Forrest Kievit
Assistant Professor of Biological Systems Engineering
Dr. Forrest Kievit and his team research biomedical engineering at the smallest scales to find treatments for big problems. To improve treatment for patients with significant illnesses in or injuries to the brain, Forrest utilizes technology at the atomic scale. His lab builds nanoparticles, objects between 1 and 100 nanometers in length, for biomedical applications within the brain (for contrast, a red blood cell is approximately 7000-8000 nanometers in diameter).
Brain tumors or penetrative injuries weaken the blood brain barrier, or the brain's protection layer. Nanoparticles are small enough to penetrate the weakened blood brain barrier and offer a way to improve getting therapeutics into the brain. They can be made of polymers, ceramics, oxides, or heavy metals.
Due to their high surface area-to-volume ratio, nanomaterials exhibit minimal material use while delivering a high amounts of drugs or other molecules needed to perform particular medicinal functions. The attached molecules release more slowly and accurately to the targeted cell compared to drugs injected directly into the patient that go everywhere in the body. They can also bind harmful molecules released during or after an injury so that those molecules may be swept out of the brain.
The Kievit lab currently study the effects of nanoparticles in animal models with potential for treating pediatric brain cancer patients and persons with traumatic brain injuries. Radiation is often the only post-surgery therapy available to children, since chemotherapy can be too toxic. Forrest and his team researches how to sensitize pediatric brain cancer cells to make radiation therapy more effective and to reduce the amount of radiation used in children. The use of nanoparticles may also reduce the potential for lifelong neurocognitive problems caused by exposure to large radiation doses.
The Kievit lab also studies nanoparticle models for applications in persons who have experienced penetrative traumatic brain injuries. The design of nanoparticles in this research is different because the core of the nanoparticle itself was engineered to act as therapeutic to bind and inactivate harmful molecules released in the brain due to severe trauma. The nanoparticles could combat the spread of an injury that can occur for several months or years after the initial trauma.
Current research partnerships include working with DNA repair biologists at UNMC on pediatric brain cancer and the Ohio State University on small molecule drugs as well as with a polymer chemist at Missouri University of Science and Technology, who is interested in formulating new polymer nanoparticles for Forrest's lab to test in imaging and animal models.
In the future, Forrest is interested in delving further into the mechanics of the blood brain barrier and understanding how to optimally design nanoparticles for treatment of less severe brain injuries, such as concussions or neurodegenerative diseases. Potential collaborations include working with the nanomedicine group at UNMC on particles for medical imaging. There could also be a potential partnership with ProTransit Nanotherapy, the sole nanotechnology company in Nebraska, on imaging and therapeutic studies.
Recent successes in the Kievit lab include two awards for graduate student Aria Tarudji (the Elenore Gakemeier Swarts Graduate Student Travel Award and the Milton E. Mohr Teaching Fellowship); two UCARE awards for undergraduate students Megan Ruckman, Biological Systems Engineering, and Rose Nelson, Microbiology, to study "Sensitization of Pediatric Brain Cancer Cells to Radiation by Nanoparticles"; as well as recent funding awards from the Buffet Cancer Center, Pediatric Cancer Research Group, and Nebraska Collaboration Initiative.