UC grad student's research attracts accolades

The University of Cincinnati honored Nava Rijal, a third-year Ph.D student, for his biomedical engineering research.

Rijal was named the 2018 Frank R. Noyes, MD, and JoAnne Noyes, BS, RN Biomedical Engineering Graduate Scholar.

Rijal presented an award-winning paper, titled “A Novel Non-Contact Electric Field Therapy Enhances Angiogenesis and Wound Healing in Porcine Model," at a recent event for the Frank R Noyes, MD, JoAnne Noyes, BS, RN Endowed Eminent Visiting Scholar in Sports Medicine and Bioengineering, hosted by UC's Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine.

Rijal is the team lead for Daria Narmoneva, Ph.D, in her Vascular Tissue and Cellular Engineering Lab. They are working to advance tissue engineering technology by manipulating the angiogenesis process (formation of capillaries). 

The vascular system supplies blood to the body and the formation of new blood vessels is vital to the healing process in any human tissue. When a patient’s body lacks the resources to perform healing processes (like in the case of chronic ulcers in some diabetic patients), medical interventions often fall short of complete healing. This results in painful lifelong complications and often leads to lower limb amputations.

Recent exciting findings by Narmoneva’s group (in collaboration with Dr. Andrei Kogan in UC Physics) show promising potential to mitigate these gaps in the healing process. The first phase of their recent research demonstrated that electro-field (EF) stimulation resulted in markedly enhanced wound neovascularization, with a 100% increase in the average blood vessel density ratio for the EF group. EF treated wounds showed significantly enhanced wound re-epithelization at day 5 and achieved epidermal reestablishment similar to that of the normal unwounded skin, indicating regenerative healing and less scarring.

Through a deeper understanding of how electric field affects 3D capillary networks and vascular tissues, the research team can explore how electric field technologies might enhance capillary formation and regenerative tissue repair. This insight may open new avenues for future efforts to improve vascularization of chronic wounds and regenerative therapies for skin and other tissues. 

Building on promising results from phase one (using electro-stimulation in wild type porcine tissue), the team has moved on to phase two: applying high-frequency (low amplitude) electric field to diabetic porcine tissue. The hope is that high-frequency wireless electric fields stimulation will activate capillary cells and enhance blood vessel formation in the wound, resulting in much faster healing.

They will compile another report of their findings at the end of fall semester.

Rijal hopes to advance wound healing technology

Rijal’s ultimate goal in research is to improve the quality of life for patients with wound healing complications.

“I would love to see this research have a real positive impact on the medical community,” he says.

Rijal is inspired by cross collaboration with professionals from biomedical engineering, medicine and physics.

“That is what I love about UC—working with people of such diverse backgrounds, skills sets, etc. These different perspectives help us work across disciplines, like to estimate the interactions between electric fields and biological cells.”

Rijal has also served the biomedical engineering in various roles—an term-adjunct professor, graduate student researcher, and teaching assistant. He also serves as a Vice-president for Biomedical Engineering Graduate Student Association and President for Student Chapter of Society for Biomaterials at UC.

As the only PhD candidate in the lab, Rijal leads a small team of master’s and undergraduate students from UC and one high school student. He enjoys teaching and advising others in the lab; he finds that the learning goes in both directions.

“A good engineer is a good listener. Listening to others will help you solve problems more effectively with their added perspectives,” he says.

Most of all, Rijal enjoys working hands-on in the lab, developing new solutions to human problems. He sees biomedical engineering research as a perfect bridge to future collaboration between the UC College of Medicine and CEAS.

“We can approach medical problems and use our engineering skills to help solve them,” Rijal says.

He wants to gain industry experience before he develops a long-term career plan. He is scheduled to present his paper at the Biomedical Engineering Society annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 20th.

The Noyes award was established by Frank R. Noyes, M.D., President and Medical Director of the Cincinnati SportsMedicine and Orthopaedic Center. Dr. Noyes was a longtime member of the faculty at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, and has developed many professional collaborations with faculty in both the College of Engineering and Applied Science and the UC medical Center.

In 1975, Dr. Noyes and others helped the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery to establish one of the first sports medicine centers in the United States and one of the premier biomechanical laboratories in the world. In 2001, the University of Cincinnati was the first public university in Ohio to create a biomedical engineering department. The Noyes Tissu Nava Rijal, a third-year PhD student in biomedical engineering, was chosen as the 2018 Frank R. Noyes, MD, and JoAnne Noyes, BS, RN Biomedical Engineering Graduate Scholar.