Dear Research Colleagues,

on January 19th – 20th 2024, the BioInnovations in Brain Cancer Program and the Biointerfaces Institute co-hosted the “Bioengineering in Brain Cancer ” Challenge. The goal of this 2-day challenge was to bring together clinicians, scientists, and engineers to explore new ideas and catalyze interdisciplinary collaborative research to address the challenges in brain cancer therapy.

The Challenge featured 67 participants, 10 presentations by U-M Faculty from a variety of department across the two days. See full list of speakers here.

The event’s keynote address, “Dynamics of 3D Genome Structure and Function” was given by Dr. Anders Sejr Hansen, Assistant Professor of Biological Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. 10 Scientific talks were give from U-M.

During the second day, three breakout sessions were held and Challenge participants were encouraged to use the break-out session discussions to develop collaborative research proposals for the seed fund competitions, to promote emerging interdisciplinary collaborations, fund novel research directions for the collection of early data, create steppingstones for larger-scale proposals, and establish a bridge between a diverse group of scientists and researchers.

The winners of the Challenge funds were:

“Spatiotemporal Imaging and Analysis of Cell Force in Migrating Oncostreams”

Co-PI: Changyang Linghu, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. Member, Michigan Neuroscience Institute and SCSAP Program.

Co-PI: Pedro Lowenstein, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, Cell and Developmental Biology, and Biomedical Engineering.

“Neuromodulation of Glioblastoma”

Co-PI: James D. Weiland, PhD, Professor of Ophthalmology and Biomedical Engineering

Co-PI: Dawen Cai, PhD, Associate Professor Cell & Developmental Biology, Associate Professor, Biophysics.

Co-PI: Maria G. Castro, PhD, R. C. Schneider Collegiate Professor of Neurosurgery; Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology

Co-PI: Pedro Lowenstein, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, Cell and Developmental Biology, and Biomedical Engineering.

Co-PI: Cynthia Chestek, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering (primary), Department of Electrical Engineering, and the Robotics Institute.

Thank you to all participants and see you next year!

The BIBC Co-directors

Maria G. Castro and Steven P. Schwendeman