Investigator Award.  Gehret and Dr. Gottardi accepted the awards at Biofabrication 2022, the International Conference on Biofabrication, in Pisa Italy.

While laryngotracheal reconstruction in the adult population has a success rate of up to 96%, success rates in children range from 75% to 85%, and children often require revision surgery due to a high incidence of restenosis. The procedure also involves major surgery to remove cartilage from the rib cage, which is more difficult for childrens’ smaller bodies.

“Luckily not many children suffer from severe subglottic stenosis, but for those who do, it is really serious,” said Dr. Gottardi, who also is assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Department of Bioengineering at CHOP and the University of Pennsylvania. “With our procedure, we have an easily accessible source for the cartilage and the cells, providing a straightforward and noninvasive treatment option with much potential.”

Read the full story in CHOP’s Cornerstone Blog.

Riccardo Gottardi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pulmonary Medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine and in the Department of Bioengineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. He also holds an appointment in the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

Paul Gehret is a Ph.D. student in Bioengineering, an Ashton Fellow and a NSF Fellow. His research focuses on leveraging decellularized cartilage scaffolds and novel cell sources to reconstruct the pediatric airway.

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2023 Graduate Research Fellowships for Bioengineering Students

Congratulations to the fourteen Bioengineering students to receive 2023  National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) fellowships. The prestigious NSF GRFP program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported fields. The recipients honorees were selected from a highly-competitive, nationwide pool. Further information about the program can be found on the NSF website.

Carlos Armando Aguila, Ph.D. student in Bioengineering, is a member of the Center of Neuroengineering and Therapeutics, advised by Erin Conrad, Assistant Professor in Neurology, and Brian Litt, Professor in Bioengineering and Neurology. His research focuses on analyzing electroencephalogram (EEG) signals to better understand epilepsy.

Joseph Lance Victoria Casila is a Ph.D. student in Bioengineering in the lab of Riccardo Gottardi, Assistant Professor in Pediatrics and Bioengineering. His research focuses on probing environmental factors that influence stem cell differentiation towards chondrogenesis for cartilage engineering and regeneration.

Trevor Chan is a Ph.D. student in Bioengineering in the lab of Felix Wehrli, Professor of Radiologic Science. His research is in developing computational methods for medical image refinement and analysis. Two ongoing projects are: self-supervised methods for CT super-resolution and assessment of osteoporosis, and semi-supervised segmentation of 3D and 4D echocardiograms for surgical correction of congenital heart-valve defects.

Rakan El-Mayta is an incoming Ph.D. student in the lab of Drew Weissman, Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research. Rakan studies messenger RNA-lipid nanoparticle vaccines for the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. Prior to starting in the Bioengineering graduate program, he worked as a Research Assistant in Weissman lab and in the lab of Michael Mitchell, Associate Professor in Bioengineering.

Austin Jenk is a Ph.D. student in the lab of Robert Mauck, Mary Black Ralston Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery and Bioengineering. Austin aims to develop early intervention, intra-articular therapeutics to combat the onset of post-traumatic osteoarthritis following acute joint injuries. His work focuses on developing a therapeutic that can be employed not only in conventional healthcare settings, but also emergency and battlefield medicine.

Jiageng Liu is a Ph.D. student in the lab of Alex Hughes, Assistant Professor in Bioengineering. His work aims to precisely control the bio-physical/chemical properties of iPSC-derived organoids with advanced synthetic biology approaches to create functional replacement renal tissues.

Alexandra Neeser is a Ph.D. student in the lab of Leyuan Ma, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Her research focuses on solid tumor microenvironment delivery of therapeutics.

 

William Karl Selboe Ojemann, a Ph.D. Student in Bioengineering, is a member of the Center for Neuroengineering and Therapeutics directed by Brian Litt, Professor in Bioengineering and Neurology. His research is focused on developing improved neurostimulation therapies for epilepsy and other neurological disorders.

Savan Patel (BSE Class of 2023) conducted research in the lab of Michael Mitchell, Associate Professor in Bioengineering, where he worked to develop lipid nanoparticle formulations for immunotherapy and extrahepatic delivery of mRNA. He will be joining the Harvard-MIT HST MEMP Ph.D. program in the fall of 2023.

David E. Reynolds, a Ph.D. student in Bioengineering, is a member of the lab of Jina Ko, Assistant Professor in Bioengineering and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. His research focuses on developing novel and translatable technologies to address currently intractable diagnostic challenges for precision medicine.

Andre Roots is a Ph.D. student in the lab of Christopher Madl, Assistant Professor in Materials Science and Engineering. His research focuses on the use of protein engineering techniques and an optimized 3D human skeletal muscle microtissue platform to study the effects of biophysical material properties on cells.

Emily Sharp, a second year Ph.D. student in Bioengineering, is a member of the lab of Robert Mauck, Mary Black Ralston Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery and Bioengineering, part of the McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratories. Her research focuses on designing multi-functional biomaterials to enhance tissue repair, specifically intervertebral disc repair following herniation and discectomy.

Nat Thurlow is a Ph.D. student in the lab of Louis J. Soslowsky, Fairhill Professor in Orthopedic Surgery and Bioengineering. Their current work focuses on delineating the roles of collagens V and XI in tendon mechanics, fibril structure, and gene expression during tendon development and healing.

Maggie Wagner, Ph.D. student in Bioengineering, is a member in the labs of Josh Baxter, Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, and Flavia Vitale, Assistant Professor in Neurology and Bioengineering. Her research focuses on the development of novel sensors to record and monitor muscle neuromechanics.

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César de la Fuente Receives 2023 Rao Makineni Lectureship Award

by Holly Wojcik

César de la Fuente
César de la Fuente

The American Peptide Society has selected César de la Fuente, Presidential Assistant Professor in Psychiatry, Microbiology, Bioengineering and in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, as the recipient of the prestigious 2023 Rao Makineni Lectureship Award.

Presented at the biennial American Peptide Symposium, the Makineni Lectureship Award recognizes an individual who has made a recent contribution of unusual merit to research in the field of peptide science, and is intended to acknowledge original and singular discoveries.

Established in 2003 by an endowment by PolyPeptide Laboratories and Murray and Zelda Goodman, this lectureship honors Rao Makineni, a long-time supporter of peptide science, peptide scientists, and the American Peptide Society.

This story originally appeared in Penn Engineering Today.

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Mustafa Mir Named HHMI Freeman Hrabowski Scholar

Mustafa Mir

Mustafa Mir, Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology in the Perelman School of Medicine and member of the Penn Bioengineering Graduate Group, was selected as one of Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s 31 new Freeman Hrabowski Scholars. The group consists of outstanding early career faculty in science who have potential to become leaders in their research fields and to create diverse and inclusive lab environments in which everyone can thrive. Mir and his lab develop and apply new microscopes to directly visualize the molecular scale events that underlie gene expression within live embryos.

Read a Q&A with Mir in the Children’s Hopsital of Philadelphia (CHOP)’s Cornerstone Blog: “‘New Technologies Lead to New Discoveries’: Q&A With HHMI Scholar Mustafa Mir, PhD.“

This announcement originally appeared in Penn Medicine News.

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Penn Bioengineering Graduate Ella Atsavapranee Wins 2023 Fulbright Grant

Ella Atsavapranee (BE 2023)

Twenty-nine University of Pennsylvania students, recent graduates, and alumni have been offered Fulbright U.S. Student Program grants for the 2023-24 academic year, including eight seniors who graduated May 15.

They will conduct research, pursue graduate degrees, or teach English in Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, France, Germany, Guatemala, India, Israel, Latvia, Mexico, Nepal, New Zealand, the West Bank-Palestine territories, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Thailand.

The Fulbright Program is the United States government’s flagship international educational exchange program, awarding grants to fund as long as 12 months of international experience.

Most of the Penn recipients applied for the Fulbright with support from the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships.

Among the Penn Fulbright grant recipients for 2023-24 is Ella Atsavapranee, from Cabin John, Maryland, who graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in bioengineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Science and a minor in chemistry from the College. She was offered a Fulbright to conduct research at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland.

At Penn, Atsavapranee worked with Michael Mitchell, J. Peter and Geri Skirkanich Assistant Professor in Bioengineering, engineering lipid nanoparticles to deliver proteases that inhibit cancer cell proliferation. She has also worked with Shan Wang, Leland T. Edwards Professor in the School of Engineering and Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, using bioinformatics to discover blood biomarkers for cancer detection. To achieve more equitable health care, she worked with Lisa Shieh, Clinical Professor in Medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine,  to evaluate an AI model that predicts risk of hospital readmission and study how room placement affects patient experience.

Outside of research, Atsavapranee spread awareness of ethical issues in health care and technology as editor-in-chief of the Penn Bioethics Journal and a teaching assistant for Engineering Ethics (EAS 2030). She was also a Research Peer Advisor for the Penn Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships (CURF), a student ambassador for the Office of Admissions, and a volunteer for Service Link, Puentes de Salud, and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She plans to pursue a career as a physician-scientist to develop and translate technologies that are more affordable and accessible to underserved populations.

Read the full list of Penn Fulbright grant recipients for 2023-24 in Penn Today.

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Class of 2023 Ivy Day

 

Bella Mirro (left) poses with Penn President Liz Magill. (Image: Prestige Portraits)

For 150 years, Ivy Day has been an annual tradition at Penn, with each graduating class installing at least one new plaque and planting a sprig of ivy. On Saturday, May 13, the class of 2023 added to the 200-plus plaques throughout campus with a stone designed by Marah Sanchez, a Class of 2023 student in the School of Nursing, and remarks from Vice Provost for University Life Karu Kozuma.

“The Ivy Day Award Ceremony is a special celebration that gives us an opportunity to acknowledge the contributions and accomplishments of our graduating student leaders,” Kozuma says. “It is also an occasion to create connections. At the ceremony, we have the privilege of meeting family members and loved ones who have supported the students, while the students can connect with alumni who received the same recognition 25 years ago.”

Among the honorees were several Penn Bioengineering students.

Isabella Mirro was presented with the Penn Student Agencies Award by President Liz Magill. This award recognizes distinguished academic achievement and significant leadership in undergraduate activities by a member of the senior class. Mirro, a graduate of the undergraduate Class of 2023, was recently profiled in 34th Street Magazine.

President Liz Magill (right) with the winners of the President’s Innovation Prize. (Image: Prestige Portraits)

Additionally, Tifara Boyce, Gabriela Cano, Gabriella Daltoso, Sophie Ishiwari, and Caroline Magro were formally presented with the President’s Innovation Prize for their startup Sonura. Sonura was featured in Penn Today for their award-winning beanie for NICU infants.

Read the full list of Ivy Day awards in Penn Today.

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Two from Penn Bioengineering Graduate Group Elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Four faculty from the University of Pennsylvania have been elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS). They are David Brainard of the School of Arts & Sciences; Duncan Watts of the Annenberg School of Communication, School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Wharton School; and Susan R. Weiss and Kenneth S. Zaret of the Perelman School of Medicine.

They join 120 members and 23 international members elected by their peers this year to NAS. Recognized for “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research,” this new class brings the total number of active members to 2,565 and of international members to 526.

Brainard and Zaret are members of the Penn Bioengineering Graduate Group.

David Brainard is the RRL Professor of Psychology, director of the Vision Research Center, and associate dean for the natural sciences in the School of Arts & Sciences. His research focuses on human vision, using both experiments and computer modeling of visual processing, to understand how the visual system deciphers information about objects from light entering the eye. Specifically, he and his lab are interested in color vision, conducting psychophysical experiments to investigate how the appearance of color is affected by an object’s surface properties and ambient light, and how color perception aids in identifying objects. Brainard is the recipient of many honors, including the Macbeth Award from the Inter-Society Color Council, Stein Innovation Award from Research to Prevent Blindness, and Edgard D. Tillyer Award from Optica. He is an elected member of the Society of Experimental Psychologists, a Silver Fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, and a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science.

Kenneth Zaret

Kenneth S. Zaret is the Joseph Leidy Professor in the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the Perelman School of Medicine, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and a member of the Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Program. His research focuses on gene regulation, cell differentiation, and chromatin structure, with a goal of elucidating these phenomena in the context of embryonic development and tissue regeneration. Pinpointing these aspects of development at the cellular level can serve as the basis for developing future therapeutics and experimental models that further scientists’ ability to understand and cure disease. Zaret has been the recipient of many honors, including a MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health, the Stanley N. Cohen Biomedical Research Award, and election as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Read the full announcement in Penn Today.

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CiPD Fellows Recognized with Research Awards

Members of the inaugural cohort of fellows in the Center for Innovation and Precision Dentistry (CiPD)’s NIDCR T90/R90 Postdoctoral Training Program have been recognized for their research activities with fellows receiving awards from the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR), the Society for Biomaterials, and the Osteology Foundation. All four of the honored postdocs are affiliated with Penn Bioengineering.

Zhi Ren

Zhi Ren won first place in the Fives-Taylor Award at the AADOCR Mini Symposium for Young Investigators. A postdoctoral fellow in the labs of Dr. Hyun (Michel) Koo at Penn Dental Medicine (and member of the Penn Bioengineering Graduate Group) and Dr. Kathleen Stebe of Penn Engineering, Dr. Ren’s research focuses on understanding how bacterial and fungal pathogens interact in the oral cavity to form a sticky plaque biofilm on teeth, which gives rise to severe childhood tooth decay that affects millions of children worldwide. In his award-winning study, titled “Interkingdom Assemblages in Saliva Display Group-Level Migratory Surface Mobility”, Dr. Ren discovered that bacteria and fungi naturally present in the saliva of toddlers with severe decay can form superorganisms able to move and rapidly spread on tooth surfaces.

Justin Burrell

Justin Burrell won second place in the AADOCR Hatton Competition postdoctoral category for his research. Dr. Burrell has been working with Dr. Anh Le in Penn Dental Medicine’s Department of Oral Surgery/Pharmacology and Dr. D. Kacy Cullen of Penn Medicine and Penn Bioengineering. Together, their interdisciplinary team of clinician-scientists, biologists, and neuroengineers have been developing novel therapies to expedite facial nerve regeneration and increase meaningful functional recovery.

Marshall Padilla

Marshall Padilla earned third place at the Society for Biomaterials Postdoctoral Recognition Award Competition for a project titled, “Branched lipid architecture improves lipid-nanoparticle-based mRNA delivery to the liver via enhanced endosomal escape”. Padilla was also a finalist in the AADOCR Hatton Award Competition, presenting on a separate project titled, “Lipid Nanoparticle Optimization for mRNA-based Oral Cancer Therapy”. Both projects employ lipid nanoparticles, the same delivery vehicles used in the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine technology. A postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Michael J. Mitchell of Penn’s Department of Bioengineering, Dr. Padilla’s research focuses on developing new ways to enhance the efficacy and safety of lipid nanoparticle technology and its applications in dentistry and biomedicine. He has been working in collaboration with Dr. Shuying (Sheri) Yang and Dr. Anh Le in Penn Dental Medicine.

Dennis Sourvanos

Dennis Sourvanos (GD’23, DScD’23) was the recipient of the Trainee Travel Grant award through the Osteology Foundation (Lucerne Switzerland). Dr. Sourvanos will be presenting his research related to medical dosimetry and tissue regeneration at the International Osteology Symposium in Barcelona, Spain (April 27th – 29th 2023). He also presented at the 2023 AADOCR/CADR Annual Meeting for his project titled, “Validating Head-and-Neck Human-Tissue Optical Properties for Photobiomodulation and Photodynamic Therapies.” Dr. Sourvanos has been working with Dr. Joseph Fiorellini in Penn Dental Medicine’s Department of Periodontics and Dr. Timothy Zhu in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Radiation Oncology and the Smilow Center for Translational Research (and member of the Penn Bioengineering Graduate Group).

Read the full announcement in Penn Dental Medicine News.