Ed and Eimear took part in a STEM camp sponsored by UW ISCRM down at WF West High School in Chehalis the week of August 4th. Over 90 HS students heard from the Kelly/Yeung labs about "New Approach Methodologies for Medical Research". About two dozen ISCRM members took part in this annual event including Kelly Lab alumni in the group photo: Dr. Chris Arian (ISCRM post-doc in Young lab) and Mickey Ruiz (Pharmacology graduate student in Chavkin lab).
Brad and Maria presented short presentations on their funded projects!
A big congratulation to Maria for her new fellowship and funding with ISCRM!
Brad's presentation: "Investigating spermatogonial dynamics in vitro"
Maria's presentation: "The effects of cadmium on the pathophysiology of Fatty Liver Disease: an in vitro organoid approach"
Her poster was titled "iPSC-derived primordial germ cell-like cells: A tool for the future of reproductive research"
His talk was titled "Mechanistic Toxicology of Ochratoxin-A in the Proximal Tubule"
Her poster is titled: Effect of Cadmium Exposure and Akkermansia muciniphila Supplementation on the Expression of Drug-Processing Genes in Mouse Liver
Our lab is passionate about sparking curiosity and excitement in high school students by opening our doors and minds to them. Through interactive lab tours and engaging discussions about our ongoing research projects, we aim to make science and discovery feel real, tangible, and within reach. By showcasing the practical applications of classroom concepts and offering a glimpse into the collaborative nature of research, we hope to inspire students to explore STEM pathways and see themselves as future scientist.
We have had the honor of hosting four lab tours in the past year!
Both our lab's PIs efforts are mentioned in this UW article.
"The team includes biologists studying humans, animals and plants, who will work together with microbiologists and other experts to ensure an integrated view of the space flight biosphere by enhancing data acquisition, modeling and testing. BioS-ENDURES has three focus areas related to the effects of spaceflight stressors:
Develop monitoring to measure underlying molecular status, or biomarkers, in humans, animals, plants and their associated microbial communities
Create models that predict human-plant-microbe robustness and interactions among organisms in space
Validate and apply understanding of human and plant health, including promoting beneficial human-plant-microbe interactions, to enhance health in space"
In related news: Senator Murray Establishes & Funds Scientific Consortium in Washington State, Expanding NASA Footprint in PNW.
“The University of Washington is excited to have this opportunity to contribute to the development of new capabilities that will enable a sustainable human presence in space,” said Mari Ostendorf, Vice Provost of Research, University of Washington. “This consortium enables new partnerships and brings together investigators who have a long history with NASA and space applications with researchers who have deep expertise in human/animal, plant, and microbial biology. This research will push the boundaries of our scientific understanding to reveal new biological mechanisms that will address both sustainability and risk mitigation needs in space. We look forward working with WSU, PNNL, and NASA, as well as with other industry and science partners to accelerate space technology.”
Albumin binding proteins for improved administration of cephalosporin class antibiotics. Antibiotics can trigger a variety of adverse drug responses. Many of these can be dose dependent. Our team looked at the case of several cephalosporin class antibiotics which normally are quickly removed from the bloodstream and thus require administration multiple times each day. We designed proteins to carry the antibiotics via linkers and to bind to human serum albumin(HSA) in order to extend the lifetime of drugs. When bound to albumin the antibiotics will not be filtered from the bloodstream. Our team then modeled the necessary binding parameters of protein to albumin needed in order to create a feasible solution that would both reduce the overall amount of antibiotic used as well as the excess concentration in the blood.
See their project here! https://2024.igem.wiki/washington/
See their award here! https://jamboree.igem.org/2024/results/medals
Maria recently gave a presentation at PANWAT about a pilot project on analyzing liver drug-processing-gene expression in mice who were treated with cadmium, supplemented with the probiotic Akkermansia muciniphila, or both at the same time. A. muciniphila is an emerging probiotic which has been previously found to prevent cadmium-induced memory deficits in mice when co-administered with cadmium. Due to the interest in the neuroprotective properties of A. muciniphila, it is important to study its impact on the liver and drug-processing genes to assess the potential for drug-drug interactions. In this pilot study, cadmium was found to up-regulate a number of drug-processing genes, and some of them appeared to partially normalize with A. muciniphila co-treatment, the mechanism of which requires further investigation.
On Sept 29th, 2024 Chris presented his six years of hard work during his dissertation defense, "Development and Characterization of a Human Intestinal Organoid Monolayer Model to Predict Oral Drug Disposition". After a hour and a half presentation to the public and a hour of private questioning by his committee members, he has officially been awarded his PhD!
Our lab is so proud of all his hard work and dedication!
Chives is very proud of his dad too! 🐈
In this “Behind the Papers” post, written by Dr. Edward Kelly, he describes the challenges faced to modify the kidney MPS perfusion system from a terrestrial lab to the ISS-NL for our two successful launches in 2019 (CRS-17) and 2022 (CRS-22) as well as the experimental results from CRS-17.
Published in Social Sciences and General & Internal Medicine: LINK
Dr. Ed Kelly and Brad Hansen attended the ISCRM Fellows Symposium together. Where Brad presented a brief intro to their research project. It’s a yearlong fellowship where Brad will focus on stem cell derived testis models.
Brad Hansen attended the BDRP conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was awarded the Carney Trainee Award and the Bradford Award for the best poster!
Microphysiological Systems (MPS) World Summit. Seattle, WA. 2024
Kelly lab members presented their work at the Annual MPS World Summit, held at the Seattle Convention Center.
Yousif successfully defended his Master's Thesis, which evaluated long term kidney microphysiological system function and response to toxicants.
Pictured:
1) Keemia and Mei present their work
2) Mahi with her graduate mentor, Brad
3) Angela with Dr. Ed Kelly
4) Angela with her graduate mentor, Anish
Courtesy of Ed Kelly / UW School of Pharmacy
A look inside an organoid-based kidney tubule following its exposure to the toxic heavy metal cadmium, demonstrating expression of two proteins associated with kidney injury (HO-1 and KIM-1, green and red respectively).
Kidney disease researchers at the University of Washington will use a multimillion-dollar federal grant to advance drug-development platforms that would reduce reliance on animal tests in the production of future medications.
“The FDA Modernization Act 2.0 permits the use of alternative approaches to animal testing for predicting drug safety prior to initiation of trials in humans,” said Kelly. “As a toxicologist, being able to use alternative technologies to animal testing is an important advancement, with respect to the 3Rs of toxicology: reduce, refine and replace animal testing.”
Alternatives named in the Modernization Act include microphysiological systems such as organoids and organs-on-chips, he added. “Our group has developed kidney models for both alternatives and with this funding we propose to qualify the models to meet FDA regulatory requirements.”
Read more about this exciting new development HERE!
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently awarded kidney disease researchers at UW $7.3 million in the form of a federal grant.
Drugs that go into clinical trials have a failure rate of 90%. Dr. Edward Kelly, associate professor at the UW School of Pharmacy, attributed a significant part of that failure rate to unanticipated toxicity in drugs. Currently, the prediction of drug safety before clinical trials is based on animal testing, however Kelly said that rodents do not make good predictors for humans. For over a decade, the NIH has been funding a chips initiative at UW through the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) to create kidney physiological micro-systems that better indicate drug induced injury to the kidney.
Read the rest of the news article HERE!
This NIH grant has been awarded to Pharmaceutics faculty members, Drs. Kelly, Unadkat, Wang, and Arnold, in order to start the Transporter Elucidation Center (UWTEC). The research goals of UWTEC are to identify, quantify and characterize solute carrier (SLC) and ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters in the human placenta and developing gut. This work will lead to better understanding of drug uptake and exposure to the developing fetus and infants.
Dr. Kelly featured in a documentary discussing alternatives to animal testing.
Watch the documentary HERE.
Graduate students Chris, Brad and Anish each gave presentations at the MPS World Summit in Berlin, Germany this summer (June 2023)
Institute for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine (ISCRM) Symposium, May 2023
May 2023
Our undergraduate members, Ethan and Roshni presented their research involving assessing Cyclosporine A and Voclosporin nephrotoxicity using kidney MPS