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Georgia Tech hosts symposium to discuss sickle cell disease

Georgia Tech will host the Sickle Cell Disease Symposium bringing together researchers, policy experts and community advocates to discuss the latest research and strategies for future success in combating this complex and debilitating blood disorder. The symposium begins at Georgia Tech's Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience on November 4 and concludes the evening of November 5.

4 Nov 2010

New laboratory-engineered livers could provide solution to donor shortage

Researchers at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have reached an early, but important, milestone in the quest to grow replacement livers in the lab. They are the first to use human liver cells to successfully engineer miniature livers that function - at least in a laboratory setting like human livers. The next step is to see if the livers will continue to function after transplantation in an animal model.

1 Nov 2010

Researchers generate bioengineered human liver organoid using bioscaffold

Researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine demonstrated the generation of a bioengineered human liver organoid using a liver bioscaffold made from an intact liver extracellular matrix, and filled (seeded) with primary human liver progenitor and endothelial cells.

1 Nov 2010

‘Off the shelf’ new livers from stem cells, glimmer of hope

A researcher team has successfully produced a small-scale version of a human liver in the laboratory using stem cells. This could be a boon for patients waiting for liver transplants although it will take years to perfect the procedure say researchers.

31 Oct 2010

New NRNB center helps clinicians to study network biology

A new center called the National Resource for Network Biology (NRNB), based at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, will help clinicians analyze an ever-growing wealth of complex biological data and apply that knowledge to real problems and diseases.

30 Oct 2010

RExpert to discuss latest advancements in musculoskeletal bioengineering at NCKU International Symposium

The 4th International Symposium and Workshop on Virtual Interactive Musculoskeletal System, organized by National Cheng Kung University, Taiwanese Society of Biomechanics and Taiwanese Society of Biomechanics in Sports, is held on October 28th and 29th in International Conference Hall, Kuang-Fu Campus, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan,

28 Oct 2010

UW Medicine patient receives implantable device for vestibular problems

A University of Washington Medical Center patient on Thursday, Oct. 21, will be the world's first recipient of a device that aims to quell the disabling vertigo associated with Meniere's disease.

21 Oct 2010

U.S. DoD awards five-year grant to study blast wave’s effects on brain neural circuitry

A team of biomedical engineers from Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, and Duke University has been awarded a $6.25 million dollar, five-year Multi University Research Initiative (MURI) grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to study the effects of blast waves on the neural circuitry of the brain.

14 Oct 2010

Stony Brook professor receives 2010 NIH Director's New Innovator Award

Balaji Sitharaman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Stony Brook University, is a 2010 recipient of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's New Innovator Award.

14 Oct 2010

Stony Brook professor receives NIH grant to optimize cardiovascular devices

Danny Bluestein, Ph.D., Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Stony Brook University, has been awarded a five-year, $7.5 million grant by the National Institutes of Health. The award marks the first time a Stony Brook professor has received a Phase II Quantum Grant, given by The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), a division of the NIH, to make a profound improvement or quantum leap forward—in health care.

14 Oct 2010

Researchers to convene for 2010 Advances in Breast Cancer Research Workshop at University of Arkansas

Leading national researchers in the fight against breast cancer will convene Oct. 26-29 for the 2010 Advances in Breast Cancer Research Workshop at the University of Arkansas. More than 70 scientists from diverse research areas in science, medicine, engineering and technology will participate. Ten featured speakers will present cutting-edge research on breast cancer diagnosis, therapeutic techniques, treatment and screening.

11 Oct 2010

Researchers find new surface adaptation mechanism of biofilm-forming pathogen

Many drug-resistant infections are the result of bacterial biofilms, structured aggregates of bacteria that live on surfaces and that are extremely resistant to environmental stresses. These biofilms impact human health in many ways - cystic fibrosis, for example, is a disease in which patients die from airway bacterial biofilm infections that are invulnerable to even the most potent antibiotics.

11 Oct 2010

Surgeons create novel matrix to control insulin dependent diabetes

Surgeons from Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, are reporting on a whole new strategy for controlling insulin dependent diabetes without daily injections of insulin. The surgeons have bio-engineered a novel matrix that serves as a scaffold for seeding supportive stem cells as well as pancreatic islets (the cells that produce insulin in the pancreas).

7 Oct 2010

UIC develops new technique to anchor teeth back in jaw using stem cells

A new approach to anchor teeth back in the jaw using stem cells has been developed and successfully tested in the laboratory for the first time by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

30 Sep 2010

Mount Sinai receives contract to develop nanotechnology tools for diagnosing diseases

Mount Sinai School of Medicine received a contract for almost $16.5 million from The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Heart and Lung Institute (NHLBI) through the Program of Excellence in Nanotechnology (PEN). The contract is one of four issued nationally to develop multidisciplinary research Centers with the goal of developing nanotechnology tools for diagnosing and treating heart, lung and blood diseases.

30 Sep 2010

Optogenetics helps to restore optimal movement in people with physical disabilities

Researchers at Stanford University were able to use light to induce normal patterns of muscle contraction, in a study involving bioengineered mice whose nerve-cell surfaces are coated with special light-sensitive proteins.

28 Sep 2010

Researchers create device to find ways to improve commonly used treatment for 'water on the brain'

Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) scientists participated in a study with researchers from the University of Utah that could help find ways to improve shunt systems used to treat the neurological disorder hydrocephalus, or "water on the brain," the leading cause of brain surgery for children in the United States. Researchers studied the shunt systems under a variety of conditions by creating a bioreactor that mimics the environment inside patients.

24 Sep 2010

Cardiovascular Innovation Institute awarded NIH grant to develop implantable pump for single ventricle heart disease

Researchers in the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute, a partnership between the University of Louisville and Jewish Hospital, in collaboration with researchers at Indiana University and Purdue University, have received a $2,027,059 grant from the National Institutes of Health to further develop an implantable pump that could dramatically improve the lives of patients with single ventricle heart disease.

23 Sep 2010

NIH awards UCSF $15.4 million to set up new National Center for Systems Biology

Cell biologists at UCSF have received $15.4 million from the National Institutes of Health to set up one of two new National Centers for Systems Biology, to study how cells respond to their environment - an emerging field of research that could revolutionize medicine by creating "smart cells" to deliver medications and other therapeutics more effectively.

22 Sep 2010

Scientists develop computer model to examine genetic switch for TB dormancy

An examination of a portion of the tuberculosis genome that responds to stress has allowed Rice University bioengineers Oleg Igoshin and Abhinav Tiwari to zero in on a network of genes that may "switch" the disease into dormancy.

18 Sep 2010