Clemson University opens Patewood bioengineering lab at GHS
December 11, 2011
GREENVILLE, SC – December 11, 2011 – From their fourth-floorstate-of-the-art laboratory in the heart of Greenville Hospital SystemUniversity Medical Center’s Patewood campus, Clemson Universitybioengineering scientists and students help keep the feet of jointreplacement patients on the ground.
The new facility, which opens this week, houses one of the country’slargest stores of post-use total joint replacements: hip, knee and otherartificial joints that were removed from patients, in some cases after15 years or more of use.
John DesJardins, director of the Frank H. Stelling and C. Dayton Riddle Orthopaedic Education and Research Laboratory at the Clemson University Biomedical Engineering Innovation Campus, orCUBEInC, at Patewood, leads a program that analyzes these implantretrievals with the end game of improving the quality of life ofpatients.
Photo: Clemson University Ph.D. candidate Estefania Alvarez, left, and John DesJardins, director of the Frank H. Stelling and C. Dayton Riddle Orthopaedic Education and Research Laboratory at the Clemson University Biomedical Engineering Innovation Campus, examine joint replacements. image by: Craig Mahaffey
DesJardins and his team study and catalogue how joint replacementshave performed over the years, such as how different materials wear outduring natural movements of the body.
Clemson’s research is used by manufacturers to improve theirproducts, which hopefully will lead to fewer repeat total-jointreplacement procedures. Such advances help reduce medical costs andspare patients a return to what often is painful and invasive surgery.
“Essentially, we’re trying to improve the entire procedure,”DesJardins said. “We’re trying to make these joints last longer andlonger, because they’re like highly engineered car tires — theyeventually will wear out.”
Clemson’s new 30,000-square-foot research facility at Patewood houses10 laboratories, plus offices and conference areas. More than 100faculty, staff and students will use the laboratories as Clemson addsanother dimension to its bioengineering degree programs.
For example, DesJardins supervises 65 bioengineering students who arevisiting the hospital campus as part of their senior year designprojects. The students are working with clinicians to design new medicaltechnology, tools and devices to improve the health care of patients.
During two semesters, the students will identify needs and designpotential solutions. Their innovations may lead to patents or smallbusiness startups, DesJardins said.
Clemson University President James F. Barker said the university has arich history in biomaterials and bioengineering. The Patewood facilityand Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center partnership will be home to some groundbreaking medical technology.
“Our researchers truly are at the leading edge of science,” Barkersaid. “When Clemson students are exposed to innovation on this scale,the value that’s added to their education is significant.”
Also in the facility, bioengineering professor David Kwartowitz runsfour fully equipped ultrasound rooms where he works with students tostudy, among other conditions, why people suffer rotator cuff tears.
In collaboration with the Steadman Hawkins Clinic of the Carolinas and Proaxis Therapy,Kwartowitz is working with eight Clemson undergraduate and graduatestudents to gather data on how and why patients experience thecondition.
And in a nearby lab, Ph.D. candidates Lee Sierad and Jeremy Mercuriare deep in the heart of the campus in an entirely different sense ofthe word.
Sierad, who specializes in cardiovascular tissue engineering, isresearching ways to repair damaged or diseased human tissue using thebody’s own adult stem cells. He works with aortic roots, which containthe aortic valve — retrieved from pigs and other animals — to literallygrow human cells on the root.
The intent is that the root can be transplanted in a patient with aheart valve defect and stand a better chance of not being rejected bythe body. The root will contain the patient’s own adult stem cells,which the body may not consider “foreign.”
Mercuri, who will receive his doctorate from Clemson this month,specializes in orthopedic regenerative medicine. He works side-by-sidewith surgeons at the Steadman Hawkins clinic, located two floors downfrom the Patewood research labs. His primary focus is to improve patientcare through engineering cartilage and tendon tissue using adult stemcells in combination with biomaterials that mimic native tissuearchitecture.
The Patewood facility represents another strong Clemson partnership, said Martine LaBerge, chairwoman of the bioengineering department at Clemson.
“Greenville Hospital System is a wonderful partner for Clemson,”LaBerge said. “Where Clemson has a comprehensive understanding ofbiomaterials, the hospital system is the go-to organization in UpstateSouth Carolina for medicine and surgery.
“When these areas of expertise are combined, there exists a realopportunity to make a difference in the quality of life of the people ofour state,” she said. “The Patewood facility is an important economicdevelopment driver for South Carolina.”
