2010 News Archives
Hocking & Dalecki Research Image Featured on Cover of Tissue Engineering
An immunofluorescence image captured by two-photon microscopy by Carlos Sevilla, has been featured as the cover for the December issue of Tissue Engineering. The image is featured in an article by BME graduate student Carlos Sevilla, co-authored by Dr. Dalecki and Dr. Denise Hocking.
Professor Laurel Carney Receives a 2010 R01 Grant
Biomedical Engineering and Neurobiology & Anatomy Professor Laurel Carney has received funding for her 2010 R01 grant entitled: Developing and Testing Models for the Auditory System with & without Hearing Loss
. This study involves testing listeners with both normal hearing and hearing loss. The project focusses on the development of computational models that will assist in the testing of signal processing strategies for hearing aids.
'Smart Bandage' Diagnoses Danger Before Infection Takes Hold
Benjamin Miller, professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University, and Philippe Fauchet, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, have devised a sand-grain sized wafer that can differentiate between two classes of bacteria, called Gram-positive and Gram-negative.
Associate Professors Andrew Berger and Hani Awad Receive Provost's Multidisciplinary Award
Associate Professors Andrew Berger (Optics) and Hani Awad (BME) were among the recipients of a 2010-2011 Provost Multidisciplinary Award (PMA) for a study entitled Noninvasive optical monitoring of bone degradation in a mouse model of rheumatoid arthritis (RA)
. This study will develop a noninvasive optical method of measuring bone fragility in genetically modified mice developing severe RA as they receive both anti-inflammatory medication and complementary drugs that try to preserve bone health. By providing a better way of tracking bone fragility in living animals, this work will generate new understanding of how bone disorders develop and how medicines can treat them more effectively in both animals and humans.
Sally Child Celebrates 45th Anniversary at the University of Rochester
This month the RCBU recognizes Sally Child's 45 years of employment at the University of Rochester! Sally began employment at the University of Rochester in June 1965 in the Department of Electrical Engineering. She was first hired by Professor Edwin Carstensen as a technician for his laboratory that was dedicated to studying the biological effects of ultrasound and electric fields. Sally worked with Professor Carstensen for over 30 years, and in that time established herself as a key member in the broader community of scientists involved in advancing the use of ultrasound in medicine and biology. Upon the retirement of Professor Carstensen, Sally began to work with Professor Diane Dalecki and moved to the Department of Biomedical Engineering in 2000. Again, her efforts focused on researching the use of ultrasound in diagnostic imaging and developing new therapeutic applications of ultrasound.
Scientists Rate University a Best Place To Work
The University has been ranked one of the top 15 institutions in the nation for scientists to work, according to The Scientist magazine, which has published its annual survey of Best Places to Work for Scientists in Academia.
Scientists Explore Why Some Psoriasis Patients Suffer Joint Damage
A new grant from the National Psoriasis Foundation could help University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) scientists find ways to forecast which patients with the red, flaky skin disorder are most likely to suffer from an arthritic disease that sometimes follows.
Anne Luebke, Ph.D. and Loisa Bennetto, Ph.D. Awarded Collaborative Pilot Grant
Anne Luebke, Ph.D., Associate Professor in Neurobiology & Anatomy and Biomedical Engineeering, and Loisa Bennetto, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Clinical and Social Psychology, have been awarded a collaborative pilot grant to study whether physiological-based biomarkers of cochlear efferent strength will be impaired in the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) population.
BME Faculty Have Big Designs
BME faculty members Amy Lerner and Scott Seidman know about design. In fact, they have "designed" a program that allows senior BME students to tackle real-world challenges. Now in its tenth year, the two-semester Senior Design program, overseen by Lerner and Seidman, provides seniors with hands-on experience working with real clients. Lerner and Seidman guide the students to apply everything they've learned to solve problems faced by clinicians and industry.
BME Sweeps this Year's Forbes Entrepreneurial Competition
Teams involving BME seniors won all four awards at the annual Forbes Entrepreneurial Competition. Business plans were based on projects completed as part of the Senior Design class, a two-semester class offered by Amy Lerner and Scott Seidman.
Dr. Kevin Parker named Engineer of the Year
Dr. Parker, dean emeritus of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, past director of the Rochester Center for Biomedical Ultrasound (RCBU), and the William F. May professor of engineering in the department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) has received the 2009 Engineer of the Year Award given by the Rochester Engineering Society.
Dr. Diane Dalecki honored as Professor of the Year in Engineering
During the Undergraduate Research Exposition, on April 23rd, an awards ceremony will be held, in part, honoring Dr. Diane Dalecki as Professor of the Year in Engineering. This award is presented by the University of Rochester Students' Association for excellence in undergraduate teaching.
New NIH Training Grant for Hearing, Balance, and Spatial Orientation Research
The University of Rochester has recently been awarded a Training Grant (T32) from the NIH National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders entitled Training in Hearing, Balance, and Spatial Orientation.
This Training Grant involves the collaborative efforts of the Departments of Otolaryngology, Biomedical Engineering, and Neurobiology & Anatomy. The Grant will support PhD students, MD-PhD students, Post-doctoral fellows and Medical Residents in BME, Neuroscience, and Otolaryngology who are involved in research related to the auditory and vestibular systems. This Training Grant is an important resource for the University of Rochester's Center for Navigation and Communication Sciences, which provides technical and administrative support for 25 faculty members who are conducting research in this area. The 5-year grant will provide approximately $1.5 million dollars of support for several trainees each year. In association with the Training Grant, a new graduate-level course entitled Hearing and Balance: Structure, Function and Disease
will be offered starting in Fall 2010. This new Training Grant is an exciting advance for the strong and growing community of auditory and vestibular researchers at the University of Rochester.
BME Senior Design Class Students Tackle Radiation Research Project
Students in the BME Senior Design class are participating in a project inspired by a radiation research contract recently awarded to URMC by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. BARDA would like a quick, easy blood test that accurately measures radiation exposure. A team of students for the Senior Design Class is developing an early prototype for the project as a proof-of-concept
.BME seniors Katie Litts, Camile Enriques, Jonathon Kung, and Sean Virgile are working to develop RAD Radiation Analysis Dosimetry,
a high throughput device to measure radiation in blood samples. The customer
is Walter O'Dell, Ph.D., from the departments of Radiation Oncology and Biomedical Engineering, and one of the co-investigators on the contract. The team is supervised by Richard Waugh, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
BME Undergraduate Hannah Watkins Awarded Prestigious Xerox Undergraduate Fellowship
The SEAS Xerox Undergraduate Fellows Program is a highly competitive program to provide engineering undergraduates with an opportunity to participate in a research experience in SEAS during the summer preceding their senior year. Additionally, students will receive independent study course credit for the continuation of their work during the fall and spring semesters of their senior year. Selection criteria include research interests, competitive academic performance, and intellectual ability and curiosity. Hannah will continue her work in the Benoit Lab focusing on Hydrogel Culture Environments for Regenerative Medicine Applications.
RCBU Member Develops Collaborative Research Opportunities with UR BME and Peru
In 2009, RCBU member Ben Castaneda successfully defended his PhD thesis, Extracting Information from Sonoelastogrphic Images. He returned to his home country of Peru, where he accepted a new faculty position in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru (PUCP). He was also appointed as the director of a newly created Medical Imaging Research Laboratory. In that capacity, Ben heads PUCP’s new master's degree program in Signal and Digital Image Processing. The program is research oriented, with an emphasis on developing new mathematical models and their application to solving real problems.
Dr. Kelley Madden Receives Department of Defense IDEA Award
Dr. Kelley Madden has received funding from the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program for a 2-year study that seeks to understand how an important stress pathway, the sympathetic nervous system, influences breast tumor growth and metastasis. Specifically, this study will determine if the sympathetic nervous system encourages growth of blood vessels into a tumor (angiogenesis). A unique aspect of this project is to determine if the sympathetic nervous system alters the effectiveness of therapy targeting and destroying tumor blood vessels (antiangiogenic therapy). Understanding how a stress pathway influences tumor growth will open the door to therapeutic options targeting the sympathetic nervous system. Importantly, therapies targeting sympathetic nervous system signaling pathways are already in use in the clinic for safe, chronic treatment of heart disease, offering the possibility of rapid clinical application of our findings. This project continues work that has been previously funded by the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester.
Adarza is Changing the Future of Diagnostic Testing
Adarza BioSystems Inc., a University of Rochester innovation being turned into an everyday, commercially applicable medical device, is at a point somewhere between the defrosting and the baking.
Promotions within the Office of Technology Transfer Widen Opportunities for BME Entrepreneurship
Gail Norris, formerly the director of the Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) for the College of Arts, Sciences and Engineering, will assume a newly created position of vice-provost of the OTT. Former deputy director Corine Farewell has been promoted to director of the office. The promotions underscore the University's commitment to increase the commercialization of research and design by staff and students.