Announcements

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.

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.

Dr. Dai received a two year R21 grant award from National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to study how to control stem cell differentiation for vascular tissue engineering applications using the cell-printing technology in his lab.

Dr. Intes has been awarded a two-year, $378K R21 grant from the National Cancer Institute at the NIH. The grant will be used to develop a Multispectral Fluorescence Molecular Tomography (MFMT) tool capable of simultaneous tracking of multiple fluorophores in vivo in small animals. The new technique represents a significant development in the field of biomedical engineering. In particular MFMT will allow to track biological processes in vivo and provide plethora of information on diseases states, and help development of new targeted drugs.