Category Archives: BioEngineering

The University of Queensland will soon deploy a new high performance parallel computer cluster to support intensive data modelling in advanced materials, vaccines, systems, and technologies in several research areas. In a tender issued Friday morning, the university said it will spend up to $262,500 on its Phi Cluster, which will support research at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN). It will also be used by the universitys Faculty of Science and Faculty and Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology, which are doing similar research in computational modelling of physical, pharmaceutical, and biological systems. The Phi Cluster will run in a non-shared memory configuration and will focus on high performance floating point computational efficiency through acceleration and optimisation of co-processor use rather than fast storage, the university said. The system will be fitted with Xeon Phi processors with a least 10 cores per CPU socket, to provide parallel performance that will suit dynamical calculations, the university said. Read more University of Queensland to migrate 80 server rooms to two facilities The University of Queensland is at the forefront of research around bioscience and nanotechnology. In 2012, the university, along with the Australian National University and the University of Singapore, … Continue reading →

Meet Vignesh Selvakumaran, a bioengineering grad from the University of Pennsylvania who wants to be a doctor and believes that while medicine cannot heal every problem, listening to a patients wishes and being compassionate can be just as effective. Several times a month in the past year, Vignesh Selvakumaran would volunteer at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia -- to comfort and counsel small children about there loved ones illness and explaining why their sibling is sick and needed their parents' attention. Selvakumaran, the first recipient of Sobti Fellowship who will be spending nine months at an eye clinic in Madurai, recently graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in bioengineering. 'A fundamental part of doctoring is physician-doctor communication,' he wrote in the essay for Sobti Fellowship, which was established through a gift from UPenn alumnus Rajiv Sobti and Slomi Sobti to provide funding for a recent graduate to conduct independent research in India and administered through the Centre for the Advanced Study of India at UPenn. 'Being able to communicate with anyone independent of age, race, or gender is an important part of establishing successful relationships and providing the best care. I see my work with CHOP as … Continue reading →

Noteworthy: Cui, associate professor of bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh's Swanson School of Engineering, won a $2.9 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how to improve brain implant technology. As primary investigator on the project, Cui will lead her team in focusing on microelectrode arrays, or brain implants used to connect mind and machine. Her work aims to advance not only brain-computer interfacing, but other technologies that use brain implants to restore sight, hearing, movement, communication and cognitive function. The research could help patients with many types of neurological disorders and other challenges. Residence: Wexford Background: Research scientist at Unilever Research US in Edgewater, N.J. Family: Married to Lei Li, a University of Pittsburgh professor; two children, ages 8 and 2 Education: Bachelor's degree in polymer materials and chemical engineering and master's degree in biophysics, both from Tsinghua University, Beijing; and a doctorate in macromolecular science and engineering from the University of Michigan. Quote: The microelectrode devices will get smaller and become smarter. My research will focus on keeping the neurons around those electrodes alive and healthy, and maintaining and enhancing the devices' performance. Natasha Lindstrom You are solely responsible for your comments and … Continue reading →

LIVERMORE -- Lawrence Livermore Lab scientists will play a key role in creating a device to restore memory function for those with traumatic brain injuries, Department of Defense officials said Tuesday. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency selected the lab's Neural Technology group for an award of up to $2.5 million to help develop a prosthetic device embedded in the brain that would bridge gaps in the brain's memory functions. It would be for service members, veterans and all those with traumatic brain injuries. Researchers said it would sense memory deficits, encode neural signals and bridge gaps in the damaged brain, allowing the continued formation of new memories and recollection of old ones. "Currently, there is no effective treatment for memory loss resulting from conditions like (traumatic brain injury)," said the lab's project leader, Sat Pannu, director of the Center for Bioengineering. "This is a tremendous opportunity from DARPA to leverage Lawrence Livermore's advanced capabilities to develop cutting-edge medical devices that will change the health care landscape." The funding comes from DARPA's Restoring Active Memory (RAM) program, launched in 2013 in support of President Obama's Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative. The four-year RAM project is headed by … Continue reading →

Bioengineering is the biological or medical application of engineering principles or engineering equipment also called biomedical engineering. (Merriam-Webster) We like to think of it as the application of engineering principles to biological systems. Bioengineering as a defined field is relatively new, although attempts to solve biological problems have persisted throughout history. Recently, the practice of bioengineering has expanded beyond large-scale efforts likeprostheticsand hospital equipment to include engineering at the molecular and cellular level with applications in energy and the environment as well as healthcare. A very broad area of study, bioengineering can include elements of electrical and mechanical engineering, computer science, materials, chemistry and biology. This breadth allows students and faculty to specialize in their areas of interest and collaborate widely with researchers in allied fields. Graduates are well placed to work in management, production or research and development in a variety of industries such as medical devices, diagnostics, genetics, healthcare industry support, pharmaceutical manufacture, drug discovery, environmental remediation, or agricultural advancement as well as in nonprofit and academic research. Many go on to receive advanced degrees in bioengineering or a related field, or to medical school. Other students find the rigor of bioengineering a useful launching point for careers … Continue reading →

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The biological applications of engineering, or bioengineering, is the topic of the 1997 Cornell Society of Engineers annual conference April 10-12 at Cornell University. Featuring Richard A. Hazleton, chairman and CEO of Dow Corning Corp., and Samuel Fleming, chairman and CEO of Decision Resources Inc., the conference "Frontiers in Bioengineering" will highlight research in the rapidly developing field. Featured will be speakers from the Cornell faculty and from industry. Hazleton, the Dow chairman who arrived there in the midst of the silicone breast implant controversy, will give the keynote address, "Science, Public Policy and Ethics in Biomaterials," at a dinner beginning at 7:15 p.m. Friday in the Statler Hotel Terrace Restaurant. Hazleton has appeared frequently on national television and has testified before Congress on the silicone breast implant controversy. The conference kicks off with a talk at 9:25 a.m. Friday, "The Commercial Impact of Biotechnology: What's in Store for the Next 10 Years," by Samuel Fleming (Chem. Eng. '62), chairman and CEO of Decision Resources Inc. His firm, formerly a subsidiary of Arthur D. Little Inc., provides international market forecasting and evaluation for health care, information technology and process industries. His company now has offices on three … Continue reading →

Angiogenesis, the sprouting of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, is essential to the body's development. As organs grow, vascular networks must grow with them to feed new cells and remove their waste. The same process, however, also plays a critical role in the onset and progression of many cancers, as it allows the rapid growth of tumors. With lifesaving applications possible in both inhibiting and accelerating the creation of new blood vessels, a more fundamental understanding of what regulates angiogenesis is needed. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Boston University and Harvard University have uncovered the existence of a threshold above which fluid flowing through blood vessel walls causes new capillaries to sprout. This discovery could help pave the way for cancer-fighting drugs, treatments for the hardened blood vessels found in the cardiovascular disease arthrosclerosis or even growing synthetic organs in the lab. The research was led by postdoctoral fellow Peter Galie of the Department of Bioengineering in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science and Christopher Chen, then a professor of bioengineering at Penn who is now at Boston University and an associate faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. They … Continue reading →

Clinicians at the Auckland District Health Boards Department of Respiratory Medicine are recruiting participants in a study to improve lung treatment for elderly patients and build a computer model of an ageing lung. Over a two year period, the study which involves the Department of Respiratory Medicine and the Bioengineering Department at Auckland University will focus on being able to better distinguish between normal aging lungs and diseased lungs using standard lung function tests or CT scans. This is important because the process of normal aging mimics changes seen in lung diseases such as emphysema, making accurate diagnoses difficult. The study hopes to recruit 100 participants who are in the 50 -100 year old age range, with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 25 -30. They should be never -smokers; not have lung disease and no history of exposure to dusts, chemicals or drugs which may cause lung disease. Suitable candidates will undergo lung function tests, a CT scan and a blood test. The data collected will be used to assess the changes in structure and function of the lung with age. The data will also be used by the department of bioengineering at Auckland University to build a mathematical … Continue reading →

By Devin Coldewey Scientists have long attempted to imitate nature's efficiency and mechanical elegance but this project's minuscule machines are powered by actual living tissue. Rashid Bashir, head of bioengineering at the University of Illinois, leads the effort to build "bio-bots" that use muscle cells culled from rats to get around. The muscle is wrapped around a simple, flexible 3-D printed "skeleton," and stimulated electrically; when the muscle contracts, the tiny contraption takes a "step" forward. The speed can be controlled by the frequency of electrical pulses. You can watch it in action here. "This work represents an important first step in the development and control of biological machines that can be stimulated, trained, or programmed to do work," Bashir said in a news post describing the research, which appeared in the journal PNAS. He envisions such tiny machines working inside human bodies, for instance navigating toward toxins or injuries to administer aid. "This is very promising for medical applications," added co-author and graduate student Ritu Raman. "But why stop there?" Sign up for top Technology news delivered direct to your inbox It has come to our attention that the browser you are using is either not running javascript or … Continue reading →

Although the technique has so far only been demonstrated in rats, scientists are hopeful that the effect will be reproduced in larger animals and eventually humans. "To our knowledge, this is the longest preservation time with subsequent successful transplantation achieved to date," said Korkut Uygun, Professor of Bioengineering, at Harvard Medical School. "If we can do this with human organs, we could share organs globally, helping to alleviate the worldwide organ shortage. All the rats who had supercooled livers which has been stored for three days survived for at least three months, but none of the rats who had transplants using current methods did. And the survival rate for animals receiving livers stored for four days was 58 percent. Extending the length of time in which organs can be kept allows more time to prepare a patient for transplant and reduces the urgency of rushing an organ to its destination. It also expands the donation area to allow for transcontinental transplants and increases the chances of patients finding better matches. Dr Uygun said the development could have groundbreaking effects on the current practice of transplantation. The field of transplantation is facing a serious donor shortage crisis, he added. The eventual … Continue reading →