News & Highlights

Jill Higginson and her team have received a 5-year educational grant from NIH to incorporate practical clinical design experience into UD’s Biomedical Engineering curriculum. The plan is to expand the BME interdisciplinary senior design program to include clinically motivated projects identified during previous clinical immersion experiences. Within the context of this design project, students will identify the significance of the unmet clinical need, determine the impact of finding a practical solution, outline the design constraints, and generate a working prototype as a solution to the unmet clinical need.  Read more.

April Kloxin thinks science rocks, so her research group is reaching out to the public through an interactive kiosk called Mimicking Nature at the Delaware Museum of Natural History, as well as through a radio show called Science Rocks! on the University’s student-run radio station, WVUD.  Read more.

Jason Gleghorn has received a Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU), a network of 115 research-oriented schools around the nation, to study lung development.   Read more.

Dawn Elliott was awarded the Van C. Mow Medal by ASME for significantly advancing the field of biomedical engineering through her contributions in musculoskeletal tissue structure-function research, her student mentorship with a focus on mentoring women, and her leadership in the bioengineering division of ASME. She also received the ORS Outstanding Achievement in Mentoring Award for her exceptional achievement in mentorship and advocacy on behalf of new investigators in orthopedic research.  Read more.

At UD’s 12th annual Biomechanics Research Symposium hosted by CBER on May 8, BME grad students won both awards for podium presentations of their research. Ashutosh Parajuli won first place for presenting “A Cross-Sectional Age-Wise Assessment of Morphology and Bone Formation in Perlecan-Deficient Mice”; Michael David won second place for presenting “Detailed Quantification of Early Structural Joint Changes in the Murine Destabilized Medial Meniscus Model of Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis.” Dawn Elliott delivered keynote address at the event.  Read more.

BME undergrad Arvind Annamalai is part of the Malawi Water Project, one of 3 student projects chosen to receive seed funding from the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) this past March. The other 2 projects chosen from UD were the Little Bob Initiative and FEMpower.  Read more.

Jill Higginson has received the 2015 Excellence in Teaching Award from the College of Engineering. She was nominated for this honor by students and recent graduates for demonstrating true excellence in teaching.

2014 Interdisciplinary Senior Design Team SimUCath was awarded FIRST prize at the University of Minnesota Medical Devices Conference, beating out an impressive field of teams across the country. SimUCath is a novel system that allows healthcare professionals to safely train to perform urinary catherizations on live actors.  Read more.

BME grad student Keely Heinz has received the 2015 Laird Merit Fellowship that is given to one first year grad student in the College of Engineering each year to honor the memory of George W. Laird. Keely is currently pursuing her BME PhD in John Slater’s lab,  researching the fabrication of biomimetic microfluidic hydrogel constructs for advanced cell culture platforms.  Read more.

BME undergrads were among the University Summer Scholars that presented their summer research work.  Read more.

The report, America’s Knowledge Economy: A State-by-State Review, issued by the Council of State Governments and the academic publisher Elsevier, assesses research output and impact from 2004 to 2013. The scholarly research publications produced in each state are a key barometer for innovation. Delaware had the second highest rate of peer-reviewed publication production nationwide. Delaware researchers produced 11.4 publications per million dollars in research and development (R&D) funding spent.  Read more.

UD will be getting Delaware’s first functional MRI (fMRI) in early 2016. This specialized type of MRI will enable researchers to see which structures and neural networks in the brain are being used while engaged in a particular task. “This type of imaging is critically important, not just for psychology but also for biomedical engineering and health sciences,” said Dawn Elliott, director of UD’s biomedical engineering program. “Having this here will be a big benefit to my research and to many others.”  Read more.

A paper co-authored by Emily Day, “miR-182 integrates apoptosis, growth, and differentiation programs in glioblastoma”, has been selected as the cover of an upcoming issue of Genes & Development. The paper identifies a small RNA molecule called miR-182 that can suppress cancer-causing genes in mice with glioblastoma mulitforme (GBM), a deadly and incurable type of brain tumor. The researchers used nanoparticles called spherical nucleic acids to safely deliver miR-182 across the blood-brain/blood-tumor barriers to reach tumor cells where they directly suppressed multiple oncogenes at once, increasing cancer cell death, reducing tumor growth, and improving overall survival. This approach offers a novel strategy for therapeutic intervention in GBM.

BME grad student Jilian Melamed was awarded a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship. Jilian’s PhD research involves developing a nanoparticle-based treatment to overcome the resistance of cancer cells to chemotherapy. Read more.

At a Healthcare Hackathon hosted by the College of Health Sciences, BME undergrads were among the four student teams who presented their ideas to a diverse audience of state officials, Christiana Care physicians, state medical reps and UD faculty and staff.  Read more.

April Kloxin and Christopher Kloxin have been awarded Strategic Initiative Grants from the UD Research Foundation (UDRF) to support their work on bone health and medication delivery, respectively.  Read more.

Dawn Elliott is one of two Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) members to receive the new ORS Outstanding Achievement in Mentoring Award. This award celebrates the commitment of the outstanding mentors in our community who promote the success of new investigators in the pursuit of independent orthopaedic research careers. It recognizes ORS members who have shown exceptional achievement in mentorship and advocacy on behalf of new investigators in orthopaedic research.

Students and faculty from UD’s Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) visited the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) campus in Baltimore on Friday, March 27, to participate in the third annual BMES Undergraduate Research Day.  Read more.

John Slater has been featured in the alumni profiles of the University of Texas, Austin where he received his PhD. There, he worked in Dr. Wolfgang Frey’s lab to develop nanopatterned surfaces to induce cancer-like behavior, increased proliferation and migration, in non-cancer cells.  Read more.

BME grad student Rachel Edelstein received Honorable Mention in the 2015 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) competition for her proposed research on utilizing actively targeted nanoparticles coated with antibodies and small interfering RNA for the treatment of Triple Negative Breast Cancer, a form of breast cancer that is ineligible for many conventional treatments because it lacks the appropriate receptors.

Cole Galloway joined 75 other internationally recognized thought leaders at TEDMED 2014, “Unlocking Imagination in Service of Health and Medicine.” He shared the story of the GoBabyGo Program and focused on the importance of independent mobility for children to fully develop cognitively, emotionally and physically.  Read more.

An interdisciplinary team of UD students and faculty have developed unique curriculum kits, called Orthopaedics in Action (OIA), that teach science, mathematics and engineering concepts through medical experiments. A team of BME seniors designed the first generation OIA curriculum.  Read more.

BME undergrad Amira Idris has been selected as the Colonial Athletic Association Women’s Field Athlete of the Week. She won the long jump with a meet record and Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) qualifying distance of 19 ft, 5.5 inches while also placing 4th in the 4 x 400 meter relay (48.66) and 9th in the 100 meters (12.54).  Read more.

Jeannie Stephens is part of a team of UD faculty working to bring innovation and entrepreneurial education to students across disciplines thanks to UD’s selection for the National Science Foundation’s Pathways to Innovation Program. The objective is to rework the undergraduate programs to prepare students for the careers of tomorrow.  Read more.

John Slater has received a 2-year INBRE Pilot Project award for his research on 3D microfluidic systems. His paper “Modulation of endothelial cell migration via manipulation of adhesion site growth using nanopatterned surfaces” has been accepted for publication in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.

Jason Gleghorn has received a pilot project grant to study the directed self-assembly of vascular architectures in microfluidic biomaterials. It will be funded by the NIH COBRE for the Molecular Design of Advanced Biomaterials.

Emily Day’s research group has published an invited perspective in ACS Nano that overviews nanoparticle-mediated photothermal therapy (PTT) and discusses recent insights into the mechanisms of cell death induced by this technique. PTT utilizes nanoparticles embedded within tumors to convert laser light energy into heat to ablate cancer cells. Depending on the laser irradiation conditions, PTT produces either necrosis or apoptosis, two distinct modes of cell death that impact therapy success differently. New information on the cellular signaling pathways involved in the PTT response provides researchers with a unique opportunity to enhance PTT’s successful elimination of cancer. Day recently received an ACCEL grant for breast cancer therapy using nanotechnology.

BME undergrad Amira Idris (on right) placed first in triple jump at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships (ECAC), becoming the first Blue Hen woman to capture an ECAC indoor title in a field event as she broke her own school record with a leap of 41-feet, 8-inches.  Read more.

BME undergrads are among the 15 students selected to present their innovative engineering designs at the annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U).  Read more.

At the annual BMES conference in San Antonio, Texas in October 2014, UD’s BME program showed a strong presence. Our BME-affiliated faculty served as session chairs for 4 sessions. Moreover, 13 faculty and 3 graduate students presented 9 talks and 5 posters during the three day meeting, with topics covering biomaterials, drug delivery, orthopedic and rehabilitation engineering, tissue engineering and respiratory engineering.   Read more.

Chandran Sabanayagam is studying the effect of zero gravity on the genes of the common ground worm, C. Elegans, work that could produce new insights into the effect of long periods in space on humans.  Read more. And can also read in VOA news.

At DBI’s Spin in Showcase, BME undergrad Gabriel Szczepanek (on right) presented with his team their innovation mTrigger. This device plugs into an iPhone’s headphone port and then attaches to sensor pads on a patient’s skin. As the patient goes through various exercises, the app records various parameters, tracking the patient’s progress.    Read more.

The Delaware Rehabilitation Institute (DRI) at the University of Delaware is seeking four highly qualified undergraduate students for 10-week paid internships in summer 2015 in the areas of biomechanics and movement sciences.  Read more

BME grad students Omar Banda and Andrea Lee have been selected as 2015 IGERT fellows. Banda is doing his PhD in John Slater’s lab studying biofunctional materials and cellular engineering. Lee is doing her PhD in Dawn Elliott’s lab investigating the mechanics of fiber-reinforced tissues.

Hagit Shatkay and Chandra Kambhamettu in computer and information sciences have received a grant from the National Library of Medicine to apply to biomedical research the principle of “computational glancing.”   Read more