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03/02/12 – Christopher Rivet has successfully

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Christopher Rivet Is One of Three Finalists for
the $30,000 2012 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student
Prize

Christopher Rivet

Christopher Rivet has successfully married two powerful
bioengineering technologies to develop a new method for
delivering drugs directly to an injury site and jumpstarting
the process of tissue regeneration. His innovation could be an
important new tool in preventing paralysis resulting from
spinal cord trauma, cancer, diabetes, or a host of other
diseases.

Rivet, a doctoral student in the Department of Biomedical
Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, is one of three finalists for the 2012 $30,000
Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize. A public ceremony
announcing this year’s winner will be held at 6:45 p.m. on
Wednesday, March 7, in the auditorium of the Rensselaer Center
for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. For more
information on the ceremony visit: http://www.eng.rpi.edu/lemelson

Rivet’s project is titled “A Hydrogel and Electrospun Fiber
Composite Material,” and his faculty adviser is Ryan Gilbert,
assistant professor of biomedical engineering at
Rensselaer.

Sadly, there is no shortage of situations that lead to a
loss of functioning tissue and, in turn, paralysis. These
circumstances can range from the surgical removal of a tumor,
to untreated bedsores, to a spinal cord injury stemming from a
gunshot wound or traffic accident. All of these situations
require action first to stop the progression of the injury, and
secondly to restore function to the damaged tissue. However,
there is currently no treatment, short of receiving a
transplant from a donor, to simultaneously pursue both goals
and more effectively mitigate the onset of paralysis.

Rivet’s patent-pending invention pairs electrospun fibers
with hydrogels to help solve this important societal need. He
has developed a new way to disperse nanoscopic electrospun
fibers, which can prompt and guide tissue regeneration, within
injectable, drug-infused hydrogels. The result is an advanced
biomaterial that can mimic and serve as a temporary replacement
for living tissue.

For example, potential target could be a patient who had a
large bone tumor removed, leaving behind a hole that is too
large for the body to recover from on its own. The surgeon may
elect to use a hydrogel. Injected as a liquid, the hydrogel
would firm up and fill in the unique shape of the void.
Hydrogels can be treated with different drugs to help stop
progression of the injury, and the gels can be tuned to match
the mechanical properties of the tissue their replacing.
However, hydrogels cannot carry the appropriate chemical cues
to guide regenerative nerve cells into and out of the injury
site. This means hydrogels alone are not a winning strategy for
combating the onset of paralysis.

Rivet has incorporated electrospun fibers, which are spun
from polymer and can carry guidance cues and promote
functional recovery, into hydrogels. The end result is a
complex system that can deliver multiple drugs as well as the
necessary guidance cues to coax nerve cells through the injury
site and kick start the process of regeneration. As the
patient’s body tissue regenerates, the hydrogels and
electrospun fibers simply dissolve harmlessly. Rivet’s system
is also highly adaptable, as different electrospun fibers can
be matched with various hydrogels to achieve specific
goals.

When not in the lab or classroom, Rivet enjoys spending time
outdoors. If he’s not skiing, cycling, or hiking, you can
probably find him on the lake fishing. At home in Grand Blanc,
Mich., Rivet’s family and friends are rooting for him to win
the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize. His mother
is a high school math and science teacher and his father works
for the United Auto Workers labor union. Rivet’s older sister
is a laboratory manager at Kettering University.

Rivet was curious and creative as a young student, and he
strives to foster those virtues in others. He is an active
mentor in local elementary schools and high schools, sparking
the interest of students and encouraging them to seek out
opportunities to study and work in the fields of science,
technology, engineering, or mathematics. He also mentors
several undergraduate students at Rensselaer.

Rivet received his bachelor’s degree in biomedical
engineering from Michigan Technological University, and his
master’s degrees in biomedical engineering from Wayne State
University. He recently won a 2012 Endeavor Research Fellowship
from the Australian Department of Education to fund a six-month
research program at Monash University in Melbourne,
Australia.

About the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student
Prize

The $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize is funded
through a partnership with the Lemelson-MIT Program, which has
awarded the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize to outstanding
student inventors at MIT since 1995.

ABOUT THE LEMELSON-MIT PROGRAM

Celebrating innovation, inspiring
youth

The Lemelson-MIT Program celebrates outstanding innovators
and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers
through invention.

Jerome H. Lemelson, one of U.S. history’s most prolific
inventors, and his wife, Dorothy, founded the Lemelson-MIT
Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994.
It is funded by The Lemelson Foundation and administered by the
School of Engineering. The Foundation sparks, sustains, and
celebrates innovation and the inventive spirit. It supports
projects in the U.S. and developing countries that nurture
innovators and unleash invention to advance economic, social,
and environmentally sustainable development.To date The Lemelson Foundation
has donated or committed more than U.S. $150 million in support
of its mission.

For information on the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer
Student Prize, visit:

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