Category Archives: BioEngineering

The University of Auckland is celebrating the success of 28 of its researchers and research groups, who have won $15.2 million in the prestigious Marsden Fund round, amounting to 27.3 percent of the total awarded this year. The research supported by the fund will address a wide range of topics, from getting inside the earthquake machine, to 8000 years of hunter-gatherer adaptation, and axioms and algorithms for multi-winner elections. "The Marsden Fund supports leading-edge research and these awards reflect the breadth and depth of research at the University of Auckland", says Distinguished Professor Jane Harding, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research). "The University prides itself on the excellence of its research and we congratulate all our researchers on the calibre of their work." Twelve research groups led by investigators from the Faculty of Science have been awarded a total of $7.3 million. Amongst them Dr Anna Santure will predict the adaptive potential of small populations: a case study in the endangered hihi. Four researchers or teams from the Faculty of Arts received a total of $2.7 million, including Professor Margaret Mutu who will research What do the claimants say? Reconceptualising the treaty claims settlement process. Dr Marama Muru-Lanning from the James Henare Research … Continue reading →

A robotic device to monitor muscle development in children with cerebral palsy and research into the biomechanics of the lung are just two engineering research projects at the University of Auckland to attract Marsden Fund grants for 2014. Dr Andrew McDaid from the Department of Mechanical Engineering is developing robotic therapy that incorporates a robotic wrist that manipulates muscles as therapy for children affected by cerebral palsy. The project, which has been awarded $300,000 in Fast-Start funding, will advance intelligent robotic therapies and has the potential to postpone or even reduce the need for orthopaedic surgery for children suffering from cerebral palsy. Associate Professor Merryn Tawhai of the Universitys Auckland Bioengineering Institute and a team of international researchers have been awarded $765,000 in funding for a project which follows blood as it moves through the lungs. The team has also developed novel methods for mapping the distribution of inhaled air in the lung. Other engineering projects awarded grants from the 2014 Marsden Fund round include: Dr Heide Friedrich Civil & Environmental Engineering Uncovering the hidden secrets of rivers: the role of interlayer structures $300,000 Read more: Engineering research attracts $2.1m new funding … Continue reading →

Neal OHara, Declan Scanlan and Graham Cross of Adama Innovations Adama Innovations Ltd was formed after Prof Graham Cross, a senior researcher in Trinitys Amber (Advanced Materials and BioEngineering Research) centre, made an important discovery in the nanotechnology area, explains company managing director Declan Scanlan. It relates to the most powerful kind of microscope there is, one so sensitive that it can literally see clusters of atoms and map surfaces at scales down to billionths of a metre across. We spun out the company and patented the discovery in May 2013. Once we had that done we needed to find funding to get it going, says Scanlan. This has come through with todays investment worth 750,000 made by a syndicate that includes Enterprise Ireland, NDRC VentureLab and Irrus Investments. This vital seed funding will begin the scale-up process, given it already has a product and customers, Scanlan says. This is the second large-scale investment the company has won in the past 12 months. It received 400,000 from the European Commissions FP7 FaBiMed project, which seeks to apply nanotech research to advanced medical devices. We are in the position that we make a product and have couple of customers who really … Continue reading →

The Rice University Department of Bioengineering is a top-tier teaching and research institution with a faculty committed to excellence in education, interdisciplinary, basic and translational research. Our undergraduate program is ranked fifth and our graduate program is ranked seventh in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Key to our success as an international leader in bioengineering is capitalizing on Rice's location, which promotes the development of long-term strategic partnerships with experts in industry and academic and government institutions. Rice is situated in the midst of one of the largest, most diverse cities in the nation. Our neighbors include the Texas Medical Center (TMC) and its member institutions. The TMC, which is the largest medical center in the world where much of Houston's biotechnology industry is focused, provides unlimited opportunity to expand our global reach and build unparalleled teaching and research programs that solve a broad spectrum of complex problems in science and medicine. Our faculty members have diverse research interests focused on establishing engineering principles and developing cutting-edge technologies to solve a host of life-science problems in: Excerpt from: Rice University Department of Bioengineering … Continue reading →

2nd PP Bioengineering vs bioethics By: Karina Iduate … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 30-Oct-2014 Contact: Herb Booth hbooth@uta.edu 817-272-7075 University of Texas at Arlington @utarlington A UT Arlington bioengineering professor has received a $1.04 million grant from the U.S. Army that aims to regenerate cartilage tissue and reduce osteoarthritis using a patient's own stem cells, spurred through the injection of microscaffolding made of biodegradable polymers. Liping Tang, a bioengineering professor and interim chair of the bioengineering department, said the research is primarily focused on helping soldiers who are severely injured on the battlefield. "We've found that if we inject microscaffolding that we've developed into the injured area, it can trigger the stem cell generation needed for proper healing," Tang said. Posttraumatic osteoarthritis develops as a result of improper healing of joints, which turn arthritic. It often occurs in soldiers with broken bones from blasts, shrapnel and gunshot wounds. Joints and cartilage are surrounded by stem cells that need instruction in where to go and what to do, Tang said. "The microscaffolding recruits a patient's stem cells that are needed in the healing process," Tang said. "Biomolecules will be released from the scaffolds to transform stem cells into cartilage cells to form new cartilage tissue while reducing the symptoms associated with … Continue reading →

By Callie Oliver Posted on October 30, 2014 | News | Comments Off Dr. Ken Olree has gained a patent on a method for blocking nerve impulses that could potentially help people with epilepsy, seizures and other neurological problems. Olree, associate professor of engineering and physics, applied for the patent in 2007 and received the rights in September of this yearon his method for coil optimization for magnetic stimulation. A patent is a license that excludes others from being able to make, use or sell an invention. The method resulted from Olrees graduate study started in 1998 with Dr. Ken Horch, professor emeritus at the University of Utah. Horch was Olrees advisor and is a co-inventor of the patent. He has a very good record in terms of developing undergraduate bioengineering programs in a new type of institution, Horch said. His track record speaks for itself. The patent can be used anytime someone wants to stimulate neurons in the brain or in the spinal cord, he said. The original idea behind the method was to block pain impulses using different coil shapes to pinpoint a specific area of nerves. This patent is Kens independent piece of work that was sufficient … Continue reading →

A team led by the Lawrence Livermore scientists has created a new kind of ion channel consisting of short carbon nanotubes, which can be inserted into synthetic bilayers and live cell membranes to form tiny pores that transport water, protons, small ions and DNA. These carbon nanotube "porins" have significant implications for future health care and bioengineering applications. Nanotube porins eventually could be used to deliver drugs to the body, serve as a foundation of novel biosensors and DNA sequencing applications, and be used as components of synthetic cells. Researchers have long been interested in developing synthetic analogs of biological membrane channels that could replicate high efficiency and extreme selectivity for transporting ions and molecules that are typically found in natural systems. However, these efforts always involved problems working with synthetics and they never matched the capabilities of biological proteins. Unlike taking a pill which is absorbed slowly and is delivered to the entire body, carbon nanotubes can pinpoint an exact area to treat without harming surrounding other organs. "Many good and efficient drugs that treat diseases of one organ are quite toxic to another," said Aleksandr Noy, an LLNL biophysicist who led the study and is the senior author … Continue reading →

Welcome to the Annual Mahato Memorial Event Website! The 5th Annual Mahato Memorial Eventwill take place on November 19th, 2014! This year, our keynote speaker will be Dr. Albert Folch, Professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington. The 2014 image and photo contest "Envisioning the Invisible" is now open until November 3rd, 2014. You can check out last year'sImage Contest Winners. TheMahato Memorial Image Contest Galleryis still on display in the CIEMAS atrium. Hope you will be able to attend this year Mahato event! The Envisioning the Invisible image contest is way to explore and explain our world. Though the skills honed across disciplines at Duke University are as diverse as the students who employ them, every field of study values students who have mastered the art of explaining dense research through visuals such as pictures and images. Images can stimulate interest in a novel concept or provide further insight into an established theory. Join the elite group of researchers whohave become visual gurus by submitting your greatest work to the Envisioning the Invisible image contest for display at the Mahato Memorial event and a chance to win one of four CASH PRIZES! The Mahato Memorial event honorsAbhijit Mahato, … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 23-Oct-2014 Contact: Georges Limbert g.limbert@soton.ac.uk 44-023-805-92381 University of Southampton @unisouthampton The objective of this seminar is to present state-of-the-art experimental and modelling techniques to characterise and predict the biophysics and tribology of the skin in health and disease. Presentations will be given by UK and foreign representatives from industry and academia (see brochure attached) and therefore the event will provide excellent networking opportunities for collaborations. he seminar will be of particular interest to interdisciplinary researchers and engineers working in the medical devices, consumer goods, cosmetics, pharmaceutical, sport equipment and military sectors. The presentations will showcase how the latest techniques and tools are used to accelerate research and product development. ### AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system. Read more here: Recent advances in the tribology and bioengineering of the skin … Continue reading →