Advanced Manufacturing and Magnetic Materials Laboratory (AMA³)

www.chmieluslab.org

The Advanced Manufacturing and Magnetic Materials Laboratory (AMA³) of Dr. Markus Chmielus focuses on additive manufacturing, processing, alloy development, thin films deposition and single crystal growth of high performance metals for structural, high-temperature and biomedical applications as well as functional magnetic materials including magnetic shape-memory and magnetocaloric alloys. The laboratory is not only using all additive manufacturing methods available in the ANSYS-PITT Additive Manufacturing Research Laboratory but also develops new methods to a manufacture alloys with distinct properties and functionality.

Major experiments that are performed in the AMA³ laboratory include thin film deposition and in-situ characterization (stress and microstructure) of metals with a customized AJA ultra-high vacuum magnetron sputter deposition system, processing furnaces, non-destructive (e.g. micro-computed tomography, density measurements), mechanical testing overall length scales (e.g. tensile and fatigue testing, hardness testing, shear-punch testing, indentation), microstructural characterization (e.g. optical and electron microscopy, orientation mapping, porosity and phase determination), characterization of magneto-mechanical, magnetocaloric, thermo-magnetic and magnetic properties and synchrotron and neutron diffraction experiments at large user facilities.

Anthony Deardo, PhD 
Phone:   412-624-9737
Email: deardo@pitt.edu 

The Basic Metals Processing Research Laboratory (BAMPRL) focuses on metallurgical research of interest to the basic metals industry, especially steels. The objectives of BAMPRL are to compensate for the reduction of in-house research & development by industry that has occurred in the past two decades. BAMPRL develops and implements the latest product and processing technology for producers, fabricators, and end-users. It also helps educate the future leaders in the metals industry by offering undergraduate and graduate level courses in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science.  Anthony J. DeArdo, William Kepler Whiteford Professor, is director of BAMPRL.

 

Anne Robertson, PhD 

Phone: 412-624-9775
Email: rbertson@pitt.edu 

The Bio Tissues and Complex Fluids Laboratory, directed by Anne Robertson, PhD, is devoted to the characterization and experimental study of complex materials. Much of the work in this laboratory focuses on understanding and quantifying the link between material behavior and structure in soft biological tissues such as the walls of arteries- in both health and disease. We use experimental, theoretical and computational tools for these investigations.  For example, we have used multiphoton microscopy coupled with mechanical testing to image the gradual recruitment of collagen fibers in the artery wall during mechanical loading.  This coupled approach enabled us to clarify the role of collagen fibers in determining the nonlinear mechanical properties of the artery wall.  We then used this data to develop structurally motivated constitutive models of the artery wall that can be used in computational studies of the damage caused during medical treatments such as balloon angioplasty.

 

Jack Patzer, PhD
patzer@pitt.edu

This laboratory is under the direction of Jack Patzer, PhD and focuses on research related to the application of BioThemodynamics and BioTransport Phenomena (principles of heat, momentum, and mass transport) to understanding the properties of physiological systems, medical devices, and bioreactor engineering. Current investigations involve the application bound solute dialysis (BSD) as a detoxification approach to support patients with liver failure, use of ischemia protective polymers (IPP) to mitigate ischemia/reperfusion injury in organ harvest and transplant, and wound perfusion/skin regeneration for patients with severe burns. Major equipment includes a Sun workstation for finite element analysis of fluid dynamics, spectrophotometers for colorimetric composition analysis, plate reader for colorimetric composition analysis, blood-gas analyzer, table-top refrigerated centrifuge, cell incubators, and Prisma dialysis machines. Other equipment includes multiple roller pumps, gas mass flow controllers, oscilloscope, electrochemistry controllers and analyzers.

 

Part of the Center for Bioengineering: This facility enables students to participate in an undergraduate laboratory course that integrates the knowledge and skills from three core Bioengineering courses including: Biotransport Phenomena; Mechanical Principles of Biologic Systems; and Biothermodynamics. Equipment utilized in the laboratory includes an ATS 1101 Materials Testing Device, adult and pediatric blood oxygenation flow loops incorporating Biomedicus blood pumps, two ABL5 Blood Gas Analyzers, and several dialysis systems. The laboratory is designed to accommodate 24 students in a session.

This lab is directed by Dr. Youngjae Chun and its objective is to design, manufacture, and test medical devices for treating vascular diseases. Primary research focuses on improving device performance and developing more diverse biomedical applications for treating vascular diseases with a focus on novel materials and manufacturing concepts. This lab also focuses on developing novel artificial biomaterials such as fully biocompatible hybrid/composite materials made of metals, polymers, and bio-species. Facilities include in-vitro pulsatile flow circuits with vascular disease models, cell-tissue culture capabilities, and florescent microscopy with imaging system.  Current research is focused on the development of a nove in-vitro test apparatus for characterizing flow alterations and monitoring local blood pressure distributions with the placement of endovascular devices.  

 

Yadong Wang, PhD 

Phone: 412-624-7196  
Email: yaw20@pitt.edu  

This laboratory, under the direction of Yadong Wang, PhD, works at the interface of chemistry, materials, and medicine. The research focus is on creating biomaterials that present controlled chemical, physical, and mechanical signals to the biological systems. The ultimate goal is to direct how human bodies will interact with these materials in a therapeutic environment. The laboratory actively engages in collaborative efforts to explore the applications of these materials in cardiovascular tissue engineering, nerve regeneration, and controlled release of therapeutics. The major equipment of the laboratory includes essential tools for chemical synthesis (inert atmosphere box, GPC, microwave synthesis station) and cell biology (plate reader, microscope, RT PCR).
Current Frank cluster hardware

• 200, 8-core Intel Nehalem, 12GB-48GB RAM
• 45, 12-core Intel Westmere, 12GB-48GB RAM
• 23, 48-core AMD Magny-cours, 48GB-256GB RAM
• Total of 3244 CPU cores
• 16 NVIDIA C2050 general purpose GPU cards
• Low-latency Infiniband interconnect (most nodes)

 

Bryan Brown, PhD
brownb@upmc.edu

The Brown Laboratory is a newly established space housed within the BSP2 of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine.  The focus of the laboratory is on the role of the host immune response to implantable biomaterials.  The phenotype and function of host innate immune cells is of particular interest, and has been shown to be a predictor of the success of biomaterials based strategies for tissue reconstruction.  The Brown Laboratory also participates in new biomaterials development and identification of biomaterials for clinical applications.  The Brown Laboratory is equipped for both in vitro cell culture and assessment of samples from in vivo experimentation.

 

Sanjeev Shroff 
Profile 

This laboratory is under the direction of Sanjeev Shroff, PhD and focuses on research related to cardiovascular mechano-energetics and structure-function relationships.  This research utilizes a variety of biophysical, cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, and imaging techniques. The facility has: 1) setups for biophysical measurements at isolated heart, isolated muscle, and single cell levels (mechanics and intracellular calcium transients), 2) a cell-culture room (incubator, laminar flow hood, centrifuge, microscope), and 3) a wet lab which has equipment necessary to do protein biochemistry and molecular biology research.