Browsing by Author "Ward, Richard"

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    CHRONIC TRANSPLANT REJECTION: PROBLEMS, DISCOVERIES, SOLUTIONS
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2012-04-13) Aulds-Stier, Mitchell; Su, Eric; Saltagi, Mohamad; Khan, Karim; Ward, Richard; Johnson, Raymond
    Organ transplantation has become an increasingly important remedy in helping extend the lives of patients with organ failures or deficien-cies. Although the survival rates of organ recipients have dramatically increased in the short term (1-5 years), long-term (5+ years) survival rates have not improved significantly. Additionally, increasingly un-healthy lifestyles have contributed to a dramatic increase in the need for organ transplants, while organ supply has only slightly increased, resulting in a constantly increasing gap between organ demand and organ supply. Dr. Raymond Johnson, an IU Health Physician, discov-ered a new T cell subset that is resistant to medications routinely used to prevent transplant rejection. This discovery is important because it can be used to develop mechanism-specific diagnostic blood tests for chronic rejection and, potentially, new drugs to treat chronic trans-plant rejection. However, innovations developed in faculty labs often face multiple hurdles in reaching the market place. As participants in the Innovation-to-Technology Central (ITEC) program, our unique multidisciplinary team of students investigated Dr. Raymond Johnson’s discovery by conducting literature research and expert interviews on organ transplantation and rejection and pharmaceutical drugs used in preventing acute transplant rejection. Through our research and our interviews, we were able to further document the dire need for meth-ods for increasing survival rates of transplanted organs. Most im-portantly, we have conducted preliminary market research and devel-oped several commercialization strategy recommendations based on comparable innovation analysis and precedent biotechnology start-up strategies. We anticipate that our research will provide Dr. Johnson with new information and perspectives to help seek venture capitalists to invest in his research, which holds the promise to change the lives of thousands of transplant recipients each year. Funding provided by IUPUI’s Innovation-to-Enterprise Central (ITEC).
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    Effect of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure on Bony Craniofacial Development: A Mouse MicroCT Study
    (Elsevier, 2013) Shen, Li; Ai, Huisi; Liang, Yun; Ren, Xiaowei; Anthony, Charles Bruce; Goodlett, Charles R.; Ward, Richard; Zhou, Feng C.; Radiology and Imaging Sciences, School of Medicine
    Craniofacial bone dysmorphology is an important but under-explored potential diagnostic feature of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. This study used longitudinal MicroCT 3D imaging to examine the effect of prenatal alcohol exposure on craniofacial bone growth in a mouse model. C57BL/6J dams were divided into 3 groups: alcohol 4.2% v/v in PMI® liquid diet (ALC), 2 weeks prior to and during pregnancy from embryonic (E) days 7-E16; pair-fed controls (PF), isocalorically matched to the ALC group; chow controls (CHOW), given ad libitum chow and water. The MicroCT scans were performed on pups on postnatal days 7 (P7) and P21. The volumes of the neurocranium (volume encased by the frontal, parietal, and occipital bones) and the viscerocranium (volume encased by the mandible and nasal bone), along with total skull bone volume, head size, and head circumference were evaluated using general linear models and discriminant analyses. The pups in the alcohol-treated group, when compared to the chow-fed controls (ALC vs CHOW) and the isocaloric-fed controls (ALC vs PF), showed differences in head size and circumference at P7 and P21, the total skull volume and parietal bone volume at P7, and volume of all the tested bones except nasal at P21. There was a growth trend of ALC < CHOW and ALC < PF. While covarying for gender and head size or circumference, the treatment affected the total skull and mandible at P7 (ALC > CHOW), and the total skull, parietal bone, and occipital bone at P21 (ALC < CHOW, ALC < PF). While covarying for the P7 measures, the treatment affected only the 3 neurocranial bones at P21 (ALC < CHOW, ALC < PF). Discriminant analysis sensitively selected between ALC and CHOW (AUC = 0.967), between ALC and PF (AUC = 0.995), and between PF and CHOW (AUC = 0.805). These results supported our hypothesis that craniofacial bones might be a reliable and sensitive indicator for the diagnosis of prenatal alcohol exposure. Significantly, we found that the neurocranium (upper skull) was more sensitive to alcohol than the viscerocranium (face).
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    Nanotechnology STEM Program via Research Experience for High School Teachers
    (IEEE, 2015-10) Agarwal, Mangilal; Mirza, Qurat-ul-Ann; Bondi, Joseph; Sorge, Brandon; Rizkalla, Maher; Ward, Richard; Feldhaus, Corbin; Hinshaw, Amy; Varahramyan, Kody; Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology
    In this work, we report the outcomes from the IUPUI STEM outreach program “STEMCorp” that inspires high school students to pursue STEM majors. The STEMCorp program was modeled after the Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Initiative (MURI) at IUPUI. MURI research program introduces undergraduate students from at least two different departments with mentors from different disciplines to address research issues that may compose both engineering and sciences. The STEMCorp program brings undergraduate students to work with faculty and high school teachers to create a positive impact in enriching the high school students by introducing them to engineering and science with emphasis on nanotechnology for future careers. The program describes the collaborative activities between faculty, undergraduate students and high school STEM teachers in the creation of project-based, student-centered learning modules in the field of nanotechnology. The paper details the activities of the STEMCorp participants including their experiences in developing working partnerships and creating and implementing learning modules in the designated high school courses. The success of the program is assessed by the measurable outcomes of high school students' research projects. Specifically, two different learning modules are presented, including the processes used in the development of these modules and their outcomes. The collaborative research discussions between the faculty, undergraduate students, and high school teachers are detailed, covering research methodologies, hypothesis, and expected outcomes.
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    Understanding the Social and Cultural Factors Related to African American Infant Mortality: a Phenomenological Approach
    (2010-08-10T18:10:59Z) Barnes, Glenna Lebby; Adamek, Margaret E.; Patchner, Michael A.; Sims, Sherry; Smith, Linda A.; Ward, Richard
    Twice as many African American infants die each year when compared to white infants. While infant mortality rates have declined for all ethnic groups in the United States over the past fifty years, the racial gap has remained persistent, and is not fully understood despite numerous quantitative studies. The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experiences of African American women in relationship to the black gap in infant mortality. Thirteen African American women participated in either a focus group or in–depth interviews. Women were asked to use their life experiences to identify factors that would increase the understanding of African American infant mortality. Several themes emerged indicating that the experience of stress and racism are constant factors in African American women’s lives and are inseparable from their pregnancy experience.