Alejandro Presents Oral Presentation at 64th ASH Conference

Alejandro Presents Oral Presentation at 64th ASH Conference

The 64th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition was hosted last month, December 10-13th in New Orleans, Louisiana. The American Society of Hematology’s (ASH) mission is to further the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention
of blood and bone marrow disorders by promoting
research, clinical care, education, training and advocacy in
hematology. The Society host the annual meeting to facilitate the exchange of scientific information and clinical results related to the field of hematology.

 

Alejandro presented an oral presentation at the 64th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition and was the honored recipient of the merit-based Abstract Achievement Award for his work on A Dynamic Personalized Human 3D Organoid for the Study of the Tumor Microenvironment and Metabolism in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Using Patient-Derived Xenografts. Each year, the American Society of Hematology offers merit-based Abstract Achievement Awards to select individuals to acknowledge the accomplishments of hematologists-in-training. His oral presentation was presented on Sunday December 11th during Session: 803. Emerging Tools, Techniques and Artificial Intelligence in Hematology: New Molecular Tools for Precision Diagnostics in Hematology. We are very proud of Alejandro’s work which you can learn more about here.

Jarquin receives NIH F31 Grant

Jarquin receives NIH F31 Grant

GRANT ALERT!!

Our third year of doctoral studies student, PJ Jarquin has received a NIH F31 Training Grant for his work in “Understanding how erythroblastic island stressors affect monocyte/macrophage populations and erythrocyte maturation in a 3D model of the human bone marrow.” The purpose of this Kirschstein-NRSA program is to enable promising predoctoral students with potential to develop into a productive, independent research scientists, to obtain mentored research training while conducting dissertation research. PJ studies red blood cell development in health and disease here in the BSEL. He previously received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, Minority Hematology Award, and Emory Centennial Scholars Fellowship.

 

PJ has his eyes on a career as a scientist at a federal research agency. You can read more from PJ and about his accomplishment here

We are HIRING!

We are HIRING!

 

Are you a motivated modeler or developer with entrepreneurial interest? Do you want to help us to beat leukemia developing an advanced personalized medicine tool? Are you excited about being on the ground-floor of a startup spinout of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University? Join us! We are hiring!

 

SANICKA Inc, is a startup that builds mathematical models for biopharma, clean meat, cell therapies and healthcare industries, and we are inviting professionals to join our team working on a Georgia Research Alliance and Biolocity funded program entitled “πCIT (πChemo-Immuno Therapy) Clinical Decision Support Tool for Personalized Leukemia Treatment Selection”. The program will be carried out in the BioMedical Systems Engineering Laboratory (BSEL) in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University.

 

Position 1: Emory University

Position title: Research Associate / Modeler

Description of position: Atlanta, Georgia / Full-Time / Onsite. Responsible for the adaptation and validation of πCIT algorithm to cover the pediatric population by accounting for significant differences between children and adult’s physiology, metabolism, AML features and available therapies. The candidate should have a Chemical or Biomedical Engineering, biocomputing science or mathematics degree. Experience in modeling of biomedical systems, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) modeling, model analysis techniques, model-based optimization and use of modeling software (such as gPROMS / MATLAB) are essential.

 

Position 2: Georgia Institute of Technology

Position title: Postdoctoral Fellow / Modeler

Description of position: Atlanta, Georgia / Full-Time / Onsite. In charge of the translation, adaptation, improvement and validation of a proprietary mathematical model written in gPROMS, a SIEMENS programming language for simulation, optimization and parameter estimation, into Python. The candidates should have a Chemical or Biomedical Engineering, Biocomputing Science or Mathematics degree, be educated at PhD level. Experience on modeling of biomedical systems, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) modeling, model analysis techniques, use of modeling software (such as gPROMS / MATLAB) and development of algorithms and applications using Python are essential.

 

Position 3: Georgia Institute of Technology

Position title: Research Associate / Developer

Description of position: Atlanta, Georgia / Full-Time / Onsite. Leading the implementation of the architecture to support πCIT services and provide access to a web-based “Clinician Portal” to securely upload clinical patient data, perform simulations, and access visualizations of πCIT simulation and optimization results. The operation of the web-based Clinician Portal (Front-End) and Python algorithm (Back-End) should be implemented using Amazon Web Services (AWS).  The successful candidate should have a STEM degree with experience on web-based platform development, apps development, Python, Django and AWS, which is essential.

 

Follow the links above to apply and/or contact us at ana.quiroga@nullgatech.edu

SANICKA receives Biolocity Launch Award

SANICKA receives Biolocity Launch Award

The Biolocity program has selected five promising and patient-focused technologies for its new cohort of Biolocity Launch, a year-long collaboration that helps faculty members commercialize their innovations. We are pleased to announced that our  project was selected!

 

Sanicka: A clinical decision support tool to aid treatment selection and optimization for leukemia patients. Principal Investigators: Ana Quiroga, Ph.D., and Sakis Mantalaris, Ph.D., (Georgia Tech); Nicki Panoskaltsis, M.D., Ph.D. (Emory University).

Learn more at here

 

We are so grateful for Biolocity’s support. Since 2015, the program has awarded more than $8.7 million across 58 projects, generating over 10 times that much follow-on investment.

Learn more about Biolocity at biolocity.org.

Jarquin Wins 2 Years of Support from Hematology Society

Jarquin Wins 2 Years of Support from Hematology Society

Congratulations are in order

to our third year of doctoral studies student, PJ Jarquin! Jarquin has won a 2021 Minority Hematology Graduate Award, which includes two years of funding from the professional society for stipends and research costs along with connections to mentors and other researchers studying blood and blood disorders. PJ studies red blood cell development in health and disease here in the BSEL. He previously received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and an Emory Centennial Scholars Fellowship.

The Minority Hematology Graduate Award encourages graduate students from historically underrepresented minority groups to pursue careers in academic hematology, according to the society. The award comes with society membership, invitations to present research, and opportunities to meet leaders in the field.

 

PJ has his eyes on a career as a scientist at a federal research agency. You can read more from PJ and about his accomplishment here

ACS Research Podcast: Female Founders Program at Georgia Tech

ACS Research Podcast: Female Founders Program at Georgia Tech

On this weeks American Cancer Society TheoryLab podcast, our post-doc, Ana Quiroga Campano, joined 3 other amazing women to talk about the Female Founders program at Georgia Tech:

-Female-led startups
-Scientist-entrepreneurs
-New technologies

 

Find the full podcast below:

 

NSF I-Corps Team 1656 BioProcess Optimizer

NSF I-Corps Team 1656 BioProcess Optimizer

Over the course of 7 weeks this summer, BSEL members Dr. Ana Quiroga and Esther Chen along with their business mentor, Nakia Melecio, from Georgia Tech’s ATDC traveled all around the US and Switzerland to visit biotech hubs as a part of the national NSF I-Corps (D.C. node). The aim of this intense program is to get academic researchers out of their comfort zone and into the field to evaluate the commercial potential of their technology. Our efforts paid off and we completed 212 (!) interviews and identified the following customer segments: manufacturing of biomolecules for human therapeutics, viruses for gene therapies, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for tissue regeneration and immunomodulation, T cells for CAR-T therapies, animal vaccines, and clean meat production. Our team interviewed a wide variety of professionals, from machine learning experts, to upstream process engineers, to members of the CDC, and clinicians. From these numerous discussions, we learned about the pains each industry faces and how our technology could potentially fill the gap. Moving forward, we will continue to learn about our customer segment and continue to work towards bringing our technology to the market.

We would like to thank all of those who supported us throughout the journey, including friends, family, BSEL members, and especially Drs. Mantalaris and Panoskaltsis for allowing us to seize this opportunity and make the most of this incredible experience.

New Member – Esther Chen

Esther Chen has chosen to pursue her PhD in the joint Biomedical Engineering department of Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University with us at the Biological Systems Engineering Lab. Esther received a BSc in Chemical Engineering from ETH Zurich, Switzerland. During her undergraduate studies she worked in the field of green chemistry. Her semester project was on kinetic studies of ring-opening polymerization of polyethylene furanoate (PEF) using bio-compatible initiators. Before graduating, she also completed a 6-month internship in API manufacturing at Janssen-Cilag (Johnson&Johnson). Continuing with her Master’s in Chemical and Bioengineering at ETH, Esther deepened her knowledge on process design and simulation. She completed her thesis in the group of Prof. Klavs Jensen at MIT (Cambridge, MA) on the continuous end-to-end synthesis of ciprofloxacin hydrochloride. Once back in Zurich, she worked in the Macromolecular Engineering Lab led by Prof. Mark Tibbitt on the preparation of photodegradable hydrogels.

To join the Biological Systems Engineering Lab led by Prof. Mantalaris and Dr. Panoskaltsis, she moved to Atlanta, GA. She will join the BSEL as a Student Research Assistant starting in April. Her research will be focused on the development of a 3D model of leukemia.