VCU news

By Jeff Kelley

For the nearly 100,000 very premature infants born in the United States each year, their danger goes beyond breathing. It extends to the brain.

“This is a population with so much vulnerability,” said Casey Grey, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in Virginia Commonwealth University College of Engineering. “And we finally have a tool that can help them breathe and thrive.”

That dual-purpose device, inspired in part by Grey’s concussion history, is based in part on better bubbles. And it is one of six faculty-led research projects to receive new support from VCU TechTransfer and Ventures’ Commercialization Fund awards, which aim to accelerate development of campus projects to improve their chances of being licensed and brought to market.

Premature babies often struggle to breathe because their lungs aren’t fully developed. But they also are at higher risk for developmental delays and require neurological monitoring.

“Respiratory distress is one of the biggest threats to premature babies — but so are the long-term neurological effects that follow,” Grey said. “We’ve found a way to tackle both.”

CPAP – continuous positive airway pressure – is a common treatment that offers a gentle air support system to babies. A “bubble CPAP” delivers a continuous flow of oxygen through nasal prongs to an infant’s lungs.

The system’s pressure is regulated by how deeply an exhalation airflow tube is submerged in an affixed water container — which creates bubbles that send gentle pressure oscillations back to the infant to help keep the airways open. Grey’s device modifies a bubble CPAP by combining the best features of existing machines while adding support for healthy brain development in fragile infants.

First, the new device automatically adjusts air pressure based on whether the baby is inhaling or exhaling, making it easier to breathe. But it goes further: Grey has modified the airflow tube that sits in the water to create a higher-frequency oscillation — specifically at 40 Hertz, which reflects the number of pressure wave oscillations per second. A typical bubble CPAP creates rhythmic pressure pulses of 5Hz.

Recent clinical studies have found that the higher-frequency vibration can stimulate the brain’s glymphatic system, which uses cerebrospinal fluid to clear waste and toxins from the brain and support neurological development.

“There are many potential neurological benefits of high-frequency stimulation, particularly at 40Hz,” Grey said, noting that 40Hz therapy has been effective in improving conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases by enhancing the mechanisms that clear brain waste. “By superimposing a 40Hz signal onto the existing 5Hz bubble CPAP, we really believe we can support brain development in preterm infants.”

For Grey, who earned his doctorate at VCU in 2014, the pursuit of a better bubbler is both personal and professional. Though always interested in neuroscience, he survived a concussion years ago, which led him to return to academia from a corporate career to learn more about his own condition and help others.

In 2022, he joined VCU as an adjunct professor and then became a postdoctoral researcher under P. Worth Longest, Ph.D., in VCU’s Aerosols in Medicine Lab. Longest, the Alice T. and William H. Goodwin Jr. Endowed Chair in the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, has actively collaborated on development of the bubbler device. (The pair also collaborated during Grey’s graduate research.)

Grey joins a growing list of recipients of Commercialization Fund support. TechTransfer and Ventures has awarded more than $3.6 million to 103 promising university faculty researchers since the fund was established in 2015. That investment has led to $41.4 million in follow-on funding from federal awards, investors, licensing companies and state organizations such as the Virginia Innovation Partnership Corp. and Virginia Catalyst.

“This spring was one of our biggest funding rounds in recent years and is a testament to the innovative research taking place across the university,” said Ivelina Metcheva, Ph.D., assistant vice president for innovation and head of TechTransfer and Ventures. “These awards reflect our commitment to all VCU inventors and their efforts to address some of the most pressing needs in society.”

VCU closed 2024 with its most successful research year to date: The university and its adjacent academic medical center eclipsed $500 million in sponsored funding for the first time, saw international recognition for numerous faculty researchers, and was ranked as a Top 50 public research university by the National Science Foundation.

Additional Commercialization Fund awards

Here are summaries of the five additional VCU faculty-led projects that received awards in the latest funding cycle:

Project: Upgraded RAM technology.

Fund recipient: Jayasimha Atulasimha, Ph.D., Engineering Foundation Professor, Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, College of Engineering.

Atulasimha’s team has developed new nonvolatile MRAM technology  – magnetic random access memory – that uses 100 times less energy than current state-of-the-art solutions. Unlike traditional energy-intensive MRAM to switch between data states, SkMRAM uses a small electric field to create a temporary structure called a skyrmion, enabling fast, efficient and reliable switching between the “0” and “1” states, with very little energy.

SkMRAM is scalable to extremely small sizes, robust against defects and temperature, and ideal for next-generation computing needs like artificial intelligence, mobile and edge devices.

_________________________________ 

Project: Radiation therapy monitoring.

Fund recipient: Siyong Kim, Ph.D., professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, School of Medicine.

Kim’s technology is a smart safety sensor designed for FLASH radiotherapy, an emerging cancer treatment that delivers radiation in powerful bursts lasting only milliseconds. Since even a tiny error during FLASH could cause serious harm, Kim’s device actively monitors radiation in real time by placing a small plastic detector on the patient’s skin. If the dose is too high, the system automatically shuts off the radiation beam, making treatment safer and more precise than current passive methods.

_________________________________ 

Project: AI-directed pacemaker placement.

Fund recipient: Ajay Pillai, M.D., assistant professor, Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine.

A newer, more advanced pacemaker implantation method – called LBBAP, for left bundle branch area pacing – helps the heart beat more naturally and avoids many problems associated with traditional pacemakers. But placing LBBAP leads accurately is tricky and takes time, skill and experience.

Pillai’s SurePace system acts like a GPS for pacemaker placement. It uses advanced sensors and software to read the heart’s electrical signals during surgery in real time. Using AI, it analyzes those signals and shows the physician the location of the pacemaker lead and whether it’s in the right place. This tool helps doctors work faster, more accurately and with less guesswork, especially in hospitals without specialized equipment or highly trained teams. It also reduces the need for repeated measurements and makes it easier to use this modern pacing method on more patients.

_________________________________ 

Project: Radiotherapy dose measurement.

Fund recipient: William Song, Ph.D., professor, Department of Radiation Oncology, School of Medicine.

In cancer treatment, medical linear accelerators deliver high-energy radiation to the tumor. These devices must be carefully and regularly tested to ensure that they are working properly and safely. The process requires setup of a heavy water tank that is difficult to reposition or transport.

Song, in partnership with the Florida radiotherapy quality assurance company Blue Physics, is developing a system that is easy to set up, foldable and portable – and that performs faster, with higher quality, than current accelerators. The device uses smart automation that transports and sets up quickly, and it works with advanced radiation detectors in the market, allowing for fast, precise measurements of radiation dose. The result is reduced time and improved accuracy in radiotherapy treatments.

The funds will help Song build a working prototype of the “portable tank” and test it in real-world settings at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center.

_________________________________ 

Project: Therapeutic cancer strategy.

Fund recipient: Yuesheng Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., Harrigan, Haw and Luck Families Chair in Cancer Research, VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, and professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology in the School of Medicine.

Zhang’s team has developed a drug called PEPD-G278D that targets and eliminates two key cancer-driving proteins — HER2 and EGFR — in treatment-resistant breast cancers. Unlike current therapies that only block these proteins, Zhang’s recombinant protein destroys them outright, showing dramatic tumor reduction in animal models, including brain metastases. His work, backed by the National Cancer Institute, could transform treatment for HER2-positive and drug-resistant cancers.