Faculty News
U of M Coulter Translational Partnership Program Funds Six New Projects for 2008-2009
On March 26, 2008 the UM Coulter Translational Partnership Program hosted a day-long meeting with its Oversight Committee to make funding decisions for the 2008-2009 cycle. This year marks the third year of funding provided by a grant from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation. A Call for Proposals went out in late 2007 and 13 proposed projects were reviewed at a proposal pre-review meeting in February 2008. Eight finalists were invited to make an oral presentation on their projects to the eight-member oversight committee in March and six were selected to receive funding.
"We are so pleased with the excellent proposals selected for funding this year," commented Mara Neal of the Coulter Foundation. "It really shows the high level of collaboration between the BME faculty and their clinical collaborators from the School of Medicine at the University of Michigan."
Funding for the new projects began April 1, 2008. A list of those projects is found on the UM BME Coulter Site. Congratulations to all awardees!
Posted on April 30, 2008, 9:27 am
James R. Baker Jr. M.D. Named Distinguished University Innovator
Biomedical Engineering jointly appointed professor, James R. Baker Jr. M.D. has been named the University of Michigan Distinguished University Innovator for 2008. Dr. Baker is a Ruth Dow Doan Professor of Biologic Nanotechnology, Chief of the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in the Department of Internal Medicine, and Director of the Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and Biological Sciences (M-NIMBS). He has conducted breakthrough research in nanotechnology materials and launched two startup companies based on the results.
On Monday April 21, 2008 Dr. Baker presented a lecture titled “Taking Nanotechnology from the Bench to the Bedside” as part of the award ceremony.
Posted on April 25, 2008, 9:44 am
New Faculty Member Brian Love Ph.D.
Brian Love, PhD, joined the faculty as a professor in Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Dentistry at U-M in January 2008. He is a polymer scientist by training, and was funded by an NIH post-doctoral fellowship before joining Virginia Tech where he taught for more than 14 years. Dr. Love's current research interests include aspects of polymer structure and behavior in vivo. He has published 50 refereed journal publications and five book chapters in his career. His work is focused on three concepts related to BME. They include one target of developing photopolymers and reversible polymers which could be used as either temporary or permanent embolic fluids, a second focus on bone tissue engineering using stem cells derived from viable teeth, and a third theme relating to proteins as polymers evaluating their driving force for aggregation and subsequent solidification. The equipment needed to perform this work includes rheometers, thermodynamic diagnostic determination components, and functional systems primarily based on dynamic light scattering, which can be adapted to evaluate clustering.
Posted on April 18, 2008, 8:44 am
2008 Outstanding Professor and Student Instructor Award
Aileen Y. Huang-Saad Ph.D., of BME, is the top honors recipient of the 2008 Outstanding Professor and Student Instructor Award. The award is sponsored by The UM Student Chapter of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Dr. Huang-Saad delivered the keynote speech at the award ceremony held on April 16, 2008 at the Lurie Engineering Center.
Dr. Huang-Saad just finished the semester as instructor for BME 599 - Graduate Biomedical Innovative Design Team. BME 599 is a two-semester course that encourages innovative design in biomedical engineering. It is an interactive course that stimulates students to explore their own solutions to biomedical challenges. Students experience the entire spectrum of innovative design, from concept inception to prototype design. The course challenges students to learn about the current state of the art, explore technical need for current challenges, and brainstorm new solutions with members of the medical community.
Posted on April 17, 2008, 4:37 pm
2007 Class Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award
Charles A. Cain Ph.D., BME founding Chair and the Richard A. Auhll Professor of Engineering, is a recipient of the 2007 Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award for his work with, co-investigator and BME Assistant Research Scientist, Zhen Xu Ph.D. on "Non-invasive Ultrasonic Tissue Erosion for Congenital Heart Disease Therapy." There were 12 winners in all hailing from The Hartwell Foundation’s list of the "Top Ten Centers of Biomedical Research" across the country. The Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Awards offer support for three years at $100,000 direct cost per year.
In 2007 competition for awards was incredible. Nominees possessed ideas with innovative and cutting-edge science with high relevance in terms of potential benefit to children. "The Hartwell Foundation took into account the nature of the proposed innovation, the extent to which translational approaches might promote rapid clinical application of research results, the supportive role of collaboration in the proposed research, and the institutional commitment to provide encouragement and technical support to the investigator." In the end, final selection was very difficult.
Posted on April 9, 2008, 9:04 am
Biomembrane Lab Receives Two Important Grants
Professor Michael Mayer and the Biomembrane lab received a National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Grant and a Thermo Fisher - CCG Collaborative Pilot Project Initiative Grant.
This past June Professor Michael Mayer was awarded a 5 year NIH-R01 grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) for the project "Chip-based and Single Transporter Assays of Multidrug Resistance Transporters." Dr. Suresh Ambudkar from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) is a collaborator on the grant.
In February the Biomembrane Lab received a one year grant for the project "Electrophysiology on Arrays of Human Biomembranes." from the Thermo Fisher - CCG Collaborative Pilot Project Initiative. The goal of the project, with PI Michael Mayer, is to carry out electrophysiology on an array of human biomembranes.
Posted on March 24, 2008, 12:12 pm
BME Professor Receives NSF CAREER Award
Professor Mohamed E.H. El-Sayed, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, has received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, which is one of the most prestigious awards that support the early career development of young investigators. This award supports Dr. El-Sayed's research focusing on the development of "smart" polymeric drug delivery systems for treatment of solid tumors and his educational plans in the areas of polymer therapeutics and bio-nanotechnology.
CAREER: Development of Enzyme-Activated Nano-Conjugates for Targeted Drug Delivery
Posted on March 13, 2008, 9:12 am
BME Faculty David Kohn Invited to Give Talks on Biomineralization
Professor David Kohn, BME faculty member, was invited to talk at two events. The Hunter Distinguished Lecture in the Dept. of Bioengineering at Clemson University (The role of mineral in bone adaptation and regeneration; 3/07); and a talk on tissue engineering at the upcoming Gordon Research Conference on Biomineralization (Cellular controls on mineralization: towards tissue engineering; 8/08)
Posted on March 12, 2008, 11:23 am
BME Professor invited to speak at "Promise of the Prairie" Symposium
University of Michigan Biomedical Engineering Professor Scott Hollister was invited to speak at a symposium regarding translation of research hosted by the University of Illinois entitled "Promise of the Prairie". The event is set to be held at the Union League Club in downtown Chicago on April 11 and 12, 2008. This Symposium will bring together leading academics, policy makers, and industry participants to discuss both the challenges and promises of university-industry interactions. This Symposium is sponsored by the Institute for Genomic Biology, an interdisciplinary research center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign which was established to advance life science research and stimulate bio-economic development in the state of Illinois. Approximately 40 people from across the Midwest region will participate in the symposium with the discussion organized around six-eight specific topics on the continuum from research teams to commercialization success.
Professor Hollister is also invited as a keynote speaker at the 8th World Biomaterials Congress, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, May 28-31 2008 and a speaker at the NIH Biomedical Imaging Research Opportunities Workshop, January 17-19, 2008 in Bethesda, Maryland.
Posted on March 11, 2008, 9:07 pm
BME Professor Daryl Kipke receives IEEE paper award
Dr. Kipke's publication "Silicon-substrate Intracortical Microelectrode Arrays for Long-term Recording of Neuronal Spike Activity in Cerebral Cortex" co-authored with Rio. J. Vetter, Justin C. Williams and Jamille F. Hetke, was selected by the IEEE Transaction on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering for the 2007 Outstanding Paper Award.
Posted on January 2, 2008, 12:00 am
Lung-on-a-Chip paper published
BME Faculty Shu Takayama and Jim Grotberg have published a paper in the Nov.12 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on a new "lung-on-a-chip" device that mimics the fluid mechanics in the human lung.
Posted on November 12, 2007, 12:00 am
Two BME Professors Honored at IEEE Ultrasound Symposium
Drs. Zhen Xu and Charles Cain received the Outstanding Paper Award from the "IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control Society (UFFC)" at the International IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Ultrasound Sy The Outstanding Paper Award is presented to the authors of a paper published in the UFFC-S Transactions which exemplifies excellent technical contributions. IEEE UFFC transection is a prominent journal in the acoustic field. Drs. Xu and Cain's award winning paper was on an ultrasonic tissue fractionation technique for non-invasive surgery (Histotripsy), which has been funded by the NIH and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation.
Posted on November 7, 2007, 12:00 am
BME Core Faculty Member Receives Outstanding Paper Award
Zhen Xu received the Outstanding Paper Award 2006 from IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.
"New Strategy to Enhance Cavitational Tissue Erosion Using aHigh-Intensity, Initiating Sequence" by Zhen Xu, Member, IEEE, J. Brian Fowlkes, Member, IEEE, and Charles A. Cain, Fellow, IEEE. IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control, vol.53, no. 8, August 2006, 1412-1424.
Posted on January 1, 2007, 12:00 am