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Current News
Will Mauldin wins $10K prize at the UVa Cup
Will Mauldin, a graduate student in Bill Walker’s ultrasound lab, placed 2nd in the UVa Cup, a competition for UVa’s best entrepreneurial concept. He takes home a $10K prize to develop Rheo Logic, which uses ultrasound-based technology to make high-accuracy, in-line measurements to detail the structural properties of pharmaceutical products, foods and beverages, improving safety of consumer products.
Inaugural Southeast BME Career Conference a Success!
UVa, Duke, and the BME Career Alliance had long recognized the need for a regional career fair specifically for bioengineering job- and internship-seekers. So, they teamed up to organize the first-ever Southeast Bioengineering Career Conference (SEBECC) in Washington DC on October 30th. 150 students and young alumni from 20 universities talked jobs and internships with representatives from 13 bioengineering companies and 15 sponsor organizations. Conference organizers are already planning next year’s event. For more information, contact BME Director of Internships and Corporate Outreach, Bobbe Nixon (bobbe@virginia.edu).
Matt Eames wins IEEE Student Paper Competition
John Hossack’s lab did itself proud at the 2009 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium. Of 330+ students eligible to compete in the 9th annual Student Paper Competition, both Matt Eames and Joe Kilroy (Hossack Lab) were among only 18 finalists invited to defend their work at a special student poster session. Since Matt and Joe were in the same Transducers & Transducer Materials category, only one could win. A panel of distinguished researchers judged Matt Eames the winner! The award is a certificate, monetary award, and prestigious addition to Matt’s CV.
BME Team to Compete in UVA Cup
Will Mauldin's team in the Walker Lab will compete for the UVA Cup, the new Darden School of Business competition for UVA’s best entrepreneurial concept. Their device to measure micro-viscometry won out over six other teams from Medicine and Nursing. The team was awarded $3500 and the chance to compete for the $10K grand prize on November 20th. Team members are Will Mauldin, Bill Walker, Francesco Viola, and Frank Riccardi.
Kevin Janes wins Packard Fellowship
BME Assistant Professor Kevin Janes is one of 16 in the nation to receive a 2009 Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Kevin will use the unrestricted $875,000 research grant to gain greater insight into the fundamental mechanisms that drive cell fate. Kevin’s multipronged approach combines biochemical techniques, complex experiments in cells, and data-driven statistical modeling. His tools handle—and generate—massive amounts of data, which is vital to his goal of tracking the activation of multiple molecular signals as they regulate cell function across dynamic, interconnected, context-dependent networks.
Packard Foundation Press Release
Peirce-Cottler’s Patents
Dr. Shayn Peirce-Cottler’s inventions run the gamut from exploiting the healing qualities of human fat, to streamlining the most common surgical procedure, to helping medical residents learn the art of medicine. She is certainly meeting her goal of having a tangible impact on human health.
Unique Solutions to Common Problems,
UVAPF Available Technology, Healing Promise of Stem Cells Derived from Fat,
UVAPF Available Technology
Dynamic Endoscopic Ultrasound Needle for Streamlined Procedures
Physicians use endoscopes with ultrasound probes for numerous procedures. However, the efficiency of the tool has not kept pace with its increasing range of applications. Each time a new function is performed, the doctor removes one device and inserts a new one. Now a team of BME fourth years under the mentorship of Dr. Michel Kahaleh (UVa Gasteroenterology) have designed a streamlined device. With the help of a $20K grant from the NCIIA, the team will develop a Dynamic Endoscopic Ultrasound Needle that can accommodate other endoscopic devices for increased physician speed and efficiency. The team consists of Jen Wilson, Tyler Hartley, Emily Purcell, Daniel Plessl, Krista Warner, and Adam Rogers.
UVA Patent Foundation Info
LEAD: Attracting a Greater Diversity of Students to Science and Engineering
Assistant Professors of Biomedical Engineering Timothy Allen, Edward Botchwey, Shayn Peirce-Cottler, and Jeffrey Saucerman participated in U.Va. Engineering’s first Leadership, Education and Development (LEAD) Summer Engineering Institute. LEAD has a 25-year record of success in attracting students to business careers. Now that experience is helping to attract a greater diversity of students to science and engineering.
E-News Article about LEAD
NIH New Innovator Award
Dr. Kevin Janes has won an NIH Director's "New Innovator" Award. The award is substantial ($1.5M), but the real story here is Kevin's success in securing this type of high-risk/high-reward funding. Like the Pew Award and UVa's own FEST [Kevin's won both], the NIH New Innovator is equally an investment in the exceptional investigator, his innovative approach, and the potential for future impact.
Article in UVA Today
Grant Funds Undergraduate Innovations in Perinatal Care
A $30,000 grant from the Jefferson Trust will test bed a “Progressive Innovation” approach to bioengineering design. Undergraduates in all 2009-2010 biomedical engineering design courses (1st – 4th year) will be challenged to create low-cost, simple, robust devices to support the health of mother and infant. The grant will show what can happen in a single year, when a critical mass of undergraduates focuses on a central design theme. We hope to show that, a few years out, students will continue to pursue perinatal projects, as they progress through BME’s design courses—leading to an increase in innovation that is measurable through new patents, products, and publications.
Contact Dr. William Guilford (guilford@virginia.edu)
American Heart Association Award Finalist
Moriel Vandsburger is among a select group of finalists for the American Heart Association's Melvin Judkins Young Clinical Investigator Award. Moriel is a senior graduate student in Dr. Fred Epstein's lab, where he works to develop novel magnetic resonance imaging methods to noninvasively quantify blood flow. At the AHA's Annual Scientific Sessions this November, Moriel will present his work using this new technique to measure myocardial perfusion during the process of infarct healing in a mouse model of heart attack.
“BMEplanet” is here!
The University of Virginia has launched BMEplanet, the world’s first global bioengineering network. BMEplanet is a consortium of 270 organizations in 44 nations around the world. Funded by the National Science Foundation and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, this new professional networking website brings together the global bioengineering community, connecting professionals and knowledge in a transformative way that will accelerate education, research, and innovation in our field. Registration is free - join today!
www.bmeplanet.org
Papin Lab Models Potential Source for Biofuel
A recent article in Nature Methods describes the team’s computational model of the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. A collaborative team, including Dr. Jason Papin's Lab, has developed a computational model of the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a model organism for photosynthesis, cell migration, and of significant interest as a potential source of biofuel. A recently published article in Nature Methods describes the model and its validated predictions, how it can be used to improve genome annotation, and the team’s hypotheses for how the model can be used to drive bioenergy applications.
Article in Nature Methods
Newest Faculty Member Named Pew Scholar
Dr. Kevin Janes adds a prestigious Pew Scholar award to an already impressive resume that includes publications in Nature and Science. The Pew Award rewards young investigators of outstanding promise with flexible funding to try out new investigative directions as their research unfolds.
Story in UVa Today
News Release from the Pew Trust
On the Cover: Translational Research Successes
A recent spread in the UVa Medical Alumni Magazine features Dr. Shayn Peirce-Cottler (BME) and Dr. Bradley Kesser (Otolaryngology). The team has successfully leveraged a growing cadre of resources at the University of Virginia to help biomedical scientists move basic research into clinical application.
Feature in UVa Medical Alumni Magazine
U.Va. Coulter Partnership
New Undergraduate Program in Nanomedicine
This fall, 20 University of Virginia undergraduates will enroll in Nanomedicine, a new Engineering School program that leverages faculty expertise in Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering. The focus is on quantitative life sciences, the properties of nanoscale materials and how they function in biological systems, and clinical applications such as drug delivery, medical diagnosis, implants and tissue engineering.
Nanomedicine Curriculum
Engineering Science Degree
84% Placement for the Class of 2009
A month before graduation, 84% of the Biomedical Engineering Class of 2009 had already secured jobs or graduate and medical school admissions. See the complete 2009 Exit Report for details on where they are now, as well as the awards and accolades they earned while at U.Va.
BME Class of 2009 Exit Report
New Graduate Students Admitted
This past year, 40% of Biomedical Engineering graduate students successfully competed for individual fellowships or spots on NIH training grants. BME’s incoming class of graduate students promises to keep up the good work. Selectivity for our 2009 PhD class was 16% and yield on PhD offers was 43%. The average undergraduate GPA for the 13 incoming students is 3.72.
BME Graduate Program
Applied Biomedical Research to Advance Children’s Health
Dr. Brian Helmke is the second Biomedical Engineering faculty member to receive a $300,000 Individual Biomedical Research Award from The Hartwell Foundation for applied biomedical research to advance children’s health. Brian’s project is titled Ciliated Pediatric Endotracheal Tube for Active Prevention of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia.
Press Release from The Hartwell Foundation
$1.2 Million Grant for Pancreatic Cancer Screening
A National Cancer Institute grant is an early feather in the cap of new faculty member Dr. Kimberly Kelly. Kim will develop molecular imaging techniques and targeted therapeutics for pancreatic cancer, utilizing biomarkers she discovered in her previous work.
Story in UVa Today
Feature in Charlottesville Daily Progress
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