Page 14 - Kettering Magazine Spring 2015

Crash Safety Center Featured on CBC News he Kettering University Crash Safety Center was featured in a segment on TCanada Broadcasting Corporation's (CBC) Marketplace, a consumer reports news show, in December. The segment, which focused on consumer products on the market related to pet safety during vehicle crashes, was partially filmed in Kettering’s Crash Safety Center (CSC) in October. Dr. Janet Transforming Brelin-Fornari, professor of Mechanical Engineering and director of the CSC, along with research engineer Sheryl Ocular Cancer Janca and graduate students Craig Price and John Casci, conducted testing on five different products. Treatment “This (Kettering) University lab is a regular stop for the auto industry,” the segment states. “Testing the safety of seatbelts, newfound partnership between Dr. airbags, even child seats.” A Prem Vaishnava, professor of Physics Recent work in the Crash Safety Center includes contributing to soon-to-be-adopted at Kettering University, and Dr. Hakan standards by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Demirci at the University of Michigan to develop a side impact test procedure for child restraint systems. That research Kellogg Eye Center is attempting to forever helped inform new testing standards that were proposed by NHTSA. Kettering change the treatment of ocular cancer worked with NHTSA for more than two years and the Notice of Proposed Rule in the United States through a targeted Making (NPRM) became public in 2014. and precise technique that has proven to mitigate the disease without the side Read more: www.kettering.edu/news/kettering-university-crash-safety-center- effects of chemotherapy and radiation. featured-national-news-show-canada “We are confident our technique would work because we have results Researchers Working on Durable of preliminary testing in a petri dish,” Joint Replacement Materials Vaishnava said. “We have documented proof that our procedure would kill cancer cells without using chemotherapy and/or ettering University student Julia Carson’s mother radiation.” Kis an oncology nurse and her father is a controls The treatment uses magnetic nanoparticles engineer – combine the two and you have the makeup and magnetic microbubbles to specifically of her passions and academic pursuits at Kettering. target Chorodial Melanoma and Retinoblastoma – both cancers of the eye. Carson is a Mechanical Engineering major with a This technique is currently being used to minor in Biology and is striving to solve engineering treat cancer in humans in Europe but has dilemmas involving the human body. At Kettering, she not yet been approved in the United States. has partnered with Dr. Cheryl Samaniego, Applied Biology professor, to address the concerns of joint replacement materials. “The science is there and there’s proof Typically, joint replacement materials in the knee and hip last an average of 10-15 that it works. Phase I and Phase II trials years after which they begin to deteriorate. The materials break down into smaller have been conducted successfully using components and trigger the body’s immune response. Samaniego, Carson and colleagues magnetic nanoparticles in animals in the are performing biocompatibility studies to test different coatings and surfaces designed United States,” Vaishnava said. by Chemical Engineering faculty Dr. Susan Farhat, Dr. Mary Gilliam and Dr. Ali Zand that Read more: www.kettering.edu/ can be used on joint replacement materials to enhance their durability and longevity and news/kettering-university-michigan- minimize the deterioration that leads to ill effects in the human body. researchers-partner-transform- ocular-cancer-treatment Read more: www.kettering.edu/news/kettering-university-researchers- working-more-durable-joint-replacement-materials 14 KETTERING MA G AZINE SPRING 2015 14