Our interdisciplinary research involves the areas of bioanalytical chemistry, bioengineering, biomaterials, and signal transduction and focuses on the development and improvement of analytical methods for in vivo measurements. A primary aim in the Stenken group is to understand the inflammatory response caused by macrophages to implanted foreign materials. Understanding the underlying biochemistry that occurs at the site of an implanted biomaterial is important in a wide range of clinical contexts — from reconstructive surgery to implantable glucose sensors. Many of the problems that have been encountered in the development of in vivo sensors have been due to the lack of understanding of the host response to implanted materials. To access the microenvironment of the foreign body response to a biomaterial, we use microdialysis sampling. A wide range of chromatographic, immunochemical, and spectroscopic analysis methods are used and developed by our research group for analyte detection in the low microliter volume dialysates.

Current projects include collection and detection of the soluble messenger proteins (cytokines) during the inflammatory response; creation and mathematical modeling of microdialysis enhanced mass transport techniques; in situ detection of matrix metalloproteinases using imaging mass spectrometry; calibration of microdialysis sampling devices during protein collection; and creation of improved in vivo sampling devices.

B.S. Chemistry, University of Akron, 1990   
Ph.D.  Bioanalytical Chemistry, University of Kansas, 1995
J. William Fulbright Fellow, The Karolinska Institute, Stockholm Sweden, 1994-1995  
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Kansas Medical School, Kansas City, KS, 1995-1996

Selected Publications and Presentations

G.D. Keeler, J.M. Durdik, and J.A. Stenken.  Effects of Delayed Delivery of Dexamethasone-21-Phosphate via Subcutaneous Microdialysis Implants on Macrophage Activation in Rats.  Acta Biomaterialia, 2015 23:27-37. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2015.05.011.

D.W. Paul and J.A. Stenken. Flux Considerations for In Vivo Neurochemical Measurements, Analyst, 2015, 140, 3709-30. doi: 10.1039/c4an01898b

J.A Stenken and A.J. Poschenrieder. Bioanalytical Chemistry of Cytokines – A Review, Analytica Chimica Acta, 2015, 853, 95-115. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2014.10.009     

J.A. Stenken and M. Elkins.  Measurement of Cytokines in the Brain, in G.S. Wilson and A. Michael (eds.), Advances in Real-time Molecular Neuroscience, World Scientific Press (Imperial College London), 2015

G.D. Keeler, J.M. Durdik, J.A. Stenken. Comparison of microdialysis sampling perfusion fluid components on the foreign body reaction in rat subcutaneous tissue.  European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 2014. 57:60-7.  doi: 10.1016/j.ejps.2013.11.005.

C.R.Sides and J.A. Stenken. Microdialysis sampling techniques applied to studies of the foreign body reaction. European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. 2014  57:74-86.  doi: 10.1016/j.ejps.2013.11.002.

G.Bajpai, R.C.M. Simmen and J.A. Stenken.  In vivo microdialysis sampling of adipokines CCL2, IL-6, and leptin in the mammary fat pad of adult female rats.  Molecular BioSystems 2014, 10(4):806-12. DOI:10.1039/C3MB70308H.

T.W.Vasicek, M.R.Jackson, T.M. Poseno, and J.A. Stenken. In vivo microdialysis sampling of cytokines from rat hippocampus: Comparison of cannula implantation procedures.  ACS Chemical  Neuroscience, 2013, 4, 737–746.   doi: 10.1021/cn400025m

A.W. Herbaugh and J.A. Stenken Antibody-Enhanced Microdialysis Collection of CCL2 from Rat Brain.  Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 2011, 202, 124-127. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2011.05.006

J. Duo and J.A. Stenken.  In vitro and in vivo affinity microdialysis sampling of cytokines using heparin-immobilized microspheres.  Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 2011, 399, 783-793.   doi: 10.1007/s00216-010-4333-0

In Vivo Glucose Sensing (Eds. D.D. Cunningham and J.A. Stenken) John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, 2010.