{"id":3403,"date":"2015-07-16T18:01:23","date_gmt":"2015-07-16T22:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/surgery\/speed-dating-event-featured-in-triangle-business-journal\/"},"modified":"2018-10-10T17:18:29","modified_gmt":"2018-10-10T21:18:29","slug":"speed-dating-event-featured-in-triangle-business-journal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/surgery\/speed-dating-event-featured-in-triangle-business-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"Speed Dating Event Featured in Triangle Business Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"Speed<\/p>\n

The UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center played matchmaker hosted a scientific speed-dating event to match surgeons with engineers based on mutual interests in solving real-world medical problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody does their job, and everybody is busy in their careers,\u201d says Dr. Jen Jen Yeh, the vice chair for research in the UNC School of Medicine Department of Surgery who helped organize the event. By forcing short sessions in which an engineer explains a new product and a surgeon explains a real-world problem, Yeh and her cohorts hoped to find a match.<\/p>\n

As it turns out, they found matches; ones that likely would not have happened without the speed-date function.<\/p>\n

At the end of the event, teams pitched their ideas for funding. UNC Lineberger contributed $40,000 thanks to the support of the University Cancer Research Fund, a fund created by the N.C. General Assembly for cancer research. The Joint UNC\/NC State Department of Biomedical Engineering and UNC School of Medicine Department of Surgery also contributed additional funding.<\/p>\n

The top match pitched the concept of a bandage that would release pain medication when stimulated by movement. The concept was pitched by Dr. Bruce Cairns, director of the N.C. Jaycee Burn Center, and Zhen Gu, a professor in the Joint UNC\/N.C. State Department of Biomedical Engineering.<\/p>\n

“This idea is about being able to deliver a drug to the wound in a reliable way,\u201d Cairns said of the bandage concept. \u201cWhen a patient gets burned, if they\u2019re laying still, it doesn\u2019t always hurt. What we have proposed is a motion-activated drug release.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gu was co-senior author of a study published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that detailed findings of research into a new, painless smart insulin patch. Their study found that the patch could lower blood glucose in a mouse model of type 1 diabetes for up to nine hours. Gu didn’t initially think of burn patients, but after talking with Cairns, the idea surfaced.<\/p>\n

Forcing a clinician together with an engineer made this event click, says Gu. \u201cSometimes we don\u2019t know exactly what is needed on the clinical side,\u201d Gu says. \u201cYou don\u2019t always know how to make (our research) more practical. This provided an efficient approach to getting people together to generate this kind of idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cairns said he jumped at the opportunity to participate in the event. \u201cFor me it was fantastic, because I could talk to several different investigators,\u201d he says, adding that looking to match surgeons with biomedical engineers made all the sense in the world. \u201cA lot of what we do in surgery is device related.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt triggered conversations, and the speed-date forced people to interact and brainstorm and share ideas,\u201d says Yeh.<\/p>\n

Cairns echoed Yeh\u2019s comments about why these matches don\u2019t happen more often, even between individuals on the same campus. \u201cIt\u2019s not that people don\u2019t want to make these things happen, there are just obstacles and barriers in everyday work,\u201d he says. \u201cWe all have a tendency to stay very focused in our own areas. \u2026 Breaking down silos is one of the goals of the modern research university.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yeh says she was encouraged by the participation in the first go-around, and plans to make this a quarterly event. \u201cThe plus side is that everyone had fun,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not just, \u2018Another thing I have to go to.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Cairns\/Gu team received $15,000 to develop their bandage. Other matches, according to UNC Lineberger, included:<\/p>\n