Erin Lavik

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Erin B. Lavik
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Scientific career
InstitutionsYale University
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Erin Baker Lavik (born 1973) is a professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Lavik develops polymers and nanoparticles that can protect the nervous system. She is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Biography[edit]

Early life and education[edit]

Lavik's father was a lawyer and her mother was an accountant.[1] She was given a catapult as a teenager and broke her parents' windshield.[1] She attended National Cathedral School, and had to take advanced placement physics courses at the nearby boys' school St. Albans School.[1] Lavik was unsure whether to become a veterinarian or high school teacher, but her mother sat next to Martha Gray on an aeroplane and realised that she had a career Lavik would enjoy.[1] She completed her bachelor's degree in materials science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1995.[2] She minored in theatre and is still a playwright.[3][4] Her master's PhD looked at the electrical properties of cerium(IV) oxide.[5] She stayed at MIT for her graduate studies, completing her master's degree and PhD in 2001.[2]

Lavik created polymer scaffolds were seeded with neural stem cells, and implanted them in to paralysed rats.[6][7] These spinal implants were developed whilst Lavik was a graduate student at MIT, mimicking the anatomy of the spine by binding a porous piece of polymer fabric and a plastic cylinder and including narrow channels for axons.[1] Lavik conducted the experiment on 50 female paraplegic rats, and 7 out of 10 rats fitted with Lavik's scaffold-stem cell design could walk again.[8] She was awarded the John Wuff Award for Excellence in Teaching.[9] In 2003, two years after graduating her PhD, she was nominated to the TR100 list.[6] Lavik was an assistant professor at Yale University, where she developed polymer scaffolds that imitate the spinal cord.[10] She was nominated for a 2004 WIRED RAVE Award.[1] In 2004 Lavik wrote the play Galileo Walking among the Stars, a play where Galileo, Kepler and Gene Kelly build a spaceship.[11][12] She was selected as one of the Connecticut Technology Council's top women in innovation in 2008.[13]

Career[edit]

Lavik was made an assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University where she worked on nanotechnology and biodegradable polymers.[14] Today she is a member of the College of Engineering and Information Technology at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.[15] She is interested in translatable approaches to treat injuries and disease.[2] She works on tissue engineering and diseases of the central nervous system, including glaucoma and retinal degeneration.[2][16]

Lavik has explored ways that nanoparticles can help reduce internal bleeding.[17][18] The nanoparticles attach to activated platelets, forming clots and stopping bleeding.[17] The nanoparticles are delivered intravenously and include a molecule that binds to a glycoprotein.[19] They are based on poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid), polyethylene glycol and Arginine-Glycine-Aspartic acid.[20] Lavik developed the nanoparticles using pig's blood, identifying which had the appropriate immune response.[19][21] The nanoparticles could half the bleeding time in femoral artery models. Lavik and her team hoped that medics and emergency responders would carry the nanoparticles to treat traumatic injuries.[22] In 2010 she was awarded the National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator Award for the discovery.[23] The NIH grant allows Lavik to explore the nanoparticles traumatic injuries of the central nervous system.[24] The work underwent clinical tests at Case Western Reserve University.[25] She found that the length of the polyethylene glycol arms and choice of peptide impacts the efficacy and clearance of the nanoparticles.[20] She has also looked at spinal cord injury, exploring the optimal time to deliver nanoparticles after traumatic injury.[24] Alongside her work on nanoparticles, Lavik engineers solutions for retinal degeneration, including screen printing human eye tissues.[26][27] Her technique, which layers adult stem cells, was selected by the National Eye Institute's 3-D Retina Organoid Challenge.[26][28][29][30] She contributed to the 2013 Elsevier book Retina, talking about drug delivery.[31]

Lavik is a member of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Women in Science and Engineering group.[32] She is an advocate for improving diversity in the sciences.[33] She was made a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2014.[25] In 2016 she delivered a TEDxBroadway talk on theatre and engineering.[34] She discussed the importance of collaboration in scientific research and teamwork in theatre.[34]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Yale Alumni Magazine: biomedical engineer Erin Lavik (Jan/Feb 2005)". archives.yalealumnimagazine.com. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  2. ^ a b c d "Erin B. Lavik - Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering - UMBC". cbee.umbc.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  3. ^ "Yale Alumni Magazine: biomedical engineer Erin Lavik (Jan/Feb 2005)". archives.yalealumnimagazine.com. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  4. ^ "Student playwright talks about her work, readies for world premiere". MIT News. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  5. ^ Lavik, Erin Baker (1997). The electrical properties of pure and doped nanocyrstalline cerium oxide (Thesis thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. hdl:1721.1/46096.
  6. ^ a b "Innovator Under 35: Erin Lavik, 30". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  7. ^ "MIT engineers report new approach to tissue engineering". MIT News. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  8. ^ Snyder, Evan Y.; Langer, Robert; Zurakowski, David; Ourednik, Jitka; Park, Kook I.; Qu, Xianlu; Lavik, Erin B.; Teng, Yang D. (2002-03-05). "Functional recovery following traumatic spinal cord injury mediated by a unique polymer scaffold seeded with neural stem cells". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 99 (5): 3024–3029. Bibcode:2002PNAS...99.3024T. doi:10.1073/pnas.052678899. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 122466. PMID 11867737.
  9. ^ "11 in materials science honored". MIT News. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  10. ^ Snyder, Evan Y.; Langer, Robert; Zurakowski, David; Ourednik, Jitka; Park, Kook I.; Qu, Xianlu; Lavik, Erin B.; Teng, Yang D. (2002-03-05). "Functional recovery following traumatic spinal cord injury mediated by a unique polymer scaffold seeded with neural stem cells". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 99 (5): 3024–3029. Bibcode:2002PNAS...99.3024T. doi:10.1073/pnas.052678899. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 122466. PMID 11867737.
  11. ^ Shepherd-Barr, Kirsten (2012-08-19). Science on Stage: From Doctor Faustus to Copenhagen. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691155449.
  12. ^ "GALILEO WALKING AMONG THE STARS" (PDF). Lavik Lab. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  13. ^ "Yale scientist honored for academic innovation and leadership". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  14. ^ "Saving Lives With Biomedical Engineering | ScienceBlogs". scienceblogs.com. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  15. ^ "Erin Lavik - COEIT Directory - COEIT Dean's Office - UMBC". coeit.umbc.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  16. ^ Lavik, E.; Langer, R. (2004-07-01). "Tissue engineering: current state and perspectives". Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology. 65 (1): 1–8. doi:10.1007/s00253-004-1580-z. hdl:11603/21195. ISSN 1432-0614. PMID 15221227. S2CID 28484381.
  17. ^ a b "Erin Lavik: Nanoparticles will promote blood clotting - Research at UMBC - UMBC". research.umbc.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  18. ^ American Chemical Society, Nanoparticles that speed blood clotting may someday save lives, retrieved 2019-01-24
  19. ^ a b "Nanoparticles that speed blood clotting may someday save lives". American Chemical Society. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  20. ^ a b "Abstract: Engineering Hemostatic Nanoparticles to Stop Internal Bleeding (2016 Annual Meeting)". aiche.confex.com. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  21. ^ "Nanoparticles Help Platelets Stick Together to Stop Bleeding |". Medgadget. 2016-08-24. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  22. ^ "Buzz Blog: In Combat and Car Accidents, Nanoparticles Could Fight Internal Bleeding". www.physicscentral.com. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  23. ^ STM. "Erin Lavik". STM Test Site. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  24. ^ a b Lavik, Erin. "Clinically Translatable Nanotechnology: Hemostasis and Neuroprotection". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  25. ^ a b "Erin Lavik, Ph.D. COF-1734 - AIMBE". Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  26. ^ a b Hanks, Megan (2017-10-25). "UMBC's Erin Lavik receives National Eye Institute funding to create "living model of the human retina"". UMBC NEWS. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  27. ^ Sides Media, www sidesmedia com. "Retina Today - Retina News". Retina Today. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  28. ^ "Erin Lavik Team Awarded $90k "Ideation" Prize - Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering - UMBC". cbee.umbc.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  29. ^ "National Eye Institute awards prize for 'Retina in a dish' competition". National Institutes of Health (NIH). 2017-09-28. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  30. ^ Goldberg, Jeffrey L.; Andreopoulos, Fotios M.; Muller, Kenneth J.; Lavik, Erin B.; Uddin, Mohammed S.; Valenzuela, Daniel A.; Zindell, Allison N.; Hertz, Jonathan; Venugopalan, Praseeda (2013-06-01). "Tissue engineering the retinal ganglion cell nerve fiber layer". Biomaterials. 34 (17): 4242–4250. doi:10.1016/j.biomaterials.2013.02.027. ISSN 0142-9612. PMC 3608715. PMID 23489919.
  31. ^ Lavik, Erin B.; Kuppermann, Baruch D.; Humayun, Mark S. (2013-01-01), Ryan, Stephen J.; Sadda, SriniVas R.; Hinton, David R.; Schachat, Andrew P. (eds.), "Chapter 38 - Drug Delivery", Retina (Fifth Edition), W.B. Saunders, pp. 734–745, doi:10.1016/B978-1-4557-0737-9.00038-2, ISBN 9781455707379
  32. ^ "WISE Women - ADVANCE - UMBC". advance.umbc.edu. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  33. ^ "Women in Bioconjugate Chemistry: Celebrating Women Scientists". ACS Axial. 2018-09-20. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
  34. ^ a b Hanks, Megan (2016-05-25). "Erin Lavik's dynamic TEDxBroadway talk connects theatre and engineering". UMBC NEWS. Retrieved 2019-01-24.
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