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.
Research sheds light on protections against COVID-19 variant infections
James Baker | Via Newswise | March 16, 2023Research is shedding light on why ‘breakthrough’ Omicron infections occur in vaccinated individuals and suggests those who are both vaccinated and experienced previous infection have better protection against getting sick again. The research shows that having both infection and vaccination with the “wild-type” virus, or the original COVID-19 variant, provides individuals with the strongest protection […]
Fluidizing the cell membrane
Gang Zheng | Via EurekAlert | March 16, 2023Effective internalization of lipid nanoparticles for photodynamic cancer therapy In order to deliver cancer therapeutics to tumor cells, the cells’ membranes must be overcome. A team of researchers have discovered a simple way to achieve this using lipid nanoparticles containing the reagent EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid). As the team report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, an […]
International Achievement Award Highlights Decades of Optical Mastery
Wolfgang Fink | Via University of Arizona | March 16, 2023Wolfgang Fink holds commonalities with the award’s namesakes, who were leaders in establishing the UA as an optics powerhouse. Wolfgang Fink’s selection as this year’s recipient of the SPIE Aden and Marjorie Meinel Technology Achievement Award continues a distinguished legacy of optics and photonics at the University of Arizona. He received the award for his […]
A new control switch could make RNA therapies easier to program
James Collins | Via MIT | March 15, 2023Using this approach, researchers hope to deliver therapeutic RNA molecules selectively to cancer cells or other target cells. Using an RNA sensor, MIT engineers have designed a new way to trigger cells to turn on a synthetic gene. Their approach could make it possible to create targeted therapies for cancer and other diseases, by ensuring […]
Vortex-Focusing Microfluidics Yields Precisely Sized Liposomes at Scale
Don DeVoe | Via genengnews | March 15, 2023When synthesizing nanoscale liposomes, the ability to control vesicle size helps define their pharmaceutical properties. Conventional microfluidic liposome synthesis methods, however, are limited in terms of the sizes they can produce and the consistency of those sizes. A new microfluidic vortex-focusing technique resolves those challenges, generating liposomes at precise sizes with negligible size variance. The […]
Python-based compiler achieves orders-of-magnitude speedups
Bonnie Berger | Via MIT | March 14, 2023Codon compiles Python code to run more efficiently and effectively while allowing for customization and adaptation to various domains. In 2018, the Economist published an in-depth piece on the programming language Python. “In the past 12 months,” the article said, “Google users in America have searched for Python more often than for Kim Kardashian.” Reality […]
Nanofiber-Hydrogel Shows Success Treating Severe Complication of Crohn’s Disease
Hai-Quan Mao | Via SciTechDaily | March 13, 2023Researchers from Johns Hopkins have developed an injectable biomimetic hydrogel composite that promotes regenerative healing in an animal model of Crohn’s perianal fistulas. A recent study using a rat model for Crohn’s disease has demonstrated promising results for the treatment of perianal fistulas (PAF), a common complication of the condition. Researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine […]
City of Hope scientists reveal how XBP1s interacts with IL-15 to enhance the survival of natural killer cells
Michael Caligiuri | Via City of Hope | March 13, 2023A new study published in Science Immunology points to a promising therapeutic approach for future cancer treatments based on natural killer cells (NK), which are immune cells that bind to tumor cells and destroy them. City of Hope scientists created a knockout mouse model for a protein called XBP1s to explore the molecule’s effect on […]
AI Model Provides Insights into Long-Term Traumatic Brain Injury Risk
Ellen Kuhl | Via TechTarget | March 7, 2023A new AI model may signal a ‘paradigm shift’ in traumatic brain injury research by more accurately modeling the tissue deformations that lead to brain damage. Stanford University researchers are leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to help identify which computational models perform best at modeling mechanical stress on the brain, which may help drive insights into […]
UT Southwestern study: Cell membrane ‘blebs’ could hold new targets for anti-cancer drugs
Gaudenz Danuser | Via UT Southwestern Medical Center | March 3, 2023Cell membrane protrusions called blebs that typically signify the end of life for healthy cells do the opposite for melanoma cells, activating processes in these cells that help them to survive and spread, a UT Southwestern study suggests. The findings, published in Nature, could lead to new ways to fight melanoma and potentially a broad […]
Getting Drugs Across the Blood-Brain Barrier Using Nanoparticles
Daniel Heller | Via Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center | March 2, 2023Brain tumors are notoriously hard to treat. One reason is the challenge posed by the blood-brain barrier, a network of blood vessels and tissue with closely spaced cells. The barrier forms a tight seal to protect the brain from harmful substances, but it also prevents most drugs from getting to brain tissue. This severely limits […]
Biologists, chemical engineers collaborate to reveal complex cellular process inside petunias
John Morgan | Via Purdue University | March 2, 2023Once upon a time, prevailing scientific opinion might have pronounced recently published research in Nature Communications by a team of Purdue University scientists as unneeded. Now, climate change implications have heightened the need for this line of research. Flowers emit scent chemicals called volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Earlier this year, the Purdue team published the […]
Yale Team Co-maps Proteins and Transcriptome in Human Tissues
Rong Fan | Via Yale University | March 2, 2023To understand how cells behave, researchers also need to understand the molecules that make them work. “If someone wants to know how the kidney functions, they have to know what’s going on inside the kidney cells,” says Yang Liu, PhD, assistant professor of pathology. “This is defined by the protein activity.” But most spatial transcriptome […]
Wavefront Shaping: From Telescopes to Biological Tissue
Lihong Wang | Via Caltech | February 24, 2023Researchers in Caltech’s Andrew and Peggy Cherng Department of Medical Engineering have made a major step forward in medical imaging by taking inspiration from the field of astronomy. The paper describing this research was published in Nature Photonics on January 23 and is titled “High-gain and high-speed wavefront shaping through scattering media.” In astronomy, the […]
First Transient Electronic Bandage Speeds Healing by 30 Percent
Guillermo Ameer | Via Northwestern University | February 22, 2023Bandage also monitors the healing process, alerting clinicians to issues in real time Northwestern Engineering researchers have developed a first-of-its-kind small, flexible, stretchable bandage that accelerates healing by delivering electrotherapy directly to the wound site. In an animal study, the new bandage healed diabetic ulcers 30 percent faster than in mice without the bandage. […]
Spinal Stimulation Opens Door to Treating Stroke Survivors With Partial Paralysis
Douglas Weber | Via Medpage Today | February 21, 2023With epidural electrical stimulation (EES) of the cervical spine, researchers successfully improved arm and hand mobility in two stroke patients who otherwise had no treatment available for their chronic hemiparesis. Continuous spinal cord stimulation (SCS), provided through two surgically implanted leads, improved strength, speed, and functional movements in the first two patients of this ongoing […]
Heidi Mansour Elected to National Academy of Inventors’ 2023 Class of Senior Members
Heidi Mansour | Via NAI | February 20, 2023NAI Welcomes 95 New Emerging Innovators The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) welcomes 95 of the foremost emerging academic inventors identified from NAI’s Member Institutions to their 2023 class of Senior Members. NAI Senior Members are active faculty, scientists, and administrators from NAI Member Institutions who have demonstrated remarkable innovation producing technologies that have brought, […]
Roger Kamm elected to the National Academy of Engineering for 2023
Roger Kamm | Via MIT | February 14, 2023Seven MIT researchers are among the 106 new members and 18 international members elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) this week. Fourteen additional MIT alumni, including one member of the MIT Corporation, were also elected as new members. One of the highest professional distinctions for engineers, membership to the NAE is given to […]
Markus Buehler elected to the National Academy of Engineering for 2023
Markus Buehler | Via MIT | February 14, 2023Seven MIT researchers are among the 106 new members and 18 international members elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) this week. Fourteen additional MIT alumni, including one member of the MIT Corporation, were also elected as new members. One of the highest professional distinctions for engineers, membership to the NAE is given to […]