RBC Impact
How the RBC is making difference for UGA and communities in the Peach State
Strengthening Communities through CMAT
President Morehead praised the RBC for CMaT’s impact, “Partnerships of this nature-that span different universities and sectors-are critical to advancing human health around the world. I want to congratulate Dr. Stice and his team at the University of Georgia for helping to drive this important research center.”
ARCS Scholars (left to right) Morgane Golan, UGA, Gianna Slusher, GT.
Understanding the Issue: Who Is Affected and Why It Matters
With the U.S. population aging, healthcare costs are expected to surge, with over 60% driven by the unsustainable expenses of chronic disease management and long-term care. Cell-based therapeutics have the potential to transform patient care and help reduce long-term healthcare costs while creating new jobs and boosting the economy.
Cell therapies, especially stem cell and immune cell therapies, are revolutionizing the way we treat devastating, incurable, and chronic diseases. Recently, T-cell therapies have shown great promise in effectively curing various blood cancers in children and adults who had no other treatment options. This has led to the approval of the first five manufactured/engineered cell therapy products in the USA between 2017 and 2021.
Despite their immense promise and life-changing potential, access to cell therapies is limited to a small number of patients and is available only at premier clinical centers, often at a very high cost.
Results and Impact: We are Driving Change
Through our collaboration within this group ecosystem, our research network has significantly grown, connecting with numerous national and international testbeds. This transformation has positioned our research network as a major player on both national and global scales.
In the past 5 years, CMaT has received significant leveraging funds from partner states. The state of Georgia provided $5 million in state bond funding to purchase equipment. The State of Wisconsin provided major monetary and infrastructural support to establish the Forward Bio center, based on CMaT’s success. The Georgia Research Alliance has provided $1.35 million towards equipment. In addition, CMaT researchers have benefited from leveraging the $24 million private and institutional investment in the Marcus Center for Therapeutic Cell Characterization and Manufacturing.
All the CMaT partner institutions have a long history of successful collaborations – not only in research, but also in education, outreach, entrepreneurship and workforce development. At the Undergraduate level our Centers provide access for graduate and undergraduate training and mentorship. For example, UGA faculty associated with the ERC have trained three undergraduates who received the prestigious Goldwater Fellowship in Science.
We have engaged with 35 companies. Our industry members span the entire cell manufacturing value chain—including big pharma, tools, supply chain companies, and small and medium businesses.
CMaT has developed multiple courses and training modules for undergraduates and graduate students, as well as training programs for teachers and students at the high school and technical-college levels. For example, after two summers in the RBC/CMaT Research Experience for Teachers program, Madison County HS teacher Stan Harrison, was awarded Biotech Teacher of the Year and appointment to State Coordinator for NSF-BACE.
Fueling Discovery
Understanding the Issue: Who Is Affected and Why It Matters
Can the brain heal itself after a traumatic injury?
The brain has a limited ability to heal itself after a traumatic injury, but the process is often incomplete and slow. While the brain can form new neural connections and repair some damaged cells, severe injuries may result in permanent damage.
According to the Brain Injury Association of America, about 2.8 million people sustain a TBI annually. This includes emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and deaths.
Approximately 64,000 people die from TBI-related injuries in the U.S. each year, averaging 176 deaths per day, with an estimated economic cost of nearly $76.5 billion annually. These figures underscore the severe public health impact of TBI, both in terms of human lives and financial burden.
Today, leading experts in military-related mental health issues frequently refer to TBI as “the signature injury of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center reported nearly 414, 000 service members worldwide sustained TBI between 2000 and late 2019. Even though TBIs were certainly sustained by veterans in earlier wars, it wasn’t until the mid-to-late 20th century that TBIs began being formally diagnosed and understood in the way we recognize them today.
Rising to the Challenge
New Hope for TBI patients
A promising way to help the brain heal involves using mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). MSCs can support the immune system, promote nerve growth, improve blood flow, and repair tissue by releasing EV’s that significantly influence brain cell behavior after injury. However, scientists still don’t fully understand how these MSC-EVs impact the brain’s immune cells, particularly after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Without this critical information, effective clinical trials cannot be conducted, and designing new therapies without these insights greatly limits their potential for success.
It is also unclear if enhancing the effect by “priming” or exposing the MSC-EVs to specific conditions or behavioral changes will make them more effective at promoting brain healing or reducing inflammation after injury.
In an inflammatory environment MSCs become more active or “primed” to help regulate the immune response and minimize further damage. If the response becomes excessive and uncontrolled, it can lead to chronic inflammation, which can worsen brain damage and impair recovery.
The RBC team aims to create a novel framework for targeting the brain’s immune system, characterized by two key ideas: First, to study how mitochondria, the cell’s energy producers, affect brain immune cells in TBI models, looking at how energy transfer changes microglia behavior and function after injury. The second idea is to explore how priming manufacturing conditions alter EVs and their ability to control the immune response and where they travel in the body.
Leading the way in economic engagement
Drawing on the achievements of Emory University and Georgia Tech in tissue engineering and UGA’s stem cell research and large animal clinical applications, REM collectively involves nearly 200 faculty members from the three institutions.
Innovation for Impact
Drug Delivery Systems
A growing trend in drug delivery systems aims to overcome the limitations of conventional oral drugs, such as poor solubility and absorption in the intestines. The solution is to develop systems that target specific areas and control drug release in a non-invasive way.
Market data shows pharmaceutical innovation is driving the shift toward these new delivery systems. These novel systems deliver drugs directly to the target site, improving effectiveness and reducing side effects.
To explore alternatives, our consortium of universities and research institutions will develop less-invasive delivery methods to improve clinical outcomes across various diseases.
Pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, researchers, and investors are shifting toward more efficient and patient-friendly drug delivery systems. These innovations offer the potential for better treatment outcomes, fewer side effects, and improved patient compliance, which could lead to market growth, new therapeutic options, and more effective treatments for various diseases. Additionally, stakeholders in drug development and biomanufacturing would be interested in the competitive advantage and cost-efficiency of these novel approaches.
Networking with Purpose
RBC + REM = Success
The success of REM is monitored via several outcome metrics related to the involvement of Emory University, Georgia Tech, and UGA’s RBC faculty; evidence of enhanced national leadership and reputation, development and fundraising, student training, publications, leveraged funding, licensed technologies, start-up companies, and clinical trials. Collecting this data across multiple departments at three institutions is challenging and a work in progress, but the evidence thus far suggests that the Center for Regenerative Engineering and Medicine is continuing to build momentum and interest at all three institutions and currently represents an extremely unique and successful interdisciplinary research collaboration.
The last five funding cycles yielded an impressive $27,956,493 leveraged funding (ROI: 11.43) and 61 publications, derived from REM investigator teams who were awarded seed grants from 2017-2023.
The leveraged funding ROI since FY21 is an equally impressive 11.72.
REM has produced 18 Start-up Companies, 27 Licensed Technologies and 5 Clinical Trials.
We have integrated our efforts with established centers and initiatives to amplify our impact. By collaborating with key partners such as the Immunoengineering Center at Georgia Tech, Cell Manufacturing Technologies (CMaT) ERC, and Pediatric Bioengineering at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA), we have leveraged our collective expertise and resources