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The Virginia Tech - Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences

Brian J Love VT/WFU School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences

Work address: Dept of Materials Science and Engineering (M/C 0286) Blacksburg, VA 24061

Short Summary:

The core purpose of the program is to address create a viable home for significant biomedical research without having to create the infrastructure necessary to establish either a separate college of medicine or college of engineering at the respective campuses. This linkage offers the ability to create an umbrella organization that facilitates increasingly seamless interaction between campuses to address both the educational and research components. Health oriented research continues to be seen as a growth area for many researchers, and the ability to harness these resources in a grouped way is an enhancement for both Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.

The distinguishing factors of operation:

Integrated interaction between campuses in terms of video classrooms, joint faculty meetings, and a burgeoning seed grant program tied between the campuses. The most unique attribute for our program is the inclusion of a College of Veterinary Medicine allowing SBES to be able to translate research from the bench through animal studies to the clinic. Graduate students in SBES also participate in clinical rotation as part of the educational experience during their matriculation.

What were the institutional barriers to creating the program and how has that been dealt with.

The obvious issues of space and oversight were the expected problems. Proximity could be a problem, but the institutions have been supportive in facilitating interactions between campuses. Between institutions, resolving how a public school in one state would organize with a private school in another state. As a result, there are differences in hiring practices for faculty and staff, support for graduate students, and institutional expectations in terms of promotion and tenure.

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There was even a discussion of what this new diploma distributed by the two schools would look like. Institutional barriers at Virginia Tech included how the school would operate seamlessly between existing departments on campus, and the inevitable issue who gets credit for advising students, teaching classes, and bringing in research dollars.

Status of the Program: Significant increases in funding have been seen over the last three years, although larger group grants have not been successful. There will need to be a focus on more targeted center based proposals and that may require a crisper determination of how we can organize SBES faculty into facilitated groups. We’ve identified three main areas, but those are too broad to warrant extensive center based support at the current moment. At least four new direct or affiliated faculty are scheduled to arrive in August 2006, and we hope to maintain the momentum that has already given us some prestige and visibility.

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The Virginia Tech - Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences

Strategic Plan: 2005-2010

Elaine P. Scott (Acting Director) and Pete Santago (Associate Director)

Vision The Virginia Tech – Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences (SBES) will be a leader in biomedical engineering (BME) and related sciences through innovative academic programs and research collaborations. Accordingly, we aim to become one of the top ten BME academic programs in the United States, obtain international recognition for our research centers, become a major contributor toward economic development within the region, and provide a catalyst for broader initiatives between Virginia Tech (VT) and Wake Forest University (WFU). To achieve these goals, we will seek to augment our faculty in strategic areas. We will expect these new faculty members to provide a significant increase in extramural funding and graduate student support, but we recognize that to do so, they will require sufficient space and infrastructure. In our pursuit of this vision, SBES will be a key contributor as VT and WFU continue their advancement as top-tier research intuitions.

Rationale Top-tier research institutions invariably have strong biomedical and engineering components. Therefore, SBES was formed to bring together the strengths and assets of the Virginia Tech College of Engineering, the Wake Forest University School of Medicine (WFUSM), and the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine (VMRCVM) through the development of a joint academic program. As the efforts are directed at fostering research collaborations, the academic program is focused at the graduate level. Our strategy with regard to increasing our faculty is to build upon our strengths in an effort to (1) secure international prominence in several key research areas and (2) pursue selected new research opportunities in potential growth areas.

Current Strengths and Proposed Growth

Current Strengths and Research Collaborations Currently, our greatest strengths in BME research and academics include biomechanics, tissue engineering, imaging, and medical physics. Research activities in these areas are growing rapidly; for example, BME-related research expenditures have grown nearly 500 percent at VT alone over the past 5 years, and collaborative efforts between VT and WFU have increased dramatically in recent years. Table 1 provides a summary of these collaborations. We believe other collaborations exist that have not yet been identified, and numerous projects currently based at either VT or WFU offer potential for collaboration.

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Table 1: Current and developing collaborations Area Collaboration Biodefense  Steve Mizel (WFUSM) and BSL3 Facility (VMRCVM)  NIH Program Project  Kevin High (WFUSM) and Gerhardt Schurig (CVM)  NIH: Brucella, Aging and Role of IL-17 in Host Defense Cancer  Pilot projects funded by both Radiation Oncology and VMRCVM Tissue Engineering  BME Faculty key players on several NIH submissions  Proposals submitted for ~ $17 million (direct cost) over 5 years  Vascular grafts, scaffolds, and nanomaterials Minimally Invasive or Noninvasive  Pepper Center and BME (NIH funds) Tissue Characterization  Aging muscle characterization with ultrasound (NIH)  Fiber-optic biopsy Scoliosis  Jeff Shilt (WFUSM) and Harry Dankowitz (VT ESM)  2nd-year and industry funding promising CT Colonography  Pete Santago (WFUSM) and Chris Wyatt (VT ECE)  NIH funded and new submission at NIH Lung Trauma  Mark Payne (WFUSM Pediatrics) and Joel Stitzel (WFUSM BME, CIB)  NIH submission Active Imaging with MRI  Bob Kraft (WFUSM) and Chris Wyatt (VT ECE)  NIH submission Trauma, Intensive Care, and  SIMON: Informatics with Surgery and BME Bioinformatics  VT-WFU Center for Injury Biomechanics Drug Delivery  Localized drug activation (WFIRM and BME)  Transdermal drug delivery (WFIRM and BME) Wireless Lab Monitoring and Devices  Sam Deadwyler (WFUSM) and Al Wicks (VT ME)  DOD and possible industry funding Materials  Bruce Rubin (WFUSM) and Brian Love (VT MSE)  Characterization of Mucus as a Biopolymer Automotive  NHTSA CIREN  Ford  Autoliv France Multi-scale Modeling  T.M. Murali (VT CS) and Jacquelyn Fetrow (WFU CS/Physics)  NSF/NIGMS submission Modeling of Redox Signaling  J. Fetrow (WFU Physics), Reinhard Schneider, Pedro Mendes, Networks by Integrating Algebraic, and Vladimir Shulaev (VT). Submitted: $400,000 to DMS- Experimental, and Statistical NSF/NIGMS for Mathematical Biology Initiative Approaches Coenzyme A-linked Redox Control in  Al Claiborne (WFUSM),PI, David Popham (VT) co-I Bacillus anthracis – NIH funded.  Homeland security fellowship to graduate student Active-site Profiles of Flavoprotein  Al Claiborne (WFUSM), PI, Joel Gillespie (VT/VBI) Disulfide Reductases – NIH funded.

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Program and Faculty: Proposed Growth Our proposed growth will build on our current strengths and at the same time will allow pursuit of selected new opportunities. Although considerable expertise is available throughout VT and WFU in biomechanics, tissue engineering, imaging, and medical physics, the demand to expand SBES into new areas of opportunity, particularly neuroengineering, bioinformatics and computational biology, bionanotechnology, and bioinstrumentation/biosensors, is considerable. To accommodate this growth, we propose adding 20 primary and core faculty members within the next five years – 15 at VT and five at WFU. Figure 1 and Table 2 indicate the growth in each area. Faculty growth is proposed in strategic areas. For example, the additional positions in applied biomechanics would be focused on spine studies, and the faculty involved would be expected to interact with the new neuroengineering and neuroscience faculty at WFU. In addition, the growth in tissue engineering will be directed towards collaborations with the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the cardiovascular group, the Center for Injury Biomechanics, the neurosciences team, or a combination of these.

Another excellent opportunity for growth is in the Northern Virginia Engineering (NVE) division of the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech. The NVE could provide a gateway for SBES to the national capital region, and provide opportunities for both training and research programs. Expanding the faculty at NVE in key areas would provide the essential links to VT and WFU to facilitate these efforts.

Table 2. Existing primary/core faculty and proposed growth Existing Proposed Total Area VT WFU VT WFU VT+WFU Biomechanics 10 3 5 1 19 Cardiovascular 3 1 2 0 6 Applied 4 1 2 1 8 Injury 3 1 1 0 5 Imaging 1 5 3 1 10 Tissue Engineering* 4 7 5 1 17 Neuroengineering 1 1 1 3 Bioinstrumentation 1 1 0 2 Bioinformatics 1 1 Medical Physics ** Bionanotechnology Total 17 15 15 5 52 *The tissue engineering faculty includes seven members from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. **Medical Physics is focused in the Department of Radiation Oncology, and new faculty members specific to that area would typically be hired into that department. However, the Medical Physics track is highly dependent upon the imaging faculty, whose members are hired by BME.

In addition to these technical strengths and areas for new opportunities, some emerging areas represent applications that capitalize on the strengths of VT and WFU, in engineering as well as other areas. Three that have spontaneously arisen and for which we recommend continued support are cancer, biodefense, and aging.

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New faculty members in these areas will be expected to develop substantial research programs in support of the goals of SBES. These new research expenditures will provide funding for additional students in the BME program. Support of these activities will place new demands on space, the academic program, and the institutional infrastructure, as outlined in the following sections.

Increases in Research Funding The Virginia Tech Center for Biomedical Engineering (VT-CBME) was established in 1998, the WFU-CBME in 2001, and SBES was officially established in 2002. In this short time, research funding for BME areas at Virginia Tech has grown substantially (465%). Given the collaborations already established (Table 1), even greater growth can be anticipated with the arrival of new faculty and students.

Table 3: BME research funding increase (total) Fiscal Year VT 1999 $434,244 2000 $529,506 2001 $686,039 2002 $1,218,426 2003 $1,416,032 2004 $2,010,848

Table 4 shows the expected growth in research funding, direct and indirect, attributable to the additional new faculty members. The following assumptions are held: (1) $100,000 in funding the first year hired, (2) an average of $300,000 per year per faculty member after 5 years, and (3) hiring four new faculty members per year starting in 2006. Currently, $300,000 is the level used for VT faculty members, who may also have a higher teaching load than those on the WFU campus. By comparison, the BME program at the University of Washington, which has a top-tier BME program with a large research effort, states an average of $368,000. We can expect that SBES faculty members with a substantial research effort, particularly those with a need for wet- lab research, will easily exceed the $300,000 level.

Table 4: Expected increase in research funding attributable to new SBES faculty No. of New Increase in Research Year Faculty Funding 2006 4 $400,000 2007 8 $1,000,000 2008 12 $1,800,000 2009 16 $2,800,000 2010 20 $4,000,000 2011 20 $4,800,000 2012 20 $5,400,000 2013 20 $6,000,000

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Established BME Areas Emerging Collaborations

Cardiovascular Mechanics Cancer Biodefense VT-WFU Center (+2 VT) VT Center for for Injury Applied VBI, VMCVM Biomechanics Biomechanics WFU Cancer Center (+2 VT) Biomechanic (+1 VT; +1 WFU) Infectious Diseases s (+5 VT; +1 WFU) Cell & Tissue Aging Pepper Center Imaging Engineering (+3 VT; +1 (+5 VT; +1 WFU) WFU) Opportunities Institute for Neuro- WFUSM Center Engineering Regenerative for Biomolecular (+1 VT; +1 WFU) Medicine Bioinformatics/ Imaging Genomics Bio- (+1 WFU) Medical Radiation Instrumentation Physics Oncology (+1 VT) Bionanotechnology

Figure 1. Growth areas with faculty increases

Proposed Seed Grant Program Although much progress has been made to initiate collaborations between the two institutions, more work needs to be done. We propose to initiate a seed grant program modeled after two very successful activities at similar BME joint programs – namely the Georgia Tech – Emory BME and the UT Austin – UTHSC - Houston programs. A key component is that each seed grant would require funded participation from both universities. Funding for the grants would be provided by both VT and WFU. A minimum of four seed grants would be awarded each year on a competitive basis. Each will be required to submit a joint external proposal by the end of the grant period to be eligible for continue funding (up to one additional year). Funding would be provided to minimally support a graduate student to conduct pilot studies for the external proposal.

Student Growth Historically, the BME program has placed students with researchers in diverse departments (including clinical departments) such as Pediatrics, Orthopaedics, Physics, and Radiation Oncology to pursue their research. We believe it is consistent with our mission and the interdisciplinary nature of modern research to provide engineering expertise for projects that traditionally have not had such an opportunity. Therefore, student growth and support are critically important. Although the BME program at WFUSM has focused on Ph.D. students in the past, SBES provides opportunities for M.S. students, who often complete theses that prove valuable for proof-of-concept projects or develop prototype instrumentation (e.g., the

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development of springs for infant cranioplasty in conjunction with the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Table 5 presents predicted student body growth for both the BME degree program and the BME option program, as projected in spring 2002. Two different growth scenarios are presented. These projections are based on the assumption that approximately one third of incoming students will seek the option program. A further assumption was that growth would level out after Year 5 with approximately 85 students enrolled in the combined BME programs. These projections do not, however, take into account the addition of 20 new faculty members as outlined above. Current student enrollments (34 degree-seeking students and 27 option students) exceed the targeted range for Year 2 of the program. The first graduate of the program received an M.S. degree in summer 2004.

Table 5. Original mean enrollments for the SBES BME graduate program as projected in 2002 Case 1: Constant Growth (Years 1-5) Case 2: Linearly Decreasing Growth Year % Increase BME Degree BME Option % Increase BME Degree BME Option 1 - 9 5 - 9 5 2 20% 20 10 45% 22 11 3 20% 33 17 35% 40 20 4 20% 39 20 25% 53 26 5 20% 47 24 15% 65 33

The addition of 20 faculty members over 5 years starting in Year 3 will be expected to promote additional growth in the graduate student body. We predict an average of six graduate students per faculty member by the end of the fifth year after hiring; this number includes both BME degree students and BME option students (again assuming a 2:1 ratio). Table 6 presents the expected increase in growth above that shown in Table 5. If one third of these students are assumed to be option students, more than 150 graduate students will be enrolled in the overall program.

Table 6: Projected mean enrollment increases for SBES BME graduate programs as a result of new faculty hires New BME Degree New BME Option Total New BME Year New Faculty Students Students Students 3 4 5 3 8 4 8 16 8 24 5 12 32 16 48 6 16 48 24 72 7 20 64 32 96

Academic Program Growth Degree Programs

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Currently SBES offers M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in BME that are jointly conferred by VT and WFU. Students enrolled in the WFU M.D./Ph.D. program can pursue the Ph.D. in BME through SBES. Likewise, students can enroll in either the D.V.M./Ph.D. or the M.S./D.V.M. program at VMRCVM and pursue the Ph.D. or M.S. degree from SBES.

While BME has been the initial focus, other degree programs are possible. For example, Dr. Al Claiborne leads a developing collaboration between VT and WFU in biochemistry. He has at least one student who has been working and taking classes at VT. Opportunities for developing non-MBE academic programs should be kept in mind and explored when feasible.

Current Enrollment The current (fall 2004) graduate student enrollment is shown in Table 7. Of the 61 enrolled students (34 BME majors and 27 BME option), 68 percent are at the VT campus and 32 percent are at WFU. More than 70 percent of the students are in the Ph.D. program. At the WFU campus, all of the students except one are in the Ph.D. program.

Table 7. Current SBES BME graduate student enrollment SBES Enrollments VT WFU Total Degree-seeking Students M.S. 10 1 11 Ph.D. 13 10 23 Degree Totals 23 11 34 Option-seeking Students M.S. 15 N/A 15 Ph.D. 12 N/A 12 Option Totals 27 N/A 27 SBES Totals 50 11 61

Curriculum Curriculum development has been an ongoing effort, and biomedical engineering and sciences (BMES) courses are focused in four tracks: imaging and signal processing, biomechanics, medical physics, and cell and tissue engineering. Seven classes were offered through SBES in fall 2004, and five are planned for spring 2005. We have developed a course-numbering system that is compatible with those of both universities, and approval for new courses is currently being sought through the respective academic governance systems, as needed. Appendix Table 8 lists all BMES courses.

The Clinical Rotation has been offered for the first time at WFU School of Medicine to Ph.D. students who have finished their first year of study. Twenty-four departments and sections and 50 faculty members and staff at WFU were involved in developing and running the 4-week program. The themes for each week were, respectively, (1) Anatomy Lab and Patient Simulator, (2) Imaging, (3) Medicine, and (4) Surgery.

We have developed state-of-the-art distance-learning classroom facilities at each campus to support the distance-learning aspects of this program. However, with our expected increase in students during the next 5 years, we will soon outgrow these facilities. Therefore, we must

9 Last Revised June8, 2006 develop additional classroom facilities to address these needs. At VT this may necessitate an additional classroom. At WFU this may necessitate an additional classroom or more use of the larger teleconference room in the MRI Building or access to and possible enhancement of the distance-learning-equipped conference room in the Cancer Center. In addition, we will need to offer our existing courses more frequently (i.e., every semester). Finally, we will also need to develop and offer new classes, as well as formulate new tracks, in our new areas of opportunity (e.g., bionanotechnology and neuroengineering).

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Table 8. BMES course listing* Course Number Title BMES 5004/600 Mammalian Physiology BMES 5034/603 Introduction to Biomedical Engineering BMES 5164/ME 5754/616 Advanced Impact Biomechanics BMES 5524/652 Stochastic Signals and Systems BMES 5984/ESM 5304 Cardiovascular Mechanics BMES 5984 Engineering Analysis of Physiological Systems – II BMES 5984 Modeling Micro-electromechanical Systems and Nano-electromechanical Systems BMES 6125/712 Biodynamics and Control BMES 6984/716 Computational Modeling in Impact Biomechanics BMES 6984/758 Pattern Recognition BMES 6984/750 Medical Imaging 1 BMES 6984/751 Medical Imaging 2 BMES 6984 /752 Image Processing BMES 6984/758 Advanced Image Analysis BMES 6984/706 Clinical Rotation * Four-digit numbers are for VT; three-digit numbers are for WFU. Course listing does not include the extensive availability of courses in engineering, basic science, and other areas that can be taken in the graduate program and are relevant to BME training.

Research Symposium The 3rd Annual BME Research Symposium was held at WFU in spring 2004. All SBES Ph.D. students and graduating SBES students participate in this yearly event. In 2004, eight podium presentations and 10 posters were developed by a total of 50 participants. Each student also submitted a substantive abstract that was published in the proceedings. This event will be continued on an annual basis.

Undergraduate Activities Senior Design Projects at VT: Senior engineering students are required to work on team design projects in various departments, and several biomedical projects have evolved through SBES. Project ideas have been solicited from physicians at WFU. Recent projects have included vertebral body replacement, laparoscopic hernia repair, and spinal rod design for treatment of scoliosis. Such projects have begun to promote collaboration between physicians at WFU and engineering faculty at VT. Several of the seniors involved in these projects have matriculated in the M.S. program in SBES. Future efforts will include participation in the BME-IDEA program, a new national competition for BME design.

Undergraduate Programs at VT: A long-term goal is to work with departments to develop undergraduate BME options, concentrations, or tracks in each of the departments participating in SBES. Currently, the Engineering Science and Mechanics Department has an undergraduate option, the Chemical Engineering Department has a concentration, and the Mechanical Engineering Department has a track in BME. We anticipate formulating other tracks in additional departments in the future. We intend to provide information about these opportunities for undergraduate students on the SBES website.

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Undergraduate Programs at WFU: Although no undergraduate engineering opportunities are currently available at WFU, the possibility of an undergraduate minor in BME, perhaps in conjunction with Biophysics, could be attractive to WFU undergraduates. In particular, a BME minor would provide excellent training for many undergraduate students who are interested in attending medical school after graduating from college.

Space Growth Space availability is a continuing concern at both campuses. At VT, a new engineering building is planned and should be completed within approximately 2 years. This building is intended for use by the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) initiative, and one floor, with approximately 10,000 square feet of usable space, is designated for biomedical engineering. At VT, assuming that 2,500 square feet will be needed per faculty member; at the end of the 5 years we will require 37,500 square feet for the 15 additional faculty members, resulting in a shortfall of 27,500 square feet. At WFU, we anticipate 500 square feet per faculty member, resulting in a need for 2,500 square feet for the new faculty members and approximately 1,500 square feet for existing needs. Space may be available in new buildings in the Research Park and, possibly, in the Hanes Building. Lab space for collaboration with WFIRM for now is provided by the Institute. BME lab space, which is currently located on the first floor of the MRI Building, ideally would be relocated closer to collaborators in basic science departments and WFIRM, allowing its current labs to be used for image-based research. On the basis of projected faculty and student growth, we anticipate space needs as shown in Table 9.

Table 9: Proposed new space (square feet) Description VT WFU Total Space 37,500 6,500 Laboratory 30,000 4,000 Faculty Offices 2,500 850 Student Offices 5,000 1,650

Infrastructure Growth For seamless operation, we need institutional support for infrastructure, including fiscal management for large grants, information technology (IT) support for education and research, and grant preparation and technical editing.

External Programmatic Support

We have recently submitted a proposal for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute - National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health (HHMI- NIBIB) Interfaces Initiative for enhancing our educational program and have registered with the HHMI to submit second educational grant proposal for their Med into Grad initiative in the fall of 2005. We are also pursuing industrial funding, particularly to support the Clinical Rotation. Funds for a chaired SBES faculty position are currently being sought by VT from the Beckman Foundation. Programmatic support should be a natural outgrowth of SBES and will no doubt accelerate once a permanent director is in place.

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SBES Activities and Shared Resources

SBES provides tremendous leverage for each partner via access to facilities, resources, and funds of the other. Examples include the VT-initiated Showcase near NIH in March 2005, joint graduate student recruiting trips, shared commercial software licenses, shared educational resources such as training and distance-education packages, and others. We are already sharing laboratory resources such as the BSL-3 facility at VT and imaging facilities at WFUSM. A current initiative that would not be possible for either partner individually is the proposal to be part of the Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN). CIREN is a multicenter research program involving a collaboration of clinicians and engineers in academia, industry, and government. The network is funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Our proposal is an excellent team effort between the WFUHS Division of Surgical Sciences and the VT-WFU Center for Injury Biomechanics.

Summary

SBES has grown dramatically over its short life, attracting collaboration from clinical, basic science, engineering, and veterinary faculty members at VT and at WFU. To take full advantage of the valuable initiative requires continued support from both universities, in particular funding for new faculty and students, additional space, and support via pilot grants and startup packages. At WFUSM, this averages out to roughly $100,000 per WFU SBES faculty member.

In summary, we need resources for  New faculty members  New students  Space  Pilot grants  Expansion into emerging BME areas such as neural engineering, bioinformatics, tissue engineering, and bionanotechnology  Support of applications such as cancer and biodefense  Additional distance-education facilities.

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