News
December 2023
Congratulations to Hassan Alkhadrawi, Kokeb Dese, and Dhruvi Panchal for presenting their posters on our e-cigarette and NEMO particle projects at the 14th Annual Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Symposium hosted by the AAPS student chapters of West Virginia University, Duquesne University, and University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Bennewitz was happy to serve as a judge. We were so excited when Kokeb won the Runner-Up Outstanding Poster Presenter Award at the symposium for his temperature validation studies with CHAMP-3!
October 2023
Congratulations to Alexia Gorman for presenting her NEMO particle cell labeling results at the Biomedical Engineering Society's (BMES) Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington.
September 2023
Congratulations to Alexia Gorman, Barrick Silverman, and Dhruvi Panchal for presenting their posters on imaging NEMO particle uptake in breast cancer cells using MRI and confocal microscopy at the Great Lakes Breast Cancer Research Symposium in Morgantown, WV. We were so excited when Alexia won the 3rd Place Poster Award for Best Basic Science Research - she even received a beautiful glass engraved paperweight to celebrate her achievement :) Dr. Bennewitz also gave an oral presentation at the conference to summarize BESTeam's in vitro and in vivo progress on developing NEMO particles for early breast cancer detection.
August 2023
BESTeam welcomes Kokeb Dese from Jimma University as a new PhD student in Biomedical Engineering. Kokeb will perform the multimodal NEMO particle imaging research in 3D microfluidic tumor models in our NIH R15 grant!
July 2023
Congratulations to BESTeam for receiving an R15 Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant entitled, "Finding NEMO's Switchable MRI Signal Using Microfluidic Tumor Models" will run for 3 years and aims to characterize NEMO particles by complementary MRI and optical imaging in a 3D microfluidic tumor model that mimics the environment of breast cancer and accurately predicts outcomes from in vivo studies.
Congratulations to undergraduates Michael Elkins, Jenna Ostasiewski, and Barrick Silverman for presenting their posters at West Virginia University's 16th Annual Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium! A huge shout-out to their graduate student mentors, Hassan Alkhadrawi and Dhruvi Panchal, who worked with them the entire summer on the e-cigarette exposure and NEMO particle projects, respectively.
Congratulations to Hassan Alkhadrawi for presenting our e-cigarette research at the WVAR-CRESH: Summer Workshop on AI & Smart Health and NSF BridgesDH NRT Mini-Workshop Series 2023 in Morgantown, WV.
May 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Hunter Snoderly for successfully defending his PhD dissertation! We are proud of all that you have accomplished at WVU and wish you the best of luck in your postdoctoral position at NIOSH!
Congratulations to Alexander Pueschel for graduating with a BS in Biomedical Engineering! We have all enjoyed working with you for the past 5 years and wish you the best of luck in graduate school!!
Congratulations to Celia, Kasey and Mara for their efforts in a joint research manuscript published in ACS Omega entitled, "Caveat Emptor: Commercialized Manganese Oxide Nanoparticles Exhibit Unintended Properties". Link to article.
April 2023
Congratulations to Hunter, Hassan, Dhruvi, and Kasey for their efforts in a joint research manuscript published in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part A entitled, "Short-term exposure of female BALB/cJ mice to e-cigarette aerosol promotes neutrophil recruitment and enhances neutrophil-platelet aggregation in pulmonary microvasculature". Link to article.
Dr. Margaret Bennewitz had a blast returning to the University of Pittsburgh as a guest speaker at Pitt's School of Medicine Postdoc Career Day where she discussed her career path and served on a panel with other alumni to answer questions from postdoctoral fellows. It was a rewarding experience to pass along her advice to future independent researchers!
Congratulations to Hassan Alkhadrawi for also presenting his e-cigarette research at the University of Pittsburgh's Bioengineering Day! He had fun carpooling with fellow graduate students from Dr. Soumya Srivastava's lab at WVU.
March 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Margaret Bennewitz for being awarded the Outstanding Educator of the Year Award from West Virginia University's Statler College of Engineering for her exceptional innovation and student learning in the classroom.
Congratulations to Hassan Alkhadrawi for presenting his poster entitled, "Acute Nicotine-Free E-cigarette Vapor Exposure Modulates Immune Response in Murine Lung Vasculature" at the Society of Toxicology (SOT) Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN - BESTeam's first toxicology conference!
January 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Margaret Bennewitz on BESTeam's Research Spotlight! To read the full article, click here: MARGARET BENNEWITZ: DIAGNOSING BREAST CANCER SOONER AND MORE SAFELY.
Congratulations to Alexia Gorman and Alexander Pueschel for presenting their work on NEMO particles and CHAMP-3, respectively, at West Virginia University's 2023 Van Liere Conference in Morgantown, WV!
November 2022
Congratulations to Dr. Celia Martinez de la Torre for successfully defending her PhD dissertation! We are proud of all of your accomplishments and wish you the best of luck in your postdoctoral position next semester at MSKCC!
Congratulations to Dr. Celia Martinez de la Torre for winning second place at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona for the Bionanotechnology Graduate Student Award Session based on her oral presentation entitled, "Breast cancer specificity assessment of tumor targeted Nano -, Encapsulated Manganese Oxide (NEMO) particles". Celia is commended for nailing the challenging question and answer session!
Congratulations to Alexander Pueschel for also presenting his work on CHAMP-3 at AIChE's Student Conference. Based on the generosity of the WVU Cancer Institute, WVU's Undergraduate Research Office, and our Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Department, Alex had the pleasure to present at 2 national conferences this year to enrich his knowledge of the field, build his peer and professional network, and learn more about graduate school options!
October 2022
Congratulations to Alexander Pueschel for presenting his poster on CHAMP-3 at the Biomedical Engineering Society's (BMES) Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX and to Alexia Gorman for presenting her poster on the quenching effects of varying concentrations of NEMO particles in breast cancer cells at the Louis Stokes Midwest Regional Center of Excellence (LSMRCE) Conference in Schaumburg, Illinois.
September 2022
BESTeam welcomes undergraduates Michael Elkins, Jenna Ostasiewski and Barrick Silverman who will be working with graduate students Dhruvi Panchal and Hassan Alkhadrawi on enhanced MRI detection of brain metastases and e-cigarette toxicology effects on the pulmonary microcirculation, respectively.
Congratulations to Celia Martinez de la Torre and Hassan Alkhadrawi for presenting their posters at the World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC) in Miami, FL - they braved Hurricane Ian to get there! Dr. Bennewitz is excited to help plan the next WMIC's 2023 Annual Meeting in Prague as part of their Programming Committee!
August 2022
Congratulations to Alexander Pueschel for doing a fantastic job presenting his undergraduate summer research project entitled, "Design of CHAMP-3: Controlled Heating Apparatus for Microfluidics and Portability" at the WVU Cancer Institute Summer Undergraduate Research Program Symposium. Who knew plumbing could be so exciting?!
July 2022
Congratulations to Alexia Gorman for presenting her poster entitled, "The Effects of Manganese Oxide Nanoparticle Concentrations on MRI Signal Quenching in Breast Cancer Cells" at WVU's 14th Annual Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium. Alexia found some interesting results with differential NEMO particle labeling of benign mammary cells vs. malignant mammary cells and we are eager to explore more of the uptake mechanism with complementary imaging techniques in the fall!
Congratulations to Kasey Freshwater for successfully defending her MS thesis entitled, "Nano-, Encapsulated Manganese Oxide (NEMO) Particles for MRI Enhancement in Microfluidic Tumor Models". Kasey is the first MS student to graduate from BESTeam! We wish her the best of luck in her new R&D industrial job starting in August!
Congratulations to Celia Martinez de la Torre, Dhruvi Panchal, and Dr. Bennewitz for presenting their research on NEMO particles for early breast cancer detection at the Metals in Medicine Gordon Research Conference in Andover, NH. We all had such a wonderful time networking, learning about novel therapeutic and imaging applications of metallic nanoparticles and metal ion complexes, and attending the fun activities. The view from the top of Mount Kearsarge was breathtaking! Another fun feature of the region were the bull frogs who sang their songs at night in the local pond :)
June 2022
We are excited to host several undergraduates in research over the summer: Alexia Gorman will be working with Celia Martinez de la Torre on developing pH-switchable NEMO particles for enhanced breast cancer detection through WVU's Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Program. Alex Pueschel will be working with Hassan Alkhadrawi and Kasey Freshwater on evaluating the performance and safety of NEMO particles in 3D microfluidic tumor models through WVU's Cancer Institute Summer Undergraduate Research Program. Cody Van Allen will be working with Hunter Snoderly on the impact of breast cancer extracellular vesicles on neutrophil and platelet behavior that drives metastasis.
Dr. Bennewitz was excited to attend the TRCCC Conference for the first time at Seven Springs! It was fun to catch up with colleagues, present a talk on BESTeam's work regarding the role of tumor extracellular vesicles and neutrophil extracellular traps in promoting breast cancer metastasis, and learn more about tumor immunology!
May 2022
Congratulations to Jenna Vito for graduating with a BS in Chemical Engineering! We have all enjoyed working with you for the past 4 years and wish you the best of luck in graduate school!!
February 2022
Congratulations to Hunter, Kasey, Celia and Dhruvi for their efforts in a joint research manuscript published in Biosensors entitled, "PEGylation of Metal Oxide Nanoparticles Modulates Neutrophil Extracellular Trap Formation". Link to article.
January 2022
BESTeam welcomes BMEG undergraduates Alexia Gorman, Sarah Westfall, and Cody Van Allen! Alexia is working with Celia on designing pH sensitive manganese oxide nanoparticles for enhanced breast cancer detection with MRI, Sarah is working with Dhruvi on characterizing antioxidants as novel theranostics for breast cancer brain metastasis, and Cody is working with Hunter on pulmonary neutrophil extracellular traps in cancer and inflammation.
November 2021
Congratulations to Hunter Snoderly for publishing his review article in IJMS entitled, "E-Cigarette Use: Device Market, Study Design, and Emerging Evidence of Biological Consequences." PMID: 34830344.
August 2021
BESTeam welcomes Hassan Alkhadrawi, a new Biomedical Engineering PhD student, to
the lab! Hassan will work on evaluating pulmonary vascular injury with live lung imaging following e-cigarette exposure.
July 2021
Congratulations to Hunter Snoderly for being reappointed to the NIH T32 through
the Cell Biology Training Program (CBTP). While on the T32, he will continue his
project on elucidating the role of the tumor microenvironment on breast cancer
metastasis and thrombosis.
Congratulations to Alexander Pueschel for presenting his poster entitled,
"Elucidating tumor cell interactions with Cy5 in microfluidic tumor models using
fluorescence microscopy" at WVU's 13th Annual Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium.
Alex presented successful strategies on how to degas microfluidic tumor models,
coat them with extracellular matrix, seed the tumor chamber with cells, and
image their 3D structure with confocal microscopy.
May 2021
We are excited to have Mara Looney-Sanders work with us full-time in the summer on
liposomal encapsulation of MnO nanoparticles! Mara will also assist Celia
Martinez de la Torre on her
in vitro and
in vivo work with polymeric MnO nanoparticles.
BESTeam welcomes Kowsik Siva as a summer undergraduate researcher to assist
Kasey Freshwater and Dhruvi Panchal on cell culture, nanoparticle cell labeling,
and microfluidic tumor model studies.
April 2021
Congratulations to Alexander Pueschel, who has earned the Summer Undergraduate Research
Experience (SURE) Fellowship to perform full-time research with BESTeam in June
and July. Alex will be teaming up with Kasey Freshwater to pursue a project on
fluorescence imaging of tumor microfluidic chip devices.
Congratulations to Dr. Margaret Bennewitz for receiving the Outstanding Advisor/Mentor
Award from the Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources at WVU! She
is honored to receive this award and is excited that her mentorship has had such
a positive impact on her students' education and career paths.
January 2021
BESTeam welcomes Dhruvi Panchal, a new Biomedical Engineering PhD student, to the
lab! Dhruvi will work with Dr. Margaret Bennewitz and Dr. Paul Lockman at
the Health Sciences Center to design theranostic approaches to target brain metastases.
Congratulations to Hunter Snoderly for passing his dissertation research proposal! Now
he is officially a Biomedical Engineering PhD candidate!
Congratulations to Celia Martinez de la Torre on receiving West Virginia University's Health
Sciences Center International Fellowship Award! Beginning July 1, 2021,
Celia will be fully supported on this fellowship to pursue her dissertation project
entitled, "Tumor-targeted pH-sensitive manganese oxide nanoparticle for enhanced
early detection of breast cancer using MRI.”
December 2020
Congratulations to Celia Martinez de la Torre for passing her dissertation research
proposal! Now she is officially a Biomedical Engineering PhD candidate!
November 2020
Congratulations to Mara Looney-Sanders for presenting her poster entitled,
"Encapsulation of Manganese Oxide Nanoparticles to Maximize MRI Signal Intensity"
at WVU's 3rd Annual Research Apprenticeship Program's Fall 2020 Symposium. Mara presented
on how different encapsulation methods affect manganese oxide particle size and
MRI contrast.
Congratulations to Celia Martinez de la Torre and Hunter Snoderly for their oral
presentations entitled, "Varying oleylamine to dibenzyl ether ratio for fine-tuning
manganese oxide nanoparticle diameter and MRI signal intensity" and "Neutrophil
extracellular traps and extracellular vesicles: Mediators of metastasis in breast
cancer?", respectively, at the 2020 American Institute of Chemical
Engineers (AIChE) Annual Virtual Meeting.
October 2020
Congratulations to Celia Martinez de la Torre and Hunter Snoderly for presenting
their posters entitled, "Varying oleylamine to dibenzyl ether ratio for fine-tuning
manganese oxide nanoparticle diameter and MRI signal intensity" and "Neutrophil
extracellular traps and extracellular vesicles: Mediators of metastasis in breast
cancer?", respectively, at the 2020 World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC)
Annual Virtual Meeting.
September 2020
Congratulations to Celia Martinez de la Torre for publishing another first author
manuscript in PLOS ONE entitled, "Tuning the size and composition of manganese
oxide nanoparticles through varying temperature ramp and aging time".
The experimental video for Celia's first paper goes live on the JoVE website!
https://www.jove.com/v/61572
August 2020
BESTeam welcomes Kasey Freshwater, a first year Biomedical Engineering Masters
student, and Esra Al Abazaid, a Senior Biomedical Engineering undergraduate student, as
new lab members!
July 2020
Congratulations to Dr. Bennewitz for becoming a Project Leader on the Tumor Microenvironment
Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (TME CoBRE) grant from NIH/NIGMS. Her
proposal entitled, "Tumor-targeted pH-sensitive manganese oxide nanoparticle for
enhanced breast cancer detection using MRI" aims to improve early detection
of breast cancer recurrence by greatly reducing false negatives and false
positives associated with current breast imaging techniques.
Congratulations to Hunter Snoderly for receiving an appointment to the NIH T32 through
the Cell Biology Training Program (CBTP). While on the T32, he will continue his
projects on breast cancer metastasis and e-cigarette exposure.
Celia Martinez de la Torre and Dr. Bennewitz perform their experimental video shoot
for
JoVE. They had a blast filming and cannot wait for the video to be released
on
JoVE's website!
Congratulations to Celia Martinez de la Torre and her husband, Zach Weaver, on their
wedding.
COVID-19 made them change their plans, but the wedding was what they dreamed
of!
June 2020
Congratulations to BESTeam for receiving the West Virginia Arkansas Center for
Research and Education in Smart Health (WVAR-CRESH) seed grant entitled, "Smart
detection of neutrophil-platelet-NET interactions over time within pulmonary microcirculation
following e-cigarette exposure in mice" for $32,000 from the National Science Foundation
Track-2 Project Team at West Virginia University.
May 2020
Congratulations to Celia Martinez de la Torre for getting her first manuscript accepted!
Her article entitled, "Manganese Oxide Nanoparticle Synthesis by Thermal Decomposition
of Manganese(II) Acetylacetonate" will appear in the Journal of Visualized Experiments
(JoVE).
April 2020
Congratulations to Jenna Vito and Olivia Miller for presenting their posters
at the 4th Annual Undergraduate Spring Symposium. Jenna presented on how changing
synthesis conditions alters manganese oxide nanoparticle size and controlled release
rate of Mn
2+. Olivia (pictured below) showcased her work on the interplay between extracellular
vesicles, neutrophil extracellular traps, neutrophil-platelet interactions
and their impact on breast cancer metastasis.
Dr. Bennewitz performs virtual optical imaging demonstrations on total internal reflection
(TIR) for her Biomedical Imaging class during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ma
rch 2020
Dr. Bennewitz presents BESTeam's research on tumor and blood cell tracking in breast
cancer to the Health Sciences Center at West Virginia University's Cancer
Cell Biology Seminar Series.
January 2020
BESTeam welcomes Mara Looney-Sanders, a freshman undergraduate researcher, as
a new lab member through the Research Apprenticeship Program.
Congratulations to Dr. Bennewitz for landing the artwork for the front cover of
Blood Advances! The image showcases her fluorescence intravital lung microscopy
technique to visualize neutrophils and platelets inside the pulmonary arterioles
of live mice. Two of her lung intravital articles were published in
Blood Advances and the
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine in January.
December 2019
Congratulations to BESTeam for receiving the Tumor Microenvironment Center of Biomedical
Research Excellence (TME CoBRE) pilot grant entitled, "Tumor-associated extracellular
vesicles enhance breast cancer metastasis through platelet-neutrophil aggregates
and neutrophil extracellular traps" for $50,000 from NIH/NIGMS.
Congratulations to Hunter Snoderly for publishing his review manuscript entitled, "Neutrophil extracellular traps in breast cancer and beyond: current perspectives on NET stimuli, thrombosis and metastasis, and clinical utility for diagnosis and treatment" in Breast Cancer Research. PMID: 31852512.
Congratulations to Hunter Snoderly for publishing his review manuscript entitled, "Neutrophil extracellular traps in breast cancer and beyond: current perspectives on NET stimuli, thrombosis and metastasis, and clinical utility for diagnosis and treatment" in Breast Cancer Research. PMID: 31852512.
November 2019
Congratulations to Jenna Vito for presenting her poster entitled, "Varying Oleylamine
to Dibenzyl Ether Ratio for Fine-Tuning Manganese Oxide Nanoparticle Diameter and
Controlled Release" at the 2nd Annual Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) Fall
2019 Symposium at West Virginia University. Jenna has been working closely
with Celia Martinez de la Torre on improving MRI contrast agents for enhanced early
detection of breast cancer.
Congratulations to Celia Martinez de la Torre for winning the second place best poster
award at the 2019 Research Summit of Students, Teachers And Researchers (STARs)
in West Virginia for her poster presentation,
"Tuning the Size and Composition of Manganese Oxide Nanoparticles for Ma
gnetic Resonance Imaging of Breast Cancer".
Congratulations to Celia Martinez de la Torre for giving her first oral presentation
entitled, "Tuning the Size and Composition of Manganese Oxide Nanoparticles for
Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Breast Cancer" at the American Institute of Chemical
Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting in Orlando, FL.
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Congratulations to Celia Martinez de la Torre for presenting her poster entitled, "Tuning
the Size and Composition of Manganese Oxide Nanoparticles for Magnetic Resonance
Imaging of Breast Cancer" at the 2019 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual
Meeting at Philadelphia, PA.
September 2019
Congratulations to Celia Martinez de la Torre and Hunter Snoderly for presenting
their posters entitled, "Tuning the Size and Composition of Manganese Oxide
Nanoparticles for Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Breast Cancer" and "Intravital
Imaging Reveals that Tumor-Associated Extracellular Vesicles Cause Neutrophil Extracellular
Trap Formation and Neutrophil-Platelet Aggregation in Pulmonary Vessels of Live
SCID Mice", respectively, at the 2019 World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC)
Annual Meeting at Montreal, Canada.
August 2019
Dylan Moon, an undergraduate senior, has also joined BESTeam to work with Hunter
and Olivia on elucidating the mechanism of how tumor-associated extracellular vesicles
lead to neutrophil extracellular traps and breast cancer metastasis.
BESTeam welcomes Olivia Miller, a junior undergraduate researcher, as a new
lab member through the Research Apprenticeship Program.
April 2019
Congratulations to Alexander Pueschel for winning the first place poster award in Physical Sciences and Engineering at the Third Annual Undergraduate Spring Research Symposium at West Virginia University for his presentation on, "Temperature Ramp and Reaction Time Variances Affect Size and Chemistry of Manganese Oxide Nanoparticles". Alex has been working closely with Celia Martinez de la Torre on improving MRI contrast agents for enhanced early detection of breast cancer.
March 2019
Congratulations to Celia Martinez de la Torre for presenting her poster entitled, "Temperature ramp and aging time control size and chemical composition of manganese oxide nanoparticles" at the 54th Van Liere Research Conference in the Health Sciences Center at WVU.
February 2019
Congratulations to Jasmine Grossman for presenting her poster entitled, "Reducing PLGA nanoparticle and MnO core size to enhance MRI breast cancer detection" at the Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol in Charleston, WV.
October 2018
Congratulations to Jasmine Grossman for winning the third place poster award in Materials and Engineering Sciences at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA for her work entitled, "Size reduction of PLGA nanoparticles and encapsulated MnO cores to enhance MRI contrast for early detection of breast cancer."
BESTeam welcomes Jenna Vito, a freshman undergraduate researcher, as a new lab member through the Research Apprenticeship Program.
August 2018
BESTeam welcomes Alexander Pueschel, a freshman undergraduate researcher, as a new lab member through the Research Apprenticeship Program.
July 2018
Congratulations to Jasmine Grossman for presenting her summer project entitled "Reducing PLGA nanoparticle and MnO core size to enhance MRI breast cancer detection" at the WVU SURE Symposium in the Erickson Alumni Center.
April 2018
Congratulations to Hunter Snoderly for receiving the prestigious West Virginia University Provost Fellowship for doctoral students. Click here for the full press release.
Congratulations to Jasmine Grossman for receiving West Virginia University's Summer Undergraduate Research Experience Fellowship. Click here for more information about SURE.