Gregory Hoeker, a Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. student, has been awarded the Caroline P. Ireland Research Travel Scholarship. The award provides funds to graduate students who must travel to an out-of-state location to learn new research techniques required to complete their research projects. The scholarship will allow Hoeker to travel to the University of California-Davis where he will work in the laboratory of Donald Bers, Ph.D. to further on-going joint studies between Dr. Bers and Hoeker’s advisor, Steven Pogwizd, M.D. The work will include training in cardiac myocyte isolation techniques as well as testing various buffer solutions that may allow for preserving cardiac myocytes for future functional experimentation.
Reshu Saini, a Spring 2012 Biomedical Engineering M.S. graduate, won second place honors in the New Investigator Award Competition held at the American Institute Of Ultrasound In Medicine Annual Convention, held this spring in Phoenix, Ariz. There were 120 applicants from around the world competing for the award and Saini was one of 12 young investigators invited to present as a finalist. His talk was entitled "Model System For Validating Molecular Ultrasound Imaging Techniques And Contrast Agents."
Meredith Reid, a Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. student, was chosen as the recipient of the UAB BBVA Compass Mortgage Financial Services Endowed Award in Graduate Education. The award was established through generous gifts from the UAB National Alumni Society to be used for the purpose of creating an endowed graduate student award fund at UAB. Spendable earnings from the BBVA Compass Mortgage Financial Services Endowed Award in Graduate Education fund are used to provide financial assistance to exceptional students who are enrolled in a UAB graduate program.
Lauren Marshall, a Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. student, has been awarded an eight-week Whitaker International Scholar Summer Grant. The grant will allow Marshall to further her research in Ireland where she hopes to work on fibrin microsphere and lipoplex fabrication techniques. Marshall's proposed research project will use fibrin microshpheres as a gene delivery system to functionalize breast cancer tissue volume. She will spend eight weeks studying in Galway, Ireland.The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees appointed several faculty to emeriti positions during its Feb 3 meeting. Christie Brouillette, Ph.D., research professor emerita, chemistry; Lindy Harrell, M.D., Ph.D., professor emerita, neurology; Raymond Ideker, M.D., Ph.D., professor emeritus, cardiovascular disease; Donald Twieg, Ph.D., professor emeritus, biomedical engineering, Steven Haeberle, Ph.D., associate professor emeritus in government, and Ollie Powers, associate professor emeritus of business.
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Hoeker Receives Ireland Research Travel Award
The focus of Hoeker’s research, mechanisms of arrhythmias in heart failure, involves the use of cardiac myocytes from scarce or difficult to obtain tissue sources such as experimental animal models of heart disease or failing human hearts. “Typically the use of cardiac myocytes for functional experiments requires that the experiments be performed on the same day as cell isolation,” says Hoeker. “Having the capability to preserve and transport isolated myocytes will increase access to these limited tissue sources and greatly enhance the collaborations between the Bers and Pogwizd labs.” The Ireland Research Travel Awards are funded by an endowment established at UAB by Caroline Ireland and the late Charles W. Ireland, and by new resources allocated to the Graduate School from the Provost’s office. “The Ireland research travel awards are strategically targeted to provide students with unique and valuable opportunities,” says Dr. Jeffrey Engler, associate dean for academic affairs for the the UAB Graduate School. “The research travel scholarship, which awards a maximum of $1,000, is not designed to send someone to a professional meeting; it’s designed to enable a student to capture an educational opportunity that doesn’t exist here at UAB. These travel scholarships are highly competitive and provide elite educational experiences that enrich not only our students, but UAB as a whole.”
Nine BME Undergraduate Students Receive Awards At 2012 UAB Expo Nine Biomedical Engineering undergraduate students received awards at the 2012 UAB Expo: An Exposition of Undergraduate Scholarship held April 20. The event celebrates excellence in research, scholarship and creativity by showcasing the academic endeavors of undergraduate students. The fifth annual UAB Expo was the largest event to date with over 180 student presenters, covering more than three quarters of the majors offered at UAB. The presentations were wide-reaching, ranging from music performances to robotics. Below are the winners from Biomedical Engineering, all placing in the poster competition. Engineering 1 First Place: Charlotte Mae Waits, Rana Atieh, Andrew Fox (mentor: Dr. Alan Eberhardt) – “Developing A Gait Training Walker To Increase Ambulation In Amputees” Second Place: Jarrod Young (mentor: Dr. Alan Eberhardt) – “Range Of Motion Device For Post-Operative Rotator Cuff Rehabilitation” Honorable Mention: Amber Burns (mentor: Dr. Alan Eberhardt) – “Outdoor Multi-Sensory Stimulus Station For Individuals With Special Needs” Engineering 2 First Place: Dhruv Patel (mentor: Dr. Ho-Wook Jun) – “Osteogenic Differentiation Of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells Enhanced By A Bone Mimicking Composite Nanomatrix Scaffold” Second Place: Brandon Sherrod (mentor: Dr. Alan Eberhardt) – “Development Of A Torsion Tester For Measuring Murine Bone Properties Following Distraction Osteogenesis” Third Place: Alex Levy (mentor: Dr. Xincheng Yao) – “Spatiotemporal Correlation Of Transient Morphological Change And Intrinsic Optical Response In Stimulus Activated Frog Photoreceptors” Honorable Mention: Jacob Fletcher (mentor: Dr. Alan Eberhardt) – “Tibial Plateau Strength In Diabetic Mice Characterized By Indentation” Dr. Timothy Wick, Biomedical Engineering Professor, Chair and Graduate Program Director, was named a recipient of the 2011 Graduate Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentorship. Wick was one of 20 professors from 17 departments at UAB to be selected for the honor.
“This award recognizes faculty who have been outstanding mentors, advisors and role models to the students and trainees with whom they have worked,” Noe says. “We are particularly pleased to see that faculty from different disciplines and departments across campus were nominated for their dedication to assisting students, postdoctoral fellows and other trainees to realize their career goals.”
Donald Twieg, Ph.D Named Emeritus Professor By TrusteesNoninvasive functional imaging of the retina at cellular resolution
YAO RESEARCH MAY LEAD TO EARLY DIAGNOSIS OF EYE DISEASE  Xincheng Yao, Ph.D., assistant professor, is one of three researchers to receive National Science Foundation Career Awards — a prize among the foundation’s most prestigious. Yao received his $400,000 NSF Career Award for research into the development of an optical coherence tomography instrument that provides sub-cellular- and sub-millisecond-resolution imaging of the human retina.The UAB Reporter spoke to Yao about the honor and his work. ADI ANDUKURI WINS 1ST PLACE in the Poster Sessions at the Center for Cardiovascular Biology Research Retreat on May 9, 2011. BOOTH DELIVERS GRADUATE COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS  Leigh Booth delivered the 2 pm graduate commencement address on May 7, 2011. She worked as a graduate assistant in the UAB Department of Biomedical Engineering in the Center for Nanoscale Materials and Biointegration. During her time at UAB, Booth had the opportunity to travel internationally to participate in a collaborative research project at the Technical University of Lodz in Poland. She was a recipient of the Ireland Tuition Scholarship from the UAB Graduate School. She is graduating with a master’s degree in biomedical engineering and plans to pursue a career related to the research and development of biomedical materials and devices. KENT HONORED BY GOLDWATER SCHOLARSHIP & EXCELLENCE PROGRAM  Charlotte Kent, a BME junior (and also in Science and Technology Honors Program), received a Goldwater Honorable Mention award for her application "Routine assembly of microfluidics-based electrode arrays for cardiac microimpedance measurements". he hopes to one day build an artificial womb for women who cannot have a baby.To read more about Kent and this honor click here. SORACE WINS NEW INVESTIGATOR AWARD, TAKES 2ND IN POSTER COMPETITION Anna G. Sorace recently attended the American Institute for Ultrasound in Medicine Annual Convention in NYC. She won 2nd Place in the poster competition and won the New Investigator Award!! Congrats Anna!! ROMONE FANCY AWARDED the Comprehensive Minority Student Development Fellowship for 2011-2013. JOE SCHWERTZ AND ALYSSA TERRY BOTH AWARDED the UAB Ireland Tuition Scholarship for 2011. JUN RESEARCH MAY HAVE IMPACT ON BACK INJURIES  Ho-Wook Jun, Ph.D., assistant professor in biomedical engineering, is one of three UAB professors to win a National Science Foundation CAREER Award in the past seven months.Jun received a $407,000 NSF Career Award this past July for research into a bioactive hybrid nano-matrix for intervertebral disk regeneration. He is exploring biomedical applications for treating spinal injuries through tissue regeneration. The UAB Reporter spoke to Jun about the honor and his work. |
The long-term performance of medical implant devices, like heart valves and cardiac stents, could be enhanced substantially by new bio-coating technology recently licensed to University of Alabama at Birmingham spin-out company Endomimetics LLC through the UAB Research Foundation. "By mimicking natural endothelium, the nanomatrix coating essentially transforms injured blood vessels to a healthy condition at implant sites, and it has great potential for many applications," says Ho-Wook Jun, Ph.D., co-inventor of the technology and UAB assistant professor of biomedical engineering. Jun's co-inventor is Brigitta Brott, M.D., a UAB associate professor of medicine.
Tissue engineering — or regenerative medicine — is an emerging multidisciplinary field involving biology, medicine and engineering, and it could be the next revolution in medicine, says Timothy Wick, Ph.D., co-director of the BERM Center and chair of UAB’s Department of Biomedical Engineering.
