Regenerative Biomaterials
In the midst of the Center for Neural Engineering, the Advanced Regenerative Biomaterials and Therapeutics group, led by Mohammad Abidian, assistnat professor of bioengineering, focuses on developing neural interfaces for drug delivery for brain tumors, axonal regeneration and biosensors.
The lab opened in 2010 after Dr. Abidian was appointed an assistant professor at Penn State, following his post-doctoral training at the University of Michigan. Since the lab opening, he has been actively involved in three main areas of interest. The first is targeted and local delivery of anticancer agents to brain tumors. Current treatments for brain tumors include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Life expectancy for patients with aggressive brain tumors can be extended for about a year and the side effects of the treatments can be devastating. Dr. Abidian’s goal is to create a chip that can be implanted next to the tumor delivering controlled doses of chemicals directly to the tumor, while providing real time monitoring of therapeutic effects using biosensor nanodevices. The expected outcome—avoiding the traditional side effects of drug injections. Abidian said the neurosurgeons at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center are interested in the project and possible implant procedures.
A second project involves axonal regeneration in the central and peripheral nervous system. Axonal regeneration, essentially nerve growth, is common in the peripheral nervous system, which includes all the nerves throughout the body that connect to the spinal cord. A familiar case of nerve regeneration occurs when the finger is cut. If the cut is minor, it will generally heal without a loss of feeling. But with cuts and nerve damage greater than about one centimeter, the peripheral nerves generally fail to reconnect and lose contact with the central nervous system. Nerve regeneration in spinal cord injuries is almost nonexistent due to several factors such as glial scar formation blocking nerve growth, and the loss of chemical signals, shutting down the regeneration process within the spinal cord.
"Axonal regeneration is a complex problem in the central and peripheral nervous systems," said Dr. Abidian. His goal is to use bioactive conducting polymer nanotubes to provide chemical, physical, and electrical signals inducing nerve regeneration. His experiments in rat models have been promising.
His third project - neurochemical sensing of the brain, or communication in the brain through chemical cascades released in the synapse. These neurochemicals play a significant role in such neurological disorders as Parkinson's disease and seizures.
The group wants to create sensors to predict multiple neurochemical changes by using chemically sensitive carbon and conducting polymer nanotubes. It is the expectation the sensors will generate the extended period of time required to measure the therapeutic effect of different drug regimens.
- Gloria Kim, Ph.D. Candidate