Biomedical Engineering News

Category: Research

Rapid Design of 3D Printed Casts

Published
By

Subject Specific Wrist CastMaterialise, a corporate blog, published an article about 3-D printed orthopaedic casts designed by a team from Michigan Tech to conform to the individual needs of each patient’s fracture.

From Tech Today.

Could 3D Printing Provide an Alternative to Plaster Casts?

Anyone who has ever had a broken arm, sprained ankle or anything that requires wearing a cast undoubtedly remembers how uncomfortable it was. Sure, it was fun to get everyone’s signature on your arm or leg, but that didn’t make up for the itchiness, the rash and the difficulties involved when taking a shower. A bright team of engineers at Michigan Technological University thought there had to be a better solution, and came up with a lightweight, porous, 3D-printed alternative instead.

Dr. Jingfeng Jiang, leader of the project, commented: “The Lightweight Structures Module enabled us to rapidly design and create prototypes of these orthopaedic casts given any patient-specific wrist geometry. Furthermore, the software allowed us to export the virtual design directly to ANSYS for FEA analysis, so that we could make sure the model was strong enough to withstand different loading conditions.”

Read more at Materialise, by Stephanie Benoit.

Continue Reading →

Goldman Presents at From Lab to Marketplace

Published
By

How do discoveries in university labs turn into commercially available—and potentially lifesaving—products?

This Wednesday, May 25, 2016, teams of Michigan Tech scientists and engineers will present their innovative technologies to a state funding review committee. The reviewers, officially designated an Oversight Committee, will be making decisions on grants from the Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization (MTRAC) program, a $6 million state-funded program developed and managed by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) to help commercialize university translational research.

An example of a team that will present on Wednesday afternoon is Professor Jarek Drelich (MSE) and Associate Professor Jeremy Goldman (BME). They are working on developing a metal alloy that would perform well as a biodegradable stent for heart surgery and other uses where a biodegradable material is desirable. They have been working for some time to find a material with all the necessary properties that will biodegrade harmlessly in the body over a set period of time.

Read more at Tech Today, by Jenn Donovan.

Continue Reading →

Biomedical News Briefs

Published
By

IMG_5897

Jeremy Goldman (BE/IMP) is the principal investigator on a research and development project that received a $442,004 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. The two-year project is titled, Biodegradation Mechanism and Rate, Biocompatibility, and Toxicity for Novel Zn-Mg Stent Materials. Also working on the project are Jaroslaw Drelich (MSE) and Feng Zhao (BE).

Rupak Rajachar (Bio Med) is the primary investigator of a project that is the recipient of a $326,346 research and development grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – National Institutes of Health.
The project is Adhesive PEG-Fibrinogen Nitric Oxide Releasing Hydrogetls for use as a Wound Healing and Tissue Engineering Support. Also working the project is Bruce Lee (Bio Med, and Megan Frost (Bio Med).

Lake Superior Magazine’s June-July issue includes an article on several Michigan Tech biomedical researchers including Assistant Professor Feng Zhao, Associate Professor Mo Rastgaar, Professor Adrienne Minerick and several biomedical engineering students.

The Michigan Tech Vice President for Research Office announces the Research Execellence Fund Awards. Thanks to the volunteer review committees, as well as the deans and department chairs, for their time spent on this important internal research award process. Infrastructure Enhancement Grants: Sean Kirkpatrick, BRC/Biomed Eng. Repair and Upgrade Advanced Fluorescent Microscope; Research Seed Grants: Feng Zhao, Biomed Eng and Jingfeng Jiang, BRC/Biomed Eng; Link to full list

Continue Reading →

Superior Ideas: Biomedical Engineering

Published
By

IMG_5897Biomedical Engineering Researchers Feng Zhao and Bruce Lee have separate Superior Ideas projects called “Making heart Bypass Grafts Safer” and “Soft Robotic Component with a Mussel Tone” respectively.

Superior Ideas helps bring university research and public service projects to life. Through Superior Ideas, researchers can spread the word of their projects—and gain funding along the way.

Superior Ideas operates using crowdfunding, a relatively new concept in which individuals join together through many small donations to help fund a large project. When donors give to a researcher’s project, they are helping fund technological advances, and showing their financial support and interest in the project’s goals. There is no shortage of sites taking advantage of this new venue for funding. However, Superior Ideas offers donors, researchers, and partner Universities two distinct advantages over other crowdfunding sites:

  • Superior Ideas is operated by Michigan Technological University, a public nonprofit university, enabling donors from the United States to claim a charitable donation for federal income tax purposes.
  • Superior Ideas verifies the validity of each project posted on our website; since we are run in conjunction with a leading research university, we can ensure that only the best-of-the-best projects are being offered to potential donors.
  • Superior Ideas exists to empower both researchers and donors by providing a platform for university researchers to describe their innovative and ambitious projects to the public, and donors can express their interest and support with just the click of a mouse to the project links listed below.

ZhaoZhao’s project:
Decription: “This research aims to provide solutions for problems associated with the regeneration of small-diameter vessels to be used in cardiovascular procedures. Supporting this project will move the crucial technology toward clinical trials, commercialization, and saving lives.”

URL: http://www.superiorideas.org/projects/safer-heart

Timeline: This project will expire on Sunday, September 6th.

LeeLee’s project:
Description: “By incorporating chemistry commonly utilized by marine mussels, this research plans to create soft robotic components which could better interface with biological systems.”

URL: http://www.superiorideas.org/projects/mussel-chemistry

Timeline: This project will expire on Sunday, August 30th.

Continue Reading →

Biotechnology Research Center Research Forum Awards

Published
By

Caleb Vogt
Caleb Vogt
The Eleventh Annual Research Forum sponsored by the Biotechnology Research Center was held on Wednesday, Oct. 22, and Thursday, Oct. 23. Forty-one graduate and undergraduate students conducting research in life science, biotechnology, human health and related areas presented posters. Oral presentations were also given. Speakers included Jeremy Goldman (Bio Med), Ashutosh Tiwari (Chem), Hairong Wei (SFRES), Justin Segula (SFRES graduate student), Jingtuo Zhang (Chem graduate student) and Caleb Vogt (Bio Med undergrad student).

Thank you to the participants, the judges and all who helped with another successful BRC Research Forum. A list of BRC award winners is below.

Graduate Grand Prize
Maria Gencoglu (ChE) “A New Virus Purification Process: Virus Flocculation in the Presence of Osmolytes”
Advisor: Caryn Heldt

Graduate Merit Awards
Emily Shearier (Bio Med) “Mesenchymal Stem Cell Spheroids for Therapy Following Axillary Lymph Node Dissection” Advisor: Feng Zhao

Yu Wang (Bio Med) “Building a Virtual Breast Elastography Phantom Lab Using Open Source Software”
Advisor: Jingfeng Jiang

Undergraduate Grand Prize
Caleb Vogt (Bio Med) “Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell Response to Nitric Oxide Relesasing Materials”
Advisors: Megan Frost and Feng Zhao

Undergraduate Merit Award
Mitchell Tahtinen (Bio Med) “Prevascularization of Natural Extracellular Matrix Scaffold”
Advisor: Feng Zhao

Continue Reading →

“Virtual Breast” Could Improve Cancer Detection

Published
By

image113672-horizNext to lung cancer, breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in women, according to the American Cancer Society. That’s why so many medical professionals encourage women to get mammograms, even though the tests are imperfect at best: only a minority of suspicious mammograms actually leads to a cancer diagnosis.
That results in lots of needless worry for women and their families—not to mention the time, discomfort and expense of additional tests, including ultrasounds and biopsies.
MORE

Continue Reading →