An NJIT Tissue Engineer Joins the Ranks of National Academy of Inventors Fellows
Treena Arinzeh, a biomedical engineer who combines bioactive materials and human cells in novel architectures to regenerate nerve and bone tissue, was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).
Arinzeh focuses on tissues that do not repair themselves naturally, such as nerve tissue in spinal cord injuries. To date, there are neither workable repairs nor detours that will restore signal flow between the brain and limbs, reversing paralysis. She developed a scaffold composed of piezoelectric material, an energetic polymer with an electrical charge, which coaxes nerve cells to extend their axons over the spine’s damaged section.
These materials are processed into fiber structures that mimic both the structure and the function of the native tissue environment. They generate their own charge to stimulate damaged tissues, without the use of an external power source, and are used to influence cell behavior, specifically stem cell behavior and neural differentiation.
“Axons – the fibers that transmit messages – can potentially travel long distances if given the right cues to regrow. We knew that an electrical charge could direct this growth," says Arinzeh, the director of NJIT’s Tissue Engineering and Applied bioMaterials Laboratory. "Some tissues in the body are naturally piezoelectric. We created a fibrous material that is similar, but with a higher charge to stimulate growth."
Her scaffolds caught the attention of the U.S. Department of Defense, which seeks remedies for traumatic battle injuries. “There is no effective treatment for severe spinal cord injuries, and soldiers can remain completely paralyzed for the rest of their lives,” she notes.
With funding from the agency, the technology was put to the test in preclinical studies at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, a Center of Excellence at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, where Arinzeh worked with Mary Bunge, a neuroscientist, and a former student. They tested the efficacy of injecting Schwann cells from the peripheral nervous system, which produce the myelin sheath around nerve axons, in combination with the piezoelectric scaffold, for spinal cord repair. The Schwann cells’ job is to restore existing cells by stimulating them to extend their axons. They found that implanted scaffolds with Schwann cells would extend over a five-millimeter gap in the spinal cord.
Arinzeh and her lab team, former graduate student, Yee-Shuan Lee, Ph.D. ’10, and George Collins, an adjunct professor, won an Edison Patent Award from the New Jersey Research and Development Council for their invention. Arinzeh holds 15 patents in the field of biomaterials and regenerative medicine, four of which have been licensed.
She has also developed and licensed fibrous composite scaffolds that accelerate bone repair and is pursuing FDA clearance for their use as a bone graft substitute. Earlier, she was instrumental in the commercialization of OsteocelTM, which is a stem cell-bone allograft product.
Arinzeh is currently devising treatments for osteoarthritis, or cartilage damage, which affects over 32 million Americans. Specifically, she has developed a scaffold containing a mimetic of glycosaminoglycan, a polysaccharide instrumental to cell signaling, to promote the repair of cartilage. With backing from the National Institutes of Health, she will examine its use in clinically relevant models that take into account the effects of age.
“There is no current technology to regenerate or repair those tissues,” she said at a recent panel discussion on the future of global health care, hosted by NJIT’s chapter of the NAI.
"The caliber of this year's class of NAI Fellows is outstanding. Each of these individuals are highly-regarded in their respective fields," said Dr. Paul R. Sanberg, FNAI, president of the NAI, in a news release. "The breadth and scope of their discovery is truly staggering. I'm excited not only see their work continue, but also to see their knowledge influence a new era of science, technology, and innovation worldwide."
A founding member of NJIT’s biomedical engineering department who is now a distinguished professor, Arinzeh began her career at Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., which at the time was a relatively small start-up biotechnology company specializing in stem cell regenerative medicine.
Of her experience, she recounts, “I didn’t follow the typical path in academia, going straight from graduate school into a post-doc research position. I worked first in industry and the mentality there is very much about commercializing innovations. I came to academia with a different mindset.”
Arinzeh has creatively borrowed techniques from other engineering sectors to advance tissue regeneration. The polymer fibers that compose the framework of her scaffolds, for example, are formed by electrospinning, a technique developed for the textile industry.
“It's important that the technology developed in the laboratory is translated through commercialization activities,” noted Arinzeh. “Our biomedical technologies are developed to improve a person's quality of life. For faculty, translation and entrepreneurship can be challenging for a number of reasons, but it starts at the university providing support for these activities.”
Backed by a $1.25 million grant from the National Science Foundation, she is leading a team of new Jersey scholars that have set out to identify and eliminate barriers faced by women researchers on university campuses to technology commercialization, such as patenting, licensing and the formation of startup ventures.
“It’s important to recognize and redress these inequities, not only as a matter of fairness, but also because the lack of diversity in entrepreneurship diminishes the diversity of new ideas and hurts U.S. technological innovation and economic competitiveness as a whole,” says Arinzeh.