Biomedical Engineering News

Goldman Presents at From Lab to Marketplace

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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.

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Biomedical Engineers Inducted into Order of the Engineering

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On April 18, 2016, the Department of Chemical Engineering hosted its Order of the Engineer induction ceremony.

The ceremony welcomed 53 new members to the order, including two biomedical engineers and three faculty and staff members.

In 2015, 27 members were inducted, bringing the total of the Michigan Tech Chemical Engineering cohort to 134 since 2014.

Read more at Tech Today, by Chemical Engineering.

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Biomedical Engineering Graduate Seminar: Design and Analysis of Next Generation Sequencing Data

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image125972-persBiomedical Engineering Graduate Seminar: Friday, October 30-3:00 pm, U113 M&M
The Department of Biomedical Engineering presents: Dr. Kui Zhang, Professor, Mathematical Sciences, Michigan Technological University

Title: Design and Analysis of Next Generation Sequencing Data

In this talk, I will present my recent research on design and analysis of next generation sequencing (NGS) data. The talk can be divided into two parts. The first part of the talk will focus on developments of novel statistical methods. The Hidden Markov Model in genotype calling from NGS data will be intro-duced. Its extension that can use additional information from sequencing reads for improvements will be described. The further extensions that can use family samples and admixed sample will be discussed. The second part of the talk will mainly be on several collaborative projects including the identification of genetic variants that are associated with HIV infection in a genetic association study, a study with the RNA sequencing technologies, etc. The problems and the statistical methods used in these analysis will be discussed.

Graduate Seminar Kui Zhang

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Life Science and Technology Institute (LSTI) Research Forum

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IMG_3557aLSTI first Annual Research Forum
by Department of Biomedical Engineering

The Michigan Tech community viewed the first Annual Life Science and Technology Institute (LSTI) Research Forum that was held Friday September 25. Posters were in the Memorial Union Ballroom A1. Student awards were presented. Undergraduate and graduate students working in life science-related fields showed their research posters in separate competitions.

Sanaz Habibi (Adrienne Minerick’s M.D.-ERL Lab), PhD student in the Chemical Engineering department, won the grand prize for the best poster for her work on “Do Faradaic Reactions Cause Hemolysis in Non-Uniform Alternating Current Electric Fields?.”

Sanaz Habibi : Do Faradaic Reactions Cause Hemolysis in Non-Uniform Alternating Current Electric Fields?
Sanaz Habibi : Do Faradaic Reactions Cause Hemolysis in Non-Uniform Alternating Current Electric Fields?

Graduate Merit Awards winners for the Life Science and Technology Institute (LSTI) Research Forum indlude: Graduate students:

Ramkumar Mohan (Biology)—”MicroRNA-483, A Differentially Expressed MicroRNA Between Pancreatic Beta Cells and Alpha Cells,” Advisor: Zhang/Tang
Ni Fan (Chem)—”Glycan-Dependent Mutual and Reversible Sequestration,” Advisor: Dam
Robert Larson (KIP)—”High Salt Intake Augments Excitability of Pre-sympathetic PVN Neurons,” Advisor: Chen

The Undergraduate Student award winners included: Grand Prize: Jared Pecore (Biology)—”The Mechanisms Underlying α-Amanitin Resistance in Drosophila melanogaster: A Microarray Analysis,” Advisor: Werner
Undergraduate Merit Award: Dakota Anderson (KIP)—”Upper-Extremity Eccentric Exercise: Increases in Muscle Strength and Power at Moderate Training Intensities”

Jared Pecore- Grand Prize, Undergrad
Jared Pecore- Grand Prize, Undergrad


View Photo gallery of Life Science and Technology Institute (LSTI) Research Forum

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Biomedical News Briefs

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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

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Superior Ideas: Biomedical Engineering

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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.

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BME Students Win Awards in Design Expo

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The International Business Ventures took first place in the Enterprise program and the

First Place Award Enterprise IBV (International Business Ventures)
Team Leaders: Leslie LaLonde and Andrew Clark, Biomedical Engineering
Advisors: Robert Warrington, Pavlis Honors College
Sponsor: Pavlis Honors College

Project Overview: The Infant Heart Annunciator is a small, BandAid-shaped device that detects an infant’s electrocardiogram, producing a visible flash and audible tone. Often in developing countries, those present at birth do not have the training or equipment needed to determine if an unresponsive infant is alive. Our goal is to eliminate this unnecessary loss of life. Our team is also designing a simple, yet reliable, ventilator that can be stockpiled by hospitals. Typically, hospitals maintain sufficient numbers of ventilators; however, an increase of patients resulting from a pandemic could create a shortage of ventilators. The current high cost of most ICU ventilators prevents hospitals from stockpiling these machines.

Part of the First Place team that won the Enterprise Award IBV (International Business Ventures)
Part of the First Place team that won the Enterprise Award IBV (International Business Ventures)

BME Team won Honorable Mention – Compliance Keweenaw: Aspirus Keweenaw Hand-washing Compliance System
Team Members: Anna Waller, Jannah Brandt, Drew Markel, Creighton Bradley, and Rebecca Manshaem, Biomedical Engineering
Advisor: Bruce Lee, Biomedical Engineering
Sponsor: Aspirus Keweenaw

Project Overview: Hand hygiene is of importance to hospitals not only for the safety and health of employees but also to reduce the spread of hospital-acquired infections and protect patients. Aspirus Keweenaw recruited our team to create an automated system to track hand-washing compliance among employees to assist them in their goal of 100 percent compliance. We created a system using a microcontroller and RFID readers to detect when a healthcare worker enters a patient’s room and reaches compliance using the sanitizing foam dispenser. This system will be placed near the doorway and communicate with a wristband that identifies the healthcare worker and vibrates as a reminder if compliance is not reached.

BME Team won Honorable Mention – Compliance Keweenaw: Aspirus Keweenaw Hand-washing Compliance SystemTeam Members: Anna Waller, Jannah Brandt, Drew Markel, Creighton Bradley, and Rebecca Manshaem, Biomedical Engineering
BME Team won Honorable Mention – Compliance Keweenaw: Aspirus Keweenaw Hand-washing Compliance System
Team Members: Anna Waller, Jannah Brandt, Drew Markel, Creighton Bradley, and Rebecca Manshaem, Biomedical Engineering

BME Teams were featured in the Michigan Tech news article: Design Expo 2015 Success: Winners, Senior Design and Enterprise Projects

See the Design Expo Summary

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