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The Nanoscope: Big News in Small Science
Robotically Precise Diagnostics & Therapeutics for Degenerative Disc Disorder

Auto SPINE device in clinical testing phase Lower back pain caused by degenerative disc disorder affects approximately 40% of the population over 40 and though many of us may never experience adverse effects from the disorder, it is the cause of chronic back pain for numerous Americans. Recent imaging diagnostics and cellular based direct-injection therapeutics for degenerative disc and spinal cord injuries have shown great promise for chronic back pain sufferers, however the targeted area for delivery is very small and narrow, requiring extreme precision by the clinical practitioner to avoid the bony vertebrae and other sensitive tissues. The normative anatomy of the spinal area is quite complex. Between each vertebra is a ‘disc’ of fibrous cartilage surrounding a sac of gel-like fluid that act as the spine’s shock absorbers, as well as giving the spine flexibility. Primary nerve branches to the various location of the body travel through this area from the central spinal canal. The complexity is increased if the patient has pre-existing conditions such as bone abnormalities due to scoliosis or osteoarthritis, spinal stenosis (a narrowing of the spinal canal causing compression) or have surgical implants, such as plates, rods and screws. Depending on the type of therapy, number of injections required, and the injection positioning complexity, spinal injection therapy treatment time frames can range from ~ 15 minutes to 2 hours, excluding post-procedure recovery time.

To increase injection site positioning preciseness, and thus the effectiveness, of these new treatments the Biorobotics and Human Modeling Lab, under the direction of George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering Professor Jun Ueda, have developed a patient mounted injection needle robot for use in magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), a technology that combines MRI imaging and low-frequency vibrations to create a map (elastogram) that images the stiffness of soft tissues.  Working in conjunction with the Stevens Institute of Technology and the Mount Sinai Hospital, the team developed non-ferromagnetic lead zirconate titanate (PZT) actuators that allow for usage in the magnetic field area produced by MR imaging.  The team used the prototype in a demonstration MRE scan for improved diagnosis of degenerative disc diseases. Multi-source shear wave propagation for examination of the pathological state of the patient tissue is achieved by tunable resonant frequency of the individual actuators. This allows for a minimally invasive procedure with a significant increase in precision needle positioning than that available via a human clinician.

 X-Ray image of Auto SPINE in vivo In a related project with Emory University and the Georgia Tech Research Institute, Professor Ueda and team developed a patient mounted, minimally invasive, injection needle robot for spinal cellular therapeutics that is fully MRI compatible due to the non-ferromagnetic materials comprising the robotic actuators. High-precision in-vivo performance has been achieved by a PZT-driven parallel-plane needle-orientation mechanism and an iterative super-resolution computer vision algorithm. Preclinical evaluation on a suidae model showed mounting and controller functionality with respiration, while laboratory evaluation demonstrated placement precision of ~14μm of the desired location.

It is hoped that the high accuracy of this needle positioning robot and visual feedback method will result in a significant improvement to the workflow of spinal injection procedures. The dual results of precise positioning and images in near real time combined with a decreased procedure time promise to provide ease of use to clinicians and relief for millions of back-pain sufferers.

- Christa Ernst


Professor Jun Ueda would like to thank Ai-Ping Hu, Daniel Martinez and Waiman Meinhold for their contributions to this study.

W. Meinhold, D. E. Martinez, J. N. Oshinski, A. Hu and J. Ueda, "A direct drive parallel plane piezoelectric needle positioning robot for MRI guided intraspinal injection," in IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, doi: 10.1109/TBME.2020.3020926.

This Research was Sponsored by the following: NSF 1662029, CDMRP FY 2019 Discovery Award, IRIM seed grant FY 2018 & FY 2019, NSF 1545287 (student fellowship | Meinhold, Martinez)
 Research News

NIH Awards Funding to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University and Georgia Tech to Continue Verification of COVID-19 diagnostic tests


In April, it was announced that Children’s, Emory and Georgia Tech were selected to lead the national effort in test validation and verification through the Atlanta Center for Microsystems Engineered Point-of-Care Technologies (ACME POCT). ACME POCT is one of five NIH-funded point-of-care technology centers in the nation within the Point-of-Care Technologies Research Network (POCTRN) selected to participate in RADx. The goal is to make millions of accurate and easy-to-use COVID tests available for at home or other point-of-care use. Currently, the Atlanta team has participated in verifying over 40 tests and provided data to the NIH to help determine which tests merit additional federal support to progress to market.

Primarily, ACME POCT will use the additional $18.2 million grant to finish verifying tests that the NIH merits as scalable for market in the next one to two months. The team will also advise the NIH on the best populations, with a focus on asymptomatic, positive cases, to further investigate current test technologies in larger clinical assessment studies and develop the best method for deployment. Finally, they will help advance promising high-risk and high-tech COVID-19 diagnostic tests that cannot meet the RADx fall deadline, for scale up in 2021.

“As the pandemic has evolved, our RADx center has evolved with it,” says Wilbur Lam, MD, PhD, pediatric hematologist and oncologist at Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s and one of three principal investigators of the RADx project in Atlanta.


Read the full press here

ECE Q&A with IEN Director Oliver Brand

Oliver Brand is the Executive Director of the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN) and a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). He received his undergraduate degree in Physics from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany in 1990, and his Ph.D. degree (Doctor of Natural Sciences) from ETH Zurich, Switzerland in 1994. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Georgia Tech from 1995 to 1997 and a lecturer at ETH Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland and deputy director of its Physical Electronics Laboratory (PEL) from 1997 to 2002. In January 2003, Brand joined the Georgia Tech ECE faculty. He became the executive director of IEN in August 2013.

Read the full press here

John Hooper: Innovator and Catalyst

Innovator and catalyst is the right descriptor for John Hooper. Low-key and self-effacing could be added. John built a smoldering fire by inaugurating the Microelectronics Research Center, and then brought gasoline to the fire by overseeing the design and construction of the Pettit Microelectronics Research Building enabling Georgia Tech to successfully recruit outstanding microelectronics faculty.  The resulting $110 million research enterprise, currently operated under the auspices of the Institute for Electronics and Nanotechnology (IEN), speaks for itself.  But it is important that John’s contribution be recognized as he would never “toot his own horn”.

In the early 1980s, there was increasing concern in the technical community and associated business community about the growing penetration by Japanese companies into the U.S. electronics/computer marketplace. In order to help combat what some feared might eventually become Japanese dominance of that marketplace, a group of U.S. companies formed a consortium to create and fund a research enterprise, which came to be known as the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC).

Read the Full Technology Biography Here
New Publications

Y. Kwon, H. Kim, M. Mahmood, Y. Kim, C. Demolder, and W. H. Yeo*, "Printed, Wireless, Soft Bioelectronics and Deep Learning Algorithm for Smart Human-Machine Interfaces", ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 14193, 2020.


M. Mahmood, S. Kwon, G. Berkmen, Y. Kim, L. Scorr, H. Jinnah, and W. H. Yeo*, "Soft Nanomembrane Sensors and Flexible Hybrid Bioelectronics for Wireless Quantification of Blepharospasm", IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 67 (11), 3094, 2020 ---> selected as a featured article; https://www.embs.org/tbme/articles/soft-nanomembrane-sensors-and-flexible-hybrid-bioelectronics-for-wireless-quantification-of-blepharospasm/


Awards
  • Congratulations to the team of W. Hong Yeo, who received the 3rd place prize in this year's Medtronic Design Competition for their Smart and Connected Stent (@GeorgiaTech)!
     
  • Asif Khan has been named as one of the 10 awardees of the 2020 Intel Rising Star Award. Khan is an assistant professor at the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)

    Khan’s research is on advanced semiconductor devices—devices that will shape the future of computing in the post-scaling era. His group is currently focusing on ferroelectric devices on all aspects ranging from materials physics, growth and electron microscopy to device fabrication, all the way to ferroelectric circuits and systems for artificial intelligence/machine learning/variable load applications. 
     
  • John Cressler will receive the 2020 Outstanding Educator Award from the IEEE Atlanta Section at a virtual banquet hosted by the group on November 10. This award is presented to a member of the Atlanta IEEE community who has exhibited continued and dedicated contributions to education through teaching in industry, government, or an institution of higher education.
Cleanroom Corner
 
Hitachi S-3700N Variable Pressure SEM


The Hitachi S-3700N Variable Pressure SEM, located in Georgia Tech’s Biocleanroom, features a low vacuum observation of 6–270 Pa (7mT-2Torr) which enables imaging of non-conductive samples (dielectrics) and wet/moist samples such as cultured cells, without traditional sample preparation (such as gold coating or drying). Additionally, a Deben Coolstage controls sample temperature between -10F and 120F to control sample vapor pressure.





Applications of the Hitachi S-3700N Variable Pressure SEM include:
  • Biological (food, plant, emulsions) and other non-conductive sample imaging
  • Surface topography analysis
  • Polymer nanoparticles imaging
  • Photoresist pattern integrity analysis
  • Elemental analysis with EDS
 
For more information, please contact us: Linda Tian, Biocleanroom Engineer, linda.tian@ien.gatech.edu, 404-385-0151
 
Plenty of Beauty at the Bottom | The NNCI Image Contest 2020
 
Congratulations to SENIC User & Winner of Most Whimsical Division of the 2020 NNCI Image Contest


A Butterfly on Rose Flowers: Bioinspired CuO Nanoflowers Artist: Gayani Pathiraja, PhD student, and Hemali Rathnayake, faculty member, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Joint School of Nanoscience & Nanoengineering NNCI Site: SENIC Tool: Zeiss Auriga FIBFESEM


A Butterfly on Rose Flowers: Bioinspired CuO Nanoflowers
Artist: Gayani Pathiraja, PhD student, and Hemali Rathnayake, faculty member, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Joint School of Nanoscience & Nanoengineering
NNCI Site: SENIC
Tool: Zeiss Auriga FIBFESEM
Affiliate News



Application now open! Deadline: January 21, 2020

Application is now open for multiple AFRL sites, including Kirtland AFB, NM, and AMOS, HI. Start your application now for these sites, and stay tuned for Eglin AFB, FL, and Rome Labs, NY, application updates coming soon.

Questions about housing, the security clearance process, available topics, or maybe something else? We may have already answered it on our FAQ page! https://afrlscholars.usra.edu/faq/

Apply Here https://afrlscholars.usra.edu/students



Clinical and Translational Science Mentored Training Grants
 
Are you interested in making a clinical impact with your research? The Georgia Clinical & Translation Science Alliance (Georgia CTSA) offers highly competitive (funded) programs of formal coursework, in a hybrid format, coupled with mentored clinical research experiences for trainees at Georgia CTSA partners (Emory, Georgia Tech, Morehouse School of Medicine, and University of Georgia).
 
These programs are designed for PhD students, postdocs, and junior faculty. In particular, for PhD candidates and Postdoctoral scholars a TL1 (T32-like) grant opportunity is outlined online: http://www.gactsa.org/training/tl1/index.html
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