First-year nursing students display solutions to health issues

Judith Karshmer’s message was simple:

If we don’t take care of ourselves, who will?

“We’ve learned in our focus on health wellness that it’s not somebody doing something for us. It’s us doing it ourselves,” Karshmer, dean of Arizona State University’s Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, said at the start of the "Hacking the Human: Innovative Approaches to Wellness" conference on Dec. 2 at the Health Entrepreneurship Accelerator Lab in downtown Phoenix.

“What we’re trying to do at ASU is make wellness not a program but a value. We’re trying to do that by saying everybody has wellness practices. Maybe they use sunscreen, maybe they choose to limit their alcohol or marijuana intake. Maybe it’s exercise. Maybe one day a week you don’t eat meat. I often ask people: ‘What’s your wellness habit?’”

Karshmer’s remarks preceded several speakers and panel discussions that looked at wellness through the prisms of innovation, technology, fitness, food and more.

“Wellness cuts through every discipline,” Karshmer said. “It’s something we should talk about and experience every day.”

Mark Naufel, a professor of practice in ASU’s Knowledge Enterprise and director of strategic projects in the Luminosity Lab, told the audience about a Daily Dose app that would help recovering addicts by digitizing the 12-step program used by organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous.

The app, Naufel said, would help recovering addicts find the nearest meetings and include a breathalyzer test that could be taken every morning or night. The information from the test would then be seen by the friends and family members who have been invited to join the addict’s “circle of trust.”

“Now family members can wake up (and) see if the addict is doing his daily tasks,” Naufel said, adding that the goal is to release the app to the public after Jan. 1.

Following the conference, first-year students in the Edson College gathered in the building’s north parking lot to present their solutions to real-world health challenges.

ASU nursing students present their innovative solutions to health issues regarding food, family and finance in the parking lot of the Health Entrepreneurship Accelerator Lab in downtown Phoenix on Dec. 2. 

Among the top posters:

"SOS: A Silent Call For Help"
Brianna Lopez, Tatum Boxley, Elyse Dunham

Almost 20% of all human trafficking victims are children, according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

SOS is a bracelet that would hopefully reduce those numbers.

Dunham said the lightweight, gender-neutral bracelet has three main components:

A tracking device that can be shared with 10 selected followers. A safety button that, if held down for five seconds, would immediately alert local trafficking authorities. A push notification that would be sent to authorities and the 10 selected followers if the bracelet is removed or broken.

“Our purpose basically is to keep people out of the trafficking system in a way that almost outsmarts the traffickers,” Dunham said. “It’s crazy how easy it is for people to get manipulated and put in the trafficking system. With something like this, we want to overcome those extreme manipulative traffickers.”

From left to right: First-year nursing majors Brianna Lopez, Tatum Boxley and Elyse Denham talk about their "SOS" project. 

"Build-a-Bot"
Ziyan Chen, Taj Whitley, Kyler Morga

Build-a-Bot is a robot that would encourage children to get outside and exercise.

“Childhood obesity affects 20% of children in the U.S.,” Chen said. “That puts children and adolescents at risk for poor health, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, Type 2 diabetes and other problems.”

The robot would have an app that parents can customize to match their child’s interests. The child would be able to choose the color of the robot.

“It’s a little buddy they can do exercise with,” Chen said.

Although they didn’t research how Build-a-Bot’s could be funded, Chen said they would like to see the government purchase robots for lower-income families, “as they would do with food stamps.”

First-year nursing major Taj Whitley presents her group's "Build-a-Bot” project. 

"Auditing System for Nurses"
Jerry Verdugo, Dara Ouk

The auditing system would guarantee that nurses are being given scheduled breaks in order to improve their mental health.

“There is a nationwide problem in the U.S. in which nurses don’t receive substantial breaks,” Ouk said. “Because of the lack of breaks, nurses have reported to have high levels of stress and anxiety.”

How would it work? Nurses would enter information such as how much water they’ve drank, what they ate for lunch, their anxiety level, etc., on the auditing system, which would then in turn encourage the nurses to take their mandatory breaks.

“Studies have shown this would improve their quality of life and also improve health care,” Ouk said. “We feel that it’s really important nurses are taking care of themselves. They need to be treated well because they work really hard.”

First-year nursing majors Dara Our (right) and Jerry Verdugo explain their project “Auditing System for Nurses.”

"Check Up"
Sarah Kohler, Christianna Carr, Vanessa Bailon Barrera

Check Up is an app that would provide health care resources for prisoners reentering society.

“Prisoners have a lot of chronic health conditions that have worsened in prison,” Kohler said. “It’s such an overlooked topic these days. Most people don’t think about the fact that these prisoners aren’t getting the health care they need. We wanted a really accessible way to get resources for them.”

Released prisoners would install Check Up on their phone and be able to schedule appointments, be reminded of appointments and, because of chronic conditions prisoners face such as hypertension and diabetes, even have an alert when low insulin levels are detected.

“It’s just going to help overall because it’s given them resources in one place,” Kohler said. “A lot of times, prison inmates don’t have a high literacy in technology. This is a simple way to access everything.”

The 2022 winners were announced at the end of the conference:

First place, $1,000 cash prize

"Break the Cycle: Nurse Burnout" — Aromatherapy patches to relive stress, by Mackenzie Anderson and Kamrielle Wyatt.

Second place, $500 cash prize

"Breast Buddy Box" — New moms received postpartum-specific pamphlets, information on local resources, by Jordan Sornsin, Isabelle Bridgeman, Alexa Medrano and Madalyn Tibbits.

Third place, $250 cash prize

"Nursing Home Care" — Digital care portfolio for nursing home patients, by Brei Bergman, Jatziry Lopez Castro and Gabriela Rosales Gaitan.

Top photo: First-year nursing majors Christianna Carr (left) and Sarah Kohler present their project, “Check Up,” to Sparky after the "Hacking the Human" conference in the parking lot of the Health Entrepreneurship Accelerator Lab in downtown Phoenix on Dec. 2. Students presented their innovative solutions to health issues for an opportunity to win a cash prize. Photos by Samantha Chow/Arizona State University

Scott Bordow

Reporter , ASU News

Scott.Bordow@asu.edu

Sorry to burst your bubble, but helium is in short supply worldwide. This lighter-than-air gas is known for making party balloons float, but it has many other important uses, including medical imaging, making microchips and testing rockets.

To make the most of its supply, Arizona State University has equipped its Magnetic Resonance Research Center with a sustainable system that recycles the helium it uses for research. There, scientists are working to understand subjects like cancer, pain perception and degradable plastics.

The rise and fall of helium

For nearly a century, the U.S. has been the world’s biggest supplier of helium. While our helium industry was historically run by the federal government, it’s now transitioning into a private industry. Due to that transition and the shuttering of the Federal Helium Reserve, helium production has declined in the U.S. Now, this critical gas is increasingly coming from other countries like Qatar, Russia and Algeria, but the price and supply are not steady due to instability in these regions.

Helium is a non-renewable resource produced deep within the Earth as radioactive materials, like uranium, decay. The helium gradually bubbles its way up, and while most of it escapes the planet’s surface, a small portion becomes trapped under dense rock domes beneath the ground, where people can extract it.

Earth’s limited amount of helium is constantly shrinking, in part because helium gas is extremely hard to bottle up. Its structure is so small that we need special containers to hold it.

Think of birthday balloons, which we fill with a mix of helium and other gases. After a few days, the balloons are on the floor, even though they still appear to be full of air. That’s because all the helium has leaked out, leaving only the other gases behind.

Once helium escapes into the air, it passes through Earth’s atmosphere and goes into outer space, leaving the planet forever.

Despite its association with party decor and funny chipmunk voices, helium has a serious side. Its tiny size makes it perfect for testing leaks in rockets and gas pipelines. It’s not flammable, making it a safe choice for fabrication plants that have to build microchips in a sterile chamber filled with gas. And it can exist in liquid form near absolute zero (around minus 460 degrees Fahrenheit), the lowest possible temperature.

Its ability to stay super cold makes helium critical for magnetic resonance imaging machines. These MRI machines — known for taking detailed medical scans — rely on superconducting magnets. These special electromagnets must be kept extremely cold to work properly and are ruined if they rise above a certain temperature.

Machinery involved in recycling helium at the center, including a special transport tank in the foreground and a purifier, liquefier and compressor in the background. The center hopes to recover and recycle at least 85% of its helium. Photograph by Andy DeLisle/ASU

The long pipes to recovery

The ASU Magnetic Resonance Research Center relies on MRIs and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy — like an MRI for atoms — to do its work, making helium a key resource.

To make the best use of its supply, the center, one of ASU’s Core Research Facilities, has installed a helium recovery system custom designed for its equipment and needs.

Inside the superconducting magnets, the liquid helium coolant gradually boils into a gas, which is captured and transported through networks of specially sealed copper pipes that give the lab a distillery look. The gas collects in giant bags that can hold up to 16,000 liters each. Once full, the gas in the bags is compressed and stored in mid-pressure tanks. From the tanks, the helium is sent to a purifier that removes any water vapor, oxygen or nitrogen before being converted to liquid, leaving the lab with pure liquid helium ready for reuse.

Each of ASU’s 16,000-liter helium collection bags holds enough gas to fill about 1,135 party balloons.

“Our long-term goal is to recover and recycle at least 85% of our helium,” says Brian Cherry, staff scientist and manager of the center. “Every five weeks, I have to fill one of my magnets, and if I don’t get helium within a day or two of that, $4 million of equipment is gone. So while we save money and recycle, we’re protecting that investment at the same time by not having to rely on a volatile market.”

Other universities have installed recovery systems of their own, but Cherry points out that ASU’s large storage tank system sets it somewhat apart from others. The center hopes to demonstrate the advantages of using a recovery system and inspire clinics, labs and other facilities to adopt similar systems and better preserve the world’s helium supply. One selling point: the tremendous cost savings.

"We’ve captured approximately 2,500 liters of liquid helium — nearly 2 million liters of helium gas — since June 2022," says Samrat Amin, the director of Core Research Facilities operations. At today's average price of liquid helium, the recovery system has already saved the center around $55,000.

"The cost savings with our helium recovery system represent a significant portion of our operation budget," adds Amin. "The system not only aligns with ASU’s sustainability goals, but also ensures our long-term ability to provide critical instruments that serve researchers across ASU."

The ASU recovery system will work in the background to support around 150 researchers — in addition to teaching labs, external businesses and collaborators — who use the core facility.

A rack of samples for NMR analysis. NMR imaging allows researchers to study molecules in solution, giving them a more realistic picture of how cells and proteins behave. Photograph by Andy DeLisle/ASU

Proteins shake

“I do everything using NMR spectroscopy, so the helium recovery system was absolutely crucial for me,” says Xu Wang, an associate professor in the School of Molecular Sciences who studies sugar-binding proteins.

These proteins are involved in a lot of biological processes. Wang has researched how sugar-binding proteins affect the symptoms of Lyme disease as well as the activation of white blood cells.

Most recently, his research group has been studying a sugar-binding protein produced by over 80% of brain tumor cells that influences tumors to grow more rapidly.

Associate Professor Wade Van Horn studies proteins found in the membranes that surround cells. These proteins carry information to and from the cell and are important for processes like drugs binding effectively to cells.

He is exploring how a new class of non-addictive pain medications interacts with cell receptors. The goal is to create ways to predict which drug variations will work best without relying on expensive clinical trials early on in the process.

There are other methods and machines for looking at molecular structures that don’t use superconducting magnets, and therefore helium. The trouble is that they require the molecules to stay in a fixed position and environment.

“What NMR does that’s different is that our studies are in solution,” Van Horn says. “We can see how the proteins wiggle around as they would in a biological context.”

That freedom of movement means that scientists can get a more realistic picture of how cells and proteins behave.

Because NMR machines have such a crucial role to play, the researchers can’t get around a need for helium. That’s why, when the National Institutes of Health announced funding for helium recovery systems for NMR facilities, Wang and Van Horn took the initiative to apply. Now, they’re able to continue using helium, and use it well.

“I think, in the very near future, we may not be able to acquire enough helium, even if we’re willing to pay increasing prices,” Wang says. “This helium recovery system will be crucial to the sustainability of the entire facility.”

Brian Cherry, staff scientist and manager of the ASU Magnetic Resonance Research Center, loads samples into an automated NMR machine for analysis. Among other applications, scientists use NMR imaging for biomedical and materials research. Photograph by Andy DeLisle/ASU

Sustainable plastics, sustainably

It’s not only biomedical research that the recovery system supports. Timothy Long, a professor in the School of Molecular Sciences, uses the same machines as Van Horn and Wang to develop sustainable plastics and other materials.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, people produce around 400 million tons of plastic waste each year. To address this environmental burden, the world sorely needs new kinds of green materials.

Long is working on creating polymers and composites that have desirable, sustainable qualities. The goal is to make plastics that come from nature-inspired molecules, need less source material and can be recycled easily while still performing as well as or better than traditional plastics.

“We use the Magnetic Resonance Research Center core facility every day, probably 600 times a month, and that facility is absolutely critical to what we're doing. NMR spectroscopy basically tells us the molecular structure of what we've made,” says Long, who is also the director of the Biodesign Center for Sustainable Macromolecular Materials and Manufacturing. “It's really the first experiment we need to do before we do anything else.”

The molecular structure of a material determines its physical properties, like durability. These properties then affect the performance of the material, like its ability to withstand harsh conditions. By looking at the molecular structure, Long can tell whether a material will be able to do what it needs to. Knowing the molecular structure also gives scientists a kind of proven recipe so that others can replicate the material.

“In my research center, we're worrying about the end of life of plastic, the sustainability of these materials. But we also need to be worried about the sustainability of the analytical tools that we use,” Long says. “I think this recycling system really exemplifies the university's focus on sustainability in every way.”

Helium in Arizona

Sustainability is about more than using resources wisely; it’s also about ensuring communities thrive in areas where we collect those resources.

Kirk Jalbert, an assistant professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society, studies public engagement with environmental science and policy. He recently worked with communities in northern Arizona to develop workshops that empower residents to make informed decisions about helium extraction in their area.

Geological surveys show that the Four Corners region would likely be a rich source of helium. Now that the helium extraction industry is shifting to privately owned operations, oil and gas companies have new incentives to use their equipment and expertise to turn from fossil fuels to helium. This means that there is potential for a new helium extraction industry in Arizona.

This could boost the state’s economy and benefit other critical industries like aeronautics and semiconductor manufacturing. However, extraction companies and communities must work together to ensure that those living near extraction sites benefit as well.

One way to encourage environmental justice, says Jalbert, is through community benefit agreements. These agreements make companies legally responsible for things like water protection, compensation for declining property value, subsidizing homeowners’ insurance, or making donations for schools or road improvements.

“The argument I make is that if this is required of these operators, then they know that they need to come into communities with a social obligation,” Jalbert says. “If we treated all of our rare resources that way, we would probably, as a society, be more likely to account for the real value of those resources.”

Mikala Kass

Communications Specialist , ASU Knowledge Enterprise

480-727-5616 mkass@asu.edu