Honors & News

At the Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas this week, our student BMES chapter received a Commendable Achievement Award. Last year, the chapter received the Meritorious Achievement Award, which recognizes the best student chapter in the nation for achievements during the academic year. This is the first time in the history of the awards that a chapter from the same school has been recognized for excellence in two consecutive years, says Rick Waugh, BME department chair, and newly elected president of BMES.

Six current BME students participated in the summer session of the David T. Kearns Research Symposium for Leadership and Diversity in the Arts, Sciences, and Engineering by presenting posters about their research. The symposium was held on Thursday July 29, 2010 in the Sloan Auditorium at Goergen Hall, and was sponsored by the David T. Kearns Center for Leadership and Diversity in Arts, Sciences, and Engineering.

Threshold of Non-Eye Movement Vestibular Cells in Alert Monkeys

Daniel Barbash, mentored by Laurel Carney

Analysis of SHG (Second Harmonic Generation) Microscopy Sensitivity to Experimental Parameters

Jacy Bulaon, mentored by Edward Brown III

Investigating Acoustic Parameters that Optimize Ultrasound Standing Wave Fields for Cell Banding

Jasmine Carvalho, mentored by Diane Dalecki

Strategies for Erythrocyte Maturation In Vitro

Eric Lam, mentored by Richard Waugh

Identifying Potential Transcription Factors Regulating Cellulose Degradation in Ethanol Production in Clostridium Thermocellum

Kathleen Maloney, mentored by J.H. David Wu

Novel Parthenolide Delivery System for Leukemia Treatment

Hannah Watkins, mentored by Danielle Benoit

Students in the BME Senior Design class are participating in a project inspired by a radiation research contract recently awarded to URMC by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. BARDA would like a quick, easy blood test that accurately measures radiation exposure. A team of students for the Senior Design Class is developing an early prototype for the project as a proof-of-concept. BME seniors Katie Litts, Camile Enriques, Jonathon Kung, and Sean Virgile are working to develop RAD Radiation Analysis Dosimetry, a high throughput device to measure radiation in blood samples. The customer is Walter O'Dell, Ph.D., from the departments of Radiation Oncology and Biomedical Engineering, and one of the co-investigators on the contract. The team is supervised by Richard Waugh, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Dr. Rick Waugh, professor and Biomedical Engineering Department Chair, has been elected to a two-year term as president of the Biomedical Engineering Society (a national organization of biomedical researchers from universities and industry).

Ten scientists from the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) have been awarded more than $6.8 million by the Empire State Stem Cell Board. The grants are for a wide range of research programs in the fields of neurological disorders, cancer, musculoskeletal diseases, the blood system, and efforts to understand the fundamental mechanics of stem cell biology.