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.
Photonics and Optics Pioneer Bahram Jalali Elected to the National Academy of Engineering
Bahram Jalali | Via UCLA | February 9, 2022Bahram Jalali, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, among the highest professional honors that can be granted to an American engineer. The academy announced today its 2022 class of 111 members and 22 international members. Jalali, who holds […]
Researchers restore function in a gene that can suppress liver cancer and enhance immunotherapy
Jinjun Shi | Via eurekalert | February 9, 2022A team of researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) has reprogrammed the tumor microenvironment of liver cancer by using mRNA nanoparticles. This technology, similar to the one used in COVID-19 vaccines, restored the function of the p53 master regulator gene, a tumor suppressor mutated in not just liver but […]
U of M professor looks to help solve dental problem, using material derived from shellfish
Joel Bumgardner | Via MEMPHIS INNO | February 9, 2022Annually, the average American eats over four pounds of shrimp, according to The New York Times. Yet few of us realize that on the exoskeleton of these creatures — and some of their crustacean cousins — is a material called chitosan, which has an array of potential uses. And a University of Memphis biomedical engineering […]
Gene Therapy for Heart Disease
Nenad Bursac | Via Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | February 7, 2022One possible treatment option for cardiac arrhythmias are approaches that enhance electrical excitability and action potential conduction in the heart. One way this could be done is by stably overexpressing mammalian voltage-gated sodium channels. However, the channels’ large size precludes delivery via viral vectors. Now, researchers have demonstrated a gene therapy that helps heart muscle […]
Mouse Experiments Show How Sugar Molecules Can Be Used to Track Stem Cells
Jeff Bulte | Via Johns Hopkins University | February 7, 2022A Johns Hopkins Medicine scientist who spent 30 years figuring out how to put chemical labels into cells to track their movement in living tissues has found that certain self-renewing stem cells have built-in tracers — made out of sugars — that can do the job without added chemical “labels” when injected into mouse brains. […]
[BEHIND THE PAPER] Probing stem cells on the prowl: Set them (label)-free
Jeff Bulte | Via Nature Bioengineering Community | February 7, 2022How did this get started? Since about 30 years ago, we have been developing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to locate and interrogate the presence of injected therapeutic cells in a living body, without the need to perform biopsies or extract tissues (which can be harmful to patients). Why is this important? At present, once […]
UW study finds photoreceptor cells from retinal organoids can replicate key function of vision
David Gamm | Via University of Wisconsin | February 2, 2022These organoid cone photoreceptors – which are laboratory-produced versions of light-responsive eye tissue – are similar to cones in the primate fovea, a specialized area of the eye responsible for high-definition vision. It’s the first time that cone photoreceptors derived from stem cells exhibited the ability to respond to light and the results, recently published […]
How Omicron escapes from antibodies
Ram Sasisekharan | Via MIT | February 1, 2022A new study from MIT suggests that the dozens of mutations in the spike protein of the Omicron variant help it to evade all four of the classes of antibodies that can target the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19. This includes antibodies generated by vaccinated or previously infected people, as well as most of the […]
New tool harnesses immune cells from tumors to effectively fight cancer
Shana Kelley | Via News-Medical.Net | January 28, 2022Northwestern scientists have developed a new tool to harness immune cells from tumors to fight cancer rapidly and effectively, published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. Their findings showed a dramatic shrinkage in tumors in mice compared to traditional cell therapy methods. With a novel microfluidic device that could be 3D printed, the team multiplied, […]
Digitized Number 2: Stool Samples Reveal Microbial Enzyme Driving Bowel Disease
Rob Knight | Via University of California San Diego | January 27, 2022Ulcerative colitis, a subtype of inflammatory bowel disease, is a chronic ailment of the colon affecting nearly one million individuals in the United States. It is thought to be linked to disruptions in the gut microbiome — the bacteria and other microbes that live inside us — but no existing treatments actually target these microorganisms. […]
Synthetic Platelets Quickly Stop Bleeding from Injuries in Rodents
Anirban Sen Gupta | Via Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | January 27, 2022More than two million platelet units are needed in the United States every year. However, natural platelets aren’t always available or portable, have a high risk of contamination, and have a limited shelf life of 5 to 7 days, prompting research over the last several decades into synthetic alternatives. For that reason, alternatives have been […]
Dan Duda Elected to 2021 AAAS Fellows
Dan Duda | Via Harvard Medical School | January 26, 2022Three Harvard Medical School researchers have been elected by their peers as 2021 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for their contributions to medical sciences. They are among the 564 scientists, engineers, and innovators from 24 scientific disciplines being recognized for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements. Dan Duda, HMS […]
Guillermo Ameer Awarded the Technology Innovation and Development Award
Guillermo Ameer | Via Northwestern University | January 26, 2022Northwestern Engineering’s Guillermo A. Ameer, Daniel Hale Williams Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering and Surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine, has been given the the 2022 Technology Innovation and Development Award by the Society For Biomaterials. This award recognizes an individual’s (or a team’s) successful application of basic and […]
Prestigious Fellowship Awarded to Two OU Researchers – the Only Oklahomans Selected This Year
Priyabrata Mukherjee | Via University of Oklahoma | January 26, 2022Ann West, Ph.D. and Priyabrata Mukherjee, Ph.D. are among 564 scientists, engineers and innovators spanning 24 scientific disciplines being recognized for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements. They are the only recipients from Oklahoma this year. “Dr. West and Dr. Mukherjee’s election as Fellows of AAAS is a testament to the significance and impact their […]
Achilefu recruited to lead new Department of Biomedical Engineering
Samuel Achilefu | Via UT Southwestern Medical Center | January 26, 2022Molecular imaging expert Samuel Achilefu, Ph.D., will join UT Southwestern Feb. 1 as the first Chair of a new Department of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Achilefu was recruited to UTSW from the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He worked at Washington University for more than 20 years, most […]
When you feel you belong, everything becomes easy to tackle
Lola Eniola-Adefeso | Via Advanced Science News | January 24, 2022Chemical engineer and STEM advocate Lola Eniola-Adefeso deciphers components of the blood and designs therapeutic particles to help treat disease. Talking to Lola Eniola-Adefeso is both motivating and inspiring. Born in the United States but having grown up in Nigeria, she realized at a young age that the sciences were her forte. Years later, Eniola-Adefeso […]
Destroying Senescent Stem Cells in the Brain Enhances Cognitive Function in Mice
David Kaplan | Via Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | January 21, 2022In vivo studies headed by researchers at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto, have demonstrated that destroying senescent cells in the aging stem cell niche enhances hippocampal neurogenesis and cognitive function in mice. “Our results provide further support for the notion that excessive senescence is a driving factor behind aging, and even late-life reduction […]
Strategies to minimize heterogeneity and optimize clinical trials in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS): Insights from mathematical modelling
Rakesh Jain | Via Science Direct | January 20, 2022We demonstrate that modelling of COVID-19 pathobiology can suggest biomarkers that predict optimal response to a given immunomodulatory treatment. Mathematical modelling thus constitutes a novel adjunct to predictive enrichment and may aid in the reduction of heterogeneity in critical care trials… Continue reading.
Renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system inhibitors and survival in patients with hypertension treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors
Rakesh Jain | Via Science Direct | January 20, 2022In this large retrospective study, patients with hypertension who were concomitantly taking a RAAS inhibitor during ICI therapy had better overall survival. This benefit was primarily noted among patients with gastrointestinal and genitourinary cancers. Prospective randomized trials are warranted to further evaluate and specify the benefit of RAAS inhibitors in patients with cancer who receive […]