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Organogenesis describes the processes to form functional tissues and organs from a blastula. It holds remarkable promise to provide in vitro tissue/organ models for drug development, as well as delivery vehicles for cell replacement regenerative medicine therapy. As cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide, significant efforts have been devoted to the development of human cardiac organoids for disease modeling and cell therapies. To this end, Dr. Ying Mei’s lab has focused on the biomaterials development to facilitate cardiovascular organogenesis. They have developed a library of peptide-functionalized alginates and will examine the effects of these peptide-functionalized alginates on the cardiovascular organogenesis.
Dr. Ying Mei is an associate professor in the Bioengineering Department at Clemson University. He received his Ph.D. (2003) in Materials Chemistry from Tandon School of Engineering at New York University. He served as a guest researcher in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and joined the Langer lab at the MIT as a postdoctoral researcher (2005). In 2012, he joined in the Department of Bioengineering at the Clemson University as a faculty member. The research in his lab has been centered on the development of biomaterials and stem cells to address the key challenges in cardiac tissue engineering.
Mei is a member of MADE in SC Thrust 3: Interactive Biomaterials and PI on a 2018 GEAR Program project.
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SC EPSCoR teamed up with SC INBRE to present a FREE day and a half Academic Leadership and Career Development Workshop for faculty and students with emphasis on STEM disciplines on Monday and Tuesday, June 17 and 18 in Columbia. Almost 270 high school students, undergrad and grad students, postdocs, faculty, staff and industry professionals attended sessions given by 45 presenters and panelists during the two days. Monday started with a keynote address from Hank Jibaja, CIO of Nephron Pharmaceuticals and ended with a panel of representatives from different life sciences industries based in South Carolina (moderated by Erin Ford, executive vice president, SCBIO). Tuesday's half day Workshop featured skills and information for faculty and postdocs on budgeting, tenure and promotion, avoiding academic burnout and reporting for NIH or NSF. This is an annual Workshop founded by SC INBRE and the second year SC EPSCoR has been a co-host.
Below are a few of the photos taken during the Workshop. More can be found on this online album and by searching #ALCDW2019 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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Opening Remarks - Main Room (additional attendees viewed this and the keynote via streaming in overflow rooms)
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Some of the almost 100 faculty and postdocs in one of their grant writing sessions
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Dr. Hanno zur Loye (MADE in SC Thrust 1: Optical, Electrochemical and Magnetic Materials) co-leader presenting to graduate students on writing and publishing research papers
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Closing life sciences industries panel - David Shalaby, Poly-Med, Inc., Chris Mannarino, Med-Ally LLC, Ellie Barziv, Nanobebe and Erin Ford, SCBIO
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South Carolina faculty researchers have been very successful in receiving NSF CAREER Awards. Currently there are 39 active CAREER Awards from both comprehensive research university and predominantly undergraduate institution faculty throughout our state (2016-2017 recipients | 2018 recipients).
What is the NSF CAREER Award program? The NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program awards support early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. Activities pursued by early-career faculty build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research. NSF especially encourages women, members of underrepresented minority groups, and persons with disabilities to apply.
 At this year’s Academic Leadership and Career Development Workshop, a panel featuring past CAREER Program recipients talked about their experiences and careers since receiving this award (L to R):
- Dr. Nathan Hancock, USC Aiken (PUI), 2017 Recipient, “CAREER: Mechanisms that regulate activity of the plant DNA transposable element, mPing” (abstract)
- Dr. Rachel Getman, Clemson, a MADE in SC Modeling and Computation Core co-leader and GEAR Program recipient, 2016 Recipient, “CAREER: Hierarchical Modeling for Rational Catalyst Design in Aqueous Conditions” (abstract)
- Dr. Andy Tennyson, Clemson, 2016 Recipient, “CAREER: Self-Protecting Artificial Implants and Invigorating the STEM Education Pipeline with Biomaterials” (abstract)
NSF offered a webinar on the CAREER Program on May 9. This recording, FAQs and more information can be found on the CAREER Program website.
Upcoming Deadlines by Directorate:
- BIO, CISE, EHR: July 17
- ENG: July 18
- GEO, MPS, SBE: July 19
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The 26th NSF EPSCoR National Conference will welcome faculty, researchers, students and staff from EPSCoR jurisdictions around the country for enriching speakers, engaging breakout sessions and bustling student poster presentations on October 27-30. This biennial conference is being held in here in Columbia. Let’s get a good showing of South Carolina researchers and students to show the rest of the nation the excellent work being done right here in the Palmetto State. Early bird registration ends on July 15. 
The next opportunity to hear a MADE in SC researcher present will be on August 10. Dr. Qian Wang, MADE in SC 
