BME Seminar Series: Govind Srimathveeravalli
Content
Engineering, biology and electricity walk into a lab, new applications emerge
Govind Srimathveeravalli, PhD
UMass Amherst
Friday, October 16
LSL N610 and via Zoom (Meeting ID: 413 545 2017)
11:00 AM-12:00 PM
Electricity and biology are inseparable; life exists when a potential is sustained and current flows. Predictably, cells can be prodded into action with a variety of external electrical stimuli. Electroporation is one such example where pulsed electric fields temporarily or permanently permeabilize the cell membrane. My lab’s investigation into cellular bioelectrics began with the development of electroporation technology for cancer therapy within tubular organs. From these beginnings our lab has uncovered a plethora of cellular responses to different electrical waveforms, with implications for multiple fields of study. In this talk, I will share three recent findings from our lab. First, we report the development of electroporation as a novel tool for ex vivo and in vivo decellularization with applications in tissue engineering and reconstructive surgery. Second, we identified that high frequency biphasic waveforms trigger actin cytoskeletal remodeling in epithelial and endothelial cells, downstream of calcium activity. Such stimulation provokes cellular behavior and responses that are typically linked to mechanical stimuli, with applications in drug delivery and regenerative medicine. Finally, we combine pulsed electric fields with a medical device to enable a new form of tissue biopsy. Using pulsed electric fields we coax cells to release high-quality intracellular RNA, DNA and protein on demand, from large and defined tissue volumes. This translational technology is designed for, and can augment molecular and genomic diagnosis of cancer.
About Govind Srimathveeravalli: Govind Srimathveeravalli is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and the director of Center for Personalized Health Monitoring at University of Massachusetts Amherst. His lab studies the interaction of electrical energy and biology. Knowledge gained from basic experiments in his lab guides the development of medical devices with application to tissue engineering, mechanobiology, tumor ablation and drug delivery. His research has generated over 55 journal articles, supported by grants from the NIH, NSF, CDMRP and industrial contracts. He has trained five doctoral students, over 40 undergraduate researchers and has hosted several visiting physician-scientists from Japan and Europe. His pre- and postdoctoral trainees are recipients of competitive awards from the Fulbright program, NSF GRFP, Uehara Foundation and IALS TRT. Prof. Srimathveeravalli is the first engineer to become a Fellow of the Society of Interventional Radiology; he is a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors, a recipient of the Outstanding Junior Faculty award from the College of Engineering at UMass Amherst and an NSF CAREER awardee. He has been a key technological contributor to multiple startup companies and has founded Kunam Medical to spinoff biopsy technology from the lab. Prof. Srimathveeravalli has served in leadership positions within several professional societies including as a board member in the Foundation of the Society of Interventional Radiology, and the organizing committee of the World Electroporation Congress.