AIMBE
Fellowbook News
AIMBE Fellowbook collects news stories highlighting the members of the AIMBE College of Fellows. Read the latest stories, jump to the College Directory, or search below to find the newest research, awards, announcements and more for the leaders of the medical and biological engineering community.
Proof-of-concept technique makes nanoparticles attractive for new medications
You Han Bae | Via MD Linx | August 9, 2018Since the development of insulin to manage diabetes, pharmacists have longed to create an insulin pill. Past attempts have failed because insulin does not survive the harsh conditions of the GI system and cannot easily cross the GI wall. Researchers at University of Utah Health developed a proof-of-concept technology using nanoparticles that could offer a […]
Genetic Mutations of Appendix Cancer Identified, May Impact Treatment
Trey Ideker | Via UC San Diego | August 8, 2018The rarity of appendix cancer, accounting for less than 1 percent of tumors that originate in the gastrointestinal tract, and the lack of scientific data for this disease means that current treatment guidelines recommend applying therapies to people with appendix cancer that are intended for those with colon cancer. To understand why some patients with […]
Gilda Barabino earns second national award this summer
Gilda Barabino | Via CCNY | August 1, 2018The National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers presents its 2018 Dr. Joseph N. Cannon Award for Excellence in Chemical Engineering to Gilda A. Barabino, dean of The City College of New York’s Grove School of Engineering this fall. The award recognizes her excellent achievements in chemical engineering. Barabino will […]
Inexpensive biology kits offer hands-on experience with DNA
James Collins | Via MIT | August 1, 2018To help students gain a better grasp of biological concepts, MIT and Northwestern University researchers have designed educational kits that can be used to perform experiments with DNA, to produce glowing proteins, scents, or other easily observed phenomena. Biology teachers could use the BioBits kits to demonstrate key concepts such as how DNA is translated […]
Student-Built Online Game Accompanies Online Class
Angelique Louie | Via UC davis | July 31, 2018When Professor Angelique Louie needed some help with her online course “Introduction to Research,” she enlisted a little help from experts such as science fiction author H.G. Wells, biochemist Rosalind Franklin and poet Alexander Pushkin. Well, sort of. Wells, Franklin and Pushkin are among the “nonplayer characters” who inhabit an online game developed to accompany […]
Professor Bischof named director of University’s Institute for Engineering in Medicine
John Bischof | Via University of Minnesota | July 30, 2018Distinguished McKnight University Professor John Bischof has been appointed for a three-year term as director of the University of Minnesota Institute for Engineering in Medicine (IEM). He has served as interim director during the past year. As director of IEM, Bischof will report to both the University of Minnesota Dean of the Medical School and […]
Doctors rely on more than just data for medical decision making
Roger Mark | Via MIT | July 20, 2018Many technology companies are working on artificial intelligence systems that can analyze medical data to help diagnose or treat health problems. Such systems raise the question of whether this kind of technology can perform as well as a human doctor. A new study from MIT computer scientists suggests that human doctors provide a dimension that, […]
Magnetized wire could be used to detect cancer in people
Sam Gambhir | Via Stanford Medicine | July 16, 2018A magnetic wire used to snag scarce and hard-to-capture tumor cells could prove to be a swift and effective tactic for early cancer detection, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The wire, which is threaded into a vein, attracts special magnetic nanoparticles engineered to glom onto tumor cells […]
Imperial joint mechanics expert elected to World Council of Biomechanics
Anthony M J Bull | Via Imperial College London | July 12, 2018The Council is the world’s leading professional body dedicated to biomechanics – a field that studies the structure and function of the mechanical aspects of biological systems. Professor Bull, head of Imperial College London’s Department of Bioengineering and its Centre for Blast Injury Studies, focuses on the effects of sports and injuries from blasts on […]
National Workshop on ICME Approaches to Innovation in Biomedical Implants
Bikramjit Basu | Via AIMBE | July 12, 2018Professor Kirk Shung becomes Dwight C. and Hildagarde E. Baum Chair
Kirk Shung | Via University of Southern California | July 11, 2018Professsor K. Kirk Shung has assumed the role of Dwight C. and Hildegarde E. Baum Chair in Biomedical Engineering as of July 1. Joining USC Viterbi’s Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) in 2002, Shung conducts research primarily in the area of high frequency ultrasonic imaging and transducer development. His research has been supported by an […]
New DNA Synthesis Method Could Soon Build a Genome in a Day
Jay Keasling | Via Singularity Hub | July 10, 2018Synthetic biologists are the computer programmers of biology. Their code? DNA. The whole enterprise sounds fantastical: you insert new snippets of DNA code—in the form of a chain of A, T, C, G letters—into an organism, and bam! Suddenly you have bacteria that can make anti-malaria drugs or cells that can solve complicated logic problems […]
Nanoparticles give immune cells a boost
Darrell J. Irvine | Via MIT | July 9, 2018Programming the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells has had promising results for treating blood cancers such as lymphoma and leukemia. This tactic has proven more challenging for solid tumors such as breast or lung cancers, but MIT researchers have now devised a novel way to boost the immune response against solid tumors. By […]
Stem cells restore function in primate heart-failure study
Charles Murry | Via University of Washington Medicine | July 2, 2018Researchers at UW Medicine in Seattle have successfully used human stem cells to restore heart function in monkeys with heart failure. The findings suggest that the technique will be effective in patients with heart failure, the leading cause of death in the world. “The cells form new muscle that integrates into heart so that it […]
Group uses AI to assess mammo interpretation bias
Georgia D. Tourassi | Via Aunt Minnie | June 29, 2018Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, TN, have used artificial intelligence (AI) technology to analyze how radiologists read mammograms, according to research published in the July issue of the Journal of Medical Imaging. Mammography interpretation is subject to context bias, or a radiologist’s previous diagnostic experiences, wrote senior author Georgia Tourassi, […]
Amputees use new, naturalistic sensory device at home for daily tasks, gain greater sense of personal well-being and connection to loved ones
Dustin J. Tyler | Via Case Western Reserve University | June 29, 2018In the first known study of how amputees use advanced sensory-enabled prostheses outside the lab, subjects used a mechanical hand more regularly and for longer periods of time compared to traditional prostheses—and also reported a greater sense of psychosocial well-being. In fact, the study asserts that sensory feedback—achieved by direct interfaces attached to the nerves […]
Gilda Barabino Receives Presidential Award For STEM Mentors
Gilda Barabino | Via The City College of New York | June 28, 2018The City College of New York’s Gilda Barabino, Dean and Berg professor at the Grove School of Engineering, is a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. The award, presented by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy with the National Science Foundation, recognizes excellence in STEM […]
The Alfred E. Mann Foundation for Scientific Research is Pleased to Announce the Appointment of Robert Greenberg, MD, PhD to the Role of Executive Chairman
Robert Greenberg | Via Digital Journal | June 27, 2018The Alfred E. Mann Foundation for Scientific Research, ”AMF”, an independent non-profit medical device incubator committed to developing and commercializing innovative solutions for significant unmet or poorly met medical conditions, today announced the appointment of Robert Greenberg, MD, PhD to the role of Executive Chairman. ”I have enjoyed interacting with Dr. Greenberg on the Board […]
Study solves mystery of genetic-test results for patient with suspected heart condition
Joseph Wu | Via Stanford Medicine | June 26, 2018Although DNA testing is becoming increasingly quick, cheap and easy to perform, the results are sometimes ambiguous: Gene mutations called “variants of uncertain significance” can create uncertainty about a patient’s risk for a disease. “This is a really big problem,” said Joseph Wu, MD, PhD, professor of cardiovascular medicine and of radiology at the Stanford […]
Researchers decode molecule that gives living tissues their flexibility
Markus Buehler | Via MIT | June 25, 2018The stretchiness that allows living tissues to expand, contract, stretch, and bend throughout a lifetime is the result of a protein molecule called tropoelastin. Remarkably, this molecule can be stretched to eight times its length and always returns back to its original size. Now, for the first time, researchers have decoded the molecular structure of […]