Welcome to Bioengineering
Harvey Borovetz, Chair.
Pitt BioE faculty and students are recipient of three Carnegie Science Center awards. i) Life Sciences Award: Andrew Schwartz, Ph.D., for his research contributing to the development of current brain-controlled prosthetic arms and hands. ii) Emerging Female Scientist Award, Honorable Mention: Kacey Marra, PhD for her research on the topic of regenerative medicine—particularly the use of adipose-derived stem cells for the regeneration of nerve, bone, adipose, and cartilage. iii) University/Post-Secondary Student Award: Bryan Brown, BioE PhD candidate in Dr. Stephen Badylak's lab, for research in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and immunology.
Pitt BioE is a partner in a recently awarded National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center (ERC) entitled, "Revolutionizing Metallic Biomaterials (RMB)." The ERC Student Leadership Council has just published the 1st ERC RMB newsletter highlighting ERC accomplishments to date and plans for the upcoming calendar year.
Morley Safer from 60 Minutes reports on the emerging technology of growing body parts from human cells taken directly from patients, providing new hope for amputees and patients on organ-transplant lists. Dr. Stephen Badylak provides a discussion of the work ongoing in his lab, the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and Pitt Bioengineering.
The recent publication from Professor Sanjeev Shroff's lab, 1st authored by Pitt Bioengineering PhD graduate, Dr. Jonathan Kirk:
Kirk JA, MacGowan GA, Evans C, Smith SH, Warren CM, Mamidi R, Chandra M, Stewart AFR, Solaro RJ, Shroff SG. Left ventricular and myocardial function in mice expressing constitutively pseudo-phosphorylated cardiac troponin I. Circ. Res. 105:1232-1239, 2009 was listed as an Editor's pick for December, 2009 (http://circres.ahajournals.org/).
Professor Marina Kameneva presented an invited international lecture entitled,"Drag Reduction Phenomena In Vitro and In Vivo, @International Sepsis Symposium, Tampere University, Finland, November 7, 2009.
On Wednesday, December 2, 33 undergraduate (UG) bioengineering students presented the results of their semester-long Intramural Internship Program to the faculty and other students. As shown in the attached presentation schedule, our UG students are working with mentors across engineering, in Cardiology, Radiology, Ophthalmology, the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Dental Medicine, Plastic/Reconstructive surgery. Dr. Alex Almarza is the instructor for the UG internship which also includes formal instruction on how to write a technical report and deliver a professional presentation.
October 15 was the undergraduate (UG) student poster presentation for Science 2009. I am delighted to report that our UG students were very well represented. Of 76 total poster presentations, 12 were BioE UG students!
Listed below are the titles of our students' presentations.
>> William R. Barone
Faculty mentor: Dr. Steven D. Abramowitch
VISCOELASTIC PROPERTIES OF THE RAT UTERINE CERVIX IN RESPONSE TO UNCONFINED COMPRESSION
>> Thomas W. Chase
Faculty mentor: Dr. Alejandro Almarza
APPLICATION OF THE TRANSVERSELY ISOTROPIC BIPHASIC MODEL TO THE UNCONFINED COMPRESSION OF MANDIBULAR CONDYLAR CARTILAGE
>> Laura Dempsey
Faculty mentor: Dr. Lance A. Davidson
THE ROLE OF VARYING FIBRONECTIN CONCENTRATION ON CELL MIGRATION: THE RESPONSE OF ALPHA-ACTININ AND PAXILLIN IN GASTRULATING XENOPUS LAEVIS EPITHELIAL CELL SHEETS
>> Michael S. Freedman
Faculty mentor: Dr. Xinyan Tracy Cui, PhD
SIMULTANEOUS CONTROLLED RELEASE OF DOPAMINE AND DEXAMETHASONE VIA NANOPOROUS POLYPYRROLE
>> Kristen Glauser
Faculty mentor: Dr. David Brienza
PRESSURE ULCER PREVENTION: EXAMINING THE RELATIVE EFFECTS OF PRESSURE, SHEAR, AND SKIN TEMPERATURE
>> Meredith J. Hanrahan
Faculty mentor: Dr. John Patzer
BIOREACTOR FOR VISUALIZING TUMOR CELL INVASION
>> Matthew Perich
Faculty mentor: Dr. Doug Weber
IMPROVING LIMB-STATE DECODING USING A LIQUID STATE MACHINE
>> Danielle M. Rager
Faculty mentor: Dr. Marcos Osorno (Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory)
MOBILE INTERNET VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT--PROCESSING SMART PHONE SENSOR DATA IN SEMANTIC WEB
>> Samantha Schaefer
Faculty mentor: Dr. Paul R.S. Baker
IDENTIFICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF NOVEL NITRATED FATTY ACIDS IN HUMAN URINE
>> Bernard F. Siu
Faculty mentor: Dr. Ken C. Chiu
PLASMA VITAMIN D LEVELS ARE POSITIVELY ASSOCIATED WITH BETA CELL FUNCTION
>> Wilshaw R. Stevens, Jr.
Faculty mentor: Dr. Rakié Cham
POSTURAL ADAPTATIONS TO REPEATED TRIPS
>> Bo Wang
Faculty mentor: Dr. Hanspeter Pfister
GRAPHICS PROCESSING UNIT (GPU) ACCELERATED SEGMENTATION OF AXONS FROM CONFOCAL DATASETS
Congratulations to Dr. Michael Sacks. Professor Sacks has been appointed as the John A. Swanson Endowed Chair in the Swanson School of Engineering. In his letter to Professor Sacks, Provost Maher writes, "Through this appointment (the highest honors accorded to a member of the professorate), we recognize that you have demonstrated eminence in your field that reflects the outstanding contributions that you have made to the discipline, as well as the national and international reputation you have gained for yourself and will continue to achieve at the University of Pittsburgh."
Dr. Lance Davidson's NSF proposal entitled, "CAREER: Physical Shaping of Mesenchymal Tissues," has been selected for funding (beginning July, 2009) through Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS) in the BIO Directorate.
Professor Pat Loughlin has been elected to the 2009 American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) Class of Fellows.
The citation on behalf of Professor Loughlin's election as AIMBE Fellow reads:
"For significant contributions in time-varying signal processing and modeling of physiological systems, including human posturalcontrol andanesthetic delivery." Professor Loughlin is the 22nd current Pitt Bioengineering faculty to be elected to AIMBE Fellowship!
What's Happening
The Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting for 2009 had 2602 attendees this year, announced Conference Chair Harvey Borovetz and Program Chair David Vorp. The meeting October 7-10 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, was the largest ever hosted by the Society.
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As of July 1 2009, Professor William J. Federspiel will take over the reins as the department’s Graduate Coordinator. The department is extremely grateful to Professor Vorp and the outstanding service he provided as past Graduate Coordinator over the last 8 years. He has certainly left big shoes to fill. Dr Federspiel is a William Kepler Whiteford Professor and is formally joining the Bioengineering Department as his primary home from the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, where he previously served as Graduate Coordinator from 2000 to 2006. His research interests are in the development of new medical devices to improve patient treatment in critical care medicine. He is Director of the Medical Devices Laboratory in the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine. Professor Federspiel can be reached at federspielwj@upmc.edu or by contacting his assistant, Jaimie Sullivan, at 412-383-9998.
The Bioengineering graduate program has moved up in the US News rankings from 15th last year to 12th this year and among public institutions from 6th to 4th.
"Professor Michael Sacks will be publishing a textbook entitled, "Biomechanics of Native and Engineered Tissue Systems."
According to the Executive Editor @Springer, "Biomechanics of Native and Engineered Tissue Systems will be printed in four color to put us at an immediate step ahead of the existing texts."
Pitt Part of Multi-University Project That Aims to Reduce Complications, Multiple Surgeries With Biodegradable Implantable Devices ...more
BioE graduate, Adam Iddriss, B.S., receives Framework Program in Global Health grant... more
Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Chicago were able to control heart muscle function in a new way... more
Dr. Harvey Borovetz and the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh developing pediatric heart pump. more
"Two BioE faculty, Professors Michael Sacks and Steve Badylak, receive 2008 Chancellor Distinguished Research Awards." more
“Dr. Tim Maul selected to the 2006 Inaugural Class of Hartwell Fellows.”
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"A graduate student encounters a life-renewing machine, inspiring her to build a similar creation. Future bioengineering prospects are tantalizing, and advances in the Swanson School of Engineering are helping to make them possible, along with many other innovations stimulated by support from Pitt enthusiasts." more
"A patch designed to help damaged cardiac tissue recover from a heart attack has been successful in early animal testing and is moving toward potential human use, researchers report." more
Pitt ranked in top 7 public universities with Berkeley, UCLA, Illinois, Michigan, UNC, and Wisconsin
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