Human lungs are intricate 3D structures with air sacs surrounded by blood vessels with a gap between them that can be less than one micrometer. (As a frame of reference, human hair is about 100 micrometers wide) This minuscule gap/membrane between the air side and the blood side is the key to our respiratory system being able to take in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. The thin membranes modulate oxygen transfer in the lungs but so far no one has been able to fabricate them outside the human body. Continue Reading
News
National Science Foundation awards professors Alison Patteson and Jennifer Schwarz a major grant to study the cellular uptake of the SARS2 virus
Physicists in the College of Arts and Sciences are using a major grant to study the cellular uptake of SARS-CoV-2 (SARS2), the virus responsible for coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Assistant Professor Alison Patteson and Associate Professor Jennifer Schwarz a $196,000 grant to investigate the link between vimentin, a chain of proteins founds in animal cells and bacteria, and SARS2 cell entry. The award, Patteson’s first from NSF as a principal investigator, is part of the agency’s Rapid Response Research (RAPID) initiative, supporting better treatment for COVID-19.
“New evidence suggests that vimentin is present on the extracellular surface of cells and plays a critical role in the binding and uptake of multiple viruses. The mechanism by which this happens, however, is unclear,” Patteson says.
Part of the answer may reside in the cell’s skeleton, known as the cytoskeleton. Vimentin helps form the cytoskeleton, a series of protein filaments that gives the cell its shape and structure. The Patteson lab is interested in the role of these cytoskeletal networks in cell movement and mechanics.
“We are turning to extracellular vimentin to determine its role in the uptake of SARS2 and to find ways to block its entry into the cell,” she says. “Such information may help us understand how coronaviruses, in general, infect cells.”
While there are many kinds of coronaviruses, only a few cause disease. COVID-19 is a type of coronavirus spread through droplets released into the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. According to the World Health Organization, there are more than 11.7 million global cases of COVID-19, for which there is no vaccine.
“In rare cases, COVID-19 can lead to severe respiratory problems, kidney failure or death,” says Schwarz, the project’s co-principal investigator. She and Patteson are part of the Soft Matter Group in the Department of Physics as well as the University’s new BioInspired Institute.
The duo is collaborating with colleagues from the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków, the Medical University of Bialystok (Poland) and Northwestern Medicine. In addition to physics, their RAPID project combines elements of biology, chemistry and engineering.
“There is an urgent need for this information, as we have an incomplete understanding of how SARS2 enters the cell,” Patteson says. “It’s likely that vimentin mediates how SARS2 interacts with the surface of the cell and possibly increases the virus’s uptake by the cell.”
A full understanding of how SARS2 invades cells is critical to the development of antiviral drugs to combat COVID-19.
This RAPID grant is awarded by the Cellular Dynamics and Functional Program in NSF’s Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, using funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
Upstate researchers publish work on new technology to treat severe sepsis that could be used for COVID-19 patients
A team of Upstate Medical University researchers recently published a paper in a prominent scientific journal about a new type of sepsis treatment that could bolster survival rates and be used to treat severe cases of COVID-19.
The team was led by Juntao Luo, PhD, an associate professor of pharmacology who has been studying this new therapy to neutralize severe inflammation during sepsis for the last three years. His work, “A nanotrap improves survival in severe sepsis by attenuating hyperinflammation,” was published in Nature Communications on July 7. Continue Reading
BioInspired Institute Appoints New Associate Director
The BioInspired Institute at Syracuse University is pleased to announce the appointment of James “Jay” Henderson as associate director. He will work closely with BioInspired’s director, M. Lisa Manning, to advance the institute’s research mission—addressing global challenges in health, medicine and materials innovation. Continue Reading
BioInspired Syracuse Stands with International Students
BioInspired Syracuse is disheartened with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s new guidance on international students and in-person instruction. This policy deepens the uncertainty and anxiety surrounding the fall semester and the reopening of research laboratories across The Hill. The Institute recognizes the invaluable contributions international students make to their research groups, their departments, and the Syracuse community at large. The progress of science depends on a connected, collaborative network of scientists and engineers that spans the world, and our international students play an invaluable role in creating that network and accelerating scientific progress. We stand with them in this uncertain moment.
BioInspired welcomes the statement from John Liu and Amanda Nicholson in support of international students at Syracuse University. We will continue to advocate and act on behalf of international students both as individual citizens, and as an Institute, in highlighting their valuable contributions to the scientific enterprise.
Biomedical and Chemical Engineering Ph.D. Student Awarded Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship
Zheng Xiong, a Biomedical and Chemical Engineering Ph.D. student in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, has been awarded a 2020 Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, for his potential contributions to the field of optics, photonics or a related field. Continue Reading
Biomedical and Chemical Engineering Professor Soman and Ph.D. Student Receive NSF Small Business Grant to Develop Microfluidics
Too small to be seen even with standard microscopes, microfluidics research looms large over many aspects of biochemistry, nanotechnology and biotechnology research. Precision microfluidics involve a device that has channels allowing a flow of just 50 microns or less. A device that can process or manipulate fluids on the micron scale can provide crucial data for researchers.
“This can be a fundamental and commonplace research accessory or tool in life sciences, similar to the current use of well-plates or test tubes. Almost any research in life sciences can use microfluidics to learn more about their own cells,” said biomedical and chemical engineering Professor Pranav Soman. Continue Reading
BioInspired Researcher Working on Tool to Determine Drug Risks During Pregnancy
Collecting accurate data showing whether or not any pharmaceutical drug could be harmful to unborn children is very difficult. Without clear embryotoxicity data, doctors often have to balance risks to the health of an expectant mother against the health of her baby and hope a drug does not have any negative side effects.
“There are tons of drugs on the market that have not been evaluated yet,” said biomedical and chemical engineering Professor Zhen Ma. “We want to think about how we can re-evaluate everything” Continue Reading
Statement on Structural Racism and #ShutDownSTEM
The BioInspired Institute’s mission to address global challenges in health, medicine, and materials innovation requires an equitable and just system to deliver these solutions to every member of society. We are thus deeply saddened, ashamed, and outraged by the continued, preventable loss of brown and black lives due to persistent structural racism in our country, and as global protests demonstrate, around the world. Our progress as an Institute and as a society rings hollow unless such advances can be shared equally with every citizen and without the suffocating threat of violence and injustice for too many. BioInspired positively affirms our responsibility to speak out against racism and injustice in all forms, including any within our organization. We stand in solidarity with those opposing racism and racialized violence, including the #ShutDownSTEM and #Strike4BlackLives movements, and agree that “we have an enormous ethical obligation to stop doing business as usual.” As an Institute, we pledge to develop and implement actionable plans to promote diversity in our ranks and support people of color. By looking inward first, we will strive toward promoting a healthier and more just society for all.
The BioInspired Institute responds to COVID-19
Like researchers and academics around the world, the sudden onset of the coronavirus pandemic has changed many aspects of our daily life. This set of circumstances is affecting all of us in different ways – parents of young children without daycare or elderly relatives, junior faculty worried about how to fund new research directions, trainees facing a sudden loss of important laboratory work, or those of us with sick friends/family/colleagues. The BioInspired Institute has been working to help others and make progress on research in this “new normal.” In support of our members and their trainees across the Hill, our leadership has been engaging to help mitigate some of the negative effects of the pandemic: Continue Reading