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-Brain Barrier Building Blocks Forged from Human Stem Cells
Eric V. Shusta | Via University of Wisconsin News | June 25, 2012The blood-brain barrier — the filter that governs what can and cannot come into contact with the mammalian brain — is a marvel of nature. It effectively separates circulating blood from the fluid that bathes the brain, and it keeps out bacteria, viruses and other agents that could damage it. But the barrier can be […]
Regrown Bones, Transplanted Faces: This Chemist is Remaking Military Medicine
Joachim Kohn | Via http://www.wired.com/ | June 24, 2012Dr. Joachim Kohn has never seen combat. He has never retaliated enemy fire, deployed with a platoon to some foreign, war-ravaged nation, or ridden shotgun in a tank. But from his first years of childhood to his military-funded, revolutionary scientific innovations, Kohn’s life has been indelibly marked by armed conflict. “One of my earliest memories […]
Of Plants and Polymers: Researchers to Collaborate with Fraunhofer Center for Molecular Biotechnology
Kristi Kiick | Via University of Delaware | June 20, 2012Two collaborative research projects have been selected for funding under a six-year partnership agreement that includes the University of Delaware, the Fraunhofer Center for Molecular Biotechnology (CMB) and the state of Delaware. The two-year grants total $400,000 to support work to be conducted at UD and Fraunhofer. Kristi Kiick, professor of materials science and engineering […]
Grants Add to Northwestern-Qatar Partnership
John B. Troy | Via Northwestern University | June 18, 2012Northwestern University has received its first research grants from the Qatar National Research Fund, a branch of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, opening the door to increased collaborations between Northwestern faculty and researchers in Qatar. The two grants, each worth $1,050,000 over three years, are part of $140.5 million awarded to […]
ALung Technologies Presents Positive Clinical Trial Results of the Hemolung Respiratory Assist System
William Federspiel | Via ALung | June 18, 2012ALung Technologies, Inc., a leading developer of innovative lung assist devices, presented an analysis of its recent clinical trial of the Hemolung Respiratory Assist System (RAS) in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The data were presented during the session “Chronic and Acute Hypercapnic Failure – Management with low flow CO2 […]
BME Welcomes Dr. Schmidt and Thanks Dean Abernathy
Christine Schmidt | Via University of Florida | June 16, 2012The J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering is exceptionally pleased to welcome Dr. Christine Schmidt as the incoming Chair of the Department.
Alyssa Panitch Selected for ELATE Program
Alyssa Panitch | Via Purdue University | June 15, 2012Alyssa Panitch, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, has been selected for the inaugural class of the Executive Leadership in Academic Technology and Engineering (ELATE) program at Drexel University. The one-year, part-time fellowship is designed to address the need to increase the diversity and leadership capacity of engineering, computer science and related fields within academe. Panitch is […]
Microfluidic Chips Offer a SMART-er Way to Detect Flu
Catherine Klapperich | Via Nature | June 11, 2012Tracking influenza outbreaks quickly and cheaply could get a whole lot easier thanks to a number of experimental devices that can accurately detect viral strains in an hour or so. Using microfluidic techniques, these ‘flu chips’ could lead to better disease surveillance and treatment “We want to see better tests in the outpatient setting so […]
Medical Imaging Expert Norbert Pelc Named New Chair of Bioengineering
Norbert Pelc | Via Stanford University | June 11, 2012The Department of Bioengineering has a new chair in Norbert Pelc, ScD, an expert in biomedical imaging. He will assume his new responsibilities on July 1. Formed in 2003, the department is a fusion of the School of Engineering and School of Medicine that brings together engineering and life science research to promote scientific discovery […]
Biorepositories: Building Better Biobanks
Allison Hubel | Via Nature | June 7, 2012Across the world, freezers and cabinet shelves are full of human samples. Biobanks — collections of biological material set aside for research — vary tremendously in size, scope and focus. Samples can be collected from the general population, from patients who have had surgery or a biopsy and from people who have recently died. Some […]
Workshop to Help Teachers Use Engineering Design in Science Classes
Alyssa Panitch | Via Purdue University | June 7, 2012More than 40 teachers from Indiana elementary schools will attend a Purdue University workshop this month to learn how to incorporate engineering design activities into their science classrooms. The workshop, which will be June 11-15 and June 18-22, is presented through the Science Learning through Engineering Design (SLED) project. The project is co-directed by Alyssa […]
My Data are your Data
Trey Ideker | Via Nature | June 7, 2012In January, over 50 researchers from 30 academic and commercial organizations agreed on a standard for describing data sets. The BioSharing initiative, comprising both researchers and publishers, launched the Investigation-Study-Assay (ISA) Commons, which promises to streamline data sharing among different databases1. Life scientists have thousands of databases, over 300 terminologies and more than 120 exchange […]
The Real Culprit Behind Hardened Arteries? Stem Cells, Says Landmark Study
Song Li | Via UC Berkeley News Center | June 6, 2012One of the top suspects behind killer vascular diseases is the victim of mistaken identity, according to researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, who used genetic tracing to help hunt down the real culprit. The guilty party is not the smooth muscle cells within blood vessel walls, which for decades was thought to combine […]
Engineers Use Reflected Light to Illuminate the Mystery of Ear Infections
Stephen A. Boppart | Via Scientific American | June 4, 2012When a person suffers from chronic ear infections the culprit may be a film of bacteria or other microorganisms that builds up behind the eardrum, not unlike dental plaque on unbrushed teeth. Antibiotics are not always effective against this so-called biofilm, so it helps doctors greatly to know whether it is present before prescribing a […]
Researchers Achieve RNA Interference, in a Lighter Package
Daniel Anderson | Via Massachusetts Institute of Technology | June 3, 2012Using a technique known as “nucleic acid origami,” chemical engineers have built tiny particles made out of DNA and RNA that can deliver snippets of RNA directly to tumors, turning off genes expressed in cancer cells. To achieve this type of gene shutdown, known as RNA interference, many researchers have tried — with some success […]
Surgery in Space
James Antaki | Via Carnegie Mellon University | June 1, 2012Surgical care in zero gravity would be a challenge. And biomedical engineering researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Louisville are preparing for this possibility. They are developing surgical tools that could be used on spaceflights to the moon, an asteroid or Mars. “In deep space, surgical procedures will be severely complicated by […]
How Do You Stop Multi-Organ Failure in Shock Patients?
Geert Schmid-Schonbein | Via UC San Diego Engineering | June 1, 2012Bioengineering research from the Jacobs School is at the center of a 200-patient Phase 2 clinical pilot study now under way. The trial is testing the efficacy and safety of a new use and method of administering an enzyme inhibitor to stop multi-organ failure in shock patients. This new use of an FDA-approved drug is […]
Fisher Promoted
John Fisher | Via UMD Bioengineering | May 30, 2012The Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BioE) and the A. James Clark School of Engineering extend their congratulations to John Fisher, who has been promoted to the rank of Professor, effective July 1. Fisher, who received his Ph.D. from Rice University in 2003, currently serves as one of the department’s two Associate Chairs and as its […]
UC Santa Barbara Researchers Develop Synthetic Platelets
Samir Mitragotri | Via UC Santa Barbara | May 30, 2012Synthetic platelets have been developed by UC Santa Barbara researchers, in collaboration with researchers at Scripps Research Institute and Sanford-Burnham Institute in La Jolla, Calif. Their findings are published in the journal Advanced Materials in a paper titled “Platelet Mimetic Particles for Targeting Thrombi in Flowing Blood.”
Nowhere to Hide: New Device Sees Bacteria Behind the Eardrum
Stephen A. Boppart | Via University of Illinois News Bureau | May 29, 2012Doctors can now get a peek behind the eardrum to better diagnose and treat chronic ear infections, thanks to a new medical imaging device invented by University of Illinois researchers. The device could usher in a new suite of non-invasive, 3-D diagnostic imaging tools for primary-care physicians. The research team, led by University of Illinois […]