Nathan at Ole Miss vs. UAB game.

Ole Miss 48, UAB 13

Nathan’s older brothers are in college.  He misses them, but we had a great opportunity to see both of them this past weekend.  Brother Adam is a senior at UAB, and brother Steven is a freshman at Ole Miss.  Their two football teams went head to head at Vaught Hemingway Stadium at Oxford on Saturday night.  The potential for family discord was significant, but somehow, sportsmanship prevailed.

The night didn’t go so well for Adam; UAB was, as Nathan put it, French Toast.  But Steven and Nathan had a great night.  Steven’s team won handily, and Nathan enjoyed hot chocolate and cotton candy.  Not my idea of a good combination, but Nathan loved it.

Hotty Toddy!

Adam Blakeney

Last month, Bryan and I traveled to Birmingham to see our son, Adam, receive two special awards at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. We were very proud to witness him accepting the Biomedical Engineering Student of the Year Award and the Dean’s Award for being the most outstanding student in the School of Engineering.  Recently, he was part of an adult stem cell research team that published “A hybrid biomimetic scaffold composed of electrospun polycaprolactone nanofibers and self-assembled peptide amphiphile nanofibers” in  Biofabrication. I know, I know.  I have no idea what that means either.

Tonight, we learned of one more wonderful accomplishment. Adam has been named ASPE (Alabama Society of Professional Engineers) Engineering Student of the Year.  He was selected from among the top students studying various aspects of engineering at colleges and universities throughout the state of Alabama.  Who knows what the future holds?  Maybe he will have a hand in finding better treatments for congenital heart defects.  We are very excited for him.

But we are also a little incredulous. This is the same young man who ran around my living room in Osh Kosh B’gosh singing the theme song to “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (…Heroes on the half shell – Turtle Power!).  This is the little kid who could recite verbatim Star Trek’s introductory sequence:  “Space… the final frontier.  These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. It’s five year mission:  to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before…”

[Update:  The University of Alabama at Birmingham has posted an article about Adam's accomplishments on their website.  See http://main.uab.edu/Sites/MediaRelations/articles/67820/.]

Adam Blakeney culturing stem cells in the Shelby Biomedical Research Building at UAB

My oldest son (Nathan’s big bro’), Adam, has almost completed his undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.  His team has completed a project that has recently been published in Biofabrication, a journal of state-of-the-art research and development.  Much of what those guys do is waaay over my head, but I asked Adam about his work and the kind of innovations we may see in the future.

“I design materials using plastics and protein building blocks, which contain and control the growth of human stem cells derived from adults,” he tells me.  He experiments with the creation of “cell scaffoldings,” attempting to “mimic the body’s natural mesh of collagen and elastin as closely as possible.”  The goal is to fashion the right combination of materials and artistry so that living replicas of human parts (blood vessels and heart valves, e.g.) can become functional replacements for diseased or deformed parts.

How might this technology benefit children with congenital heart defects? “Deformed heart valves in infants usually mean  multiple surgeries over the course of the child’s life as the heart outgrows the implanted artificial valve,” Adam says.  Stem cell researchers hope to eliminate the need for extra surgeries.  “By creating a shell of a valve out of plastics or natural materials, and infusing them with stem cells, the hope is for the cells to overtake the originally artificial valve,” he explains.  “As the heart grows, the old valve would break down and replace itself using the cell’s naturally produced collagen and elastin.”

Adam and Nathan (li'l Adam!)

Adam says it’s difficult to tell how close scientists are to turning research into reality.  “‘How close changes monthly, but I could see applications using stem cells becoming widespread in ten to fifteen years.”  He says there are still challenges to overcome, one of the biggest being “controlling what happens to a stem cell when it is implanted.”  Addressing this problem will involve “a combination of localized drugs, genetic engineering, and the structure which the cells are placed on, each of which have their own set of problems.”

Despite the challenges, Adam sees a positive future for this research.  “Repairing damaged heart muscle and missing vasculature are strong candidates for the first widespread applications of tissue engineering.”

It is no longer unrealistic to envision growing new tissue from our own stem cells to repair damaged organs.  Science fantasy is on the verge of becoming science fact.

Karen, Adam, Bryan, and Nathan Blakeney. Adam is holding the Dean's Award.

Birmingham is one of my favorite places to visit–I love the shopping (the Summit!), the restaurants (Cheesecake Factory, Jim and Nicks, Kobe…), and the rolling beauty of the countryside.  Bryan, Nathan, and I  just spent a lovely weekend there to witness our oldest son, Adam, as he received awards at UAB’s Thirty-fourth Annual Honors Convocation.

The event honoring the top undergraduate and graduate students in each department was held at the Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center.  Adam was the recipient of the Dean’s Award for being the most outstanding undergraduate student in the School of Engineering.  He was also named the Biomedical Engineering Student of the Year.

We can hardly wait to have Adam home again in the summer.  Unfortunately, our reunion will be brief as he will return to Birmingham to continue working with professors in adult stem cell research.  I can’t fuss too much.  Who knows?  Maybe he’ll have a hand in developing improved treatments for congenital heart defects one day.