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.
Northwestern Joins Network to Improve STEM Education
Robert Linsenmeier | Via Northwestern University | October 21, 2013Northwestern and 21 other universities that are part of the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (CIRTL) recently received a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant will expand CIRTL, a nationwide collaboration with the goal of improving the education of the diverse populations of undergraduates who pursue degrees […]
Li Lab Shows Physical Cues Help Mature Cells Revert into Embryonic-Like Stem Cells
Song Li | Via UC Berkeley Bioengineering | October 21, 2013Professor Song Li and his research team have shown that physical cues can replace certain chemicals when inducing mature cells back to a pluripotent stage, capable of becoming any cell type in the body.
Physical Cues Help Mature Cells Revert into Embryonic-Like Stem Cells
Song Li | Via UC Berkeley Research | October 20, 2013Bioengineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have shown that physical cues can replace certain chemicals when nudging mature cells back to a pluripotent stage, capable of becoming any cell type in the body. The researchers grew fibroblasts – cells taken from human skin and mouse ears – on surfaces with parallel grooves measuring 10 […]
Rice Scientists Create a Super Antioxidant
Vicki Colvin | Via Rice University | October 14, 2013Common catalyst cerium oxide opens door to nanochemistry for medicine Scientists at Rice University are enhancing the natural antioxidant properties of an element found in a car’s catalytic converter to make it useful for medical applications. Rice chemist Vicki Colvin led a team that created small, uniform spheres of cerium oxide and gave them a […]
New Drug-Delivery System Will Improve Lives of Patients with Chronic Eye Diseases
Tejal Desai | Via UC San Francisco | October 14, 2013Patients suffering from eye diseases such as glaucoma and macular degeneration benefit from the availability of highly effective medicines. However, the methods for delivering these drugs to the eye keep patients trapped in a cycle of constant maintenance with monthly injections or cumbersome eye drops multiple times a day. Robert Bhisitkul, MD, PhD, a professor […]
Miga Joins Editorial Board of New Medical Imaging Journal
Michael I. Miga | Via Vanderbilt University Engineering | October 13, 2013Michael Miga, professor of biomedical engineering, will serve on the editorial board of the Journal of Medical Imaging, a new publication of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. The journal will launch in early 2014 and cover fundamental and translational research and applications focused on photonics in medical imaging. JMI will be published […]
UTEP Faculty Members Benefit from Latest Round of Research Grants
Wei Qian | Via UTEP News | October 10, 2013The University’s rise toward Tier One research recognition continues with the dissemination of interdisciplinary research grants to groups of UTEP faculty engaged in critical collaborative work. The second of this year’s Interdisciplinary Research (IDR) Enhancement Program awards were announced in September by the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects (ORSP). It marks the fourth round […]
Blood Vessel Cells Can Repair, Regenerate Organs, Say Weill Cornell Scientists
Sina Rabbany | Via Weill Cornell Medical College | October 8, 2013Damaged or diseased organs may someday be healed with an injection of blood vessel cells, eliminating the need for donated organs and transplants, according to scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College. In studies appearing in recent issues of Stem Cell Journal and Developmental Cell, the researchers show that endothelial cells — the cells that make […]
A Tiny, Time-Released Treatment
Omid Farokhzad | Via Harvard Gazette | October 8, 2013Omid Farokhzad’s vision of medicine’s future sounds a lot like science fiction. He sees medicine scaled down, with vanishingly small nanoparticles playing a big role, delivering drug doses measured in molecules directly to cancerous tumors. He sees “theranostic” particles that not only deliver nanotherapy, but also beam back diagnostic images of changing tumor cells. He […]
Cells Prefer Nanodiscs Over Nanorods
Krishnendu Roy | Via Georgia Tech News Center | October 7, 2013For years scientists have been working to fundamentally understand how nanoparticles move throughout the human body. One big unanswered question is how the shape of nanoparticles affects their entry into cells. Now researchers have discovered that under typical culture conditions, mammalian cells prefer disc-shaped nanoparticles over those shaped like rods. Understanding how the shape of […]
Hit-and-Run Action of Stem Cells Exploited for Targeted Drug Delivery
Jeffrey Karp | Via Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | October 7, 2013Scientists have inserted mRNA into mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to produce a drug delivery vehicle. Following systemic administration, the modified MSCs targeted and adhered to sites of inflammation, then released interleukin-10 that significantly reduced local swelling. Historically, MSC-based treatments have had mixed results. MSCs exert their therapeutic effects in hit-and-run style. That is, MSCs are […]
Four Advanced ERC Grants for Our SV Professors
Jeffrey Hubbell | Via École Polytechnique Fédérale De Lausanne | October 4, 2013Four professors leading research groups at the Faculty of Life Sciences have been awarded an ADVANCED GRANT 2013 from the European Research Council (ERC), in recognition of their outstanding research performed at the EPFL… …Jeffrey Hubbell, head of the Laboratory of Regenerative Medicine & Pharmacobiology (Merck Serono Chair in Drug Delivery), for his research on […]
Anika Therapeutics Appoints Industry-Recognized R&D Executive John W. Sheets, Jr., Ph.D. as Chief Scientific Officer
John Sheets, Jr. | Via BusinessWire | October 3, 2013Anika Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ANIK), a leader in products for tissue protection, healing and repair, based on hyaluronic acid (“HA”) technology, today announced it has appointed John W. Sheets, Jr., Ph.D. as its new Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Sheets joins Anika from Boston Scientific, where he was Senior Vice President, Corporate Research. At Boston Scientific, […]
AIChE Recognizes Peppas with Nanoscale Science & Engineering Forum Award
Nicholas Peppas | Via University of Texas at Austin | October 1, 2013The American Institute of Chemical Engineers has recognized Professor Nicholas Peppas with its 2013 Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum Award for his achievement in science, impact in education, and commitment to professional service. "Peppas exquisitely fuses modern molecular and cell biology with materials engineering to generate new systems and devices, including uses of nanomaterials for […]
Rice BIOE Announces its 2013 Alumni Awards in Bioengineering
Konstantinos Konstantopoulos | Via Rice Bioengineering | September 30, 2013The Rice University Department of Bioengineering announces the recipients of its alumni awards for excellence in research, teaching, service or significant contributions to academia, society, or the bioengineering industry. The 2013 winners include: Konstantinos Konstantopoulos for Distinguished Bioengineering Alumnus, Eric Darling for Outstanding Graduate Alumnus and Kimberly Hsu for Outstanding Undergraduate alumna. Konstantinos Konstantopoulos (Rice Ph.D. […]
Biochar Quiets Microbes, Including some Plant Pathogens
Kyriacos Zygourakis | Via Rice University News | September 30, 2013In the first study of its kind, Rice University scientists have used synthetic biology to study how a popular soil amendment called “biochar” can interfere with the chemical signals that some microbes use to communicate. The class of compounds studied includes those used by some plant pathogens to coordinate their attacks. Biochar is charcoal that […]
KAIST Team Produces Gasoline Using E. coli
Sang Yup Lee | Via The Korean Herald | September 30, 2013A group of scientists from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has discovered a way to produce gasoline using bacteria for the first time, the school announced. The finding, published online in the journal Nature on Sunday, could mark a step toward developing new renewable energy. The research team led by Lee Sang-yup, […]
Novel Technology to Produce Gasoline by a Metabolically-Engineered Microorganism
Sang Yup Lee | Via Science Daily | September 29, 2013For many decades, we have been relying on fossil resources to produce liquid fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and many industrial and consumer chemicals for daily use. However, increasing strains on natural resources as well as environmental issues including global warming have triggered a strong interest in developing sustainable ways to obtain fuels and chemicals. […]
Grant to Rice, UTHealth will Push Regenerative Medicine
Antonios Mikos | Via Rice University News | September 27, 2013A $75 million Department of Defense grant to improve technologies to treat soldiers injured on the battlefield and advance care for the public will involve bioengineers at Rice University and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). The five-year Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM) grant announced today by the lead […]