Star Tribune
No funding, no lab, no problem for dogged University of Minnesota student inventors
The professor and his students navigated the aisles of Axman Surplus, collecting bits of salvaged hardware, circuits, electrical components.
Something old to build something new.
Steven Saliterman, a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota, and a small group of undergraduates were building a new medical device from scratch. He often worked with students on inventions and innovations, but this time, they were answering a call for help.
Reynaud’s phenomenon is a frustrating and sometimes painful condition that causes blood vessels to contract, decreasing circulation to the extremities — particularly in cold weather. Bad news for sufferers in frigid Minnesota as their fingers, toes, ears or noses turn bone-white or blue.
One of Saliterman’s colleagues, a doctor, reached out. His wife, who has Reynaud’s, wondered if anyone at the U was working on a device, not a drug, that could treat or prevent the uncomfortable symptoms. There had been some promising studies into the possibility of light therapy, but no one had tried to develop a treatment for humans. Yet.
Saliterman and his students took up the challenge. It was 2017.
Creating new medical technology when “there’s no formal funding and no formal lab to work in, because they’re undergraduate students, is a real challenge,” Saliterman said. “You have to say, ‘We’re going to make this work, we’re going to find what we need, we’re going to scrounge. Whatever it takes.'”
Brett Levac was a sophomore majoring in electrical engineering when he joined the project. He remembers riding the light rail to Axman, looking for technology to scrounge.
“In the beginning, it was looking for components … to see what we could Frankenstein together,” he said.
Bit by bit, they built the first prototype, then the next, then the next. Devices that looked a bit like high-tech toaster ovens. They custom-built sensors, pored over research and data and navigated reams of paperwork and permissions, hoping the technology in this toaster oven would lead to wearable devices that could treat or even prevent Reynaud’s symptoms.
When the pandemic shut down most research trials at the U, the student inventors used the fingers they had available to test the device. Their own.
“In the great tradition of Edward Jenner, who tested the smallpox vaccination on himself, not knowing if it would kill him or not, our students and Dr. Saliterman stuck their arms and hands in the device and they’re all still here to talk about it,” said Dr. Jerry Molitor, who works with patients suffering from systemic sclerosis — a rare autoimmune disease in which most of the patients suffer from severe forms of Reynaud’s phenomenon.
The device the students have produced — now patented and likely to head to clinical trials — is “wonderful,” said Molitor, who worked as an advisor to the project.
The work the students did on the device shaped the work they want to do in the future.
“Working on this project showed me that I like trying to create new things,” said Levac, who is doing most of his creating in code these days, working toward his Ph.D. in electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
The project — and the people it brought together from so many different fields of study — inspired Emily Wagner, who was enrolled in the school of nursing when she first signed on. The research, and the many factors that can cause disease, fascinated her and she changed her major to physiology. She is now pursuing a master’s degree in public health, with an eye toward medical school down the road.
James Kerber dove into the piles of paperwork that underpin any study and found that he had a knack for navigating arcane rules, paper trails and bureaucracy.
Looking up rules, working with different offices and agencies, made him realize, “yeah, I kind of enjoy this,” he said. He decided to go to law school – an inventor with a patent, studying patent law.
“I did my bachelor’s and master’s in biomedical engineering during this project and then, partly because of this project, I am in law school,” said Kerber, who is in the middle of law school finals this week.
The authors of the project and the University of Minnesota received a utility patent (U.S. 11,865,357) for the light-based treatment device they developed. The project was published in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering in late March.
And then, finally, Saliterman could reach out to the physician who reached out to him six years ago.
“He was just elated,” Saliterman said. “The first thing he said was, ‘I had no idea how much work it would take you.'”
To read about the Reynaud’s project in detail, visit: saliterman.umn.edu/special-project-team.
About 50 Ukrainian refugees have signed up to donate blood on Saturday in Minneapolis as a way to give thanks to Americans for welcoming them to this country and for support in the face of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.
The donated blood will then be given to the Children’s Hospital of Minnesota.
The Ukrainian American Community Center, located at 301 NE Main St. in Minneapolis, has organized the event. The blood drive will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, said Iryna Petrus, community outreach manager at the center.
“It’s a sign of gratitude to Americans for supporting Ukraine and saving children’s lives in Ukraine,” said Yosyf Sabir, speaking on behalf of the blood drive.
It’s also a way to say “thank you to the United States for welcoming us so warmly,” said Petrus. She said there will be a program at 10 a.m. Saturday when several leaders of the Ukrainian American Community Center will speak. She said the center is hopeful that Ukrainian groups in other parts of North America will do similar blood drives.
Those who are unable to give blood have been asked to donate cash, which will be used to purchase tourniquets that will sent to Ukraine to be used by persons who have been injured in the war. Every $50 raised will purchase one hemostatic tourniquet, the Ukrainian Center said in a news release.
If approved, that approach would drop the district’s fund balance to 6% of general fund expenditures. The current board policy is to maintain a fund balance of at least 10% of general fund expenditures.
Anoka-Hennepin’s current operating referendum brings in about $1,154 per student, but the state-allowed cap is about $2,200 per student. If increased to the cap amount, a referendum would bring in another $40 million, McIntyre said.
According to community feedback collected through surveys and community meetings over the last month, nearly 90% of respondents said they supported a referendum. Parents and families also expressed concern about growing class sizes as a result of cuts.
The two options have already been revised based on board members’ requests to reduce cuts that would mean fewer teachers at schools, McIntyre said.
At one point in the discussion, the district floated changes to middle and high school class schedules to save money, but that was removed after board member feedback. At the board’s meeting last month, several board members thanked district staff for transparency about potential cuts and responsiveness to board and community feedback.
“I would encourage people to keep asking questions,” Board Member Michelle Langenfeld said at the September board meeting, “because as we unfold more information, the opportunity becomes greater for us to make the most informed decision under these very, very difficult circumstances.”
On Monday morning, contract workers began snipping razor wire and removing it from fencing that was propped atop concrete barriers along the perimeter of the former Third Precinct police station, which was set ablaze during the uprising over George Floyd’s police killing.
Finally, the concrete barricades will come down, after 4.5 years. As private security guards looked on, contractors began removing the security measures put in place to secure the building at 3000 Minnehaha Av. after it became a focal point of protests.
For the past three years, Third Precinct police officers have been based out of a city building in downtown Minneapolis, with plans to eventually bring them back to a south Minneapolis Community Safety Center just down the street at 2633 Minnehaha Av.
What to do with the former police station – home to what has been called a “playground” for renegade cops – has been the subject of heated debate, with the Minneapolis City Council and Mayor Jacob Frey at odds.
While the city debated its future, some conservatives jumped at the chance to use the charred building as a backdrop to hold press conferences and news reports in which they blasted the city and its leaders. Most recently, vice presidential nominee JD Vance made a campaign stop in front of the building earlier this month to blast his opponent, Gov. Tim Walz, for his handling of the 2020 riots and portray Minneapolis as a city overrun with crime.
GOP vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance speaks outside the former Minneapolis Police 3rd Precinct building in Minneapolis on Oct. 14. (Leila Navidi)
After that, several council members expressed frustration at the city’s failure to clean up the site. Despite signs saying “cleanup efforts are underway,” concrete barriers, fencing and razor wire remained all summer.
Council Member Aurin Chowdhury said earlier this month that the blight makes people feel uncared for and gives opportunists a backdrop to manipulate the scene for political gain.
Council Member Linea Palmisano blamed some of her council colleagues for the delays, accusing some members of being “desperate for any objection” to Frey’s proposal. The council passed a resolution saying that the building should not be used for any law enforcement functions again. Palmisano called it disgraceful that the building remains, scarred and secured, over four years later.
