A primary focus of Dr. Van Wie and his group is the study of new and better biosensors and bioanalytical platforms. Since completing a sabbatical at the Naval Research Laboratory in 2000-01, he has begun a collaboration to create hand-held and rapid-sensing devices for identifying and quantifying minute concentrations of persistent toxins in lakes and streams, of metabolites in the human body for disease diagnosis, and of antibodies, other products, and metabolites in cell culture processes for understanding the immune response and cell differentiation.
In the cell culture arena, Dr. Van Wie is a co-inventor of a novel centrifugal bioreactor process which he describes as an extreme reactor. It operates at extreme cell densities up to 108 cells/mL for mammalian cells, extreme pressures up to 7 atm, and higher shears up to 0.5 dyne/cm2. The high cell density will allow researchers to make 100 times the amount of monoclonal antibody as created in the same foot print for a conventional bioreactor and also will allow the study of multiple reactors at different conditions in the same small space. This will be helpful in studies on growth and productivity, while the high densities will also provide close contact of cells, allowing study of immune response and other cell interaction-dependent events. The cell density, high pressure and shear are expected to stimulate stress induced differentiation of certain cells, like chondrocytes, for cartilage production.
Dr. Van Wie and coworkers are taking a new approach to addressing two fundamental problems with traditional teaching methods—the wrong learning modality and lack of team-oriented learning. Dr. Van Wie has transformed a traditionally lecture-based fluid mechanics, and heat transfer course into vibrant, cooperative, hands-on, active, problem-based learning (CHAPL) experience. Among the results: with the former approach students would be least attentive by the end of a class; with the new approach they are performing at their peak, with appetites whetted for further and better understanding. Student grades are a full half-point scale higher and students report that what they are learning about learning is being applied to all of their other classes. Dr. Van Wie plans to disseminate the process to other institutions in the near future.