The George Washington University Spring 2015

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WOMEN IN WAR /// DYSPHAGIA AND THE BRAIN /// SCIENCE AND GW RESEARCH ENGINEERING HALL THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SPRING 2015

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// I FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT FOR RESEARCH

MANAGING EDITOR Danny Freedman, BA ’01 A BUILDING IN CONTRIBUTORS The staff of GW Today: Keith Harriston (senior managing editor), BLOOM Rob Stewart (managing editor for multimedia), Brittney Dunkins, This winter, down the street from my Lauren Ingeno, James Irwin, Julyssa office, research changed the shape of Lopez, and Ruth Steinhardt the nation’s capital. Rising from the former site of a PHOTO EDITOR parking garage now stands a half- William Atkins million-square-foot home of research and discovery, newly populated with DESIGN a range of expertise that spans from GW Marketing & Creative Services aerospace engineering to chemistry, biology to computer science and well ART DIRECTORS beyond. It’s a glass-walled think tank Dominic N. Abbate, BA ’09, MBA ’15 that alters not just the skyline but John McGlasson, BA ’00, MFA ’03 even the scene from the street, where windows look in on research in progress and hands-on learning. That’s just the physical change, to say nothing of the new Science and PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY Engineering Hall’s potential to impact health, infrastructure, defense and Steven Knapp more in Washington, D.C., the nation and around the globe. As now-Board of Trustees Chair Nelson Carbonell said at the building’s groundbreaking VICE PRESIDENT FOR RESEARCH in 2011: “GW scientists and engineers can do a lot with a little. But just Leo M. Chalupa imagine what we can do with a lot.” VICE PRESIDENT FOR EXTERNAL Over the years, Science and Engineering Hall has come to symbolize RELATIONS research ambition here at GW. As the building took shape, the university’s Lorraine Voles, BA ’81 research profile reached upward along with it. Despite what might have been the most challenging environment in ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR COMMUNICATIONS decades for securing funding from the federal government and other entities, GW grew. In fiscal year 2013, research expenditures from external Sarah Gegenheimer Baldassaro sources—a key measure of research activity—grew by more than 7 percent EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR FOR over the previous year; in 2014, they shot up by nearly 11 percent. EDITORIAL SERVICES Student research, too, is on the rise. Nearly 500 students of various Rachel Muir levels, and from clear across the academic expanse, presented posters during the 20th annual Research Days event this spring. That’s a 12 percent increase over last year. GW Research is published annually by the All of this, in no small part, is thanks to our tremendous faculty Division of External Relations, The George members, including the newer faces among them who came to GW on the Washington University, Rice Hall, Suite promise—and the commitment—they saw in Science and Engineering 501, Washington, D.C. 20052. Our phone Hall. Current and prospective graduate students and undergraduates are number is 202-994-5709; fax 202-994-5761; seeing the same thing, sensing the same momentum. email [email protected]. And that effect, I believe, is only just beginning. For correspondence or change of address, please write us at [email protected].

Sincerely, Opinions expressed in these pages are those of the individuals and do not necessarily reﬂect ofﬁcial positions of the university.

The George Washington University is BURT MCCONNELL CA I Leo M. Chalupa an equal opportunity/afﬁrmative action

Vice President for Research institution. JESS

GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2014 CONTENTS GW RESEARCH SPRING 2015 8 /// Engineers explore sea lions’ grace under water.

DEPARTMENTS

2 /// Research News 11 /// Charticle FEATURES 16 /// Shelf Life 18 /// Research Capital Science and Engineering Hall opens to a mosaic of researchers— 42 /// Launchpad from biologists to aerospace engineers—seeking common ground in pursuit of uncommon solutions. BY LAUREN INGENO

28 /// Acts of War On the sidelines of the civil strife that has long embroiled the people ME

I Front cover: At workspaces and of South Sudan, women and girls are in the crosshairs. common areas in Science and BY DANNY FREEDMAN Engineering Hall, equations spill over from desks onto PX PR PX / 500

I surrounding dry-erase-marker 34 /// Reuniting Babies and their Bottles friendly walls. (Photo by William Atkins) ZZOTT

I For infants with disorders that leave them unable to eat, feeding tubes and surgeries offer an imperfect ﬁx. The problem in the brain, Back cover: A glassware tableau and that’s where GW researchers are looking for a cure. on a rack inside a chemistry lab ANDREA ANDREA

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 1 RESEARCH NEWS

ANTHROPOLOGY Study of Human Paleobiology. “We wanted to understand when and how these sex differences FOR MALE CHIMPS, A JUMP START develop and to what extent mothers influence those differences.” Chimpanzees, like humans, ON SOCIALIZING THAT MAY BE KEY form temporary social subgroups within their larger communities throughout the day. Since infant Analysis of 37 years of data finds sons get extra exposure chimps are dependent on their to adult males, chimps beyond immediate family, which mothers for at least five years, social may aid development of gender-specific social skills interactions are restricted to those individuals with whom the mother Baby male chimps have more as grooming, aggression and spends time. So the researchers mingling opportunities than mating. investigated differences in mothers’ their female peers and these early The results were published in subgrouping patterns based on the social interactions may influence November in the Proceedings of the sex of infants. their temperaments later in life, National Academy of Sciences. They hypothesized that mothers according to new research. “It’s been known for a long time with sons would socialize more, Analyzing 37 years of data on that there are sex differences in since male offspring would need to chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe adult chimpanzee behaviors. Males rely more on social skills and bonds National Park, a GW-led research are more gregarious, they form to integrate into the adult male team found that mothers with sons stronger social bonds with each hierarchy. Forming strong social were more social than those with other and they are more physically bonds is less important for adult daughters, particularly during aggressive,” says GW anthropology females, which spend most of their early infancy. Scientists say this professor and lead author of the time caring for dependent children. enables the sons to observe study Carson Murray, who is The data from Gombe and absorb social affiliated with GW’s Center National Park used behaviors for the Advanced in the study such dates to celebrated primatologist Jane Goodall’s

2 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 research from the 1970s. In the report, released in April others. That’s an indication that the “There have been other studies by the National Bureau of Economic planning is not there.” on infant chimpanzees, but the Research, GW financial literacy Where the money goes depends depth of information that the expert Annamaria Lusardi and on the player. But bad real estate Gombe data set provides allows us researchers at the California or entrepreneurial investments to ask more detailed questions than Institute of Technology and the are common catalysts for financial ever before,” says Maggie Stanton, University of Washington used problems among ex-athletes, she a postdoctoral scientist at CASHP. court records, news reports and says. “We could look within individual other public documents to track For that group, she says, “that mothers to examine if and how 2,016 players drafted by NFL teams next stage of life is very long and so their behavior changes in different from 1996 to 2003. Nearly 2 percent managing money is a more complex circumstances, so we could compare were bankrupt within two years of decision. They don’t realize it’s how the same mother behaved with retirement. Fifteen percent had filed enough for a lifetime if it’s properly her sons versus with her daughters.” for bankruptcy within 12 years of managed.” —James Irwin They found that mothers with playing their final NFL game. sons spent an average of two hours “The reality is these people have more per day with chimps beyond earned enough to immediate family members— not have to work 25 percent more social time than for the rest of mothers with daughters. their lives,” says A STUDY OF 2,016 NFL PLAYERS DRAFTED Additionally, mothers with Dr. Lusardi, the sons spent more time around adult Denit Trust Chair BETWEEN 1996–2003 REVEALED ... males during the infant’s first six of Economics and months than those with daughters, Accountancy at the which suggests that having the School of Business. opportunity to observe adult models “But they go bankrupt. And they The percentage of players who may facilitate development of social don’t go bankrupt 20 years down declared bankruptcy after retirement, within two years and within six years: skills important for success as an the road. It happens right away.” adult male. The traditional lifecycle model In future studies, Dr. Stanton of salary and savings—a gradual and the research team hope to increase in income over decades, investigate that outcome—whether coupled with long-term planning— males that have more social is put to an extreme test, she says, exposure as infants are more when workers earn a large amount successful as adults. of their lifetime income in a short —Lauren Ingeno burst and at a young age. 2% within two years The median earnings of the 15% within six years players in the report was $3.2 million (in 2000 dollars) and the average The median earnings of players in the BUSINESS length of an NFL career is six years report period (in 2000 dollars): for a player who makes a club’s opening-day roster, according to the AFTER NFL, MANY league. $3.2 MILLION Length of career and total earnings aren’t predictive of when, ME I PLAYERS FACE or how frequently, players will go The average length of an NFL career: bankrupt, the researchers found. “That’s quite striking, and I BANKRUPTCY think this kind of hints at this lack of financial sophistication,” A new study of bankruptcy rates Dr. Lusardi says. “The players 6 among NFL players finds that many who have long careers and higher PX PR HAUZAR/PX 500 AN YEARS I

ST are going broke in retirement, incomes are the ones we don’t I and the problem may be a lack of expect to go bankrupt. But they do, CHR

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CHEMISTRY A RACE TO THE NORTH As Alaskan permafrost rapidly melts, professor J. Houston Miller and his students are designing new technology for a trip to the ground zero of global warming

Summer in Fairbanks, Alaska, is far from the frozen landscape many imagine. The sun shines almost around the clock, the trees and grass are green and vacationers worry more about swarms of The SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket mosquitoes than blocks of ice. But and Dragon resupply ship lift amid the area’s thick spruce forests off on the morning of Jan. 10 and layers of moss is a region from Cape Canaveral, Fla. scientists are calling a climate time bomb. “This is the center of climate SPACE of microgravity on the germination change,” says chemistry professor of chrysanthemum seeds. Previous J. Houston Miller. “It’s where research has shown that the plant everyone in the climate community EXPERIMENT can purify and remove toxins from is turning their attention.” the air. If they are able to reproduce That’s because just below the in space, chrysanthemums could mossy surface lies a layer of frozen REACHES INT’L one day serve as air purifiers on earth known as permafrost. And long-term missions. while some of this icy rock, soil and “Working through numerous peat has persisted for more than SPACE STATION setbacks made the success that 10,000 years—since the last Ice much sweeter,” Ms. Shahbazi says. Age—it is now melting rapidly. The A science project designed by a “I’m eager to begin the next phase thawing permafrost is releasing four-student team from GW and of the project when the mini-lab massive amounts of greenhouse Georgetown University finally returns to Earth.” gases into the air and, climate reached the International Space If the space-bound seeds do scientists contend, exacerbating Station in January, riding aboard germinate, the students will plant global warming. a SpaceX rocket and resupply ship them on Earth for comparison with “Most people are aware of that carried groceries, belated chrysanthemums grown from seeds rising sea levels and temperature Christmas presents and other that germinated here. changes, but they don’t know about experiments. The students designed the permafrost,” Dr. Miller says. “This Shayda Shahbazi and Xixi Ni, experiment as part of their is the big one. This is the one that both seniors in GW’s School of participation in the D.C. Space really counts.” Engineering and Applied Science, Grant Consortium Program. Their In June, Dr. Miller and a pair saw their original experiment perish proposal was among 18 selected for of graduate students will travel M GROSSMAN in October, when the unmanned flight in a competition that drew to the Alaskan hot spot on a I rocket transporting it exploded. more than 1,400 submissions. mission to measure the effects of

The project will assess the effects —Lauren Ingeno permafrost thaw. Their work is part NASA/J

4 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 of a multifaceted project funded by a $980,000 grant from NASA’s Terrestrial Hydrology Program. Other research partners include the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Dr. Miller’s role is to take ground-level measurements of greenhouse gas concentrations during the summer melting season, using a tool he is devising that will In Alaska, melting permafrost perform open-path, laser absorption can cause trees to list or fall. measurements of damaging gas levels. From the Fairbanks field on satellite projections that, while ENGINEERING site, he hopes to collect ultra- remarkably detailed, also present precise measurements that can limitations due to cloud cover, validate NASA’s satellite readings. timing and distance. Dr. Miller’s BIOMEDICAL It’s the first step in defining a ground-level measurements should longterm measurement strategy provide readings that complement and establishing a protocol NASA’s satellite shots. ENGINEERING for permafrost-related climate “Our measurements on their modeling. own won’t be worth very much,” he says. “The value will be in validating COMES OF AGE A BROKEN CYCLE the satellite measurements, and Permafrost is known as a “carbon- creating a clear and consistent New department, PhD sink,” its rich soil storing organic model.” program are launched with material from decaying plants and Dr. Miller’s latest prototype renowned heart researcher animals. There may be as much as may not look like much. His laser at the helm 1,000 billion metric tons of carbon is mounted atop a store-bought in the permafrost ground, more telescope tripod and attached to, When asked by a prospective than double the amount currently in as he calls it, a “spaghetti mess” of student’s parent whether biomedical the atmosphere. optical fibers, wires and electrical engineering was simply a “fad,” Permafrost can be up to 5,000 components. But he’s confident that Jason Zara, an associate professor feet thick, but it is the top “active” the final product will mark the first who helped develop GW’s layer, which is just 1 to 3 feet step in correlating vital climate undergraduate program on the deep, that most concerns climate data. And after the team returns subject more than a decade ago, was watchers. The top layer thaws and to campus in July, he anticipates pointed in his response: “Well, do refreezes each year. During the further refining his instruments for you want to die any time soon?” melting season, carbon—mostly future Arctic excursions. Better health and a desire to live in the form of carbon dioxide and In the meantime, as Dr. Miller longer, he said, are never going out particularly damaging methane—is and his students rush to finish of style. released into the air. and test the instruments on a Recognizing the rapid growth But that thaw-and-refreeze cycle compressed timeline, they are of the field—outside the university is being thrown off balance, also preparing for the realities of and within, where it is one of the

ME Dr. Miller says. Alaska’s ﬁeldwork in Alaska. most popular engineering majors— I temperatures are rising twice as “We have to anticipate the School of Engineering and fast as the rest of North America’s. everything we could possibly need Applied Science last fall launched Ground temperatures in Fairbanks when we are out in the ﬁeld,” he a Department of Biomedical now hover near the thaw point, says. “If a moose knocks over our Engineering, along with a PhD resulting in more rapid permafrost laser in the middle of a spruce program that joins existing ones for melt and more greenhouse gases forest, we can’t run to Loews for master’s and bachelor’s degrees. The spewed into the atmosphere. replacement parts.” move carved out a distinctive home PX PR PETERSEN/PX 500 LEE

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 5 GHT RESEARCH NEWS I RAYOFL I part of the Department of Electrical professors. Any other trajectory drivable suburban sprawl to and Computer Engineering, at a was not considered appropriate,” walkable urbanism,” says the pivotal moment: The engineering Dr. Efimov says. “Now we really center’s chair, Christopher B. STOCK.COM/ school this spring took up have to consider that our PhD Leinberger, who led the research i residency in GW’s long-awaited students have many different and serves as the Charles Bendit interdisciplinary research hub, professions to consider.” Distinguished Scholar at GW’s Science and Engineering Hall. —Lauren Ingeno School of Business. “We wanted to “For all of you who waited such document that trend and provide a long, long time for this day, for the concrete, market-based evidence that GNS / SEATTLE:© / GNS I creation of this new department, URBAN STUDIES walkable urban places can generate we are finally there,” SEAS Dean extraordinary economic value.” David Dolling told more than 150 The report ranked the nation’s engineering students, faculty and 30 largest metropolitan areas, alumni who gathered in January SETTING THE assessing the number of walkable to mark the department’s official urban places in each and the STOCK.COM/JPLDES beginning in the new building. percentages of office and retail i Heart researcher Igor Efimov PACE FOR space found there. CAGO: © CAGO: arrived at GW that month from The D.C. area’s top spot is due I Washington University in in part to its having the highest St. Louis to lead the new endeavor. WALKABILITY percentage of total office and retail Dr. Efimov, the Alisann and Terry space located within its walkable Collins Professor of Biomedical The D.C. metropolitan region has areas, the report found. And its Engineering, currently focuses been ranked the most walkable walkable spaces were almost evenly on new therapies to treat patients urban metro area in the nation, split between the city and the with abnormal heart rhythms, according to a report released suburbs. such as an implantable device that last June by GW’s Center for By comparison, Mr. Leinberger STOCK.COM/UVACONCEPT / CH / STOCK.COM/UVACONCEPT wraps around the heart to detect Real Estate and Urban Analysis, says, “the vast majority of walkable i impending cardiac arrest. in conjunction with LOCUS, an urbanism in New York is on SCO: © SCO:

Traditional deﬁbrillators advocacy coalition of Smart Growth Manhattan, where 8 percent of the I can deliver up to 1,000 volts of America. population lives in only 0.3 percent electricity to the heart, which can “There is a structural shift of the landmass of the region.” lead to long-term damage. occurring in how real estate is —Brittney Dunkins

Dr. Efimov’s device applies 100 developed in this country—from / SAN FRANC times less energy to knock the I heart back into rhythm. A network SHARE of sensors sends signals to a NUMBER OF OFFICE AND smartphone, which gives doctors OF WALKABLE RETAIL SPACE IN URBAN PLACES WALKABLE PLACES real-time data on the heart’s STOCK.COM/CENER functions. The device also provides 45 43% i a high-definition view of the heart, 1 Washington, D.C. 4+5+P resulting in more precise, accurate disease monitoring. New York 66 38% Dr. Efimov’s long-term plans 2 3+6+P BBETTS / NYC: © NYC: BBETTS/

for the department include hiring I 10 new faculty members by 2020 3 Boston 37 3+36% 6+P and using the university’s unique proximity to federal research 57 30% powerhouses—like the Food and 4 San Francisco 3+7+P Drug Administration, the National Science Foundation and the 38 29%

Chicago STOCK.COM/THERESAT National Institutes of Health—to 5 2+7+P i create graduate and PhD programs in biomedical regulatory affairs. 6 Seattle 23 2+27% 7+P “In the past our PhD pathway had only one goal: to train future © BOSTON: DC,

6 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 BIOLOGY also how they moved from place to place.” Biologists have long HOW hypothesized that the distribution of amphibians has been driven by two major processes: vicariance, AMPHIBIANS in which a population is separated by a geophysical event, like the fragmentation of supercontinent WENT GLOBAL Pangaea, and the other is In a surprising finding, dispersal, in they may have swum great which the population distances, in addition to travels across land bridges or the expected short swims short distances across oceans. and moves with and over Dr. Pyron’s findings, published land masses online in June in the journal Systematic Biology, confirmed both With more than 7,000 known hypotheses but also suggested a species, amphibians can be found surprising third: Some amphibians on six of the seven continents and may have swum long distances from in nearly every type of ecosystem. one landmass to another within the But there have been few attempts to past few million years. understand exactly when and how Past studies have assumed that A few of the bones belonging to the frogs, toads, salamanders and the long-distance, over-water dispersal recently discovered wormlike caecilians spread across was essentially impossible for Kryptodrakon the planet over the past 300 million amphibians due to salt intolerance. progenitor, the years. However, when Dr. Pyron began earliest and most In what’s being called the first completing his analysis, he noticed primitive pterodactyl large-scale study of its kind, Alex a number of cases that could not be Pyron, an assistant professor of explained by old age. For instance, biology, has pieced together the one group of frogs found in evolutionary and geographic Australia and New Guinea emerged PALEONTOLOGY journey of more than 3,000 long after the continental divide, but amphibian species, including nearly is deeply rooted within a group of AN ANDRES AN I half of all existing species from amphibians that exists only in South OLDEST every taxonomic group. America. ON: BR ON:

I “There have been smaller-scale “You wouldn’t think that frogs studies, but they included only a would be able to swim all the way PTERODACTYL few major lineages and were very there, but that seems like one of the LLUSTRAT

I broad,” Dr. Pyron says. “What we more likely explanations,” Dr. Pyron needed was a large-scale phylogeny says. “They’re 120 million years too DISCOVERED [or evolutionary tree] that included late to have walked to Australia.” as many species as —Lauren Ingeno An international research team has possible. That discovered the earliest and most allows us to primitive pterodactyl—a group of N / PTERODACTYL I track back ﬂying reptiles that would go on to through time become the largest ﬂying creatures not only how ever known—and pushed back their different emergence by 5 million years. species are Working from a fossil discovered related but in northwest China, the team—led STOCK.COM/ANTAGA i by University of South Florida paleontologist Brian Andres,

FROG: © FROG: MS ’03, his then-mentor, James

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 7 RESEARCH NEWS

Clark of GW’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, and Xu Xing of the Chinese Academy of Sciences— named the new pterosaur species Kryptodrakon progenitor, from the Latin krypto (hidden) and drakon (serpent), a reference to the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which was filmed near the place of the fossil’s discovery. The team’s analysis, published in April in the journal Current Biology, determined the fossil to be the first of the broad group called pterosaurs to bear the characteristics of the subgroup Pterodactyloidea, which would become the dominant winged creatures of the prehistoric world. The findings indicate that these reptiles flew above the Earth 163 million years ago. Pterodactyls—which evolved into giant creatures, some as big as small planes—went extinct with the dinosaurs, about 66 million years ago. They are considered close relatives to the dinosaurs but are 1.77 m not dinosaurs themselves. The small fossil is thought to A sea lion at rest moves into a full fore-flipper clap, then glides. have a wingspan of about four and a half feet. It was discovered in 2001 by Chris Sloan, formerly of National FLUID DYNAMICS only lithe swimmers, they’re also Geographic and now president of capable of reaching 25 miles per Science Visualization, in an area of hour. And they move through water northwest China known for its once- unlike any other animals on Earth. muddy pits that ensnared a range of AMAZING GRACE While fish and other aquatic prehistoric creatures. The discovery mammals thrust forward with their took place on an expedition led by In sea lions, engineers tails or caudal fins, sea lions rely Dr. Xu and Dr. Clark, when search for mechanisms on their fore flippers, which are Dr. Andres was a graduate student behind expert swimming analogous to human arms. They at GW. sweep downward, clap their large The discovery provides new When Megan Leftwich took her flippers into their bodies and glide information on the evolution children to the zoo two years ago forward, producing jet propulsion. of pterodactyloids, Dr. Andres to see the sea lions, which slipped Sea lions are able to cruise the says. As the pterosaurs evolved, through twists and flips like length of an Olympic-size pool with their wings changed from being underwater ballerinas, it was a single clap. narrow and more useful in marine Dr. Leftwich who came away with a Other animals that use jets to environments to being more broad head full of wonder. propel forward, like octopi and and helpful in navigating land “I just thought, ‘Man, those are squid, cannot sustain high speeds CH LAB CH environments. amazing swimmers.’ I really wanted or manipulate their bodies with the I The new species “fills in a very to study them,” says Dr. Leftwich, same agility. Sea lions also produce important gap in the history of a fluid dynamics researcher in the a barely traceable wake in the water, pterosaurs,” Dr. Andres says. “With Department of Mechanical and differing significantly from other him, they could walk and fly in Aerospace Engineering. swimming mammals. whole new ways.” The marine mammals are not “I want to know, what is LEFTWCOURTESY

8 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 PUBLIC HEALTH

THE MARINE MAMMALS ARE NOT ONLY LITHE CHILDHOOD AND SPEEDY SWIMMERS, THEY MOVE THROUGH WATER UNLIKE ANY OTHER ANIMAL. OBESITY: IS PIZZA THE the paradigm for successful “One really interesting thing we swimming?” Dr. Leftwich says. found when we looked at the images To find out the science behind the is that different parts of the flipper PROBLEM? sea lions’ swimming mechanisms, have varying amounts of fur and Dr. Leftwich returned to the smoothness,” says Mr. Waldron, Pizza consumption is associated Smithsonian’s National Zoo. As part a junior studying mechanical and with many of the same negative of an ongoing research partnership, aerospace engineering. “We want effects of fast food, including excess her team visits California sea lions to try and uncover how the sea calories and increased sodium and uses high-definition video lion’s hair and skin play a role in intake, and could be tipping youth cameras to digitize the unique its hydrodynamics to give it such toward obesity, according to a new motions of their flippers. an advantage when it does turns in study co-authored by a Milken After analyzing the videos, water.” Institute School of Public Health Dr. Leftwich and post-doctoral To help Mr. Waldron prepare researcher. scientist Chen Friedman compare to image the sea lion samples, he The study, published in January differences in the sea lions’ claps enlisted the help of researchers in the journal Pediatrics, shows and body maneuvers in order to in engineering professor Grace that one out of five U.S. children highlight correlations in features Zhang’s lab, where novel 3-D and nearly a quarter of adolescents such as angular velocity and flipper printing techniques are being used consume pizza on any given day. curvature. to create custom-designed tissue The researchers found that on those Observing zoo animals does, substitutes. days a child consumes an extra however, come with limitations: “Most people in the Mechanical 84 calories, 3 grams of saturated It does not allow the researchers and Aerospace Engineering fat and 134 milligrams of sodium. to analyze how the flipper affects Department don’t handle sea For teenagers, it’s an excess 230 the movement of the water. To lion tissue, oddly enough,” he calories, 5 grams of saturated fat compensate for that, students and says. “So there was a lot of inter- and 484 milligrams of sodium. researchers in Dr. Leftwich’s lab departmental collaboration to “What’s not to like about pizza?” are working on a robotic flipper that help one undergraduate research says Bill Dietz, director of GW’s mimics the sea lions’ motion. Once student.” Sumner M. Redstone Global Center complete, they will send it through One potential application for for Prevention and Wellness. “But a lab-length water tunnel and chart better understanding these highly the water’s movement, as well as the maneuverable, difficult-to-trace forces it takes for a sea lion to move mammals is to inform the design its knuckles, wrists and elbows. of underwater vehicles, such the (Sea lions’ front flippers have all the autonomous ones used by the Navy skeletal elements of land mammals.) for disarming underwater bombs. When one of the zoo’s sea lions But Dr. Leftwich is hesitant to died last year, Dr. Leftwich’s lab say that her research is confined to obtained her flipper. Josh Waldron, solutions for any one problem. P I one of six undergraduates working “I feel like if we don’t know all in Dr. Leftwich lab, spent the of the potential applications, that’s summer taking high-resolution really a good thing,” she says. images of the flipper’s skin “Often problems are solved by samples at the micro-scale, using accident because of investigating a high-powered scanning electron some fundamental phenomenon in STOCK.COM/GLOBAL

©i microscope. and of itself.” —Lauren Ingeno

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 9 RESEARCH NEWS rather than being an everyday food, The number of Grammy- I think people need to recognize nominated projects that that this is a significant source of ethnomusicologist and adjunct calories.” professor Kip Lornell has worked The researchers analyzed on, including a 2015 nominee: dietary data in the National the 255-page album notes for The Health and Nutrition Examination Rise and Fall of Paramount Records Survey, covering 2003 to 2010. 1917-1932, Volume 1. He won one of the Their findings were more or less little gilded gramophones—which he keeps consistent across gender, race/ perched over his fireplace—in 1997, as co-author of the ethnicity and income. notes for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings’ Anthology The team found that in 2009- of American Folk Music. —Julyssa Lopez 10, on days when pizza was eaten it represented 22 percent of children’s total calories and 26 percent of teens’ calories. And it had the greatest adverse impact for both groups when it was eaten as a snack, rather than a meal. Despite the high numbers, the study showed that from the 2003- We have a dam that’s 04 survey to the one in 2009-10, calories consumed from pizza declined by 25 percent among protecting us from this flood children. Daily average calories from pizza also declined among of bacteria—and the dam is teens, but more teens reported eating pizza in this period. While he acknowledges the antibiotics. Each time one positive trend, Dr. Dietz says the numbers suggest that pizza of these types of bacteria remains a significant contributor to childhood obesity. According to one previous becomes resistant to all of study, he says, the decrease in daily calories needed to return the mean those antibiotics, it’s like Body Mass Index to a healthy total by year 2020 is around 150 calories per day for U.S. children age 6 to 11 water coming over the dam. and around 180 calories per day for teenagers. “These apparently modest declines in pizza consumption could —Milken Institute School of Public Health epidemiologist be significant contributors to the Lance Price speaking about his research—pioneering the fact that we’re seeing changes in use of genetics to understand the creation and spread the prevalence of obesity in the of superbugs—and the topic of the recent documentary youngest children—because the Resistance, in which he’s featured as an expert. NA caloric deficit is the smallest there— I and why we’re seeing plateaus in older children and teenagers,” he says. “Our data suggests that changes in pizza consumption can have a positive impact.” —Lauren Ingeno For more on this story, visit STOCK.COM/TOMAS_M i

go.gwu.edu/resistanceﬁlm. ©

10 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 RESEARCH NEWS CHARTICLE

Be Informed | Be Connected | Be Notiﬁed gwtoday.gwu.edu

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 11 RESEARCH NEWS CHARTICLE

6 24 NORTH AMERICA •••• Canada

•• Mexico

A WORLD-WIDE WEB

The university has carved out local EUROPE research hubs in its Science and • Engineering Hall and Virginia Belgium Science and Technology Campus, 10 • in Ashburn—but then there are its France way-off-campus hubs, like Russia, ••••• Germany Brazil and Germany. They are leading nations • Netherlands among the 50 where GW faculty members are involved in research •••••••••• Russia

collaborations. There are more than SOUTH AMERICA 100 collaborations in all, on projects ••••••• • Brazil Sweden that range from studying Arctic urban sustainability and the role of • •• Colombia Switzerland Islam in a changing Middle East, to matters of public health, chemistry • •• Ecuador United and physics. Kingdom • Peru • Ukraine The map shows the number of collaborations ...

KEY 6 per continent ••••• per country

12 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 36 ASIA •••• China

••• India

••• Japan

•• Jordan

••• Malaysia

•• 22 Korea

•• Kuwait

• Kyrgyzstan

• 6 Lebanon

•• Nepal AFRICA • • • •• Botswana Morocco Tunisia Pakistan

• •• •• •• Egypt Mozambique Uganda Saudi Arabia

• •• • •••• Ethiopia Nigeria Zambia Thailand

• • •• • Ghana Senegal Zimbabwe Turkey AUSTRALIA/OCEANIA • • •••• Australia •• Kenya South Africa Vietnam •• •• • Guam •• Malawi Tanzania Yemen • New Zealand

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 13 RESEARCH NEWS

LAW merely to alienate children from To increase blood flow to the their father—have had a large muscles, sympathetic fibers also impact on family courts. release norepinephrine in your FAMILY COURT Results from a pilot study, in heart. It throbs, faster and faster. which Ms. Meier analyzed 240 Usually, your heart rate will slow custody opinions involving abuse back to normal, but sometimes, ON TRIAL allegations, indicated that mothers all of that sympathetic activity who alleged child sexual abuse can cause the heart to pump Study will test handling lost primary custody 20 percent dangerously out of sync—or stop of custody cases involving more often than mothers who did beating altogether. abuse allegations not allege abuse. The findings also “If you have an existing heart showed that even when courts problem, a sudden increase in heart GW Professor of Clinical Law Joan validated adult domestic violence rate and force, motivated by the fight S. Meier received a $500,000 grant allegations against fathers, the or flight response, can reveal it,” says last year from the National Institute fathers received a custody outcome Matt Kay, an associate professor of of Justice to fund research into how in their favor more than 40 percent biomedical engineering in the School family courts decide custody cases of the time. of Engineering and Applied Science. involving abuse allegations. “I don’t believe that these While there seems to be a clear For the three-year study, Ms. mothers are fabricating abuse, but link between irregular heartbeats, Meier and her team will analyze I think the system thinks that they known as arrhythmias, and the around 2,000 state court custody are,” she says. “The numbers may body’s response to severe stress, cases from a 15-year period, looking provide powerful evidence that the scientists still don’t fully understand at a spectrum of factors including system is too skeptical.” the complex relationship. the allegations of each party, the —Lauren Ingeno Now an interdisciplinary court findings and the custody or team of GW engineers and visitation order that was issued. physiologists is taking a deeper The study, she says, comes amid look at this phenomenon using growing concern from domestic INTERDISCIPLINARY optogenetics, or the use of light to violence scholars and advocates selectively manipulate neurons and that family courts are awarding physiological behavior in genetically unsupervised access or custody to A LUMINOUS altered animals. abusive fathers. “Our goal is to better understand The GW Law School professor the interaction between sympathetic is the founder of the Domestic GLOW, RACING neurons and heart tissue, and Violence Legal Empowerment and how it might lead to dangerous Appeals Project, or DV LEAP, a arrhythmias or sudden cardiac nonprofit that provides free legal HEARTS death,” says Anastasia Wengrowski, representation in domestic violence a biomedical engineering doctoral appeals. She says her organization Optogenetics may offer student. “If you can better and others receive numerous pleas insight into complex understand how, where and why the from women who say that judges do relationship of the body’s problem happens, then you can go not believe their claims of abuse and “fight or flight” response about fixing it.” instead seek to maximize fathers’ and deadly arrhythmias access to children. But relatively BLENDING BIOLOGY AND little data indicate how prevalent When you are anxious or sense TECHNOLOGY the problem is. danger approaching, your More than 325,000 people “Most people assume ... that sympathetic nervous system nationwide experienced sudden courts are sympathetic to the kicks into gear and releases cardiac arrest outside of hospitals in mothers who complain of abuse. a neurotransmitter, called 2011, according to a report released But in our experience, they’re much norepinephrine, from your neurons, last year by the American Heart more reluctant to believe abuse triggering a “fight or flight” Association and the American claims,” Ms. Meier says. response in the body. Stroke Association. Nearly Rather, she says, theories like Your palms sweat. Your breath 90 percent of them died. parental alienation—in which a quickens. Your blood sugar Unlike a heart attack, which mother is making a safety claim skyrockets. often occurs when arteries in the

14 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 heart are blocked, cardiac arrest happens when there’s a glitch in the heart’s electrical system. Without immediate treatment, it’s deadly. Dr. Kay has spent years studying the “tornadoes” of electricity that twist in the heart’s ventricles, a leading cause of sudden cardiac arrest. In his lab, researchers have assembled a system of tubing and pumps to keep alive the hearts of mice and rabbits. Using LED lights, high-speed cameras and a ﬂuorescent dye that illuminates the heart’s electrical activity, the team is

able to image the activity and record FROM LEFT Professors Matt data, such as changes in heart rate Kay and David Medelowitz and waves of depolarization flowing with doctoral student through the heart. Anastasia Wengrowski It was during a racquetball game with David Mendelowitz, a professor of pharmacology Gathering data from the imaging MEDICINE and physiology in the School of system to detect changes in cardiac Medicine and Health Sciences, that function, Ms. Wengrowski found he wondered whether there might that light caused the hearts to beat NEW TREATMENT be an overlap in their research. faster, contract more forcefully Dr. Mendelowitz studies how and made them more susceptible neurons in the brain control heart to arrhythmias. The results were FOR SHOCK rate. His lab uses mice bred to published this winter in the journal express light-activated proteins to Cardiovascular Research. study the role of brain regions in Methods used in the past don’t IDENTIFIED cardiovascular diseases. allow researchers to study the “We thought it would be heart’s sympathetic activity in License agreement signed interesting to study whether this detail, Dr. Mendelowitz says, or and FDA bumps drug model created a condition where they create the response with an testing skips phase III we could use light to activate artificial, widespread perfusion of clinical trial sympathetic response in the heart,” hormones, rather than the natural Dr. Kay says. nervous system mechanism. A GW doctor has discovered a new “What is unique about our model use for a drug that could mean the PUMPING THE HEART— is that the sympathetic neurons difference between life and death WITH LIGHT can be selectively activated with for thousands of emergency room The result is, essentially, a fight light, without activating anything patients each year. or flight response at the flip of a else at the same time, which more In a 20-person clinical trial switch. When PhD student Ms. closely mimics what happens conducted at GW Hospital’s Wengrowski shines blue LED lights physiologically.” Intensive Care Unit in 2014, on the transgenic mouse hearts, Ms. Wengrowski says this new professor Lakhmir Chawla and the hearts’ light-activated protein approach to studying the heart his team used angiotensin II, a excites the sympathetic neurons, could lead to better-targeted drugs peptide hormone, as a successful setting off the heart’s response. and medical treatment. Next, the treatment for distributive shock—a “It’s a cutting-edge idea,” researchers plan to potentially life-threatening medical condition

NS Dr. Kay says. “Optogenetics has inhibit, rather than stimulate, that occurs when a patient’s blood I been developed in the past five years sympathetic fibers to see how that pressure plummets. in the neuroscience field. But it may reduce the risk of arrhythmias. When patients go into this AM ATK AM I has not been applied extensively in —Lauren Ingeno type of shock, after a bacterial LL I

W cardiology.” infection, allergic reaction or severe

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 15 RESEARCH NEWS accident, doctors attempt to raise Office of Technology Transfer. other faculty who may realize that their blood pressure using either And unlike a drug for say, they, too, have invented something catecholamines or vasopressin cancer, angiotensin II begins with commercial potential,” he says. therapy. But some critically ill working almost immediately, “Success breeds success.” patients do not respond to these Dr. Chawla says, which means Dr. Chawla hopes that, in drugs, which, in high doses, can doctors could quickly examine its addition to treating hypotension, cause side effects, including effectiveness and side effects. the phase III clinical trials will show permanent damage to the heart. Vice President for Research that the drug improves survival Angiotensin II has the potential Leo Chalupa says he is “cautiously rates for patients. But that is often to save these patients who do not optimistic” that the drug soon difficult to prove in a clinical study. respond to existing treatments. will be available in hospitals, “We know that many of the “In 1940, if you had a headache, noting that roadblocks could arise supportive therapies that we use the only choice you had was aspirin. between phase III clinical trials in medicine are important, but it Twenty years later, you could and manufacturing. If the drug is very hard to directly attribute RE take Tylenol. Now, you can take is marketed, Dr. Chalupa says, he them to a mortality benefit,” he I ibuprofen,” says Dr. Chawla, an believes it will be a “tipping point” says. “Our primary goal is to NA ALK NA associate professor of anesthesiology for the university. demonstrate that angiotensin II is I and critical care medicine in the “Not only would it bring in safe and can give clinicians another School of Medicine and Health substantial income to the inventor, tool in the toolbox. If it improves Sciences. “I would argue that having university and the school, but it survival, that’s a grand slam.” a third option is a big deal. People would also be a tremendous boost to —Lauren Ingeno RE: COURTESY SAB COURTESY RE: have different issues with different I drugs.” NEW FACES In addition, catecholamines, vasopressin and angiotensin are natural peptides produced by the ALLISON MACFARLANE: The former chair of the U.S. human body that all work together Nuclear Regulatory Commission joined the Elliott to increase blood pressure. School of International Affairs this year as director of Dr. Chawla hopes that using these the Center for International Science and Technology drugs together will improve their Policy and the related Master of Arts program. effectiveness and reduce the overall Dr. Macfarlane, who studies nuclear waste issues, toxicity of any one treatment. led the commission from July 2012 to December 2014. Following the clinical trial at GW, the U.S. Food and Drug CHRYSSA KOUVELIOTOU: The scholar of gamma-ray Administration gave approval for bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe, the researchers to bypass phase has joined the Physics Department from NASA’s II testing and move into phase III, Marshall Space Flight Center. A member of the OTOU: NASA/MSFC / ROLLSTON: MARNE TAYLOR / ALK / TAYLOR MARNE ROLLSTON: NASA/MSFC/ OTOU: which could cut years from the time National Academy of Sciences, she was among Time I it will take to market the drug. magazine’s 25 most influential people in space in 2012. Now, GW has entered into a license agreement with California- CHRISTOPHER ROLLSTON: Among the leading translators ON / KOUVEL / ON based La Jolla Pharmaceutical for of ancient Near East inscriptions, Dr. Rollston I SS GW intellectual property rights came to GW last year as an associate professor of I covering the use of angiotensin II to Northwest Semitic languages and literatures. A treat patients with hypotension and master of more than a dozen dead languages, he shock. In the phase III clinical trial, served as a visiting professor at GW in 2013. La Jolla will test the drug on 300 patients at up to 40 U.S. hospitals SABINA ALKIRE: The economist comes to the Elliott to confirm its effectiveness and School after leading Oxford University’s Poverty monitor side effects. and Human Development Initiative. In 2010, she “It is extremely rare that you was named one of Foreign Policy’s “Top 100 Global would have a pharmaceutical come Thinkers” for her work with an Oxford colleague and out of a university and go straight GW’s James Foster on creating the Multidimensional into a phase III clinical trial,” says Poverty Index, which is used by the United Nations. Steve Kubisen, director of GW’s MACFARLANE: NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMM REGULATORY NUCLEAR MACFARLANE:

16 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 PUBLIC HEALTH IN BRIEF STUDY: GENDER- $2.7M FOR MIDEAST, CADMIUM DIVERSE OFFICES ASIA STUDIES LINKED TO MORE PRODUCTIVE, Elliott School of International Affairs research institutes LESS HARMONIOUS focusing on the Middle East AGING, DISEASE and Asia received $2.7 million When men and women in grants last fall from the U.S. Exposure to cadmium, even at work together it’s better for Department of Education’s Title low levels, may put people at business—but both sexes VI program. The Institute for significantly higher risk for diseases seem to prefer working Middle East Studies received associated with aging, according to in homogenous groups. two awards totaling more than $1.8 million: a designation as a new study from a GW researcher. Researchers at the George a National Resource Center Ami Zota, a professor in the Washington University and the Massachusetts Institute of and grant funding to support Milken Institute School of Public students’ language training Health, and her colleagues found Technology looked at eight years of diversity and performance and regional studies. The Sigur that the heavy metal is associated data and employee surveys from Center for Asian Studies also with the shortening of telomeres, a firm with offices in the United received more than $900,000 DNA protein complexes that cap the States and abroad. The findings, to help advance the study of end of chromosomes and protect published last year in the Journal East Asia, including Chinese, them from deterioration. of Economics & Management Japanese, and Korean language Telomere shortening is a normal Strategy, suggest that switching study. part of getting older, Dr. Zota says, from a homogenous office to but cadmium exposure seems to one evenly split between sexes speed up the process. “would be associated with a Cadmium is released into the revenue gain of 41 percent,” says environment from mining and metal GW economist and study co- PROGRAM TO BUILD processing operations, burning author Wally Mullin. fuels, using phosphate fertilizers TEACHING TRACK FOR and disposing of metal products, according to the U.S. Environmental STEM MAJORS Protection Agency. It can enter the bloodstream through ingesting QUITTING? THERE’S The Graduate School of cadmium-contaminated food Education and Human and water and by breathing AN APP FOR THAT Development and the contaminated air. Cigarette smoke is Columbian College of Arts another source of exposure. More than 11 percent of smokers and Sciences announced this For the study, published in enrolled in a smoking cessation year that GW was selected December in the American Journal text-messaging program quit by the National Math and of Epidemiology, the researchers the habit and remained smoke Science Initiative to receive a analyzed blood and urine samples free at the end of a six-month $1.45 million grant to launch a program aimed at expanding the from more than 6,700 U.S. adults study, compared to 5 percent pipeline of science, technology, who participated in a nationally of controls, according to researchers from the Milken engineering and math teachers. representative survey. People Modeled on UTeach, an initiative with the highest concentrations of Institute School of Public Health. The National Cancer founded at the University of cadmium in their bloodstream had Institute-funded study involved Texas-Austin, the program will telomeres that were about 6 percent the program Text2Quit, which offer undergraduate STEM shorter than those in the lowest is licensed by GW to Voxiva Inc. majors coursework to prepare group. Their cells looked on average The research was published them for certification as D.C. 11 years older than their calendar online in June in the American public school math and science age. —Lauren Ingeno Journal of Preventive Medicine. teachers.

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 17 RESEARCH NEWS SHELF LIFE

“Journalists must reckon with how to adjust to the demands of a 24/7 news cycle [and] an environment of interactive engagement,” she writes. “... The result has been a restructuring of news routines, albeit in a contested way.” Objectivity, the age-old news value, remains a factor, according to Dr. Usher, but it has perhaps been displaced somewhat by journalists’ new marching orders. There are challenges in trying to pin down a speeding target in book format, Dr. Usher admits. “Yet there are some underlying themes that remain the same regardless of the technological change,” she says. While her book captures a moment in the history of a particular newspaper, it tells a story “about the clash of old and new that has Nikki Usher been repeated over and over again throughout the history of news.” Since completing her research in 2010, Dr. Usher has noticed MEDIA considerable changes in the field. The biggest, she says, has been the evolution of “analytics,” or INTERVIEWING THE INTERVIEWERS measurements to track online user behavior—metrics that are The New York Times has supplemented its well-known becoming increasingly important mandate of publishing “All the News That’s Fit to Print” in editorial decision-making and to with “All the News That’s Fit to Click”—a journey that advertisers. “Yet at The New York has been neither smooth sailing nor unexciting in its Times, analytics are only beginning prospects, writes GW professor Nikki Usher. to make major inroads, as company interviews and documents suggest that many journalists only have Even if rumors of journalism’s set up shop for an estimated a cursory understanding of their demise are premature and 700 hours during the first six meaning,” she says. exaggerated, it’s no secret that the months of 2010. Dr. Usher spent —Menachem Wecker industry is in crisis and must evolve most of her time at the Gray Lady’s to meet a new digital landscape. business desk and paid careful There is, surely, no better front attention to the ways that three Making News at seat to observe that transition as “core values of online journalism— The New York Times a scholarly fly on the wall than the immediacy, interactivity and (University of Michigan newsroom at The New York Times, participation—emerged as points of Press, 2014) which is precisely where Nikki tension and change,” she writes. Nikki Usher, assistant Usher, an assistant professor at the These three values orient professor of media and School of Media and Public Affairs, journalism in the new online world. public affairs

18 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 1 2 3 4

Berkshire Beyond Buffett: The Narcissism and Politics: Dreams The Last Blank Spaces: Exploring Enduring Value of Values of Glory (Cambridge University Africa and Australia (Columbia Business School Press, 2015) (Harvard University Press, 2013) Publishing, 2014) Jerrold M. Post Dane Kennedy Lawrence A. Cunningham Narcissus, of Greek mythological British explorers tended, at least Since this book was published in notoriety for falling fatally in initially, to treat the continents of October 2014, Warren Buffett’s love with his own reﬂection, Africa and Australia as if they were behemoth conglomerate, Berkshire epitomizes the Facebook-addicted uncharted oceans, which needed Hathaway, has been anything but “me generation.” The “apparent to be mapped and logged carefully still, using its Procter & Gamble epidemic of narcissism” doesn’t using the best scientiﬁc instruments stock to buy Duracell, among a host infect all politicians, writes and techniques. That changed when of moves. That’s par for the course. Dr. Post, GW professor of political boots hit the ground, according to But so too is Berkshire’s rock-steady psychology, but the “arena of Dane Kennedy, the Elmer Louis culture and philosophy, which is public service and its limelight Kayser Professor of History and something of an anomoly among is particularly attractive, indeed International Affairs at GW. Locals large U.S. corporations, says Mr. irresistible, to individuals with proved much more useful. “Where Cunningham, a research professor narcissistic propensities.” [explorers] went and how they of law. “It is more like what is found got there was often predicated on in smaller business partnerships. what they learned from guides, Berkshire shareholders think of go-betweens, and other indigenous themselves as owners or partners, Constructive Illusions: peoples,” he writes. “So too was while managers see their role as Misperceiving the Origins of their access to food, water, shelter, stewards,” he says. “Throughout International Cooperation and other necessities.” Explorers the organization, overhead (Cornell University Press, 2014) also weren’t the independent actors is kept low, loyalty is prized, Eric Grynaviski they might now seem, operating individual autonomy promoted, This book topples what is surely through sheer force of will. entrepreneurship stimulated, and conventional wisdom—that Dr. Kennedy says he initially shared capital allocated shrewdly.” the parties at the international “many of the stereotypical notions diplomatic bargaining table ought of who the explorer was and what to come to the best understanding of motivated him, and was surprised one another possible. Dr. Grynaviski, to discover that the reality was far an assistant professor of political more complex and interesting.” science and international affairs, instead writes provocatively that global cooperation is often likeliest when countries erroneously believe that they have much in common. “Actors may cooperate,” he writes,

NS “precisely because they lack mutual I understanding.” AM ATK AM I LL I ALL: W ALL:

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 19 RESEARCH CAPITAL The new Science and Engineering Hall opens to a mosaic of researchers—from biologists to aerospace engineers—seeking common ground in the pursuit of uncommon solutions. BY LAUREN INGENO

W ILLI AM ATKINS RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 21 hen the doors of Science and departments, the building’s opening marked a reunion, Engineering Hall opened reconnecting colleagues and experiments that had been in January, it signaled the scattered among the nooks of a space-squeezed city culmination of nearly a decade campus. It also is a place to build new connections and of planning and four years of cover new ground. And for many faculty and student construction—a demolition, a dig researchers, the building’s long-awaited opening and a steady climb skyward from ushered in an era of inquiry and opportunity at GW that NS the bottom of a 75-foot hole. But previously was merely the stuff of daydreams. I the new year brought the start of For years, the growth of the university’s research AM ATK AM something even bigger. proﬁle outpaced its infrastructure. Engineers converted I LL For some academic dusty storage rooms into makeshift laboratories. I W

22 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 Bright and colorfully-accented common spaces, like this one on the ground level, are scattered throughout the building.

Scientists conducted experiments in crowded by the influential Carnegie Classification of Institutions basements and carpeted labs. Graduate students of Higher Education. And research expenditures—a traveled four times per week to build nanodevices at the key measurement of an institution’s research activity— National Institute of Standards and Technology, ballooned by 80 percent between 2003 and 2012, to 25 miles from campus. GW’s only transmission electron nearly $200 million. microscope—for viewing fine details in minuscule “The one thing that connects generations of GW specimens—lived underneath the Lisner Auditorium engineers and scientists is that we studied in really stage. crummy facilities. And it made us scrappy,” Board of And yet, they made it work. The university has Trustees Chair Nelson Carbonell, BS ’85, said in 2011, climbed into the top tier of research schools, as counted then as vice chair, at the building’s groundbreaking.

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 23 TOMPKINS HALL

ROSS HALL & HIMMELFARB LIBRARY

DUQUÈS HALL

THE AVENUE ACADEMIC CENTER

Science and Engineering Hall, located at 22nd and H “GW scientists and engineers can do a lot with a streets NW, sits at the site of the former University little,” he said. “But just imagine what we can do with a Parking Garage. lot.”

THE NEW BUILDING—eight stories above ground and six below, including four levels of parking—is located on the former site of the University Parking Garage at 22nd and H streets. It brings together research and teaching spaces previously spread across a dozen buildings. And it nearly doubles the space on campus available to a variety of science and engineering programs. Science and Engineering Hall houses a growing roster of researchers that, for now, comprises around 140 faculty members from 10 departments, including all six from the School of Engineering and Applied Science and four disciplines from the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. The mix ranges from computer scientists and aerospace engineers to physicists and biologists. They will be joined, likely in 2016, by some of the researchers from the Milken Institute School of Public Health and the School of Medicine and Health Sciences “You can’t underestimate when the top two floors are completed. “This building likely will hold the most diverse the importance of amount of combined science and engineering of any geography ... And that’s building that you could find in the United States,” says Rob Voss, a project architect at Ballinger, the firm that the point of the building— designed the new building. Faculty members share four specialized labs: a it might actually induce three-story “high bay” for large-scale experiments, an biological anthropologists ultraclean nanofabrication lab, a greenhouse and an imaging suite equipped with microscopes for viewing to have lunch with electrical objects at resolutions better than one billionth of a meter.

engineers. And then who The building will put the university and the city RTUALTOUR.GWU.EDU I “at the center of scientiﬁc innovation,” GW President

knows what might happen?” V ON: Steven Knapp said after the concrete structure reached I ANTHROPOLOGY PROFESSOR its full height, in late 2013. “Washington, D.C., is often thought of a city of power LLUSTRAT CHET SHERWOOD and policy,” he said. “But for us to have credibility in the I

24 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 future in the policy realm, we need to also end result is an academic building that is have authority in the realm of technology, unparalleled at GW in scope and function, science and engineering.” as well as eco-friendly. Among the The city is very much what BY THE building’s sustainable features, the roof distinguishes this facility from research protects the building from the heat of the buildings at other college campuses NUMBERS sun, heat from the building’s exhaust air throughout the country, officials say. At a is captured and transferred to incoming grand opening celebration in March, air, and rainwater is collected and reused Dr. Knapp mused: “I remain confident to flush toilets. that this is the largest science and engineering building that will ever be AS MUCH AS Science and Engineering built within six blocks of the White Hall is about new facilities and bringing House.” And that proximity to corridors together departments, it’s also about of power—including Capitol Hill, the looking beyond the bounds of traditional National Institutes of Health, the National silos. In an effort to encourage that, Science Foundation and the National 140Faculty members, many of the building’s work spaces are approximately, stemming Academy of Sciences (the president of from 10 departments across surrounded by glass, putting research which spoke at the grand opening)—is CCAS and SEAS, who took and classroom activities on display. up occupancy when the already a tangible advantage. building opened. A slate of “We want people to be curious, to The building has not only attracted researchers from medicine look in and say, ‘Hey, what are you researchers to GW, officials say, and public health will follow. doing in there? Maybe I can help you,’” but it’s also a magnet for equipment says Jason Zara, a professor in the manufacturers and other potential Department of Biomedical Engineering. industry partners looking to have a “With funding getting tighter every year, presence in a brand-new, high-visibility research is really moving in a much more space. It has already resulted in deals interdisciplinary direction.” involving showcase-level microscopes. Faculty members are grouped into “It’s an impressive building in an so-called research neighborhoods, which impressive location,” says Can Korman, concentrate researchers with overlapping associate dean for research and graduate 12Number of buildings interests, like researchers from the on campus from which studies at SEAS, and the lead academic CCAS and SEAS faculty Center for the Advanced Study of Human representative from SEAS in the planning members came to SEH. Paleobiology. After outgrowing their of the building. “There are a lot of great townhouse office and being scattered buildings in the middle of cornfields.” around campus, they are together and But GW’s largest capital construction surrounded by chemists, biologists and project didn’t come without challenges. engineers. The construction site shared a city block One of the center’s researchers, with three residence halls, a D.C. traffic anthropology professor Chet Sherwood, artery and, below ground, a Metro tunnel. is on a floor that shares a kitchen and The building required elaborate planning common space with the Electrical and and delicate maneuvering by engineers, 8,100 Computer Engineering Department on Metric tons of carbon architects and construction crews. dioxide saved each the floor below. The imaging suite and nanofabrication year—more than half of “You can’t underestimate the lab, for instance, are engineered to the building’s would-be importance of geography,” he says. “And carbon footprint—as a dampen vibrations from the Metro. And result of sharing Ross that’s the point of the building—it might instruments that use electrons for imaging Hall’s co-generation actually induce biological anthropologists power system; that’s and etching nanoscale devices needed to be the equivalent of taking to have lunch with electrical engineers. shielded from the magnetic fields produced nearly 1,500 vehicles off And then who knows what might by the subway’s high-voltage rails. the road. happen?” “Whether you’re trying to see things Officials say that combined with the or build things at the nanometer scale, building’s shared specialty labs, the you want to make sure those little university is now positioned to propel the electrons are going right where you want innovative ideas that could result from them to go,” Dr. Korman says. those collaborations. On top of that, the university In the past, GW researchers often were challenged designers to build the nearly “supporting actors” on larger institutions’ 500,000-square-foot facility without 500,000 multimillion-dollar grants—not Approximate square footage multiplying GW’s carbon footprint. The in the building. because of “lack of brainpower,” says

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 25 UNDER ONE ROOF

CORE LAB FACILITIES At any moment in the new Science and Engineering HIGH BAY Hall, researchers could be testing the strength of This expansive, three-story lab—with a glass wall facing bridge beams and peering at samples magnified 23rd Street to invite onlookers—features a 20-ton crane and a reinforced, 28-foot-high “strong wall” and “strong floor” a million times, while students learn, electric cars to test the strength of enormous objects, like bridge beams. charge and lunch is served at a new street-level eatery from renowned chef José Andrés. › NANOFABRICATION LAB An intensely clean environment where researchers build and Within that flurry of activity, new bonds and work with devices that measure mere billionths of a meter. To do that, the air is scrubbed of contaminants like dust, dead perhaps even innovative collaborations will be skin and hair, relative giants that can destroy experiments. formed among the researchers from a variety of disciplines that ultimately will be represented in the › IMAGING SUITE building: Five rooms—specially built to dampen vibrations from the nearby Metro—housing high-resolution microscopy equipment, such as a new transmission electron microscope Biology Engineering that can magnify samples by 1 million times. Management & Chemistry › ROOFTOP GREENHOUSE Systems Engineering Anticipated to open in 2016, the space will be climate- Physics Mechanical & controlled to help plants endure the high summer heat. Anthropology Aerospace Engineering Civil & Environmental Biomedical Engineering Engineering Researchers from the Computer Science Milken Institute School Electrical & Computer of Public Health Engineering Researchers from the NS

School of Medicine and I Health Sciences AM ATK AM I LL I Explore Science and Engineering Hall further at

seh.gwu.edu. W ALL:

26 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 One of several plant-covered “green walls” that enliven the building’s common spaces.

SUSTAINABLE BY DESIGN › A ROOF THAT KEEPS COOL Vegetation covers more than 10,000 square feet of the roof, keeping the building cool by absorbing heat from the sun while also reducing rainwater runoff. The rest of the roof was made light in color so those areas would reﬂect heat, too.

› CO-GENERATION SYSTEM The building gets 80 to 85 percent of its power from a green co-generation system in the utility plant at Ross Hall, across the street, which captures and recycles steam to generate electricity and heat for both buildings.

TEACHING & COLLABORATIVE SPACES › OTHER FEATURES Graywater Use “TEACHING TOWER” Rain from the roof drains into a 42,000-gallon cistern A stack of 1,000-square-foot, fish-bowl teaching labs at the to be filtered and used to flush toilets, saving roughly building’s center, from the third floor to the eighth floor. They 850,000 gallons of water per year. include labs for software engineering, circuitry and robotics. Chilled beams Horizontal beams suspended from the ceiling use water › LEHMAN AUDITORIUM to cool the air more efficiently than a conventional air- The room, named in honor of Donald R. Lehman, conditioning system. PhD ’70, professor emeritus and former executive vice Electric Car Charging president for academic affairs, offers flexible space for The underground, 386-space parking garage includes teaching and major lectures and symposia. the second electric car-charging location on the Foggy Bottom Campus (the other is nearby, in the Academic › COMMON AREAS Center). Tables and chairs dot broad common areas where students can do homework and researchers can meet; there are banks Energy Recovery Wheels of open workstations and nooks for student clubs. From the This technology recycles conditioned air from the third floor on up, a spiral staircase links each pair of floors with building in order to heat or cool incoming air, reducing a two-story atrium that fills with light from a wall windows. energy needs. The savings are expected to pay for the system in less than three years. › STUDIO LAB Refill Stations, Lockers & Showers Integrated lecture and lab space that is geared toward a more To encourage the use of reusable water bottles, refill hands-on classroom experience. It can fit 72 students as one stations are located outside every restroom. Lockers room or be converted into three separate spaces. and showers encourage exercise.

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 27 Dr. Korman, but rather, lack of proper facilities. Think Tank “Now we’re in a position to be a major player From biomedical engineers and chemists to for these larger grants,” he says. anthropologists and computer scientists, The nanofabrication lab, for instance, will allow Science and Engineering Hall is a melting engineers like Volker Sorger to conduct his research pot of expertise, ideas and high tech. These in Foggy Bottom, instead of traveling to federal labs or faculty researchers are among the initial 140 outsourcing to other universities. After completing a or so who are bringing the corridors to life. PhD at University of California at Berkeley in 2011, Dr. Sorger says the promise of Science and Engineering ‹ Amy Zanne Hall is part of what attracted him to the electrical and PLANT PHYSIOLOGY & EVOLUTION Explores plant traits in order to computer engineering faculty. understand the links between a plant’s Dr. Sorger works in nanophotonics, or light at the structure and its function. Recently led nanometer level, a space about 100,000 times smaller a team that assembled the largest time- pegged evolutionary tree of flowering than the width of a human hair. He is seeking to develop plants, showing how they evolved to technology that could harvest its energy to power tolerate cold winters. laptops or smartphones. Other GW researchers are building nano-scale sensors to detect small volumes Volker Sorger › of toxins or to enable devices to diagnose medical NANOPHOTONICS conditions using a single drop of blood or urine. Squeezes light into spaces just a few At the opposite end of the spectrum, Science and nanometers wide to more efficiently power smartphones and computers. Engineering Hall’s three-story high bay will allow With a new NSF grant, he’s launching engineers like Sameh Badie, in the Department of a program that will give students Civil and Environmental Engineering, to work on experience with nanotechnology earlier in their academic careers. outsized projects that will help build safer, more earthquake-resistant bridges and buildings. Dr. Badie conducts experiments on reinforced and prestressed ‹ Akos Vertes concrete structures that are sometimes in the range CHEMICAL ANALYSIS of 45 feet long and 8 feet tall. Since the facilities at Developing tools to rapidly identify the root cause of biological and chemical the engineering school’s Tompkins Hall could not threats. Under a $14.6 million award from accommodate those large structures, in the past the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Dr. Badie often needed to hand off his projects to Projects Agency, or DARPA, Dr. Vertes institutions with larger facilities. and his team are tasked with reducing to 30 days a process that can take years. The enormous room also could benefit researchers like Philippe Bardet, in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, who needs a high ceiling Grace Zhang › for his studies on the fluid dynamics inside nuclear TISSUE REGENERATION reactors. With a $2 million New Innovator Award from the NIH, creating a 3-D bioprinting technique to enable the FOR STUDENTS, TOO, the building offers exposure to new regeneratation of complex tissues, research opportunities and modern learning spaces. such as vascularized bone, cartilage NS and muscle, that has been damaged “Instead of this being a drag that you have to go to I by injury or disease. lab for four hours, you are going into a lab that inspires AM ATK AM

you, a lab where you want to learn,” says chemistry I LL professor Susan Gillmor. I ‹ Rumana Riffat All chemistry labs will be taught in the building WASTEWATER TREATMENT starting this year. With larger labs, the department Finding solutions for water pollution and shortages in communities around the will be able to offer more spots in introductory classes. world, from developing a small-scale water And the new teaching spaces create “few barriers treatment and reuse system in Pakistan among students, and also between the students and the to current research evaluating a high-rate process for removing carbon and nitrogen instructor,” professor Cynthia Dowd says. from wastewater in D.C. In a departure from the traditional lab layout—rows of workstations arranged behind one another—the new chemistry rooms have lab benches that line the Bernard Wood › CA MCCONNELL BURT / OTHERS: W OTHERS: / BURT MCCONNELL CA

HUMAN ORIGINS perimeter. Tables for discussion and collaboration sit I Studying ways to better classify and in the center, intended to encourage more face-to-face reconstruct evolutionary relationships interaction. among hominini, the lineage that led to our own species, Homo sapiens, with a The building also features a reconﬁgurable particular focus on skull and tooth fossils. engineering “studio lab” on the ground ﬂoor, a hybrid JESS VERTES:

28 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 “GW scientists and engineers can do a lot with a little. But just imagine what we can do with a lot.” BOARD OF TRUSTEES CHAIR NELSON CARBONELL, BS ˇ85

Researchers moved into new work spaces, like this chemistry lab, in January. Along with a suite of core A grant from the National Science Foundation lab facilities and more immersive teaching spaces, will fund a new nanofabrication course co-taught the building is being called “transformational.” by three SEAS faculty members, as well as a nanotechnology fellowship program led by Dr. Sorger, lab and lecture space designed to facilitate hands-on the nanophotonics researcher. The grant will allow activities. The studio lab has room for 72 students and 10 freshmen and sophomores to work and learn in the can be switched from, say, a mechanical engineering teaching clean room this summer. Next year, those lab to one for electrical engineering by pushing carts of students will lead the new cohort of undergraduate equipment into storage space in the walls. It also can be fellows. divided into three separate rooms. “We really want to create nanotechnology The glass-walled, collaborative atmosphere of the ambassadors. We want to win them very early on,” building will also make it easier for students to find Dr. Sorger says. “And once we hook them into nano, research opportunities, says student Elizabeth Hubler, they don’t leave.” BS ’14, who is staying at GW to pursue a master’s That potential surrounding Science and Engineering degree. After a freshman year class with Michael Hall is part of the energy that drew Dr. Sorger to GW Plesniak, chair of the Department of Mechanical and in the first place. He sees the building as a launchpad, Aerospace Engineering, she became involved in and he’s in good company around campus: Among Dr. Plesniak’s fluid dynamics lab and has stayed ever administrators and the researchers who were heading since. In the lab, she is working to improve a simulated into the building, the word “transformational” tended human vocal tract, which could be used to treat voice to follow “Science and Engineering Hall” like a last disorders. name. That excitement has seen the building through “I think the new building will bring a lot more from lines on paper to concrete pillars and, finally, to chances for undergrads to get involved in research, bright new labs and classrooms. just because there will be so much more visibility,” The outcomes that will be forged there are unknown Ms. Hubler says. The group’s former lab space was in but, for many, the possibilities seem endless. Staughton Hall. “Most people don’t even know where “The size, the investment and the momentum behind that is,” she says. That fragmentation made it “hard for the building … it’s very exciting,” Dr. Sorger says. “We undergrads to really see the types of projects faculty can really build something here.” are working on.”

NS The building also has a scaled-down teaching I The expansion of research facilities and version of the superclean nanotechnology lab—a rarity opportunities for students and faculty on college campuses, ofﬁcials say—that will be used members is a pillar of GW’s $1 billion AM ATK AM I to train researchers and expose students to the art of philanthropic campaign. For more details, LL I

W nanofabrication early on in their academic careers. visit campaign.gwu.edu.

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 29 A dramatic sky looms over the greenery in an area on the outskirts of Juba, the capital city, near a United Nations Protection of Civilians camp. MARY ELLSBERG MARY

30 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 ON THE SIDELINES OF THE CIVIL STRIFE THAT HAS LONG EMBROILED THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH SUDAN, WOMEN AND GIRLS ARE IN THE CROSSHAIRS. ACTS OF WAR

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 31 he world’s newest nation is also one of its most volatile. South Sudan emerged in 2011, rising from nearly a half century of civil wars. But by the end of 2013, ethnic conflicts had erupted again in warring that has been marked by gender-based violence. “The bodies of women and children are the battleground of this conflict,” the United Nations’ special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Zainab Hawa Bangura, said last fall after visiting one of the war’s hot spots. GW Global Women’s Institute Director MARY ELLSBERG and research director Manuel Contreras traveled to the fledgling country last August. They were preparing for potentially groundbreaking research that aims to estimate the scope of gender- based violence in South Sudan and to better understand its causes and consequences, while also attempting to create a standard for measuring this kind of violence in conflict zones the world over. The study, proposed during South Sudan’s window of peace, is now taking on new dimensions of urgency, danger and complexity, as the researchers try to measure the violence of war in real time. After the trip, Dr. Ellsberg spoke with DANNY FREEDMAN about the project and its relevance.

32 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 What do we know already about violence against Women’s Health and Domestic Violence against Women women and girls in conflict zones? in 2005, which I was a part of, that was really the first effort to have a standard methodology that would allow We’ve known for a long time that rape exists in war. us to compare the levels of violence across different Now there’s a recognition that, in some cases, it’s on a settings. massive scale and used as a tactic of war. We saw it in For the South Sudan study, to ensure that we’re Bosnia and Herzegovina, we saw it in Rwanda, we’re building on best practices for this kind of research, we seeing it in Democratic Republic of Congo and in South convened a meeting in February with researchers and Sudan. other stakeholders from all over the world. They shared In many places, rape is not just an opportunistic their experiences with interviewing methods, like crime, it’s actually part of fighters’ tactics to demoralize face-to-face with iPads or on paper; ways to make it safe villagers and to terrify them. And it’s done in and comfortable for people to disclose violence; safety horrendous ways that are meant to completely devastate issues; how we measure and how we define violence, families and whole communities. those kinds of things—so we can try to develop the Domestic violence also increases in times of gold-standard instrument. That’s our goal here. conflict, and when women are getting displaced, for example, this gets piled on to their already extreme Why South Sudan? vulnerabilities to child sexual abuse and to sexual assault in communities. In July 2013, we proposed a set of different studies So that’s what we do know; there’s a lot that we don’t that we thought would contribute to the gaps in the know. evidence, and we wanted a place where we could We have pretty good methods now for doing this conduct both qualitative and quantitative research on kind of research in non-conflict circumstances. We’ve the prevalence and drivers of violence. We thought of also done some research in postconflict settings. But South Sudan because it was newly independent, and we how to apply those methods to an area that’s in complete were hearing really positive stories. There was a feeling upheaval—I think there’s been some skepticism about that the people there had been through so much, and whether it can be done. here they are finally getting a chance to move forward But the fact is: If you don’t have good data, it’s much as an independent country and live in peace. It was a harder to convince people to invest in solutions. So what real time of optimism. we’re doing is figuring out how to adapt and apply some There also were no data on gender-based violence, of these tools, this rigorous scientific method, to an area the government was interested in learning more, and that’s so fluid. it’s a place where they could actually use the data for programs. What’s the goal of the study? That’s how we proposed it. In November we got word that we received the contract, and in December We’re trying to understand the prevalence, the triggers everything blew up and civil war was back on. In some and the characteristics of gender-based violence in ways the research is just as important, or even more both the most recent conflict and earlier conflicts in important, but it’s definitely more challenging to do the South Sudan. That’s going to be going on for a couple research than we initially expected. years. Then we’re going to help design and evaluate an When we were there, the hardest thing was to choose intervention for violence prevention. where we would be able to do an ethnically diverse, The research is part of a broader five-year program representative study in six to eight months, because led by the International Rescue Committee, along with nobody knows where anybody’s going to be then, or what us at GWI and CARE International, called “What places it will be possible to enter. It’s just so fluid. Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls in Conflict and Humanitarian Emergencies,” which Hence calling this a feasibility visit. What did you is funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for find when you got there? International Development. We were going to find out whether and where there There are no measures for this kind of violence in were conditions on the ground to be able to do this war zones? research. With the conflict ongoing we had real doubts, we thought that it would be impossible to do. But talking Only a few studies have been done. And here’s another to people on the ground, they wanted us to do the study.

NS problem: Everybody’s using different questionnaires, People felt it was important to document what was I their methods are different, so the results aren’t happening and to do it in real time, not wait till years comparable. That’s the problem we had with studying later. AM ATK AM I domestic violence years ago. As a result, there was the The ﬁrst week we were in Juba, the capital, meeting LL I

W World Health Organization’s Multi-country Study on with the rest of the local and international research

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 33 “The evidence showing that violence can be prevented sends a very powerful message. We’re hoping to show that programs like this can be successful in postconﬂict settings, too.”

team, government officials—we’re working closely completely impeccable, in terms of its transparency, its with the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare rigor, its objectivity, or it won’t have credibility. and the National Bureau of Statistics—United Nations agencies, health care workers and women’s groups. We In the end, how are you going to be conducting the also went to possible study sites, including a Protection research? of Civilians camp in the surrounding county. Choosing the sites was important, because we had What was that like? already decided that it would not be possible to carry out a nationally representative survey. We needed to Everything is tense. People are living in very small find places that represent at least the three main ethnic tents, basically, each made out of one big sheet of groups: the Dinka, Nuer and Murle. canvas. It’s hot, dusty; there’s not a lot of food. Women We ultimately settled on doing a door-to-door field have to leave the camps to look for food and firewood, survey in Juba County and the state of Lakes. Juba and that’s a big risk for getting raped. People are just County is ethnically diverse and includes urban and hugely frustrated over the situation. It’s a tinderbox, rural areas, including two Protection of Civilians and that breeds more domestic violence. camps, while Lakes is largely rural and most of the In the second week, Manuel Contreras, our people are Dinka. Lakes hasn’t seen the kind of fighting institute’s director of research, traveled on to Rumbek that’s going on in other areas, but there are conflicts in the central state of Lakes, to continue the assessment. between communities related to cattle rustling and Things are very tense there, too. bride prices that also increase women’s risk of violence. It was a packed trip. While we were there, and in Those two sites will have both the quantitative our ongoing efforts with the technical advisory team study and qualitative work—interviews with survivors, I mentioned earlier, we’re trying to get everybody’s humanitarian and health care workers, and others, buy-in that what we’re doing is useful and appropriate, maybe even perpetrators of violence. We’d planned on both scientifically and culturally. At every step we’re a third site, Unity state in the north, but that’s one of trying to do a lot of consultation to make sure that we’re the areas most affected by the war now. Going door-to- getting it right. door would be too dangerous. So in order to try to still One of the lines we have to walk carefully on is: represent that state, which is mostly Nuer, we’ll conduct We’re not doing this as human rights activists. The only the qualitative piece there. IRC is a humanitarian actor, and they have to be very For the population survey, which will likely begin careful to not appear to be taking sides. And we are this fall, we’ll be interviewing 2,000 women and 1,000 public health researchers; we’re trying to document men. A few studies have reported sexual violence the problem and, based on that, to raise the flag of against men during conflicts, and though most of the awareness. people we talked with in South Sudan hadn’t heard of We also have to collect the data in a way that is incidents like that, it may be that it goes unreported

34 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2014 because of stigma. We’d like to gather data and see, one treatment for batterers through the justice system. way or another. We found that there is almost no evidence that these So we’ll be asking women and men about their programs actually prevent future violence. They may experiences with domestic violence, sexual abuse in have other benefits but, for the most part, relying on childhood and other violence they’ve witnessed or screening programs and batterers’ treatment does not experienced during and before the current war. work to reduce violence overall. We also now know a lot more about the drivers of The survey is door-to-door? violence. A big reason why there’s more violence in one country than another, or even one community to You get maps of each village and neighborhood—and another, has to do with social norms. When you’re in a the last census was in 2008, before South Sudan was setting where 50 percent of the men are beating their even a country, so we’ll be updating the maps as we wives, it’s not because 50 percent of the male population go—and you randomly select, say, every sixth house are monsters. It’s because it’s socially acceptable, and systematically through the neighborhood. You find if you don’t beat your wife you’re not considered to be a out who lives there. We’re looking for women and men man. So deterrents through stronger laws—“you’ll go age 15 or older. If they have more than one, then we to jail if you do this”—or better services are not going randomly select one and interview him or her. to change that. You have to work on making it not OK to The trick, then, is getting them alone. Sometimes beat your wife and talking about gender equality. you take them outside, you go sit under a tree, you go to That sounds kind of touchy-feely. But now there the river where they’re washing. That’s a key piece of have been a few rigorous, randomized, controlled this, so they can feel comfortable talking about violence. trials that have shown that it is possible to prevent It’s such a stigmatized, sensitive issue that people often violence against women by changing social norms. won’t talk about it. But that secrecy is also important so One community mobilization program carried out in the person doesn’t face reprisals afterward. Uganda, called SASA!, reduced domestic violence by We have a whole set of safety measures, developed 50 percent in the study communities in two years. They by the World Health Organization, and that involves just saturated the communities with messages about having dummy questionnaires, or if somebody walks how harmful domestic violence was, not only to women into the room you change the subject and start talking but to families and communities. While many programs about breast-feeding or immunizations, and these are have focused on women, this one also included everyone all things that you discuss with the woman beforehand. from men and children to religious leaders, police, We don’t tell the family that we’re talking about teachers and health workers. It has been hugely violence. We tell them it’s something about women’s successful and is being adapted and scaled up in many health and then when we get her alone we tell her what countries. These are the types of interventions we think we’re going to be talking about. We’ll also have basic have the potential to make a lasting impact on violence psychological and social services available, directly or worldwide. by referral, both for the women in the study and for the The evidence showing that violence can be prevented interviewers. It’s hugely stressful for interviewers to sends a very powerful message. We’re hoping to show be listening to these stories, and a lot of times they’ve that programs like this can be successful in postconflict suffered abuse, too, so they need counseling as well settings, too. during the process. In conflict settings, like South Sudan, our emphasis For everyone’s safety and for the comfort of the is on documenting the magnitude and types of violence people in the study, this piece will be done by trained women and girls are facing, and the kinds of basic local interviewers, matched with respondents by gender measures that can make a difference in the acute phase, and ethnicity. such as ensuring safe access to firewood and water. Often, women in refugee camps are raped when they Is there anything that works to prevent this kind of have to leave the camps to look for firewood or food or violence? to carry water. Humanitarian groups are also paying a lot more We just published a review paper in a special issue of attention to issues like sanitation. If the toilets are too [British medical journal] The Lancet that looks at the far away, or if the women’s toilets are too close to the effectiveness of different programs to prevent all forms men’s toilets, or if people have to go at night and there’s of violence, including female genital mutilation, child no lighting, that’s when women get raped. marriage, domestic violence and sexual assault. And So even pretty simple measures around what we found was pretty interesting. infrastructure and lighting—like access to charcoal, We did a review of all the rigorous studies we could so women don’t have to get firewood—can actually find that aimed to reduce violence against women make a big difference in terms of women’s safety in the and girls. Most of the studies in the U.S. and Canada camps. involved screening women for domestic violence or

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 35 Reuniting Babies and their Bottles For infants with disorders that leave them unable to eat, feeding tubes and surgeries offer an imperfect ﬁx. The problem is in the brain, and that’s where GW researchers are looking for a cure.

BY LAUREN INGENO JOHN MCGLASSON JOHN

36 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 37 Monica Jennings could not eat when she was born prematurely at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 1994.

SHE would aspirate liquids, inhaling them into her lungs, which led to a series of ongoing pneumonia and sinus infections. Soon after birth, doctors inserted a tube into her nose to feed her, and at three weeks, put another in her trachea to protect her airway. Though they told her mother, Lisa, that the tubes likely would be temporary, they remained for more than a decade. Ms. Jennings spent the ﬁrst months of her daughter’s life consulting geneticists, neurologists, speech therapists and gastroenterologists, but no one could tell her why Monica was unable to swallow. For two years, they called her symptoms a medical mystery. “My sister and I lived together, and my nephew was born a few weeks after Monica. So I came home every night to this very healthy, very hungry, vocal baby. And I had exactly the opposite,” Ms. Jennings says. “I couldn’t feed her or hold her. Oh, it was brutal. Brutal.” Doctors ﬁnally diagnosed Monica with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, or DiGeorge syndrome, a disorder that affects an estimated 1 in 4,000 people, though it may be more, as experts suspect it is underdiagnosed.

38 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 DiGeorge syndrome is caused by a small amount GW researchers reported finding that an existing, of genetic material missing on the long arm of genetically-modified 22q11.2 mouse model exhibited chromosome 22. Most often, the deletion occurs at all the major dysphagia symptoms found in DiGeorge random and is rarely inherited from a parent. patients—including issues with weight gain, swallowing The syndrome can lead to an extraordinarily large and lung infections—opening the door to a more and diverse range of health and cognitive issues, from detailed look at the disruptions underyling the problem. learning disabilities and language delays to heart Analyzing the mouse model, the team found that defects and seizures, making it difficult to recognize. issues with eating and swallowing were directly linked But one of the most debilitating symptoms of to a disruption in the embryonic development of cranial DiGeorge, and the root of overwhelming anxiety for nerves—a dozen pairs of nerves that originate in the parents like Ms. Jennings, is the inability to properly brain and carry out functions related to different chew, swallow and digest food. senses in the body. The discovery reversed a common Dysphagia, the medical term broadly applied to assumption that dysphagia symptoms arise after a child these symptoms, is a dangerous complication that is born. affects not only DiGeorge patients but at least one-third “It turns out that in the development of the earliest, of those with neurodevelopmental disorders, like Down prenatal steps that set up craniofacial structures—like syndrome and autism. “It must be terrible, to be brand new in the world and every time someone comes at you with food it hurts,” says Anthony LaMantia, a professor of pharmacology and physiology in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences and director of GW’s Institute for Neuroscience. And for patients like now 21-year-old Monica, it is an enduring battle. Though she first ate solid food—a banana—at age 13, Monica struggles daily with dysphagia and the health issues that stem from it. Dr. LaMantia has been studying DiGeorge syndrome for more than a decade. He has primarily focused on disruptions in the development of the cerebral cortex, the part of brain that does the heavy lifting of memory, learning and cognition. However, as he talked to pediatricians, he realized they were spending a frustrating amount of time trying—to little avail—to relieve swallowing problems in DiGeorge patients. “None of the clinical literature addressed, ‘Why is this happening? And what can you do to fix it?’ I thought that if you were going to solve a compelling problem, this would be it,” Dr. LaMantia says. In a 2013 study, Dr. LaMantia and a team of

“I thought that if you were going to solve a compelling NS I problem, this would be it.” AM ATK AM I Anthony LaMantia LL I W

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 39 the mouth and jaw—as well as the brain structures and nerves that control those muscles, something just isn’t quite right,” says study co-author Tom Maynard, an associate research professor of pharmacology and physiology. Now, after three years of preliminary studies, Dr. LaMantia has assembled an interdisciplinary team of researchers from GW and Children’s National Health System that will use the mouse model to understand how and why early brain disruptions lead to dysphagia in patients with developmental disorders. The three-part project is funded by a $6.2 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and brings together a group comprising neuroscientists, geneticists, developmental biologists and clinicians. Along the way, the team will also consult with pediatricians and speech therapists at Children’s National to see how they may be able to translate their research findings into clinical practice. The research promises not only to define new therapies and prevention strategies that may improve the lives of those with DiGeorge syndrome, but may also have an impact far beyond those patients. “If we can understand how the part of the brain that regulates this very simple, but very essential behavior of swallowing and food indigestion,” Dr. LaMantia says, “that may give us insight and a framework about how neural circuits are compromised for much more complex behaviors that go awry in developmental disorders.” THE BROKEN BLUEPRINT Though it seems like a simple, even automatic task, the act of eating is a complex orchestration of brain and body. When all goes according to plan, food is chewed, mixed in with saliva and positioned on the tongue for transport to the 1 4,000 back of the mouth. Sensory receptors in the tongue and throat Prevalence of DiGeorge syndrome, though experts suspect it is underdiagnosed trigger the swallow, and the pallet rises and closes to prevent food from entering the nasal cavity. The voice box elevates to protect the airway, and food is routed into the throat. “There is a whole process of preparing the food, directing it and keeping it on the right path,” says Dr. Maynard, who studies cell signaling during neural development and will serve as co-investigator in two of the dysphagia project studies. “It actually takes fairly fine motor control, considering that most of us don’t have to think about it.” 35–80 In DiGeorge patients, various points in that sequence are Estimated percentage of people with broken. Doctors can surgically correct severe facial defects, neurodevelopmental disorders who are such as cleft palate, in an attempt to alleviate dysphagia. But affected by dysphagia (difficulty eating) many children with developmental disorders who aspirate do not have any visible facial abnormalities. This suggests something is going haywire in the brain, rather than in their facial mechanics. “As soon as any neural mechanism is involved, it becomes a much harder problem,” Dr. LaMantia says. “You can $6.2 million recognize it clinically, but the underlying brain control of Amount of a new grant from the National this behavior, and also the peripheral mechanism that must Institute of Child Health and Human be put in place, is very complicated. Our ability to really fix it Development that brings together the has been limited, because our knowledge has been limited.” efforts of seven GW faculty members The mystery mirrors cases of children with

40 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 In this image of a 22q11.2 mouse model embryo, a red stain is used to make the nerves more visible, while blood vessels are highlighted in green. In 2013, Dr. LaMantia’s team found that issues with eating and swallowing were directly linked to a disruption in the embryonic development of cranial nerves. The discovery reversed a common assumption that dysphagia symptoms arise after a child is born. LOFF

I developmental disorders who have issues with eye Gene patterning in the embryonic brain stem lays alignment, which can lead to double vision. For out the blueprint for the proper development of the years, doctors tried to correct these problems—often face, mouth, lips and jaw, as well as giving rise to the unsuccessfully—by operating on eye muscles. But the nerve cells that control feeding and swallowing. While root of the issue was deeper. analyzing the brain stems of the 22q11.2 mutant mouse “The surgery wasn’t dealing with the problem,” models, Dr. LaMantia and his team discovered that gene , ANASTAS POPRAT I Dr. LaMantia says. “The problem was in the cranial expression levels and patterning in this region were NSK I nerve circuits in the brain stem that control eye highly disorganized. The brain’s instruction booklet movement.” wasn’t providing correct information to the face. The ﬁndings inspired Dr. LaMantia, who thought “We were able to show in the animal model that that those same disruptions could be causing dysphagia in a surprisingly classical, molecularly mechanistic

BEVERLY KARP BEVERLY in DiGeorge patients. way, the initial formation of that part of the brain was

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 41 Embryonic brain stems from a control mouse (LEFT) and a 22q11.2 mouse model (RIGHT) are stained to

show, in blue, the expression of a gene. When the A gene is overexpressed, as it is in the mouse model, I cranial nerve development is disrupted.

Pharynx Tongue (THROAT) MAGES: COURTESY ANTHONY LAMANT ANTHONY COURTESY MAGES: Esophagus I (FOOD CHANNEL) SORDERS / / SORDERS Larynx I (VOICE BOX) ON D ON I CAT

The Food Network I Eating is an intricate orchestration of moving parts, from jaws to muscles to Trachea receptors, that ensures food is (WINDPIPE) processed, pushed along and sent down the right path—and not to the lungs or nasal cavity.

disrupted,” Dr. LaMantia says. “What we now have to Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, will lead a COMMUN OTHER AND DEAFNESS ON TUTE I ﬁgure out is what the consequence of that disruption is.” study into whether the neurons in the brain that control NST In their new project, Dr. LaMantia, associate feeding and swallowing may be misﬁring in DiGeorge I

director Sally Moody, a professor of anatomy and patients. He will work with Dr. Maynard, ONAL regenerative biology and an expert in craniofacial Dr. Lee and Anastas Popratiloff, director of GW’s Center I development, and Norman Lee, a professor of for Microscopy and Image Analysis, in these efforts. pharmacology and physiology who specializes in “The question is, what’s causing the swallowing genomics, will investigate how these early interruptions difﬁculty? Is it the function of the individual motor establish changes in neural circuits in feeding and neurons? Is it the sequence of events? Is it the timing or ON: COURTESYNAT ON: swallowing. They’ll see how neurons in the brain stem the magnitude of these changes?” Dr. Mendelowitz says. I develop and migrate during the prenatal period and By identifying the receptors or neurotransmitters what factors may cause that migration. that may be overactive or underactive in the brains LLUSTRAT Simultaneously, David Mendelowitz, vice chair of the of DiGeorge patients, Dr. Mendelowitz is hoping I

42 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 that could lead to targeted therapies for improving dysfunctional swallowing. From the various arms of the project, the team also hopes to better understand the variability of DiGeorge syndrome’s kaleidoscope of symptoms. In the mouse model, the researchers saw remarkable variation among siblings, which should have nearly identical genetic make-ups. One goal, Dr. LaMantia says, will be to identify other genes underlying dysphagia in order to create a “genetic map of vulnerabilities,” which could be used to predict or diagnose physical problems. A DIETARY FIX One goal, he says, will As the project got underway this spring, the researchers came into it with one idea for straightening out the circuitry that goes off course in be to create a “genetic DiGeorge patients. Retinoic acid, the active form of vitamin A, is instrumental in the patterning of nerves that initiate map of vulnerabilities.” swallowing. The researchers’ 2013 study found that the 22q11.2 mouse embryos appear to be hypersensitive to even the smallest changes of the nutrient. “Really high or low doses of retinoic acid can change those cranial nerves, so it makes sense that it would cause swallowing defects,” says Irene Zohn, an associate professor of pediatrics at GW and a researcher at Children’s National. “But it seems that the mice carrying the 22q11.2 deletion are not able to compensate for small ups and downs.” Dr. Zohn, a developmental biologist, will lead efforts to determine whether modifying the vitamin A intake in mouse model mothers could prevent dysphagia in their offspring. “Our preliminary data shows that yes, things can change,” she says. “But the question is: How much do all these changes come together to affect the physical abnormality?” If the researchers do find a link between vitamin A intake and the emergence of dysphagia in people with DiGeorge syndrome, clinicians may be able to offer corrective dietary guidelines for expectant mothers. Within the next five years, the researchers hope to get closer to assembling the pieces that make up the complex picture of pediatric dysphagia and, in turn, uncovering new ways to prevent and treat the condition. In the meantime, nearly two decades after Monica Jennings was diagnosed with DiGeorge syndrome, her mother’s search for answers continues, as well. Years of medications, therapy and multiple surgeries have yet to resolve her daughter’s difficulties with swallowing. “I could go on for ages about the paths we have followed, plowed or dismissed, and the things we’ve discovered along the way,” Lisa Jennings says. New research endeavors give her hope, though she also understands better than most the challenges facing scientists. “I have an entirely different respect for the complexity of human biology,” she says, “and just how fragile the body can be.”

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 43 RESEARCH NEWS LAUNCHPAD

FUELING A CULTURE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP SURAKRAM I // By Mary A. Dempsey

Volker Sorger, a professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, talks of a deep canyon. On one side are people like him, working in labs on provocative research. On the other side is the commercial world where services and products are brought to market. The challenge, he says, STOCK.COM/CHATCHA i is bridging that chasm. ©

44 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 Innovation Corps, or I-Corps, has begun building the bridge. I-Corps, an entrepreneur- training program created by the National Science Foundation, is feeding GW’s rapidly growing “I-Corps is about how to get culture of entrepreneurship. It joins the annual GW Business Plan the invention out of the lab Competition [see page 45]; the GW Entrepreneurs Roundtable, an interdisciplinary group of and into the real world.” faculty members, students, alumni JIM CHUNG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF and university administrators GW’S OFFICE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP who organize activities and mentoring opportunities around entrepreneurship; and Pitch George, where GW graduate students, undergraduates and local medical history. Since then, the as Children’s National Medical high school students present their program has welcomed 17 more Center,” says Dan Kunitz, a GW business ideas to judges for a chance groups in sessions ranging in employee who is director of the to win seed money. duration from two to six weeks, DC I-Corps Accelerator. “We’ve “I-Corps is the most with more on the books. had teams come in from Howard comprehensive tool in that After boot camp, participants University and George Mason. And toolbox,” says Jim Chung, the who want additional training can this is very rewarding.” executive director of GW’s Office of take advantage of a program, called DC I-Corps also recently hosted Entrepreneurship. “Professors and an accelerator, that offers further its first international boot camp, graduate students may be experts in coaching on building a business and in Mexico City, in collaboration their areas, such as cold plasma or commercialization. with Mexico’s National Council of a particular disease or a pathway to “There has been a strong move Science and Technology, known as a drug, but they don’t have business with I-Corps to collaborate with CONACYT, and the United States- expertise,” he says. “I-Corps is other schools and the federal labs Mexico Foundation for Science, or about how to get the invention out of in the region, so a strength of the FUMEC. the lab and into the real world.” program is that we’re engaged Mr. Kunitz says the node’s The national program launched with people outside GW, such location in Washington and its in 2011 for researchers who had past NSF grants. Two years later, NSF added seven “nodes,” or regional programs that carry no previous agency-funding requirement. The nodes include DC I-Corps, an initiative that started with three universities: the George Washington University, Virginia Tech and the University of Maryland, and now includes Johns Hopkins University, as well. At GW, the DC I-Corps office Nanophotonics is housed within the Office of researcher Volker Entrepreneurship. Sorger is among 20 The first of DC I-Corps’ intensive GW faculty members

NS boot camps was held in March I who have completed 2014, hosting teams with projects both the national as diverse as an autonomous sailing

AM ATK AM and regional I-Corps I catamaran and a smartphone LL programs. I

W system that holds a patient’s full

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 45 RESEARCH NEWS

access to embassies, international “Then someone suggested development agencies and other we talk to the shellfish industry. global entities is giving it a broad Shellfish grow in coastal waters reach. and when there is a storm, coastal Mr. Chung says I-Corps is waters can become contaminated,” changing the way researchers he says. think—and that carries a multiplier Dr. Sorger says that experience effect, because that shifting culture taught him not to be wedded to an reaches students. idea. It also showed him that only “We’ve had 20 professors go through networking—since he through both the national and knew nothing about the shellfish regional programs—and even industry—could he understand more graduate students and the scope of the market. He says post-docs. That means we now graduate students pick up the have 20 professors who really additional skills of public speaking understand the connection between and outreach, things they won’t their research and the market,” learn in the lab. he explains. “We don’t want to Serial entrepreneur Michael lose them as researchers at GW, Keidar, the director of the but we want to give them the GW Institute for Nanotechnology understanding and methodology so and the Micropropulsion and they can apply it to their mentorship Nanotechnology Laboratory, is a of students.” repeat visitor to I-Corps. He has Dr. Sorger, the engineer, is one of been through the national program those 20 professors. He says I-Corps and the D.C. boot camp with a In May, Jim Chung was named approaches entrepreneurship in a project involving the use of plasma to Washingtonian magazine’s dramatically new way. to manufacture graphene and a biannual list of “Tech Titans.” “It used to be that you have an space propulsion initiative that Even by the standards of a rapidly evolving realm like technology, the idea, you do a prototype, you alpha NASA is currently testing. magazine noted, in the past two test and you beta test, you give it to The graphene project, which is years “the local scene has exploded, people and you tweak it a bit,” he patent pending, has been licensed bringing deep reservoirs of talent says. “But we learned that didn’t to a small company. The space to the region in an effort work, and making a prototype is an technology has been issued a patent, boosters hope will expensive way to fail.” and Dr. Keidar is in talks with create a Silicon In I-Corps, a team takes an idea customers and investors. Valley on the at its early stage, asks the market “We learned a lot of things in Potomac.” what it wants and then decides terms of how to structure business if it can fulfill the need. Each DC and evaluate this particular idea,” I-Corps team consists of three he says, adding that he followed up members: an academic researcher, a on the projects by entering the student entrepreneur and a mentor GW Business Plan Competition. “To or business expert. a large extent, it involved thinking Dr. Sorger cites a water in a different way, to evaluate ideas quality technology he from the beginning to see if there thought would be perfect is potential in the market or if it is for theme parks and purely research.” cruise ships. “It turned Mr. Chung says his office out they already had has four missions: to foster things in place, plus they innovation, to advance education, had regulations covering to help students and faculty launch

it,” he says. “So then we business initiatives and to make NS I thought maybe it would connections among investors, work for public drinking researchers and entrepreneurs. AM ATK AM water, but we found there “I-Corps ﬁts under all those I LL I

wasn’t a big need. rubrics,” he says. W

46 /// GW RESEARCH /// SPRING 2015 Elizabeth Phillips and Romil Patel present their concept, BleedFreeze, during the GW Business Plan Competition.

Sikka, both in the Department of Emergency Medicine. A NATURAL CONNECTION “Our team is physicians and engineers so we’re weak on the business side,” Dr. Phillips says. “The DC I-Corps As she creates a limited liability company for her process allowed us to do over 30 customer interviews to innovation—a device to stop nosebleeds—Elizabeth help us pivot on our design. We also made a lot of good Phillips, an emergency room resident at GW Hospital, contacts.” is tapping as many university resources as she can. So With the national I-Corps program, not only would far that has meant Pitch George, the GW Business Plan the team deepen the advances made in the D.C. boot Competition, where her team won honorable mention camp but it would open the door to NSF funding. this spring, and DC I-Corps. BleedFreeze has a provisional patent, and the team is “My team was in the accelerated two-week I-Corps working on a prototype of the device. boot camp and in the business plan competition at the BleedFreeze is one of two GW Business Plan same time. Plus I was working,” says Dr. Phillips. “I was honorable mention winners in 2015 that arrived not sleeping in February.” with I-Corps credentials. The other is GutFeeling, a Dr. Phillips says the team is now eying another tool in subscription-based service for monitoring digestive the entrepreneurial kit: the national I-Corps program. health. Krista Smith, MS ’13, a member of the Lex McCusker, director of the GW Business Plan GutFeeling team, says the service holds particular value Competition, says there is a natural interplay between for people with allergies, chronic stomach problems, I-Corps and the business plan contest. autoimmune ailments or those trying to lose weight. “We have adopted many of the essential components And this spring, the GutFeeling team won a spot in of I-Corps and use them in scoring, coaching and the national I-Corps summer session. mentoring for the student teams,” he explains. “One of Since the launch of the GW Business Plan the things we’re also seeing is that the teams that do Competition in 2009, when 10 teams competed for the best are the teams that come from complementary $30,000 in prizes, it has evolved into one of the disciplines, teams that, for example, combine the country’s 10 largest contests. This April, 105 teams vied School of Engineering, the Elliott School and the School for more than $117,000 in cash prizes and $92,000 in in- of Business. kind prizes, such as ofﬁce space and business services. “That is a byproduct of I-Corps,” says Dr. McCusker. Benjamin Holmes, a GW doctoral student in “I-Corps forces the creation of cross-disciplinary mechanical engineering, also formed a business teams.” team, along with engineering professor Grace Zhang Dr. Phillips came up with the idea for BleedFreeze and mentor Matthew Scherer, BBA ’76, that went after treating small children and senior citizens who through the seven-week DC I-Corps boot camp with a turned up in the emergency room with nosebleeds. biomedical project involving 3-D technology for joint Because these two groups had trouble keeping pressure repair. applied to stop the bleeding, the ER staff would jury-rig Mr. Scherer, a partner at Connecticut-based devices using tongue depressors and tape. Rockland Advisory Group who serves as a mentor for After inventing a clip that combines cooling and I-Corps and business plan teams, says I-Corps changes NS I compression, Dr. Phillips formed a business team with the entrepreneurial culture. It asks that researchers look Romil Patel, a senior in the Department of Biomedical beyond whether something can be done and determine AM ATK AM I Engineering, and School of Medicine and Health “if it’s also something that people might need and LL I Sciences faculty members Hamid Shokoohi and Neal whether investors will put funds into the project.” W

RESEARCHMAGAZINE.GWU.EDU /// 47 COMMON GROUND

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