SBMS Trainee: Yahfi Talukdar
GraduateAdvisor: Balaji Sitharaman
Graduate Program:
Biomedical Engineering Email: md.talukdar@stonybrook.edu
My career goal is to become an independent academic researcher and contribute in the development of translational biomedical technologies that would improve treatment and diagnosis. I plan on continuing my research in the development of nanoparticles for various biomedical applications throughout and after my graduate career. I joined the PhD program in Biomedical Engineering to take technologies from bench top to bedside and I am currently working on developing photoacoustic (PA) stimulation therapy for bone fracture healing and tissue engineering.
PA effect occurs when absorption of high-energy electromagnetic pulse causes thermal expansion followed by compression of a surface causing propagation of acoustic waves from the site of stimulation. We have previously shown for the first time that PA enhances osteodifferentiation of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC). This phenomenon was further enhanced by the presence of nanoparticles, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT), in the scaffolds used for growing MSCs. Based on these findings we are developing and testing a technology that could potentially be used to treat fractures and bone loss. Existing pharmacological and non-pharmacological technologies to treat bone loss have significant limitations, such as potentially severe side effects, systemic intervention, high cost and reliance on external (weight-bearing) or internal (muscle) forces. Our non-pharmacological strategy, based on bone's sensitivity to mechanical/acoustic signals, could represent the basis for developing safer, low-cost interventions for bone regeneration in segmental defects.
