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.
Sticking Power
Jeffrey Karp | Via The Scientist | July 1, 2013An adhesive inspired by a parasitic worm could help better affix skin grafts in burn patients. Bioengineer Jeffrey Karp is used to finding inspiration in unusual places. He’s looked to porcupines’ barbed quills and the sticky pads of geckos’ feet, for example, to develop medical adhesives. And one afternoon a few years ago he sat […]
DeLisa to Join The Defense Science Study Group
Matthew P. DeLisa | Via Cornell University | June 29, 2013Professor Matt DeLisa, the William L. Lewis Professor of Engineering, has been accepted into the 2014-2015 class of the Defense Science Study Group (DSSG). The DSSG is a program of education and study that introduces selected scientists and engineering professors to the challenges facing national security and encourages them to apply their talents to these issues […]
Put Down Oil Drill, Pick Up The Test Tube: Making Fuel From Yeast
Jay Keasling | Via NPR | June 28, 2013What if we could get our gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel from yeast instead of from oil wells? That’s not as crazy as it sounds. In fact, it’s already happening on a small scale. And there’s a vigorous research effort to ramp this up on a massive scale. One of the more innovative approaches […]
Bashir to Head Department of Bioengineering
Rashid Bashir | Via University of Illinois ECE | June 26, 2013Rashid Bashir, director of the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory at Illinois, will be the next head of the Department of Bioengineering, beginning August 16, 2013. As Abel Bliss Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Bioengineering, Bashir leads two efforts to train the next generation of leaders in nanotechnology and bioengineering: the Integrative Graduate Education and Research […]
Enhancing RNA Interference
Robert Langer | Via Massachusetts Institute of Technology | June 23, 2013Nanoparticles that deliver short strands of RNA offer a way to treat cancer and other diseases by shutting off malfunctioning genes. Although this approach has shown some promise, scientists are still not sure exactly what happens to the nanoparticles once they get inside their target cells. A new study from MIT sheds light on the […]
Enhancing RNA Interference
Daniel Anderson | Via Massachusetts Institute of Technology | June 23, 2013Nanoparticles that deliver short strands of RNA offer a way to treat cancer and other diseases by shutting off malfunctioning genes. Although this approach has shown some promise, scientists are still not sure exactly what happens to the nanoparticles once they get inside their target cells. A new study from MIT sheds light on the […]
Professor Helps Validate Maps of the Brain’s Resting State
John Gore | Via Vanderbilt School of Engineering | June 19, 2013Kick back and shut your eyes. Now stop thinking. You have just put your brain into what neuroscientists call its resting state. What the brain is doing when an individual is not focused on the outside world has become the focus of considerable research in recent years. One of the potential benefits of these studies […]
Pathological Altruism: The Road to Hell Really Is Often Paved With Good Intentions Argues New Study
Barbara Oakley | Via Reason Foundation | June 19, 2013In a remarkably interesting new paper, “Concepts and implications of altruism bias and pathological altruism,” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Oakland University systems engineer Barbara Oakley argues that intentions to help people all too often hurt them. Unintended harm is the outcome of she what calls pathological altruism. She defines pathological […]
Model Recreates Wear and Tear of Osteoarthritis
Marjolein van der Meulen | Via Cornell Chronicle | June 18, 2013There’s a reason osteoarthritis is often called wear-and-tear arthritis: Repeated stress on joints over time results in degeneration of the soft cartilage that normally distributes loads to the joints. Recreating how joints bear stress could lead to a better understanding of the mechanical and physiological processes involved in the development of osteoarthritis. Cornell engineers have […]
Southern Research Institute Names Arthur J. Tipton, Ph.D. President and CEO
Arthur Tipton | Via Southern Research Institute | June 17, 2013Southern Research Institute today announced that Arthur J. Tipton, Ph.D., has been selected by its Board of Directors to serve as president and CEO of Southern Research effective July 8, 2013. Tipton replaces John A. “Jack” Secrist, III, Ph.D., who served as president and CEO of Southern Research Institute for seven years. Secrist announced his […]
Swanson School’s Department of Bioengineering Receives 2013 Chancellor’s Affirmative Action Award
Harvey Borovetz | Via Pitt Chronicle | June 17, 2013The Department of Bioengineering in the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering has been selected as the recipient of the 2013 Chancellor’s Affirmative Action Award. Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg presented the award to department chair Harvey Borovetz, Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering, during the University Senate Council’s June 12 meeting, held in Posvar Hall. […]
That Certain Glow: Delayed Fluorescence Can Help Monitor the Health of Plants
Jinglu Tan | Via CAFNR News | June 14, 2013Don’t look now, but your plants are glowing. Research at the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources is investigating this glow, or delayed fluorescence, that may someday help farmers monitor the health of their crops to more accurately apply fertilizers, water and pesticides. “This research is very new,” said Jinglu Tan, […]
Georgia Tech, Emory Name New Chair for Joint Biomedical Engineering Department
Ravi Bellamkonda | Via Emory News Center | June 10, 2013The Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University have selected Ravi V. Bellamkonda, PhD, a prominent biomedical scientist and engineer, to chair their joint department of biomedical engineering. He will begin as chair of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University in July. Bellamkonda, who has built a […]
Bionic Eye Gets $8 Million Boost
Nigel Lovell | Via UNSW Newsroom | June 9, 2013Bionic eye research at UNSW will benefit from an $8 million funding boost from the Australian Research Council (ARC) over the next year, announced today by Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr. Researchers from the UNSW Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering are part of the Bionic Vision Australia consortium, which is developing two prototype devices that […]
Grow Fresh Cartilage from Adult Stem Cells
Robert L. Mauck | Via Futurity | June 7, 2013Bioengineers are a step closer to growing new cartilage from a patient’s own stem cells. Cartilage injuries are difficult to repair. Current surgical options generally involve taking a piece from another part of the injured joint and patching over the damaged area, but this approach involves damaging healthy cartilage, and a person’s cartilage may still […]
Inhalation Therapy for Lung Cancer Shows Promise in Rutgers Study
Tamara Minko | Via Rutgers University News | June 7, 2013Animal studies indicate that delivering chemotherapy through inhalation kills more cancer cells that traditional intravenous chemotherapy. The next step: clinical trials in humans. Lung cancer kills about 1.5 million men and women around the world – more than the number of people who die from breast, colon, pancreatic and prostate cancers combined. This happens, in […]
Recycled Coal Plant Waste Cleans Up Oil Spills
Sudipta Seal | Via Live Science | June 7, 2013When Sudipta Seal and his co-principal investigator Larry Hench applied for a grant from the National Science Foundation, their goal was to create a material that could remove large volumes of oil from seawater economically and using a process that would be completely green. In July 2010, Seal and Hench received a Rapid Response Grant […]
Grow Fresh Cartilage From Adult Stem Cells
Jason Burdick | Via Futurity | June 7, 2013Bioengineers are a step closer to growing new cartilage from a patient’s own stem cells. Cartilage injuries are difficult to repair. Current surgical options generally involve taking a piece from another part of the injured joint and patching over the damaged area, but this approach involves damaging healthy cartilage, and a person’s cartilage may still […]
Ramanujam Promoted to SPIE Fellow
Nimmi Ramanujam | Via Duke Today | June 7, 2013Nirmala Ramanujam, a professor of biomedical engineering in the Pratt School of Engineering, has been promoted to fellow of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. She is being recognized for her outstanding contributions to biophotonics technologies applied to breast cancer detection and imaging and her service to SPIE.