2011 Spring - WVU College of Engineering and Mineral Resources ...

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Faculty ReseaRChSpring 2011 ENGINEERINGWV6WVU’s Klinke earnsNational ScienceFoundation CAREERawardAward to Support FundamentalResearch Toward Understanding howCancer Cells Resist Targeted TherapyBy Mary C. DillonDr. David KlinkeMonoclonal antibody drugs and natural killer cells pack a one-two punch in the fight againstcancer. But sometimes, cancer cells escape the therapeutic action of these antibodies. A$416,483 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National ScienceFoundation (NSF) will allow West Virginia University’s Dr. David J. Klinke to help determine whysome cancer cells resist these targeted therapies.Klinke, an assistant professor of chemical engineering in the College of Engineering andMineral Resources, is hoping the fruits of his research can improve therapies for cancer, adisease that kills one in three in developed countries.A monoclonal antibody is produced naturally by the body but can also be engineeredcommercially to attach itself to specific molecules displayed on the surface in cancer cells. Bylabeling the cancer cells, they attract natural killer cells, the body’s natural first line of defensein attacking tumors and virally infected cells, to do their job. “The emergence of resistance totargeted therapies is an increasing, and poorly understood, problem” said Klinke. “Withouta better understanding of how cancer cells resist the action of molecular targeted therapies,designing effective treatments will remain limited.”According to Klinke, the underlying idea he aims to test is that cancer cells fight back; theysecrete biochemical signals that interfere with how natural killer cells recognize and destroycancer cells that monoclonal antibodies have labeled. His research, using aspects of cellularengineering, immunology, cancer biology, and computationally intensive model-basedinference, will attempt to understand this “cross-talk” between cancer cells and naturalkiller cells. Klinke is an expert in the emerging field of systems biology, a field that integratesmathematical modeling with experimental study to better understand biological systems.“Model-based inference is the process of encoding our prior knowledge of how cells interpretbiochemical signals in the form of a mathematical model,” said Klinke. “We then update ourknowledge by testing whether our prior knowledge is consistent with the experimental data.”The CAREER Program offers the NSF’s most prestigious awards in support of junior facultywho exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education,and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of theirorganizations.Klinke is affiliated with the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cell Biology andthe Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center at WVU’s School of Medicine. He has authored 30publications and holds two patents.•WVU researcherpart of teamthat correctlyestimates Gulfoil spill numbersThe efforts of a researcher in West VirginiaUniversity’s College of Engineering and MineralResources were confirmed when the Departmentof Energy (DOE) released its report on the amountof oil spilled during last year’s Deepwater Horizonoil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.Dr. Shahab Mohaghegh, a professor in CEMR’sDepartment of Petroleum and Natural Gas, workedas part of the Flow Rate Technology Group’sNodal Analysis Team. The team, led by Dr. GeorgeGuthrie of the Department of Energy’s NationalEnergy Technology Laboratory, consisted ofsubteams from five DOE national laboratories.According to their estimates, 53,000 barrels perday were escaping as a result of the offshoredrilling rig that exploded on April 20, 2010. Forthree months, the resulting leak continued to gush,making it the largest accidental marine oil spill inthe history of the petroleum industry.“It was a heroic process,” said Mohaghegh. “Wehad 15 people working on it around the clock.”The Nodal Analysis Team used input from reservoirmodeling (including pressure, temperature,fluid composition, and properties over time) andpressure and temperature conditions at the leakpoints on the sea floor, along with details of thegeometries of the well, blowout preventer, andriser to calculate fluid compositions, properties,and fluxes from both before and after riserremoval. According to Mohaghegh, the teamused both conventional and advanced modelingtechniques, based on artificial intelligence anddata mining.For his efforts, Mohaghegh was awarded $55,600from the URS Corp. for “Gulf Oil Spill ResponseEffort Support.” The final numbers released by theDepartment of Energy were very close to thosecalculated by the research team.
WVU COllEGE OF ENGINEERING AND MINERAl RESOURCESWVU, NASA EPSCoRcollaborate toconduct researchBy Cate MihelicCollaborating with industry leaders to conduct state-of-the-art researchis possible in rural states such as West Virginia because of initiativesset forth by NASA EPSCoR.Housed in the West Virginia University College of Engineering andMineral Resources, the NASA Experimental Program to StimulateCompetitive Research, or EPSCoR, establishes partnerships withgovernment, higher education, and industry that are designed to effectlasting improvement in a state or region’s research infrastructure,research and development capacity, and national competitiveness.The NASA EPSCoR Program is directed at jurisdictions that have notparticipated equably in competitive aerospace and aerospace-relatedresearch activities. Twenty-seven states and the Commonwealth ofPuerto Rico currently participate.One major component of the NASA EPSCoR Program in WestVirginia is competitively won research cooperative agreements thatare designed to strengthen and support research activities that areOne such project aims to develop a model for the spray coolingprocess of air- or spacecrafts in zero gravity environments. It is apartnership between NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, NASAGlenn Research Center, and WVU. John Kuhlman, a mechanicaland aerospace professor, is the science principal investigator;Donald Gray, a professor in the Civil and Environmental EngineeringDepartment, is the co-investigator.Another research project being conducted at CEMR involvesunmanned aerial and space vehicles with adaptive and intelligentflight control systems. These systems will be capable of maintainingacceptable levels of performance even in the event of failures. MarcelloNapolitano, director of WVU’s Center for Advanced Research inAutonomous Technology, is the science principal investigator. BojanCukic, a co-investigator, is a Robert C. Byrd Associate Professor inthe Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.This team has partnered with NASA research centers such asDryden, Ames, and Langley, as well as the Department of Defense,Department of Transportation, and the Green Bank Telescope. Thereare six industry partners, and the University of Virginia, Penn StateUniversity, and the University of Michigan are involved.In the third project, researchers are working to develop localizedwing morphing technology with smart skins to improve aerodynamicefficiency. Wade Huebsch, a mechanical and aerospace professor, isthe science principal investigator. His co-investigators include DarranCairns and Ever Barbero, both from the Mechanical and AerospaceEngineering Department. Supporters of this research at NASA Langleyhave identified several areas in aeronautics where they hope to see“The partnerships that are formed are beneficial to both parties.”beneficial to the research capabilities of the state, as well as advancingNASA’s research priorities. These are three-year competitive grantsfor up to $750,000 of federal funds per winning project, supplementedwith cost sharing from the researcher’s home institution. WV NASAEPSCoR currently has five research cooperative agreements withNASA, three of which are based at CEMR.“NASA has specific research goals and priorities, and they chooseto work with universities such as WVU to help achieve these goals,”noted Majid Jaraiedi, director of NASA WV EPSCoR. “The partnershipsthat are formed are beneficial to both parties.”this technology applied. This project is a collaboration between WVUand industry partners.A second component of NASA WV EPSCoR is the ResearchInfrastructure Development Program. This program supplies researchseed grants, travel grants, and a college-university collaborationprogram that promotes mentoring roles from WVU or Marshall withsmaller colleges in West Virginia.For more information about NASA WV EPSCoR, please visitwww.nasa.wvu.edu.• Volume 7 Issue 17CorrectionIn the fall 2010 issue of ENGINEERINGWV, it was incorrectly noted that Lian-Shin Lin,who was promoted to associate professor, was in the Lane Department of ComputerScience and Electrical Engineering. Dr. Lin is in the Department of Civil andEnvironmental Engineering. The editorial staff apologizes for the error.
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