Gabriel Vidal (CSE ’16) presented the results of his team’s senior biomedical engineering design
project at the Global Conference on Myositis (GCOM) from May 5-8, 2017. The
annual conference focuses on updating cutting-edge research in all areas of
myositis, a type of muscle weakness. Gabriel and his team’s research focused on the early detection of soft
tissue calcinosis, a debilitating type of soft-tissue calcification that 40% of
patients with juvenile dermatomyositis experience. It is crucial to identify
the onset of calcinosis early as it becomes increasingly hard to resolve as it
progresses in size, density and numbers throughout the soft tissues.
The year-long biomedical engineering project by Gabe and his
teammates, which they completed with support from MIN-Corps, attempted to
design a practical solution to this problem. At the end of the year, Gabe and
his team presented a prototype of the device which was designed to detect the
onset of calcification by measuring the electrical impedance of tissue. The
device operates by placing clinical grade electrodes on the skin, and then, by applying
a small current into the skin and measuring the resulting voltage value to
analyze the impedance of the skin. Tests with synthetic tissue indicated that
the device could distinguish between physiologically relevant concentration
changes of calcium phosphate based on the way the impedance changes with the
frequency of the applied current.
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| Gabe, presenting his poster at the conference. |
Gabriel describes the conference in his own words:
The conference began with a Juvenile Myositis Pre-Conference
Workshop sponsored by the Cure JM Foundation, where important new developments
in the areas of research concerning juvenile myositis were shared. The room was
set up like a lecture hall, with desks stretching one hundred feet in every
direction, and two large screens surrounding a podium where leading experts
presented their visions for the future of myositis research. This continued
during the main session and these experts taught and informed one another,
cultivating new ideas and creating new connections. By the time of my
presentation on Saturday morning I had learned much about a disease which I had
little deep understanding of before, and became versed in the landscape of the
current research. With this new found knowledge base, I presented my device and
connected to the myositis community, offering comfort to families affected by
the disease and forming new relationships for researchers who would benefit
from our device.
Possibly having been the only engineer presenting at this
conference, senior members of the community expressed to me their excitement
for this mixing of scientific professions that I was able to represent.
Afterward, during the breakout session I attended, scientists gathering on an
international scale in collaboration to discuss important goals, a discussion
in which I was able to voice my unique perspective as a biomedical engineer.
The team responsible for this project were Gabriel Vidal,
Alexander Nelson, Nathaniel Carlson, Jacob Heffernan, Clara Lee, with industry
primary investigator Mauris N DeSilva, PhD and clinical primary investigator
Olcay Y Jones, MD PhD. As Dr. DeSilva describes, it is essential to bring innovative
technologies for improving disease outcomes.
JDM is a rare disease and like many other orphan diseases, the funding
and resources on these patients are challenging. The current work presented by Gabe is significant
as it exemplifies that cross-disciplinary communications are essential to
nurture new, fresh ideas for patient centered care. We are thankful and very
proud of the accomplishments by the students and appreciate the generous
support from MIN-Corps.
The team is looking forward to continue the work to take their technology to the next level and all the way to clinical application.
The team is looking forward to continue the work to take their technology to the next level and all the way to clinical application.
