PINAY SCIENTIST RAISES HOPE FOR
THE DISABLED
By Ric M. Pinca
Pinay scientist Christiane with Parents Elly and Vangie Gumera after graduating Doctor of Philosophy-Biomedical Engineering from a joint degree program of Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology. Her Thesis is
"New Materials and Scaffold Fabrication Method for Nerve Tissue Engineering" and Advisor is Dr. Yadong Wang
When Christiane Bacolor Gumera left Manila in 1988 for the United States, she was a sickly child
constantly having breathing difficulties.Today, she is a scientist helping a team of medical
researchers develop a cure for the disabled.
She originally wanted to become a doctor but decided to pursue Chemical Engineering at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - minor in Biomedical Engineering - to help develop
solutions to medical problems.
"As a child I often suffered asthma attacks that put me to hospital," Gumera said as she recalled her
early years in the polluted environs of San Andres, Manila.
"I knew then that i wanted to make an impact to help people."
Now pursuing her Doctorate (Ph.D.) in Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech, Gumera is deep into
the development of polymers for the repair of damaged human tissues.
Polymers are plastic-like materials widely used for industrial and household application. Gumera
and her team led by Assistant Professor Yadong Wang of the Department of Biomedical Engineering
at Georgia Tech and Emory University are pioneering the development of polymers for regenerating
damaged central nervous system cells known as neurons.
While the human body can repair minor injuries such as small cuts, the body cannot heal large
peripheral nerve or damage to the spinal cord on its own.
Currently, there is no medical treatment that enables a person to completely recover function after a
brain or spinal cord injury because the central nervous system have a very limited capability for self-
repair or regeneration.
What Gumera and her team have developed is a new series of polymers that may be used to help
stroke victims and others with with brain or spinal chord injuries recover the use of their affected limbs.
Their plan is to insert into this polymer a molecule that would act as a transmitter which would send
signals to the damaged cells encouraging the cell to heal, regenerate and thus regain its functions.
This polymer is to be surgically implanted on a patient.
This breakthrough could potentially help in the recovery of people with nerve and spinal inuries such
as those involved in vehicular accidents, or injured in sports, had physical trauma or had a stroke, and
give rise to the hope that people with disabilities may recover at least some use of their limbs.
Like all those engaged in pioneering work, Gumera faced many obstacles that would have daunted
the fainthearted.
For starters, there was nobody there to show her the ropes or how things have been done in the past.
In her case, since nobody had ever synthesized the starting materials needed to make the polymer,
she had to figure out which methods to apply and which among these were the best.
At the same time, she found starting the project extrememy exhilirating because it accorded her the
chance to accomplish something for the very first time, of creating something new that had not existed
before. This fueled her efforts to spend more and more time in the laboratory that it was not uncommon
for her to be in the lab even during weekends.
How does one cope with the high-stress life medical research? Gumera says that while research can
be challenging, she made sure that she has life outside the lab too. She enjoys playing competitive
tennis and is also into music, working on one or two compositions at a time.
"Right now, I am working on Chopin's First Ballade and Mozart's Fantasy."
It also helps that one is married to a fellow scientist, says Gumera. Husband Richard Cross has a
Ph.D. in Aerospace Enginering at MIT where they met. |
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