John Clegg, assistant professor in the Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma, contributed to a study recently published in Science Translational Medicine. The study describes the researchers' development of a technology to improve MRI imaging after traumatic brain injury.
"We sought to increase the targeted delivery of MRI contrast agents to inflamed brain regions to aid in the diagnosis and characterization of mild traumatic brain injuries," Clegg said.
The research was led by Samir Mitragotri and faculty from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Harvard's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Boston Children's Hospital. Clegg contributed to the study while working as a postdoctoral fellow from 2019 to 2021 at Harvard. Specifically, he helped with the design and fabrication of disc-shaped contrast agent-loaded particles and helped to optimize processing conditions that allow those particles to adhere to macrophages.
Macrophages are a type of innate immune cell that recognize and distribute to sites of inflammation in the body. When macrophages carrying contrast agent-loaded microparticles, called GLAMs, were injected intravenously into the model species experiencing an acute traumatic brain injury, the researchers observed a detectable contrast unlike what could be obtained with current MRI contrast agents. Read the study published on Jan. 3, 2024 in Science Technology Medicine, DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adk5413
