171 Ashley Ave.
Charleston, SC 29425
843-792-1414
800-424-MUSC
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August 2007
Children's Research Institute News Brief
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Bernard L. Maria, MD, MBA
Executive Director
Darby Children's
Research Inst. |
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Inderjit Singh, PhD
Scientific Director
Darby Children's
Research Inst. |
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Future Pediatric Scientists in the Making
Of the three sets of summer students, the only students who must define specific project goals in advance are the Summer Health Professionals (SHPs). With few exceptions, the Summer Undergraduate Research Professionals (SURPs) generally do not know who their mentors will be until they arrive on site. The Governor's school students know their mentors, but do not usually submit project titles until they have completed their summer work.
Below is a list of SHP students, projects and mentors for 2007, Governor's school students who will be working with DCRI investigators, SURPs who are in the "exception" class.
Also listed is a group of miscellaneous summer projects being conducted in the Charles P. Darby Children's Research Institute.
2007 SHP Projects:
 Robby Hendry - The effects of hyaluronan oligomer on radiosensitivity and BCRP localization in glioma cells.
Mentor: Dr. Bernie Maria
Project Objectives:
- Determine the effects of hyaluronan oligomer (o-HA) exposure on the radiosensitivity of rat and human glioma cells.
- Describe the cellular localization (plasma membrane versus intracellular pools) of the drug transporter protein BCRP in glioma cells upon exposure to o-HA.
 Wei-Ting (Annie) Chen - The effects of CD44 knockdown on radio- and chemo-sensitivity in human glioma cells.
Mentor: Dr. Bernie Maria
Project Objectives:
- Optimize transfection protocols for RNAi knockdown in human glioma cell line monolayers and spheroids.
- Determine efficiencies of radiation and chemotherapy of transfected human glioma cells.
 Daniel Grass - Metabolic effects of hyaluronan coat perturbation on the human breast adenocarcinoma cell line MCF-7.
Mentor: Drs. Bryan Toole and Mark Slomiany
Project Objectives:
- To characterize the effect of hyaluronan coat perturbation on MCF-7 metabolism.
- To examine the relationship between the hyaluronan coat, EMMPRIN (CD147) expression, and metabolism in MCF-7 cells.
- To explore the mechanism whereby perturbation of the hyaluronan coat results in altered MCF-7 metabolism.
 Letitia Bolds - Human Glioblastoma Neurospheres and Hyaluronan oligomer interactions.
Mentor: Dr. Bernie Maria
Project Objectives:
- To determine if Hyaluronan oligomers (o-HA) suppress malignant properties of progenitor-enriched neurospheres (PEN) isolated from human glioblastomas.
- To determine if combinations of Hyaluronan oligomers (o-HA) and chemotherapy interfere with the metabolic properties of progenitor-enriched neurospheres (PEN).
 Anthony Leonard - Breast Cancer Resistance Protein in Gliomas: Multidrug Resistance, Radioresistance, or Both?
Mentor: Dr. Bernie Maria
Project Objectives:
- Determine the localization of BCRP expression in human spinal cord astrocytomas (Grades I-IV) and normal human brain tissue.
- Examine the effect of BCRP antagonism on radioresistance of C6 rat glioma cells in vitro.
 Michael Babcock - Neural and cancer stem cell interactions.
Mentor: Dr. Bernie Maria
Project Objectives:
- Compare the expression of emmprin and hyaluronan in mouse embryonic stem cells, neuralized progenitor cells, and primary neural stem cells.
- Determine relative migratory rates of neuralized mouse embryonic stem cells towards side-population (SP) and non-SP C6 rat glioma cells.
- Determine if migration of neuralized progenitor cells is mediated by SDF1-alpha in SP and non-SP cells.
 George Magrath - Antagonizing inflammatory mediator effects on malignant cell behavior in resistant glioma cancer cells using Hyaluronan oligomers in vitro.
Mentor: Drs. Bryan Toole and Bernie Maria
Project Objectives:
- Test the role of inflammatory mediators in promoting the malignant phenotype in drug and radiation resistant glioma cancer cell lines.
- Test antagonism of inflammatory effects in glioma cell lines using hyaluronan oligomers.
 Jason Nance - The effects of caffeic acid phenethyl ester on acute spinal cord trauma
Mentor: Dr. Inderjit Singh
Project Objectives:
- To induce acute spinal cord trauma following laminectomy in female Sprague-Dawley rats.
- To determine the efficacy of caffiec acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) in providing neuroprotection by evaluating locomotor function using the Basso Beattie Bresnahan locomotor function scale.
2007 Governor School Students:
 Dylan Hale - PO-1 - Project 3 Abnormal Osteoblast Activity In Paget's Disease
Mentor: Dr. Sakamuri V. Reddy
Project Title:
Project Objectives:
- Understand the mechanisms of RANK-L gene regulation in bone cells.
 Annie Kwon - Production of Mutant Forms of ProSP-C
Mentor: Dr. John E. Baatz
Project Objective:
- To produce mutant forms of proSPC using site-directed mutagenesis with insect-specific baculoviruses and insect cells.
 Grace Dion - Retina as a Model System for Examining the Effects of Drugs of Abuse
Mentor: Dr. Prakash Kara
Project Objective:
- To map the effects of various pharmacological substances on visually-evoked retinal ganglion cell responses.
 Ashley McClary - The role of substrate stiffness on stem cell differentiation
Mentor: Dr. Xuejun Wen
Project Objective:
- To test the rheological properties of CMHA-DTPH and crosslinking PEGDA to find the ideal growth environment for stems cells undergoing differentiation.
2007 SURP Projects:
 Britney Tucker - The effects of hyaluronan oligomer treatment on gene expression in glioma progenitor cells.
Mentor: Dr. Bernie Maria
Project Title: The role of substrate stiffness on stem cell differentiation
Project Objective:
- To characterize the effects of hyaluronan oligomer treatment on gene expression in glioma progenitor cells.
 Stephen Bell - NASA EPSCOR grant
Mentor: Dr. Sakamuri V. Reddy
Project Objective:
- Understand Bone Remodeling in micro-gravity conditions.
 Benjamin Madison - Spiking statistics of retinal ganglion cells in response to white-noise visual stimuli.
Mentor: Dr. Prakash Kara
Project Objective:
- To determine the dependence of space-time retinal receptive fields on firing rate and contrast.
 Christine LaDana - Impact of Hyaluronan and TGF beta cues on Elastin Matrix Regeneration by Chronically Inflamed Vascular Aortic Smooth Muscle Cells.
Mentor: Dr. Anand Ramamurthi
Project Objective:
- Compare basal elastogenic activities and elastin matrix ultrastructure between healthy and inflamed adult vascular smooth muscle cells (SMC).
- Assess the impact of proven elastogenic cues [HA and TGF beta] on elastin synthesis by inflamed SMCs and on elastin matrix assembly and ultrastructure.
 Rachel Bell - Porous, interconnected, graded, and bioactive scaffolds for bone regeneration.
Mentor: Dr. Xuejen Wen
Project Objective:
- To fabricate biomimetic scaffolds with graded and interconnected porous structure using a template-casting method.
- To test the bone formation in vivo by seeding bovine osteoblasts into the scaffold.
- To test the osteoconductivity of nacre scaffold in vivo using a rat subcutaneous implantation model.
 Ashley Stover - Statins and Remyelination.
Mentor: Dr. Inderjit Singh
Project Objective:
- To evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of statins for induction of Remyelination in the animal model of Multiple Sclerosis.
- To investigate the mechanisms of satin induced differentiations of Oligodendrocyte Progenitors in vitro.
2007 Miscellaneous Projects:
Christopher Brunson: Academic Magnet High School, Charleston, SC
Mentor: Dr. Xuejen Wen
Project Objective:
- The use of extracellular matrix-based hydrogel loaded with oligodendrocytes recursors for the repair of injured spinal cord.
Lindsey Trexler: Charleston Southern University
Mentor: Dr. Xuejen Wen
Project Objective:
- Testing the biocompatibility of a series of extracellular matrix based hydrogel in central nervous system.
Maggie Zawaski: Clemson University
Mentor: Dr. Xuejen Wen
Project Objective:
- Wireless Sensor for monitoring hemodynamic and oxygenation following pediatric cardiac surgery.
Jason B. Schulte: Clemson University
Mentor: Dr. Xuejen Wen
Project Objective:
- Testing the biocompatibility of semi-permeable hollow fiber membranes in cochlea.
Virginia Williams: USC School of Medicine
Mentor: Dr. Bernie Maria
Project Objective:
- Determine the importance of values across generations of medical students, residents, and child neurology practitioner. The overarching specific aim being to model a Values Profile of Generation Y medical students.
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