Metin Uz
Cleveland State University, OH·Biomedical Engineering
About 55% of pregnant women have symptoms of urinary incontinence. Many continue to leak urine when they cough or exercise after vaginal delivery, a condition called stress urinary incontinence (SUI).
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Materials Science
Neuroscience
- Topics
stress urinary incontinence
pudendal nerve
nerve regeneration
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2028
What they work on
- Design, fabricate and characterize a biodegradable piezoelectric platform with a flexible cuff electrode, measuring its electrical output and lab degradation profile to control stimulation conditions on the pudendal nerve.
- Evaluate the platform's biocompatibility, safety and therapeutic effect in cell studies, and run a pilot animal study of the implantation surgery and how the device breaks down in the body.
- Test whether movement-driven mechano-electrical stimulation from the implant promotes pudendal nerve regeneration in a rat stress urinary incontinence model, using running-wheel exercise plus tissue and functional recovery tests.
- Find the subthreshold stimulation level, the electrical strength just below what triggers nerve firing, that works best for promoting nerve repair.
More about the research
Part of the cause is damage to the pudendal nerve (PN), which controls the external urethral sphincter, the muscle ring that holds urine in. Directly stimulating this nerve with electricity can help it regrow by making nerve cells and their support cells, Schwann cells, release growth factors such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor. In practice, however, the nerve is hard to locate. Stimulation is usually given only once during surgery, and repeat treatments need invasive needle electrodes and trained staff.
Why it matters
Stress urinary incontinence affects many women after childbirth. Current nerve stimulation can only be given once during surgery or requires invasive repeat procedures. A wireless, dissolving implant powered by the body's own movements could allow repeated nerve-regrowth therapy at home. Combined with Kegel exercises, it may offer a new treatment option for women with persistent SUI.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Greg Harris
University of Cincinnati, OH·Biomedical Engineering
Quantify and control the electric potential generated by piezoelectric PVDF-TrFE scaffolds in response to remote ultrashock activation and mechanical stimulation.
Rui Liang
Ohio State University, OH·Biomedical Engineering
Test whether hyperglycemic memory in bone marrow cells alters macrophage behavior, comparing macrophages from high-glucose-exposed versus normal bone marrow in vitro.
Gianluca Lazzi
University of Southern California, CA·Biomedical Engineering
Design and optimize electrical stimulation waveforms that can reprogram the structure of damaged neural networks, using both experiments and computational modeling.
The school
Cleveland State University: 2 labs on PI Pages, $86M a year on research, 35 research doctorates a year.
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