Colin Saideman

Global Challenge: Good Health and Wellbeing

Abstract

The largest symptomatic complaint for patients worldwide is pain from trauma or illness. There are about 2 million new cancer patients a year. Treatment for the pain caused by cancer improved prognosis and quality of life, but management methods are standardized with addictive analgesics. The UN Global Challenge of Good Health and Wellbeing highlights the need to improve healthcare systems and therapeutics. Opioid usage in the United States has caused over 1 million deaths since 1999. By improving the experience of pain and the therapeutics used to treat it, the following papers highlight recent findings in cancer and pain and gaps in the literature. Cancer does not just impact nociceptive signaling, but the surrounding tissue, which impacts pain and cancer hallmarks (Proliferation, Metabolism Dysregulation, Metastasis, Resisting Cell Death, etc). Nociception is the central and peripheral nervous system’s processing pathway for noxious stimuli i.e. pain. The intersection of cancer, pain, and mechanical tissue properties are both showing complex and substantial impacts on each other. Through EMT volunteering and working at the NYU Cancer Research Center, I have worked towards improving patients' symptoms of pain. The two papers associated with the GLASS project present literature reviews on these topics. Oral Cancer and The Tumor Microenvironment discusses the tumor microenvironment, pain treatment, and gaps in the literature. The Collagen and Cancer review discusses how the mechanical impact of cancer and its surrounding tissue impact pain and cancer hallmarks. These reviews will highlight the gap in interdisciplinary studies between neuroscience focusing on pain, cancer microbiology research, and biomechanical studies. By improving studies to look at systematic correlations, alternative pain therapeutics to opiods and better targeted therapies can be characterized. 

Aiding my GLASS project, I began with the teaching assistant role for General Engineering, learning how to communicate technical subjects to a broad audience. Working in Ramadi Lab at NYU Abu Dhabi, I began growing my technical capability in order to pursue research. I continued with research at Yi Ye Lab at NYU Center For Pain. Then completing two internships at Procter and Gamble, I worked on global solutions and project management to engineering problems in the Charmin, Bounty, and Puffs brands. Projects revolved around safety, sustainability, and equipment efficiency improvement. Through these experiences I learned how to scale research ideas and manage projects related to technical subjects. Combining my technical experience with my project management experience and communication capability, I found an intersection between my interest in sustainability and life saving medication. 

Bio:

Colin Saideman studied at NYU Tandon with interests in translational research, public health, and sustainability. His program of study is the BS-MS: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering - BS and Biomedical Engineering - MS. Since coming to NYU, he has interned at Bristol Myers Squibb in Product Development Operations and interned twice at Procter and Gamble doing Capital Project Engineering for the Paper Product Process. These opportunities have placed him in New Brunswick, NJ, Cincinnati, Ohio, Scranton, PA, and respectively. Being able to learn from industry experts and produce name brand products has been extremely exciting. Working in these organizations, Colin has begun a career intersecting sustainability with the consumer products and medication supply chain. He grew up in Morristown, New Jersey, Baltimore, Maryland and Tulsa, Oklahoma. 

He worked as a General Engineering Teaching Assistant, sharing his interest of STEM and prototyping with First Year students. As an active Emergency Medical Technician, he utilizes his training and passion for patient care to help his local community. He has also worked in Khalil Ramadi, PhD Lab at NYU Abu Dhabi on 3D printed lattice pills used for prolonged drug delivery and microbiome sampling. Currently, he is doing research for his Master’s Degree at Yi Ye, Phd Lab. He has been able to continue pursuing interdisciplinary knowledge on technology and health in order to expand my general and applicable knowledge of those fields. After graduation he plans to work as a process engineer in the biotechnology or pharmaceutical sector.

His GLASS project is working on oral cancer pain treatment by studying ECM rigidities' impact on nerve excitation with a focus on Schwann Cells using Atomic Force Microscopy, In-Vivo Mice Models, RT-qPCR and other assays. This work is done at Yi Ye Lab at NYU Dentistry Pain Research Center.