Synthetic Grafts in Bypass Surgeries Can Be Improved, Says ASU Doctoral Student Karen Butterfield

Annually more than one million patients in the U.S. and Europe undergo coronary or vascular bypass surgery due to cardiovascular disease, which is one of the leading causes of death in the United States.

A significant number of the synthetic grafts (artificial blood vessels) that are implanted during a bypass fail, says Karen Butterfield, a doctoral student in the Harrington Department of Bioengineering.

Since it's not always possible to use the patient's own tissue for a bypass, Butterfield hopes to develop synthetic biomaterials that will more effectively mimic the body's natural process in repairing and regenerating the diseased area. Her research focuses on the role of polysaccharides on the extracellular matrix (ECM), the scaffolding on which cells in the body live, grow, repair, and regenerate.

Karen is working in collaboration with Dr. Alyssa Panitch, now at Purdue, and Dr. Michael Caplan of the Harrington Department of Bioengineering.

Karen obtained her Bachelor's degree in Bioengineering from Rice University, where she also competed on the women's varsity tennis team and earned an athletic scholarship. As a scholar athlete, she received the Arthur Ashe Regional Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship and was declared the Women's Tennis Team Co-Captain/Most Valuable Player. Her work in bioengineering at Rice included research in the SMART program at Baylor College of Medicine and the National Science Foundation IGERT Summer Undergraduate Program in Cellular engineering where she placed first in the poster competition.

In 2004, Karen came to ASU because "ASU had strong departments for both my husband and I to pursue our graduate studies." Brad Butterfield is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Life Sciences (SOLS).

Since arriving at ASU, she has received the Flinn Fellowship, an American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship and was recently awarded the prestigious Achievement Awards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation scholarship.

In addition to her research, she hopes to pursue an internship in industry before she graduates, so "I will have more tools under my belt," she says.