Category Archives: BioEngineering

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 29-Jun-2014 Contact: Jessica Meade nibibpress@mail.nih.gov 301-496-3500 NIH/National Institute of Biomedical Imaging & Bioengineering Researchers have developed a new supercooling technique to increase the amount of time human organs could remain viable outside the body. This study was conducted in rats, and if it succeeds in humans, it would enable a world-wide allocation of donor organs, saving more lives. The research is supported by National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease (NIDDK), both parts of the National Institutes of Health. The first human whole organ transplant 60 years agoa living kidney transplantchanged the landscape of the medical world. Since then, transplants of skin, kidneys, hearts, lungs, corneas, and livers have become commonplace but due to a shortage of donor organs, more than 120,000 patients are still on waitlists for organ transplantation in the United States alone. Current technology can preserve livers outside the body for a maximum of 24 hours using a combination of cold temperatures and a chemical solution developed by scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1983. The solution helps keep the liver tissue from dying while in transit to the recipient site. … Continue reading →

Mutilate! - The 41 Cucumbers of Bioengineering Maribel Medina - bass/elec Stefan Kirchhoff - guitar/elec Sound recorded live @ ART Gallery, Essen Werden 18.03.2014 Video shot and edited by St. Kirchhoff s... By: schanasa … Continue reading →

More than 500 researchers are based at the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute The Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI) has created 119 jobs for researchers over the past two years and partnered with 76 companies to undertake research in a number of areas. The Pearse-Street based institute, which houses a Centre of Cancer Drug Discovery, an Immunology Research Centre and a Centre for Bioengineering and Medical Device Technologies, also said it had raised 36 million for interdisciplinary research. In a progress report issued on Friday, the institute, which employs more than 500 researchers, said three-spin out companies involved in drug discovery and development, and cancer treatment had also been established since it opened in 2011. The institute said researchers had published seven articles about breakthroughs in areas such as inflammatory diseases and membrane proteins in the scientific journal Nature over the past two years. TBSI is an excellent example of the kind of scientific and economic impact that can be achieved when we match great researchers with great facilities, and support them with investment drawn from public and private sources, said Prof Vinny Cahill, Trinitys Dean of Research. Here is the original post: Trinity institute raises 36 million for research … Continue reading →

June 25, 2014 Provided Professor C.C. Chu, center, was recently inducted as a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) named Cornell fiber scientist C.C. Chu to its College of Fellows, an honor reserved for the worlds top 2 percent of medical and biological engineers from academia, industry and government. Chu, the Rebecca Q. Morgan 60 Professor of Fiber Science and Apparel Design in the College of Human Ecology, was recognized for his development of novel biomaterials for wound closure, burn treatment, drug delivery and other applications for human body repair. Chu, a Cornell professor since 1978, holds 75 national and international patents for his work and has published nearly 200 peer-reviewed research papers. Nominated by his peers, Chu joins a group of roughly 1,500 AIMBE fellows. According to AIMBE, the selection process was especially rigorous this year, with candidates chosen for their contributions to research and engineering, their commitment to public service and their ability to further AIMBEs goals for innovation in health care and human safety. Chu partners with Weill Cornell Medical College and Ithaca campus doctors and engineers … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 18-Jun-2014 Contact: Krista Conger kristac@stanford.edu 650-725-5371 Stanford University Medical Center Stanford University researchers have devised a noninvasive way to detect heart-transplant rejection weeks or months earlier than previously possible. The test, which relies on the detection of increasing amounts of the donor's DNA in the blood of the recipient, does not require the removal of any heart tissue. "This test appears to be safer, cheaper and more accurate than a heart biopsy, which is the current gold standard to detect and monitor heart-transplant rejection," said Stephen Quake, PhD, professor of bioengineering and of applied physics. "We believe it's likely to be very useful in the clinic." Quake, the Lee Otterson Professor in the School of Engineering and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, is a senior author of the study, which will be published June 18 in Science Translational Medicine. Kiran Khush, MD, assistant professor of medicine, is the other senior author. Postdoctoral scholar Iwijn De Vlaminck, PhD, is the lead author. The test, called a cell-free DNA test, is different from another blood test, AlloMap, used to detect rejection. The commercially available AlloMap uses a blood sample to analyze the expression of immune-system genes involved in … Continue reading →

Pittsburgh does wellon tax ranking Among major world cities and job centers, Pittsburgh has one of the lowest tax burdens for foreign-owned, newly relocated businesses, according to a report by accounting firm KPMG. Of the U.S. cities measured, Pittsburgh came in fifth, behind Cincinnati, Cleveland, Atlanta and Baltimore. Pittsburghs business tax burden is 18.1 percent below the U.S. total tax baseline. Globally, Pittsburgh ranked 15th of the 107 world cities measured. Best in the world is Toronto, the report says. The KPMG report measured a businesss potential tax burden including corporate income taxes, property taxes and statutory labor costs over its first decade of operation. Oracle to buy Microsfor $5.3 billion Oracle Corp. said Monday it has agreed to buy Micros Systems Inc. for $5.3 billion as CEO Larry Ellison seeks to reignite slowing growth by adding software for hotels and restaurants, Oracle said in a statement Monday. The Redwood City, Calif.-based software maker came close to acquiring Micros six years ago only for the deal to fall through at the last minute. Chester Engineers acquires The Bioengineering Group Moon engineering services firm Chester Engineers Inc. has acquired Salem, Mass.-based Bioengineering Group for an undisclosed figure. Robert Agbede, president of … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 19-Jun-2014 Contact: Bruce Goldman goldmanb@stanford.edu 650-725-2106 Stanford University Medical Center A team of Stanford University investigators has linked a particular brain circuit to mammals' tendency to interact socially. Stimulating this circuit one among millions in the brain instantly increases a mouse's appetite for getting to know a strange mouse, while inhibiting it shuts down its drive to socialize with the stranger. The new findings, to be published June 19 in Cell, may throw light on psychiatric disorders marked by impaired social interaction such as autism, social anxiety, schizophrenia and depression, said the study's senior author, Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD, a professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. The findings are also significant in that they highlight not merely the role of one or another brain chemical, as pharmacological studies tend to do, but rather the specific components of brain circuits involved in a complex behavior. A combination of cutting-edge techniques developed in Deisseroth's laboratory permitted unprecedented analysis of how brain activity controls behavior. Deisseroth, the D.H. Chen Professor and a member of the interdisciplinary Stanford Bio-X institute, is a practicing psychiatrist who sees patients with severe social deficits. "People with autism, for example, often have … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 18-Jun-2014 Contact: Joe Miksch jmiksch@pitt.edu 412-624-4356 University of Pittsburgh PITTSBURGHLess than two years ago, a brain-computer interface designed at the University of Pittsburgh allowed Jan Scheuermann to control a robotic arm solely with her thoughts. Using the arm to bring a chocolate bar to her mouth and taking a bite was a sweet victory for Scheuermann, who has quadriplegia. The feat also was a victory for scientists developing the brain-computer interface technology, which is poised to help other patients with quadriplegia or amputated limbs. Much work still needs to be done to advance the technology for routine medical use, however. Pitt's Xinyan "Tracy" Cui, associate professor of bioengineering in the Swanson School of Engineering, was recently awarded a $2.9 million five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to move the technology forward. Cui will focus on the microelectrode arrays, or brain implants, that are used to connect mind and machine. As the primary investigator, she will explore ways to coat the microelectrodes with biological molecules that could not only better maintain the connection between the brain implants and computers that operate devices like robotic arms but also strengthen that connection. Research has shown that, over time, … Continue reading →

xDoperunnerx - Bioengineering Disease Track 5 from their self titled release 303 Grindcore http://doperunner.bandcamp.com/ https://www.facebook.com/doperunner. By: DopeRunner … Continue reading →

TIME Health social anxiety What do you do when you want to study something as complicated as what happens deep in the brain when two strangers meet? You develop a completely new way of tracking nerve connections, and then you test it in mice. Thats what Dr. Karl Deisseroth, a professor of psychiatry and bioengineering at Stanford University, and his colleagues did. We know social behavior is complicated, but to be able to delve into the brain of freely behaving mammals and to see the signal in real time predicting their social interaction was very exciting, says Deisseroth, who published his results in the journal Cell. Brain researchers have long known that certain chemicals known as neurotransmitters soar or drop depending on what were doing and how we feel. Based on these observations, drug companies have developed an armada of medications aimed at mimicking these changes to treat everything from depression, hyperactivity and even social anxiety or shyness. But theres a difference between observing hormone levels rising or falling and identifying a specific circuitamong the millions that occur in the brainresponsible for how we feel and whether we are friendly at a first meeting, say, or a little more reserved. … Continue reading →