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.
Joseph Moskal Receives Top Biotechnology Innovator Award
Joseph Moskal | Via Northwestern University | October 3, 2017Northwestern Engineering professor Joseph Moskal has received the iCON Innovator Award from the Illinois Biotechnology Innovation Organization (iBIO), an industry association of more than 200 companies, academic institutions, and service providers dedicated to making Illinois and the Midwest a leader in life sciences ventures and technology. The iCON Innovator Award recognizes an active researcher within […]
Cynthia Reinhart-King named Biomedical Engineering Society Fellow
Cynthia Reinhart-King | Via Vanderbilt University | September 28, 2017Cynthia Reinhart-King, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Engineering and professor of biomedical engineering, is a member of the 2017 Class of Fellows of the Biomedical Engineering Society. The BMES is the premier society for biomedical engineering and bioengineering professionals with more than 7,000 members. This year’s class includes 20 members nominated by their peers. Reinhart-King is […]
Smart molecules trigger white blood cells to become better cancer-eating machines
YingXiao Wang | Via UC San Diego | September 28, 2017San Diego, Calif., Sept. 28, 2017 — A team of researchers has engineered smart protein molecules that can reprogram white blood cells to ignore a self-defense signaling mechanism that cancer cells use to survive and spread in the body. Researchers say the advance could lead to a new method of re-engineering immune cells to fight […]
Smart molecules trigger white blood cells to become better cancer-eating machines
Shu Chien | Via UC San Diego | September 28, 2017San Diego, Calif., Sept. 28, 2017 — A team of researchers has engineered smart protein molecules that can reprogram white blood cells to ignore a self-defense signaling mechanism that cancer cells use to survive and spread in the body. Researchers say the advance could lead to a new method of re-engineering immune cells to fight […]
Robert Langer of MIT receives $250,000 Kabiller Prize in Nanoscience and Nanomedicine from Northwestern
Robert S. Langer | Via Northwestern University | September 27, 2017EVANSTON – Chemical engineer and prolific inventor Robert S. Langer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — known as the “Edison of medicine” — is the recipient of the $250,000 Kabiller Prize in Nanoscience and Nanomedicine for 2017, Northwestern University’s International Institute for Nanotechnology announced today (Sept. 27). The Kabiller Prize is the largest monetary […]
On Hilton Head, the future promises a human heart built with a desktop printer
Anthony Atala | Via The Island Packet | September 27, 2017This is a story of hope and promise. To me, it sounds like science fiction. But it is not. You can hear and see for yourselves at a presentation Oct. 5 at the Sonesta Resort on Hilton Head Island called “Adult Stem Cells: Medicine of the Future.” Two world-famous doctors and researchers — Dr. Keith […]
SHRS Snapshots: The PneuChair
Rory Cooper | Via YouTube - SHRS | September 26, 2017Summer is winding down, but the popularity of our Human Engineering Research Laboratories or HERL’s new waterproof wheelchair is just heating up. In this “SHRS Snapshots” video, see how SHRS researchers have added a new dimension of fun to the world’s first accessible water park. Watch the video here.
MRI contrast agent locates and distinguishes aggressive from slow-growing breast cancer
Zheng-Rong Lu | Via Case Western Reserve | September 25, 2017A new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent being tested by researchers at Case Western Reserve University not only pinpoints breast cancers at early stages but differentiates between aggressive and slow-growing types. “Doing both will help doctors find the right treatment,” said Zheng-Rong Lu, the M. Frank Rudy and Margaret Dormiter Rudy Professor of Biomedical […]
How Artificial Intelligence Could Save Healthcare
Omar Ishrak | Via UBM Americas | September 25, 2017They say the only two certainties in life are death and taxes, but you could also make an argument for adding rising healthcare costs to the list. “There is no end in sight to the amount of healthcare spending because it scales with multiple on the population,” Josh Makower, MD, general partner venture capital firm […]
Partnership for Public Service Honors VA Pittsburgh/Pitt Researcher with ‘Oscar’ of Government Service
Rory Cooper | Via Service to America Medals | September 22, 2017Rory Cooper was in the Army serving in Germany when a bicycle accident left him paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. That event has shaped his life’s work on behalf of the disabled as a research biomedical engineer. In the years following that 1980 accident, Cooper founded the nation’s leading assistive technology research laboratory and […]
Case Western Reserve researcher wins $5.5 million federal grant to develop bioinspired materials and systems
Jeffrey Capadona | Via Case Western Reserve | September 21, 2017With a new $5.5 million, five-year federal grant, a Case Western Reserve University researcher is leading an international team to develop functional materials inspired by some of the most desirable substances found in nature. The bioinspired materials produced in the project will be tested in soft-sided robots, but are expected to have a wide range […]
Researchers Exploring New Markets for Water-friendly Wheelchair After Rewarding Debut
Rory Cooper | Via Pittwire | September 21, 2017A successful summer season has wrapped up at Morgan’s Inspiration Island splash park in San Antonio, Texas. And Pitt-based technology played a big part. Inspiration Island was the first location to use the PneuChair pneumatic wheelchairs created by the University of Pittsburgh. The devices use high-pressured air as an energy source instead of heavy batteries […]
This Radical New Method Regenerates Failing Lungs With Blood Vessels Intact
Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic | Via Singularity Hub | September 20, 2017Save for the occasional burning pain that accompanies a run, most people don’t pay much attention to the two-leafed organ puffing away in our chests. But lungs are feats of engineering wonder: with over 40 types of cells embedded in a delicate but supple matrix, they continuously pump oxygen into the bloodstream over an area […]
Bio-inspired approach to RNA delivery
Paula Hammond | Via MIT | September 19, 2017By delivering strands of genetic material known as messenger RNA (mRNA) into cells, researchers can induce the cells to produce any protein encoded by the mRNA. This technique holds great potential for administering vaccines or treating diseases such as cancer, but achieving efficient delivery of mRNA has proven challenging. Now, a team of MIT chemical […]
Blood testing via sound waves may replace some tissue biopsies
Tony Huang | Via MIT | September 18, 2017Cells secrete nanoscale packets called exosomes that carry important messages from one part of the body to another. Scientists from MIT and other institutions have now devised a way to intercept these messages, which could be used to diagnose problems such as cancer or fetal abnormalities. Their new device uses a combination of microfluidics and […]
Pitt Researcher Receives NIH Funding Aimed at Preventing Bed Sores
David Brienza | Via University of Pittsburgh | September 18, 2017Heat, moisture and force, in addition to other factors, can lead to pressure injuries — or bed sores — which are common among immobile patients and individuals who use wheelchairs. Many technologies and guidelines exist to help prevent and treat pressure injuries, but there is little evidence to prove which technologies are most effective for […]
Mikos honored by International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering
Antonios Mikos | Via Rice University | September 14, 2017Rice University bioengineer Antonios Mikos has been named a fellow of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering. The honor recognizes his “distinguished contributions to and leadership in the field of medical and biological engineering,” according to the academy, which is part of the International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering. The academy was […]
Dr. Joseph DeSimone Received 22nd Heinz Award for Technology, the Economy and Employment
Joseph DeSimone | Via Heinz Awards | September 14, 2017Dr. Joseph DeSimone, a chemist and expert in polymeric materials, is recognized for his achievements in developing and commercializing advanced technologies in several cutting-edge fields such as 3D printing, precision medicine, nanoparticle fabrication and green chemistry, and for his commitment to diversity in the STEM fields as a “fundamental tenet of innovation.” Dr. DeSimone’s work […]
One vaccine injection could carry many doses
Robert Langer | Via MIT | September 14, 2017MIT engineers have invented a new 3-D fabrication method that can generate a novel type of drug-carrying particle that could allow multiple doses of a drug or vaccine to be delivered over an extended time period with just one injection. The new microparticles resemble tiny coffee cups that can be filled with a drug or […]
Researchers design building blocks for synthetic muscle using computational method
Philip LeDuc | Via Carnegie Mellon University | September 13, 2017Each time you flex your bicep, millions of molecular motors work together in a complex process inside your muscle. These motors—called myosin are chemically-powered proteins. Complex combinations of them perform different muscular functions like maintaining a heartbeat or lifting weights. In order to develop synthetic muscles for applications in regenerative medicine or robotics, scientists must […]