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.
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 […]
Gene Therapy Method Converts Omega Fatty Acids to Combat Childhood Obesity
Farshid Guilak | Via Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | October 14, 2024Over the last four years, Shriners Children’s St. Louis researchers have been working to develop a new way to prevent the effects of childhood obesity. Now, using gene therapy, Shriners Children’s St. Louis director of research Farshid Guilak, PhD, and senior scientist Ruhang Tang, PhD, have discovered a novel method in mice that converts harmful […]
Ravi V. Bellamkonda named executive vice president and provost
Ravi Bellamkonda | Via The Ohio State University | October 14, 2024Ohio State President Walter “Ted” Carter Jr. announced today that highly accomplished scientist and higher education administrative leader Ravi V. Bellamkonda has been selected to serve as the university’s next executive vice president and provost. Pending approval by the Board of Trustees, Bellamkonda, who is currently provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at […]
The ‘Enormous’ Promise of Focused Ultrasound Now Coming True
Elisa Konofagou | Via Medscape | October 11, 2024After several years of investigating focused ultrasound as a tool in treating Alzheimer’s, the field took a big leap forward this year. Elisa Konofagou, PhD, a biomedical engineer who runs the Ultrasound and Elasticity Imaging Laboratory at Columbia University in the City of New York, published the results of her team’s groundbreaking research in July, […]
They cracked the code for proteins’ amazing structures
David Baker | Via The Nobel Foundation | October 9, 2024The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 is about proteins, life’s ingenious chemical tools. David Baker has succeeded with the almost impossible feat of building entirely new kinds of proteins. Demis Hassabis and John Jumper have developed an AI model to solve a 50-year-old problem: predicting proteins’ complex structures. These discoveries hold enormous potential. The diversity […]
Study finds persistent infection could explain long COVID in some people
David Walt | Via EurekAlert | October 9, 2024Brigham researchers found people with wide-ranging long COVID symptoms were twice as likely to have SARS-CoV-2 proteins in their blood, compared to those without long COVID symptoms A persistent infection could explain why some people experience long COVID symptoms, according to a new study led by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member […]
Carnegie Mellon lands ARPA-H award for implantable bioelectric medicine project
Burak Ozdoganlar | Via Carnegie Mellon University | October 2, 2024An award of up to $42 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) has been secured by a CMU-led team to accelerate the development of implantable, cell-based bioelectronic devices that deliver patient-specific therapy and monitor disease status, for conditions like hypo- and hyperthyroidism, in real time. A Carnegie Mellon University-led team has […]
Hypoglycemia Controlled by Glucose Responsive Glucagon-Loaded Micelles
Heather Maynard | Via Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | October 2, 2024People with diabetes take insulin to lower high blood sugar. However, if glucose levels plunge too low—from taking too much insulin or not eating enough sugar—people can experience hypoglycemia, which can lead to dizziness, cognitive impairment, seizures or comas. Emergency treatment with the hormone glucagon (GCG) may be needed. Researchers at the University of California, […]
Barbara Shinn-Cunningham Named Mellon College of Science Dean
Barbara Shinn-Cunningham | Via Carnegie Mellon University | September 30, 2024Barbara Shinn-Cunningham has been named Carnegie Mellon University’s Glen de Vries Dean of the Mellon College of Science (MCS), effective Jan. 1, 2025. Shinn-Cunningham, who will be the eighth dean to lead MCS, joined Carnegie Mellon in 2018 as the founding director of the Neuroscience Institute and the George A. and Helen Dunham Cowan Professor […]
Building better bone grafts
Peter X. Ma | Via University of Michigan | September 26, 2024Each year, about 2.2 million bone-grafting procedures are performed worldwide, the gold standard of care being autografting, which uses the patient’s own bone for tooth implantation and to repair and reconstruct parts of the mouth, face and skull. Given drawbacks to autografting that include the need for additional surgery, longer recovery time, complication risks and […]