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.
Tumbling stem cells? Watch how movement plays a part in their fate
Fan Yang | Via Stanford University | December 19, 2024Manish Ayushman, a PhD student in bioengineering, has watched more than a thousand hours of microscopic footage of stem cells in the lab. At first, the cells seemed like they weren’t doing much of anything. But when Ayushman looked a little more closely, he noticed they were moving ever so slightly – turning and pulsing […]
Brain cells remain healthy after a month on the International Space Station, but mature faster than brain cells on Earth
Jeanne Loring | Via Science Daily | December 17, 2024Microgravity is known to alter the muscles, bones, the immune system and cognition, but little is known about its specific impact on the brain. To discover how brain cells respond to microgravity, Scripps Research scientists, in collaboration with the New York Stem Cell Foundation, sent tiny clumps of stem-cell derived brain cells called “organoids” to […]
Research Spotlight: Improving Liver Cancer Outcomes Through Enhanced Immunotherapy
Dan Duda | Via Massachusetts General Hospital | December 13, 2024Dan G. Duda, DMD, PhD, of the Edwin L. Steele Laboratories for Tumor Biology and Department of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital, is the corresponding author of a paper published in Cancer Immunology Research, “Combination CXCR4 and PD1 Blockade Enhances Intratumoral Dendritic Cell Activation and Immune Responses Against Hepatocellular Carcinoma.” How would you summarize […]
UCSF Study Suggests Heavy Lifting Kills Your Back
Jeffrey Lotz | Via EurekAlert | December 6, 2024UC San Francisco researchers have shown in studies of mice that high loads on the spine alter the physical structure and biologic activity of discs — the gel-filled cushions between bones in the spine. “The findings should lead to improved treatments for one cause of low back pain, disc degeneration — a condition in which […]
UTD Researchers Develop At‑Home Sensors To Detect Food & Water Contaminants
Shalini Prasad | Via Dallas Innovates | December 3, 2024The recent nationwide alert about E. coli-laced organic carrots is just the latest example that our food safety isn’t guaranteed. Now a research team at UT Dallas is exploring a way that people can do a final check for contaminants—right in their own homes. From contaminated carrots to harmful hamburger, tainted food has caused sickness […]
Liquid Ink Enables Temporary Scalp-Printed Electronic Tattoos for Measuring Brainwaves
Nanshu Lu | Via Inside Precision Medicine | December 2, 2024Researchers at the University of Texas and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) say they have created a liquid ink that can be directly printed onto a patient’s scalp to measure brain activity, offering an alternative to traditional electroencephalography (EEG). The new technology, detailed in the journal Cell Biomaterials, is part of ongoing research […]
Using AI To Intercept Pancreatic Cancer in Black Patients
Debiao Li | Via Cedars-Sinai | November 26, 2024Cedars-Sinai Cancer Leading Artificial Intelligence Study to Identify Risk of Pancreatic Cancer in Vulnerable Group Cedars-Sinai investigators who previously developed an imaging tool that used artificial intelligence (AI) to predict pancreatic cancer are now working to adapt that tool specifically for Black patients, who have disproportionately high rates of the disease. “The incidence of pancreatic […]
Skin Tone Bias Reduces Accuracy in Photoacoustic Imaging for Breast Cancer Detection
Bisi Bell | Via Inside Precision Medicine | November 20, 2024A study from Johns Hopkins University, published in Biophotonics Discovery, examined how skin tone affects the accuracy of photoacoustic imaging (PAI), a technology gaining traction in breast cancer diagnostics, especially in situations where traditional mammography is insufficient. The study shows how image reconstruction methods and laser wavelengths influence the visibility of cancerous targets in patients […]
Celebrating Electrical Engineering Pioneer Ming Hsieh
Ming Hsieh | Via USC | November 20, 2024Ming Hsieh shares his journey as an engineer and innovator with the Trojan family including a new generation of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) students, recounting his humble beginnings in rural China to his rise as founder and innovator in the biometrics scene. As a child, Ming Hsieh fondly recalls helping his father repair electronic […]
Donation After Circulatory Death Kidney Transplant Outcomes Not Affected by Wait Time
Matthew Bacchetta | Via Renal + Urology News | November 18, 2024Extending wait time criteria from 1 to 3 hours after withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment for kidney donation after circulatory death (DCD) does not compromise kidney transplant outcomes and may help ease the organ shortage, investigators report. The UK stipulates a 3-hour minimum observation time after withdrawal of life support before potential donors are no longer […]
There’s a Shortage of Blood. So Why Don’t We Make Some?
Keith Neeves | Via University of Colorado | November 15, 2024A CU School of Medicine professor calls synthetic blood “one of the holy grails of biomedical research,” but creating an ample supply is still a long way off. Every year, more than 14 million units (pints) of blood are transfused in the United States. Every two seconds, someone needs blood or blood products. Yet there’s […]
Real-Life Star Wars Tech: MIT Researchers Have Created a Miniature “Tractor Beam” To Capture Cells
Joel Voldman | Via SciTechDaily | November 10, 2024The tiny device uses a tightly focused beam of light to capture and manipulate cells. MIT researchers have developed a miniature, chip-based “tractor beam,” like the one that captures the Millennium Falcon in the film “Star Wars,” that could someday help biologists and clinicians study DNA, classify cells, and investigate the mechanisms of disease. Small […]
A new approach to modeling complex biological systems
Douglas Lauffenburger | Via MIT | November 5, 2024MIT engineers’ new model could help researchers glean insights from genomic data and other huge datasets. Over the past two decades, new technologies have helped scientists generate a vast amount of biological data. Large-scale experiments in genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and cytometry can produce enormous quantities of data from a given cellular or multicellular system. However, […]
Huntington’s Aggregates Disrupted by Protein-Like Polymer, Rescuing Neurons in Mouse Model
Nathan Gianneschi | Via Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | November 1, 2024Scientists at Northwestern, and Case Western Reserve universities have developed the first polymer-based therapeutic for the genetic disorder Huntington’s disease, an incurable neurodegenerative disease that causes nerve cells to break down in the brain. The new treatment leverages peptide-brush polymers, which act as a shield to prevent proteins from binding to one another. In studies […]
Digestive enzyme leakage from gut to organs may cause aging in rats
Geert Schmid-Schönbein | Via MedicalXpress | October 28, 2024The mucosal layer in the small intestine degrades with age in rats, allowing digestive enzymes to slowly escape and leak into organs outside the intestine, including the liver, lung, heart, kidney and brain. As the enzymes are unable to distinguish tissues from food, they break down collagen and destroy many receptors on cell membranes, such […]
Researchers discover that errors in protein location are a common cause of disease
Anne Carpenter | Via University of Toronto | October 24, 2024An international team led by researchers at the University of Toronto and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has assembled the first large-scale, publicly available map to show the impact of mutations on where proteins end up in the cell. The team developed a high-throughput imaging platform to assess the influence of nearly 3,500 […]
Prausnitz Elected to National Academy of Medicine
Mark Prausnitz | Via Georgia Tech | October 22, 2024For his work creating new kinds of drug delivery techniques and bringing those technologies to patients, Mark Prausnitz is one of the new members of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). The Academy announced his election Oct. 21 alongside 99 others. Membership in NAM is considered one of the highest recognitions in health and medicine, […]
Christine Schmidt elected to prestigious National Academy of Medicine
Christine Schmidt | Via University of Florida | October 21, 2024University of Florida Distinguished Professor Christine Schmidt has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine. This prestigious honor follows her election earlier this year to the National Academy of Engineering, making her one of the few exceptional individuals to be recognized by both academies. Election to the National Academy of Medicine recognizes outstanding professional […]
Jason Burdick elected to National Academy of Medicine
Jason Burdick | Via University of Colorado Boulder | October 21, 2024Bowman Endowed Professor Jason Burdick of the BioFrontiers Institute and the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine. “NAM membership reflects the height of professional achievement and commitment to service,” and Jason was chosen “for innovative biomaterials and biofabrication techniques and their application as in vitro models […]
Nola Hylton Elected to the National Academy of Medicine
Nola Hylton | Via University of California, San Francisco | October 18, 2024Two UC San Francisco faculty members have been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) this year, one of the highest honors in the field of health and medicine. NAM recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievements and commitment to service in the medical sciences, health care and public health. The academy elects […]