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.
DeLisa Group Paper on Bacterial “Glycoengineering” Featured on The Nature Chemical Biology Website
Matthew P. DeLisa | Via Cornell University | March 30, 2012A method for engineering a bacterial strain to create eukaryotic glycoproteins developed by Professor Matthew DeLisa and colleagues is presented this week in Nature Chemical Biology. These results may have immediate importance for industrial production of glycoproteins that scientists use in looking for therapies for various diseases.
Novel Compound Halts Tumor Spread, Improves Brain Cancer Treatment
Ravi Bellamkonda | Via Georgia Tech Research News | March 28, 2012Treating invasive brain tumors with a combination of chemotherapy and radiation has improved clinical outcomes, but few patients survive longer than two years after diagnosis. The effectiveness of the treatment is limited by the tumor’s aggressive invasion of healthy brain tissue, which restricts chemotherapy access to the cancer cells and complicates surgical removal of the […]
Colburn Lecture Showcases Trailblazing Career as Researcher/Educator
H. Steven Colburn | Via Boston University | March 27, 2012At a hearing research conference that Professor H. Steven Colburn (BME) attended in Germany several years ago, a 15-year-old girl recalled how a pair of cochlear implants changed her life. She observed that the first implant enabled her to converse with individuals in isolation, but not in groups; as conversations jumped from person to person, […]
Harvard’s Wyss Institute Creates Living Human Gut-on-a-Chip
Donald Ingber | Via Wyss Institute | March 27, 2012Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have created a gut-on-a-chip microdevice lined by living human cells that mimics the structure, physiology, and mechanics of the human intestine — even supporting the growth of living microbes within its luminal space. As a more accurate alternative to conventional cell culture and […]
University of Akron Research Team Gets National GE Innovation Award for Breast Cancer Research
Judit Puskas | Via Cleveland | March 27, 2012A research team from the University of Akron is one of five national recipients of a $100,000 grant from General Electric, which last fall launched a program to identify and bring to market innovations created to diagnose and treat breast cancer. The team’s idea — a polymer covering the outside of a breast implant or […]
Safer Breast Implant with Healing Properties Among Top Winners in Cancer-Fighting Innovations International Competition
Judit Puskas | Via University of Akron | March 27, 2012The development of a safer breast implant that could actually help detect and destroy cancer cells is the focus of research at The University of Akron that won international recognition today as one of the most exciting and innovative ideas in the battle against breast cancer. Launched last fall, the “GE Healthymagination Cancer Challenge” generated […]
Simple, Cheap Way to Mass-Produce Graphene Nanosheets
Liming Dai | Via Case Western Reserve University | March 26, 2012Mixing a little dry ice and a simple industrial process cheaply mass-produces high-quality graphene nanosheets, researchers in South Korea and Case Western Reserve University report. Graphene, which is made from graphite, the same stuff as “lead” in pencils, has been hailed as the most important synthetic material in a century. Sheets conduct electricity better than […]
Cooking Better Biochar: Study Improves Recipe for Soil Additive
Kyriacos Zygourakis | Via Rice University News | March 22, 2012Backyard gardeners who make their own charcoal soil additives, or biochar, should take care to heat their charcoal to at least 450 degrees Celsius to ensure that water and nutrients get to their plants, according to a new study by Rice University scientists. The study, published this week in the Journal of Biomass and Bioenergy, […]
Robotic Lake Lander Could Explore Bodies of Water on Other Planets
Wolfgang Fink | Via Gizmag | March 21, 2012Ask someone to picture a robotic roving vehicle, and chances are they’ll think of something with wheels, like the Mars Rover. If an alien civilization were sending a craft to explore Earth, however, they might be better off using a boat – after all, the majority of our planet’s surface is covered with water. Saturn’s […]
Peppas Receives the Billy & Claude R. Hocott Distinguished Centennial Engineering Research Award
Nicholas Peppas | Via Cockrell School of Engineering | March 21, 2012Nicholas A. Peppas, Fletcher Stuckey Pratt Chair in Engineering, chairman of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and professor of chemical engineering, biomedical engineering and pharmacy, has been awarded the Billy & Claude R. Hocott Distinguished Centennial Engineering Research Award by the Cockrell School of Engineering. The award honors faculty members who have brought significant credit and contributions to the engineering profession through […]
University of Arizona’s TEX II is a Seaworthy Autonomous Robot Designed for Other Planets
Wolfgang Fink | Via The Verge | March 20, 2012It might be a long ways off from breaking any world records, but the Tucson Explorer II could help pave the way for exploring bodies of liquid on other planets, and usher in a new era of robotic teamwork. Developed by University of Arizona professor Wolfgang Fink, TEX II is a prototype of an autonomous […]
UA Engineer Launches Robotic Planetary Lake Lander
Wolfgang Fink | Via UA News | March 16, 2012Wolfgang Fink of the University of Arizona department of electrical and computer engineering has developed an autonomous robotic lake lander that could be used to explore this planet and others. Fink unveiled the lake lander, named Tucson Explorer II, or TEX II, in a paper titled “Robotic Lake Lander Test Bed for Autonomous Surface and […]
Stanford Scientists Discover Multitude of Drug Side Effects, Interactions Using New Computer Algorithm
Russ Altman | Via Stanford School of Medicine | March 14, 2012A week ago, you started a new prescription medication for acne. Today, you feel dizzy and short of breath and have difficulty concentrating. Your symptoms are not listed in the package insert as possible side effects of the drug, but why else would you be feeling so odd? Unfortunately, there’s no easy answer. Clinical trials […]
Five Faculty to Receive ACS Awards
Robert Langer | Via Massachusetts Institute of Technology | March 13, 2012Five MIT faculty members will receive prizes from the American Chemical Society at the ACS National Meeting in San Diego on March 27. Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor, will receive the Priestley Medal for “revolutionary discoveries in the areas of polymeric controlled release systems and tissue engineering and synthesis of new materials […]
A Lifetime of Research May be Leading to a Life-Saving Treatment for Shock
Geert Schmid-Schonbein | Via UC San Diego News | March 12, 2012A 200-patient Phase 2 clinical pilot study will be initiated this month to test the efficacy and safety of a new use, and method of administering, an enzyme inhibitor for critically ill patients developed by University of California, San Diego Bioengineering Professor Geert Schmid-Schönbein. Conditions expected to qualify for the study include new-onset sepsis and […]
Michael King Leads Journal on Nanotechnology in Medicine
Michael King | Via Cornell Chronicle | March 12, 2012Michael R. King, associate professor of biomedical engineering, is editor-in-chief of the first scientific journal focused on nanotubes, nanorods and nanowires applied to medicine and biology. The online, peer-reviewed journal Nanotube Therapy launched in March through the open-access publisher Versita. The journal publishes papers on the chemistry, biology and engineering involved in the application of […]
National Geographic Cites Work by UConn’s Laurencin Among ‘Scientific Discoveries that Changed the World’
Cato T. Laurencin | Via UConn Today | March 9, 2012A research breakthrough made by Cato T. Laurencin, director of the Institute for Regenerative Engineering at the UConn Health Center, may someday revolutionize recoveries for patients with tears of the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) – one of the most common knee injuries. That’s according to a special issue of National Geographic that includes Laurencin’s work […]
Quirky Physics Brown Bag Series Prizes Unusual Questions
Ka Yee Christina Lee | Via University of Chicago News | March 7, 2012The subscribers to Thomas Witten’s brown bag e-mail list receive a terse message from him almost every week. These invitations to the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center’s Friday brown bag luncheons name the topic of the week and little else. The titles are almost always quirky. Recent examples have included “In Search of Sandy […]
Spectroscopic Imaging Reveals Early Changes Leading to Breast Tumors
Ji-Xin Cheng | Via Purdue University | March 6, 2012Purdue University researchers have created a new imaging technology that reveals subtle changes in breast tissue, representing a potential tool to determine a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer and to study ways of preventing the disease. The researchers, using a special “3-D culture” that mimics living mammary gland tissue, also showed that a fatty […]