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. Thompson received a two year, $303K IDEA grant from New York State Stem Cell Science (NYSTEM) to investigate adult neural progenitor fate in response to endothelial produced factors in collaboration with Dr. Natacha DePaola at Illinois Institute of Technology. For more information, please see the April NYSTAR newsletter.

Dr. Deanna Thompson, with collaborators Drs. Lee Ligon (Biology Department) and Shep Salon (Department of Electrical, Computer, & Systems Engineering), has been awarded a 4-year $1.41 million R01 grant from NIH/NIBIB titled, "Directed Formation of Enhanced 3 - dimensional oriented Schwann Cellular Arrays For the Repair of Large - Gap Peripheral Nerve Injuries." Schwann cell (SC) participation is key participant supporting re-growth following peripheral nerve injury.