impact winter 06-07 - purdue engineering · engineering center, continuing the cardio- vascular...

PURDUE

WINTER 2006

Reengineering the human body

WINTER 2006-07

I’m delighted to welcome you to this issue of Engineering Impact (formerly Impact) maga-zine, whose theme is healthcare. Purdue Engineering’s roots in the field, specifically in biomedical engineering, go back to the 1970s, when pioneering researcher Leslie Geddes joined the Hillenbrand Biomedical Engineering Center, continuing the cardiovascular research that, among other accomplishments, established the laws of ventrical defibrillation. From that base, we today claim the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, an educational engine for undergraduate and graduate students seek-

ing to combine their interests in medicine and engineering, and a research engine for breakthroughs that will improve medical care for all of us. (See page 3 for our coverage of the Weldon School’s building dedication.) Our cover story beginning on page 12 shows how Weldon School researchers are improving the outlook for implantable devices. Stories from Purdue’s Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering (pages 16 and 17) demonstrate how professors from many additional areas, including Industrial Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Purdue’s Technical Assistance Program, contribute as well to the practice and management of healthcare systems. Healthcare is one of Purdue Engineering’s signature areas. We hope you enjoy this look into just how Purdue engineers are making a difference in this critical field.

Leah H. JamiesonJohn A. Edwardson Dean of EngineeringRansburg Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

FROM THE DEAN

AdministrationDean Leah H. Jamieson

Associate Dean, Academic Affairs Klod Kokini

Associate Dean, Graduate Education and Interdisciplinary Programs Audeen Fentiman

Associate Dean, Research and Entrepreneurship Jay Gore

Associate Dean, Resource Planning and Management Vince Bralts

Associate Dean, Undergraduate Education Mike Harris (interim)

Assistant Dean, Research and Entrepreneurship Edgar Martinez

Assistant Dean, Interdisciplinary Research Melba Crawford

Assistant Dean, Undergraduate Education Teri Reed-Rhoads

Director, Advancement Michael Stitsworth

Director, Financial Affairs Christopher Martin

Director, Marketing and Communications Rwitti Roy

Director, Strategic Planning and Assessment Carolyn Percifield

Schools, Departments, and DivisionsAgricultural and Biological Engineering Bernie Engel

Aeronautics and Astronautics Tom Farris

Biomedical Engineering George Wodicka

Chemical Engineering Arvind Varma

Civil Engineering Kathy Banks

Construction Engineering and Management Kathy Banks (interim)

Electrical and Computer Engineering Mark Smith

Engineering Education Kamyar Haghighi

Environmental and Ecological Engineering Inez Hua (interim)

Industrial Engineering Nagabhushana Prabhu

Materials Engineering Alex King

Mechanical Engineering Dan Hirleman

Nuclear Engineering Vince Bralts

Engineering ImpactDirector, Marketing and Communications Rwitti Roy

Editor Lisa Hunt Tally

Contributing Writers Erin Lukesh,

Kathy Mayer,

Blake Powers,

Cynthia Sequin,

Linda Thomas Terhune,

Emil Venere

Editorial Assistants Mica Gould,

Jenna Rump

Designer Swapnil Mathkar

Engineering Impact is published twice a year by the Purdue University College of Engineering. The magazine is distributed free to more than 72,000 alumni and friends of the College of Engineering. Produced by the Engineering Communications Office. Purdue is an equal access/equal opportunity university, committed to the development and nurturing of a racially, socially, and religiously diverse community. Tell us what you think. Please send your letters to: Engineering Impact, Purdue University, 1435 Win Hentschel Blvd., Suite B120, West Lafayette, IN 47906; e-mail: [email protected]. In doing so, you grant us permission to publish your letter in part or in whole in an upcoming issue. We reserve the right to edit letters for length or clarity. Moving? Alumni should send change-of-address notices to Development and Alumni Information Services, Purdue University, 403 West Wood St., West Lafayette, IN 47907. Other readers may send address changes to Engineering Impact (see contact information above).

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

You’re surely surprised to see that Impact underwent a small name change. We had titled our magazine Impact due to what we intended to address each time—Purdue Engineering’s global impact on our world and humanity.

Shortly after publishing our inaugural issue, however, we learned that another university had trademarked the title Impact across several media, including magazines. Therefore, we chose to elongate our title slightly to Engineering Impact so we can still convey—through the title—the “impact” of Purdue Engineering.

Please accept my apologies for any confusion this change has caused. Despite a revised title, our publication will maintain the same format and purpose as before.

Rwitti Roy Director, Marketing and Communications

Winter 2006-07

COVER

12

1617

Implantable devices: taking on epilepsy, arterial disease, tissue expansion, and obesity Preparing for a pandemic Purdue’s Regenstrief Center: a healthcare project roundup

1822

Kids on campus: reaching out to future engineers Opportunity Motorsports keeps students on track

FEATURES

28 Two young alums go for GOLD

RESONANCE

29 Honorary doctorates • EAA Service Award winner

ALUMNI NEWS

32 What is it?

APERTURE

30 Three views on embryonic stem cell research

MOSAIC

25 Learning the business of entrepreneurship

STUDENT IMPACT

24 Professor Alex King reflects on healthcare lessons learned from a year spent in Africa

FIRST PERSON

26 William Link launches breakthrough products in ophthalmology

ALUMNI IMPACT

2 Featuring “Around the Fountain,” “Prime Numbers,” and news from across the College of Engineering

VANTAGE POINTSINSIDE ENGINEERING IMPACT

VANTAGE POINTS

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purdue engineering impact

You’re at the front desk in the dean’s offi ce. What are your responsibili-ties?I meet and greet guests, provide informa-tion, give directions, offer hospitality,answer the phone—whatever it takes. I want to make people feel comfortable.

2

VANTAGE POINTSVANTAGE POINTS

AROUND THE FOUNTAIN

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As secretary in the Offi ce of the Dean of Engineering,

Maggie Grogan is the face of Purdue Engineering to the public.

Connecting with people, she says, is what it’s all about.

July 11, 2006 • 10:05 a.m. Engineering Administration Building, Room 101

Swap

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As secretary in the Offi ce of the Dean of Engineering,

Maggie Grogan

Connecting with people, she says, is what it’s all about.

July 11, 2006 • 10:05 a.m.

Purdue Engineering Creates Ecological and Environmental DivisionThis summer the College of Engineering created a new academic division dedicated to

environmental and ecological concerns. The mission of the Division of Environmental

and Ecological Engineering: to give students a greater overall understanding of how

engineering affects the environment. While there are currently more than 50 graduate and

undergraduate engineering courses that incorporate environmental considerations, this

division will organize these courses so that students will be able to focus their studies.

“One objective of the new division,” says Inez Hua, associate professor of civil engineer-

ing and interim head (shown at near left), “is to coordinate those many course offerings

into a coherent program which will highlight the existing strengths of our faculty.”

The division will also develop a seminar series as well as create an environmental and

ecological minor for all engineering majors.

Union and returned them to the airport at the end of the day. It was a privilege to be involved in that.

What other kinds of visitors do you meet? Students, parents, job candidates, corpo-rate CEOs…. We’ve had many international visitors. I enjoy the variety.

As a non-engineer, how would you characterize engineers? They’re inquisitive—they’re always looking to fi nd an answer, to dig deeper. Some are more personable than others. I haven’t met one yet I didn’t like, though.

What are the rewards of your work?There’s an excitement in seeing the students come back each fall and in hearing the band rehearse over by Elliott Hall. I can hear the drums from my desk! And, generally, just the people I meet. You make a connec-tion, and you realize you have something in common.

What are some of the more unusual requests you get? High school students who are here on campus for summer camps come in every year and ask me, “Where’s John Purdue’s grave?” It’s for a scavenger hunt. Just today, a student came in to ask me where the statue of [former Purdue president] Steven Beering is.

Where is John Purdue’s grave?It’s in the Purdue Memorial Mall. Along the horseshoe drive between Stewart Center and Stone Hall, on the west side, there’s a fountain that has the stone marker.

And the statue of Steven Beering? That’s in the Great Hall in the Union, along with the other presidents.

Any other memorable assignments?A few years ago, I helped escort a delegation of VIPs from the United Arab Emiratesaround campus. We met them at 7 a.m. at the

Vin

cent

Wal

ter

—MICA GOULD

—LISA HUNT TALLY

Winter 2006-07 3

The building design encourages student and faculty interac-tions with informal and formal gathering spaces and strategi-cally aligns research facilities to maximize the sharing of resources. The design “sheds the traditional teaching and spatial models of the past,” says Kalevi Huotilainen of the archi-tectural fi rm BSA LifeStructures, which designed the building.

The interconnected central instructional laboratory complex contains a wet-bench laboratory (cell and tissue biology), an instrumentation laboratory (mechanical and electrical testing), a tissue culture facility, and a microscope darkroom (light and fl uorescence). A central prep room and instructional coordina-tor’s offi ce link the learning activities scheduled for all levels of undergraduate laboratories.

The “Flex Lab” instructional laboratory space—a centralized space for engineering design courses—features a “dance fl oor” arrangement, with services like electricity, gases, and water provided from the ceiling, that allows benches and other mobile equipment to be reconfi gured as needed for prototype design and testing.

Optics laboratories are built on their own individual concrete slabs in the basement, isolating highly sensitive instrumenta-tion from vibrations that could affect measurements.

Biomedical Engineering Highlights

BME’s graduate program has doubled

in size to more than 80 students.

BME’s fi rst undergraduate class will

graduate this academic year.

15 primary BME faculty members will

be joined by 10 more full-time faculty

members in the next two years.

Cook Group Inc. has provided $750,000

to endow the Leslie A. Geddes Chair in

Biomedical Engineering.

On September 22, Purdue dedicated its $25 million biomedical engineering building, a four-story, 91,000-square-foot structure situated at the entrance to the University’s Discovery Park research complex. As the new home of the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, the glass, brick, and metal building houses highly specialized research labs and integrated educa-tional facilities that will involve students in real-world research. “Biomedical engineering is the foundation of one of the key industries in Indiana,” said Purdue president Martin C. Jischke at the dedication. “We’re building the knowledge base at Purdue to support and grow this vital part of the Indiana economy.”

Building the Biomed Knowledge BasePurdue dedicates the new home of the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.

—BLAKE POWERS AND CYNTHIA SEQUIN

3

Vincent Walter

purdue engineering impact4


Purdue’s interim dean of the College of Engineering, Leah H. Jamieson, was appointed the John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering on August 2, 2006. She succeeds Linda P. B. Katehi, who left Purdue in April to become the provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In addition to serving as the Ransburg Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and as a former associate dean for undergraduate educa-tion, Jamieson is co-founder and past director of Purdue’s Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS), a national model for engineering service-learning. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Techno-logy and a doctoral degree in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University, joining Purdue’s faculty in 1976. Jamieson is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the recipient of several awards in research and education, including the 2002 Indiana Professor of the Year award and the National Science Foundation Director’s Award for Disting-uished Teaching Scholars. She also has served on advisory committees of the National Science Foundation and was recently elected to serve as IEEE’s 2007 president. Her research interests include computer engineering, signal processing, and engineering education. Here, a chat with Purdue’s new engineer-ing dean.

Leah H. Jamieson Appointed Engineering DeanHer byword: impact.

Leah H. Jamieson

Engineering Dean

Q. Why did you apply for the deanship?A. Purdue has given me amazing oppor-tunities, and I’m committed to Purdue. The current priorities for Purdue’s engineering dean are in areas that I care about person-ally and enormously: revolutionizing the undergraduate curriculum, tackling diversity from new perspectives, building research communities around our multidisciplinary signature areas, and improving our graduate program, not just in terms of numbers but also in terms of the quality of our students’ experience. This position felt like the right job at the right time.

Q. How would you characterize this stage in Purdue Engineering’s his-tory?A. We’ve had tremendous growth during the past four years. Our faculty has expanded from 289 to 340, and we have eight major building projects completed or under way. Now I would like to transform the conversation to talk about impact: What are the fruits of our labor? What does our research offer the world around us? What contributions will our students, faculty, and staff make during their professional lives?

Q. Why does the undergraduate cur-riculum need to be revolutionized?A. At Purdue, we’ve been inspired by the National Academy of Engineering’s report The Engineer of 2020, which looks at the changing world around us and the resulting implications for engineers. We’re working now on curriculum design and reform that will develop technical strength, leadership, the capacity for innovation, global perspec-tive, fl exibility, and creativity so that our graduates will be able to identify needs and construct effective solutions in an economi-cally, socially, and culturally relevant manner. For example, one of the biggest challenges for engineers today is the rate of technologi-cal change. Some estimates put the “half-life” of current engineering and technical knowledge at two to fi ve years, and that af-fects the way we need to teach engineering students. Also, our graduates can expect to work for several different companies over their careers. The lifetime-employee model no longer exists. That reality puts the focus of lifelong learning more clearly on the university. This is just one example of how changes in the profession are driving

Vincent Walter

Winter 2006-07 5

—Interview by LISA HUNT TALLY

us to think about how we will prepare our students for careers that will extend beyond the year 2050.

Q. How did the service-learning program EPICS originate?A. Engineering Projects in Community Service grew out of discussions, infor-mally, with a group of faculty members that included Ed Coyle, Hank Dietz, and several others. This was in the early 1990s, when academia was hearing a lot from industry about how professional skills—communica-tions, teamwork, leadership, resourceful-ness—were becoming more important. So, in these informal faculty talks, we’d ask, “What aren’t we doing well?” That led us to think about incorporating some experi-ential piece—truly open-ended problem-solving—into an academic program and building the curriculum thread from the early years through the senior year so that the design problems students could take on were longer-lasting. Then we asked, “Where will we fi nd projects?” That was the last piece to fall into place. We saw a request for proposals from a U.S. Department of Education program suggesting community nonprofi ts as a source of service-learning projects, and we had this light-bulb kind of experience: we realized we could improve engineering education and provide service to the community at the same time. And that’s what EPICS does.

Q. What role do alumni play in the success of Purdue Engineering?A. When we look at the impact of Purdue Engineering, we see it most in our alumni. Our graduates have fl own to the moon and back. They’ve developed new medical devices, improved the quality of our water and air, and launched innovative companies around the world. They’ve risen to top levels of leadership in industry, government, and academia. We have an extraordinary alumni advisory council, made up of men and women who devote time and thought to helping us understand issues beyond Purdue’s doors. We need continued dialogue with our alums. And every day, the generosity of our alums enables our success through scholarships, named professorships, and cutting-edge facilities that allow us to be the best.

Q. What are the rewards of being an engineer?A. There’s no question: engineers make things happen. They—we—create new things and have an impact on people’s lives, on the world, on the human condition. Almost everything we do or use requires something made by engineers.

Q. What brings you the most joy in your work at Purdue?A. It’s the opportunity to collaborate on projects where you can see that something

remarkable is going to happen—whether it’s in working with students, with other researchers, or with our extraordinary faculty and leadership team. That can be unbelievably exhilarating.

In the fall of 2005, the college

enrolled more than 6,200

undergraduate students and

more than 2,200 graduate

students, making it one of the

largest in the nation

Purdue Engineering’s strategic

plan calls for increasing faculty

size to 395 over the long term.

The strategic plan also includes

more than $273 million for

facilities and equipment.

EPICS, or Engineering Projects

in Community Service, began

in 1995 with 40 students and

today includes more than 250

Purdue students each semes-

ter. It serves as a model that

has been adopted at 16 uni-

versities and one high school.

In 2005 EPICS was honored

with the National Academy of

Engineering’s $500,000 Bernard

M. Gordon Prize for Innovation

in Engineering and Technology

Education.

At left and on facing page: Jamieson’s early years at Purdue; furthering experiential learning through EPICSAt left and on facing page: Jamieson’s early years at Purdue; furthering experiential learning through EPICS

Photo

s cour tesy o

f Leah H. Jam

ieson


alternatives. And we should enact stricter vehicle mileage standards to point automobile innovation toward conservation. The plan I am proposing today would achieve the replacement of 6.5 million barrels of oil per day by volume— the rough equivalent of one third of the oil used in America and one half of our current oil imports.” Indiana governor Mitch Daniels and Ford Motor Company’s vice president of environment and safety engineering, Sue Cischke, joined other national leaders at the summit, which drew about 900 auto and oil industry representatives. Brian Lamb, president and CEO of C-SPAN, moderated the summit’s panel discussion. Purdue president Martin C. Jischke, who was recently named to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, cited energy in his remarks as a principal area of research at Purdue: “Researchers at Purdue are leaders in the development of alternative fuels. There is an interdisciplinary approach at Purdue to work in the fi eld of energy research, including biofuels and clean-coal tech-nology, as well as other alternative energy sources, including nuclear, hydrogen, wind and solar. Energy policy also is a strong area of study at Purdue.”

Energy Chair Funded at Purdue

Purdue alumnus Fred Fehsenfeld (BSME ’48), chairman of the executive committee of 26 diverse companies known as The Heritage Group, is funding a chair in energy in the College of Engineering with a $1.5 million gift. “Our nation needs a crash research program to address this energy challenge,” he says. “Engineers are taught to solve problems. This one is very complex, so we need to take a multidisciplinary approach.” Fehsenfeld founded Asphalt Materials Inc. in the late 1950s. Since then, he has established a string of other enterprises related to petroleum refi ning, asphalt processing, construction, aggregate production, and waste management.

6

—CYNTHIA SEQUIN

In his keynote address to the Richard G. Lugar-Purdue University Summit on Energy Security, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar called for dramatic and immediate action to address U.S. energy vulnerability. “Neither American oil companies nor American car companies have shown an inclination to dramatically transform their businesses in ways that will achieve the degree of change we need to address a national security emergency,” Lugar said. “Most importantly, the federal government is not treating energy vulnerability as a crisis, despite an increase in energy-related proposals.” Lugar presented a plan that he said could reduce oil imports by about half. “The United States should adopt a national program that would make virtually every new car sold in America a fl exible-fuel vehicle,” he said. “We should ensure that at least one quarter of fi lling stations in America have E85 pumps. We should expand ethanol production to 100 billion gallons a year by 2025, a fi gure that could be achieved by doubling output every fi ve years. We should also create an approximate $45 per barrel price fl oor on oil through a variable ethanol tax credit to ensure that investments keep fl owing to

Energy Vulnerability a ‘National Security Emergency’Can America cut back to one half of its current oil imports?

Energy Vulnerability a ‘National Security Emergency’

Senator Richard Lugar called for dramatic and immediate action to address U.S. energy

vulnerability at the Lugar-Purdue University Summit on Energy Security this past August.

Fred Fehsenfeld


Winter 2006-07 7

Purdue researchers have created a simulation that uses scientifi c principles to study in detail what likely happened when a commer-cial airliner crashed into the World Trade Center’s North Tower on September 11, 2001. The simulation could be used to better understand which elements in the building’s structural core were affected, how they responded to the initial shock of the aircraft collision, and how the tower later collapsed from the ensuing fi re fed by an estimated 10,000 gallons of jet fuel, says Mete Sozen, the Kettelhut Distinguished Professor of Structural Engineering in Purdue’s School of Civil Engineering. It took about 80 hours using a high-performance computer con-taining 16 processors to produce the fi rst simulation, which depicts

Simulating the World Trade Center CollapsePurdue civil engineering and computer science faculty collaborate to analyze the damage.

how the plane tore through several stories of the structure within a half-second, says Christoph M. Hoffmann, a professor of computer science and co-director of the Computing Research Institute at Purdue. The researchers are analyzing how many columns were destroyed initially in the building’s core, a spine of 47 heavy steel I-beams extending through the center of the structure, Sozen says. “Current fi ndings from the simulation have identifi ed the destruction of 11 columns on the 94th fl oor, 10 columns on the 95th fl oor, and nine columns on the 96th fl oor,” he says. “This is a major insight. When you lose close to 25 percent of your columns at a given level, the building is signifi cantly weakened and vulnerable to collapse.”

Purdue took another step forward to increase the number of teachers and educators with engineering backgrounds when it graduated its fi rst engineering education doctoral student this past August. Tamara Moore of Indianapolis received her doctoral degree in engineering education and earned the outstanding graduate student award for engineering education. In 2004 Purdue became the fi rst university in the nation to establish an engineering education department. The Virginia Tech Department of Engineering Education was established the same year, and other universities, such as Utah State University, are following the trend by creating areas devoted to engineering education. Purdue’s engineering education degree program was established in 2005. Moore has accepted a position as an assistant professor of mathematics education in the University of Minnesota College of Education. “My background is math, and I wanted to be a math teacher, but I have also always been interested in engineering, and the whole concept of engineering education intrigued me,” she says. “Engineering education is in its infancy right now. I felt having an expertise in both math and engineering would make me more marketable.” Moore hopes to encourage future preschool to 12th-grade teachers to incorporate engineering concepts into their classroom curriculum.

Pioneering Student, Pioneering ProgramPurdue graduates its fi rst engineering education doctoral student.

Tamara Moore—CYNTHIA SEQUIN

—EMIL VENERE AND ELIZABETH K. GARDNER

Mete Sozen


MILESTONES

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Celebrated: The 10th anniversary of Purdue Engineering student participation in NASA’s Reduced-Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program, featuring the Vomit Comet, an aircraft used to induce weightlessness for experiments and astronaut training. Six Purdue teams were accepted to fly in the program in 2006, including the team shown here. Facing the camera, from left, are Kate Bonamici, a Fortune magazine reporter who flew with the team; Kathryn Bradley, a Purdue senior in aeronautical and astronautical engineering; and Andrew Maurer, a senior in aeronautical and astronautical engineering and physics. In the background are NASA officials participating in the flight.

Appointed: M. Katherine Banks as the head of the School of Civil Engineering. Melba Crawford, professor of agronomy, civil, and electrical and computer engineering and director of the Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing, as the Chair of Excellence in Earth Observation. Teri Reed-Rhoads as assistant dean of undergraduate education.

Recognized: Purdue’s College of Engineering as the nation’s second-best engineering college for Hispanic students, by Hispanic Business magazine.

Ranked: Purdue’s undergraduate engineering program

as eighth nationally, by U.S. News & World Report (August 2006).

Among the programs ranked in the top 10: Industrial/manufacturing (2nd),

Agricultural (4th), Aerospace/aeronautical/astronomical (4th), Civil (7th),

Mechanical (7th), and Electrical (9th). This past April, U.S. News ranked

Purdue’s graduate program sixth nationally.


Winter 2006-07 9

Named: Kinam Park as the Showalter Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering. Suresh V. Garimella as the R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Rao S. Govindaraju as the Christopher B. Burke Professor of Civil Engineering. Nagabhushana Prabhu as the James J. Solberg Head of the School of Industrial Engineering.

Honored: Ernest Blatchley III, professor of civil engineering, as a board-certifi ed environmental engineer by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers. Suresh V. Garimella, the R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering and director of the Cooling Technologies Research Center, and Kumar Muthuraman, assistant professor of industrial engineering, as participants in the National Academy of Engineering’s Frontiers of Engineering program. Daniel W. Halpin, professor emeritus and retired Bowen Head of the Division of Construction Engineering and Management, with honorary membership by the American Society of Civil Engineers, and with the Carroll H. Dunn Award of Excellence by the Construction Industry Institute. J. Paul Robinson, professor of biomedical engineering and director of the Purdue Cytometry Laboratories, with the two-year presidency of the International Society for Analytical Cytology.

Awarded: The American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Chemical Engineering Practice Award, to Rakesh Agrawal, the Winthrop E. Stone Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering. The American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum Award, to Ronald Andres, profes-sor emeritus of chemical engineering. The National Outstanding Faculty Adviser Award from the Institute of Industrial Engineers, to James Barany, profes-sor of industrial engineering. The New York Catalysis Society’s Excellence in Catalysis Award, to W. Nicholas Delgass, professor of chemical engineering. The 2006 Achievement Award from the International Network for Engineering Education and Research, to E. Daniel Hirleman, the William E. and Florence E. Perry Head and Professor of Mechanical Engineering and interim director of Global Engineering Programs. The inaugu-ral Paul Dana Biofuels Award, to Michael Ladisch, distinguished professor of agriculture and biomedical engineering and head of the Laboratory of Renewable Resources. The National Outstanding Fellow Award from the Institute of Industrial Engineers, to Ronald Rardin, professor of industrial engineering. The Cyril Veinott Electromechanical Energy Conversion Award from the IEEE Power Engineering Society, to Scott Sudhoff, professor of electrical and computer engineering. The 2005 Eta Kappa Nu C. Holmes MacDonald Outstanding Teaching Award, to Tom Talavage, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Park Govindaraju

Prabhu

Sudhoff

Blatchley

Garimella

Halpin

American Society of Civil Engineers, and with the Carroll H. Dunn Award of

Muthuraman

Robinson

AgrawalAndres

Ladisch

W. Nicholas

Delgass

Talavage

Barany

RardinHirleman


1961

PhD students Edward Schmidt and Frank Clark enroll in the School of Electrical Engineering, pursuing research on information transmission in the nervous system of pigs—and initiating the fi rst documented biomedi-cal engineering project at Purdue.

1976

Mechanical engineering professors Ben Hillberry and Allen Hall construct a rolling contact joint that can be used in a pros-thetic knee joint. Today their design is used to help some of the 435,000 Americans who have a hip or knee replaced each year.

1977

Chemical engineering professor Robert Hannemann and mechani-cal engineering professor David DeWitt invent a method of evaluating levels of jaundice in infants without drawing blood, becoming the fi rst researchers (since the Middle Ages’ idea of “humours”) to demonstrate a correlation between jaundice’s telltale yellow color and the patient’s bilirubin level.

1980

Electrical engineering PhD student John Anthony Pearce completes his dissertation on the current and temperature distribu-tion under current-carrying electrodes on the skin. Thisdissertation soon becomes the basis for FDA stan-dards for electrosurgical dispersive electrodes.

1981

Hillenbrand research-ers Les Geddes (shown above) and Joe Bourland help to develop the fi rst automated miniature defi brillator. This device, which jolts the heart with electricity during a heart attack, is small enough to implant inside a person. Implantable cardioverter-defi brillators (ICDs) are later also combined with pacemakers and become one of the standard treat-ments for heart disease.

PRIME NUMBERS

A Timeline of Biomedical AccomplishmentMedicine’s intersection with engineering has been a Purdue focus since the establishment in the 1970s of the Hillenbrand Biomedical Engineering Center. With the creation of the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering in 2004 (the program was formed at the department level in 1998), and ongoing healthcare-related activity across the College of Engineering, Purdue continues to deliver signifi cant advances in areas including cardiac care, orthopedic implants, medical imaging systems, drug delivery, and tissue engineering. More than 75 U.S. patents have been issued based on Purdue discovery research in biomedical engineering, and more than half of those have been licensed for use by industry. Here, a look at 10 Purdue biomed milestones over the years. —MICA GOULD


Winter 2006-07 11

1988

After unexpectedly discovering healing qualities of intestinal cells while looking for ways to make substitute blood vessels, Hillenbrand researchers help to devel-op a method for preparing a tissue graft composi-tion. This revolutionary material, called small-intestine submucosa, or SIS, prompts the human body to replace damaged tissues with little or no scarring, re-creating the healing effi ciency of young children.

1997

Purdue chemical engineers under the direction of Nicholas Peppas synthesize a novel drug delivery system that offers promise to the United States’ 20.8 million children and adults with diabetes. The glucose-sensitive hydrogel is designed to deliver insulin to diabetic patients using an internal pH trigger, enabling the individual’s own glucose level to determine and direct the insulin delivery.

2002

Industrial engineering professor Nagabhushana Prabhu’s work on the applications of optimization leads to a sensitive new technique for diagnosing malignancy in breast tumors. Instead of look-ing at a slide under a microscope, the pathologist takes a digital image and analyzes it mathematically. The procedure is not only less invasive than a surgi-cal biopsy but also more accurate than the most common current methods.

2005

Civil engineering professor Ernest “Chip” Blatchley III teams with medicinal chemistry professor Donald Bergstrom and biomedical engineering professor J. Paul Robinson to develop an ultraviolet (UV) water disinfection process using microspheres to measure dose distribution measure-ments. Now thousands of utilities in the U.S. are considering UV applications in drinking water produc-tion.

2006

The National Science Foundation establishes the Engineering Research Center for Structured Organic Composites, in which Purdue is a participating member. The center’s mission: to improve the way pharma-ceuticals (along with foods and agricultural products) are manufactured.


implantabledevices

12

In the 1970s TV show The Six Million Dollar Man, astronaut Steve Austin suffers severe injuries during the crash of a military aircraft he’s flying, prompting Oscar Goldman, the head of a U.S. secret service called OSI, to deliver the line, “We can rebuild him. We have the technology.” That bit of dialogue was science fiction at the time—Austin was outfitted with a bionic (or cy-bernetic) eye, arm, and legs—and it’s become a kitschy catchphrase since, but the idea behind it is no joke to today’s biomedical researchers. Since the 1950s, when the first implantable pacemaker was developed, the medical field has witnessed a steady surge in devices made of metal, ceramic, or plastic that physicians have placed inside our bodies to bring healing, control physiological functions, or relieve pain. There are defibrillators for those with arrhythmic hearts. Hip replacements for the arthritic. Muscle and neurological stimulators for treating inconti-nence or tremor. Cochlear implants for the hear-ing-impaired. Seizure-monitoring devices for those with epilepsy. Insulin-filled pumps for diabetics. And the growing field of tissue engineering holds the promise of regenerating body tissue or entire organs to replace damaged parts. Today it’s pretty normal for ordinary people—not just astronauts-turned-secret-agents—to go about their lives with prostheses or other health-improv-ing devices implanted inside them. Indeed, says George Wodicka, head of Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, “Most of us will have implants. And, technologically, those devices will have to be smart”—that is, able to sense and adapt to changing conditions. Researchers at the Weldon School are at work on a host of implantable-device applications, in some cases expanding the notion of what constitutes a “device” to include, for instance, gels and tissue-mimicking materials. In their sights: epilepsy, arterial disease, tissue expansion, and obesity.

b y L I S A H U N T T A L L Y

Winter 2006-07 13

In the Brain Computer Interface Laboratory, Assistant Professor Pedro Irazoqui special-izes in neural prosthetic devices, specifi cally those incorporating application-specifi c, modular integrated circuits. The work is opening new avenues for treating neural disorders through miniature, wireless, electronic prostheses. In particular, in collaboration with assistant professor and colleague Jenna Rickus, Irazoqui is devel-oping a device that can predict and prevent epileptic seizures before they occur. “Thirty percent of epilepsy patients are pharmacoresistant,” he notes, meaning that they don’t respond to medication. “This de-vice will reduce or eliminate many patients’ need for drugs.” Epilepsy and seizures affect 2.7 million Americans, according to the Epilepsy Foundation, and 10 percent of new patients fail to gain control of seizures despite optimal medical management. Funded by the Cure Foundation’s Christopher Donalty Interdisciplinary Research Award and the Purdue Research Foundation, Irazoqui and

Rickus’s research is aimed at patients suf-fering focal seizures with secondary gener-alization—that is, seizures whose electrical activity begins in a limited area of the brain before spreading over the entire cortex. “Targeting treatment to a specifi c area of the brain immediately before and during a seizure would present a signifi cant advance-ment,” says Irazoqui. The goal of the project is to develop a novel, cell-based neural prosthetic that electrically detects a seizure before it occurs and that responds by stimu-lating transplanted nerve cells to rapidly release GABA, a chemical messenger in the body that depresses nervous function. The release of GABA, a critical therapeutic target in epilepsy, prevents the seizure. What distinguishes Irazoqui and Rickus’s epilepsy implant is its hybrid nature, the melding of biology and engineering. “Having electrodes implanted in your brain isn’t normal,” Irazoqui observes. “They’re typi-cally made of metal, with an insulator, and metal ions wind up fl oating around in your brain—not a good thing.” Rickus provides

expertise in coating the electrodes with neural cells engineered to release GABA. (Recent work demonstrates how these cells behave when attached to thin fi lms of silica.) Irazoqui focuses on the hardware requirements, which involve the device’s sensing and stimulation functions as well as the power supply and two-way telemetry for wireless communication. The integrated circuit is mounted onto microstrip boards, with patch antennas and neural electrodes. These assemblies are packaged using biocompatible ceramic to form the 12-millimeter-wide implantable device. The device then interfaces the brain with an external real-time digital-signal-pro-cessor computer, transmitting information to a receiver worn on the belt—and providing the capability for closed-loop clinical treat-ment. The total package? Engineered cells and fabricated microchips in one seamless design. Device testing is under way.

PreventingEpilepticSeizures

Pedro Irazoqui (left) and Jenna Rickus (right) with graduate students Travis Hassell, Sabrina Jedlicka, and Pooja Rajdev.Vincent Walter

purdue engineering impact14 purdue engineering impact

Associate Professor Alyssa Panitch stud-ies human blood vessels—why are their mechanics the way they are?—with an eye toward translating her fi ndings into working, implantable synthetic polymers for use in cardiovascular repair. More than 71 million Americans have cardiovascular disease, and more than 500,000 vascular grafts are implanted each year in the U.S. “We’re very interested in how blood vessels’ smooth muscle cells function and how the matrix that surrounds those cells provides cues for function,” says Panitch, a recipient of both the National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award and the National Institutes of Health K25 Career Award. The vessel wall contains smooth muscle cells underneath the endothelium, the surface layer lining the vessel. In her NSF-funded research, Panitch has taken rings of smooth muscle artery,

eliminated some of the molecules from that natural tissue, and then gauged how ably the smooth muscle cells can contract that tissue (or not). Contraction is important, of course, because that’s how blood is pushed through the cardiovascular system. “What we’ve found is that when we remove polysaccharides—long-chain sugars—from the cells, then they aren’t as able to contract the artery as they were in the native vessel,” she says. “We were surprised to see the degree of strength that the polysaccharide-protein interaction can give to a material. The mechanical results are similar to the magnitude of a covalent bond. That was a big wow.” Identifying the components that are crucial to smooth-muscle-cell function is fundamental to Panitch’s tissue engineering research, which aims to mimic the proper-ties of natural tissue in synthetic extracellular

matrixes, or scaffolds, that can be placed inside a patient to prompt the growth of natural tissue. “The vessel itself is a very complex material, and there are lots of different types of molecules within it,” Panitch notes. “It’s diffi cult for engineers to reengineer that exactly. Once we’ve re-created the static and dynamic mechanics of the vessel, we’ll build in the biological cues that will allow native cells of the body to regenerate a blood vessel.” The scaffolding material will have the con-sistency of Jell-o or mayonnaise, she says, and will form on site, within the body, from the injection of two liquids that join together in long-chain polymers. “We’ll be looking at how to simplify the system enough to manu-facture the product,” Panitch says, “and still provide enough information in the material so that it can function like natural tissue.”

Arteries From Synthetic Biomaterials

Tissue engineer Alyssa PanitchVincent Walter

Winter 2006-07 15

For Kinam Park, Purdue’s Showalter Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and a member of the National Institutes of Health’s Bioengineering, Technology and Surgical Sciences study section, expertise in controlled drug release and in the development of hydrogels is yielding a multitude of applications, includ-ing advances to implantable devices like the drug-eluting stent. This coated, lattice-shaped metal tube isimplanted inside diseased, narrowed arter-ies to hold them open and prevent reste-nosis, or re-narrowing. The coating slowly releases a drug designed to prevent the clotting and scar-tissue growth that often happen after the insertion of bare-metal stents. Since their FDA approval in 2003, drug-eluting stents have become a major means of preventing heart attacks; an esti-mated 6 million of the stents are implanted in patients now. Park developed the drug-loading techno-logy for the stent from Conor Medsystems, which is currently under clinical study. For the second generation of drug-eluting stents, he says, “we’re looking at what kind of drug to deliver and for how long. Right now, stents deliver just one drug, but we may need to allow for two or three, because the body responds to the implants in differ-ent ways.”

Park’s focus is on developing layer-by-layer coating methods for delivery of two or more drugs at different times for different durations. Because the properties of diff-erent drugs can be so different, controlling their release profi les using the same very thin coating layer—in the range of 20 to 50 micrometers—is extremely challenging. Park’s current research is focused on devel-oping a new layer-by-layer coating method for the delivery of drugs having vastly differ-ent molecular weights and water solubility. He’s also working on superporous hydro-gels for applications including the develop-ment and refi nement of tissue expanders, which are implants used to enable the body to grow additional skin for reconstructive surgery. Conventional tissue expanders consist of infl atable silicone balloons implanted under the skin and injected with saline. The slowly enlarging balloon expands the overlaying skin, a technique commonly used for reconstructive surgery following mastectomy and for transplants of skin to other areas of the body that have suffered trauma, wounds, or burns. “We are developing new, delayed-swelling hydrogels as tissue expanders,” says Park. Whereas silicone balloons have a predefi ned shape and size, and so can’t be reshaped by surgeons, hydrogels can be reshaped and thus can be tailored by the surgeon to

the individual patient’s needs. The hydrogels are soft and elastic in the dried state, for easy handling, but they swell after a certain time period upon implantation. Purdue has licensed the technology to MicroVention Inc. for use in treating cerebral aneurysms. Called the HydroCoil Embolic System, the device consists of a platinum coil coated with the hydrogel polymer. The coil is deployed into the aneurysm, fi lling it from within and preventing blood from entering the aneurysm itself. The hydrogel swells to a predetermined diameter, absorb-ing along the way blood components that promote healing. The superporous material was also licensed for the development of a gastric retention device for long-term oral drug delivery and an appetite-suppressing system. Oral drug delivery formulations made from the gels would swell rapidly in the stomach, causing medications to move more slowly from the stomach to the intestines. “Because the hydrogels swell so dramatically in the stomach, they might be used to induce the feeling of being full, reducing hunger pangs,” says Park.

Hydrogel expert Kinam Park. Inset: A superporous hydrogel before and after swelling.

Of Stents, Tissue Expanders, and Diet Aids

Vincent Walter


Mark Lawley

According to Indiana projections, an out-break of pandemic fl u attacking 15 percent of the population could cause more than 16,000 total excess hospital admissions over eight weeks. With a 35 percent attack rate, excess admissions soar to 39,000 (Indiana State Department of Health, 2006). In a state with just over 17,600 total hospital beds, such surges could cripple hospitals and clinics that are already operating at close to capacity. At Purdue, industrial engineering profes-sor Mark Lawley and a team of researchers are helping Indiana prepare for a bird fl u out-break through their work with local health departments in the state. Lawley spent last year on sabbatical working for St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, evaluating pandemic plans through the use of simulation model-ing. That experience equipped him to lead a similar project through Purdue’s Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering, focusing on accessing Indiana’s degree of plan preparedness for a pandemic fl u outbreak. Lawley assembled a large interdisciplinary team that included Deb Koester, a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) student, along with

individuals from a variety of backgrounds and experiences such as nursing, computer graphics technology, civil engineering, industrial engineering, and statistics. The team visited or called every local health department in Indiana to assess every aspect of its ongoing public health effort in pandemic planning. Important items discussed included the health department’s interaction with key stakeholders in the community, such as politicians, emer-gency medical services, law enforcement, healthcare providers, local businesses, and community support agencies. Also, the group surveyed how local health depart-ments are currently receiving information from healthcare providers and how they plan to obtain evolving, changing communi-cation in the event of a pandemic. The team also surveyed the means of communicating with the public, contingency plans for how health services and businesses will continue to operate during an outbreak, and mass planning for vaccines, medicine, and mortu-ary services. “Most departments had already thought about these issues,” says Lawley. “We were trying to assess how far along they were in

Pandemic PlansPurdue helps Indiana prepare for a bird fl u outbreak.

the process.” After developing reports for each county, the group summarized the results for the state. “Proper planning by local health depart-ments will allow for the most effective emergency response during a pandemic by each of the 94 counties in a coordinated manner,” says Koester. “Counties through-out the state are currently in the process of developing plans in cooperation with the Indiana State Department of Public Health and Indiana Department of Homeland Security.” At this point, the state is focused on tabletop exercises, where community plans are exercised for a hypothetical scenario, volunteer management, design of alternate care facilities, and public education so that people will know what actions to take during an emergency. Lawley would like to apply his team’s fi nd-ings to system assessment and modeling tools, so that research team can see how the different plans across the counties could be coordinated state-wide. Synchronizing the plans is important so that resources can be used effi ciently in order to save lives during a public health emergency.

—JENNA RUMP WITH ERIN LUKESH

Healthcare Technical Assistance ProgramDave McKinnis, director of Purdue’s Technical Assistance Program; IE professors: Yuehwern Yih and Mark Lawley

This program was established in 2005 to provide short operational improve-ment projects to hospitals in the state of Indiana. Nurses and industrial engineers work together to solve facility planning issues. “It’s a very good fi t between nurses and engineers to ensure our recommendations comply with the good practices of medicine,” says McKinnis. The team has completed several projects, including a recent recommendation for a new pharmacy layout at Columbus Regional Hospital in Columbus, Indiana.

17Winter 2006-07

Resource Foraging Barrett Caldwell, IE professor; Sandra Garrett , IE PhD student

This project focuses on healthcare provider teams and looks at the coordination of information and physical resources within a clinic or hospital environment. “Our work is the fi rst effort to defi ne foraging in a consistent mathematical way that explains how people gather resources based on spe-cifi c events rather than on general processes,” says Caldwell. An example: ordering extra vaccines based on an upswing of new cases, instead of order-ing them “just in case” or based on standard procedures.

Clinical Reminder SystemIE professors: Yuehwern Yih and Mark Lehto This project focuses on

The clinical reminder system serves as a decision support tool. Patient-specifi c clinical reminders are generated by a computerized knowledge base and software algorithms and are sent to healthcare providers through electronic patient records. This project collaborates with the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve the usability and effectiveness of clinical reminders in VA medical centers.

The Regenstrief Center for Healthcare EngineeringPurdue’s Regenstrief Center

for Healthcare Engineering is the

nation’s only integrated university-wide

effort in healthcare engineering.

Launched by a gift from the Regenstrief

Foundation in 2005 and housed in

Purdue’s Discovery Park, this interdis-

ciplinary environment draws on

engineering, science, management,

and social sciences expertise. Here,

a sampling of ongoing projects.

Radiation Therapy PlanningRon Rardin, IE professor; Joe Pekny, ChE professor

The laser beams involved in radiation therapy treatment for cancer patients can be divided into many small pieces, each with its own level of intensity. Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) goes one step further by look-ing at how to arrange the beams and choose intensities for more effective treatment. There are many different options, so Purdue is collaborating with the Indiana University School of Medicine in developing software to help make these choices for each individual patient. “Promise of the work has led to funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Cancer Institute, and the Indiana 21st Century Fund that totals over $2 million,” says Rardin.

Open-Access SchedulingIE professors: Ron Rardin, Mark Lawley, Hong Wan, Kumar Muthuraman, Leyla Ozsen, Yuehwern Yih

As an alternative to long waiting periods in outpatient clinics, open-access scheduling allows patients to schedule appointments on the day they need to see the doctor in order to improve convenience and reduce the appoint-ment no-show rate. Purdue is testing and implementing the open-scheduling system by applying the quantitative tools used in industrial engineering and operations research. The research is being conducted with the Wishard Primary Care Clinic of the Indiana University Medical Clinics and the Veterans Administration Hospital in Indianapolis.

—JENNA RUMP


VANTAGE POINTSFEATURES

Engineering the FutureWhen college students head off campus for work and play,

Purdue fi lls up with opportunities for future engineers.

The academic year is in full swing now, but back in the summer, students from elementary school on up fl ocked to campus as

participants in a variety of Purdue Engineering outreach programs. “Engineering is in the background of the way people live and

interact,” says Beth Holloway, director of the Women in Engineering Program. “These outreach programs introduce engineering

and the possibilities of a career in engineering, science, and technology fi elds.” Here, some scenes from a summer (and one

November day) well-spent.

With soldering guns in hand, a classroom of safety-goggled high school seniors learned more about electri-cal engineering by building their fi rst circuit. “I never realized how much work it takes to make a circuit,” says Palak Doshi, one of the participants in this year’s STEP program. The Seminar for Top Engineering Prospects (STEP) reaches out to high school seniors from across the country who are interested in engineering careers. The week-long program allows students to explore the various engineering disciplines, as well as to experience college life through tours, demonstrations, classroom lectures, and projects. Students also meet distinguished engineering faculty and live in the residence halls on campus. “The STEP program has provided me with more experience,” says Doshi. “The long days are defi nitely worth it.”

—JENNA RUMP

Winter 2006-07 19


Cardboard, duct tape, aluminum foil, cups, straws, graph paper, twine, glue, scissors, a stapler, rubber bands, and a utility knife. These are the raw ingredients of a build-it-yourself device that sorts marbles by size—big, medium, and small. Transforming a successful marble sorter from idea to

Where else can you make ice cream to learn about heat transfer or take apart a computer to learn about its internal workings? The Women in Engineering summer outreach programs offer these experiences and much more. The Love Engineering At Purdue (LEAP) summer camp focuses on sixth though eighth graders, while the Exciting Discoveries for Girls in Engineering (EDGE) reaches out to ninth- and 10th-graders. A diverse group of around 90 stu-dents from all over the country attend these camps to learn about engineering and have some fun. Part of the agenda

focuses on hands-on group and individual projects, but the students also get the chance to tour off-site companies that use engineering on a daily basis, including Subaru and the Fair Oaks dairy farm. The participants stay in the residence halls (optional for the LEAP camp) and tour many of Purdue’s labs and buildings.

reality was the challenge posed during this summer’s PREFACE program. Developed by Purdue’s Minority Engineering Program in 1980, PREFACE (PRE-Freshman And Cooperative Education) brings high school freshmen and sophomores to campus to try out engineering for a week through hands-on projects, lab tours, and programming that stresses career choices, appropriate academic coursework in high school, and study skills.



20

Kristen Blunt, student

This summer Purdue’s Academic Boot Camp (ABC) gave 55 incoming Purdue freshmen, as well as 10 returning sopho-mores, fi ve weeks of intensive programming designed to help them adjust personally, socially, and academically to university life. Part of the experience? Designing remote-controlled cars and testing them on Purdue’s Grand Prix track. “During the

build phase, the students are learning different laws of physics and the effects of different surfaces, like asphalt, smooth concrete, and rough concrete, on braking distance,“ says Virginia Booth-Gleghorn, director of Purdue’s Minority Engineering Program, which organizes ABC. “The students use MATLAB to calculate braking distances and then test their cars against their predictions.” The fi rst three semesters of college life are critical in determining the academic success of students, says Booth-Gleghorn: “Our goal is to help them acclimate to university life, because once fall starts, these students have to hit the ground running.” Now in its second year, ABC has expanded to include science and technology students as well as engineering students.

High school students from the Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) scurried across campus with Geiger counters in tow to calculate how much radiation is present in our everyday environment. This activity was part of the Science Bound program, which mentors and educates eighth- through 12th-grade students in the fi elds of science, mathematics, engineering, technology, and agriculture. After completion of the fi ve-year

program and acceptance into an approved fi eld at Purdue, the students receive a full-tuition scholarship to further their education. To supplement the regular activities held during the academic school year, Purdue offers several summer programs. One of these includes a three-week camp which spends one day looking at the fi eld of nuclear engineering and how radiation affects us on a typical day. Wide-eyed and excited, the students were transported from Indianapolis into a nuclear engineer’s world through projects and the chance to explore Purdue’s nuclear reactor.

Winter 2006-07


21

Uki Dele-Ogbeide, student

Uki Dele-Ogbeide, a civil engineering student from California State University in Sacramento, talks enthusiastically about her graywater recycling research project for NASA that she is completing at Purdue. Originally from Nigeria, she jumped at the opportunity to attend the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program, which gives undergraduate students from around the country the opportunity to conduct research with professors. “The SURF program is exciting because I get to have my own project while at the same time learn from experienced professors and graduate students,” says Dele-Ogbeide. The program introduces undergraduates to the idea of research and furthering their education through graduate school. The interdisciplinary research

Jon Fromm, president of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space

FALL SPACE DAY

Getting to meet an astronaut always leaves these kids awestruck.

projects are combined with weekly seminars, poster presenta-tions, and social networking activities to allow students a glimpse of what it’s like to participate in academic research at Purdue.

Make a fi lm-canister rocket propelled by dry ice. Safely land “astronauts” (eggs) in a spacecraft launched from a third-story window. Convert an empty plastic soda bottle into a high-fl ying rocket. At Purdue’s 11th annual Fall Space Day, hosted by the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space and the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, third- through eighth-graders from three states tried their hand at just those kinds of projects—and got to meet Purdue alumnus and astronaut Greg Harbaugh (BSAAE ’78) in the process. More than 600 youngsters came to Purdue for a day to learn hands-on about astronautical engineering and space exploration.


Engineering Takes to the TrackPurdue students aim for motorsports careers through a new student organization.

Gold-and-black is the latest color flag at stockcar races around the country as members of Opportunity Motorsports: Professional Motorsports Development take Boilermaker pride to the pit, track, and stands. Since Purdue waved the green flag for the new student organization in Spring 2005, its eight members have been meeting racing professionals, lining up hands-on opportuni-ties and internships, and talking up Purdue University track-side. The students are “ardently and passion-ately seeking a motorsports or automotive- related career,” says founder and president Jonathan Hassler, a mechanical engineer-ing senior who expects the group to soon double. He’s been around racetracks since driving a go-cart at age eight in Brazil, Indiana, later moving on to modified midgets. “I have a huge passion for motorsports,” he says. The heart of the group’s current activity

is with the Brownsburg, Indiana-based Circle Bound Racing crew, where the students maintain and prepare late-model stockcars for races in the Champion Racing Association (CRA) Super Series. Hassler has also done some crew chief work and had a few opportunities to drive. “The cool thing is, you spend the whole summer taking care of cars and getting to understand what it takes to make them go fast,” Hassler says. “Then you go back to school, see things that relate to it, and the light bulb comes on. That gets the spark going.” Chet Blanton, Circle Bound’s owner, admits he was a little skeptical when first approached about student help. “They surprised me. They work hard,” he says. And he appreciates their knowledge, especially in suspension. “They run them through the computer and come up with these setups, and so far they’ve been fast. They’ve really proven themselves to me.

They’re here in the morning, and they walk out of here covered in grease every night.” That’s the idea, says Opportunity Motorsports vice president Dan Hobbs, who studied mechanical engineering three years and is now majoring in agricultural machine systems and biological engineering. “Engineering classes are highly theoreti-cal,” he says. “When something happens at the race track, I can say, ‘Ah, that’s why that works.’ This is helping me understand school a lot better, specifically dynamics.” A former go-cart racer from Buffalo, New York, Hobbs also raced in the super stock division. “I’ve hung up my driver’s suit for now. I’m more than happy to work on the cars.” His goal is a NASCAR racing team job in Charlotte. “That’s half the reason I came to Purdue. What will give me the best chance of getting down to Charlotte? I think it’s Purdue.” Opportunity Motorsports members have visited teams in Charlotte, especially those with Purdue alumni, hoping to line up future internships and opportunities. Their focus, though, isn’t only on what’s in it for them. “The more we can get people to come to Purdue University for racing, the better,” Hobbs says. “Purdue is the place to be. Everyone knows and respects Purdue engineers. We’re not just resting on the lau-rels of Ryan Newman as a graduate. We’re involved in motorsports.” A NASCAR star, Newman graduated from Purdue in 2001 in vehicle structural engineering. Last May, Opportunity Motorsports took a show car to one track to promote Purdue. “Most of the places I’ve been, people come up and say, ‘I didn’t know Purdue was doing this. I’d like to send my kid to Purdue,’” Hassler says. Staff advisor Amy Noah, director of major gifts for the College of Engineering, is impressed with what the engineering and

Longtime racer and Opportunity Motorsports founder Jonathan Hassler competed in the #114 Circle Bound Racing Monte Carlo at Angola (Indiana) Speedway on July 22, 2006. He is currently seeking sponsorship to compete with CBR full time in 2007.


Winter 2006-07 23

technology students have achieved in lining up opportunities for themselves and what their activities are bringing to Purdue. “They are creating an environment that will allow future students to gain hands-on experience in an industry that is constantly pursuing engineering backgrounds,” Noah says. “These students are incredibly market-able based on their classroom knowledge and experience in a structured racing organization.” It’s a competitive and high-dollar industry. Running a car in NASCAR, for example, can take $10 million to $20 million a year. Annual revenues for the industry are now “north of $3 billion” and going up, NASCAR chief executive officer Brian France said earlier this year. Enthusiasts claim that one in three U.S. adults are NASCAR fans, following 43 teams who spend 38 weekends a year at events. Besides acknowledging the opportunities the students are creating, Noah also salutes them for their vision and leadership skills. “The time and effort required to form a new student organization is significant,” she says. “This group has experienced amazing successes.”

“Everyone wants to be in racing,” Hobbs says. “You have to have the experience, and this will give it to us.” Racing is more than competition against other drivers, Hassler says. It takes what he’s learning at Purdue, too. “You’re competing with technology, always trying to stay on the cutting edge. There’s a lot of engineering involved if you know to apply it.”

Circle Bound Racing crew members Dan Hobbs and Jace Sanders analyze tires following a testing session at Baer Field Speedway in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Driver Zach Taylor prepares to climb out of the vehicle.

—KATHY MAYER

Circle Bound Racing crew members Jonathan Hassler, Seth Whitesel, Brian Moore, and Jace Sanders polish the Circle Bound Racing Monte Carlo before taking the track at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, Indiana, while driver Zach Taylor and consultant Brad Cook discuss race strategy.

Photos courtesy of Jonathan Hassler

John Underwood



Vin

cent

Wal

ter

Alex King, the head of Purdue’s School of Materials Engineering, was a 2005-06 Jefferson Science Fellow. He served as the senior science advisor to the Bureau of African Affairs at the U.S. Department of State and became the U.S. government’s avian infl uenza coordinator for Africa during his year in Washington DC. His essay “Statecraft in the Global Village” appeared in the Fall 2005 issue of this magazine.

VANTAGE POINTSFIRST PERSON

In the United States, we pride ourselves on having access to the highest-quality, most advanced healthcare tools available anywhere in the world, but this comes at a cost. Total spending per capita for healthcare in the United States is by far the highest in the world: around $5,000 each year. Even with these expenditures, recent reports suggest that our life expec-tancy (among other measures of healthcare success) falls well short of the best in the world. We can fi nd examples of this inverse relationship between expenditures and public-health outcomes in parts of Africa, where life expectancy has actually declined over the last decade. Take oil-rich Nigeria, the second-largest economy in Africa and neighbor to Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking dead last on the United Nations Development Fund index of human development. Total annual healthcare expenditures in both countries are around $50 per capita, but Nigeria has three times Niger’s rate of HIV infection and is one of the last places in the world wherewild poliovirus continues to circulate. When the H5N1 strain of highly pathogenic avian infl uenza fi rst appeared in Africa, it was in northern Nigeria, which continues to see new outbreaks and the ongoing geographic spread of the disease among poultry. On three occasions it has spread across the border into Niger, where each outbreak has been fully contained and eradicated despite the higher density of poultry production on Niger’s side of the border. What is Niger’s secret to controlling the threat of this dangerous zoonotic disease? Nothing particularly fancy or expensive. The government has a strong public awareness program that ensures poultry farmers report outbreaks by providing com-pensation for their losses. The program is also transparent and informative about outbreaks, using all available channels to inform its public and the international community. It quickly quarantines outbreak areas, and it culls affected livestock as recommended by the United Nations. These are all matters of leadership and organization, with only the most limited use of technology. Although Nigeria has somewhat better access to technology, its response in the same matters addressed by Niger has been noticeably weaker, and the result is that the disease is spreading continuously and has reached almost every part of the country. An older-established health threat in Africa is malaria. An estimated 300 million to 500 million worldwide cases each year cause 1.5 million to 2.7 million deaths. More than 90 percent of the deaths are in children under 5 years of age, the bulk of them in Africa. Treatment of the disease has grown more expensive as drug-resistant forms of the parasitic protozoa that cause it have emerged, prompting more and more exotic drug combination therapies which are now mostly based on costly artemisinin—a drug used to treat resistant strains of malaria. Each new drug that goes into the fi eld eventually gives rise to a resistant strain of the disease. Simple preventive measures such as using pesticide-impregnated mosquito nets have proven to be very effective in reducing the mortality from this disease. Each net costs about 35 cents. The present artemisinin combination therapy costs about $15 per six-dose

course. However, the courses are often not completed because of this cost, rendering the patient a crucible for the development of resistant variants of the protozoa—some of which might even get to the United States. The message is clear: High-tech, high-cost biomedical devices and medicines are wonderful things for those who can afford them and very profi table for those who develop them. We all look forward to the implantable artifi cial retina, a cure for cancer, or a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. But the real payoff is in engineering health-care and disease management systems that are low cost and highly effective in the prevention of diseases like malaria and pandemic infl uenza that ultimately threaten the entire world.

—ALEX KING

Lessons from a year working on Africa.

An Ounce of Prevention

Winter 2006-07 25

Venture Into BiomedshipEnrolled in a new Purdue program, two biomedical engineering graduate students learn

that a product’s business development is every bit as important as its engineering.

Last year, 16 graduate students from the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and the Krannert School of Management shared space in Discovery Park, Purdue’s research complex, to learn about biomedi-cal innovation and management. They split into groups of four, with two engineering students and two business students in each group, to tackle real-world medical prob-lems and attempt to solve them by creating new medical devices. The students were expected to take their device through the steps of conception, feasibility determina-tions, FDA approval, business plan develop-ment, presentation, and patent application. Purdue’s Biomedship Program—a new one-semester certifi cation program that the students participated in—aims to prepare the next generation of leaders in the medical-device industry by focusing on biomedical entrepreneurship and innovation. A partnership among the Weldon School, Krannert, and the Indiana University School of Medicine, the program incorporates mentors, coaches, and expert panelists from venture capital fi rms, life science companies, biomed and biotech start-ups, and universities. Biomed doctoral students Theresa Gordon and Lester Smith took part in the program last year to design an implantable device that monitors the volumetric fl ow rate of blood moving through a coronary artery bypass graft. Smith feared that the business element would bring a cut-throat atmosphere to their work, but instead, he says, “It was the most effective team I have ever worked with.” For Gordon, being able to work so closely with the Krannert students meant having the opportunity to view product development from the business side and to get hands-on

expertise writing the required business plan. “It’s a great opportunity to get exposure to something that normally you wouldn’t be able to get exposure to,” she says. The engineering students were able to learn from the business students and vice versa. Along with the collaborative effort, each week the students heard presentations from top thinkers in the industry. The students were given opportunities to speak with these industry leaders in small dinner settings. From these dinner meetings, the students developed relationships that ex-tended beyond the length of the speakers’ visits. Smith and Gordon worked especially with Susan Rowinski, a senior managing director at Princeton Reimbursement Group in San Francisco. From a distance, they collaborated through e-mail with Rowinski to get advice on their project. “She answered some questions we didn’t even know we

Doctoral students Theresa Gordon and Lester Smith learn how to succeed in business. “Ideas die,” says Smith, “because although they may be good, where they will be applied is not considered.”

needed to ask,” says Smith. Smith he isn’t sure what he wants to do when he fi nishes his studies, but whether he goes into a biomedical fi rm or enters acade-mia, he says, “Biomedship will contribute to my understanding.” Experiencing the interplay between product development and the market has improved his understanding of the industry; he now knows to keep in mind the goal of how a product will be used and marketed. “Ideas die,” he notes, “because although they may be good, where they will be applied is not considered.” Gordon would like to pursue her MBA and work in a managerial position in a large biomedical fi rm. But “the Biomedship Program is really good for anybody,” she says, “regardless of what you eventually want to do.”

VANTAGE POINTSSTUDENT IMPACT

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—WILLIAM PECK


An Eye for HealthcareVenture capitalist and Purdue alumnus William Link helps start-ups

launch revolutionary biomedical products.

As he considered his career possibilities, William Link (BSME ’70, MSME ’71, PhD ’73) began by crossing these off his list: farming, aerospace, and, eventually, academics. What most interests him is applying engineering to healthcare problems. That he does, help-ing launch breakthrough products in ophthalmology, including those used in laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) vision correction. After leading two start-ups to success, today he’s a passionate venture capitalist at two groups with a combined $1.8 billion in committed capital. While the work ethic he developed as a teen working on his family’s farm is something he retains, the Markle, Indiana, native decided early on, “I didn’t want to be in a profession where the weather could cancel my good work. I was pretty good in math and science, so I decided on engineering.” That led him to Purdue, a mechanical engineering bachelor’s, a pilot’s license, and a master’s in aerospace applications. At that point, he decided, “I need to have a clear under-standing of how my work will be applied and how it will help people.” He dropped aeronautics for the more focused healthcare vision for his PhD—“before biomed was a fi eld”—and added veterinary classes to his studies.

VANTAGE POINTSALUMNI IMPACT

William Link

I need to have a clear understanding of how my work will be applied and how it will help people.

Winter 2006-07 27

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VANTAGE POINTSALUMNI IMPACT

Doctorate in hand, he headed to the Indiana University School of Medicine, housed in Indianapolis’s Wishard Hospital, where he was an assistant professor in the surgery department from 1973 to 1976. “That reinforced my love and dedication to healthcare and my belief that there is a role for an engineer on a medical team,” says the winner of the 2006 Engineering of the Future Award from the University of California at Irvine. He’s also been honored by Purdue—as a Distinguished Engineering Alumnus in 1985 and an Outstanding Mechanical Engineer in 1991. At Wishard, he worked with industry in product development and testing. “That got me fired up to transition out of academia into the private sector,” he recalls. He landed at American Hospital Supply Corporation in California. “It was a big step, because I viewed myself as an academician. Initially, I was a little embarrassed that I had left.” The first day, his boss asked in a staff meeting if anyone knew anything about intraocular lenses. “It was dead quiet,” Link, then 30, remembers. “A few moments later, I said, ‘I don’t really know about those lenses, but I know an ophthalmologist.’” “Call him,” his boss said. Link was soon watching surgeries, learning from physicians, and launching a new division, American Medical Optics. It sold to Allergan in 1986 for $165 million. Now 40, Link was ready for the next venture. With his wife, Marsha, he founded Chiron Vision, a subsidiary of Chiron Corporation, in the bonus room above their garage. Over the next decade the company grew to 1,200 employees as it introduced cataract, refractive, and retinal surgery products, including those used in LASIK procedures. By 1997, revenues topped $200 million annually, and he sold to

Bausch & Lomb for $310 million. Link next turned to venture capital full time. In 1999, he co-founded California’s Versant Ventures, whose early-stage, healthcare-company investments now top $1 billion. Earlier, he’d become active in Brentwood Venture Capital in California,an interest he continues today. “I view myself as the coach,” he says of Versant. “I can help a team anticipate and plan for what’s ahead. When I sign on to a project, I am committed, and we work really hard together. It’s a treat and privilege to sponsor projects that, when we’re lucky and things go well, provide patient benefits and [enable] investors [to] do well, too.” One of those projects is IntraLase, whose products include improved, advanced lasers for LASIK. While Link left farming behind, lessons from that time resonate today. “My dad quietly modeled a work ethic that became part of my fabric,” he says. “And

There is a role for an engineer on a medical team.

my mom was the first person to treat me as an adult. Facing a tough decision in high school, I remember distinctly Mom saying, ‘Bill, I trust you; you’ll make the right deci-sion.’ That was pretty powerful.” By seventh grade, he’d met his lifelong partner, Marsha. She was valedictorian of their 1964 high school class; Link, salutato-rian. They married during college and raised two children, Bradley and Elizabeth. Link’s other career possibilities—aero-nautics, teaching, and research—continue to factor in his life, too. He still takes to the skies, today piloting his own jet. His product innovations and entrepreneurial coaching mirror the academic world. And he returns to Purdue a couple of times a year as an executive faculty member in the Biomedship Program (see story on page 25), which promotes biomedical innovations. With medical product breakthroughs that fulfilled his dream of helping others, Link knows he made the right career choice. Through it all, he says, he was guided by a simple philosophy: “Take care of yourself and your family, and a lot of other things will be okay.”

—KATHY MAYER

IntraLase lasers make blade-free LASIK surgery possible.


Going for GOLDMeet two young alums who’ve decided it’s never too early to give back to Purdue.

For engineering alumni Michael Constant (BSECE ’05) and Jennifer Fanson (MSCE 2000), simple gratitude for their experience at Purdue—and for what their engineering degrees have brought them—is reason enough to support the College of Engineering fi nancially. Recognition by Purdue’s GOLD (Graduate of the Last Decade) annual-giving program is icing on the cake. Constant, a project test engineer at Raytheon, always knew that engineering would be in his future. “It’s written up in my fi fth-grade yearbook that I wanted to be an electrical engineer,” he says. When he enrolled at Purdue, he got a full-ride scholarship, “so, basically,” he says, “I was able to go to Purdue for free.” By his junior year, Constant had discovered a wealth of extracurricular opportunities and begun to take advantage of them. “I joined EPICS [Engineering Projects in Community Service] and worked on the Happy Hollow Elementary School team to make science displays and help out with the science club. We demonstrated static electricity, played with dry ice—things like that.” He also participated in HKN, the ECE honor society, and in his senior year joined the Engineering Ambassadors, a program that provides student representation for Purdue Engineering alumni, development, legislative, recruitment, and retention activities. “Coming out of Purdue,” he says, “I felt like a lot of who I am now was developed through my experiences at Purdue.” His recent $500 donation to the dean’s unrestricted fund was matched by Raytheon. Fanson, who entered the College of Engineering as a graduate student, along with her husband, Paul (PhD 2002, chemical engineering), most appreciated the quality of her civil engineering education, the thrill of Big Ten+ athletics, and the friends she made, many of whom she still keeps in touch with.

A staff engineer with the consulting fi rm CH2M Hill, Fanson works on soil and groundwater remediation projects for industrial clients. Husband Paul is a senior research scientist for Toyota Technical Center. Together, the couple recently donated $200 to the School of Civil Engineering, $200 to the School ofChemical Engineering, and $100 to the Women in Engineering Program, along with donations to Purdue organizations outside the College of Engineering. “The reason we have good jobs that we enjoy is because of Purdue,” Fanson notes. “We just feel like giving back is the right thing to do, the right way to go.” And it’s a means of staying connected to Purdue. “Being part of the President’s Council through GOLD allows young alumni to network and have the chance to get to know other loyal President’s Council members, many of whom are presidents and/or CEOs of companies nationally,” says Julie Hendon, assistant director of the President’s Council, a group of Purdue alumni and friends who support the University fi nancially. “It creates an oppor-tunity they cannot fi nd anywhere else while helping their alma mater to continue to grow and be on the cutting edge of research.” Impact is what it’s all about. “I know the dean’s offi ce gives a lot of scholarships,” says Constant, “and there’s all sorts of things that the College of Engineering buys or refurbishes that directly impact the students: new oscilloscopes, new computers, new lab equipment. Other people have given money that’s benefi ted me. Now I’m in a position to do the same for Purdue’s current students.” —LISA HUNT TALLY

VANTAGE POINTSRESONANCE

What Is GOLD?Purdue’s GOLD (Graduate of the Last Decade) program welcomes donors who’ve graduated within the past 10 years and who’ve donated at designated levels: $100 or more during the year of and the fi rst year after graduation, $200 in the second year, $300 in the third year, $400 in the fourth year, and $500 in years fi ve through nine. GOLD members are included in Purdue’s President’s Council. For more information, call 1-800-677-8780 or send e-mail to [email protected].

For engineering alumni Michael Constant (BSECE ’05) and Jennifer Fanson (MSCE 2000),

Jennifer Fanson with husband Paul

A staff engineer with the consulting fi rm CH2M Hill, Fanson works on soil and groundwater remediation projects for industrial clients. Husband Paul is a senior research scientist for Toyota Technical Center. Together, the couple recently donated $200 to the School of Civil Engineering, $200 to the School ofChemical Engineering, and $100 to the Women in Engineering Program, along with donations to Purdue organizations outside the College of Engineering. “The reason we have good jobs that we enjoy is because of Purdue,” Fanson notes. “We just feel like giving back is the right thing to do, the right way to go.” And it’s a means of staying connected to Purdue. “Being part of the President’s Council through GOLD allows young alumni to network and have the chance to get to know other loyal President’s Council

Michael Constant

Winter 2006-07 29

VANTAGE POINTSALUMNI NEWS

Jack R. KelbleBSEE ’65 Corporate vice president and president, Space and Airborne Systems, Raytheon Company

Leader of technological innovation and engineering in the fi eld of national security

Has led many departments and companies within Raytheon while making communication between employees and management a critical part of his leadership

Previously employed by RCA for 14 years

John A. EdwardsonBSIE ’71Chairman and CEO, CDW Corporation

Known as a corporate leader who has generated revenue growth and added value for shareholders in many large global organizations

Previously served as an executive for Northwest Airlines, Ameritech, United Airlines, and Burns International Services Corp.

Has made signifi cant community contributions through service and philanthropic organizations

Donald J. OrrBSChE ’61Retired senior corporate vice president, Air Products & Chemicals Inc.

Spent most of his career with Air Products & Chemicals in the chemicals group

Commissioned as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army and served a tour of active duty after graduating from Purdue

Chaired Purdue’s chemical engineering capital campaign, which raised $25 million for Forney Hall renovation and construction

Dennis W. SullivanBSME ’60Retired executive vice president and president, Worldwide Industrial and Automotive Products, Parker Hannifi n Corp.

Spent 43 years with Parker Hannifi n

Earned several patents for innovations in the manufacturing of fl uid connection products

Co-founded Meridia Health Care Systems

Four Receive Honorary Doctorates in EngineeringMeet these alumni, who received doctorates honoris causa at Purdue’s May 2006 graduation.

Gbile Adewunmi Receives EAA Service Award

The Engineering Alumni Association (EAA) presented its 2006 Service Award to Nigeria-born Gbile Adewunmi (BSECE ’02, MSECE ’03), an electrical systems engineer at Delphi Delco Electronics and the current EAA president. “Gbile has been a fantastic ambassador for the College of Engineering,” says Natalie Kubat, manager of stewardship for the college. “He’s recruited some great board members for EAA, he comes back to campus to speak to current students about his career as an engineer, he acts as a host to current and potential students at Delphi, and he volunteers for HKN, the electrical and computer engineering honor society.” Leah Jamieson, John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering, presented Adewunmi the Service Award at the September 22 Dean’s Club Luncheon.

—LISA HUNT TALLY

—JENNA RUMP


VANTAGE POINTSMOSAIC

Some Restrictions ApplyEmbryonic stem cell research could lead to treatments for Parkinson’s, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, spinal cord injuries,

and other deadly diseases, many believe, and that possibility underlies their support of federal funding for research

on fertility clinics’ surplus embryos. Others balk at what they view as research that takes innocent human life. Even

embryos destined for destruction, they believe, should not be used in such research. An August 9, 2001, presidential

ban on federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines derived after that date was followed by a July

2006 veto on Congressional legislation that would have lifted the funding ban. In this setting, three researchers with

Purdue ties weigh in on the question: How will the federal funding ban on the use of embryonic stem cells

affect scientific and technological research?

Answer: The funding ban limits new research to profit-driven private industry, eliminating safeguards that independent academic research provides. Embryonic stem cell research has shown some potential, especially for the central nervous system, prompting private industries to pursue new products. And they’ve come up with some pretty amazing stuff. But industry is a setting where the emphasis is on marketing, often even a rush to market. Embryonic stem cells, though, can be difficult to control in the lab. Within the same culture dish, I’ve seen some cells making bone, some beating like cardiac tissue. And a person’s immune system doesn’t always say “fine” to embryonic stem cells. The safety and efficacy has not yet been well demonstrated. Their use needs greater and independent study. This is where academic research, relatively independent of capital motivation, would be valuable, with better safeguards in place. In a university, we don’t have to get a product out quickly. If needed, we can say, “We don’t have enough control in this formulation,” then change things around and continue the research. Unless we do work on the few existing (and suspect) cell lines made available by the federal government, the current ban makes it illegal to conduct research with any resources that are linked to federal funding. This effectively eliminates academic access and leaves the work to privately funded industries.

Other countries, however, are pursuing research in embryonic stem cells, in both private and public settings. So the ban, in effect, is only on U.S. academic research.Because adult stem cells are easier to control and the immune response from embryonic stem cells unpredictable, my lab uses adult stem cells for work in tissue engi-neering and human injury research. I’m not making a moral or ethical decision; there’s simply potential for adult stem cells in what we’re doing in our work on the spine, spinal cord, bone, and some on the eye and brain.

Eric Nauman Assistant Professor

Mechanical Engineering

Purdue University

Winter 2006-07 31

Answer: The funding ban will likely have little impact on research because we can use adult stem cells, which may reap greater benefits anyway. While work with embryonic stem cells has been prominent in the news and there are many claims about the results of that research, there is little hard data to demonstrate their safety and efficacy. In fact, another source, adult stem cells, may be more clinically realizable. Adult stem cells offer several advantages over embryonic. They’re easier to control in the lab and can be found in a variety of locations, including bone marrow, one of the main sources being looked at now. One application might involve harvesting stem cells from an individual, differentiating them into the desired cell type in the lab, then implanting them back into the individual. This eliminates undesired immune responses that can occur with embryonic stem cells. Working with adult stem cells in our lab has been eye-opening and made me realize there are resources other than embryonic stem cells. Adult stem cells can be found in most tissues, including bone marrow and adipose tissue. These adult stem cells have been differentiated into many kinds of cells—bone, fat, cartilage, muscle, nerve—just like embryonic stem cells. So there’s potential for tissue engineering products for numerous illnesses using these adult stem cells.

Our lab is focused on directing clinically relevant adult stem cells down differentiation pathways using cues inherent in the stem cell’s native, three-dimensional microenvi-ronment, which includes neighboring cells, soluble growth factors, and extracellular matrix (ECM). We have shown that the microstructure and mechanical properties of the 3D ECM play a vital role in determining stem cell fate. We are currently working to engineer ECMs to control differentiation and create tissues in hopes of curing various forms of tissue damage.

Answer: The funding ban curtails early, basic academic research so critical in medical advances. It puts the U.S. behind the rest of the world’s researchers, who may well find solutions that we couldn’t even consider implementing here. I believe the federal funding ban is misguided and a detriment to medical advances. In the field of tissue engineering, where we are facilitating wound healing in patients whose bodies cannot do the job themselves, one of the greatest needs is a source of stem cells. With a greater number, we can develop greater solutions. If we take stem cells from adults and mature animals, we run into problems with rejection. But if we use early-stage cells, which don’t have markers on their surface that the host would recognize as foreign, we have a considerably lower chance of rejection and thus a higher chance of healing. We need academic institutions for fundamental research, acting as the venue for early discovery. Because businesses are, by necessity, product-driven, and in that early stage of research we don’t know where products are likely to come from, business cannot pick up that slack. We must rely on results of fundamental research for development of new technologies. I also believe the ban is fueled by misunderstanding. Embryos are a set of DNA, not a living,

—KATHY MAYER

Emily Stites BS 2005, Colorado State University

Master’s student, Biomedical Engineering

Purdue University

What’s your take on this issue? Write to us at [email protected]

Michael Hiles BSEE ’87, MSEE ’89, PhD ’92, Veterinary Physiology and

Pharmacology, Purdue University

Vice President for Research and Clinical Affairs

Cook Biotech Inc., West Lafayette, Indiana

sentient being with self-awareness. In fact, humans shed DNA in millions of cells every day—from the cornea of our eyes and skin all over the body. And researchers regularly swab cells, from the cheek, for example, to grow cells in culture. That’s no different in many ways than taking a shed egg and shed sperm and putting them together in a culture. It’s also a tragic loss that embryos cre-ated in fertility clinics, but no longer needed, are discarded when their contribution to medical research could be so great.

32

VANTAGE POINTSAPERTURE

What is it?See lower right for answer (rotate page).

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Cultured neurons are growing on a biomaterial surface designed to function as an interface between the cells and the electrodes of an implantable device. Together the neurons and the electrical device will be implanted into regions of the brain that are responsible for seizure.See page 13 (college side) to learn more about this Purdue Engineering research.

Nonprofit OrganizationU.S. Postage PaidPurdue University

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