Three MSI PIs are featured in a recent UMNews article about research in the emerging field of nanomedicine. The PIs are Professor John Bischof (Mechanical Engineering), Associate Professor Christy Haynes (Chemistry), and Associate Professor Sang-Hyun Oh (Electrical and Computer Engineering).
Professors Bischof and Haynes and their colleague Professor Michael Garwood of the radiology department are working on a system to use iron-oxide nanoparticles to destroy cancer tumors with heat. Professor Bischof uses MSI for a number of projects involving biological systems. His work specific to this tumor-fighting project involves modeling heat transfer around nanoparticles. Professor Haynes uses MSI to study the immune system at the cellular level. This involves microfluidics research that requires powerful computational resources to study the fluid dynamics of the systems considered.
Professor Oh’s group uses MSI as part of research to develop metallic nanostructures. One application for these nanostructures is as sensors to study how proteins interact with molecules, which is part of the process used in developing new drugs. The Oh group is working with researchers at the Mayo Clinic who plan to use this method to test a possible treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS).