Category Archives: BioEngineering

Everyone should have the opportunity to make music. This is a skill that not only offers the same happiness we feel in listening, but also challenges and stimulates the brain. The violin is known to be one of the more challenging instruments to play, and children are often started off at an early age. They receive not only an intellectual workout, but also a physical one as their upper body strength is put to the test (especially at first) as they hold the violin on the shoulder and then use the other hand and arm to manipulate the bow. Anyone learning to play will probably find that both their memory and focus become sharper. Discipline, fortitude, and will are all required in learning to master such an instrument. Obviously, Isabella Nicola Cabrera, age ten, has all these traitsalong with the students from George Mason University who decided to make her a 3D printed prosthetic so she could play her violin. George Mason, located in Fairfax, VA, boasts a progressive bioengineering department. There, they use tools meant to bring together the worlds of both biology and medicine, with Cabreras prosthetic serving as a prime example of what engineering can do in … Continue reading →

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER The New York Post reportsthat ten-year-old Isabella Nicola Cabrera was born with no left hand, but thanks to a specialized prosthesis created by a team of bioengineering students at the George Mason University, Cabrera can once again play the violin. Cabrerasmusic teacher and her school had previously built a rudimentary prosthesis that she used successfullyfor years, but ABC News reports the prosthetic was heavy. The instructor contacted the bioengineering students at the George Mason University, where he had graduated from, to see if they could develop something more advanced for the young musician. Bioengineering studentsAbdul Gouda, Mona Elkholy, Ella Novoselsky, Racha Salha, and Yasser Alhindi decided to take on designing the prosthetic as a project required of them for their senior year. Its sort of a lot of pressure, Gouda told ABC News. Youve got this young girl whos counting on you and youre expected to deliver. At atest fitting on Thursday, the team of bioengineers also surprised Cabrera with a secondary attachment for the prosthesis which would allow her to ride a bicycle. Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan_ … Continue reading →

Students from George Mason University design prosthetic arm for violist Peggy Fox, WUSA 7:28 PM. EDT April 20, 2017 FAIRFAX, VA (WUSA9) - A new beginning for a Fairfax County girl who has just received a new prosthetic arm that was designed and 3-D printed by George Mason University college students. Isabella Nicola, 10, has been raised by her mother, Andrea Cabrera, to never say never. "My mom's phrase is, when you say 'I can't do it', it's 'I can't do it yet,'" said Nicola. The fifth grader signed up to play violin in the strings program at Island Creek Elementary in Franconia last year, even though she knew it'd be a little difficult. RELATED:Dog rescued from slaughterhouse gets prosthetic legs She was born with an incomplete left arm. Her music teacher fashioned a makeshift prosthetic arm out of PVC to hold her bow. Then he a called his alma mater and got the engineering department on board. But now, Isabella has a bright pink, custom-made, brand new prosthetic arm that allows her to hold and move the bow properly. "I have to say thank you to them because without them I couldn't really be able to play," said Nicola. … Continue reading →

Students from George Mason University design prosthetic arm for violist Peggy Fox, WUSA 9:46 PM. CDT April 20, 2017 FAIRFAX, VA (WUSA9) - A new beginning for a Fairfax County girl who has just received a new prosthetic arm that was designed and 3-D printed by George Mason University college students. Isabella Nicola, 10, has been raised by her mother, Andrea Cabrera, to never say never. "My mom's phrase is, when you say 'I can't do it', it's 'I can't do it yet,'" said Nicola. The fifth grader signed up to play violin in the strings program at Island Creek Elementary in Franconia last year, even though she knew it'd be a little difficult. RELATED:Dog rescued from slaughterhouse gets prosthetic legs She was born with an incomplete left arm. Her music teacher fashioned a makeshift prosthetic arm out of PVC to hold her bow. Then he a called his alma mater and got the engineering department on board. But now, Isabella has a bright pink, custom-made, brand new prosthetic arm that allows her to hold and move the bow properly. "I have to say thank you to them because without them I couldn't really be able to play," said Nicola. … Continue reading →

[ graduate program | courses | faculty ] STUDENT AFFAIRS 141 Powell-Focht Bioengineering Hall Warren College http://www.be.ucsd.edu All courses, faculty listings, and curricular and degree requirements described herein are subject to change or deletion without notice. Updates may be found on the Academic Senate website: http://senate.ucsd.edu/catalog-copy/approved-updates/. Bioengineering is an interdisciplinary major in which the principles and tools of traditional engineering fields, such as mechanical, materials, electrical, and chemical engineering, are applied to biomedical and biological problems. Engineering plays an increasingly important role in medicine in projects that range from basic research in physiology to advances in biotechnology and the improvement of health-care delivery. By its very nature, bioengineering is broad and requires a foundation in the engineering sciences as well as in physiology and other biological sciences. The overall mission of the Department of Bioengineering is to improve health and quality of life by applying engineering principles to scientific discovery and technology innovation and to train future leaders in bioengineering through inspiring education and dedicated mentorship. The educational objectives of the bioengineering program at UC San Diego are to produce graduates with a modern bioengineering education who will At the undergraduate level, the department offers several four-year engineering majors, including … Continue reading →

UCR Researchers Create Sensor to Measure Liquid Samples Researchers at UCR have recently developed a sensor to measure samples by using a piece of glass tubing, which will help when measuring samples that are in liquid. The sensor can be used in many different applications including toxicology, developmental biology, plant sciences and biomaterials engineering. The research was focused on toxicology and how it could improve the current technology that is expensive, time-consuming and labor-intensive. The team was lead by William Grover, assistant professor of bioengineering at Bourns College of Engineering, and Shirin Mesbah Oskui, a bioengineering and biomedical engineering doctoral student in Grovers lab. The research team discovered that when they bent a piece of glass tubing into a U shape and attached a speaker to it, it could be used to measure the mass density and volume of the sample inside the tube. Their sensor was expanded from a similar technique that was developed at MIT for weighing single cells. They hope that this new technique will help further advance the field because of its automation, portability and low cost. The team also consisted of Heran Bhakta, a graduate student in bioengineering, Graciel Diamante, a graduate student in environmental … Continue reading →

Over the past several years, gene editing has become a powerful tool for creating cellular models of human diseases, particularly with the emergence of technologies like CRISPR-Cas9. But one concern with gene editing tools like CRISPR which allows scientists to cut and paste genetic sequences into a genome to correct errors or introduce changes is precision, says Krishanu Saha, a bioengineering professor at the University of WisconsinMadison. That is, editing genes sometimes introduces errors that could have unintended consequences. Saha is using CRISPR to reprogram human pluripotent stem cells and immune cells to study diseases like Fragile X syndrome, to discover new drugs and develop cell therapies, and to ask fundamental questions about human biology. On Wednesday, April 19, he will present the strategies his lab has developed to make gene editing more precise at the 12th Annual Wisconsin Stem Cell Symposium. My talk is focused on genome-level engineering of human cells, Saha says. I will cover ongoing work in my lab that engineers human pluripotent stem cells and T cells from cancer patients. The strategies Saha and his research team have developed help correct pathogenic point mutations and introduce transgenes with precision, reducing and in some cases eliminating undesirable … Continue reading →

University of Canterbury researchers at the Rose Centre for Stroke Recovery and Research have revealed an innovative new treatment for people with swallowing impairments. Swallowing impairments, also known as dysphagia, impact on people affected by stroke or other neurological disorders. The new treatment will make a big difference to potentially thousands of lives, says Professor Maggie-Lee Huckabee, Director of the Rose Centre. Food and drink sustain us physiologically, nutritionally, socially and culturally. They are critical to maintaining health, but equally valued for the human engagement that emerges from sharing a drink with a friend, or a meal with family. Individuals who struggle with eating and drinking can develop chest infections or require feeding through a tube, and consequently experience exclusion from many social engagements. New thinking brings solution Historically, swallowing has been considered a reflex, and thus amenable only to rehabilitation programmes that focus on increasing strength of muscles in the throat. More recent research suggests that the cortex the thinking part of the brain plays a significant role in modulating this pseudo-reflex. This new understanding led UCs researchers to approach the problem differently, using bioengineering application to facilitate recovery. Bioengineering applies engineering principles to biological systems, and can include … Continue reading →

UCR researchers used glass tubing and off-the-shelf electronics to create an inexpensive sensor that can weigh microgram-sized biological samples in fluids By Sarah Nightingale on April 5, 2017 A glass tube sensor developed by engineers at the University of California, Riverside will allow scientists to weigh tiny biological samples in their native liquid environments. RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have found an innovative new use for a simple piece of glass tubing: weighing things. Their glass tube sensor will help speed up chemical toxicity tests, shed light on plant growth, and develop new biomaterials, among many other applications. The research, led by William Grover, assistant professor of bioengineering in UC Riversides Bourns College of Engineering, and Shirin Mesbah Oskui, a doctoral student in Grovers lab who recently graduated, was published today in the journal PLOS ONE. The paper describes the development of a simple, inexpensive sensor to measure the mass, volume, and density of microgram-sized biological samples in fluid. The research has important applications in toxicity research as well as many other areas, including developmental biology, plant sciences, and biomaterials engineering. While weight is one of the most fundamental and important measures of an object, … Continue reading →

CRV, an early-stage venture firm that made headlines last year for its stance on then-candidate Donald Trumps campaign, is looking to get out a new (non-political) message: Its diving more deeply into the business of AI-driven biotech. The move comes years after some other venture firms have taken a deep dive into biotech, includingTrue Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz. But CRV general partner George Zachary would argue that CRVs timing is pretty good, given both the burgeoningopportunity and the potentialoutcomes. Consider that late last year, Stanford researchers trained a computer to identify images of skin cancer moles and lesions as accurately as a dermatologist. Entrepreneur and computer scientist Sebastian Thrun who wasinvolved in the project as an adjunct professor in the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratorytold us earlier this year that the researchers are forming a startup around their findings. (Natch.) Another young company, Viz,is applying deep learning to ultrasounds, which typically require either a radiologist or other technicians expertise(which can translate into a long wait for anxious patients). More specifically, Vizssoftware compares ultrasoundswith millions of other images and videos, ostensibly empowering primary care physicians to interpret the images and quickly take action. And these are but two in a sea of … Continue reading →