News & Events / BME Seminar Series / Current Speakers / 2020-21Margot Damaser, PhD
BME Seminar Series Spring 2021
Thursday, May 6th, 2021, 4:15-5:15 pm
This event will be held via Zoom
Host: Professor Bin Jiang
Professor and Full Staff
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine
Case Western Reserve University
Senior Research Career Scientist and Deputy Director
Advanced Platform Technology Center
Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Stress Urinary Incontinence as a Model for Testing NeuroRegenerative Therapies
Stress urinary incontinence results from the maternal injuries of childbirth compounded by inciting factors such as aging, diabetes, and obesity. We have developed a model of the maternal injuries of childbirth that consists of a compound neuromuscular injury with delayed regenerative capacity and can use it to test regenerative therapies for this common condition and for other compound neuromuscular injuries. We have focused on testing noncellular regenerative methods that can be used to harness and amplify the limited regenerative capabilities of patients, even in those, such as the elderly, whose regenerative capabilities are limited. The secretions of stem cells are highly regenerative and anti-fibrotic even when delivered in the absence of the cells themselves. Electrical stimulation at low frequency, even with only a single dose, can accelerate regeneration of injured peripheral nerves via a mechanism of upregulation of neurotrophic factors and regenerative genes. Translating results from animal models to successful clinical trials is particularly difficult in regenerative medicine since humans are unique in their poor regenerative capacity as they tend more toward scarring than regeneration after injury. However, in the long term, scarring prevents regeneration, as well as vascularization and innervation of the newly regenerated or tissue engineered structures or organs. These noncellular regenerative approaches could have application to facilitate regeneration of nerves prior to scarring, improving regeneration and end organ reinnervation after traumatic injury.
Learn more about Dr. Margot Damaser and their research here.