Keith Cook’s research focuses on applying engineering to critical care medicine. This research melds mechanical, chemical, and material science concepts toward the development of artificial and tissue-based lungs, pulmonary drug delivery, and the computational modeling and prevention of coagulation in medical devices.
Department Head and Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Current research projects in his group include thoracic artificial lungs, biofabricated tissue-based lungs, new biomaterial approaches for reducing coagulation at artificial surfaces, and perfluorocarbon emulsions for pulmonary drug delivery. Of note, his laboratory was the first to produce 24-hour, one-week, and 30-day in vivo studies of thoracic artificial lungs, and his group is working on an artificial lung intended as destination therapy for years of respiratory support. Professor Cook currently serves as the Faculty Director of the Bioengineered Organs Initiative at CMU and is a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.
Keith Cook’s research interests include: artificial lungs; hemodynamics; pulmonary drug delivery; liquid ventilation; right ventricular function; and critical care medicine.
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Our laboratory works on the fabrication of lungs composed of 100% biological materials. These lungs have a scaffold consisting of collagen I that is then seeded with endothelial cells on the blood channels and epithelial cells on the airways. Current work focuses on optimizing the gas exchange membranes, evaluating their performance, computational lung design, and developing manufacturing methods for a human booster lung.
Only a small fraction of patients who need a lung transplant will ever be placed on the waiting list. Thus, our group is developing permanent means of respiratory support for patients with chronic lung disease. To achieve this, we need to expand the useful lifetime of artificial lungs to allow permanent, home-based support. Projects in this area include development of compact, highly biocompatible artificial lungs; various means to slow blood clotting within these devices; and biofabricated, tissue-based lungs.
In many lung diseases, direct delivery of inhaled drugs to the lungs is desired, but the diseased airways are blocked by mucus or inflammatory exudates. To overcome this issue, our group emulsifies drugs within perfluorocarbon liquids (PFCs) and delivers these emulsions to the lungs. When instilled in the lung, PFC emulsions penetrate down to the alveolar level, wash out harmful fluids, open airways, provide normal or even enhanced gas exchange, and hasten lung recovery. Current applications include severe respiratory infections and acute lung injury.
Blood begins to clot instantly whenever it touches an artificial material. Over time, this causes failure of numerous blood bearing medical devices, including catheters, grafts, and various artificial organs. Our group works to develop various approaches to passivate biomaterial surfaces in these devices and thus slow coagulation, but without using systemic anticoagulants that can cause bleeding. We are currently exploring the use of zwitterionic surface coatings, surface nitric oxide flux, and highly selective inhibitors of the intrinsic branch of the coagulation cascade.
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CMU Engineering
Keith Cook joins a multi-institutional, DARPA-funded project to create a novel ECMO and advanced life-support system device capable of rapid deployment to support wounded military personnel.
CMU Engineering
Carnegie Mellon’s entry into online education will provide working professionals flexible access to world class graduate-level training in emerging and evolving technologies.
CMU Engineering
An interdisciplinary team led by Keith Cook has been awarded $8.7 million dollars from the U.S. Army to create and integrate new technologies to sustain permanent at-home artificial lung support.
US Army CDMRP
BME’s Keith Cook, Jana Kainerstorfer, and Howie Choset, along with colleagues at Vanderbilt University and Cornell University, have been awarded an $8.7 million grant from the US Army CDMRP program. The group is working to create and integrate technologies that enable artificial lungs to transition from temporary support in the ICU to permanent support at home.
CMU Engineering
Mayo Clinic and Carnegie Mellon University announced today a research agreement to transform organ transplantation. The institutions will bioengineer innovative approaches to address current barriers in organ transplantation.
CMU Engineering
Keith Cook has been selected to be the next head of the Biomedical Engineering Department (BME) at Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering. The appointment takes effect immediately.
U.S. Department of Defense
BME Interim Head Keith Cook has been awarded a $1.45 million grant from the U.S. Army Congressionally Directed Medical Research programs to develop a pulmonary assist system (PAS) to support military veterans and other patients with long-term, incurable lung disease for a period of months to years.
CMU Engineering
Rosalyn Abbott’s latest biomaterials research investigates the use of non-invasive, therapeutic ultrasound to trigger and adjust silk scaffold degradation post-implantation.
CMU Engineering
Biomedical Engineering’s Keith Cook has discovered a novel anticoagulation strategy to keep artificial lung devices from failing due to clot formation, without creating any negative side effects.
VentureBeat
BME’s Keith Cook was featured in VentureBeat on work to create a low-cost, modular ventilator. Lead by SCS’s Howie Choset, the “RoboVentilator” will help meet the high demand for ventilators exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, in preparation for possible future respiratory disease outbreaks.
the Bioengineered Organs Initiative
Personal protective equipment generally used in laboratories will aid front-line responders fighting COVID-19.
the Bioengineered Organs Initiative
BME Ph.D. students Jacqueline Scott and Wai Hoe Ng won awards for presenting research at AHA’s 28th Annual Fellows Research Day.
