The improvements in health care that we enjoy today are not simply the result of advances in medical science. They also reflect the mind-set and specialized knowledge that engineers bring to the table. As research under way at U.Va. shows, engineers are essential partners in reducing suffering around the world.

Better Bone Grafts

For Robert Amanfu (BME ’07), getting full value from his tuition means doing research. “The classroom is great,” he says, “but you cover existing knowledge. Research gives you the opportunity to have a part in discovering new knowledge.”

Amanfu is working in Edward Botchwey’s laboratory. Botchwey, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, is studying the potential of using phospholipids to enhance the success of synthetic bone grafts. Researchers currently create bone grafts by injecting bone cells and growth-promoting proteins into a polymer scaffold. The problem is that the polymer creates an acidic environment, among other factors, that degrades the proteins. Phospholipids may prove to be an effective substitute.

Amanfu began his research career during his first year working in the corrosion laboratory in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. “It was a great experience,” he recalls, “but I wanted a project closer to my own area of interest.” Amanfu met with Thomas Skalak, the chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and secured a place in his laboratory. Botchwey approached him in spring 2006 and recruited him for his project.

“It’s not difficult finding a research opportunity in the Engineering School if you’re enthusiastic,” Amanfu says. “Faculty members are very receptive to undergraduates. They are sympathetic to the student perspective, and they understand why students want to do research.”

The Healing Power of Fat

Peter Stapor (BME ’08) approached his work in Shayn Peirce-Cottler’s laboratory as an apprenticeship. Over the course of a year, he moved from sterilizing Petri dishes to serving as a full-fledged lab technician. He learned how to harvest tissue from rats and stain it as part of an experiment to track the ability of adipose stromal cells (ASCs) from fat tissue to generate blood vessel growth.

Last summer, he took part in a study to develop a way to spray ASCs on chronic wounds, like bedsores, to promote healing. “I was trying to figure out the optimum distribution of the spray to ensure cell survival,” he says.

Recently, Stapor has been working on a collaborative project involving Peirce-Cottler, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering; Dr. Adam Katz, an assistant professor of plastic surgery; and George Rodeheaver, the director of the Wound Healing Research Laboratory, to determine if they can distinguish ASCs that promote angiogenesis from those that do not. Their hypothesis was that ASCs that distinctively express the CD34 gene are associated with wound-healing properties. “We’ve discovered that CD34 is not the marker we were looking for,” Stapor says. “That in itself is valuable information.”

“It’s really been great being part of a laboratory,” Stapor remarks. “There’s a lab meeting each week where everyone talks about their work, and Professor Peirce-Cottler is really approachable.”

Practical TB Detection

In October, the World Health Organization issued yet another call for better and cheaper tuberculosis (TB) tests for developing countries. Tuberculosis kills an estimated 1.7 million people each year, but many of these deaths are due to wrong or late diagnoses. Courtney Paulding (BME ’07) is part of an effort at U.Va. to develop a practical test that produces results more quickly. The acid-fast test, commonly used to detect tuberculosis, takes between six and eight weeks.

Working with Michael Lawrence, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, and Dr. Eric Houpt, a professor in U.Va.’s Center for Global Health, Paulding is helping to improve a protocol for TB testing based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a technique used to identify DNA. For the last five years, Houpt has collaborated with researchers at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Moshi, Tanzania, to develop more effective treatments for opportunistic infections associated with AIDS.

“With PCR, you can get results the same day,” Paulding says. “The problem is to make it more selective for TB.” Because of the difficulty in using infected sputum (or mucus) samples collected in Tanzania, Houpt takes TB-negative sputum and contaminates it with TB bacteria. Paulding’s job is to make sure that this synthetic sample is realistic, that it responds to acid-fast screening the way clinical samples do and that it matches samples used in the literature.

The project is one of several research experiences that Paulding has had as an undergraduate. “Doing research has given me the confidence to ask for help when I need it,” she reports. “That’s critical because there’s always information you need to learn.”