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.
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 […]
UCLA’s Virtual Histology Could Eliminate Need for Invasive Biopsies for Some Skin Conditions and Cancers
Aydogan Ozcan | Via Dark Daily | January 19, 2022What effect would elimination of tissue biopsies have on dermatopathology and clinical laboratory revenue? Quite a lot. Dermatologists alone account for a significant portion of skin biopsies sent to dermatopathologists. Thus, any new technology that can “eliminate the need for invasive skin biopsies” would greatly reduce the number of histopathological referrals and reduce revenue to […]
Researchers pilot ‘itty bitty’ device for earlier ovarian cancer detection
Jennifer Barton | Via University of Arizona | January 18, 2022Due to a lack of effective screening and diagnostic tools, more than three-fourths of ovarian cancer cases are not found until the cancer is in an advanced stage. As a result, fewer than half of all women with ovarian cancer survive more than five years after diagnosis. Jennifer Barton, director of the University of Arizona […]
Nanotherapy offers new hope for the treatment of Type 1 diabetes
Guillermo Ameer | Via Northwestern University | January 17, 2022Individuals living with Type 1 diabetes must carefully follow prescribed insulin regimens every day, receiving injections of the hormone via syringe, insulin pump or some other device. And without viable long-term treatments, this course of treatment is a lifelong sentence. Pancreatic islets control insulin production when blood sugar levels change, and in Type 1 diabetes, […]
UT Southwestern develops nanotherapeutic to ward off liver cancer
Andrew Wang | Via UT Southwestern Medical Center | January 14, 2022Physician researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center have developed an innovative nanotherapeutic drug that prevents cancer from spreading to the liver in mice. The new liver-specific microRNA drug, developed by a team led by Andrew Wang, M.D., is a promising candidate for drug companies that developed messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines for COVID-19, because of similarities […]
Mathematical model may help improve treatments and clinical trials of patients with COVID-19 and other illnesses
Rakesh Jain | Via Massachusetts General Hospital | January 14, 2022A mathematical model revealed that the optimal time to initiate immune-modulating therapy in COVID-19 differed according to patients’ medical history and risk factors. Different patients also required different types of immunomodulation for optimal therapy. Certain biological markers that differed based on patient characteristics determined optimal treatment initiation time, and these markers pointed to particular biologic […]
Nanostructures get complex with electron equivalents
Chad Mirkin | Via University of Michigan | January 13, 2022Complex crystals that mimic metals—including a structure for which there is no natural equivalent—can be achieved with a new approach to guiding nanoparticle self-assembly. Rather than just nanoparticles that serve as “atom equivalents,” the crystals produced and interpreted by Northwestern University, University of Michigan and Argonne National Laboratory rely on even smaller particles that simulate […]
Two antibodies synergize in triple whammy to pediatric cancers, study finds
Heike Daldrup-Link | Via Stanford Medicine | January 13, 2022A combination of anti-cancer antibodies produced a powerfully synergistic response in two hard-to-treat pediatric cancers, according to a new study, in mice, led by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The results, which published online Jan. 13 in Nature Medicine, provide hope for better treatments of neuroblastoma, a cancer affecting young children that […]