Student Profile: Brandon T. Newton

Department: BME
Advisor: Dr. Joseph Freeman
btn13@scarletmail.rutgers.edu

Education
BS, Chemistry, Jackson State University, 2014
PhD Candidate, Biomedical Engineering, Rutgers University, 2017-present

Hydrogel Actuation in an Electric Field

Research Interests
Tissue Engineering, Regenerative Medicine

Research Summary
Unintentional traumatic injury remains the leading cause of traumatic muscular injury in the United States for citizens under the age of 44. The current gold standard for aiding these individuals is to transfer muscular tissue from one portion of the body to the sight of injury. Even with such procedures being available the overall prognosis remains poor and also leads to donor sight morbidity. By developing materials and procedures which allow for patients to receive regenerative therapies sooner without damaging healthy tissue we may be able to aid those in the medical field, preventing handicaps and increase quality of life. We are examining how we may modify our hydrogel to possibly develop synergy in driving mesenchymal stem cells down a purely myoblastic lineage. Thus far we have been able to synthesize a hydrogel that is able to actuate without the need for an ionic environment using 2-(methacryloyloxy) ethyl-trimethylammonium chloride, which has also shown to support cell viability. The current phase of our project is centered around determining chemical and environmental factors which may be coupled with our hydrogel to drive muscle formation. This may then be implanted into an animal model for regenerative therapy studies.

Awards & Honors
NIH IMSD Training Program (Fall 2017- Fall 2018)
NIH Biotechnology Training Program (Spring 2019 - present)

Publications
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25746383
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4226442/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3959241/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24927297
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3501744/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21853198

Representative Graduate Courses Taken
Molecular and Cell Bioengineering
Biomaterials and Biomechanics
Artificial Implantation
Medical Device Development
Structure and Dynamics in Adult and Stem Cell Biology
Interdisciplinary Biostatistics Research Training

Leadership & Outreach
Biomedical Engineering Student Society (B.E.S.S.) Graduate Representative