2017 News

1. BME/MechE Prof. Jimmy Hsia and his Post Doc Changjin Huang along with David Quinn, and Subra Suresh (former president of Carnegie Mellon and president-designate of NTU, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) have developed a novel technique for producing synthetic gels that give us a clue into the process of morphogenesis (read the article).

2. BME Ph.D. student Elaine Soohoo, advised by Prof. Dennis Trumble has been selected to receive a Liang Ji-Dian Graduate Fellowship in the amount of $4000 to be applied to her tuition. This fellowship was created through the generosity of Liang Ji-Dian to help support the graduate studies of highly deserving CIT Ph.D. students of Chinese heritage.

3. Prof. Jana Kainerstorfer has been awarded a 3-year, NIH Trailblazer grant “Non-invasive intracranial pressure sensing with near-infrared light for monitoring the healthy and diseased brain”. The grant is focused on measuring neuro-vascular coupling with combined electrical and optical recording in an animal model of hydrocephalus.

4. BME Ph.D. student Elaine Soohoo, advised by Prof. Dennis Trumble has been selected as a 2018 Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Graduate Fellow to complete a 12-week program in Washington, D.C. at the National Academy of Sciences office.

5. BME Department congratulates alum Anthony DiGioia M.D. (B.S. 1979, M.S. 1982), on the publication of his book entitled “The Patient Centered Value System: Transforming Healthcare through Co-Design”, in which he articulates on his long passion of teaming medical professionals with patients and family members to deliver integrated patient care.

6. Former Ph.D. student Jian Zhang, advised by Prof. Yu-li Wang, published a paper in Molecular Biology of the Cell, entitled “Centrosome defines the rear of cells during mesenchymal migration”. Challenging the conventional view that cell migration is steered at the front, the study suggests that centrosome, the organelle involved in setting the direction of cell migration, is positioned towards the rear where it sends signals to define the position of the tail of a migrating cell (read the paper).

7. Prof. Keith Cook discussed his scientific advancement on the PBS show called SciTech Now! He developed an artificial lung that promises to provide needed long-term respiratory support for patients waiting for a transplant. Please use this link to watch it.

8. The BME department had a strong presence at the 2017 BMES Annual Meeting in Phoenix, AZ, which was attended by over 4,000 biomedical engineers. Along with giving 19 presentations, BME students and faculty sponsored a booth and hosted a dinner for prospective graduate students. It was our strongest conference presence ever, and we can’t wait for the 2018 Annual Meeting!

9. CMU students, Rei Ukita and Sahil Rastogi, won best podium presentation awards in two of the four presentation sessions. Read the news here.

10. We are delighted to welcome Prof. Rosalyn Abbott as a new faculty to the Department of Biomedical Engineering! The research of Prof. Abbott is focused on monitoring physiologically relevant, sustainable, human adipose tissues in vitro to gain new insights into metabolic diseases.

11. We are also delighted to welcome Prof. Xi (Charlie) Ren as a new faculty to the Department of Biomedical Engineering! The research of Prof. Ren is focused on the biomaterial and stem cell engineering, with the goal of providing regenerative therapeutic solutions to repair or replace damaged tissues and organs.

12. Prof. Byron Yu and collaborator Prof. A. Batista at Pitt are awarded by the NIH with a new R01 research grant entitled "Dynamical Constraints on Neural Population Activity". The goal of the project is to use brain-computer interfaces to probe how the brain prepares and executes arm movements.

13. Prof. Jana Kainerstorfer is awarded with a Scientist Development Grant from the American Heart Association, entitled “Cerebral autoregulation assessment with near-infrared light during intracranial pressure changes”. The goal of the project is to use near-infrared spectroscopy for non-invasively monitoring changes in intracranial pressure, which may occur as a result of disease or trauma and cause brain damage.

14. The group of Prof. Cohen-Karni published a paper in ACS Nano entitled “Nanowire-Mesh-Templated Growth of Out-of-Plane Three-Dimensional Fuzzy Graphene“. The paper describes the preparation of a true 3D hybrid nanomaterial with a potential for novel applications in biomedical sensing.

15. Profs. Byron Yu and Steve Chase are awarded with a renewal R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health, entitled "Shaping Neural Population Dynamics to Facilitate Learning".  The goal of the project is to use brain-computer interfaces to study how to accelerate learning. 

16. Prof. Steve Chase and collaborators published a paper in the journal eLife, entitled “Dynamic range adaptation in primary motor cortical populations”. The study shows that the brain optimizes how it represents movements, much like a camera with auto contrast control optimizes its sensitivity to light (read the paper, and the news).

17. BME Teaching Professor and Associate Head Prof. Conrad Zapanta receives Honorable Mention in the University/Post-Secondary Educator category of the Carnegie Science Awards, presented annually by the Pittsburgh Carnegie Science Center to recognize and promote outstanding science and technology achievements in western Pennsylvania (read the news).

18. The Biomedical Engineering Department at Carnegie Mellon University officially hosted the orientations for incoming Master’s and Ph.D. students over the last week of August. Vivat Academia! Please see pictures of the promising new students here.

19. BME Ph.D. student Diane Nelson is the winner of this year’s CMU 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) Championship, an internationally recognized competition that challenges Ph.D. students to present a compelling oration on their thesis in 3 minutes, in language that anyone can understand.

20. BME Ph.D. student Sahil Rastogi, co-advised by Prof. Cohen-Karni and Ge Yang, is the lead author of a paper "Effect of Graphene on Nonneuronal and Neuronal Cell Viability and Stress", published in the journal NanoLetters. The paper shows that graphene has no adverse effect on cells and highlights its potential in biomedical applications (link to the paper)

21. This year’s BME Graduate Student Welcome Party was held on the Princess ship of the Gateway Clipper. Students, faculty, and staff enjoyed wonderful weather, magnificent views of Pittsburgh and delicious food. Please see more pictures of happy BME folks here.

22. The Biomedical Engineering Department celebrated diversity with a potluck lunch on September 1st. Everyone brought their favorite dishes that reminded them of where they were from, be it from another country or a region of the US. We also used a map of the world to mark where we grew up, showing how diverse our Department is! Please have a look at pictures here.

23. BME MS students Deepshikha Acharya and Vishaal Dhamotharan are members of the CMU team that won the HP and Intel Life in Space Design Challenge. Their design, Muscle Maximus, is a self-sustaining wearable resistance system for enhancing muscle activities in space (read the news, and watch the video).

24. Stop by to see the pictures from 2017 BME Apple Picking. BME students had lots of fun picking apples at Triple B's Farm. Happy faces, fabulous weather, and bags full of apples! What a great way to spend a magnificent fall day!

25. Last week BME hosed a Thanksgiving potluck lunch where students, faculty and staff spent wonderful time together tasting delicious food and sharing plans and spirits for the coming Christmas holidays.

26. Last week BME hosted a Graduate Students Christmas Party with White Elephant gift exchange. Funny gifts made the biggest splash at the party, but were not the most desirable items for swapping. Check out the spirit of this fun game here.

27. Prof. James Antaki is awarded with a renewal R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health, entitled “Multiscale Model of Thrombosis in Artificial Circulation”. The goal of the project is to use computer simulations for predicting and alleviating blood-damaging problems of medical devices such as artificial hearts.

28. Prof. Jimmy Hsia and coworkers published a paper in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, entitled “Formation and Size Distribution of Self-Assembled Vesicles”. The study sheds light on the formation of cellular structures and suggests new possibilities for disease intervention (read the news).

29. Prof. Tzahi Cohen-Karni is a recipient of the Office of Naval Research 2017 Young Investigator Award, to work on a project “Three-Dimensional -3D- Nanosensors Array For Measurement of the Electrical Activity of Microscale Human Brain Tissue”. The program attracts outstanding junior faculty members in U.S. academic institutions to support their research, and to encourage their teaching and research careers (read the announcement).

30. BME Ph.D. student Alexander Ruesch, advised by Prof. Jana Kainerstorfer, received an Early Career Investigator Travel Bursary to attend the Brain & Brain PET 2017 Conference, to be held in Berlin, Germany in April 2017.

31. BME Ph.D. student Elaine Soohoo, advised by Prof. Dennis Trumble, is the first author of a paper entitled “Computational Parametric Studies Investigating the Global Hemodynamic Effects of Applied Apical Torsion for Cardiac Assist”, published in the journal Annuals in Biomedical Engineering.

32. Prof. Bob Tilton has been named Editor of Colloids and Surfaces A: Physicochemical and Engineering Aspects. This international journal published by Elsevier is devoted to the science underlying applications of colloids and interfacial phenomena.