J Assouline

Formerly Associate Professor (Adj) Biomedical Engineering

Pres. and CSO NanoMedTRix, LLC

Contact:

BioVentures Center E119

2500 Crosspark Road,

Coralville, IA 52241

Tel: 319 3354676

BioMedical Engineering

CCAD Suite 227

University of Iowa

Lab Web: https://sites.google.com/view/jassoulinelab

Web: NanoMedTrix.com

Education

BTS Institut Tech. de Chimie et Biologie, Marseille (France) (Biomed. Technol.)

Ph.D. University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA. Anatomy and Cell Biol.(NeuroScience)

Postdoc National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD. NINDS, Neurovirology

Affiliations:

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute at The University of Iowa

Iowa Neuroscience Institute

Research Summary

The lab has expertise in neuro-cellular and molecular biology as well as protein neuro-biochemistry. The Initial thrust was based on the analysis of ligand-receptor specificity of Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) binding. This lead to a search for the discovery of innovative ways to select and use molecular makers (immunological and viral methods). It has been a life-long quest to use non-toxic markers as a mode quantification and validation of the impact of neurological diseases. In the past decade, the focus has narrowed to selected silica-based nanoparticles as ideal molecules for the dual purpose of diagnostic and therapeutic. The culmination of that work involves the development medical software and computational imaging in in vivo projects. The newly designed nanoparticles have been used in multiple projects from cancer to brain development studies and work on the impact of neuro-toxicants. Recently we expended the development and use of nanoparticles. In 2012, NanoMedTrix was founded, a spin off tech company. The idea was to capitalize on advances in the diagnostic methods uniquely non-invasive, real-time capable and make the products available to the research community through our commercial enterprise. This approach has all the promises of innovative therapies. Currently we are collaborating with colleagues at the medical schools and throughout the campus and beyond (both scientific and clinical), who play an integral part on the search for novel applications.

Publications

Google Scholar

Nanoparticles for diagnostic and therapeutic

Establish biocompatibility of different forms of in vitro/in vivo use of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN), then applied the particles for use in various disease models, including: Neurotoxicity, demyelination and Parkinson’s as well as bladder cancer, placental health/toxicity, and cardiovascular disease.

a. Sweeney, S.K., Luo, Y., O’Donnell, M.A., and Assouline, J.G., “Nanotechnology and cancer: improving real-time monitoring and staging of bladder cancer with multimodal mesoporous silica nanoparticles,” Cancer Nanotechnology 2016; 7:3.

b. Sweeney, S.K., Luo, Y., O’Donnell, M.A., and Assouline, J.G., “Peptide-mediated targeting mesoporous silica nanoparticles: a novel tool for fighting bladder cancer,” Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology 13:232-42, 2017.

c. Sweeney, S.K., Adamcakova-Dodd, A., Thorne, P.S., and Assouline, J.G., “Biocompatibility studies of multi-imaging engineered mesoporous silica nanoparticles: adult and fetal in vitro and in vivo studies,” Journal of Biomedical Nanotechnology (In press, 2017).

Neuro-informatics and computational/imaging informatics project which used body markers to evaluate neural deficit and traumatic brain injury

a. Kim, H.J., Wang, Q., Rahmatalla, S., Arora, J.S., Swan, C.C., Abdel-Malek, K. and Assouline, J., “Dynamic motion prediction of 3D human locomotion using gradient-based optimization,” [www.engineering.uiowa.edu/~swan/in_review/locomotion.pdf], 2007 (In Press, Journal of BioMechanical Engineering ).

b. Hyung Joo Kim, Qian Wang, Salam Rahmatalla, Colby C. Swan, Jasbir S. Arora, Karim Abdel- Malek and Jose G. Assouline . Dynamic motion planning of 3D human locomotion using gradient-based optimization Journal of Biomechanical Engineering (2009) http://www.engineering.uiowa.edu/~swan/inreview/locomotion_final.pdf

Deafness and auditory deficits and neurodegenerative disorder . In these studies neural cells were selectively eliminated to evaluate the potential regenerative potentials of the surviving cells.

a. Zhou R. , Assouline, J. G., Abbas P. J, and B.J. Gantz. Anatomical and physiological measures of the auditory system in mice with peripheral myelin deficiency. Hearing Research 88 (1995), 87-97.

b. Zhou R., Abbas P. J, and J. G. Assouline. Electrically evoked auditory brainstem response (EABR) in peripherally demyelinated mice. Hearing Research 88 (1995) 98-106.

Neuronal degeneration and process by which neurotropic virus gain access into neurons. I studied a number of viral pathogens including Herpes, Adenovirus, lentivirus (a subgroup of retrovirus). The research contributed to a better understanding of the molecular affinity of virus to certain neurons. The other aspect of this research is prevention and cure of neuronal diseases.

a. Assouline, J. G., Levin, M. J., Major E. O., Forghani B., Straus S. E. and J. M. Ostrove. Varicella-Zoster virus infection of human fetal astrocytes, Schwann cells, and neurons. Virology 179 (1990), 834-844.

b. Assouline J. G. and E. O. Major. Human fetal Schwann cells support JC virus multiplication. J. Virology 65 (1991) 1002-1006

c. Somekh, E, Tedder, D. G., Vaffai, A., Assouline, J. G., Straus, S. E. and M.J. Levin. Latency In Vitro of Varicella-Zoster virus in cells derived from human fetal dorsal root ganglia. Pediatric Res. 32 (1992), 699-703.

d. Mock DJ. Powers JM. Goodman AD. Blumenthal SR. Ergin N. Baker JV. Mattson DH. Assouline JG. Bergey EJ. Chen B. Epstein LG. Blumberg BM. Association of human herpesvirus 6 with the demyelinative lesions of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy J. Neurovirology. 5(4):363-73, 1999.