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the ecu reportAlan KypsonNeed a vein? Look in the fridgeAnyone who has undergone a heart bypassprocedure knows you usually have to recover fromtwo surgeries—one on your heart and another onyour leg, where doctors remove a section of veinto use to repair your heart. Thanks to pioneeringwork by an ECU surgeon, someday soon thatsecond surgery won’t be necessary.Research co-authored by Alan Kypson, a professorof surgery at the Brody School of Medicine,and published in the journal Science TranslationalMedicine demonstrated that scientists can“grow” new veins in the lab and store them in arefrigerator for up to a year. These manmade veinsare constructed from smooth-muscle cells takenfrom a human cadaver that are placed around atubular structure. The cells grow until they coverthe tube. The tube is then treated to remove thecells, leaving a hollow, flexible tube that works likea vein but will not be rejected by the body.Participating in the research with Kypson werescientists from Duke University, Yale Universityand Humacyte, a biotechnology company based inDurham. Humacyte funded much of the research.The medical advance is important given our agingpopulation. “People are having multiple heartbypasses and vascular surgery now and once apatient is on their third or fourth bypass, they areout of veins to use,” Kypson said.East Carolina timelineYEARS AGO100First student graduatesAmong the 13 students in the firstclass to graduate in May 1911 is PattieSimmons Dowell of Williamston,who was the first student to registeron Oct. 5, 1909, when ECTTS firstopened its doors. Founder and firstpresident of the campus YWCA, shegoes on to become the first ECTTSgraduate to receive a doctorate. Sheteaches here in 1923–24, leaves forSouthern Miss—where she authorsfour elementary school textbooks—but returns in 1958 to end her careerhere. She is the first recipient of theschool’s Outstanding Alumni Award.Dowell Way, the short street archingbetween Fletcher and Garrettresidence halls on the east end ofMain Campus, is named for her.YEARS AGO85The case of the purloined frocksThe campus is shocked and thespring social season is imperiledin April 1926 when silk gownspurchased or made by eightstudents disappear from dormrooms just days before the PoeSociety’s big dance. Oddly, allare about the same size. TheGreenville police are called and alocal woman is charged when thegowns are found at her home. TheTecoan reports a happy ending tothe incident in a front-page storyheadlined “The Easter Frocks AreReturned to Owners.”