#eweekud

SPECIAL DELIVERY

Precision medicine aims to attack cancer cells and other health problems with carefully targeted therapies - delivering the right material in the right amount to the right place at the right time.

In her research with University of Delaware Professors Millicent Sullivan and Thomas H. Epps, III, sophomore Victoria Muir of Hockessin, Delaware, is working to fine tune some of the tiny capsules that carry specific cargo to address cancer and other diseases. The goal is to customize these "polymer nanocarriers" so they can deliver an optimal load of a specific nucleic acid (known as small interfering RNA) that knocks out the operations of certain genes and helps to disarm the cancer cell's destructive capacity.

The labs also are working to develop greater understanding of that delivery process.

FUNCTION AND FEEDBACK

Three more sets, 12 reps each? Didn't this just happen? It's been four weeks since the surgery and this shoulder still aches. More sets, more reps. No idea what's happening with this rehab and it's boring!

Wait! Don't throw in that physical therapy towel! This could be a case for mTrigger, the University of Delaware student-built biofeedback device that puts some fun into regaining function. The game-style device plugs into an iPhone by way of Bluetooth and designers say it may help people stick with their rehab exercises and see some progress while they're doing it. Unlike apps that stimulate muscles in passive ways, mTrigger uses electromyography to measure muscle action - and that action helps to restore neural pathways that may have been damaged or slowed.

CLEAN WATER FOR ALL

Engineers are all about solving problems and changing the world. The University of Delaware's chapter of Engineers Without Borders, founded by the late Professor Steve Dentel in 2006, puts students in the middle of that quest in areas that have great need and few resources.

Take the community of Ubujan, which is on the island of Bohol in the Philippines. Clean drinking water is a critical need there and UD's EWB chapter has sent representatives to evaluate the situation and work with community leaders to develop a solution. In visits in August 2015 and again last month, the team found that the community's only sources of drinking water all had fecal coliform bacteria, which can indicate contamination with human or animal waste. Those with the financial means to purchase bottled water or water from private wells can avoid that risk, but the average monthly income at Ubujan is about $116, putting such options out of reach for most.

Following the regulations of EWB-USA and in partnership with the local community, the EWB-UD team will evaluate the need, analyze several options, produce a design, build a solution, and monitor the results. The projects last for a minimum of five years.

UD's EWB chapter has another water project underway in Malawi. Two other projects - in Cameroon and Guatemala - are complete.

ECO VAPOR TOILET

When you've got to go, you've got to go - but that ordinary human necessity remains a problem for more than 2 billion people around the world, according to the World Health Organization. With no indoor plumbing and no community sanitary facilities, they go wherever they can. Often, that human waste winds up in the water supply or on their shoes and contributes to hundreds of thousands of deaths as people succumb to diarrhea, cholera, typhoid and other diseases.

A team of University of Delaware environmental engineering students, inspired by the work of the late Professor Steve Dentel, has been working to develop and refine the Eco Vapor toilet he envisioned - a self-contained receptacle lined with a special membrane that allows water vapor to escape, leaving only solid waste behind and preventing the spread of disease.

Juniors Sarah Hartman of Wilmington, Delaware, and Dianna Kitt of Aberdeen, Maryland, and doctoral students Shray Saxena of New Delhi, India, and Babak Ebraziakhshayesh of Tehran, Iran, have worked on the project, which includes laboratory work and field tests. Professors Daniel Cha and Paul Imhoff have been advisers.

DEFENDERS OF THE ESTUARY

Sure, textbooks have their place. But it's a good bet that kids will reach more quickly for a crab-filled, touch-screen game, not even realizing that the cartoon characters they're mixing it up with are teaching them about the ecology of estuaries - the habitats where rivers and seas intersect.

Five University of Delaware engineering students have been building such a game for the Delaware National Estuarine Research Reserve for students to use when they visit the St. Jones Reserve exhibit.

The game features Carrie the Crab, who enlists young gamers in an effort to catch invading mitten crabs, stop chemical runoff and identify other environmental hazards. Get through three mini-scenarios and you've made the party list.

It was developed by students in a class taught by Terry Harvey, associate professor of computer and information sciences, including senior Brendan Buckbee of Scranton, Pennsylvania, (chemical engineering); junior David Earley of Newark, Delaware, (information systems); senior Huayu Fu of Tianjin, China (electrical engineering); junior Zhanglong Peng of Jingzhou, Hubei Province, China (computer science); and senior Danielle Wegrzyn of Bear, Del. (computer science and visual communications).