Category Archives: BioEngineering

Download Methods in Bioengineering 3d Tissue Engineering The Artech House Methods in Bioengineerin Click Here to Download : http://bit.ly/1ApOi2F. By: Brady Ibrahim … Continue reading →

UCR, BCoE, Bioengineering Senior Design Elevator Pitch Dec. 3, 2014 By: Senior Design … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 5-Dec-2014 Contact: John Fleischman jfleischman@ascb.org 513-706-0212 American Society for Cell Biology @AmerSocCellBio In the human brain, the BBB is not the Better Business Bureau but the blood brain barrier and the BBB is serious business in human physiology. The human BBB separates circulating blood from the central nervous system, thus protecting the brain from many infections and toxins. But the BBB also blocks the passage of many potentially useful drugs to the brain and it has long stymied scientists who want to learn more about this vital tissue because of the lack of realistic non-human lab models. Even less is known about the BBB in children. There are significant structural and functional differences between the pediatric and adult BBB, but ethical considerations clearly limit research possibilities. So while it is known that the immature brain is especially vulnerable to damage from inflammation as well as from oxygen or blood deprivation, and an altered BBB has been linked to cerebral palsy and to complications from traumatic brain injury in children, research to date on these questions has been hampered. Now bioengineering researchers at Temple University in Philadelphia have come up with an experimental workaround--a synthetic pediatric blood-brain barrier … Continue reading →

Renee Jocic, a senior biology major at UC Santa Cruz, has wanted to do undergraduate research since she was a freshman. Finding a spot in a professor's lab can be challenging, however; so Jocic created her own research experience. She co-founded a team of UCSC undergraduates to compete in an international synthetic biology competition. "Synthetic biology is the idea that you're engineering life," said Rolando Perez, a senior in biomolecular engineering and the other co-founder of the team. "You're harnessing nature to do things nature's never done before." The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition challenges students to use the techniques of molecular biology to build novel biological systems and operate them in living cells. The UC Santa Cruz team worked to engineer a microbe to produce biofuel from processed plant material. Six of the 14 team members, including Jocic, recently returned from Boston, where their project won a bronze medal in the 2014 iGEM competition (one of 59 bronze medals awarded). David Bernick, a lecturer and researcher in biomolecular engineering at UC Santa Cruz, served as the team's faculty mentor. Bernick said biofuels can play a role in slowing climate change as one component of a carbon-neutral energy system. … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 1-Dec-2014 Contact: Margot Kern nibibpress@mail.nih.gov 301-496-3500 NIH/National Institute of Biomedical Imaging & Bioengineering Diagnosing HIV and other infectious diseases presents unique challenges in remote locations that lack electric power, refrigeration, and appropriately trained health care staff. To address these issues, researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have developed a low-cost, electricity-free device capable of detecting the DNA of infectious pathogens, including HIV-1. The device uses a small scale chemical reaction, rather than electric power, to provide the heat needed to amplify and detect the DNA or RNA of pathogens present in blood samples obtained from potentially infected individuals. "This highly creative technical solution brings sophisticated molecular diagnostics to underserved populations and represents a potentially groundbreaking advance in global health care for HIV as well as tuberculosis and malaria, which remain significant health challenges in many remote areas," said Roderic Pettigrew, Ph.D., M.D., director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) at NIH. The work was performed by a team at the Seattle-based global health non-profit PATH, led by Paul LaBarre, senior technical officer, and is reported in the Nov. 26 issue of PLOS ONE. The core technology they developed and continue … Continue reading →

By - Associated Press - Sunday, November 30, 2014 EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) - Michigan State University has received $500,000 to help launch its new Department of Biomedical Engineering. Jack and Dottie Withrow of Naples, Florida, donated the money to establish an endowed graduate fellowship, the university said. Endowing graduate student fellowships provides the momentum that will help to ensure the future success of the department and propel it forward as an important part of the colleges future, Engineering College Dean Leo Kempel said in a statement. Jack Withrow earned a bachelors degree in mechanical engineering and a masters degree in business administration from Michigan State. Hes a former executive vice president at Chrysler and a former president and chief operating officer at Lectron Products Inc. Dottie Withrow earned a bachelors degree in speech therapy and elementary education from Michigan State and a masters degree in teaching from Oakland University. Shes a retired special education teacher and a childrens books author. We are so pleased to support the convergence of traditional engineering and the developing technologies in the colleges new department, said Jack Withrow. This feels like an opportunity to create a lasting foundation for biomedical engineering grad students now … Continue reading →

Two academic programs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have begun the process of rehiring controversial professor James Kilgore a decision that could have financial implications for the public university system. Kilgore, who spent about five years in prison for his part in a 1970s murder, worked as a lecturer and researcher at the U. of I. from 2010 until earlier this year. His employment was not approved for this semester after his criminal past became public and university board members expressed concern. Earlier this month, however, after faculty pressure to reinstate him, a divided U. of I. board of trustees cleared the way for his rehiring, saying academic units should act under "their existing hiring practices" for part-time faculty, which leaves employment decisions to campus officials. Kilgore, 66, told the Tribune that two academic units the Center for African Studies and the Global Studies program have "made requests" to hire him for the spring semester that begins in January. Kilgore said he has been transformed since he participated in the Symbionese Liberation Army, a 1970s-era radical group. But if Kilgore does rejoin the faculty, at least one major university donor has said he will withdraw his pledged support, … Continue reading →

Supplied BURNING AMBITION: StretchSense chief executive Ben O'Brien describes the company's technology as "rubber bands with Bluetooth". Two successful businesses born out of the University of Auckland have flown back to the nest to work on a project that could make the bionic joints of 1970s television series The Six Million Dollar Man a reality. Startup companies StretchSense and I Measure U are part of a three-year collaboration between the University of Auckland's Bioengineering Institute and the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart, Germany, to develop a human bionic arm. Iain Anderson, group leader of the university's Biomimetics Laboratory, said there are numerous commercial applications for bionic limbs (robotics attached to the outside of the body) including stroke rehabilitation, helping patients with compromised strength and in manufacturing. "There's the ability [with bionic limbs] to give people more capability than what they were born with - for instance, in assembly line work where they have a repetitive task to do that would normally fatigue them. With a [robotic] device people could do more and have less likelihood of workplace injury," he said. "In Germany, where there is more heavy industry, [people think] this would be great for helping workers. "I don't want to … Continue reading →

Karolinska Univ. Hospital via Scanpix/Corbis/Reuters Surgeon Paolo Macchiarini carrying out the first transplant of a bioengineered synthetic trachea in 2011. One of Europes most prestigious medical universities, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, has launched two investigations into the clinical procedures of a doctor famed for performing potentially revolutionary, bioengineered trachea transplants. Since 2008, Paolo Macchiarini, a thoracic surgeon at the Karolinska Institute, has replaced parts of airways damaged by injury, cancer or other disorders in 17 patients. In the earlier cases, he transplanted parts of tracheas taken from cadavers; in his later work, he transplanted synthetic tracheas. In both procedures, before transplantation, he would treat the tracheas with stem cells taken from the patients bone marrow, which he says helps the transplants to act like biological tissue. Bioengineering experts contacted by Nature say that Macchiarinis procedures were considered a great leap for their nascent field because tracheas demand a high level of biological function including the ability to defend against the constant assault of inhaled bacteria and to form a seal with the adjoining airway tissue. Macchiarinis reports were a bright spot for the field, says David Mooney, a bioengineering specialist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. One of the … Continue reading →

Photo by: John Dixon/The News-Gazette Jack Hou holds fencing equipment at The Point fencing club in Champaign. Fencing instructor Jack Hou doesn't want his students to just get the point he wants to run them through. But it's OK if he does. The fourth-year student in the University of Illinois Medical Scholars program has the wherewithal to patch them up. A native of China who came to live in the United States when he was 3, Hou combines medicine, research and fencing in a busy life that doesn't leave much room for other activities. "It's busy, busy, busy every day," said the 25-year-old Hou. A graduate of Iowa State University in biochemistry and statistics, he is studying for dual degrees in the eight-year program a doctorate in bioengineering and degree in medicine. "Ideally, I want to go into something called academic medicine, where you have your own lab but also practice medicine," Hou said. He's all business on the academic front. But Hou takes a break from the serious stuff with fencing he teaches aspiring fencers at local fencing club The Point, takes lessons himself from a veteran fencer and competes as a member of the Fencing Illini, a club … Continue reading →