IBEST Welcomes Newest Members

Michael Detamore

- Founding Director, Stephenson Chair and Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering
- Courtesy Professor of OU Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

Research interests include regenerative and translational medicine, biomaterials and TMJ bioengineering.

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Dimitrios Karamichos

- Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology
- Assistant Professor, Department of Cell Biology
- Member/Faculty, Oklahoma Center for Neuroscience
OU Health Sciences Center

Research interests include:

• Corneal wound healing and the mechanisms of fibrosis and regeneration
• The role of the transforming growth factor-3 (TGF-β3) in directing fibrosis in the cornea
• Development of in vitro and in vivo models for the understanding of Keratoconus disease
• The identification of new markers for the treatment of the Keratoconus disease

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Chung-Hao Lee

Assistant Professor, OU School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering

Research interests include:

• Multiscale biomechanical modeling of the cardiovascular systems – heart valves
• Characterization of structural and mechanical properties of soft biological tissues
• Patient-specific modeling for improved diagnosis and prophylactic disease management
• Cell mechanics and mechanobiology linking with collagen biosynthesis and tissue growth & remodeling (G&R)
• Advanced finite element and meshfree methods for image-based computational biomechanics
• Assistant Professor

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Christian Lemon

Associate Professor, OU Biology

Research interests include the organization of brain circuits that support the processing and integration of sensory information, with emphases on flavor, somatosensation and pain. Approaches used include in vivo neurophysiology and optogenetics.

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Yuchen Qiu

Assistant Professor
OU School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Research interests include

• Computer aided diagnosis
• Deep learning in medical application, radiomics 
• Development of new techniques for early stage cancer diagnosis and prognosis 
• Novel medical imaging methods

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Kelly Stratton

Assistant Professor
Department of Urology
OU Health Sciences Center

M.D. University of Oklahoma
Residency Training: Vanderbilt University
Fellowship Training: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Research Interests include:

• Image guided prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment
• MRI/US Fusion and prostate biopsy
• Focal treatment of prostate cancer

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PH.D. Student Receives Post-Doctoral Fellowship

John Krais, who received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at OU in December of 2015 working with Dr. Roger Harrison, is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. He is working with Dr. Neil Johnson in the Developmental Therapeutics Program on the study of DNA repair mechanisms and clinically relevant mutations that affect those pathways, with a specific focus on BRCA1 mutations. His aim is to study the impact of the mutant proteins within the cancer cell, investigate mechanisms of acquired resistance to current therapies, and identify potential small molecule therapeutics targeted to DNA repair pathways.

Doctoral Students Research Recognized at Graduate Student Research and Performance Day

Three Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. students won awards at the 2015 Graduate Student Research and Performance Day. Congratulations to Katrin Passlack-Guillen, Julien Arrizabalaga and Needa Virani. Katrin Passlack-Guillen won first place in Engineering Group A for her poster, “Annexin Directed Beta-Glucuronidase for the Targeted Treatment of Vascular, Solid Tumors.” Julien Arrizabalaga won second place in Engineering Group A for his poster, "The Human Amniotic Membrane: a Versatile Scaffold for Blood Vessel Tissue Engineering." Needa Virani won second place in Engineering Group B for her poster, "Photothermal Ablation of Residual Bladder Cancer Using Phosphotidylserine Targeted Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes."

Students Recognized at Conference and Symposium for Poster Presentations

Two groups working under IBEST faculty members Dr. Bin Zheng and Dr. Hong Liu recently won awards at the 2015 International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) meeting for Medical Imaging. Congratulations to Yuchen Qiu, Xianglan Lu, Maxine Tan, Shibo Li, Hong Liu, and Bin Zheng on the Honorable Mention Poster Award for their poster, "An Automated Approach to Improve Efficacy in Detecting Residual Malignant Cancer Cell for Facilitating Prognostic Assessment of Leukemia: An Initial Study," and to Bin Zheng, Wei Qian, Lihua Li, Jiantao Pu, Yan Kang, Fleming Lure, Maxine Tran, and Yuchen Qiu on their Cum Laude Poster Award for their poster, "A New CAD Approach for Improving Efficacy of Breast Cancer Screening." 

Congratulations to Katrin Passlack-Guillen (Ph.D. student) for her second place poster award at the Stephenson Cancer Center Research Symposium. Kat's poster, “Annexin Directed Beta-Glucuronidase for the Targeted Treatment of Vascular, Solid Tumors,” received the second place award in the graduate student group. This is the only award received by a graduate student or post doc on the OU Norman campus.  At last year’s symposium, Kat also received the second place award for her poster, "Selective Targeting and Treatment of Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer via Three Fusion Protein/Prodrug Systems."

BD Accuri C6 Flow Cytometer Received

The OUBC has acquired a BD Accuri C6 flow cytometer and the associated computer workstation bundle as part of a grant from the Oklahoma Center for Adult Stem Cell Research (OCASCR). The instrument is located in SEC D-211. The BD Accuri C6 is equipped with (i) two lasers which will allow for blue (488 nm) and red (633 nm) excitation, (ii) two light scatter detectors (i.e. forward & side scatter) and (iii) four fluorescence detectors. The standard configuration is listed below.

Student/Faculty Paper Published in Journal of Biomedical Science

IBEST Ph.D. student, Kat Passlack-Guillen, and Professor, Dr. Roger Harrison and OU-HSC Assistant Professor of Medicine Hematology/Oncology, Carla Kurkjian, were recently published in the Journal of Biomedical Science for their research article entitled, "Targeted enzyme prodrug therapy for metastatic prostate cancer – a comparative study of L-methioninase, purine nucleoside phosphorylase, and cytosine deaminase."

Read the paper.