Category Archives: BioEngineering

Editors note: This is the another in a series of profiles highlighting members of the Class of 2014 at area high schools. Eighteen-year-old Samantha Burns is quick to point out that almost no one calls her that she prefers to go by Sam. Im an engineer, I like efficiency, she jokes. Sam, a bioengineering enthusiast, has spent the past two years in a molecular biology lab alongside researchers at Florida Gulf Coast University on an antioxidant gene study. Burns began attending FGCU as a dual-enrollment student starting her junior year at Lely High School. Its been exciting being able to have a foot in both Lely and a foot in FGCU because Ive been able to represent Lely at a lot of FGCU events, she said. While not involved in daily life at Lely for the past two years, Sam was able to serve as a co-captain for the schools mock trial and moot court program, leading Lely to place as the top Collier County school this year. She was recently awarded as Best Witness for the Defense and Best Attorney for the Prosecution in the school district. I really loved Lely, Sam said. You definitely feel like theres this … Continue reading →

Last summer, Daril Brown and Nailah Seale arrived on UC San Diegos campus for the first time as visiting undergraduates from Howard University. They spent eight weeks immersed in bioengineering research alongside UC San Diego faculty and graduate students, while learning strategies for applying to graduate school. Now, both Brown and Seale will return to the La Jolla campus in the fall to pursue their doctoral degrees, thanks in part to the mentorship they received that summer. In addition, each has been awarded a prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support their studies. Brown and Seale were among eight undergraduates who participated in the first cohort of the UC San Diego Howard Partnership for Graduate Student Success, a summer research experience designed to prepare students to pursue doctoral degrees, particularly in the fields of science and engineering. The program is supported through the University of California-Historically Black Colleges and Universities (UC-HBCU) Initiative. UC-HBCU seeks to improve the representation of African Americans in UC graduate programs by investing in partnerships between UC faculty and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Brown has had his sights set on bioengineering since middle school. His grandfather was a paraplegic, … Continue reading →

Since the late 1700s, scientists have known that the water, salt, and ions that flow through the body conduct electricity, but its significance remained a mystery. The concept of "bioelectricity" inspired the story of Frankenstein and had for a while been of more interest to pop culture than to science. But in the 1800s, physiologist Emil Du Bois Reymond discovered that the electric field of cells changed during an injury. By cutting his own thumb and measuring the electric field, Reymond revealed that there is a spike in electric current around an injury site. Galvanotaxis, a process that uses electric currents to direct cells, is rarely used in the field of bioengineering. But recently, a group of researchers used galvanotaxis to herd a group of cells in different directions. In the past, the process had been used to move single cells, but this was the first time electric currents had engineered tissue swarming. The discovery could help speed up the healing of a wound, reduce scarring, grow organs, and guide cancer research. By using electric currents, researchers are studying how epithelial cells, which sheath the skin and other organs, respond to electric fields and move in unison. "It's clear that … Continue reading →

The ability to create conducting polymer films in a variety of shapes, thicknesses and surface properties rapidly and inexpensively will make growing and testing cells easier and more flexible, according to a team of Penn State bioengineers. "The ultimate goal of this collaborative project is to be able to create a substrate for growth and manipulation of cells," said Sheereen Majd, assistant professor of bioengineering. "Cells on a surface need to recognize biomolecules like extracellular matrix proteins to be able to adhere and grow. "We ultimately would like to be able to use these polymer films to manipulate adhesion, growth, proliferation and migration of cells." Majd and her team are creating patterned films of conducting polymers on gold substrates by electrodeposition through hydrogel stamps. They report their results today (May 9) in Advanced Materials. The researchers create their hydrogel stamps from agarose -- a sugar extracted from seaweed -- poured into molds. While most of the current experiments use arrays of dots, because the researchers use molded stamps, a wide variety of shapes -- dots, squares, lines -- are possible. The stamp is dipped in a solution of monomer and a dopant and placed on the gold surface. An electrical … Continue reading →

By Tom Abate Video shows shocked cells expanding rapidly to a size roughly equivalent to cells growing at full speed in normal solutions. For a century biologists have thought they understood how the gooey growth that occurs inside cells causes their protective outer walls to expand. Now, Stanford researchers have captured the visual evidence to prove the prevailing wisdom wrong. The finding may lead to new strategies for fighting bacterial diseases. "What we observed was not what we had expected," said K.C. Huang, an assistant professor of bioengineering and of microbiology and immunology and the senior author of the findings, which were published online May 12 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The research paper, which describes a process known as "osmotic shock," was co-authored by Julie Theriot, a professor of biochemistry and of microbiology and immunology at Stanford School of Medicine. The researchers believe their discovery about the surprising resilience of cell wall growth may help explain why seemingly fragile bacteria such as E. coli can thrive in environments as different as puddles and stomachs. Enrique Rojas, a postdoctoral scholar in bioengineering, and the lead author of the PNAS article, is now in Bangladesh trying to … Continue reading →

Faces of UCR Bioengineering c/o 2014 via YouTube Capture. By: John Clark … Continue reading →

Bioengineering - The Next Golden Age: Prem Sehgal at TEDxYouth@DAA What does bioengineering mean for us? It could mean the exploration of space, the replacement of lost body parts, or living forever. This is not just science fiction but quite possibly our... By: TEDxYouth … Continue reading →

Highly-durable, extreme-performance plastics and rubbers for use in industries ranging from automotive to construction are now closer to realisation thanks to a $1 million investment in a Brisbane materials company. The University of Queensland start-up company TenasiTech is developing innovative plastic additives based on research by UQs Professor Darren Martin. TenasiTech CEO Richard Marshall said the potential market for the product was encouraging. The poor scratch-resistance of acrylic glass is a key barrier to the more widespread replacement of traditional glass, he said. Our additive products are simple to incorporate, and allow customers to design plastic sheets and other parts which are more durable as they are less prone to surface defects when handled. TenasiTech secured the current round of investment from members of angel investment groups Brisbane Angels and Melbourne Angels along with UQ-based venture fund and founding investor Uniseed. UQ acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Max Lu said the investment in TenasiTech epitomised the importance of diversified support for research and commercialisation at UQ. This investment is important for the future of TenasiTech in realising the commercial potential of their range of high performance additives, he said. Professor Lu said the investment was an outcome of UniQuests commercialisation efforts and … Continue reading →

BioEngineering Inversina powder Blender frictional sound. By: Mask Chen … Continue reading →

2014 Alumni Cup - Bioengineering Team Video from the Clark School of Engineering 2014 Alumni Cup Competition, held in the Kim Engineering Building at the University of Maryland on Feb. 21, 2014. Copyright 2014 University of Maryland. By: Clark School of Enginering … Continue reading →