Entries in "Biomedical Engineering" ( for this category only)

Case Western Reserve biomed professor among panel of national translational medicine experts

Erin Lavik, a faculty member in Case Western Reserve University's Department of Biomedical Engineering, appeared in Washington, D.C. on November 20th as part of a national discussion regarding translational medicine. Read more in the CASE DAILY article.

Case Polymer Research Published in Science

Can you imagine polymer nanocomposites that transform from hard to soft and back again by exposure to liquid? Researchers from the Case School of Engineering and the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center have published results of such a polymer in Science. Case researchers were from the departments of macromolecular science and engineering and biomedical engineering.

More information available in the Case press release.

Science 7 March 2008:
Vol. 319. no. 5868, pp. 1370 - 1374
Stimuli-Responsive Polymer Nanocomposites Inspired by the Sea Cucumber Dermis
Jeffrey R. Capadona,Kadhiravan Shanmuganathan, Dustin J. Tyler, Stuart J. Rowan, Christoph Weder

If you are affiliated with Case, please use the eJournal Portal to discover what access for this article is available.

Biomedical Innovation, Design, and Entrepreneurship Awards (BMEidea)

The National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) has launched the fourth annual Biomedical Innovation, Design, and Entrepreneurship Awards (BMEidea). Student teams must submit by April 4, 2008. The top prize is $10,000. Winners are announced in June.

Case students can contact Ed Caner, director, Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Program (STEP) at 368-3710.

Visit the NCIIA Web site for more details.

[VIA: Case Daily, December 14, 2007]

What can nano do for you?

Come to Science Café Cleveland: a lively, informal scientific discussion in an inviting atmosphere of food and drink.

This month’s topic: What can nano do for you?

Featuring:
Dr. Steven Eppell (CWRU Biomedical Engineering) & Dr. Alexis Abramson (Case Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering)

WHERE: The brewpub downstairs at Great Lakes Brewing Company (2516 Market Ave, Cleveland)

WHEN: Monday, December 10th; drinks at 6 pm, discussion starts around 6:30 pm

WHO: Sponsored by the CWRU chapter of Sigma Xi, WGBH Boston, and Great Lakes Brewing Company

Science Café Cleveland takes place on the second Monday of each month at GLBC. A few free appetizers are provided, and participants are welcome to purchase additional food and drinks.

Inaugural Coulter-Case Lectureship in Biomedical Engineering

For the Case community...

The Case School of Engineering cordially invites you to the Inaugural Coulter-Case Lectureship in Biomedical Engineering
Thursday, October 11, 2007
5:00 – 6:00 pm
Wolstein Auditorium
(Cornell Road near University Hospitals)

From Professor To Inventor To Entrepreneur - The Excitement of High Tech Innovation

Presented by
James Wyant, CIT ‘65
Dean, College of Optical Sciences, The University of Arizona
http://www.optics.arizona.edu/Faculty/Resumes/Wyant.htm

Reception following in Wolstein Atrium

Event is free but registration is respectfully requested: JGriech@case.edu or 216-368-6804

Made possible by a grant from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University.

Medical Dictionary

MedicineNet.com has published an online medical dictionary that contains over 16,000 medical terms.

From About Us:

MedicineNet, Inc. is owned and operated by WebMD and part of the WebMD Network.

MedicineNet.com is an online, healthcare media publishing company. It provides easy-to-read, in-depth, authoritative medical information for consumers via its robust, user-friendly, interactive web site.

[VIA: The Scout Report -- Volume 13, Number 7]

$400,000 to Case School of Engineering

From the Case Daily (March 05, 2007):

Case School of Engineering Dean Norman Tien announced two new gifts to the school totaling nearly $400,000. The gifts are $270,000 from Medtronic to support fellowships in the Department of Biomedical Engineering; and $125,000 from Don Richards (CIT '79, MGT '81), managing director for applications outsourcing at Accenture, to support students in the Master of Engineering and Management (MEM), a joint program with the Weatherhead School of Management.

The Minneapolis-based Medtronic is a longtime School of Engineering partner. The company sponsored the school's Engineering Festival and was a primary sponsor of the 2007 Midwest Biomedical Engineering Conference, both of which the university hosted in conjunction with Engineering Week activities.

UK PubMed Central Launched

The British Library Press Release
UK PubMed Central Launched
9 January, 2007

From today scientists will be able to access a vast collection of biomedical research and to submit their own published results for inclusion in a new online resource. Based on a model currently used by the US National Institute of Health, UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) will provide free access to a permanent online archive of peer-reviewed research papers in the medical and life sciences. See: www.ukpmc.ac.uk.

See also PubMed Central (PMC), the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.

National Engineers Week @ Case

Case School of Engineering is observing the 56th annual National Engineers Week, a celebration of engineering's impact on society, February 18-23. This year's theme, "Imagine," will focus on innovation and design using engineering principles.

Various events, including:

• Case Engineering Festival
• Guided tours for visitors
• High School Lego Robot Competition
• Model Bridge Building Contest
• Battery-Powered Car Contest

In addition, the Midwest Biomedical Conference, an all-day conference designed to bring together students and practitioners of biomedical engineering and the life sciences for panel discussions, technical sessions and informed extended exchange of ideas important to the future of biomedical engineering in the Midwest, will be held on Friday, February 23, at 8 a.m. in Thwing Center.

For more details, see the E-Week schedule.

[VIA: Case News Center, February 15, 2007]

Midwest Biomedical Engineering Conference

The Case School of Engineering is hosting the Midwest Biomedical Engineering Conference on February 23. Online registration, abstract submission, and resume submission are now open. All abstracts and resumes must be submitted by February 9. For more information, go to http://www.mbecconference.org/.

From website:

MBEC 2007: "Showcasing the future of biomedical engineering"

The Midwest Biomedical Engineering Conference (MBEC) 2007 is designed to bring together students & practitioners of Biomedical Engineering and the Life Sciences for panel discussions, technical sessions, and informal extended exchange of ideas important to the future of Biomedical Engineering in the Midwest. Some conference highlights include:

• Assisting participants in planning their academic and industrial careers
• Introducing companies to the wealth of intellectual prowess rooted in the Midwest
• Exposing participants to innovative research in biomedical engineering and allied areas

MBEC 2007 is hosted by Case Western Reserve University. All universities are welcome to attend.

[VIA: Case Daily - February 02, 2007]

Continue reading "Midwest Biomedical Engineering Conference"

Online Encyclopedia of Medical Images

Effective January 1st, the entire OhioLINK community has access to Images.MD.

Images.MD, the online encyclopedia of medical images, compiles more than 55,000 images from more than 90 collections ranging from allergy to urology, each accompanied by detailed and informative text contributed by more than 2,000 medical experts.

Members of OhioLink have free access to full-sized, high quality images in step with the latest developments in medicine. By filling out a simple registration form, you can also start your own image library, create PowerPoint® presentations of images in your library, and order customized CD-ROMs of your favorite slides.

Case BME Professor Wins World Technology Award

P. Hunter Peckham, professor of biomedical engineering, recently received the 2006 World Technology Award for Health and Medicine. His research focuses on functional restoration of paralyzed arms in individuals with spinal cord injury.

The World Technology Network (WTN) is a global meeting ground, a virtual think tank, and an elite club whose members are all focused on the business and science of bringing important emerging technologies of all types (from biotech to new materials, from IT to new energy sources) into reality. The WTN's membership is comprised of approximately 1000 members from more than 60 countries, judged by their peers to be the most innovative in the technology world.

[VIA: Case Daily, December 1, 2006]

SOURCE Funds Case Students to Present Research

Several undergraduate students recently received SOURCE (Support of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors) travel funding to present their research at national conferences, including:

• Bradley Gill, senior biomedical engineering major, presented "Fluid volume conductance for determination of bladder volume" at the International Summer School and Symposium on Medical Devices and Biosensors. His faculty mentor is Margot Damaser;
• Nikki Kong, a senior chemistry major, presented a paper and poster at the 20th Annual Symposium of the Protein Society. Her faculty mentor is Mary Barkley; and
• Charles Sing, a junior polymer science and engineering major, presented a poster, "Effect of glass transition temperature on the kinetics of the phase separation of excimer-forming dyes in amorphous polymers," at the American Chemical Society's National Meeting and Exposition. Christoph Weder is his faculty mentor.

[VIA: Case Daily, November 9, 2006]

Case in the Top 100 in Biotechnology Research

A study released Wednesday by the Milken Institute, a nonprofit, independent economic think tank in Santa Monica, Calif., places Case in the top 100 of U.S. universities in biotechnology research and turning that research into commercial applications. As for Ohio universities specifically, Ohio State University ranked the highest, at 50th, followed by University of Cincinnati, 60th; University of Akron, 65th; and Case, 68th.

[VIA: Case Daily, September 21, 2006]

Materials, Medicine, and Nanotechnology Summit in Cleveland

Innovators in medical devices, clinical practice, and biomedical research will gather at Cleveland Clinic Oct. 2-5 to discuss the latest materials advances and nanotechnology discoveries and how they are resulting in new medical applications.

The Materials, Medicine, and Nanotechnology Summit will be hosted by Cleveland Clinic, ASM International, and the Nano-Network as the anchor event of Nano-Week™ 2006, a five-day exploration of how nanotechnology is changing our world. The Summit is comprised of the biennial Cleveland Clinic NanoMedicine Summit and ASM's Materials & Processes for Medical Devices (MPMD) Conference and Exposition.

Advance registration closes September 24.

Nanomedicine Lab Registry & Portal

The Nanomedicine Lab Registry was compiled from Medline abstracts containing specific nanomedicine keyphrases. It only includes laboratories with 5 or more publications. It uses a database of citation histories compiled from open source journal article reference lists and a major OCR (optical character recognition) campaign on their entire reference library. Labs are ranked according to the citation rate of each individual article. For articles where they do not have sufficient data or were too new to have citation data, they used historical citation data from the journal and the principal investigator. The registry currently ranks the top 382 laboratories, with Chad Mirkin's lab garnering the highest score. Pat Couvreur, Royce Murray, Dave Reinhoudt and Ralph Weissleder rounded out the top 5. Their intention with the registry is to help new graduate students and postdocs to find high impact laboratories. This information is probably interesting to the general public as well if they are interested in the most productive labs.

Related is the Nanomedicine and Nanobiology Research portal that includes recent high impact publications, recent nanomedicine jobs, recent nanomedicine news, top ranked nanomedicine scientists, nanomedicine links, featured nanomedicine books, and nanomedicine conferences.

The Lab Registry is maintained by Ion Channel Media Group, and it operates a number of life science portals. It is founded by J. Christian Hesketh, who is trained in classical biophysics in Canada.

Nanotechnology - Unknown Risks and Future Prospects

Charles Piller (Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2006) explores nanotechnology from safety to future prospects. The related graphic contains quite interesting information. For example, U.S. patents in nanotechnology increased from 1000 in 1990 to over 5000 in 2003. The U.S. also granted approximately 5 times as many patents in nanotechnology than any other country in 2003. The U.S., Europe, and Japan have all contributed over a billion dollars each to nanotechnology research. Make sure to check out the related PDF that describes terminology of various nanostructures.

(VIA: Quick Picks, June 2, 2006)

Biointerphases - New Open Access Journal

The Biointerphases journal, an open access journal for the biomaterials interface community, provides an interdisciplinary platform for scientific exchange among the biology, chemistry, physics, and materials sciences communities. It offers a discussion forum for rapid dissemination of scientific theories, results, and interpretations. Biointerphases serves as a global vehicle for the biomaterials interface community as well as a platform that encourages dialog between scientists and the public with respect to cogent policy issues.

[About Biointerphases]

Biointerphases is devoted to Articles of original research, Reviews, a "Myth and Reality" section addressing controversial models and experiments, Editorial Commentary/Letters to the Editor, Perspectives on Evolving Research, Reports on Interdisciplinary Research Programs and Opinionated Essays.

Biointerphases will include all topics relevant to the study and understanding of interfaces and confined phases in biomaterial science and biophysics, e. g. such as interface spectroscopy, in vivo mechanisms, in vitro mechanisms, interface modeling, adhesion phenomena, protein-surface interactions, cell-surface interactions, biomembranes on a chip, biosensors / biodiagnostics, bio-surface modification, the nano-bio interface, biotribology / biorheology, molecular recognition, cell patterning for function, polyelectrolyte surfaces, and ambient diagnostic methods. Biointerphases is freely available online, and will be available in an annual bound volume for a nominal fee.

NIH Research

The NIH Budget and the Future of Biomedical Research
Joseph Loscalzo, M.D., Ph.D.
The New England Journal of Medicine
Volume 354, Number 16, Pages 1665-1667, April 20, 2006

The "first true budgeted reduction in NIH support since 1970" is predicted for 2007. See the full article for what this may mean for biomedical research.

BioMed Central Journals Have RSS Feeds

BioMed Central offers RSS feeds for each of their journals.

[What is BioMed Central?]

BioMed Central is an independent publishing house committed to providing immediate open access to peer-reviewed biomedical research. Read more here...

Track Biomedical Papers Being Discussed by Bloggers

Postgenomic collates posts from life science blogs and then does useful and interesting things with that data. For example, you can see which papers are currently being discussed by neurologists, or which web pages are being linked to by bioinformaticians. It's sort of like a hot papers meeting with the entire biomed blogging community.

A RSS feed is available to track the "Posts of the day", "Current hot stories", or "Current hot papers".

[About Postgenomic]

Postgenomic aggregates posts from life science blogs and then does useful and interesting things with that data.

For example, it allows you to get an instant picture of which web sites are being heavily linked to by researchers in the medical sciences, or which papers are being cited or reviewed most often by bioinformaticians, or which buzzwords are being used the most frequently by evolutionary biologists.

It's sort of like a hot papers meeting with the entire biomed blogging community.

Sort of.

Postgenomic's primary purpose is to act as a central repository for reviews of scientific papers and for conference reports. You can help with this by adding some very simple semantic markup to your blog posts when you write a review of a paper. In this context a "review" isn't necessarily a particularly long or critical assessment of the paper (though it could be): it's simply any information that other researchers might find useful.

(Originally shared on the Science Library Pad, March 3, 2006)

Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics

In January of 2006, the Optical Society of America (OSA) launched the Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics.

[About Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics]

The Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics (ISSN: 1931-1532) consists of selected articles recently published in OSA's peer-reviewed journals. For the virtual journal, biomedical optics is considered to include research involving the interface between light and medicine or biology. Articles are selected by the editor, Dr. Gregory W. Faris, on the basis of relevancy using OCIS codes and abstract keywords.

Each issue comprises articles published in the source journals during the previous month. Thus the February virtual journal issue features articles originally published in January. Additional content such as editorials, meeting announcements, tutorials and reviews, and articles from other publications will also be solicited and published as the virtual journal expands its scope over time.

Citations to articles in the Virtual Journal for Biomedical Optics should be made to the original source journals.

[About OSA]

Founded in 1916, the Optical Society of America (OSA) was organized to increase and diffuse the knowledge of optics, pure and applied; to promote the common interests of investigators of optical problems, of designers and of users of optical apparatus of all kinds; and to encourage cooperation among them. The purposes of the Society are scientific, technical and educational. Read more at...

MEMS Technology and Biomedical Applications - Conference

The Gordon Research Conference on "MEMS Technology and Biomedical Applications" will be held at Connecticut College, New London, CT during the week of June 25-30, 2006. There is an opportunity for researchers and their students to present their work at a poster session during the conference. More information about the conference, including links to registration can be found at http://www.grc.uri.edu/programs/2006/mems.htm.

Session topics include:

• Novel BioMEMS Sensing
• Chemical Specificity for BioMEMS Sensing
• BioMaterials for BioMEMS
• MEMS Technology as a Biomedical Device Platform
• Biologically Inspired MEMS
• Biofluidic Microsystems
• Lab-on-a-Chip
• Implantable MEMS Devices
• Applications of BioMEMS in Human Health

Several Case speakers are listed, including:

• Horst von Recum - "Activation of gene regulation by a drug delivery microchip"
• Carlos Mastrangelo - Tentative Title: "Microfluidics chips for integrated DNA Assays"

Bioscience Funding - Ohio is #2

The Cleveland Dealer (January 23, 2006) reported that Ohio was the No. 2 spot in the Midwest for venture capital investments in bioscience last year.

Biological Informatics

Thanks to the Engineering Resources blog for sharing information about the Biological Informatics Blog.

BiologicalInformatics.info is a Subject Tracer™ Information Blog developed and created by the Virtual Private Library™. It is designed to bring together the latest resources and sources on an ongoing basis from the Internet for biological informatics (health informatics, neuroinformatics, biodiversity informatics and biomolecular informatics).

The Virtual Private Library™ is powered by Subject Tracer Bots™ that continuously search, monitor and update for custom virtual library subject(s) that are listed as an unique ontology subject tree and directory including resource utilization of blogs, wikis, listserv® and news aggregators.

Advances in Nanotechnology - Links Updated

The Scout Report (Volume 11, Number 44, November 4, 2005) has put together a collection of various nanotechnology web sites.

• Ethical issues in nanotechnology
• National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI)
• Nanotubes and Buckyballs
• Center for Responsible Nanotechnology

Interactive Concepts in Biochemistry

The Scout Report (June 24, 2005, Volume 4, Number 13) showcased Interactive Concepts in Biochemistry.

While Interactive Concepts in Biochemistry is a companion website to Dr. Rodney Boyer's Concepts in Biochemistry (2nd edition), which CASE does not own, it is still a nice multimedia web site for instruction in biochemistry.

In addition to sections that correspond to each of the book's chapters, the web site offers many opportunities for learning. It offers Concept Reviews with quizzes for elementary kinetics, logarithms, pH & buffers, Redox reactions, and thermodynamics. The web site contains various interactive animations, such as cell structure, cloning, glycolysis, or photosynthesis. Using Chemscape Chime plug-in, the web site offers interactive structure tutorials in various topics, such as DNA or kinesin. The web site also includes articles on "cutting edge" topics and various web links for further exploration.

New Open Access Journal: EURASIP Journal on Signal Processing and Bioinformatics

UPDATE: Name has already changed to "EURASIP Journal on Bioinformatics and Systems Biology".

Hindawi Publishing Corporation is preparing to published a new open access journal called EURASIP Journal on Signal Processing and Bioinformatics.

[Aims & Scope]

The overall aim of EURASIP JSPB is to publish research results related to signal processing and bioinformatics theories and techniques relevant to a wide area of applications into the core new disciplines of genomics, proteomics, and systems biology. The journal is intended to offer a common platform for scientists from several areas including signal processing, bioinformatics, statistics, biology and medicine, who are interested in the development of algorithmic, mathematical, statistical, modeling, simulation, data mining, and computational techniques, as demanded by various applications in genomics, proteomics, system biology, and more general in health and medicine.

New Biological Science Awareness Tool - Faculty of 1000

BioMed Central now publishes a new web site called Faculty of 1000. Faculty of 1000 is the next generation literature awareness tool. It is a revolutionary new online research service that will comprehensively and systematically highlight and review the most interesting papers published in the biological sciences, based on the recommendations of a faculty of well over 1000 selected leading researchers.

Articles are categorized in subject areas, including biochemistry, bioinformatics, biotechnology, cell biology, chemical biology, developmental biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, genomics & genetics, immunology, microbiology, molecular biology, molecular medicine, neuroscience, physiology, plant biology, and structural biology. In addition, users can browse the "Top 10", "All Time Top 10", "Most Viewed", or the "Hidden Jewels."

[About Faculty of 1000]
Faculty of 1000 will be run by scientists for scientists, and will provide a rapidly updated consensus map of the important papers and trends across biology.

Faculty of 1000:

• Provides scientists with a continuously updated insider's guide to the most important papers within any given field of research
  
• Highlights papers on the basis of their scientific merit rather than the journal in which they appear
  
• Offers the researcher a consensus of recommendations from well over 1000 leading scientists
  
• Systematically organizes and evaluates the mass of information within scientific literature
  
• Offers an immediate rating of individual papers by the authors' peers, and an important complement to the indirect assessment provided by the journal impact factor.

Journal of International Medical Research - Open Access Journal Title

Thanks to George S. Porter on the CHMINF-L listserv for sharing this announcement on this new open access journal. Journal of International Medical Research provides articles free on the Internet, because it operates under a page sponsorship fee system.

[About Journal of International Medical Research]

Founded in 1972, The Journal of International Medical Research has established itself as a leading journal for rapid publication of original medical, pre-clinical and clinical research.

Clinical and pre-clinical studies are welcomed as are reviews, case reports, preliminary communications and studies on new indications or new formulations of established products. Post-marketing surveillance, pharmacoeconomic and managed care studies are also invited.

Journal supplements for symposium proceedings, summaries of presentations or collections of medical, pre-clinical or clinical data on a specific topic are published and enquiries from potential sponsors of these are welcome.

All medical areas will be considered for publication including animal pharmacology, clinical pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, drug metabolism, toxicology, teratology and clinical trials.

Immunome Research - New Open Access Title

Thanks to George S. Porter on the CHMINF-L listserv for sharing this announcement on this new open access journal. BioMed Central has started publication of its newest open access journal title, Immunome Research.

[About Immunome Research]

Immunome Research is an Open Access, peer-reviewed, online journal integrating traditional laboratory research with the latest technologies, including genomics, bioinformatics and mathematical modelling.

Immunome Research is a journal of the International Immunomics Society (IIMMS). The journal aims to provide a focal point for the field of Immunomics, which lies at the intersection between traditional laboratory research and the latest research technologies. It thereby includes the sub-speciality immunoinformatics, as well as the application of large-scale genomics to the immune system. Rapidly expanding areas of particular interest include the predicting of MHC-peptide binding, mathematical modelling of viral/host interactions, and the use of gene expression arrays to model immune system pathways.

To date there has been no specialty journal covering this new and rapidly expanding domain. Researchers published their immunomics research either in general immunology journals or in bioinformatics journals. These journals generally do not have ready access to expert reviewers with knowledge in both domains - i.e. traditional immunology and bioinformatics/modelling. Furthermore, researchers interested in reading more in the area cannot easily access or find relevant articles, which are sprinkled across many different journals. The International Immunomics Society (IIMMS) has a rapidly growing membership that has expressed the need to have a high quality specialist journal to provide consistent standards to the field and provide a focal point for growth of this area.

2005 Best Places To Work In Industry (Biobusiness)

The Scientist has issued an article the describes the best places to work in the biobusiness industry. The article lists the top 10 large and small companies. In addition, the article lists the top 10 factors people considered while surveyed for this article. The most important factor was the "work is personally satisfying." I am sure we all agree with that one.

See the full article for more information.