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.
Waste Not, Want Not: Researchers Convert Soybeans to Important Chemical
Ka-Yiu San | Via Knovel | December 21, 2012For most environmentalists, the biggest focus in recent years has been the effort to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, but hydrocarbons like oil and gas go to more than just energy. One engineering research team at Rice University believes that it has found a way to replace petroleum with a renewable crop, […]
Soybeans a Source of Valuable Chemical
Ka-Yiu San | Via Rice University News | December 19, 2012Rice University scientists turn low-value soy mash into high-value succinic acid The humble soybean could become an inexpensive new source of a widely used chemical for plastics, textiles, drugs, solvents and as a food additive. Indigestible byproducts of soybeans can be turned into valuable succinic acid through a process developed at Rice University. Succinic acid, traditionally drawn […]
Soybeans a Source of Valuable Chemical
George N. Bennett | Via Rice University News | December 19, 2012The humble soybean could become an inexpensive new source of a widely used chemical for plastics, textiles, drugs, solvents and as a food additive. Succinic acid, traditionally drawn from petroleum, is one focus of research by Rice chemists George Bennett and Ka-Yiu San. In 2004, the Department of Energy named succinic acid one of 12 “platform” chemicals […]
National Academy of Inventors Names Four UT Arlington Professors as Charter Fellows
Khosrow Behbehani | Via University of Texas at Arlington | December 19, 2012Four University of Texas at Arlington engineering professors have been named charter fellows to the National Academy of Inventors. They are Khosrow Behbehani, professor and chair of the Bioengineering Department; Nai Yuen Chen, a National Academy of Engineering member and distinguished research professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department; George Kondraske, electrical engineering […]
Autoimmune disease – Retraining White Blood Cells
Jeffrey Hubbell | Via École Polytechnique Fédérale De Lausanne | December 18, 2012Engineering antigens for in situ erythrocyte binding induces T-cell deletion. “Antigens derived from apoptotic cell debris can drive clonal T-cell deletion or anergy, and antigens chemically coupled ex vivo to apoptotic cell surfaces have been shown correspondingly to induce tolerance on infusion. Reasoning that a large number of erythrocytes become apoptotic (eryptotic) and are cleared […]
Autoimmune Disease – Retraining White Blood Cells
Jeffrey Hubbell | Via École Polytechnique Fédérale De Lausanne | December 18, 2012Symptoms of an autoimmune disease disappeared after a team of scientists retrained white blood cells using a specially engineered protein. This method is extremely promising for treating diseases such as type I diabetes and multiple sclerosis. How can the immune system be reprogrammed once it starts to attack its own body? EPFL scientists retrained white […]
Toward a New Model of the Cell: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Genes
Trey Ideker | Via UC San Diego | December 17, 2012Turning vast amounts of genomic data into meaningful information about the cell is the great challenge of bioinformatics, with major implications for human biology and medicine. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and colleagues have proposed a new method that creates a computational model of the cell from large networks […]
Jellyfish-Inspired Tentacles Capture Cancer
Jeffrey Karp | Via Discovery News | December 13, 2012Scientists build a device with long strands of DNA tied to a microchip that floats in bloodstream. Tiny strands of DNA that float like jellyfish tentacles can grab and hold tumor cells in the bloodstream in a device inspired by nature that may help cancer patients fight the dreaded disease. The device can be used […]
Angel Medical Systems CEO Dr. David R. Fischell wins Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award
David Fischell | Via Angel Med | December 13, 2012Angel Medical Systems, Inc., a privately held medical device company developing implantable technologies for heart attack detection and patient alerting, announced today that its CEO, Dr. David R. Fischell was selected as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 NJ Regional Award winner in Biotechnology and Medical Technology. Finalists were selected by a […]
A Survey Will Help UCR Clear the Air About Tobacco Use
Victor Rodgers | Via UCR Today | December 12, 2012All UC property will be designated as smoke/tobacco-free as of Jan. 2, 2014, part of a systemwide effort to make campuses safer and healthier. The UCR Smoke/Tobacco-Free Policy Implementation Committee, chaired by Victor G. J. Rodgers, professor and chair of bioengineering and co-chaired by Julie Chobdee, Wellness Program coordinator, will use the results of this […]
Battling Brittle Bones … With Broccoli and Spinach?
Deepak Vashishth | Via Rensselaer News | December 11, 2012A study from engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute shows, for the first time, how the little-understood protein osteocalcin plays a significant role in the strength of our bones. The findings could lead to new strategies and therapeutics for fighting osteoporosis and lowering the risk of bone fracture. Funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the study […]
Why Porcupine Quills Go In Easily but Are Hard to Pull Out
Jeffrey Karp | Via National Geographic | December 11, 2012In August of this year, Allison Noles rushed her bulldog Bella Mae to the vet. The dog’s face looked like a pincushion, with some 500 spines protruding from her face, paws and body. The internet is littered with such pictures, of Bella Mae and other unfortunate dogs. To find them, just search for “porcupine quills”. […]
Inspiration from a Porcupine’s Quills
Jeffrey Karp | Via Massachusetts Institute of Technology | December 10, 2012Understanding the mechanisms behind quill penetration and extraction could help engineers design better medical devices. Anyone unfortunate enough to encounter a porcupine’s quills knows that once they go in, they are extremely difficult to remove. Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital now hope to exploit the porcupine quill’s unique properties to develop new […]
Inspiration from a Porcupine’s Quills
Robert Langer | Via Massachusetts Institute of Technology | December 10, 2012Anyone unfortunate enough to encounter a porcupine’s quills knows that once they go in, they are extremely difficult to remove. Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Hospital now hope to exploit the porcupine quill’s unique properties to develop new types of adhesives, needles and other medical devices. In a new study, the researchers characterized, […]
Peppas Awarded Honorary Doctorate from the University of Ljubljana
Nicholas Peppas | Via Cockrell School of Engineering | December 5, 2012Nicholas A. Peppas, chairman of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and professor of chemical engineering, biomedical engineering and pharmacy, was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Ljubljana Dec. 4 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Attendees of the official ceremony included the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr. Danilo Türk, the President of the Slovenian Academy of Science, […]
Duke’s First MOOC: A Very Preliminary Report
Roger Barr | Via Duke CIT | December 4, 2012Duke’s first Coursera MOOC, Bioelectricity: A Quantitative Approach which launched on September 24 wrapped up last week. Congratulations to Dr. Barr and his students from all of us at Duke University! We won’t have a complete analysis of this MOOC available until January – we’re still collecting feedback and reviewing data. In the meantime, in […]
Bioengineering Chairman Named IEEE Fellow
Khosrow Behbehani | Via University of Texas at Arlington | December 4, 2012Khosrow Behbehani, chairman of the Bioengineering Department, has been named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Behbehani, also a bioengineering professor, was honored for his contributions to the development of respiratory therapy devices in chronic pulmonary diseases. He becomes the seventh UT Arlington faculty member to be elevated to IEEE Fellow. […]
Genomics X Prize Competitor Says It’s Too Soon to Commit to a Sequencing Technology
George M. Church | Via Techonomy | December 4, 2012When genomics pioneer George Church recently announced that he and his team at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering will vie in a September 2013 competition to rapidly and accurately sequence 100 whole human genomes at a cost of $1,000 or less each, he did not say which technology they would use to do […]
Organic Metamaterial Flows Like a Liquid, Remembers its Shape
Dan Luo | Via Cornell Chronicle | December 3, 2012A bit reminiscent of the Terminator T-1000, a new material created by Cornell researchers is so soft that it can flow like a liquid and then, strangely, return to its original shape. Rather than liquid metal, it is a hydrogel, a mesh of organic molecules with many small empty spaces that can absorb water like […]
Tech-savvy Market Demands Crash Dummies with Smarts, Sensitivity
Cynthia A. Bir | Via Crain's Detroit Business | December 2, 2012The Plymouth headquarters of Humanetics Innovative Solutions Inc. is part office, part plant and part medieval torture chamber. Specially calibrated tools perform sadistic tests — a catapult hurls dummy heads into a block of steel, a battering ram crushes rib cages and falling anvils flatten appendages. But the tests — and the hundreds of soulless […]