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.
Parkinson’s implant uses brain’s signals to adapt treatment
Howard Chizeck | Via Medical Xpress | May 10, 2018Scientists in the USA have developed a new deep brain stimulation method to treat the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. While present deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s is constant, the new method is ‘adaptive’. This means the stimulation changes in real time, based on the patient’s neural signals. The study, published today in the Journal of […]
Protecting confidentiality in genomic studies
Bonnie Berger | Via MIT | May 7, 2018Genome-wide association studies, which look for links between particular genetic variants and incidence of disease, are the basis of much modern biomedical research. But databases of genomic information pose privacy risks. From people’s raw genomic data, it may be possible to infer their surnames and perhaps even the shapes of their faces. Many people are […]
Decellularized muscle grafts support skeletal muscle regeneration to treat tissue loss
Barbara D. Boyan | Via EurekAlert | May 4, 2018A new comparative study showed the advantages of using donor decellularized muscle to promote functional tissue regeneration at the site of bulk skeletal muscle loss due to trauma or surgery. Compared to an autologous muscle graft, a decellularized muscle matrix used to repair medium- and large-sized defects in rats resulted in enhanced muscle function recovery, […]
Model predicts new H3N2 flu vaccine component will be just as ineffective
Michael Deem | Via Healio | May 3, 2018For a variety of reasons, including antiquated egg-based production methods, the seasonal influenza vaccine is rarely more than 50% effective, leaving even vaccinated patients potentially vulnerable to one of the world’s biggest infectious disease threats. According to early estimates, this season’s vaccine was just 36% effective overall, and only 25% effective against the predominant strain, […]
Biomedical Tattoo Detects Cancer-Associated Hypercalcemia
Martin Fussenegger | Via Hospimedica | May 1, 2018A new study describes how a mole-like synthetic implant recognizes the elevated levels of calcium in the blood associated with incipient prostate, lung, colon, and breast cancer tumors. Developed by researchers at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and the University of Basel (Switzerland), the so-called early warning system is comprised of an encapsulated gene network integrated into […]
New System Mimics Human Testing of Therapies for Neuromuscular Junction Diseases Like ALS
James J. Hickman | Via ALS News Today | May 1, 2018New technology that tests therapies designed for disorders of the neuromuscular junction, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), closely mimics the human condition and offers a new method of drug testing, according to a report. The paper, “Stem cell derived phenotypic human neuromuscular junction model for dose response evaluation of therapeutics,” was written by Hesperos […]
Elazer Edelman named director of Institute for Medical Engineering and Science
Elazer Edelman | Via MIT | April 30, 2018Elazer R. Edelman has been named the new director of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), effective May 1. The announcement was made today at a special meeting of the faculty for IMES and the Health Science and Technology (HST) program. “Elazer’s strengths as a researcher, a practitioner of medicine, an innovator, and […]
U of M researcher gets $2M to develop bone regeneration tech
Joel Bumgardner | Via Biz Journals | April 30, 2018Patients with tooth loss from injuries or periodontal disease also often suffer from bone loss that diminishes their ability to chew, as well as altered speech and aesthetics. Dental implants can help, but the procedure needs restoration of the lost or missing bone to work. It affects more than 2 million patients annually in the […]
Glioma subtypes determine how the dangerous tumors spread, evade anti-angiogenic treatment
Rakesh Jain | Via Massachusetts General Hospital | April 27, 2018A multi-institutional research team has identified a new mechanism by which the dangerous brain tumors called gliomas develop resistance to anti-angiogenic treatment. The team’s report, published online in Cancer Cell, describes finding how different molecular subtypes of glioma cells use different strategies to spread through the brain and how anti-angiogenic treatment selects for a treatment-resistant […]
Intersecting Paths, Unprecedented Journeys
Rakesh Jain | Via University of Delaware | April 27, 2018As a research facility at one of America’s top hospitals buzzes with activity, two men chat in a narrow, unassuming office. One is jaunty, with a smile as his default facial expression and a melodic lilt to his voice. The other is more reserved and speaks with a softer, deeper tone. They haven’t seen each […]
New Imaging System Makes Back Surgery Safer, Faster and Less Expensive
Keith D. Paulsen | Via Dartmouth | April 26, 2018Researchers at Dartmouth have found a way to make back surgery safer, faster and more cost effective. MRIs and CT scans help surgeons identify spine problems, like compressed vertebrae or herniated disks, but finding a clear path to those problem areas is not always as straightforward. Tissue and bone not only stand in the way, […]
Team shows MRI technique detects spinal cord changes in MS patients
John Gore | Via Vanderbilt University | April 25, 2018Magnetic resonance imaging can detect changes in resting-state spinal cord function in patients with multiple sclerosis, a new study by a Vanderbilt University Medical Center-led research team has shown. This first application of these measures in patients living with MS, reported recently in the journal Brain, could lead to new ways to monitor the effectiveness […]
New Cell Therapy Aids Heart Recovery—Without Implanting Cells
Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic | Via Columbia University | April 23, 2018Heart disease is a major global health problem—myocardial infarction annually affects more than one million people in the U.S. alone, and there is still no effective treatment. The adult human heart cannot regenerate itself after injury, and the death of cardiac muscle cells, known as cardiomyocytes, irreversibly weakens the heart and limits its ability to […]
Integrating optical components into existing chip designs
Milos Popovic | Via MIT | April 19, 2018Two and a half years ago, a team of researchers led by groups at MIT, the University of California at Berkeley, and Boston University announced a milestone: the fabrication of a working microprocessor, built using only existing manufacturing processes, that integrated electronic and optical components on the same chip. The researchers’ approach, however, required that […]
Deep learning predicts drug-drug and drug-food interactions
Sang Yup Lee | Via KAIST | April 18, 2018A Korean research team from KAIST developed a computational framework, DeepDDI, that accurately predicts and generates 86 types of drug-drug and drug-food interactions as outputs of human-readable sentences, which allows in-depth understanding of the drug-drug and drug-food interactions. Drug interactions, including drug-drug interactions (DDIs) and drug-food constituent interactions (DFIs), can trigger unexpected pharmacological effects, including […]
Pesky mosquitoes provide neural implant solution
Jeffrey Capadona | Via Case Western Reserve | April 18, 2018Brain scientists face a dilemma: Conventional wire implants are rigid and can sometimes traumatize that sensitive, vital organ; but softer materials now being tested by researchers, have their own problems—they often bend or buckle and can’t be easily forced into squishy tissue inside the skull. A biomedical research team at Case Western Reserve University might […]
Back to the Beginning
Lori Setton | Via Washington University in St. Louis | April 17, 2018Neck and back pain are debilitating and expensive: an estimated 80 percent of adults will suffer one or both at some point during their lives, racking up $86 billion in medical costs and missed work in the United States alone. Often, the conditions are caused by the breakdown of discs, the load-bearing, donut-like structures that […]
An Elastic Skin-Like Liquid Bandage Wins FDA Approval
Jian Yang | Via Penn State Materials Research Institute | April 16, 2018State College, PA–Biomaterials and medical device company Aleo BME has received notification from the U.S. Federal Drug Administration that it has been approved for the sale and licensing of ElaSkinTM as a liquid bandage for the protection and treatment of a broad set of skin conditions and injuries. ElaSkin’sTM development validates Aleo BME’s approach to […]
Novel ‘Six-Dimensional’ Cardiac MR Technique Said to Simplify CMR, Avoid Pitfalls
Debiao Li | Via MedScape | April 13, 2018An experimental technique for cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging that is unaffected by cardiac or respiratory motion, and in fact captures such motion as part of the imaging process, could potentially sharpen and simplify CMR procedures, researchers say. The technique’s inventors, who call it CMR Multitasking, report that it is less technically demanding for CMR […]
Researchers are one step closer to an effective anti-atherosclerosis vaccine
Klaus F. Ley | Via Medical Xpress | April 12, 2018In the disease atherosclerosis, cholesterol-containing plaques form in vessel walls, causing arteries to narrow and greatly increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke. Currently, atherosclerosis is the number 1 killer worldwide, just ahead of cancer. Recent use of statin anti-cholesterol drugs has reduced cardiovascular events caused by atherosclerosis by 35%, but millions of individuals […]