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.
How cancer cells stiff-arm normal environmental cues to consume energy
Gaudenz Danuse | Via Science Daily | March 31, 2020Using human lung cancer cells, UT Southwestern researchers have uncovered how cells in general modulate their energy consumption based on their surroundings and, furthermore, how cancer cells override those cues to maximize energy use. The findings, published this week in Nature, extend a report from last year in which the same group discovered that the […]
FDA Grants De Novo Clearance to Bluegrass Vascular Technologies for the Surfacer® Inside-Out® Access Catheter System
Gabriele Niederauer | Via Bluegrass Vascular Technologies | March 31, 2020Bluegrass Vascular Technologies (Bluegrass Vascular), a private medical technology company focused on innovating lifesaving devices and methods for vascular access procedures, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted a De Novo classification order for its Surfacer® Inside-Out® Access Catheter System. The Surfacer System is intended to obtain central venous access […]
Automated CT biomarkers predict cardiovascular events and mortality better than current practice
Ronald Summers | Via NIH | March 31, 2020Researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the University of Wisconsin have demonstrated that using artificial intelligence to analyze CT scans can produce more accurate risk assessment for major cardiovascular events than current, standard methods such as the Framingham risk score (FRS) and body-mass index (BMI). More than 80 million body CT scans are […]
Here’s How Nanoparticles Could Help Us Get Closer to a Treatment for COVID-19
Thomas Webster | Via Northeastern University | March 31, 2020There is no vaccine or specific treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2. Since the outbreak began in late 2019, researchers have been racing to learn more about SARS-CoV-2, which is a strain from a family of viruses known as coronavirus for their crown-like shape. Northeastern […]
New Imaging Technique Enables the Study of 3D Printed Brain Tumors
Xavier Intes | Via Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | March 31, 2020Glioblastomas are complex, fast-growing malignant brain tumors that are made up of various types of cells. Even with aggressive treatment — which often includes surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy — glioblastomas are difficult to treat, leading to an average survival of 11-15 months. In research published today in Science Advances, Xavier Intes, a professor of biomedical […]
Clean Water Should Be a Right, Not a Privilege. These Entrepreneurs Are Working to Make It So.
Dean Kamen | Via Singularity Hub | March 31, 2020Today, 785 million people lack access to clean drinking water. Waterborne diseases are the number one killer on Earth, claiming 3.4 million lives a year, most of them children. And by 2025, according to the UN, half the globe will be water stressed. Yet climate change, our rapidly ballooning population, and consistently poor resource management […]
CHOP Study Demonstrates How to Collect True Impact Incidents from Head Impact Sensors in Youth Sports
Kristy Arbogast | Via WFMZ-TV 69 News | March 31, 2020An increased awareness of concussion risks in young athletes has prompted researchers to use a variety of head impact sensors to measure frequency and severity of impacts during sports. A new study from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) shows these head sensors can record a large number of false positive impacts during real game play. […]
Cancerous tumors, surrounding cells illuminated by new imaging agent
Samuel Achilefu | Via Washington University in St. Louis | March 31, 2020Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a new imaging agent that could let doctors identify not only multiple types of tumors but the surrounding normal cells that the cancer takes over and uses as a shield to protect itself from attempts to destroy it. The study appears March 9 […]
With Smartphone Camera, Researchers Can Create Hyperspectral Images to Analyze Skin Changes
Ruikang Wang | Via University of Washington | March 31, 2020Modern smartphone cameras can be harnessed to analyze and track skin changes and blood flow dynamics under the skin, report UW Bioengineering Professor Ruikang Wang and his graduate student Qinghua He, in the February issue of Biomedical Optics Express. Dr. Wang, who is also a professor of ophthalmology, and He developed a smartphone-based system that […]
Man of Research, Man of the People
Robert Nerem | Via Georgia Tech | March 31, 2020Remembering Robert M. Nerem, Georgia Tech’s Founding Father of Bioengineering and Bioscience Bob Nerem often said, “research, like life, is a people business,” and he spent most of his 56-year academic career proving the point. Nerem would enthusiastically strike up a conversation with the undergrad or the fellow bioengineer or the restaurant waiter, asking questions, […]
Covid-19 diagnostic based on MIT technology might be tested on patient samples soon
Daniel Anderson | Via MIT | March 31, 2020As more Covid-19 cases appear in the United States and around the world, the need for fast, easy-to-use diagnostic tests is becoming ever more pressing. A startup company spun out from MIT is now working on a paper-based test that can deliver results in under half an hour, based on technology developed at MIT’s Institute […]
Imaging researcher’s path leads to National Academy of Engineering honors
Peter Basser | Via NIBIB, NIH | March 31, 2020Pioneering work formed nascent roots of NIBIB’s Intramural Research Program With his election this past February to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), NIH’s Peter Basser achieved one of the highest professional distinctions accorded to any engineer. NAE membership is bestowed on those who have made crucial contributions to new and developing fields of technology […]
Ranu Jung on Neural Engineering and Her Philosophy Behind Bringing Discoveries to Humans
Ranu Jung | Via Neuronline | March 31, 2020As director of the Adaptive Neural Systems Laboratory and the owner of more than a half dozen patents, Ranu Jung designs neural engineering projects that drive the process of transforming basic discoveries into clinical applications. In this interview she explains how collaborative projects can at once advance the understanding of the brain and the development […]
New Biochip Tech Shows Promise in Traumatic Hemorrhage Outcomes
Anthony Guiseppi-Elie | Via Care Dash | March 31, 2020Traumatic hemorrhage is a condition of bleeding resulting from a significant wound; such wounds as might be sustained in an automobile accident, a natural disaster such as a tornado, or on the battlefield (combat casualty). Trauma accounts for 47% of mortalities in individuals 1-46 years of age in the United States and is the most […]
“Living drug factories” might treat diabetes and other diseases
Daniel Anderson | Via MIT | March 31, 2020Chemical engineers have developed a way to protect transplanted drug-producing cells from immune system rejection. One promising way to treat diabetes is with transplanted islet cells that produce insulin when blood sugar levels get too low. However, patients who receive such transplants must take drugs to prevent their immune systems from rejecting the transplanted cells, […]
“Living drug factories” might treat diabetes and other diseases
Robert Langer | Via MIT | March 31, 2020Chemical engineers have developed a way to protect transplanted drug-producing cells from immune system rejection. One promising way to treat diabetes is with transplanted islet cells that produce insulin when blood sugar levels get too low. However, patients who receive such transplants must take drugs to prevent their immune systems from rejecting the transplanted cells, […]
Brain Scan Analysis Reveals Two Distinct Schizophrenia Subtypes
Christos Davatzikos | Via Psychiatry & Behavioral Health | March 30, 2020An analysis of brain scans from more than 300 patients suggests two distinct neuroanatomical subtypes of schizophrenia. Researchers published the findings online in the journal Brain. “In the future, we’re not going to be saying, ‘This patient has schizophrenia.’ We’re going to be saying, ‘This patient has this subtype’ or ‘this abnormal pattern,’ rather than […]
Amino Acid Rock Music Helps Build New Proteins
Markus Buehler | Via Scientific American | March 30, 2020The 20 amino acids that make up the building blocks of a protein contain chemical bonds that vibrate at different frequencies. Markus Buehler, a materials scientist and engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, coded that information, along with the intricate folding patterns of proteins, so that it could be represented as musical properties such […]