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.
Skin-care product based on U of T Engineering research donated to health-care workers fighting COVID-19
Milica Radisic | Via University of Toronto | October 13, 2020A U of T Engineering spinoff company has donated its entire stock of skin-care product to health-care workers fighting the global pandemic. Several years ago, Professor Milica Radisic (BME, ChemE) and her team developed a peptide-hydrogel biomaterial that prompts skin cells to “crawl” toward one another. The material was initially designed to help close the […]
Team receives $4 million NIH grant for rapid test of COVID-19, other respiratory infections
Frederick Haselton | Via Vanderbilt University | October 13, 2020Twice in 2019, Nick Adams and his colleagues applied for federal grant money to develop a rapid, precise, in-office test for respiratory infections. This test would skip the time-consuming and expensive steps of purifying the samples for testing or sending them to a lab. Doctors and their patients would not have to wait days, sometimes […]
Purigen Launches New Extraction and Purification Kit that Enables Scientists to Maximize Usable DNA from Limited Biological Samples
Juan Santiago | Via Business Wire | October 13, 2020Purigen Biosystems, Inc., a leading provider of next-generation technologies for extracting and purifying nucleic acids from biological samples, today announced the launch of the Ionic® Cells to Pure DNA Low Input Kit for researchers working with limited biological samples. The simplified and automated 60-minute workflow delivers high-quality DNA for the rapid investigation of genetic abnormalities […]
Northeastern University studying nanotechnology to help curb COVID-19 spread
Tom Webster | Via WCVB ABC | October 13, 2020A group of scientists at Northeastern University are making progress using nanotechnology to prevent, diagnose and fight the coronavirus. Thomas Webster, professor of chemical engineering at Northeastern University, has been working with nanotechnology for decades. Now, he and his team are finding new applications with the coronavirus. Their goal is to find ways to keep […]
UChicago researchers find way to improve multiple sclerosis treatment
Jeffrey Hubbell | Via University of Chicago | October 12, 2020Multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that affects millions worldwide, can cause debilitating symptoms for those who suffer from it. Though treatments exist, researchers are still searching for therapies that could more effectively treat the disease, or even prevent it altogether. Researchers at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at […]
UChicago researchers find way to improve multiple sclerosis treatment
Melody Swartz | Via University of Chicago | October 12, 2020Multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that affects millions worldwide, can cause debilitating symptoms for those who suffer from it. Though treatments exist, researchers are still searching for therapies that could more effectively treat the disease, or even prevent it altogether. Researchers at the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at […]
Vanderbilt performs world’s first heart, lung transplant of COVID-19 patient
Matthew Bacchetta | Via News Channel 5 Nashville | October 9, 2020Vanderbilt University Medical Center says it performed the world’s first dual heart-lung transplant of a COVID-19 patient in September. Vanderbilt says the patient, described as a young man, had cardiomyopathy – a disease of the heart tissue that can lead to heart failure – before he contracted COVID-19 in June. The procedure, which was completed […]
Vanderbilt researchers develop publicly available COVID-19 animal susceptibility prediction tool; suggests increased risk to horses
John Wikswo | Via Vanderbilt University | October 6, 2020A Vanderbilt team of experts in virology, genetics, structural biology, chemistry, physiology, medicine, immunology and pharmacology have together developed technology to understand and predict animal susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2, the scientific name for the strain of coronavirus causing COVID-19. providing evidence that horses and camels may be at increased risk of the virus. The group has […]
Wyss Institute’s nasal swab and toehold switch technologies licensed to facilitate SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic efforts
Jim Collins | Via Harvard University | October 5, 2020… Toehold switches could come into play at the other end of the COVID-19 diagnostic process. Pioneered in the groups of Wyss Core Faculty members James Collins, Ph.D., and Peng Yin, Ph.D., they are synthetic nucleic acid-based devices that function as sensors for external stimuli (“inputs”), like RNA molecules derived from pathogenic viruses. When integrated […]
Wyss Institute’s nasal swab and toehold switch technologies licensed to facilitate SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic efforts
Donald Ingber | Via Harvard University | October 5, 2020The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University announced today that its nasopharyngeal swab and toehold switch technologies have been licensed to Alabama-based Agile Biodetection, which will use them to develop solutions for unmet diagnostic needs in the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in environmental or clinical settings. The licensing agreement was coordinated […]
NAE announces winners of 2020 Simon Ramo Founders and Arthur M. Bueche Awards
Frances Ligler | Via EurekAlert | October 2, 2020On Sunday, Oct. 4, during the 2020 annual meeting, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) will present two awards for extraordinary impact on the engineering profession. The Simon Ramo Founders Award will be presented to Frances S. Ligler for her research contributions and leadership in engineering. The Arthur M. Bueche Award will be given to […]
Anticipating heart failure with machine learning
Peter Szolovits | Via MIT | October 1, 2020Every year, roughly one out of eight U.S. deaths is caused at least in part by heart failure. One of acute heart failure’s most common warning signs is excess fluid in the lungs, a condition known as “pulmonary edema.” A patient’s exact level of excess fluid often dictates the doctor’s course of action, but making […]
AI tool created to guide colorectal cancer care with more precision
Lei Xing | Via Stanford University | October 1, 2020A new modeling tool may be able to help doctors assess which treatments are best for individual patients with colorectal cancer. The artificial intelligence program analyzes a patient’s disease details — such as the stage of cancer and other chronic conditions — and compares those details to other colorectal cancer cases to predict the patient’s […]
Karen Moxon Leads $36M Effort to Improve Recovery From Spinal Cord Injuries
Karen Moxon | Via UC Davis | September 30, 2020Engineers at the University of California, Davis, will lead a consortium of universities, biomedical startups and nonprofit organizations to develop interventions for spinal cord injuries that can be applied within days of injury to improve long-term outcomes. Karen Moxon, professor of biomedical engineering at UC Davis, will lead the five-year, $36 million contract as part […]
Prototype Graft, Designed to Replace Damaged Heart Vessels, Shows Promise in Cell Study
Ozan Akkus | Via NC State University | September 29, 2020In a proof-of-concept study, North Carolina State University researchers reported promising preclinical findings for a prototype of a vascular graft designed as a replacement for a damaged or blocked coronary artery, which supplies blood to the heart. The findings, which were made in partnership with researchers from Case Western Reserve University, are part of an […]
Meditation for mind-control
Bin He | Via Carnegie Mellon | September 28, 2020A brain-computer interface, or BCI, is an apparatus that allows an individual to control a machine or computer directly from their brain. Non-invasive means of control like electroencephalogram (EEG) readings taken through the skull are safe and convenient compared to more risky, invasive methods using a brain implant, but they take longer to learn and […]
Vannevar Bush Award Given to Roderic Pettigrew, Innovator in Biomedicine and Technology
Roderic Pettigrew | Via National Science Board | September 28, 2020On September 28, 2020, the National Science Board (NSB) announced that Roderic Pettigrew will receive its prestigious Vannevar Bush Award. The award honors science and technology leaders who have made substantial contributions to the welfare of the nation through public service in science, technology and public policy. “Roderic Pettigrew’s passion and creativity have spurred innovation […]
COVID test site differences, a fourth option in the works
Rebecca Richards-Kortum | Via Rice University | September 24, 2020Rice’s Crisis Management Team plans to add a fourth and more rapid COVID-19 testing option on the Rice campus. Currently there are three sites that provide daily testing for asymptomatic students, staff and faculty who spend time on campus. All three of these current sites (Abercrombie Engineering Laboratory, East Gym in the Tudor Fieldhouse and […]
Exploring novel gene therapy approaches to treat ocular disease
Jordan Green | Via Ophthalmology Times | September 24, 2020Nanoparticles have been used to deliver gene therapy to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in mice and rats. As reported in ScienceDaily, the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) investigators used a uniquely engineered large molecule that facilitated compaction of large bundles of therapeutic DNA to be delivered into the ocular cells. This approach does not depend […]
Introducing COVID19questions.org
Lucila Ohno-Machado | Via UC San Diego Health | September 17, 2020As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, there is an urgent need to determine who is at greatest risk for severe disease, better understand how the disease and treatments evolve, and predict the need for resources. But to get there, researchers and clinicians need more data about what patients have experienced so far, and what factors are […]