Pouch to Enhance Cell Therapy
To help provide insulin to diabetes patients, a team of five seniors and two freshmen, working with Johns Hopkins doctors and engineers, devised a protective "pouch" to fit inside the portal vein, which feeds the liver.
This pouch, formed by sandwiching a porous band of nylon mesh between two concentric metal stents, is similar to ones used to keep clogged blood vessels open. With the stents in place, microcapsules filled with cell therapy are injected into the gap between the stents and become trapped in the nylon mesh.
The project's sponsor, Jeff W. M. Bulte, director of the Cellular Imaging Section in the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering, has already applied for a provisional patent for the device.
Sponsor
- Jeff W. Bulte, Director of the Cellular Imaging Section in the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering
Undergraduate Student Design Team Members
- Daniel Chung
- Edward Sutter
- Nicholas Gil
- Kerim Eken
- Benjamin Kline
- Tom Link
- Joshua Crist
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