Margaret Bennewitz, PhD

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Organization:

West Virginia University School of Medicine

Department:

Microbiology, Immunology & Cell Biology

Classification:

Adjunct Faculty

Mentor

Organization:

West Virginia University WVU Cancer Institute

Department:

Cancer Cell Biology Graduate Education

Classification:

Faculty

• Snoderly HT, Freshwater KA, Martinez de la Torre C, Panchal DM, Vito JN, Bennewitz MF*. PEGylation of metal oxide nanoparticles modulates neutrophil extracellular trap formation. Biosensors, 2022. 12(2): 123. *Senior author. Link to article.
• Snoderly HT, Nurkiewicz TR, Bowdridge EC, Bennewitz MF*. E-cigarette use: device market, study design, and emerging evidence of biological consequences. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2021. 22(22): 12452. *Senior author. PMID: 34830344.
• Brzoska T, Kaminski TW, Bennewitz MF, Sundd P. Live Imaging of the Lung. Current Protocols in Cytometry, 2020. 95(1): e80. PMID: 33226733.
• Martinez de la Torre C, Grossman JH, Bobko AA, Bennewitz MF*. Tuning the size and composition of manganese oxide nanoparticles through varying temperature ramp and aging time. PLOS ONE, 2020. 15(9): e0239034. *Senior author. Link to article.
• Martinez de la Torre C, Bennewitz MF*. Manganese oxide nanoparticle synthesis by thermal decomposition of manganese(II) acetylacetonate. J. Vis. Exp., 2020.  160:e61572. *Senior author. Link to article.
• Bennewitz MF^†, Tutuncuoglu E^†, Gudapati S, Brzoska T, Pradhan-Sundd T, Sundd P. P-selectin deficient mice to study pathophysiology of Sickle Cell Disease. Blood Advances, 2020. 4(2): 266–273. ^† Co-first authors. PMID: 31968076.
• Vats R†, Brzoska T†, Bennewitz MF†, Jimenez MA†, Pradhan-Sundd T, Tutuncuoglu E, Jonassaint J, Gutierrez E, Watkins SC, Shiva S, Scott M, Morelli AE, Neal MD, Kato GJ, Gladwin MT, Sundd P. Platelet extracellular vesicles drive inflammasome-IL1β-dependent lung injury in Sickle Cell Disease. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., 2020. 201(1):33-46. †Co-first authors. PMID: 31498653.
• Snoderly HT, Boone BA, Bennewitz MF*. Neutrophil extracellular traps in breast cancer and beyond: Current perspectives on NET stimuli, thrombosis and metastasis, and clinical utility for diagnosis and treatment. Breast Cancer Research, 2019. 21:145. Published December 18, 2019. *Senior author. PMID: 31852512.
• Bennewitz MF^†, Jimenez MA^†, Vats R, Tutuncuoglu E, Jonassaint J, Kato GJ, Gladwin MT, Sundd P. Lung vaso-occlusion in sickle cell disease mediated by arteriolar neutrophil-platelet microemboli. JCI Insight, 2017. 2(1): e89761. ^†Co-first authors. PMID: 28097236. PMCID: PMC5214368.
• Afridi MJ, Ross A, Liu X, Bennewitz MF, Shuboni DD, Shapiro EM. Intelligent and automatic in vivo detection and quantification of transplanted cells in MRI. Magn Reson Med., 2016. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 28019017. PMCID: PMC5817897.
• Bennewitz MF, Watkins SC, Sundd P. Quantitative intravital two-photon excitation microscopy reveals absence of pulmonary vaso-occlusion in unchallenged sickle cell disease mice. IntraVital, 2014. 3(2): e29748. PMID: 25995970. PMCID: PMC4435611.
• Granot D, Nkansah MK, Bennewitz MF, Tang KS, Markakis EA, Shapiro EM. Clinically viable magnetic poly(lactide-co-glycolide) particles for MRI-based cell tracking. Magn Reson Med., 2014. 71(3):1238-1250. PMID: 23568825. PMCID: PMC4336220.
• Bennewitz MF, Williams SS, Nkansah MK, Shapiro EM. Poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) encapsulated gadolinium oxide nanoparticles for MRI-based cell tracking. J Nanosci Nanotechnol., 2013. 13(6):3778-3783. PMID: 23862407.
• Bennewitz MF, Tang KS, Markakis EA, Shapiro EM. Specific chemotaxis of magnetically labeled mesenchymal stem cells: Implications for MRI of glioma. Mol Imaging Biol., 2012. 14(6):676-687. PMID: 22418788. PMCID: PMC3388177.
• Bennewitz MF, Lobo TL, Nkansah MK, Ulas G, Brudvig GW, Shapiro EM. Biocompatible and pH-sensitive PLGA encapsulated MnO nanocrystals for molecular and cellular MRI. ACS Nano., 2011. 5(5): 3438-3446. PMID: 21495676. PMCID: PMC3102302.
• Bennewitz MF, Saltzman WM. Nanotechnology for delivery of drugs to the brain for epilepsy. Neurotherapeutics, 2009. 6(2):323-336. PMID: 19332327. PMCID: PMC2673491.

For my doctoral work at Yale University, I specialized in MRI cell tracking and contrast agent development for the diagnosis of glioblastoma multiforme, an invasive type of brain tumor. After completing my doctorate, I accepted a postdoctoral fellowship in the M+Visión Program, a collaborative venture between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and clinical laboratories in Madrid, Spain. One of my projects involved the early detection of ovarian cancer through identifying characteristics of precursor lesions that could be imaged using optical microscopy. During my second postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh, I developed an in vivo multiphoton microscopy technique called quantitative fluorescence intravital lung microscopy (qFILM) for visualizing blood cell trafficking within the pulmonary microcirculation of live sickle cell disease mice and received an NIH NRSA F32 Fellowship to pursue this work.
MRI and in vivo fluorescence imaging have many complimentary qualities and I am utilizing both imaging modalities in my research group at West Virginia University. The goal of the Biomedical Engineering Science Team (BESTeam) at WVU is to bridge biomedical engineering with biomedical science to explore the intersection of what is possible in biomedical imaging, biomaterials, nanotechnology, therapeutics, cancer biology and toxicology. We have two main areas of emphasis: 1) development of new targeted MRI nanoparticle contrast agents for early detection of breast cancer 2) application of spinning disk confocal microscopy for live lung vascular imaging of breast-to-lung metastasis and e-cigarette toxicology.

Education

Ph.D., Yale University, 2012
M.Phil., Yale University, 2011
M.S., Yale University, 2009
B.S., University of Pittsburgh, 2007