She's a Scientist: Becky Wachs

Curt Bright Author

05/05/2021 Added

148 Plays

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One professor of Biological Systems Engineering is finding new ways to treat chronic lower back pain and curb the country's opioid epidemic.

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[00:00:00.581](intense upbeat music)
[00:00:03.700]About 80% of Americans suffer
[00:00:05.720]from chronic low back pain,
[00:00:07.560]and opioid painkillers are prescribed
[00:00:10.140]in roughly one-third of cases.
[00:00:12.070]So obviously the opiod epidemic is a huge problem
[00:00:14.570]in the United States and one that we're trying to overcome.
[00:00:17.000]So our treatment looks to deliver local therapeutics
[00:00:19.500]to the site of pain
[00:00:20.590]as opposed to a systemic treatment that's taken orally,
[00:00:23.070]and so this would circumvent the need
[00:00:24.340]for opioids altogether.
[00:00:25.820]One of the major causes of low back pain
[00:00:27.460]is you can actually get sprouting of the nerve fibers
[00:00:29.610]that are adjacent to the disc into the disc itself.
[00:00:32.550]And so when these painful nerve fibers sprout into the disc,
[00:00:35.050]they can actually cause low back pain.
[00:00:36.970]So our approach utilizes materials
[00:00:38.760]that are found in the glial scar
[00:00:40.430]that occurs after spinal cord injury,
[00:00:42.170]and this scar prevents nerve regeneration,
[00:00:44.450]so it's a material that we're sort of repurposing
[00:00:46.610]for use in the disc to prevent nerve growth
[00:00:48.460]in an area that shouldn't have nerves.
[00:00:50.255](machine whirring)
[00:00:52.640]Wachs' unique approach combines biomaterials
[00:00:55.720]that block nerve growth in the spinal disc
[00:00:58.250]with drugs that cause nerve fibers to die back and retreat.
[00:01:02.440]So when a patient is diagnosed
[00:01:03.670]with this type of low back pain,
[00:01:05.140]he'll be able to have a minimally invasive surgery
[00:01:07.270]that will deliver this drug and therapeutic
[00:01:09.050]to cause nerve die back and prevent regrowth,
[00:01:11.370]thereby reducing their pain.
[00:01:13.100]Wachs is using a half-million dollar award
[00:01:15.530]from the National Science Foundation
[00:01:17.250]to develop her one-of-a-kind treatment.
[00:01:19.620]The support from National Science Foundation,
[00:01:21.370]we're really excited to do this research.
[00:01:22.970]It has the potential to impact millions of patients
[00:01:24.870]around the world.
[00:01:26.100]Wachs credits much of her success in science
[00:01:28.590]to strong female mentors throughout her career.
[00:01:31.930]Now she's paying it forward with the students in her lab
[00:01:34.810]and young girls in the community.
[00:01:36.870]My goal is to be able to interface with them
[00:01:38.920]and encourage them through labs
[00:01:40.160]and programming to consider STEM as a field choice
[00:01:42.910]and consider engineering and biology and math.
[00:01:45.170]So I think by being in a position
[00:01:46.580]where they can see somebody that's a professor
[00:01:48.120]and they can see someone that is supporting them,
[00:01:49.760]I think that really helps towards that path.

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She's a Scientist: Becky Wachs

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