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.
To Take on New York, Accelerator Makes Big Changes
Leroy Hood | Via Xconomy | August 14, 2014Talk to anyone involved in the New York biotech ecosystem, and it’s clear what’s missing: startups. The big city is just too expensive, entrepreneurs and their backers say—just try finding an affordable one bedroom apartment in Manhattan, let alone lab space—so a number of promising biotech ideas either stay untapped or get snatched up by […]
Georgiou Named Top 20 Translational Researcher
George Georgiou | Via University of Texas at Autin | August 14, 2014Nature Biotechnology ranked George Georgiou, a professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering, one of the world’s top 20 translational researchers in 2013. Georgiou, a renowned biomedical engineer and molecular biologist, is a leading authority in the discovery, development and manufacturing of protein therapeutics. Nature Biotechnology recognized Georgiou for his output of U.S. and European patents issued and papers […]
Jack Lemons 2014 Recipient of the Sam Brown Bridge Builder Award
Jack Lemons | Via University of Alabama at Birmingham | August 13, 2014Jack Lemons, Ph.D., professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry Division of Biomaterials, is the recipient of the 2014 Sam Brown Bridge Builder Award. This annual award honors individuals who engage in interdisciplinary, collaborative efforts across campus in ways that embody the vision, character and bridge-building talents vital to the future […]
Life-saving Dividends for Synthetic Biology Research: Microbial-based Antimalarial Drug Shipped to Africa
Jay Keasling | Via Berkeley Lab | August 13, 2014A project begun some 13 years ago by Jay Keasling, the Associate Laboratory Director for Biosciences at Berkeley Lab and the CEO of the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), was culminated with an announcement on August 12 from the partnership of Sanofi, the multinational pharmaceutical company, and PATH, the nonprofit global health organization. Sanofi/PATH announced the […]
Drug Delivery System Prevents Transplant Rejection
Jeffrey Karp | Via Harvard Gazette | August 13, 2014Following a tissue graft transplant — such as that of the face, hand, arm, or leg — it is standard for doctors to give transplant recipients immunosuppressant drugs immediately to prevent their immune systems from rejecting and attacking the new body part. However, that incurs the risk of toxicities and side effects, because suppressing the […]
Scientists Create a 3-D Model That Mimics Brain Function
David Kaplan | Via NY Times | August 11, 2014A doughnut created in a lab and made of silk on the outside and collagen gel where the jelly ought to be can mimic a basic function of brain tissue, scientists have found. Bioengineers produced a kind of rudimentary gray matter and white matter in a dish, along with rat neurons that signaled one another […]
Dudley Childress, Rehabilitation Engineering Pioneer, Passes Away
Dudley Childress | Via Northwestern Engineering | August 8, 2014Dudley Childress, one of the first graduates of the biomedical engineering PhD program at the McCormick School of Engineering who went on to conduct important work in rehabilitation engineering, passed away Aug. 6 after a long illness. Childress’s pioneering work led him to be elected in 1995 as a member of the Institute of Medicine […]
Seas Summer Scholars Research Blood Vessel Cells, Cytoskeleton
Sina Rabbany | Via Hofstra University | August 6, 2014This summer, Dr. Sina Rabbany, Hofstra’s Jean Nerken Professor of Engineering and Director of the Bioengineering Program, is working with a talented group of students from varied age groups and educational backgrounds to continue research on examining the role of biomechanical forces on endothelial cells (EC) – the cells that make up the structure of […]
Rena Bizios Receives Highest Honors in Her Field
Rena Bizios | Via UT at San Antonio | August 6, 2014Rena Bizios, a Peter T. Flawn Professor in the UTSA Department of Biomedical Engineering, recently received two prestigious awards for her life-long contributions to the biomaterials field and to biomedical engineering education. The first, the 2014 Founders Award of the Society for Biomaterials, is the highest recognition for life contributions by a leading scientist/engineer in […]
Laser-guided Brain Surgery Technology Goes Global
Gerard Cote | Via Texas A&M Engineering | August 5, 2014An MRI-guided laser system that allows surgeons to perform brain surgery on tumors and epileptic lesions in the brain is expected to become widely available to patients in need now that the technology has been acquired from Visualase Inc. by the global medical device company Medtronic, Inc., says a biomedical engineering professor from Texas A&M […]
Milan Mrksich Testifies on Nanotechnology Before Congress
Milan Mrksich | Via Northwestern McCormick Engineering | August 5, 2014Northwestern University faculty member Milan Mrksich was on Capitol Hill last week testifying before Congress on issues critical to keeping the country scientifically competitive. Mrksich testified before the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, discussing sustained investment in fundamental nanoscience research, the economic opportunities of nanotechnology, and the […]
Technique Brings Spinal Cord Neural Signaling Into Focus
John Gore | Via Vanderbilt | August 5, 2014Researchers in the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science (VUIIS) have achieved the first conclusive non-invasive measurement of neural signaling in the spinal cords of healthy human volunteers. Their technique, described today in the journal eLife, may aid efforts to help patients recover from spinal cord injuries and other disorders affecting spinal cord function, including […]
Freddie Fu Received the George D. Rovere Award
Freddie Fu | Via Pitt Chronicle | August 4, 2014Freddie Fu received the George D. Rovere Award for education at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine meeting in Seattle. The annual award recognizes a society member’s contribution to sports-medicine education. Fu is the David Silver Professor and Chair of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and founder of the UPMC Center […]
Tumor Suppressor Mutations Alone Don’t Explain Deadly Cancer
Trey Ideker | Via UCSD Mednews | August 4, 2014Although mutations in a gene dubbed “the guardian of the genome” are widely recognized as being associated with more aggressive forms of cancer, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have found evidence suggesting that the deleterious health effects of the mutated gene may in large part be due to other […]
Rating Heartbeats to Save Lives
Frederick Epstein | Via UVA | August 4, 2014Although the term “heart failure” is a bit of a misnomer, there’s no doubt about its dire consequences. There are over 5 million people in the United States whose hearts simply fail to pump sufficient blood with enough force to fully support their bodies. People with heart failure don’t just feel lethargic and out of […]
Overcoming Immunological Barriers in Regenerative Medicine
Jeffrey Hubbell | Via Nature | August 4, 2014Regenerative therapies that use allogeneic cells are likely to encounter immunological barriers similar to those that occur with transplantation of solid organs and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Decades of experience in clinical transplantation hold valuable lessons for regenerative medicine, offering approaches for developing tolerance-induction treatments relevant to cell therapies. Outside the field of solid-organ […]
Freddie Fu, M.d. Honored with Watanabe Award
Freddie Fu | Via Orthopedics This Week | July 31, 2014The work of the prolific Dr. Fu is known around the globe, as is evidenced by his multitudes of awards. Now, Freddie Fu, M.D., chair of the department of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh, has been recognized by yet another international entity—the Japanese Orthopaedic Society of Knee, Arthroscopy and Sports Medicine (JOSKAS). Recently, […]
Making Old Bones New Again
Deepak Vashishth | Via Rensselaer | July 31, 2014Troy, N.Y. – As we age, our bones grow more brittle and more susceptible to fracture. Individuals with diabetes or with certain types of osteoporosis often are similarly afflicted with brittle bones. A new study from biomedical engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute demonstrates how the compound N-phenacylthiazolium bromide, or PTB, dissolves the sugary impurities within […]
Wyss Institute’s Organs-on-chips Develops into New Company
Donald Ingber | Via Harvard Gazette | July 29, 2014In order to accelerate the development of new pharmaceuticals, Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering announced that its human organs-on-chips technology will be commercialized by a newly formed private company. The announcement on Monday followed a worldwide license agreement between Harvard’s Office of Technology Development (OTD) and the startup Emulate Inc. The agreement, relating […]
Engineering Faculty Selected to Thomson Reuters’ List of World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds 2014
Kinam Park | Via Purdue Engineering | July 29, 2014David J. Love, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Mark S. Lundstrom, the Don and Carol Scifres Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Kinam Park, the Showalter Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering are among seven Purdue faculty members who have been selected to the New York-based Thomson Reuters’ list of "The World’s Most […]