Submission by BioE graduate student, Rebecca Long entitled, "Mechanical Stimulation Induced Elastogenesis In Collagenous Scaffolds Seeded With Badder Smooth Muscle Cells," authored by Rebecca Long , Julia Ivanova, Dr. Aron Parekh and Professor Michael Sacks has been accepted for presentation in the Student Paper Competition (SPC) poster session at the 2008 ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference (SBC).  

BioE undergraduate student, Bartholomew Bacak has been selected as a Computational Neuroscience Research Fellow.  This award is intended to support Bartholomew's research and education in computational neuroscience in the next year. Mr. Bacak is conducting his research in Dr. Henry Zeringue's lab.

BioE graduate student, Kristin Wescoe received the Poster Award for 3rd Place at the Midwest Tissue Engineering Consortium.  Kristin's work, which is being conducted in Dr. Bridget Deasy's lab, is entitled: Wescoe KE, Schugar RC and BM Deasy. "Examination of Behavior of Umbilical Cord (UC)-Derived Stem Cells on 3D Tissue-Engineered Scaffolds."  Midwest Tissue Engineering Consortium. Cincinnati, OH.

Dr. George Engelmayr's new 1st author publication in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering. Engelmayr GC, Soletti L, Vigmostad SC, Budilarto SG, Federspiel WJ, Chandran KB, Vorp DA and Sacks MS.  "A Novel Flex-Stretch-Flow Bioreactor for the Study of Engineered Hear Valve Tissue Mechanobiology."  Annals of Biomedical Engineering 2008;36:700-712.  Dr. Engelmayr, who completed his dissertation research in Professor Michael Sacks' lab, is currently completing a post-doc in the "Langer Lab" @MIT. The 2nd author, Lorenzo Soletti is completing his PhD research in Dr. David Vorp's lab.

BioE graduate students, Phil Marascalco and Mohammed El-Kurdi successfully defended their PhD dissertations.  Dr. Marascalco conducted his work in Professor Marina Kameneva’s lab.  Dr. El-Kurdi performed his research in Dr. David Vorp’s lab

Professor T.K. Hung’s recent scholarly publication:  “Biomagnetic Hydrodynamics in a 2-Dimensional Non-Darcian Porous Medium: Finite Element” by H.S. Takhar, R. Bhargava, S. Rawat, T.A. Beg, O.A. Beg and T.K. Hung, J. of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Volume 37, Number 2, pages 40-60, 2007.

Two of  Dr. Mark Gartner’s senior design teams have submitted their projects for the National BMEidea competition:

NAME OF BMEidea PROJECT: Neonatal Incubator for Developing Nations (Burhanuddin Mahmood: Mentor)

APPLICANT INFORMATION Bradley Morneweck team

BRIEF PROJECT SUMMARY: Births that occur in developing countries, such as Haiti, do not always occur at the hospital. For instance, in Haiti’s Hospital Albert Schweitzer, there are two to three off-site facilities that must be able to support newborns. Thermoregulation is important due to infants’ increased susceptibility to cold stress and vulnerability to changes in environmental temperature and convective heat and moisture loss due to air movement. This is a greater problem in premature or low-birth weight infants, due to their increased surface area to volume ratios. To fill this gap in medical care, we designed a simple, low-cost incubator that does not rely on a power grid. These facilities have very limited accessibility and have no electrical or water supply. A solar panel and battery array are used to power this incubator. Low-cost parts that are all available for replacement by mail order from their respective sources were used. The unit is modular in nature and is simple enough to be maintained by a limited infrastructure and technical support staff.

NAME OF BMEidea PROJECT: Sublaminar Vertebral Hook (Boyle Cheng: Mentor)

APPLICANT INFORMATION Amy McCarty team

BRIEF PROJECT SUMMARY: Vertebral hooks for spine stabilization and fusion surgeries are underutilized due to their difficulty of implantation. Pedicle screws are more common, a fact associated with the simplification of surgeries resulting from polyaxial heads. Hooks are more biomechanically stable and provide applications in damaged or compromised (i.e. cancerous) bone not fit for drilling. Thus, we are going to design a hook that overcomes some of the problems associated with current implementations by adding a polyaxial head.

Oneximo Gonzalez has been awarded a 2008 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship!  As you know this is among the most prestigious and competitive awards that a graduate student can win.  Oneximo is undertaking his dissertation research in the MSRC under the direction of Professor Savio Woo.  Professor Woo is also the mentor for a 2^nd NSF Graduate Fellow, Serena Augustine.  Our 3^rd NSF Graduate Fellow, Jennifer Mercer, is completing her PhD dissertation in Professor Michael Boninger’s lab.

Gaurav Shukla has been accepted into the 2008 CTSI Predoctoral Fellowship program in Clinical and Translational Science for 2008-2009.  Gaurav is conducting his dissertation research in Professor George Stetten's lab.

Dr. Steven Little's Beckman Foundation Young Innovator Award application entitled, "Synthetic Dendritic Cells," has been selected for funding.  Dr. Little may be the 1st Pitt faculty member to receive this prestigious award!

BIRM trainee, Michael  Hill (BioE graduate student), has received a prestigious NSF EAPSI grant to work with Dr. Akira Takahashi at Tohoku University.  Chad Eckert was the other recipient.

Graduate student, Ellen Brennan has been awarded a prestigious F31 Pre-doctoral Fellowship for her project entitled, "Antibactrial degradation products of extracellular matrix bioscaffolds." Ellen who is conducting this research in Dr. Stephen Badylak's lab, is the 7th BioE PhD candidate to recently be awarded an F31, and the 2nd student (along with Donald Freytes) in Dr. Badylak's lab to receive this wonderful award.

Philip Marascalco, who will defend his PhD dissertation in two weeks, has accepted a position at Terumo Heart as a Clinical Technical Support Specialist.  In addition to his dissertation research in Professor Marina Kameneva’s lab, Phil has also served as a Clinical Artificial Heart Biomedical Engineer for the UPMC Artificial Heart Program; and it is through this experience that Phil was considered for the Terumo position.

Professor Michael Sacks has been selected to receive a 2008 Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award in the Senior Scholar Category. In his letter to Professor Sacks regarding this award, Chancellor Nordenberg writes, “Your known accomplishments … show that you have achieved national and international eminence as an outstanding scholar in your field … You have conducted pioneering work in the experimental and theoretical understanding of soft tissue mechanics.  You possess noted expertise in heart valve analysis and replacement.  Your peers conclude that you are at the top of your field … a world class leader in tissue mechanics and the world leader in heart valve tissue mechanics.”

Dr. Mark Gartner’s senior design class won $500 stipends from NCIIA for their projects.  The project titles and groups are: “Design of an Incubator for Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Haiti” Ted Kastenhuber, Bradley Morneweck, Christopher Withers and Bailey Roche and “Design of an Anatomical Polyaxial Vertebral Hook” Kate Campbell, Benjamin Schmidt, Shawn Burton and Amy McCarty.

Dr. Savio Woo has been made the first recipient of the College of Engineering, University of Washington’s prestigious Diamond Award for Distinguished Achievement in Academia. The UW College of Engineering has long honored outstanding alumni in industry, but this is the first time that the Diamond Award has been extended to an outstanding alumnus for exceptional knowledge and significant contributions to the field of engineering in academia. The award celebrates Dr. Woo’s academic, professional and personal accomplishments. He is a rare scientist who is honored by membership in both the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Engineering, as well as in Academia Sinica (PRC). For his work, Dr. Woo has been recognized with highest honors by many professional societies including the Bioengineering Division of the American Society of Biomechanics, the International Society of Biomechanics, as well as the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine.

Dr. Steven Abramowitch has been selected as a Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) Scholar, effective January, 2008. The purpose of this program is to support the development of young faculty members with research interests in the field of women's health as independent investigators.  Dr. Abramowitch was selected for his innovative research in the biomechanics of pelvic disorders being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Pam Moalli at Magee Women's Research Institute.

Professor Fernando Boada has been elected as a member of the 2008 AIMBE Class of Fellows.  Formal induction of the 2008 AIMBE Class of Fellows will occur in February in D.C.  Professor Boada is being honored "For pioneering contributions to functional and metabolic magnetic resonance imaging and its applications to cancer and stroke diagnosis and treatment monitoring in humans."

Professor Michael Sacks has been invited to serve as a reviewer for the spring, 2008 American Heart Association Cell Transport, Physiology & Metabolism Study Group.

At the annual BioE Board of Visitors dinner on November 16th, Professor Mark Redfern was honored with the 2007-2008 Board of Visitors Faculty Award.  In making the presentation to Professor Redfern, Provost Maher noted Professor Redfern's research contributions in the area of postural control; Professor Redfern's funding portfolio which approaches $20 M overall in P.I. and collaborative funding over the years; Professor Redfern's scores of publications; Mark's outstanding leadership in BioE educational programs; Professor Redfern's commitment to mentorship; and of course, Mark's perfect "5.0" teaching evaluations which are at the very top across the entire campus!

Professor Michael Sacks has been invited to contribute a review article on "Heart Valve Tissue Engineering" for the Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering, Volume 11.  The Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering is the highest impact factor journal (among 42) ISI includes in the category "Engineering, Biomedical."

BioE graduate student, Alan Degengart has been selected to receive a one year fellowship in the Multimodal Neuroimaging Training Program (MNTP) beginning January 1, 2008.  MNTP is funded through an NIH/NIDA T90 Program, which may be another funding mechanism for our graduate students that we need to explore. MNTP is co-directed by Professor Seong-gi Kim @Pitt and Professor William Eddy @CMU. Alan is conducting his research in Dr. Douglas Weber's lab.

Tom Robey, who is an MD, PhD candidate at the University of Washington, has been awarded the PhD degree and is now completing his medical degree.  Dr. Robey was a triple major during his years as an undergraduate student @Pitt.  He was awarded the B. Phil in BioE by completing an honors thesis in Dr. William Wagner’s lab.

BioE graduate student, John Stella’s 1^st author publication in the current issue of the JOURNAL OF BIOMECHANICS: Stella JA, J Liao and MS Sacks. Time-dependent biaxial mechanical behavior of the aortic heart valve leaflet.  JOURNAL OF BIOMECHANICS 40 (2007) 3169-3177.  John is performing this work in Professor Michael Sacks’ lab.

Professor Savio Woo has been elected LIFE FELLOW, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

Recent publications by two of our BioE PhD graduates (Dr. Carmen DiGiovine and Dr. Erik Wolf), who performed their dissertation research in Professor Cooper’s Human Energy Research Labs.  (1) Koontz AM, Yang Y, Price R, Tolerico ML, DiGiovine CP, Sisto SA, Cooper RA and Boninger ML. Multisite comparison of wheelchair propulsion kinetics in persons with paraplegia.  Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development 2007; 44:449-458.  (2) Wolf E, Cooper RA, Pearlman J, Fitzgerald SG and Kelleher A. Longitudinal assessment of vibrations during manual and power wheelchair driving over select sidewalk surfaces.  Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development 2007; 44:573-580.

Professor Savio Woo received the 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award of the Bay Area Knee Society, November 1 in San Francisco, CA.  The Bay Area Knee Society is an academic organization based in San Francisco, which for the past two decades, has annually recognized outstanding individuals who have made lifelong contributions in advancing the art and science of knee surgery.  Dr. Woo will be the 21^st recipient of this prestigious, internationally recognized award that many consider as the “Nobel Prize” of the knee.

BioE graduate student. Xiaoyan  Zhang was awarded the 2007 Erin McGurk Research Grant from the Orthopaedic Research Laboratory Alumni Council (ORLAC) for her project entitled, “A Subject-specific Model of the Anterior Cruciate Ligament.”  Xiaoyan is conducting this work in the Musculoskeletal Research Center, under the direction of Professor Savio Woo.  The award provides funding for a female graduate student to perform musculoskeletal research during the summer.   

Dr. Joie Marhefka, who completed her PhD dissertation in Professor Marina Kameneva’s lab, has accepted an offer for a postdoctoral position at NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) beginning January, 2008.

Professor George Stetten is launching for the MD, PhD Program which also serves as the basis for a training grant being submitted to NIH. The Medical Imaging, Neural Engineering, and Robotics (MINER) Training Program for M.D./Ph.D. Predoctoral Students.  "Our goal is create physician researchers engaged in the discovery, development, and clinical translation of new knowledge and technology in the interrelated fields of medical imaging, neural engineering, and robotics. The proposed training program would solidify existing bridges between the biomedical and engineering communities through a shared curriculum and other activities to promote collaborative research. In particular, we would involve three programs that already host M.D./Ph.D. students in these areas, namely, Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh, the Robotics Institute at CMU, and Biomedical Engineering at CMU."

Dr. James Wang has received conferral of tenure as Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery in the School of Medicine.  BioE extends our heartiest congratulations to Dr. Wang on this career achievement.

A recent plenary presentation by Dr. Tamer Ibrahim’s: T.S. Ibrahim, "Electromagnetics and Field Modeling for UHF MRI and B1 Shimming" in the 6th BI-ANNUAL 2007 MINNESOTA WORKSHOPS on HIGH FIELD MR IMAGING AND SPECTROSCOPY and MR IMAGING of BRAIN FUNCTION, October 2007.  http://www.cmrr.umn.edu/workshops/Workshop_07/2007faculty.shtml

Dr. J. Scott Van Epps’ recent 1^st author publication co-authored with Dr. David Vorp, Dr. J. Scott Van Epps’ PhD adviser.  JS Van Epps and DA Vorp. Mechanopathobiology of Atherogenesis: A Review. JOURNAL OF SURGICAL RESEARCH Vol 142: 202-217, 2007.

Professor Michael Sacks is an invited speaker at the FDA/NIST-Sponsored Workshop on “In Vitro Analyses of Cell/Scaffold Medical Products.”  The Workshop is to be held on December 6-7, 2007 in Washington D.C. 20594.  Professor Sacks will speak for 30 minutes on the topic, “Novel Methods to Quantify Tissue Structure and Multi-Axial Mechanical Testing.”

Professor Partha Roy has received a 4-year Minority Graduate Research Supplement (MGRS) for his NCI award entitled, “Profilin as a Target to Suppress Invasive Breast Cancer.”  BioE graduate student,  Maria Jaramillo will be supported via this MGRS.

The BioE Department truly distinguished itself at the just completed 2007 BMES Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, CA. Below please find the 37 presentations made by our faculty (bold) and students (underlined bold).

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Dynamic Myocardial Contractile Parameters From Left ventricular Pressure-Volume Measurements S.G. SHROFF, W.C. HUNTER AND K.B. CAMPBEL

Current and Future Considerations In The Use Of Mechanical Circulatory Support M.A. SIMON, W.R. WAGNER AND H.S. BOROVETZ 

Biocompatibility In Ventricular Assist Devices: How Can You Improve What You Cannot Measure? W.R. WAGNER

Probing Intracellular Ca2+ Signaling Through Mechanical stimulation Of Focal Adhesion Complexes W.C. RUDER, E.D. PRATT, N.Z. BRANDY, D.A. LAVAN, J.F. ANTAKI AND P.R. LEDUC

BCI – A Novel Paradigm For Studies Of Neural Plasticity S.M. CHASE, R. KASS AND A.B. SCHWARTZ 

Characterization of Aortic Valve Endothelial Cell Strain Response To Global Tissue Stretch S.A. METZLER, S.C. WALLER, M.S. SACKS, J. LIAO AND J.N. WARNOCK 

Hemodynamic Analysis of Echocardiogram S. BALASUBRAMANIAN, M. SIMON, M. SUFFOLETTO, J. GORCSAN, H.S. BOROVETZ AND T. HUNG  

Stress Overload of The In Situ Aortic Valve Interstitial Cell Under Circumferential Strain W.D. MERRYMAN, H.D. LUKOFF, R.A. HOPKINS AND M.S. SACKS 

Effects Of Passages On The Gene Expression Profile Of Medial Collateral Ligament Fibroblasts S. AUGUSTINE, A.J. ALMARZA AND S.L. WOO

Assessment Of A Biomimetic, Composite, Tubular Scaffold or Vascular Tissue Engineering Applications L. SOLETTI, A. NIEPONICE, J. GUAN, Y. HONG, J. STANKUS, W. WAGNER AND D.A. VORP 

Ventricular Function In Mice Expressing Constitutively Phosphorylated Cardiac Troponin I J.A. KIRK, C. EVANS, A.F. STEWARD, G.A.MCGOWAN, and S.G. SHROFF

A Finite Element Analysis Rupture Index (FEARI) As A New Tool For AAA Burst Prediction B.J. DOYLE, A. CALLANAN, D. VORP AND T. MGLOUGHLI

Biomechanical Properties of Active Urethral Smooth Muscle Are Altered In A Rat Model Of Birth Trauma R. PRANTIL, M. MIYAZATO, D.J. HAWORTH, M.B. CHANCELLOR, W.C. DE ROAT, N. YOSHIMURA AND D.A. VORP

Providing Somatosensory Feedback Via Multichannel icrostimulation of Primary Afferent Neurons D.J. WEBER, J.A. HOKANSON AND J.B. WAGENAAR

The Effect of Sampling Location On Optical Coherence Tomography Nerve Fiber Layer Measurements M.L. GABRIELE, H. ISHIKAWA, G. WOLLSTEIN, R. BILONICK, L. KAGEMANN, J.G. FUJIMOTO AND J.S. SCHUMAN

Using Mechanical Stimulation To Control The Response Of Muscle-Derived Stem Cell Transplantation T.R. CASSINO, M. OKADA, L. DROWLEY, J. FEDUSKA, B.M. DEASY, J. HUARD AND P. LEDUC

Development of A Selective Immunoadsorption Device For The Treatment Of Sepsis M.V. DILEO, J. KELLUM AND W.J. FEDERSPIEL 

Decellularization of Pancreatic Extracellular Matrix For A Tissue-Engineered Pancreas R. TCHEN, J. TENGOOD, H. JIANG, S. BADYLAK AND J.B. OGILVIE 

Dissolvable, Synthetic Vasculature J. TENGOOD, A.J. RUSSELL AND S.R. LITTLE

Comparison of Ligament And Tendon Fibroblast Behavior through Passages For Tissue Engineering A.J. ALMARZA, S. AUGUSTINE AND S.L. WOO

Cellular Deformations In Micro-Integrated Electrospun Scaffolds For Heart Valve Tissue Engineering J.A. STELLA, L. JUN, Y. HONG, W. MERRYMAN, W.R. WAGNER AND M.S. SACKS

Assessment of Biomechanical Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Rupture Potential Indices Over Time D.A. VORP, S. SHAH, J. BARBATO AND M.S. MAKAROUN

Influence of Simulated Physiological Hemodynamics On Engineered Heart Valve Tissue Formation S. RAMASWAMY AND M.S. SACKS

Elevated Regional RV Wall Stress In Chronic Pulmonary Hypertension Regardless Of Hemodynamics M.A. SIMON, C. DEIBLE, M.R. PINSKY, M. MATHIER, S. MADAN2, J. LACOMIS S.G. SHROFF

Development of New Integrated Affinity Bead And Microfiltration Fiber Specific Antibody Filters A. ALIKHANI, S. GAUTAM AND W.J. FEDERSPIEL

Ex Vivo Strain Induced Bladder Wall Remodeling R.A. LONG, A. PAREKH AND M.S. SACKS

Electrospinning Biodegradable Polymers Onto Living Vascular Tissue M.S. EL-KURDI, Y. HONG, J. STANKUS, L. SOLETTI, W.R. WAGNER AND D.A. VORP

Structural Properties of Extracellular Matrix In Decellularized Rabbit Carotid Arteries C. WILLIAMS, E.M. JOYCE, J.B. LEAH, M.S. SACKS, J. LIAO AND J.Y. WONG

Bioactive Hollow Fibers Towards Compact Artificial Lungs H OH, J.L. KAAR, A.J. RUSSELL AND W.J. FEDERSPIEL

Investigating Cue-Signal-Response of Mesenchymal Stem ell Migration S. WU,  A. WELLS, L.G. GRIFFITH AND D.A. LAUFFENBURGER

Conducting Polymer Based Neurochemical Release System W. STAUFFER, G. BI AND X.T. CUI

Viscoelastic Deformation of The Aortic Valve Interstitial Cell During Diastole W.D. MERRYMAN, F. GUILAK AND M.S. SACKS

Specific Antibody Filter (SAF) Binding Capacity Enhancement To Remove Anti-A Antibodies S. GAUTAM, A. ALIKHANI AND W.J. FEDERSPIEL

Gene Regulation Through Controlled Release From A  Biodegradable Poly(ester urethane) Urea P. RAMASWAMI, A. KATAKAM, J. FRIZ, D. CRESS, J. GUAN AND W.R. WAGNER 

Effects Of Intermittent Hypoxia on Cardiac Muscle Contractile Function In Mice S.H. SMITH, A.M. JANCZEWSKI, J. NAGHSHIN, Y. HE, C.P. O'DONNELL AND S.G. SHROFF 

Potential Role of Src In Pressure-Induced Regulation Of Arterial Gap Junctions: An Ex Vivo Study Y. HE AND S.G. SHROFF 

Blending Structural and Non-Thrombogenic Polymers To Form A Nanofibrous Small Diameter Blood Vessel Y. HONG, S. YE, D.A. VORP AND W.R. WAGNER 

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Our BioE faculty also organized and co-chaired the following sessions:

Cardiovascular Engineering: Ventricular Assist Devices and Heart Valves  -- Co-Chairs: Harvey S. Borovetz & Keffe Manning   

Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Engineering: Orthopedic Soft Tissue Biomechanics -- Co-Chairs: James Wang & Ketul Popat

Cardiovascular Engineering: Thrombosis in Circulation -- Co-Chairs: Shmuel Einav & William Wagner

Neural Engineering: Neural Interfacing -- Co-Chairs: Tracy Cui & Daryl Kipke

Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Engineering: Joint Biomechanics -- Co-Chairs: Thay Lee & Zong-Ming Li

1st author paper Lauren Johnson who is a PhD candidate in Professor Sanjeev Shroff's lab. Professor Michael  Pinsky is co-advising Lauren on this project. Lauren Johnson, Hyung Kook Kim, Masaki Tanabe, John Gorcsan, David Schwartzman, Sanjeev G. Shroff, Michael R. Pinsky.  Differential effects of left Ventricular pacing sites in an acute canine model of contraction dyssynchrony.  Am. J. Physiol. Heart Circ. Physiol. (in press), 2007.

Drs. Rakie Cham and Mark Redfern are highlighted in the just released issue of Pitt Magazine (Summer 2007).  The article entitled, “Footloose – Giving Injuries the slip” on pp, 30 – 31, describes the exciting research being conducted in the Human Movement and Balance Laboratory by Drs. Cham and Redfern.

Drs. Mark Gartner and George Stetten will receive Pitt Innovator Awards as part of the second annual Celebration of Innovation on September 24.  Pitt Innovator Awards are given to those whose innovations were licensed to industry or start-up companies this past year.

Professor Marina Kameneva's recent publication with Dr. James Antaki.  Zhao R, Kameneva MV, Antaki JF. Investigation of platelet margination phenomena at elevated shear stress. Biorheology, 44(3):161-177, 2007.

A recent chapter authored by Professor Marina Kameneva and Dr. James Antaki entitled, “Mechanical Trauma to Blood,” will be published in: Handbook of Hemorheology and Hemodynamics, Volume 69 Biomedical and Health Research, Editors: O.K. Baskurt, M.R. Hardeman, M.W. Rampling and H.J. Meiselman, September 2007.

The publication. Orthopedics This Week, includes an article entitled, “Carpal Tunnel Research: A View Out of the Tunnel,” that features Dr. Zong-Ming Li’s recognized work in this area.

A recent publication by Dr. George Stetten’s publication.  G. Stetten, R. Klatzky, B. Nichol, K. Rockot, K. Zawrotny, D. Weiser, J. Galeotti, N. Sendgikoski, S. Horvath, “Fingersight: Fingertip Visual Haptic Sensing and Control,” IEEE International Workshop on Haptic Audio Visual Environments (HAVE), Ontario, Canada, 12-14 October 2007.  The underlined authors are/were all BioE undergraduate students! 

BioE graduate student, Kevin Mihelc, completed his MS in Dr. William Federspiel’s lab this past summer.  He has accepted a job at Levitronix in Boston, where he will be working as a Design & Development Engineer in the mechanical circulatory support area.

Dr. Lance Davidson's publication in NATURE CELL BIOLOGY, J. B. Green and L. A. Davidson (2007). Convergent extension and the hexahedral cell.  NATURE CELL BIOLOGY, 9: 1010-1015.

An update on publications/presentations from Dr. Tamer Ibrahim's lab:

PUBLICATIONS: (1) T. S. Ibrahim, and L. Tang, "Insight into RF power requirements and B1 field homogeneity for human MRI via rigorous FDTD approach ", Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Vol 25 (6), pp 1235-1247, June, 2007. (2) Jacobs MA, Ibrahim TS, Ouwerkerk R. AAPM/RSNA physics tutorials for residents: MR imaging: brief overview and emerging applications. Radiographics 2007;27(4):1213-1229. (Invited Paper)

PLENARY LECTURE:  (1) "Electromagnetics and Field Modeling for UHF MRI and B1 Shimming" in the 6th BI-ANNUAL 2007 MINNESOTA WORKSHOPS on HIGH FIELD MR IMAGING AND SPECTROSCOPY and MR IMAGING of BRAIN FUNCTION http://www.cmrr.umn.edu/workshops/Workshop_07/2007program.shtml , (2) T. S. Ibrahim, "Understanding RF Safety Using Computational Electromagnetics'', MR Safety Study Group, The 15th International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) Annual Meeting, Berlin, Germany, May 2007.  http://ismrm.org/07/saf.htm   (3) T. S. Ibrahim, "Electromagnetics of High Field MRI'', Hardware and Physics, The ISMRM Workshop on Advances in High Field MR, Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, CA, March 2007. http://www.ismrm.org/workshops/HighField/program1.htm

INVITED PRESENTATIONS: (1) T. S. Ibrahim and L. Tang, "RF power requirements in human MRI: Does higher field strength necessitate higher RF power?" Special Session on Bioelectromagnetics in the 23rd Annual Review Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics, Verona, Italy, pp 841-845, March 2007.  (2) L. Tang, and T. S. Ibrahim, "On the radio-frequency power requirements of human MRI", Special Session on Bioelectromagnetics in the Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium, Beijing, China, pp 511-514, March 2007.

Professor Michael Sacks has been elected to serve on the Editorial Board for the journal, Cardiovascular Pathology, the official journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology.

Professor Michael Sacks’ recent publication in the JOURNAL OF BIOMECHANICS.  Nirmalanandhan VS, Rao M, Sacks MS, Haridas B and Butler DL. Effect of length of the engineered tendon construct on its structure-function relationships in culture. JOURNAL OF BIOMECHANICS 40 (2007) 2523-2529

A recent 1^st author publication by BioE graduate student, Erica Authier, who conducted this work in Professor Rory Cooper’s lab.  Authier EL, Pearlman J, Allegretti AL, Rice I and Cooper RA. A sports wheelchair for low-income countries. DISABILITY AND REHABILITATION, June 2007; 29(11 – 12): 963-967.

BioE Undergraduate student, Bradley Morneweck spent this current summer as an Honors College Brackenridge Undergraduate Summer Research Fellow.  The title of Brad’s summer project is, “The Many Escapades of Caveolin-3 and the Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor.”  This work was conducted in the lab of Dr. Ferruccio-Galbiati in Med-Pharmacology.  Brad is pursuing a dual major in Bioengineering and Biological Sciences, and currently maintains a 4.0 QPA.

Dr. Christopher Deible, who completed his PhD in Pitt BioE in 1998 working in Dr. William Wagner’s lab, is featured in the Summer 2007 Pitt Radiology magazine.  In particular, Dr. Deible, a staff radiologist at UPMC Presbyterian, is cited as one of the radiologists leading the development of cardiac imaging at UPMC including the use of 64-slice cardiac CT.

BioE graduate student. Rebecca Long has been selected as one of only 5 recipients of the BMES 2007 Graduate Research Award.  Rebecca was selected in recognition for outstanding biomedical engineering research for her paper entitled, "Ex Vivo Strain-Induced Bladder Wall Remodeling."  Rebecca is conducting this work in Professor Michael Sacks' lab.

An upcoming publication, first authored by Dr. Lawrence Kagemann, in the Journal of Biomedical Optics entitled, "Spectral oximetry assessed with high-speed ultra-high resolution optical coherence tomography."  Co-authors include Dr. Hiroski Ishikawa, BioE graduate student, Michelle Gabriele and Professor Joel Schuman (in whose lab Michelle is undertaking her research).  Dr. Kagemann and colleagues are publishing here the first measurements of retinal blood oxygen saturation obtained with Fourier domain optical coherence tomography imaging.

Dr. Gusphyl Justin, who this summer completed his PhD in BioE in Drs. Robert Sclabassi's and Mingui Sun's labs, has accepted a postdoctoral position working in the areas of biocompatibility and in vivo biosensors in the laboratory of Professor Anthony Guiseppi-Elie, at the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering Department and the Center for Bioelectronics, Biosensors, and Biochips (C3B) at Clemson University's College of Engineering and Science.

Two invited lectures that Dr. David Vorp will deliver next week at the by-invitation only Cardiovascular Conference being held in Darwin, Australia. (1) “Tissue engineered blood vessels, including their use in the study of vascular tone pathophysiology” and (2) “Stem cells in cardiovascular tissue engineering”.

BioE undergraduate student, Daniel Wilkinson won the SRI "Best Research Presentation Award" for the 2007 Excel Summer Research Internship program.  The title of Dan’s talk was "Human Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Alginate Gels."  Dan conducted his work under the mentorship of Dr. Bridget Deasy.

BioE graduate student, Rebecca Long has been selected to attend and present a poster at the Second Annual NIH National Graduate Student Research Festival on October 11 - 12, 2007 on the main campus of the NIH in Bethesda, MD.  In addition to scientific presentations, the Festival also introduces pre-doctoral fellows to NIH investigators with whom they might want to pursue postdoctoral training.  Rebecca is undertaking her dissertation research in Professor Michael Sacks' lab.

Professor Rory Cooper is the recipient of the 2007 da Vinci Lifetime Achievement Award.  The following information has just been released from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.  da Vinci Lifetime Achievement Award:  Dr. Rory Cooper:  Honoring a lifetime of significant contributions to advancing Accessibility.  Dr. Cooper’s energy and devotion to the field of rehabilitation engineering and assistive  technology are unmatched. Dr. Cooper is Director of the Human Engineering Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh and Co-Director of the Quality of Life Technology Center.

Dr. Megan Rothney, who graduated with her B.S. in Bioengineering from our Department in 2002, has completed the Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering @Vanderbilt University this past spring term.  Dr. Rothney is currently a post-doctoral fellow at NIH.

A special symposium on "Advances in Hydraulics, Biomechanics and Fluid Dynamics" was held on July 18 at the National Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan.  The symposium honored Professor Tin Kan Hung for his many significant accomplishments in nonlinear computational fluid dynamics, biomechanics and hydrodynamics.

Three prestigious conference invitations have been issued to Dr. Steven Abramowitch:

1) The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative conference from November 13^th through the 16^th Only 100 researchers from across the U.S. have been selected to participate.

2) International Research Workshop in Pelvic Floor Disorders on September 6 – 7 in Lille, France which is an initiative of the collaborative working group on the use of meshes in pelvic floor reconstruction (Lille, Leuven, Nîmes, Cambridge)  and organized in collaboration with the International Urogynecology Association (IUGA) the French International Society of Urodynamic and Pelvic Disorders (Société Internationale Francophone Urodynamique et PelviPérinéologie or SIFUD PP) –-  Dr. Abramowitch has been invited to give a 20 minute talk on, “Biomechanical Testing Soft Tissues of the Pelvic Floor.”

3) Pelvic Floor Mechanics session at the Reproductive Bioengineering 2008 meeting in Kuhtai, Austria (near Innsbruck) from April 1-5, 2008.   This is an international multidisciplinary meeting on all scientific topics that require integration of either bioengineering or biophysical aspects with biological and physiological knowledge in the study of all areas of reproduction from the molecular to organ levels.  It is chaired by David Elad (Tel Aviv University, Israel) and Ludwig Wildt (Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria) –- Dr. Abramowitch has been invited to give a 25 minute talk on the topic, “Identifying Factors Which Negatively Impact the Integrity of Pelvic Connective Tissue in the Rat Model.“

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BioE graduate student, Josh Woolley has been selected as the recipient for the Paul Malchesky student abstract fellowship based on his oral slide presentation at the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs (ASAIO) 2007 conference in Chicago this past June entitled, “Ovine Platelet Aggregation Sensitivity to Anticoagulant and Anti-Platelet Agents.”   Josh scored first out of six finalists for the award. Josh is conducting this work in Professor William Wagner’s lab.

Three papers from Dr. Aaron Batista’s postdoctoral fellowship @Stanford have very recently been accepted for publication.  1) Batista AP, Santhanam G, Yu BM, Ryu SI, Afshar A, Shenoy KV. "Reference Frames for Reach Planning in Macaque Dorsal Premotor Cortex." Journal of Neurophysiology (available as preprint at http://jn.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/00421.2006v1).  2) Batista AP, Yu BM, Santhanam G, Ryu SI, Afshar A, Shenoy KV. "Cortical Neural Prosthesis Performance Improves When Eye Position is Monitored." IEEE Transactions in Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering (Due out in December 2007 special issue on Neural Prosthetics.)  3) Cynthia A. Chestek^*, Aaron P. Batista^*, Gopal Santhanam, Byron M. Yu, Afsheen Afshar, John P. Cunningham, Vikash Gilja, Stephen I. Ryu, Mark M. Churchland, and Krishna V. Shenoy (* with the notation that Chestek and Batista contributed equally to this work.) "Single-neuron stability during repeated reaching in macaque premotor cortex." Journal of Neuroscience.

The following paper has been accepted for publication in the journal, Experimental Brain Research. B. Wu, R. Klatzky, D. Shelton, G. Stetten, “Mental concatenation of perceptually and cognitively specified depth to represent locations in near space.”  The 3^rd author, Damion Shelton, Ph.D., was a member of our 1^st undergraduate baccalaureate class in 2000.

A lead article in this month’s issue of the JOURNAL OF BIOMECHANICS: David A. Vorp. “Biomechanics of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms.” JOURNAL OF BIOMECHANICS 40 (2007) 1887-1902. BioE extends our heartiest congratulations to Dr. Vorp for this recognition of the seminal work in this area performed in the Vorp laboratory for more than a decade.

Dr. David Vorp has been appointed to several prestigious national leadership positions: (1) US National Committee on Biomechanics (nominated by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers or ASME) [Professor Hung is also a member of this Committee]; (2) Program Chair, ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference 2008; (3) Conference Chair, ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference 2011.

The annual meeting of the Tissue Engineering International and Regenerative Medicine Society-North American Chapter (TERMIS) was held in Toronto, Canada the week of June 11, 2007.  The participation of BioE students and faculty is indicated below with BioE faculty in bold font and BioE graduate students in italicized font.

TERMIS NA Conference Papers with BioE Student/Faculty Authors

(1) A Lineage of Myogenic-endothelial Cells in Adult Human Skeletal Muscle that are Superior to Myoblasts for Myocardial Infarct Repair, Masaho Okada, Thomas R. Payne, Bo Zheng, Hideki Oshima, Nobuo Momoi, Kimimasa Tobita, Bradley B. Keller, Julie A. Phillippi, Bruno Peault, Johnny Huard

(2) Development of a Tissue-engineered Vascular Graft Combining a Biodegradable Elastomeric Scaffold, Muscle-derived Stem Cells and In-vivo Remodeling in a Rat Model, Alejandro Nieponice, Lorenzo Soletti, Timothy M. Maul, Burhan Gharaibeh, Bridget M. Deasy, Jianjun Guan, Johnny Huard, William R. Wagner, David A. Vorp

(3) Intestinal Progenitor Cells Preferentially Migrate and Proliferate in Response to Degradation Products of Small Intestinal Submucosa Extracellular Matrix Bioscaffolds, Vineet Agrawal, Ellen P. Brennan, Janet Reing, Donald O. Freytes, Stephen F. Badylak

(4) Gene Regulation Through Controlled Release from a Biodegradable Poly(ester urethane)urea, Priya Ramaswami, Anand Katakam, Jennifer Friz, Dean Cress, Jianjun Guan, William R. Wagner

(5) Spatial Control of Multi-lineage Differentiation of Muscle-Derived Stem Cells, Julie A. Phillippi, Eric D. Miller, Johnny Huard, Lee E. Weiss, Alan Waggoner, Phil G. Campbell

(6) Development of Hollow Fiber-Based Bioreactor Systems for 3D Neuronal Cell Cultures, Candace A. Brayfield, Kacey G. Marra, John P. Leonard, Glenn T. Gobble, Matt J. Baun, X. Tracy Cui, Jorg C. Gerlach

(7) In Vivo Remodeling of ECM Scaffolds as a Function of Macrophage Phenotype, Stephen F. Badylak, Jolene Valentin, Ann Stewart-Akers

(8) A novel population of CD146+CD133+ muscle progenitors in human skeletal muscle and during ontogeny, M. Crisan, L. Casteilla, A. Logar, L. Zimmerlin, B. Sun, TS Park, S. Yap, J. Huard, B. Peault

(9) Tissue Engineered Adrenal Gland Functions in vitro, Hongbin Jiang, Tiffany S. Sellaro, Stephen F. Badylak, Jennifer B. Ogilvie

(10) Maintenance of Human Hepatocyte-Specific Functions by Acellular, Extracellular Matrix Scaffolds, Tiffany L. Sellaro, Stephen Strom, Anrati Ranade, Stephen F. Badylak

(11) Regenerative medicine based on post-natal muscle stem cells, Johnny Huard

(12) In Vivo Mechanical Environment Affects Muscle Stem Cell Transplantation for Muscle Regeneration, Theresa R. Cassino, Masaho Okada, Lauren Drowley, Joseph Feduska, Philip R. LeDuc, Johnny Huard

TERMIS NA Poster Presentations with BioE Student/Faculty Authors

(1) Incorporation of Protein Delivering Microspheres into Conduits for Peripheral Nerve Repair, Lauren Kokai, Siddharth Jhunjhunwala, Steven R. Little, Kacey G. Marra

(2) Sex Difference in Muscle Stem Cell Transplantation for Myocardial Regeneration, Lauren Drowley, Masaho Okada, Thomas Payne, Gregory Botta, Theresa Cassino, Hideki Oshima, Johnny Huard

(3) Optimization of a stem cell-based tissue engineered vascular graft with a novel hybrid scaffold, Lorenzo Soletti, Jianjun Guan, Yi Hong, John J. Stankus, Alejandro Nieponice, William R. Wagner, David A. Vorp

(4) Cardiac and Bladder Extracellular Matrix (ECM) in Lyophilized Sheet and Gel Form for Cardiac Applications, John M. Wainwright, Donald O. Freytes, Joseph P. Tinney, Kimimasa Tobita, Stephen F. Badylak

(5) Decellularization of Pancreatic Extracellular Matrix for the Development of a Tissue-Engineered Artificial Pancreas, Rena Tchen, Jillian E. Tengood, Tiffany S. Sellaro, Hongbin Jiang, Stephen F. Badylak, Jennifer B. Ogilvie

(6) Repair of the Thoracic Wall with an Extracellular Matrix Scaffold in a Canine Model, Thomas W. Gilbert, Alejandro Nieponice, Alan R. Spievack, Stephen F. Badylak

(7) Extracellular Matrix Scaffold Remodeling in a Canine Tracheal Wall Defect , Thomas W. Gilbert, Sebastien Gilbert, Stephen F. Badylak,

(8) In Vitro Growth of Myogenic Cells on Urinary Bladder Matrix Gels ,Donald O. Freytes, Annie S. Lee, John W. Wainwright, Kelly M. Clause, Joseph P. Tinney, Bradley B. Keller, Kimimasa Tobita, Stephen F. Badylak

(9) Chemotactic and mitogenic properties of ECM bioscaffolds, Julie M. Myers-Irvin, Janet Reing, Li Zhang, Susan Braunhut, Ellen Heber-Katz, Stephen F. Badylak

(10) Reversing the Effects of Scarring in Lacerated Muscle Tissue using Matrix Metalloproteinase-1, Joel L. Kaar, Yong Li, Johnny Huard, Richard R. Koepsel, Alan J. Russell

(11) The coalescence of decellularized tissue scaffolds, laser-activated chitosan bioadhesive and olfactory ensheathing cells for tissue repair and regeneration of the spinal cord, Helder Marcal, Stephen Badylak, Tiffany Sellaro, Antonio Lauto, Stephen Mahler, Peter Gray

(12) Attachment of N-isopropylacrylamide to Surfaces by Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Liquid Deposition, Sara Wargo, Richard Koepsel, Alan Russell

(13) Toward an Engineered Vein Graft Using an External Electrospun Biodegradable Polymer Wrap to Gradually Impose Arterial Circumferential Wall Stress, Mohammed S. El-Kurdi, Yi Hong, PhD, John J. Stankus, Lorenzo Soletti, William R. Wagner, David A. Vorp

(14) Obtaining Matured Oocytes from Preantral Follicles Matured in Suspension Culture, Matthew Heise, Richard Koepsel, Elizabeth McGee, Alan Russell

(15) Incorporation of Protein Delivering Microspheres into Conduits for Peripheral Nerve Repair, Lauren Kokai, Siddharth Jhunjhunwala, Steven R. Little and Kacey G. Marra

(16) The Effects of Scaffold Composition Upon Macrophage Polarization and Tissue Remodeling Outcome, Bryan N. Brown, Ann M. Stewart-Akers, Stephen F. Badylak

(17) Follistatin Improves Skeletal Muscle Healing After Injury, J Zhu, Y Li, J Huard

(18) Myogenic Potential of Human Fetal Placental Blood Vessels, Tea Soon Park, Chien-Wen Chen, Alison Logar, Johnny Huard, and Bruno Peault

(19) Morphology, Proliferation, and Gene and Protein Expression Changes in Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Progenitor Cells Following Mechanical Stimulation, Timothy M. Maul, Douglas W. Chew, Alejandro Nieponice, David A. Vorp

(20) The activation profile of human blood monocytes on SIS-ECM materials, Jolene E. Valentin, Stephen F. Badylak

(21) Mechanical Stimulation of Bone Marrow Progenitor Cells within a Three-Dimensional Fibrin Matrix, Jessica L. LoSurdo, Alejandro Nieponice, Douglas W. Chew, and David A. Vorp

(22) Investigating Cue-Signal-Response Relationships in Mesenchymal Stem Cell Migration, Shan Wu, Alan Wells, Linda G. Griffith, Douglas A. Lauffenburger

(23) Detection and Purification of Four Distinct Populations in the Stromal Vascular Fraction of Human Adipose Tissue, Ludovic Zimmerlin, Vera S. Donnenberg, Bruno Peault, J. Peter Rubin, Albert D. Donnenberg

(24) Blood-soluble drag-reducing polymers as a novel hemodynamic approach to tissue regeneration, Philip J. Marascalco, Ravikumar Thangappan, Alejandro Nieponice, Marina V. Kameneva

A publication co-authored by BioE graduate Student, Joseph Candiello has been published online:  Merryman WD, Liao J, Parekh A, Candiello JE, Lin H and Sacks M. “Differences in Tissue-Remodeling Potential of Aortic and Pulmonary Heart Valve Interstitial Cells.” Tissue Eng 2007 June 27.  Joe is a student in Dr. Hai Lin’s lab.  The 1^st author, Dr. David Merryman, who just last month defended his BioE PhD dissertation, undertook this work in Professor Sacks’ lab.

Dr. David Vorp has been invited to be a keynote speaker at the 2008 (September) International Symposium on Aortic Aneurysms (Thoracic and Abdominal).  The title of Dr. Vorp’s presentation is: “Hemodynamic effects and wall stress in the pathogenesis of aortic aneurysms (thoracic and/or abdominal).”

Professor Patrick Loughlin's RO1 application entitled, "Modeling Sensory Integration and Attention in Postural Control of Older Adults," has been awarded funding by the National Institute of Aging (NIA). Co-Investigators are Drs. Furman, Jennings, Redfern and Sparto.  Pilot funding for this research came from the NIA-funded Pittsburgh Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, directed by Dr. Studenski.

See the URL below for a Reuter’s article about Dr. David Vorp’s tissue engineered blood vessel work.

http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSDIT85615820070618 

BioE graduate student, John Stella's abstract entitled, "The Digital Leaflet: Quantitative Image Analysis and 3D Digital Reconstruction of the Aortic Valve Leaflet," which he just presented at the 4th Biennial Meeting of the Society for Heart Valve Disease in New York, was selected as one of the 10 top abstracts out of a total of 133 abstracts presented at the meeting.  Also, John’s paper entitled “Time-dependent biaxial mechanical behavior of the aortic heart valve leaflet,” has been e-published in JOURNAL OF BIOMECHANICS 2007 (June 12).  John  is performing his research in Professor Michael Sacks’ lab.

The manuscript entitled, “The role of the primate superior colliculus in the control of head movements,” authored by Walton, Mark; Bechara, Bernard; and Gandhi, Neeraj has recently been accepted for publication in the JOURNAL OF NEUROPHYSIOLOGY.  Bernard is performing his dissertation research in Dr. Neeraj Gandhi’s lab.

BioE graduate student, Carl Johnson's 1st author manuscript entitled, "Flow Cytometric Assays for Quantifying Activated Ovine Platelets" has been accepted for publication, and will appear in the January 2008 issue of ARTIFICIAL ORGANS. Co-authors are BioE PhD graduate Dr. Trevor Snyder, BioE PhD candidate Mr. Josh Woolley and senior author Dr. William Wagner, in whose lab this work was conducted.

Professor Michael Sacks has been invited to speak at a Workshop the FDA is holding on December 6-7, 2007, Washington, D.C.  The Workshop is entitled "Workshop on In Vitro Analyses of Cell/Scaffold Products."  The objective of this Workshop is to learn: 1) what questions should be asked (and addressed) when evaluating cell/scaffold products in preparation for the first human studies; and, 2) what test methods are available and what analytical procedures should be further researched, developed and/or standardized to determine the safety, purity, potency and consistency of cell/scaffold products.

Professor Sanjeev Shroff has been selected to serve as a consultant on the Circulatory Systems Devices Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration.  As you know this FDA Panel gives final approval (disapproval) regarding pre-market approval (PMA) applications and is comprised of outstanding clinicians and biomedical scientists/bioengineers in the cardiovascular area. It is a singular honor to be nominated for and selected to serve on an FDA Panel.

A 1^st author publication by BioE graduate student, Timothy Maul was one of the 10 most downloaded articles from the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering in February 2007! Both Tim and co-author/BioE PhD candidate Lorenzo Soletti are conducting this work in Dr. David Vorp’s lab.  Maul TM, Hamilton DW, Nieponice A, Soletti L, Vorp DA.  A New Experimental System for the Extended Application of Cyclic Hydrostatic Pressure to Cell Culture. J. Biomech. Eng. 129, 110 - 117 (2007)

BioE graduate student, Jolene Valentin has been awarded a Provost’s Pre-doctoral Fellowship for the 2007 – 2008 academic year.  Jolene is performing her Ph.D. research in Dr. Stephen Badylak’s lab, is our 3^rd Provost’s Pre-doctoral Fellow for 2007 – 2008.

Professor Savio Woo has been elected to the Hall of Fame of the Mechanical Engineering (ME) Department at the University of Washington. The ME Hall of Fame at UW was inaugurated during 2006, the centennial year of the department.  Election to the Hall of Fame is intended as a lifetime achievement award to honor ME alumni, former students, faculty, and staff who have made major contributions to the ME Department and/or the mechanical engineering discipline.  Professor Woo was awarded the M.S. degree from the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Washington. Additional details of the Hall of Fame, including a listing of persons already inducted, are available on the website: http://www.me.washington.edu/people/halloffame/

Dr. Jonathan Vande Geest was recently awarded an NSF CAREER AWARD for the project entitled, "The development of a patient-specific endovascular graft for vascular applications."  Dr. Vande Geest  who performed his PhD research in Dr. David Vorp's lab and graduated in 2005, is currently Assistant Professor, Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering Department, The University of Arizona.

View the URL for an article in the Washington Post about Professor William Wagner’s cardiac patch research. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/04/AR2007060401224_pf.html

BioE graduate student, Mohammed El-Kurdi's abstract entitled, "TOWARD AN ENGINEERED VEIN GRAFT USING AN EXTERNAL ELECTROSPUN BIODEGRADABLE POLYMER WRAP TO GRADUALLY IMPOSE ARTERIAL CIRCUMFERENTIAL WALL STRESS," has been selected as a Top 20 finalist for the TERMIS-NA 2007 Poster Competition at the upcoming Regenerate meeting.  Mohammed conducted this work in Dr. David Vorp's lab.

Dr. Rakie Cham's comments on NBC News last P.M. can be found at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/  (when you open that page, click on the link to the features on accidental deaths in the right hand column).  Sonia Bembic is looking into ordering the clip for our website.  FROM PITT NEWS: NEWS FLASH! Rakie Cham, professor of bioengineering in Pitt's School of Engineering, is scheduled to appear in an NBC Nightly News story this evening between 6:30 and 7. Cham's portion of the segment focuses on Pitt's Human Movement and Balance Lab, which works toward the prevention of fall and musculoskeletal injuries.

A publication by BioE graduate student, Kevin Mihelc is in the current issue of ASAIO Journal.  Kevin performed this work in Professor William Federspiel’s lab.  Eash, Heide J.; Mihelc, Kevin M.; Frankowski, Brian J.; Hattler, Brack G.; Federspiel, William J. “Evaluation of Fiber Bundle Rotation for Enhancing Gas Exchange in a Respiratory Assist Catheter.” ASAIO Journal. 53(3):368-373, May/June 2007