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.
Getting Bacteria to do a Plant’s Job
Gregory Stephanopoulos | Via MIT | September 30, 2010Throughout human history, plants have been a source of potent medicines, including many cancer drugs discovered over the past few decades. However, it is quite difficult to discover such drugs and obtain them in large quantities from the plants or through chemical synthesis. MIT researchers and collaborators from Tufts University have now engineered E. coli […]
Purifying Proteins: Rensselaer Researchers Use NMR To Improve Drug Development
Steven Cramer | Via Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | September 29, 2010The purification of drug components is a large hurdle facing modern drug development. This is particularly true of drugs that utilize proteins, which are notoriously difficult to separate from other potentially deadly impurities. Scientists within the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to understand […]
Proteins To Yield New Clues in Fight Against Osteoporosis
Deepak Vashishth | Via Rensselaer News | September 29, 2010A $1.76 million study at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute seeks to identify new methods of diagnosing osteoporosis and inform the development of next-generation drugs to treat the bone disease. The five-year study, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), is led by Deepak Vashishth, professor and head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at […]
Microfluidic Sniffs Out Airborne Bio-Attacks and Hazards
Allen Northrup | Via Silicon Valley Business Journal | September 26, 2010THE BUSINESS: Microfluidic Systems Inc. makes equipment used by the Department of Homeland Security to detect biological attacks. Its automated equipment detects specific biological samples in the air or in clinical samples, typically pathogens like bacteria and viruses such as the human papilloma virus, and H1N1 and other forms of the influenza virus. CUSTOMERS: In […]
Bacteria as Environmentally Friendly Nanoparticle Factories
Sang Yup Lee | Via Nanowerk | September 24, 2010In nature, uni- and multicellular organisms are capable of reducing and accumulating metal ions as detoxification and homeostasis mechanisms when exposed to metal ion solutions. Although the exact mechanisms and identities of microbial proteins associated for metal nanoparticle synthesis are not clear, two cysteine-rich, heavy metal-binding biomolecules, phytochelatin and metallothionein have been relatively well characterized. […]
Top-Ranked ENG Algorithms Could Reveal New Cancer Drug Targets
Sandor Vajda | Via Boston University | September 22, 2010An interdisciplinary team of College of Engineering faculty members—Professor Sandor Vajda and Research Assistant Professor Dima Kozakov (both BME), Professor Ioannis Paschalidis (ECE) and Associate Professor Pirooz Vakili (ME)—has developed a family of powerful optimization algorithms for predicting the structures of complexes that form when two cell proteins bond together—structures that, in some cases, generate […]
Giorgio Delivers Invited Talk at IEEE International Conference in Argentina
Todd D. Giorgio | Via Vanderbilt School of Engineering | September 16, 2010Todd D. Giorgio, professor and chair of the biomedical engineering department, delivered an invited talk at the 32nd annual international conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society in Buenos Aries, Argentina, Sept. 1-4. His title – Medical School Influence on Biomedical Engineering Research and Teaching – was part of “Technology Commercialization, Education, […]
NIH Awards $3.3 Million Prostate-Cancer Research Grant to a Group Led by Riverside Research Institute Teamed With Rutgers University, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and GE Global Research
Ernest Feleppa | Via Market Wired | September 14, 2010Industrial-Academic Partnership to Help Urologists Zero in on Cancerous Prostate Tissue During Ultrasound-Guided Biopsies and Focal Treatments The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $3.3 million grant to researchers led by Riverside Research Institute to increase the reliability of imaging prostate cancer by combining advanced ultrasound and magnetic-resonance methods. These improvements are expected to […]
Professor Appointed Burton Morgan Center’s First Faculty Entrepreneur-In-Residence
Alyssa Panitch | Via Purdue University | September 13, 2010Purdue University biomedical engineering professor Alyssa Panitch has been named the first faculty entrepreneur-in-residence at Discovery Park’s Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship. Panitch, who has been involved in launching three companies, will serve as a resource for university faculty, staff and students looking to start a company from their work or research at Purdue. […]
Engineering Dean C. Mauli Agrawal Receives Palmaz Award from BioMed SA
C. Mauli Agrawal | Via University of Texas at San Antonio | September 10, 2010C. Mauli Agrawal, David and Jennifer Spencer Distinguished Chair for the Dean of Engineering and Peter Flawn Professor in Biomedical Engineering, was selected by BioMed SA, a local bioscience development organization, to receive the fifth annual Julio Palmaz Award for Innovation in Health Care and the Biosciences. Named after Palmaz stent inventor Julio Palmaz, the […]
Engineering Delivers the Advantage in Protecting Children
Susan Margulies | Via Penn Engineering | September 1, 2010A tumble down the stairs, a fall from a bike, a jerked arm or an abusive strike are all actions that can cause traumatic brain injury (TBI) in children. One million children in the United States sustain TBIs annually, sending 165,000 children to the hospital. According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, […]
NSF Funds Interdisciplinary Team’s Grey Water Disinfection Plan
Luke Lee | Via UC Berkeley | August 26, 2010A University of California, Berkeley, team has been awarded a $2 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for research on biologically-inspired technologies for grey water reuse and thermal energy management that may propel sustainable building into a new era. Micro-optic lenses, which would be installed in exterior walls. The grant comes from the NSF’s Emerging […]
NSF Awards $3M Stem Cell Bio-Manufacturing Program to Georgia Tech
Robert Nerem | Via Georgia Tech | August 26, 2010Nerem and McDevitt will lead Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) Program The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $3 million to the Georgia Institute of Technology to fund a unique research program on stem cell bio-manufacturing. The program is specifically focused on developing engineering methods for stem cell production, in order to meet […]
Microneedle, Quantum Dot Study Opens Door To New Clinical Cancer Tools
Roger Narayan | Via NC State Newsroom | August 25, 2010Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed extremely small microneedles that can be used to deliver medically-relevant nanoscale dyes called quantum dots into skin – an advance that opens the door to new techniques for diagnosing and treating a variety of medical conditions, including skin cancer. “We were able to fabricate hollow, plastic microneedles […]
A New Holder of the University Mace
Craig Henriquez | Via Duke Today | August 24, 2010There will be a new look at the front of the procession Wednesday for Student Convocation. For the first time in a decade, former University Marshal Richard White won’t carry the university mace to lead Duke faculty and administrators into the Duke Chapel ceremony. After serving two five-year terms, White, a University Distinguished Services Professor […]
Purdue Biodefense Technology Project Awarded $1.3 Million NIH Seed Grant
J. Paul Robinson | Via Purdue University | August 22, 2010Purdue University researchers have developed a technology that has the potential to more quickly identify food-borne pathogens, aiding U.S. homeland security officials in responding to a bioterrorist attack or other emergencies. The research team, which is based at Discovery Park’s Bindley Bioscience Center, has received a $1.3 million seed grant from the National Institutes of […]
A Better Way to Grow Stem Cells
Daniel Anderson | Via Massachusetts Institute of Technology | August 22, 2010Human pluripotent stem cells, which can become any other kind of body cell, hold great potential to treat a wide range of ailments, including Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries. However, scientists who work with such cells have had trouble growing large enough quantities to perform experiments — in particular, to be used […]
Scientists Explore Peek-and-Treat Approach to Alzheimer’s Disease
Ananth Annapragada | Via UTHealth | August 19, 2010Scientists studying Alzheimer’s disease at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) and the University of Houston (UH) are working on a new approach involving Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) that could aid in the detection and treatment of the disease. It involves the detection of plaques that can develop in the brains […]
Biomedical Engineering Doctoral Program Approved
Metin Akay | Via University of Houston | August 17, 2010The University of Houston Health Initiative has received a major boost from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which recently approved the establishment of a doctoral program in biomedical engineering at the UH Cullen College of Engineering… …”Our program will discover, develop and deliver technological solutions aimed at reducing health care costs,” said Metin Akay, […]
A Heart Beats to a Different Drummer: Researchers Pace Embryonic Heart With Laser
Andrew Rollins | Via Case Western Reserve University | August 16, 2010Love, exercise and, new research shows, an infrared laser can make a heart beat faster. Scientists at Case Western Reserve University and Vanderbilt University found that pulsed light can pace contractions in an avian embryonic heart, with no apparent damage to the tissue. The work, “Optical pacing of the embryonic heart,” will be published in […]