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.
New Biomaterial Could Shield Against Harmful Radiation
Nathan Gianneschi | Via Northwestern University | July 8, 2020Packing for outer space? Here’s one thing you won’t want to forget. Northwestern University researchers have synthesized a new form of melanin enriched with selenium. Called selenomelanin, this new biomaterial shows extraordinary promise as a shield for human tissue against harmful radiation. “Given the increased interest in space travel and the general need for lightweight, […]
Herpesviruses Hedge Their Bets to Optimize Survival
Leor Weinberger | Via PR News Wire | July 6, 2020When investors hedge a bet, they divvy their money between risky investments, which might make a large profit, and safe investments, which help ensure that not everything is lost in a market crash. The herpesvirus cytomegalovirus, Gladstone researchers have discovered, takes a similar approach to infecting the human body. Cytomegalovirus is a common virus in […]
Encouraging results from functional MRI in an unresponsive patient with COVID-19
Bruce Rosen | Via Medical Xpress | July 6, 2020Many patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remain unresponsive after surviving critical illness. Investigators led by a team at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) now describe a patient with severe COVID-19 who, despite prolonged unresponsiveness and structural brain abnormalities, demonstrated functionally intact brain connections and weeks later he recovered the ability to follow commands. The […]
How Credible are the COVID-19 Models? Center Aims to Find Out
Herbert Sauro | Via University of Washington | July 6, 2020The multi-institution Center for Reproducible Biomedical Modeling, led by UW Bioengineering Professor Herbert Sauro, is partnering with top U.S. government agencies to determine how credible several commonly used COVID-19 models are. Since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, to aid in decision making, public health officials and policy makers have looked to epidemiological models […]
Dr. Cato T. Laurencin’s COVID-19 Mask Solution Coming to Market
Cato Laurencin | Via University of Connecticut | July 2, 2020Within six weeks of announcing a successful method to fabricate custom-fit mask frames to optimize protection from the spread of COVID-19, UConn has a licensing deal with a Connecticut manufacturer to produce them. Connecticut Biotech, a startup company headquartered in South Windsor, aims to start marketing, manufacturing, and distributing 3D-printed mask frames under the brand […]
Thomas Krummel receives top national honor in pediatric surgery
Thomas Krummel | Via Stanford University | July 1, 2020Thomas M. Krummel, MD, the Emile Holman Professor in Surgery, Emeritus, and professor emeritus of pediatric surgery, has been named the 2020 recipient of the William E. Ladd Medal, the highest honor nationwide in pediatric surgery. Krummel was the surgeon-in-chief at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford from 2002 to 2016. At the Stanford School of […]
Bioengineered Uteri in Animal Model Proven to Support Pregnancy
Anthony Atala | Via Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | June 30, 2020Scientists from the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) were able to show that bioengineered uteri in an animal model developed the native tissue-like structures needed to support normal reproductive function. With further development, their finding may provide a treatment option for women with uterine infertility. Their study, “A tissue-engineered uterus supports live births […]
DNA Origami Approach for HIV Vaccine Development Could be Used Against SARS-CoV-2
Darrell Irvine | Via Clinical Omics | June 30, 2020By using a technique known as DNA origami to fold DNA into a virus-like structure, MIT researchers have designed HIV-like particles coated with HIV antigens in precise patterns, which may eventually be used as an HIV vaccine. In vitro studies showed that the DNA origami particles, which mimic the size and shape of viruses, provoked […]
Researchers bioengineer first-line defense against COVID-19
Mark Humayun | Via Medical Xpress | June 30, 2020Researchers at the USC Dr. Allen and Charlotte Ginsburg Institute for Biomedical Therapeutics, the USC Institute for Technology and Medical Systems and the USC School of Pharmacy are developing an antimicrobial fluid to bolster the body’s first-line defenses against COVID-19. The biocompatible coating is intended to block the virus from entering the body through membranes […]
Infant heart-assist device gets new life with $4.7M grant
Jim Antaki | Via Cornell University | June 29, 2020After being defunded by a company with rights to its intellectual property, development of a pediatric heart-assist device has been revived at Cornell with the help of a $4.7 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense. Development and preclinical validation of the PediaFlow heart-assist system will be led by James Antaki, the Susan K. […]
UW Bioengineers Use Cholesterol Tag to Ease Proteins into Cells
Xiaohu Gao | Via University of Washington | June 28, 2020Xiaohu Gao, professor of bioengineering, and his lab have developed a new, cholesterol-based tag system to bring imaging and disease-treating proteins directly into a live cell, bypassing the cell’s defenses. They reported their finding June 19 in Science Advances. Traditionally, imaging and treatment of live cells has been limited to biomarkers on the cell’s surface, […]
SIIM 2020: Human element shouldn’t be neglected with AI
Elizabeth Krupinski | Via Aunt Minnie | June 25, 2020Sure, artificial intelligence (AI) in radiology is cool. But it’s not enough to show results in a lab; the technology’s real-world impact on efficacy and efficiency also needs to be evaluated, according to a June 25 talk at the virtual annual meeting of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM). It’s also crucial to […]
Maternal obesity increases the chance of liver cancer in offspring for generations
Kun Huang | Via Medical Xpress | June 25, 2020Scientists recognize the connection between maternal obesity and liver cancer in the offspring of obese mothers, however, the mechanism is not well understood. In a novel study, appearing in the Journal of Hepatology, investigators have identified a microRNA in obese mouse mothers that appears to pass on liver cancer susceptibility, increasing the odds of liver […]
Artificial beta cells could lead to new diabetes treatment
Zhen Gu | Via Open Access Government | June 25, 2020The artificial beta cells (ABCs) are much more patient-friendly and mimic the functions of the body’s natural glucose-controllers. The idea is that the AβCs could be subcutaneously inserted into patients, which would be replaced every few days, or by a painless and disposable skin patch. The ABCs are constructed with a simplified version of a […]
Calcium helps build strong cells
Kris Dahl | Via Carnegie Mellon University | June 19, 2020Every time you flex your bicep or stretch your calf muscle, you put your cells under stress. Every move we make throughout the day causes our cells to stretch and deform. But this cellular deformation can be dangerous, and could potentially lead to permanent damage to the DNA in our cells, and even cancer. So […]
Repurposing approved drugs for COVID-19 at an accelerated pace
Donald Ingber | Via Harvard University | June 16, 2020The United States’ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has signed an Agreement worth up to $16 million over the next year with the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University to identify and test FDA-approved drugs that could be repurposed to prevent or treat COVID-19. This highly collaborative effort leverages the Institute’s […]
NSF RAPID grant supports COVID-19 ‘computational pipeline’
Lydia Kavraki | Via Rice University | June 16, 2020Lydia Kavraki, the Noah Harding Professor of Computer Science at Rice, has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Rapid Response Research grant to implement a computational pipeline to help identify fragments of SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins that could be used as targets for vaccine development. “Efforts are already underway to produce new drug inhibitors, repurpose existing […]
Breast cancer vaccine research delivers promising results
Michael King | Via Vanderbilt University | June 11, 2020With a surprisingly simple approach in which cancer cells are first grown, ruptured and converted into nanoparticles, and then used as a vaccine, Vanderbilt researchers have developed what appears to be a promising treatment for breast cancer metastasis. Research led by Jenna Dombroski, Ph.D. student and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in the lab […]
Paul Yager developing rapid COVID-19 tests for the home and clinic
Paul Yager | Via University of Washington | June 11, 2020At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Paul Yager, professor of bioengineering, knew a rapid and accurate test would be needed to screen patients for the new coronavirus. He immediately set to work adapting his point-of-care testing research to developing an at-home test for the new virus. Since 2011, his lab has been developing compact, […]