Octopus Mandala Glow set to light up famous Pacific Wheel

Victoria Vesna’s artwork will premiere at Santa Monica’s Glow Festival on September 28th 

Victoria Vesna, a professor in UCLA’s department of Design|Media Arts and director of the Art|Sci center at the California NanoSystems Institute, is a world-renowned artist who frequently collaborates with nanoscientists to unite the worlds of art and science. Her latest project, Octopus Mandala Glow (OMG), is part of a worldwide movement to encourage people to occupy their Ferris wheels, with a vision of creating a global chorus and spreading joy. For more info about OMG, please check out the project’s website: http://octopusmandala.com.

Join the OMG movement now by donating the symbolic minimum of $8! Then pass it on to 8 friends. Your help will not only make this global project possible, but will also have you directly participating in the creation of the Octopus Mandala. We want to collect “Om’s” from the peaks of wheels all over the world—people of all religions, languages, and with different “views.” To donate, go to: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/octopus-mandala-glow-omg.

Nanoscientists work with orthopaedic surgeons to advance studies of knee injuries

This was an invitation we couldn't pass up.

Dr. Keith Markolf and Dr. Dan Boguszewski from the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at UCLA invited us to their laboratory to learn about their studies of knee injury mechanisms. An enormous robot--typically used for spot welding in car manufacturing plants--had been repurposed to grasp the bones connected to a cadaver knee and apply pressures on them, mimicking what would happen during a fall on the basketball court or during a gymnastics performance.

The bright orange robot applied 200 Newtons of force (45 lbs.) to the tibia (one of the shin bones) while shifting the bone forward and backward 250 times to look at how the joint was dislocated as a result of a torn ACL. These studies are helpful, but the doctors want to understand better how the bones are grinding together and pressing down on one another. To do this, they asked CNSI nanoscientists if they knew of coatings that could be applied onto the bones like paint before the mechanical forces were applied. Then, looking at how the paint material wore away or responded to the pressure, the doctors could pinpoint exactly where the pressure and grinding was being applied.  This would help inform surgeons about how to improve the success of surgical knee procedures to prevent orthopaedic arthritis and the need for full knee replacements.

The work is still in the early planning stages, but some of the materials being investigated include alginate or hyaluronic coatings, lyposomes embedded with fluorescent dyes, or nanodiamond coatings. 

UCLA Scientists and Engineers Focus on Entrepreneurship

Recently, a group of UCLA scientists and engineers presented their business plans for commercializing technologies developed at the university to colleagues and a panel of expert reviewers. The presentations were the culmination of a partnership between UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) and UCLA Anderson’s Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies, created to educate participants about entrepreneurship and to prepare them to enter the business world.

The joint effort between CNSI and the Price Center began more than six months ago, when the groups launched an 8-week class focused on technological entrepreneurship. Faculty members, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students from engineering and the physical and life sciences met once a week to learn about topics, such as opportunity recognition, market analysis, entrepreneurial finance, operations, and human resource issues. These courses came as part of the campus’ effort to enhance its entrepreneurial ecosystem.

This entrepreneurship course prompted a second 7-week course supporting the same cohort of students and focusing on business plan development. Both were taught by George Abe, a lecturer in entrepreneurship at UCLA Anderson School of Management.

“The success of the courses was due to the commitment that the students brought to the classroom every day,” said Abe. “They came hungry with questions and scenarios that they wanted to discuss. Plus, they came with great ideas and new technology that deserves to be made available to the world.”

“There was a lot that we got out of the classes, but I think the biggest thing is that they helped us to develop a business mindset, which is fairly different from a science mindset,” said Garrett Mosley, a graduate student in the department of bioengineering.

Jian Yang (left) and Garrett Mosley answer questions after their business plan presentations.

He and fellow graduate student Ricky Chiu presented a business plan for the commercialization of the “A-PEN,” a tool based on lateral flow analysis that can quickly and easily identify the presence of allergens in food.

Students who attended both courses had the opportunity to present elevator pitches, written summaries, and business plan presentations to panels of faculty, entrepreneurs and representatives from the UCLA Office of Intellectual Property & Industry Sponsored Research (OIP-ISR), whose mission is to support UCLA’s efforts to commercialize intellectual property rights and advance entrepreneurship, for critical feedback.

Ideas and applications evolved, sometimes dramatically, over the two courses. After their second presentation, one of the judges asked Mosley, “Where do I send my check?”

“We knew we had a good technology, and for the first presentation we went with one of the first applications that we brainstormed,” said Mosley. “We kept focusing on how/why everything would be successful, but not thinking about how/why it wouldn't be successful. We took the constructive criticism from the first quarter and rethought our angle. We needed to look at our product and make sure that it was going to work at every step along the process and for everyone involved in the process, which I think we did a better job at the second time around.”

“The opportunity for our research scientists and engineers to learn directly from someone like George at this early stage in their careers is wonderful,” said Jia Ming Chen, Education Director at CNSI. “The courses filled an important gap in our traditional training programs, and we look forward to developing more programs to support our community.”

Other innovations advanced during the courses included novel infrared camera systems, reagents to help crystalize cellular membrane proteins, biologics to fight acne, and microcentrifuge tube racks that enhance the brand recognition of distributors. Many of the ideas are patented, and some groups are already working with companies that are trying out their products.

This year’s courses were underwritten by generous donors to the Price Center as part of its curriculum development efforts and Technology and Innovation Partners Program. The donors included Jean and Ed Wedbush, the Heshmatpour Family Foundation, the Knapp Foundation, the Louis and Harold Price Foundation and members of the Price Center Board of Advisors. Both CNSI and the Price Center are currently exploring ways to fund future courses.

“We will offer these courses again,” says Elaine Hagan, executive director of the Price Center. “The partnership between the Price Center and CNSI holds great potential for students and other researchers at UCLA, and for the university in general.”

(Top and bottom panels) Graduate students and postdoctoral researchers attend a reception after the final presentations.

Lecturer George Abe (right) chats with Dr. Farhad Parhami, one of the business plan judges.

Director of Development Fred Wells (left) and business plan judge Winn Hong. 

Price Center Executive Director Elaine Hagan (right) and graduate student Helena Chia.

About the California NanoSystems Institute
The California NanoSystems Institute is an integrated research facility located at UCLA and UC Santa Barbara. Its mission is to foster interdisciplinary collaborations in nanoscience and nanotechnology, to generate partnerships with industry, and to contribute to the economic development and the social well-being of California, the United States and the world.

About the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies Celebrating its 25^th year, the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at UCLA Anderson School of Management is an internationally recognized leader in entrepreneurial education and research. With a distinguished faculty as its cornerstone, the Center works closely with UCLA Anderson’s outstanding MBA students, alumni and the entrepreneurial community, overseeing activities that advance the theory and practice of entrepreneurship as well as the related fields of technology and innovation, venture capital and private equity, and social enterprise. Well known for the impact of its outreach programs, the Price Center fosters a spirit of innovation in individuals, enhances the managerial capacity of organizations, and prepares entrepreneurial leaders who will provide significant, sustainable and economic value to society.

Napolitano to be the next president of the University of California

U.S. secretary of Homeland Security and former governor of Arizona Janet Napolitano has been nominated to be the next president of the University of California after Mark Yudof steps down in September. Read more here.

The National Institutes of Health retires the majority of its chimpanzees

Last week the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it was retiring most of its 360 chimpanzees that have been available for research. According to an article published in the July 5, 2013 issue of Science, only 50 chimpanzees will be supported, and those animals will be used mainly for behavioral or genomic research as opposed to invasive procedures.

A new rule proposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on June 11 may also change the status of captive chimpanzees from "threatened" to "endangered," thereby affecting privately funded research on chimpanzees.

Congratulations to our Workstudy graduates!

Congratulations to our five graduating Workstudy students! We hope your futures will be bright!

From left to right: Fernando Lopez, Michael Dickerson, Ada Chan, Miguel Guzman, and Erin Reyes

Mood Rhythm Team Wins Heritage Open mHealth Challenge

 

Pictured (from left to right): Fred Wells, Mark Matthews, Deborah Estrin, Mark Wagar, Stephen Voida, Saeed Abdullah, Ellen Frank, Tanzeem Choudhury

Washington, D.C. – The winner of the Heritage Open mHealth Challenge was announced today at Health DataPalooza IV. Co-sponsored by Heritage Provider Network, Open mHealth, and the University of California, Los Angeles, the challenge was created to catalyze the development of mobile applications using an open architecture to help them communicate with one another and function on multiple devices. The winning team and recipient of the $100,000 prize created Mood Rhythm, a mobile application (which runs on iOS and Android) developed to help patients with bipolar disorder better monitor and analyze their daily rhythms and stay in balance.

Launched in January of this year, the Heritage Open mHealth Challenge encouraged the use of the Open mHealth architecture to overcome limitations that typically arise when dissimilar mobile health applications cannot communicate with one another. Applications conforming to the open architecture increase the diversity and utility of personalized health information available to improve chronic disease management, both through better patient self-monitoring and better clinical decision-making.

Teams were required to submit a demo of their application, along with video footage of the app in action. To ensure that applications would be developed with the end user in mind, each team entering the challenge had to include at least one member with clinical expertise and at least one participating user serving as a patient or a patient surrogate. Teams were also encouraged to include development, design, and data analysis experts.

“The Challenge was a great opportunity to encourage the development of shared platforms and the integration of different tools. These are critical steps if we’re going to realize the potential of mobile health technologies to improve health. Among several promising applications, Mood Rhythm stood out because of its elegant approach to collecting data in a way that can truly improve [the] ability of patients and their doctors to make better decisions about treating bipolar disorder,” said Dr. Brian Quinn, team director of the Pioneer Portfolio and one of the Challenge judges.

Mood Rhythm takes advantage of smartphones to track a patient’s daily routine and provides feedback to help patients maintain a regular daily rhythm while incorporating this information into clinical decision making. The application also uses sensors in the phone to track sleep and social activity patterns, providing more information for both patients and clinicians. The team is contributing a routine, sleep, and sensing module to Open mHealth.

“Rhythms guide our lives,” said Dr. Tanzeem Choudhury, team leader and Professor of Information Science at Cornell University. “Our biological clocks tell us when we need to sleep, eat and wake.  When these rhythms are interrupted or obstructed, it can be difficult for our bodies to get what they need to stay healthy and balanced.”

When asked what the impact of Mood Rhythm might have on the community, Choudhury said, “It is one of the greatest challenges in healthcare to develop cutting edge technology that not only meets clinical needs but that can be incorporated with ease into patients’ lives. The combination of automatic sensing and self-tracking aims to provide long-term low-maintenance support for people with bipolar disorder.  The clinicians and patients who have used MoodRhythm to date have found it to be an enormously valuable tool for monitoring social rhythms and mood and for seeing the relationship between the two. We feel this is due in large part to a balanced collaboration with patients and clinicians acting as co-designers. The ongoing and close involvement of this community will be essential—having their voices steering the future development of MoodRhythm.”

Along with Mood Rhythm, four Challenge finalists were selected. ACEScreening provides hearing screening technology for smartphones and other devices. IMPACT strives to improve physical function, pain, and mobility in older obese adults with hip and/or knee arthritis. Psychologist in a Pocket supports the treatment of psychological disorders. Spiro Sano is an infrastructure for managing multiple respiratory disease states, such as asthma and COPD and for supporting beneficial behavioral changes such as smoking cessation and physical activity.

Common features of submitted projects included the ability to record information in real time instead of having to rely on memory at the end of the day, control over when and how much information is provided to the doctor, and using sensing tools such as global position systems and accelerometers to track social activity and other behaviors.

The judging panel for the challenge included Deborah Estrin, Computer Science Professor and Co-Founder of Open mHealth; Dr. Richard Merkin, CEO and Founder of the Heritage Provider Network; Dr. David Feinberg, President of the UCLA Health System; former U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra; Dr. Mark Smith, President and CEO of California HealthCare Foundation; Anne Wojcicki, Co-Founder of 23andMe; Dr. Mark McClellan, former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; Karen Ignagni, President and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans; and Brian Quinn, Team Director of Pioneer Portfolio.

About HPN:
Heritage Provider Network, Inc. (HPN) is on the cutting edge of the accountable care model of healthcare delivery: coordinated, patient-doctor centric, integrated health care systems that represent the future of health care in the United States. HPN is dedicated to quality, affordable health care and putting patients' wellness first. The collaborative mobile aps prize is one of a number of competitions HPN is sponsoring in its ongoing efforts to spur innovations in healthcare, including the $3million Heritage Health Prize Competition, and the Institute of Medicine’s Go Viral for Health Prize. HPN is also in the process of launching a number of other health related prizes.  (www.heritageprovidernetwork.com) 

Media Contact HPN: DC Media Group LA, Inc
Janet Janjigian, janet@dcmediagroupla.com

About Open mHealth:
Open mHealth is non-profit startup building open software architecture to break down the barriers in mobile health to integration among mHealth solutions and unlock the potential for mHealth. Through a shared set of open APIs, both open and proprietary software modules, applications and data can be ‘mixed and matched’, and more meaningful insights derived through reusable data processing and visualization modules. Enhanced integration at both module and application levels allows products to be more nimbly adapted and customized to maximize potential impact. Through an open community, we are working together to build more effective mhealth solutions, drive innovation in healthcare evaluation, and transform healthcare for all. Open mHealth is funded in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (http://openmhealth.org/)

Media Contact Open mHealth: Anna de Paula Hanika, anna@openmhealth.org

About UCLA:
UCLA is California's largest university, with an enrollment of more than 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer 337 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Six alumni and six faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize. (http://www.ucla.edu/)

Media Contact UCLA: Davin Malasarn, dmalasarn@cnsi.ucla.edu