Announcements

Leo Wan has been awarded the NSF Career Award for his proposal entitled "CAREER: Biomechanics of Patterned Epithelial Chiral Morphogenesis". The CAREER Award is given to faculty members at the beginning of their academic careers and is one of NSF’s most competitive awards, placing emphasis on high-quality research and novel education initiatives. The award speaks towards the exciting and cutting edge research program that Leo has developed at Rensselaer. Leo joined the BME faculty in Fall 2011.

Xavier Intes' work has been discused in an article published by the journal Biophotonics. The article deals with multimodal optimal mammography and was published in March 2013. http://photonics.com/Article.aspx?AID=53277

Juergen Hahn's research has been prominently featured in a recent blog by AIChE president Dr. Phil Westmoreland. The blog mentions several research groups and how their work has led to the incorporation of life science aspects into engineering. More details can be found here: http://chenected.aiche.org/biological-engineering/biology-and-che-apply…

Results from the article "Cultivation and Imaging of Astrocytes on Protein-Coated Fluorescent Topographies Constructed from Aligned PLLA Electrospun Fibers" by Jonathan M. Zuidema, María C. Hyzinski-García, Alexander A. Mongin, and Ryan J. Gilbert have been chosen for the cover of the book "Extracellular Matrix" which is edited by J.B. Leach and E.M. Powell: http://www.springer.com/biomed/neuroscience/book/978-1-4939-2082-2

Dr. Mariah Hahn (PhD MIT) joins the Biomedical Engineering department faculty as an Associate Professor. Her area of expertise involves engineering of complex tissues through biomaterial design for controlling mesenchymal stem cell differentiation. Dr. Juergen Hahn (PhD UT Austin) joins the Biomedical Engineering department faculty as a Professor. His area of expertise involves modeling and control of non-linear systems with applications in biological systems (Systems Biology) and chemical processes (Chemical Process Systems Engineering).

Dr. Vashishth received a 5 year R01 grant award from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) to study the effects of osteopontin and osteocalcin on osteoporotic bone fractures. Dr. Vashishth will collaborate with Dr. Caren Gundberg (Yale University), Dr. Adele Boskey (Hospital of Special Surgery), and Dr. David Burr (IUPUI).

Dr. Dai has been awarded a four-year American Heart Association's National Scientist Development Grant ($308,000). The grant, awarded to junior faculty at their early career stage, is one of the most prestigious awards in Cardiovascular Medicine. The title of the project is "Arterial venous differentiation for tissue engineering application." In this project, Dr.

Dr. Deanna Thompson, with Dr. Pankaj Karande (Chemical and Biological Engineering Department), has been awarded a $330,000 3-year NSF grant titled, "Rational and Combinatorial Design of Biomaterials for Neural Engineering." This project represents a new approach for the design of biomaterials for engineering specific human tissues.