Research Program: Tumor Biology and Progression
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering

bischof@umn.edu
612-626-8255 — lab
Preferred contact method: E-mail

Research Interests

The bioheat and mass transfer laboratory at the University of Minnesota under the direction of Dr. Bischof is dedicated to the thermophysical and biological study of systems after thermal manipulations (i.e. heating or cooling). This work is broadly in the scientific areas of cryobiology (low temperature biology) and hyperthermic biology and impacts the following applications:

• Cryo and Biopreservation — preservation of cells and tissues by freezing, hypothermic storage, drying or vitrification (glass formation).
• Cryosurgery — destruction of diseased (i.e. tumor) tissue by the use of freezing.
• Burn injury — characterization of burn injury in tissues.
• Thermal Therapies — destruction of diseased (i.e. tumor) tissue by the use of energy  sources such as:  microwave, radiofrequency, high intensity focused ultrasound and laser.
• Nanotherapeutics — use of gold and iron oxide nanoparticles for detection, sensitization and treatment of diseases (i.e. cancer).

The low temperature applications include preservation of cells and tissues in the frozen, dried or glassy state for transplantation. Systems of study include sperm, oocyte, cardiovascular and engineered tissues. In addition, we study the destructive effects of freezing on tissues and tumors of a variety of organs including liver, prostate, breast and kidney by a technique known as cryosurgery. This work also has application in the areas of frost bite and hypothermic injury. Supraphysiological (high) temperature applications include the characterization of thermal and electrical burns particularly to the skin and underlying tissue. In addition, minimally invasive thermal surgery using microwave, radiofrequency and high intensity focused ultrasound of both diseased and normal heart, liver, brain, prostate and other tissues are areas of active pursuit.  Our recent work has been using gold and iron oxide nanoparticles for drug delivery, imaging, heating of diseased tissues and enhancing thermal therapies. In brief the lab focuses on basic aspects of thermal injury as well as applied work in the characterization and development of devices/methods for preservation and destruction using heat or cold.

Selected Publications

He X, Bischof JC. Bioheat transfer processes and thermal therapies. Crit Rev Biomed Eng. 2003;31:355-422.

He X, Wolkers W, Crowe JH, and Bischof JC. In situ thermal denaturation of proteins in Dunning AT-1 prostate cancer cells: implication for hyperthermic cell injury. Ann Biomed Eng. 2004;32:1384-1398.

Kalambur VS, Han B,  Hammer BE,  Shield TW, Bischof JC.  In vitro characterization of movement heating and visualization of magnetic nanoparticles for biomedical applications.  Nanotechnology 2005;16:1221-1233.

Visaria RK, Griffin RJ, Williams BW, Ebbini ES, Paciotti GF, Song CW, Bischof JC. Enhancement of tumor thermal therapy using gold nanoparticle-assisted tumor necrosis factor-alpha delivery. Mol Cancer Ther. 2006;5:1014-20.

Bischof JC, Mahr B, Behling M, Mewes D. Use of X-ray tomography to map crystalline and glassy phase microstructure in bulk frozen biomaterials. Ann Biomed Eng. 2007;35:292-304.

Wolkers WF, Balasubramanian SK, Ongstad EL, Bischof JC. Effect of freezing on membranes and proteins in LNCaP prostate tumor cells. Biochim Biophys Acta 2007;1768:728-736.

Goel R, Swanlund D, Coad J, Paciotti GF, Bischof JC. TNF-alpha based accentuation in cryoinjury - dose, delivery and response. Mol Cancer Ther. In press.

Geeslin MG, Swanlund DJ, Bischof JC. A parametric study of freezing injury in BPH CAFTD-2 human prostate tumor cells. Cryo-Letters. In press.