The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are launching the "New Voices in Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine" initiative to identify outstanding early-career science, engineering, and medicine (SEM) leaders.
BMES fellow Cynthia Reinhart-King, Vanderbilt University, is one of 18 participants in the project. And BMES fellow Cato T. Laurencin is on the senior advisory committee for the project.
The 18 participants will engage in communicating the evidence base for addressing national and global challenges to provide new perspectives on issues of importance to the community represented by the National Academies. They will also help identify ways to expand the diversity of expertise that is brought to all of the Academies' convening and advisory activities.
With support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the group of 18 SEM early-career leaders will gather over a two-year period with a senior advisory committee to discuss key emerging challenges in science, engineering, and medicine, engage nationally with a wider group of young leaders from diverse groups, and attend international events on science policy. Through the initiative, each participant will provide a written personal perspective and evaluation of her/his experience, as well as suggestions for future activities.
WVU researcher discovers new brain cell that works in visual searching
A researcher at West Virginia University recently published a report detailing the discovery of how a newly discovered type of brain cell helps to identify an object a person is looking for, according to a university article.
Shuo Wang, assistant professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at the university, recently found evidence that "target cells" in the brain's medial temporal lobe function to identify if an object being visually focused on is what is being looked for, according to the article.
"During goal-directed visual search, these target cells signal whether the currently fixated item is the target of the current search," Wang said. "This target signal was behaviorally relevant because it predicted whether a subject detected or missed a fixated target, i.e. failed to abort the search."
Guiseppi-Elie delivers lecture in Poland
Dr. Anthony Guiseppi-Elie, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) research professor and professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University was selected to deliver the inaugural lecture of the newly convened Interdisciplinary Science Seminar Series at Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (WUST), Wroclaw, Poland.
The WUST Interdisciplinary Scientific Seminar series are open technical meetings with world-famous speakers delivered to all academic staff and students at all levels, but also all those interested in deepening their knowledge of exact sciences, according to a university article.
Dr. Andrzej Trochimczuk, vice rector for scientific research and international affairs of WUST, is the originator of the seminars.
"The development of international cooperation is one of key priorities for Wroclaw University of Science and Technology" said Trochimczuk.
Medical imaging technology detects vascular disorders, injuries in brain without invasive contrast agents
Purdue University researchers have developed an analytical imaging technology based on functional MRI for detecting and monitoring cerebral vascular disorders and injuries that does not require the use of contrast agents according to a university article.
The new imaging method focuses on tracking an intrinsic blood-related MRI signal, which has been shown to travel with the blood, according to the article. The signal is used as a natural biomarker to assess blood flow in a patient.
"We can compare the signal from symmetric arteries and veins in both hemispheres or neck to assess the cerebrovascular integrity, or the balance of blood flow," said Yunjie Tong, an assistant professor in Purdue's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, who developed the technology along with Blaise Frederick, a biophysicist and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. "The blood flow should be symmetric between the two sides in a healthy subject," Tong said in the article. Tong is a BMES member
Drexel U biomedical engineer paving the way for better injury repair
Kara Spiller, an assistant professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems at Drexel University, has received a National Science Foundation's Early Career (CAREER) award to develop a new technology that will better control the modification of biomaterials, according to a university article.
Spiller is studying ways to manipulate the body's immune system, heal injuries and fight against disease, according to the article. Spiller is a BMES member.
One type of immune system cell, called macrophages, are the body's first natural defense against infections and other types of damage. The success of implanted biomaterials - say, a scaffold to seal a hole in an organ after a tumor is removed - hinges on the behavior of these immune system cells, the article states.
Vanderbilt: Ultrasound helmet would make live images, brain-machine interface possible
Ultrasound technology for the brain could mean real-time images during surgery, a better idea of which areas get stimulated by certain feelings or actions and, ultimately, an effective way for people to control software and robotics by thinking about it, according to a Vanderbilt University article.
Medical doctors and scientists have spent decades hoping for such an advance, but it was impossible before now, said Brett Byram, assistant professor of biomedical engineering.
Ultrasound beams bounced around inside the skull, so no useful imagery could make it out, Brett Byram, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, said in the article. Byram is a BMES member.
With his new $550,000 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development grant, Byram plans to use machine learning that will gradually be able to account for distortion and deliver workable images, according to the article. Byram wants to integrate electroencephalogram technology so doctors could see not only brain perfusion-how blood flow correlates to changes in thought-but also areas of stimulation related to movement and emotion.
"The goal is to create a brain-machine interface using an ultrasound helmet and EEG," Byram said in the article. "A lot of the technology we're using now wasn't available when people were working on this 20 or 30 years ago. Deep neural networks and machine learning have become popular, and our group is the first to show how you can use those for ultrasound beamforming."
As part of the Biomedical Engineering Society's 50
th Anniversary celebration, the Society is fabricating a time capsule which will be displayed in the National Museum of Health and Medicine until it is opened in 2068.
