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.
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 […]
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 […]