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.
Biochar Could Offer Solutions in Haiti
Sue Nokes | Via UK AG News | September 27, 2013Even before the 7.0 earthquake in 2010, deforestation in Haiti was a huge problem. Over the past 50 years, forested land in the country has fallen from 60 percent to a mere 1 percent. This situation creates all kinds of problems including soil erosion to the tune of 15,000 acres of topsoil washed away each […]
Sheikh Zayed Institute at Children’s National Receives FDA Grant To Form Pediatric Device Innovation Consortium
William Bentley | Via Children's National | September 26, 2013The Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National Health System has received a grant from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to form the National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation. The grant is for $700,000 for FY2013, as part of an anticipated five year award… …The NCC-PDI will be a collaboration […]
Programming Genetic Code Can Lead to Better Designer Genes
George M. Church | Via Harvard Gazette | September 26, 2013Reprogramming bacteria to produce proteins for drugs, biofuels, and more, has long been part of the job for bioscientists, but for years they have struggled to get those bugs to follow orders. Those days may be over. It turns out that a hidden feature of the genetic code controls how much of the desired protein […]
UT Arlington Researchers Successfully Test Model for Implant Device Reactions
Liping Tang | Via UT Arlington | September 23, 2013A team from the University of Texas at Arlington has used mathematical modeling to develop a computer simulation they hope will one day improve the treatment of dangerous reactions to medical implants such as stents, catheters and artificial joints. The work resulted from a National Institutes of Health-funded collaboration by research groups headed by Liping […]
Grant to Explore Better Methods for Delivering Antidotes After Chemical Attacks
Joseph DeSimone | Via University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | September 19, 2013A new $4.47 million project at UNC-Chapel Hill, funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, will help lay the groundwork for developing potentially better ways to deliver antidotes against exposure to chemical weapons. The work could ultimately help both civilian and military populations through the design of precisely engineered particles and microneedle patches that are […]
Two New NSF Grants Allow Bayly to Study Brain Biomechanics
Philip V. Bayly | Via Washington University in St. Louis Newsroom | September 18, 2013The human body has a lot of jobs to do, and its mechanical features, such as strength and flexibility, are important to how well it does them. Washington University in St. Louis engineers are now applying a new imaging technique to a model of brain tissue to see how stiff or soft it might be. […]
ACL Repair: A Game Changer?
Martha Murray | Via Boston Children's Hospital | September 18, 2013The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is a powerhouse and the perplexing nexus of a sports injury epidemic. Providing primary stability across the knee joint, the ACL is remarkably susceptible to rupture or tear, with more than 400,000 surgical reconstructions performed annually in the U.S. In the 2013 National Football training camps, more than a dozen […]
Motor Control Development May Extend into Late Adolescence, Study Finds
Francisco J. Valero-Cuevas | Via University of Southern California News | September 18, 2013The development of fine motor control — the ability to use your fingertips to manipulate objects — takes longer than previously believed and isn’t entirely the result of brain development, according to a pair of complementary studies by USC researchers. The studies open up the potential to use therapy to continue improving the motor control […]
MIT’s Langer Wins Top Honor, Palmaz Award for Innovation in Healthcare and Biosciences
Robert Langer | Via Boston Business Journal | September 18, 2013BioMed SA will award its eighth Julio Palmaz Award for Innovation in Healthcare and the Biosciences to Robert S. Langer on Wednesday. Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, runs one of the largest research labs at the internationally acclaimed institution. The award, named after Palmaz Stent inventor Dr. […]
Tracking Hallucinations Inside the Brain
Vince D. Calhoun | Via University of New Mexico | September 16, 2013What happens in your brain when you hear voices that aren’t there? What happens when you see things that no one else sees around you? People with some mental illnesses struggle every day to separate reality from hallucinations and it appears those hallucinations trigger activity in specific parts of the brain. Distinguished Professor of Electrical […]
Studying Tumor Mutations via a Network Approach
Trey Ideker | Via Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | September 16, 2013Researchers at the University of California-San Diego have developed a novel strategy to identify cancer subtypes not by the single mutations of individual patients, but by how those mutations affect shared genetic networks or systems. They published their paper (“Network-based stratification of tumor mutations”) in the September 15 advanced online edition of Nature Methods. “Somatic […]
Gene Networks Predict Cancer Prognosis
Trey Ideker | Via UT San Diego | September 15, 2013Better cancer treatments can be found by studying the genetic networks they involve, according to a study published Sunday by UC San Diego researchers. While individual cancer patients vary greatly in the precise mutations that drive tumors, they can be grouped into similar genetic networks that mesh with response to therapy, stated the study, published […]
Matthew Tirrell Named Pritzker Visiting Scientist-Inventor-Engineer at Parker School
Matthew Tirrell | Via UChicago News | September 12, 2013The University of Chicago’s Matthew Tirrell has accepted an invitation to serve as the Robert A. Pritzker Visiting Scientist-Inventor-Engineer in Residence at the Francis W. Parker School for the 2013-14 school year. Tirrell, the Pritzker Director of the Institute for Molecular Engineering, will present a public lecture on Monday, Oct. 28 and will interact with students through […]
Unraveling Cancer Through Network Models
Trey Ideker | Via BioTechniques | September 11, 2013In many ways, cancer is simply a devastating natural mutagenesis experiment. Alterations to genes and their products, as well as additional downstream modifications, lead to dangerous and deadly consequences. From recent studies, we know there are a few key cancer drivers, genes such as p53 and Ras that have central roles within the genetic pathways […]
Peppas Selected For American Chemical Society’s Applied Polymer Science Award
Nicholas Peppas | Via Cockrell School of Engineering | September 10, 2013Professor Nicholas Peppas has been selected for the 2014 American Chemical Society (ACS) Award in Applied Polymer Science for his pioneering work on the development and implementation of polymer networks and hydrogels for biomedical applications. Nicholas Peppas is the Fletcher Stuckey Pratt Chair in Engineering and a professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, the […]
Diller Named Fellow of the Society for Cryobiology and Recipient of 2013 Luyet Medal
Kenneth Diller | Via University of Texas as Austin BME News | September 10, 2013Professor Kenneth Diller has been inducted as a Fellow of the Society for Cryobiology and will be recognized with the 2013 Luyet Medal for his extensive work in cryobiology. Diller, who has been a major figure in bio heat transfer problems for the last 43 years, is one of the 22 distinguished Fellows of Society […]
Programmable Glue Made of DNA Directs Tiny Gel Bricks to Self-Assemble
Ali Khademhosseini | Via Wyss Institute | September 9, 2013A team of researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University has found a way to self-assemble complex structures out of bricks smaller than a grain of salt. The self-assembly method could help solve one of the major challenges in tissue engineering: regrowing human tissue by injecting tiny components into the […]
City College Appoints Two Academic Leaders in STEM Fields
Gilda Barabino | Via The City College of New York | September 6, 2013New deans of engineering and science bring academic excellence, management expertise and research accomplishments Following an extensive nationwide recruiting process, The City College of New York today announced the appointment of two outstanding academicians, administrators and researchers who will bring new leadership to the College’s programs in the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics): […]
Cancer Vaccine Begins Phase I Clinical Trials
David Mooney | Via Harvard SEAS | September 6, 2013Cross-disciplinary team from Harvard University and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute brings novel therapeutic cancer vaccine to human clinical trials A cross-disciplinary team of scientists, engineers, and clinicians announced today that they have begun a Phase I clinical trial of an implantable vaccine to treat melanoma, the most lethal form of skin cancer. The effort is the […]