DURHAM At the University of New Hampshires Center of Integrated Biomedical and Bioengineering Research, students and staff are working on breakthroughs in rare cancers, autism, memory and tissue engineering.

UNH earned the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education R1 distinction in December 2018.

According to school officials, the biomedical and bioengineering center provides equipment and training for the next generation of biological scientists and will help maintain and improve the colleges overall research designation.

Were providing the environment so that the biological sciences are holding their own with maintaining that R1 designation, said Rick Cote, director of the center.

The center is funded by a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. That funding can be extended up to 15 years, Cote said.

Cote said the center allows an impressive number of students to participate in research compared to other universities. Undergraduate and graduate students work in the labs.

The experiences that students get in a research environment, not just a teaching lab, but in a research environment, really make them highly competitive for jobs in the biotech industry, the pharmaceutical industry and biomanufacturing, Cote said.

Travis Fischer of Candia is a junior studying biochemisty. He said having access to hands-on research is why he chose UNH over other colleges.

Fischer is part of the Honors Program. He works with associate professor of immunology Sherine Elsawa as she works to understand rare cancers.

When I graduate from here, hopefully with my bachelors, I want to go to grad school doing sort of the same thing, looking at cancer, other disease, research-based fields. And then after that, I want to go into industry or continue conducting my own research, Fischer said.

Elsawa is currently looking at how inflammation and cancer might be connected.

A little bit of inflammation is a good thing because if you have a viral infection or a bacterial infection, the body produces these inflammatory proteins to alert the immune system to come and take care of this problem. But if its not regulated, then it can be a problem, Elsawa explained.

Ph.D. candidate Ashley Sterpka, who has a bachelors degree in biology and a masters in science education from Syracuse University, is working with associate professor of neurobiology Xuanmao Chen to understand autism and memory.

Chen and his team published a study last year that may help answer the question of why autism is four times more common in boys than girls. They identified and characterized the connection of certain proteins in the brain to autism spectrum disorders, according to UNH Today.

Now, Sterpka is looking into astrocytes in the brain, which help neurons connect.

In the cases of neurodegenerative diseases like multiple sclerosis and Alzheimers, brain injury, epilepsy, and a whole plethora of just brain illnesses, astrocytes become reactive and when they become reactive they change shape and they change function, too, Sterpka said.

Ph.D. student Seth Edwards, who has a bachelors degree in chemical engineering from the University of Rochester and lives in Hampton, was a co-author on the study associate professor of chemical engineering Kyung Jae Jeong published in ACS Applied Bio Materials in October 2018.

Jeong and his team had created a low-cost, injectable hydrogel that could help wounds heal faster.

They are currently working on injectable hydrogels for bone and cardiac engineering.

Were looking to apply our systems to those, among other applications, Edwards said.

Other current research projects at the Center of Integrated Biomedical and Bioengineering Research include work on nicotine stimulus and identification of major depressive disorders, according to UNHs website.

Cote said the center has approximately 15 faculty members and 75 students.

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Biomedical and bioengineering center at UNH committed to cutting-edge research - The Union Leader