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• June 14, 2013

  BME Undergraduate Awarded Scholarship for 2013-14

  BME undergraduate Amanda Chen has been awarded a Tau Beta Pi Scholarship for 2013-14, in the amount of $2,000 for a year of full-time academic study, or $1,000 for a semester or two quarters of full-time academic study. Amanda is currently studying therapeutic biomaterials for treating bone remodeling disorders in Dr. Danielle Benoit's lab. Congratulations Amanda!

• June 4, 2013

  Lemonade Calls Attention to Child Cancer Treatments

  

  The Benoit Lab Lemonade Stand at the Rochester Public Market in 2012

  On most days, Danielle Benoit can be found in her lab developing better ways to administer medicines for treating diseases, particularly childhood cancer. This weekend, Benoit and the other researchers in her lab will show their support for the foundation that helps fund their research. They'll put down their beakers and syringes in favor of pitchers of lemonade—in the spirit of the little girl who made it all possible.

  The 4th Annual Benoit Laboratory Lemonade Stand takes place this weekend at the Rochester and Brighton public markets. Benoit, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and her fellow researchers will be serving lemonade and explaining their work on childhood cancer therapies. It's part of a national effort organized by Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.

  The name comes from Alexandra "Alex" Scott of Connecticut, a four-year-old girl who was diagnosed with cancer before her first birthday. She set up lemonade stands every year before her death at age 8 to raise money so that doctors could find a cure for cancer. The idea spread, and children in other parts of the country set up their own lemonade stands to join the cause.

  "Cancer affects children differently than it does adults," said Benoit. "The causes are unknown and the treatments are less-than-optimal since they were developed for adults." Cancer is also the leading cause of death for children 15 and younger.

• May 30, 2013

  Dr. Hocking's Work Recognized with TechConnect Innovation Award

  Fibronectic Matrix Mimetic technology, developed by Professor Denise Hocking (Pharmacology and Physiology, BME), was recently recognized with a TechConnect Innovation Award. The TechConnect Innovation Awards recognize the top 20% of technologies at the TechConnect World Summit & Innovation. The technology was presented at TechConnect World by Patrick Emmerling Ph.D, M.B.A. from the UR Office of Technology Transfer. TechConnect World is designed to accelerate the translation of innovations from the laboratory to industry commercialization. Innovation rankings are based on the potential impact of the technology on the industry sector. Fibronectin matrix mimetics are novel extracellular matrix protein-based biologics developed to promote the healing of chronic wounds. The technology falls under a new and exciting class of therapies known as wound biologics.

• May 22, 2013

  BME Alumni Jess Snyder leads her team to International Victory!

  The University of Rochester women's team beat out the others, completing the 3.5-mile course of Corporate Challenge Championship in a combined 1 hour, 24 minutes and 41 seconds. UR's Jessica Snyder (running the course in 20 minutes, 19 seconds) led Sarah Loerch, Kristina Maletz, and Christina deVries across the finish line.

  It was the first time Rochester hosted the international championships; 10,921 runners registered for the regular race, which took place at the same time and venue as the championships.

• May 22, 2013

  Kelley Madden Receives 2-year DOD IDEA Expansion Grant

  Kelley S. Madden, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor in Edward Brown's lab, in the Department of Biomedical Engineering has received a 2-year DOD IDEA Expansion Grant worth $575,000 for her project entitled, Alpha2-Adrenergic Receptors and Breast Tumor Stroma: A Novel Pathway Driving Breast Cancer Growth and Metastasis. The project is based on the stress neurotransmitter norepinephrine which promotes breast tumor progression and metastasis. The grant will investigate how selective activation of one of the receptors for norepinephrine, the alpha2-adrenergic receptor, impacts tumor stromal cells and their modulation of the tumor extracellular matrix to promote tumor metastasis. The proposed research may lead to new therapies to treat metastatic breast cancer by targeting alpha2-adrenergic receptors.

• May 21, 2013

  BME Students Publish Paper on Novel Metric to Help NICU Nurses

  A group of 2011 BME graduates have published an article in the journal of Early Human Development. This article started up as a class project in the Fall of their sophomore year, in BME 201P, that involved development of a Matlab tool to help nurses track painful procedures performed on babies in the NICU. At the end of that course, these students formed a research team to continue collaborating with Dr. Martin Schiavenato, who was then in the School of Nursing. This paper is the culmination of that two and a half year effort.

• May 17, 2013

  W. Spencer Klubben Wins Walt and Bobbi Makous Prize

  The second recipient of the Walt and Bobbi Makous Prize has been awarded to: W. Spencer Klubben, a Biomedical Engineering senior working in Ania Majewska's laboratory. As a biomedical engineer, Spencer concentrated in medical optics and developed a strong interest in visual perception and development. Spencer's work has primarily focused on quantifying microglia's effect on neuroplasticity within the visual cortex and visual system. Most experimental methods have been focused around the utilization of optical imaging to analyze neuronal activity within mouse cortex. Experiments were conducted on mice with a varying dosage of CX3CR1, a single allele genetic fractalkine receptor responsible for the mobility of microglia. Spencer will receive the Makous Prize at a College-wide award ceremony on Saturday, May 19.

  The Walt and Bobbi Makous Prize was established this year by the Center for Visual Science, a research program of more than 30 faculty at the University dedicated to understanding how the human eye and brain allow us to see. The prize is named for Walt Makous, who was Director of the Center for Visual Science at the University of Rochester throughout the 1980s, and his wife Bobbi. The prize honors the graduating senior who has made the most outstanding contribution to vision research at Rochester.

• May 16, 2013

  URMC Lab Mixes Medicine and Engineering to Tackle Challenges in Vascular Surgery

  Abdominal aortic aneurysms are one of the top ten causes of death in men over the age of 55, and upstate New York has higher rates of this condition than the rest of the country. Researchers are now working on patient-specific diagnosis and treatment, as the Innovation Trail's Kate O'Connell reports.

  Dr. Ankur Chandra, a lead investigator at the University of Rochester's Cardio-Vascular Engineering Lab (CVEL), says the prevalence of aortic aneurysms and ruptures in upstate New York points to a need for increased screening. One thing about the Western New York and upstate region that’s critically important is that the prevalence, meaning the number of patients in this region with aortic aneurysms is unusually high when compared with the rest of the country, Chandra says.

• May 16, 2013

  Richard Waugh Appointed Associate Vice President for Research

  

  Richard Waugh, Ph.D.

  Richard Waugh, chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, has been appointed to the newly-created position of associate vice president for research.

  Rick has been collaborating with researchers on both the River Campus and the School of Medicine and Dentistry for more than three decades, said Robert Clark, senior vice president for research. His great institutional knowledge and familiarity with a cross-section of departments make him a bridge among all research faculty. He was a natural choice for the job.

  One of Waugh's initial responsibilities will be to help develop a strategic plan that identifies specific research goals, as well as opportunities for bringing together faculty members from different departments. He will also be involved in building a stronger research community on campus and fostering relations with the corporate sector.

  I have a good understanding of why research is done so well at the University of Rochester, said Waugh. I look forward to using that knowledge to help faculty work together in some new ways.

• May 16, 2013

  CVEL Awarded CTSI/UNYTE Pilot Collaborative Research Grant

  The URMC Cardiovascular Engineering Lab (CVEL) has been awarded the 2013 CTSI/UNYTE pilot Collaborative research grant. The project, entitled, Regional Ultrasound Wall Strain Measurements to Predict Risk of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) rupture, is led by PI's Ankur Chandra, M.D., RPVI, Karl Schwarz, M.D., Steven Day, Ph.D., and Dan Phillips, Ph.D.

  UNYTE offers a pilot funding program open to investigators at research institutions across the Upstate region. The objective of the program is to catalyze the formation of multi-institutional, cross-disciplinary research teams that are focused on a critical issue in clinical or translational research. To receive funding, projects must involve collaboration from at least two UNYTE member institutions. Applicants are strongly encouraged to develop an innovative, team-based approach that reflects the research strengths of the participating institutions, as well as of the investigators themselves.

• May 9, 2013

  Jason Inzana Wins 2013 Alice L. Jee Award

  Jason Inzana, Ph.D. candidate in Professor Hani Awad's Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering laboratory, has been selected as one of the recipients of the 2013 Alice L. Jee Young Investigator Award. For winning this award, Jason will have the honor of an invited presentation of a poster entitled Skeletally Immature Mice are More Susceptible than Mature Mice to the Detrimental Effects of High Fat Diet on Cancellous Bone in the Distal Femur at the 42^nd International Sun Valley Workshop poster session in Sun Valley, Idaho, in August 2013.

• May 7, 2013

  Forbes Competition Winners Named

  Undergraduate engineering and applied science students presented their technical business plans to a panel of alumni and faculty judges to compete for cash prizes in the 2013 Charles and Janet Forbes Entrepreneurial Competition. First place was Ovitz (Joungyoon Felix Kim '14). Tied for second place were TrakOR (Sonja Page '13, Erin Schnellinger '13, Ankit Medhekar '13, W. Spencer Klubben '13, Matt Plakosh '13, and Michael Nolan '13) and Formation 3D (Steven Trambert '13, Alex Feiszli '14, and Eric Frank '13). Bio ReSolutions (Kyle Fedorchak '14 and Wai Ling Ye '13) was also a finalist.

• May 6, 2013

  Upstate Researchers Tackle Toilet Training for Autistic Children

  Researchers in upstate New York have developed a wearable sensor system that will help toilet train autistic children. The device, created at the University of Rochester, involves a moisture pager that can connect to a smartphone app and alert caregivers to accidents.

  It seems like something that you would think already exists, and it doesn't, says Stephen McAleavey, a biomedical engineering professor, and part of the team that developed the technology. So the goal with this was to develop a wireless device that could be used to monitor children - for when they're having an accident - and to try to make it as easy to use for the parents or the caregivers as possible.

• May 6, 2013

  Kelley Garvin receives Outstanding Dissertation Award

  

  Kelly Garvin, Ph.D. is recipient of the Outstanding Dissertation Award.

  Kelley Garvin is the recipient of the Outstanding Dissertation Award for Engineering. Kelley completed the requirements for the Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering in December 2012 and her thesis is titled Ultrasound Technologies for the Spatial Patterning of Cells and Extracellular Matrix Proteins and the Vascularization of Engineered Tissue. Kelley's Ph.D. research has exciting potential to provide new, noninvasive ultrasound-based fabrication processes that significantly advance the level of complexity of three-dimensional engineered tissues.

  Her dissertation research resulted in two filed patent applications, numerous peer-reviewed publications, and many presentations at scientific meetings. Kelley has already received national recognition for her work. For two years in a row (2010, 2011), Kelley was awarded First Place in the Best Student Paper Competition at the Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. Kelley's Ph.D. research was co-mentored by Professor Diane Dalecki and Professor Denise C. Hocking. Kelley was also an active student member of the Rochester Center for Biomedical Ultrasound (RCBU). As Wendi Heinzelman, Dean of Graduate Studies for Arts, Sciences and Engineering wrote in her notification letter: This award is testament to your exceptional work as a graduate student at the University of Rochester. We are proud of all your accomplishments. Congratulations, Kelley !

• April 29, 2013

  University of Rochester Students Showcase Innovative Solutions

  Seniors at the University's Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have been spending much of the school year in problem-solving mode. In many cases, the students have been partnering with local companies and institutions over the past year to solve real-world engineering problems in the fields of medicine, alternative energy, optics, communications, and more.

  Their innovations will be on display Thursday, May 2 from 10 a.m.to 1 p.m. in the Munnerlyn Atrium of Robert B. Goergen Hall during the annual Hajim School Design Day.

  Two of this year's project teams, UV Swarm and URead Braille, will be among the 30 teams from 18 universities competing in the second annual Cornell Cup USA engineering competition next week at Walt Disney World, FL. UV Swarm's innovation makes use of a robotic system and ultraviolet light to sterilize hospital floors, wrestling mats, and astro turf. URead Braille aims to create a prototype display for a table top device that acts as a screen reader for the blind, converting pdf files to Braille.

• April 22, 2013

  Scott Seidman Named Engineering Professor of the Year

  

  Dr. Scott Seidman and Ankit Medhekar, BME class of '13. (Photo by J. Adam Fenster / University of Rochester)

  The University of Rochester Student's Association has named Biomedical Engineering and Neurobiology & Anatomy professor, Scott Seidman, The Undegraduate Engineering and Applied Sciences Professor of the Year.

  The award was presented at an awards ceremony in the Welles-Brown and Hawkins-Carlson Room in Rush Rhees Library. The ceremony and a poster session were part of the 2013 Undergraduate Research Expo that took place in the library on April 19, 2013. One of Dr. Seidman's students, Ankit Medhekar, BME class of '13, presented him with the award. Congratulations Scott!

• April 19, 2013

  BME Undergraduates Win President's, Dean's, and Professor's Choice Awards

  Ian Marozas, a BME undergraduate in Danielle Benoit's lab, was awarded the President's Award for Undergraduate Research in Engineering and Applied Sciences, this afternoon at the Undergraduate Research Expo for his presentation Development of Targeted Drug Delivery Systems for the Treatment of Osteoporosis. Also, Michael David won the Dean's Award for Undergraduate Research in Engineering & Applied Sciences for his talk Effect of High Fat Diet-Induced Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes on Tendon Repair (Mentor: Dr. Robert Mooney) and Ka Lai Tsang won the Professor's Choice Award in Engineering and Applied Sciences for her poster Determination of Effective masses and parametric study of the organ of corti (Mentor: Jong-Hoon Nam).

• April 19, 2013

  BME Undergraduate Wins Writing Contest

  Congratulations to BME undergraduate Aaron Cravens, who has won the Undergraduate Writing Colloquium Contest in the natural and applied sciences category. His winning paper, Telomere Repeat Functionalized - Spherical Nucleic Acid Nano-particle Conjugates (TR SNA-NPs) as Active UV Protectants was written for the Quantitative Physiology course.

• April 15, 2013

  BME Undergraduate Wins Fulbright Scholarship

  Congratulations to BME undergraduate, Ankit Medhekar ('13), who has been selected as a 2013 Fulbright Scholar. He is currently a member of the undergraduate team, TrakOR (with W. Spencer Klubben, Michael Nolan, Sonja Page, Matt Plakosh, Erin Schnellinger) who are finalists in the biotech/healthcare category in the New York Business Plan Competition.

• April 14, 2013

  BME Students Win Prestigious International da Vinci Award

  The team of Biomedical Engineering undergraduate students who participated in the prestigious da Vinci Competiton has won a Student of da Vinci award!

  The award recognizes the best student team across all categories among all the applicants around the world. Winning the award is a great honor for team members, Sara Hutchinson, Martin Szeto, David Narrow, Jackson Block, and Dominic Marino. The students developed their device as a BME senior-year design project, under the guidance of professors Laurel Carney and Amy Lerner at the Hajim School, and then chose to persue it as a business after graduation.

  The team developed the MonoMano Cycling Control System, which enables riders to steer, brake, and shift gears on a recumbent tricycle with one hand.

  The system allows people with disabilities to overcome a barrier they face on a daily basis, said Sara Hutchinson, one of the student innovators. It's our hope that they can forget about their disability for a while and just enjoy the freedom of riding a cycle.

• April 8, 2013

  Rochester Named One of Techie.com's Most Most Unexpected Cities for High-Tech Innovation

  

  Rochester, NY

  There are a handful of cities we think of, when we think of high-tech innovation and startups: San Francisco, New York, London, Bangalore, Tel Aviv . . . but today, high-tech development has been democratized. Easy and cheap availability of cloud-based resources, sophisticated telecommunications tools, platforms-as-a-service and lean models that accelerate the development and deployment process, and – sorry, California – a net outmigration from traditional tech centers, has already started to shift high-tech development to the most unlikely places.

  One of these places is Rochester, NY, where roughly half a billion dollars worth of research is conducted annually at RIT and UR. A portion of the healthy $749,994 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Robert Noyce Scholarship Program awarded to UR in 2012 is allocated to addressing the shortage of highly qualified math and science teachers in the area by providing full-tuition scholarships to undergraduates pursuing these educational careers.

• April 8, 2013

  BME Rochester Teams Advance in Business Plan Contest

  

  MedThru ICT (Alvin Lomibao, Nick Lewandowski, Sarah Catheline, Nirish Kafle)

  Among the six University teams that have advanced to the New York Business Plan Competition finals, the Department of Biomedical Engineering has two teams vying for the top spot. The finalists include BME undergraduate team, TrakOR (W. Spencer Klubben, Ankit Medhekar, Michael Nolan, Sonja Page, Matt Plakosh, Erin Schnellinger) in the biotech/healthcare category and graduate team, MedThru ICT (Sarah Catheline, Nirish Kafle, Nick Lewandowski, Alvin Lomibao) in the information technology/software category.

  Through the clinical rotations in the CMTI masters program, I was able to get a sense of a day in the life of staff members in the cardiac catheterization laboratory--how they interact with technology and medical devices, what they're really good at, and what frustrates them. In developing the MedThru ICT system, we've considered a number of these pain points and developed a way to facilitate resource management when critical decisions need to be made. This way, providers can really focus on the patient and not on logistics. We hope that downstream this system can have applications in other hospital units, decreasing the cost of healthcare overall, says Alvin Lomibao.

  The finals will take place in Albany on April 26, where the two teams will vie for $225,000 in cash and in-kind prizes. The New York Business Plan Competition is the only leading collegiate business competition that is a regionally coordinated, collaborative statewide program, which sets it apart from all other competitions. It is one of the largest collegiate business competitions in the nation.

• April 1, 2013

  BME Students at the University of Rochester Design Tricycle Controlled with One Hand

  Five students at the University of Rochester have designed a tricycle control system that allows some people with disabilities to steer, brake and shift gears with one hand. The project is getting international recognition and is a finalist for a da Vinci Award this month. Martin Szeto is one of the students behind the MonoMano Cycling system. They worked under the guidance of Professors Laurel Carney and Amy Lerner at the U of R's Department of Biomedical Engineering.

  MonoMano is a product of BME's esteemed Senior Design program, which introduces students to a systematic, customer-driven design and problem solving approach resulting in development of prototype medical devices or research instruments. Over the past 10 years, students have completed over 120 projects including clinical devices, assistive technology, and biomedical research intruments and protocols with MonoMano Cycling being the first student-founded corporation.

  The the senior design program has had at least 7 winning entries in National Design competitions, 1 NY State Business Plan Competition, 3 winners in the Mark Ain Business Plan Competition and a ten-year track record of success at the Forbes Engineering Entrepreneurship Competition.

• March 29, 2013

  BME Undergraduate, Amanda Chen, Named 2013 Goldwater Scholar

  Biomedical Engineering (BME) Undergraduate, Amanda Chen ('14) has been selected as a 2013 Goldwater Scholar. Each scholarship covers eligible expenses for undergraduate tuition, fees, books, and room and board, up to a maximum of $7,500 annually. The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established by Congress in 1986 to honor Senator Barry M. Goldwater, who served his country for 56 years as a soldier and statesman, including 30 years of service in the U.S. Senate.

  The purpose of the Foundation is to provide a continuing source of highly qualified scientists, mathematicians, and engineers by awarding scholarships to college students who intend to pursue careers in these fields. Amanda is currently persuing research in Dr. Danielle Benoit's lab focusing on Therapeutic Biomaterials for Treating Bone Remodeling Disorders. Her future goals include persuing a Ph.D. in BME as well as continuing research in therapeutics and targeted delivery, while teaching at the university level.

• March 27, 2013

  NGP Graduate Student Ryan Dawes Awarded Grant from the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester

  Neuroscience graduate student, Ryan Dawes, has been awarded a 2013 Breast Cancer Research Grant, from the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester. The 1-year, $50,000 grant will fund his project, entitled Breast Cancer Exosomes, Novel Intermediaries in Psychosocial Stress-induced Tumor Pathogenesis and was only one of two applications to be awarded this prestigious grant. This work will investigate if psychosocial stress can modulate the number or content of secreted small vesicles (exosomes), and determine if this can alter the process of tumorigenesis in an animal model of spontaneous breast cancer as Ryan continues his research in Dr. Edward Brown's lab.

• March 15, 2013

  URMC Orthopaedics Ranks No. 1 in Nation in NIH Funding

  The University of Rochester Medical Center's Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation has been ranked No. 1 in the nation in National Institutes of Health funding for orthopaedic research, according to data released by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research.

  The URMC Center for Musculoskeletal Research (CMSR) received $4.86 million in peer-reviewed NIH research grants in 2012, surpassing institutions such as Washington University, Johns Hopkins and Duke University. At a time when research dollars are becoming increasingly scarce, the CMSR upped its funding by 30 percent over the previous year.

  This is a testament to the caliber of URMC's orthopaedic research endeavors and our stellar class of investigators, said Edward M. Schwarz, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Musculoskeletal Research and the Burton Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedics. Our funding success is due in large part to a programmatic organizational design, a strong emphasis on collaboration across departments, and the diverse research interests of our faculty. It is clearly a case of the sum being greater than its parts.

  Among the seven orthopaedic researchers that made the 2012 Blue Ridge list for top funding were Dr. Schwarz (4^th) and Dr. Hani Awad (67^th), both also have appointments in Biomedical Engineering.

• March 14, 2013

  Zywicki Named All-American by WBCA

  Biomedical Engineering sophomore guard Ally Zywicki is accumulating post-season honors in basketball they same way she compiled statistics for the University of Rochester in the 2012-13 season. They are coming in bunches.

  Zywicki has been cited as an Honorable Mention All-American by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. This is her fourth honor since the end of the season. She was named First Team All-University Athletic Association, Second Team All-ECAC Upstate New York, and First Team All-East Region by D3hoops.com. She is the 13^th Rochester women's player to earn First Team All-UAA accolades and the first Yellowjacket sophomore to attain that honor.

• March 6, 2013

  Rob Clark Named Senior Vice President for Research, Reappointed Dean of Hajim School

  Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, Robert Clark has been named senior vice president for research at the University of Rochester, and has been appointed to a second, five-year term as dean of the Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. University President Joel Seligman made this announcement at a special March 5 event in Munnerlyn Atrium, Goergen Hall for Biomedical and Engineering. Both five-year appointments have been approved by the Board of Trustees and are effective April 1.

  Rob's service as dean and interim senior vice president for research has been exemplary, and I am delighted to appoint him to both roles, said Seligman. He is an academic leader of extraordinary energy and focus, with the ability to listen and work well with a variety of constituencies. I was deeply impressed by the overwhelming support he received to be reappointed as Hajim School dean, and the strong endorsement of his abilities to dually manage the trajectory of our interdisciplinary research excellence. Few other academic leaders could wear both hats.

• March 6, 2013

  Hani Awad receives an Established Investigator grant from the MTF

  Hani Awad, Ph.D., has received a 3-year, $300,000 grant from the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation (MTF) for an Established Investigator research project entitled Teriparatide and Allograft Cartilage Derived Matrix for Regenerative Repair of Articular Cartilage. The funded preclinical study will investigate the hypothesis that parathyroid hormone (PTH) therapy can enhance repair of knee cartilage defects grafted with a novel cartilage allograft derived matrix (CDM) compared to standard surgical methods currently in clinical practice. For more information please visit the Awad Lab.

• March 4, 2013

  Laurel Carney Receives UR Research Mobility Travel Grant

  Laurel Carney, Ph.D., has received a $5000 UR Research Mobility Travel Grants for the project, Establishing a Facility for Auditory Physiology in Awake Animals. The funds will be used in the summer of 2013 in a collaboration with the University of Malaysia and former Carney Lab Postdoctoral Fellow, Muhammad S. A. Zilany, Ph.D.

• March 3, 2013

  Hocking and Roy Research Image Featured on Cover of Tissue Engineering

  

  Human mesenchymal stem cells adherent to a recombinant fibronectin mimetic substrate polymerize an endogenous fibronectin matrix (green) using α5β1 integrins (red).

  An immunofluorescence image captured by Dan Roy has been featured on the cover of the February 2013 issue of the journal Tissue Engineering Part B. The image is from the recently published paper by Roy and Hocking titled Recombinant fibronectin matrix mimetics specify integrin adhesion and extracellular matrix assembly. Dan Roy recently completed his PhD in BME in the laboratory of Professor Denise Hocking and is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Hocking is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology and member of the Rochester Center for Biomedical Ultrasound. For further details, see the article by Roy and Hocking in Tissue Engineering, Part A, 19:558-570; 2013.

• March 1, 2013

  Diane Dalecki and Kevin Parker Inducted Fellows of AIMBE

  Diane Dalecki (Biomedical Engineering) and Kevin J. Parker (Electrical and Computer Engineering) were recently inducted as Fellows of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). Diane Dalecki was recognized forThe national and international leadership in the study of the biological effects of ultrasound and establishment of standards for ultrasound applications. Kevin Parker was recognized For leadership and scientific contributions to biomedical imaging, including digital image enhancement, multi-modal image representation, and sonoelastography. Dalecki and Parker are both members of the Rochester Center for Biomedical Ultrasound (RCBU). The AIMBE Fellow Induction Ceremony was held at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC.

• February 25, 2013

  BME Graduate Student Publishes Review in Clinical Orthopaedics Journal

  BME Graduate Student, Michael Hoffman, has had a review he wrote, Engineering the periosteum: revitalizing allografts by mimicking autograft healing published by the Journal of Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research. Michael is currently a graduate student in the Benoit Lab working on the project, Tissue Engineered Periosteum Approaches to Heal Bone Allograft Transplants, which is supported by an NIH T32 training grant 'Training in Orthopaedics'.

• February 17, 2013

  BME Graduate Student, Michael Hoffman Publishes Article

  BME Graduate Student, Michael Hoffman, had his first publication, based on his thesis research accepted by the Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. Michael is currently a graduate student in the Benoit Lab working on the project, Tissue Engineered Periosteum Approaches to Heal Bone Allograft Transplants, which is supported by an NIH T32 training grant 'Training in Orthopaedics'.

• February 9, 2013

  Congrats to Dr. Danielle Benoit on the Birth of her Son, Raymond James

  Danielle Benoit, Ph.D. and her husband, Pat, are delighted to announce the birth of their son, Raymond James Benoit greeted the world promptly at 6:26 AM on February 9^th (his due date), weighing 7 lbs 9 oz and measuring 19.25 inches. The entire BME family is excited and wishes to extend their congratulations to Dr. Benoit!

• January 27, 2013

  URMC Orthopaedics Research Student Wins National Video Contest

  Youssef Farhat, a BME MD/PhD student in the Awad Lab, has won first place in the Orthopaedic Research Society Video Outreach Competition for his 3-minute video raising awareness of Orthopaedic research in a way that is enjoyable and easy to understand.

  His video was the only entry from the University of Rochester. Winners were determined by vote of members of the ORS. Youssef's own research is aimed at reducing or eliminating scar tissue in hands. But in his film Who Cares About Orthopaedic Research?, Farhat explains that orthopaedic conditions like fractures, arthritis, back pain, and cancer, have an impact on nearly everyone at some point from birth to old age. He works in the Center for Musculoskeletal Research at the UR Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, and is pursuing a doctorate in biomedical engineering in the lab of Hani A. Awad, Ph.D.

• January 25, 2013

  URMC Orthopaedists Connect Science, Common Health Burdens

  At a major orthopaedics meeting this weekend, researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center are showcasing studies that merge some of the most significant modern health problems - obesity and type 2 diabetes, infections, and joint degeneration, for example -- with the latest musculoskeletal science.

  URMC presentations include a breakthrough in the development of a vaccine to prevent life-threatening methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections following bone and joint surgery, and the identification of a drug that might act on bone stem cells to enhance fracture healing. All are taking place at the Orthopaedic Research Society 2013 annual meeting, in San Antonio, Texas, Jan. 26 to 29.

  The strong showing from the Center for Musculoskeletal Research (CMSR) continues a tradition of national leadership and innovation, said Edward M. Schwarz, Ph.D., the Burton Professor of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at URMC. He also directs the CMSR, which is among the top funded orthopaedics research programs in the country.

• January 3, 2013

  UR, RIT Researchers Face New Pressure to Commercialize Work

  When University of Rochester scientist James McGrath started his career, doing research that would lead to marketable products was not a priority.

  But the landscape has changed dramatically. Government funding for research has been stagnant for several years. Public and private grants now come with greater demands for results that can help drive profits and economic development.

  Some venture capital firms are investing less in small early-stage projects. Pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers have switched from in-house research to working with universities and other institutions. Partnerships between university researchers and industry have grown.

• January 2, 2013

  Reasearchers Working on Dialysis Machine Small Enough to Hold in Your Hand

  Imagine a dialysis machine small enough that a patient could wear it. A super-thin filtering material may allow researchers at the University of Rochester to revolutionize dialysis for patients with kidney disease. Jim McGrath, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Rochester, says the thinner the membrane that blood passes through, the more efficient its filtering capacity.

  McGrath says the material they're working with filters blood more efficiently, and could end up in a much smaller device that could fit on an arm band. We can basically replace the experience of going to a dialysis center three times a week with nightly dialysis at home with a device that's about the size of a cell phone and achieve the same sort of clearance level. This is actually like a clinic on a chip, he said.