Robert J. Levy, M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics; Senior Scientist, Joseph Stokes, Jr. Research Institute, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Dr. Robert J. Levy, a renowned research in cardiovascular biomaterials, joined Penn and the IME in 1997. Dr. Levy obtained his M.D. degrees from Johns Hopkins University in 1970. Prior to his arrival at Penn, he was Professor of Pediatrics, and Pharmaceutics at the University of Michigan. Dr. Levy is a pediatric cardiologist focusing his research on site-specific therapy. This strategy involves targeting localized diseases and disorders, like cardiovascular calcification and cardiac arrhythmia, and using regional therapeutic approaches instead of systemic therapy. Contrary to existing treatments, site-specific therapy allows physicians to use unconventional but promising agents that could not be given by other methods. The therapy also allows for more potent treatment to a specific area and results in fewer side effects for the patient.

Dr. Levy's research involves an interaction of biochemical concepts, pharmacology, pharmaceutics and biomaterials. Current projects in the laboratory are concerned with mechanisms of cardiac valve and blood vessel calcification, localized gene therapy for wound healing, myocardial implants for cardiac arrhythmia and primary syntheses of therapeutic polymers for biomaterial use.

Louis J. Soslowsky, Ph.D.
Director of Orthopaedic Research and Associate
Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, and Bioengineering

Dr. Soslowsky completed his B.S. degree in Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University. He was then appointed the first Frank E. Stinchfield Fellow in Orthopaedic Biomechanics at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center where he completed his Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics. He was recruited to Penn last fall from the University of Michigan faculty.

Dr. Soslowsky's research contributions have been in the area of orthopaedic biomechanics and tissue engineering. Specifically, his research program on the biomechanics of the shoulder is recognized as a leader in the field by both engineers and orthopaedic surgeons. He has made important contributions to the understanding of the etiology of rotator cuff disease and to the factors that contribute to stabilizing the glenohumeral joint. In addition to his shoulder work, his models for tendon basic science, injury, repair, healing, and regeneration are providing important information about tendon function and dysfunction.

Keith J. Gooch, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering

Keith Gooch was recruited to the Department of Bioengineering and the IME following an NIH/NRSA funded postdoctoral research fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Langer at MIT. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University, where he conducted his thesis work under the guidance of Drs. John A. Frangos and Charles A. Dangler. Dr. Gooch's research focuses on tissue-engineered microvascular networks for gene therapy, and the study of ex-vivo remodeled veins as vascular prostheses. Using a combination of tissue engineering, molecular biology and cell biology, he is developing novel methods of gene product and drug delivery. His objective is to isolate vascular cells from a patientıs fat tissue, manipulate the genes of the cells grown in culture, then persuade the cells to reform tiny blood vessels in culture. These genetically modified vessels can then be returned to the patient to therapeutic effects. Dr. Gooch's research laboratory is on the first floor of the Vagelos Research Laboratories.

Peter L. Jones, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor of Pediatrics; Assistant Member of the Joseph Stokes Jr. Research Institute, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Dr. Jones' research activities center on understanding how the extracellular matrix (ECM) controls cell shape to produce alterations in biological responses. In particular, his work has focused on the regulation and function of the oncofetal ECM glycoprotein tenascin-C. Dr. Jones received his Ph.D. degree in Pathology from Cambridge University in The U.K. During his postdoctoral studies at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Dr. Jones utilized a three-dimensional mammary gland tissue culture model to demonstrate that tenascin-C expression is incompatible with lactational differentiation. More recently at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, he showed that vascular smooth muscle cell interactions with tenascin-C promote growth factor-integrin receptor, which modifies cell shape at the level of the actin cytoskeleton. In addition to deciphering novel functions for tenascin-C, Dr. Jones is currently using a type I collagen-based organotypic culture model to understand how ECM remodeling by matrix-degrading proteinases alters smooth muscle cell shape to permit tenascin-C gene transcription and ultimately cell growth and survival.

David M. Eckmann, Ph.D., M.D.
Instructor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Dr. Eckmann's primary research objective is to apply his expertise in biofluid cardiopulmonary physiology to the specific problem of gas, liquid and solid interfacial mechanics in intravascular gas embolism. Vital organ blood flow can be severely comprised by microvascular gas embolism that occurs commonly during cardiopulmonary bypass, in vascular surgery, and in decompression sickness. Dr. Eckmann's laboratory group is using a multifaceted approach to the test the hypothesis that surfactant physico-chemical properties may be exploited to restore tissue blood flow following gas embolism. In addition to conducting bench fluid dynamics experiments and applied physiology studies, he is developing computational mathematical models of the gas-solid-liquid interfacial phenomena using novel approaches such as boundary element and level-set methodologies. The aim of this work is to develop pharmacologic therapies to reduce the organ damage that currently follows microvascular gas embolism.

Irena Levitan, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Irena Levitan joined the IME and the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine from the Department of Physiology in Allegheny University of the Health Sciences. She received her Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem studying the mechanisms of signal transduction in invertebrate photoreceptors, followed by post-doctoral research on signal transduction.

The goal of Dr. Levitanıs research is to establish the mechanisms by which mechanical forces regulate gating of endothelial ion channels. Blood flow forces induce rapid changes in the electrical potential difference across endothelial cell membranes, resulting from the opening or closing of ion channels in the cell membrane. Using a combination of electrophysiological and visual imaging techniques, Dr. Levitan investigates the interactions between cytoskeletal proteins and mechanosensory ion channels, and the roles of cytoskeletal proteins in gating of these channels.

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