PRATT BME News

  • November 2, 2009

    Duke Develops Nano-Scale Drug Delivery for Chemotherapy

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Going smaller could bring better results, especially when it comes to cancer-fighting drugs. Duke University bioengineers have developed a simple and inexpensive method for loading cancer drug payloads into nano-scale delivery vehicles and demonstrated in animal models that this new nanoformulation can eliminate tumors after a single treatment. After delivering the drug to the tumor, the delivery vehicle breaks down into harmless byproducts, markedly decreasing the toxicity for the recipient. Nano-delivery systems have become ...
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  • October 5, 2009

    Understanding a Cell's Split Personality Aids Synthetic Circuits

    DURHAM, N.C. -- As scientists work toward making genetically altered bacteria create living "circuits" to produce a myriad of useful proteins and chemicals, they have logically assumed that the single-celled organisms would always respond to an external command in the same way. Alas, some bacteria apparently have an individualistic streak that makes them zig when the others zag. A new set of experiments by Duke University bioengineers has uncovered the existence of "bistability," in which an individual ...
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  • September 11, 2009

    Back in the Bicycle Seat Again

    For Claude Flynn, long bicycle rides in the fresh air were therapy for the mind and exercise for the body. Every Sunday, she'd ride her bike 35 to 40 miles through the rolling Chatham County countryside south of Chapel Hill, N.C. Often, she would stop in a meadow, take in the sun, listen to the birds singing and enjoy a sandwich and bottled water.   That all changed in 2003, when a car accident ...
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  • September 2, 2009

    Medical Device Internship Inspires Pleatman

    What do you get when you put 28 college students from across the nation into the same apartment complex in Cincinnati, Ohio? An amazing summer internship experience with a Johnson & Johnson company called Ethicon Endo-Surgery. Alaina Pleatman, a member of Duke's class of 2010 and a biomedical engineering major, is one of the students selected for the summer internship in Ethicon Endo-Surgery's Research and Development Department. Ethicon Endo-Surgery is a medical device company that focuses on ...
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  • August 27, 2009

    Vey Learns Insider Secrets of Pharmaceutical Biz

    Brianna Vey, a rising senior and a biomedical engineering major, is spending her summer far from her hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina. Temporarily at home in Philadelphia, the famed "City of Brotherly Love," Vey is interning at Accenture, a consulting firm specializing in information technology consulting, and learning what it takes to operate an organized company. "I'm working with performance data analysis right now, and trying to figure out the best ways to work with the ...
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  • August 20, 2009

    Novel Polymer Could Improve Protein-Based Drugs

    DURHAM, N.C. A new method for attaching a large protective polymer molecule to a protein appears to improve protein drugs significantly. Bioengineers at Duke University developed the new approach and demonstrated in an animal model that the newly created protein-polymer combinations, known as conjugates, remained in circulation significantly longer than an unprotected protein. The scientists say they are encouraged that their findings represent a new strategy to improve the efficacy of protein drugs. Protein-based drugs are ...
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  • July 7, 2009

    Finding the Constant in Bacterial Communication

    DURHAM, N.C. -- The Rosetta Stone of bacterial communication may have been found. Although they have no sensory organs, bacteria can get a good idea about what's going on in their neighborhood and communicate with each other, mainly by secreting and taking in chemicals from their surrounding environment. Even though there are millions of different kinds of bacteria with their own ways of sensing the world around them, Duke University bioengineers believe they have found a ...
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  • June 18, 2009

    Autonomous Robot Detects Shrapnel

    DURHAM, N.C. Bioengineers at Duke University have developed a laboratory robot that can successfully locate tiny pieces of metal within flesh and guide a needle to its exact location - all without the need for human assistance. The successful proof-of-feasibility experiments lead the researchers to believe that in the future, such a robot could not only help treat shrapnel injuries on the battlefield, but might also be used for such medical procedures as ...
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  • June 16, 2009

    Potential For Non-Invasive Brain Tumor Treatment

    DURHAM, N.C. --  Duke University engineers have taken a first step toward a minimally invasive treatment of brain tumors by combining chemotherapy with heat administered from the end of a catheter. The proof-of-concept study demonstrated that it should be technically possible to treat brain tumors without the side effects associated with the traditional approaches of surgery, systemic chemotherapy or radiation. The bioengineers designed and built an ultrasound catheter that can fit into large blood vessels of the ...
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  • May 10, 2009

    Duke graduates 523 engineers in May 2009

    Duke University awarded degrees to 523 undergraduate and graduate engineering students on May 10 in ceremonies beginning with a university-wide commencement celebration in Wallace Wade Stadium and ending with a Pratt School of Engineering ceremony in Duke Chapel. Pratt Dean Tom Katsouleas Bachelor of Science in Engineering diplomas to 279 students, including 12 who completed their work in December and one last September, before a crowd of parents, relatives and friends in the Chapel. Pratt also awarded ...
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  • April 30, 2009

    Pratt Junior Spins the Wheel

    When a crowd of students pack themselves in front of the big-screen television at the Armadillo Grill, it's usually to watch the Blue Devils compete against another university on the playing field or basketball court. However, they also recently gathered to view another type of competition -- to cheer on a Pratt biomedical engineering junior against other university students on the set of Wheel of Fortune. Alaina Pleatman, a native of West Bloomfield, Mich., who had ...
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  • April 30, 2009

    Limping Rat Provides Sciatica Insights

    DURHAM, N.C. -- A newly developed animal model for the painful nerve condition known as sciatica should help researchers diagnose and treat it, according to Duke University bioengineers and surgeons. Sciatica is not a single disorder, but rather a diverse range of symptoms, such as numbness or pain from the lower back to the feet, radiating leg pain or difficulty in controlling the leg. It is often caused by compression, or pinching, of any of the ...
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  • April 22, 2009

    BME Doctoral Student Talks About Bionic Arm on 60 Minutes

    Jon Kuniholm lost part of his right arm as the result of a roadside bombing in Iraq in 2005. Since that time, the retired Marine Corps officer has been researching new designs for functional limb prostheses as a doctoral student in biomedical engineering at the Pratt School of Engineering. As a vet and as a researcher -- he's also co-founder of a company working on arm prostheses --  he was interviewed recently by the CBS program ...
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  • April 1, 2009

    Light Reveals Breast Tumor Oxygen Status

    DURHAM, N.C. Light directed at a breast tumor through a needle can provide pathologists with biological specifics of the tumor and help oncologists choose treatment options that would be most effective for that individual patient. Duke University bioengineers have developed a light-based system that can quickly and easily provide important information about oxygen levels within a tumor while it is still in place. The new system, based on diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, gives researchers important ...
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  • March 24, 2009

    Half of Americans See Other Country as Technological Leader

    DURHAM, N.C. - Half of all Americans expect another country to emerge this century as the world's leader in addressing technological challenges that range from the economy to global warming, according to a survey of U.S. public opinion released March 3 by Duke University. Although only 34 percent of Americans gave themselves a grade of A or B for understanding "the world of engineers and what they do," 72 percent nonetheless expect the technological advancements ...
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  • February 13, 2009

    First Step to Autonomous Breast Biopsy Robot

    Duke University bioengineers have developed a laboratory robot that can locate the earliest traces of a mass in simulated breast tissue and reach that mass with a biopsy needle all without the need for human assistance. The results of proof-of-feasibility studies lead the researchers to believe that routine medical procedures such as breast biopsies will be performed in the future with minimal human guidance, and at greater convenience and less cost to patients. The researchers ...
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  • February 11, 2009

    New Brain Helmet Could Detect Stroke Earlier

    A prototype "brain helmet" that provides real-time images of major blood vessels may enable emergency personnel to perform quick scans of potential stroke victims' brains, according to a team of Duke University bioengineers who developed the device. For patients suspected of having a stroke, the speed of diagnosis and subsequent treatment can make the difference between survival and death or disability. Using 3-D ultrasound technology that they had earlier developed, the Duke team built a prototype device ...
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  • February 2, 2009

    Scattered Light Rapidly Detects Tumor Response to Chemotherapy

    By interpreting how beams of light scatter off of tumor cell samples, researchers can determine if cancer cells are responding to chemotherapeutic agents within a matter of hours. The researchers said that the new technology, which was developed by Duke University bioengineers, will not only permit clinicians to more precisely detect whether or not specific cancer drugs are working, but should give basic researchers a powerful new tool to better understand the underlying mechanisms of cancer ...
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  • November 10, 2008

    Duke Engineering Contest Connects U.S. Students with National Problems

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering challenges college students in the U.S. to create a video and an essay in response to this question: Which of the 14 grand challenges identified by the National Academy of Engineering would you choose to address, and how would you do it? The National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges (http://www.engineeringchallenges.org) has identified 14 critical barriers to a sustainable way of life. They represent problems that will require ...
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  • August 28, 2008

    Tiny 3-D Ultrasound Probe Guides Catheter Procedures

    DURHAM, N.C. An ultrasound probe small enough to ride along at the tip of a catheter can provide physicians with clearer real-time images of soft tissue without the risks associated with conventional x-ray catheter guidance.Duke University biomedical engineers designed and fabricated the novel ultrasound probe which is powerful enough to provide detailed, 3-D images. The new device works like an insect's compound eye, blending images from 108 miniature transducers working together. Catheter-based procedures involve ...
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  • August 28, 2008

    Tiny 3-D Ultrasound Probe Guides Catheter Procedures

    DURHAM, N.C. An ultrasound probe small enough to ride along at the tip of a catheter can provide physicians with clearer real-time images of soft tissue without the risks associated with conventional x-ray catheter guidance.Duke University biomedical engineers designed and fabricated the novel ultrasound probe which is powerful enough to provide detailed, 3-D images. The new device works like an insect's compound eye, blending images from 108 miniature transducers working together. Catheter-based procedures involve ...
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  • August 13, 2008

    Doku Named Fulbright Scholar

    Stesha Doku, a biomedical engineering student who graduated in the spring, has been named as a Fulbright Scholar, making her the second Pratt student to receive this award this year. The program supports one year of research at an institution outside the United States. Doku, a Charlotte, N.C. native, will begin her Fulbright research at the University of New South Wales, Australia, in the summer of 2009, after completing her first year of medical school at ...
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  • August 6, 2008

    Sometimes the Simplest Things Make the Biggest Difference

    By Richard Merritt For Annette Lauber, one of morning's seemingly simplest routines was often a moment of anxiety. She has cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that effects muscle movement and coordination. She can walk for short periods of time with the aid of crutches, but she finds her wheelchair to be a more efficient tool to use throughout the day. And while working full time for 30 years for the state of North Carolina, the last 15 ...
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  • July 1, 2008

    Glass Named Senior Associate Dean for Education at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering

    Professor Jeffrey T. Glass has been appointed Senior Associate Dean for Education, Dean Tom Katsouleas announced on July 1, 2008. He succeeds Tod Laursen, who served in that capacity since 2003 and will now become chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science. "Jeff has the ideal background to help the faculty and the departments to develop innovative and exciting new educational programs that respond to the nation's need for engineers that will be ...
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  • June 19, 2008

    Smart Home Gets Top Environmental Building Score

    Residence hall/laboratory receives state's first platinum LEED rating DURHAM, NC -- The Home Depot Smart Home at Duke University, a 10-person student residence hall for green living and learning, has achieved a top-level platinum standard for its design from the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED rating system. The building becomes the first in North Carolina to achieve that standard. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The 6,000-square foot-residence, designed by students and advisers, earned 59 ...
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  • June 6, 2008

    Students' Plan to Tackle Epileptic Seizures

    Seizures, the often frightening and historically misunderstood outward manifestations of epilepsy, have long challenged physicians and struck fear in patients. Although there are drugs on the market to control seizures, many patients receive little benefit. But there may now be a reason to hope for some of these patients. Though the technology is still in its infancy, a new approach to controlling seizures championed by five Duke University graduate students four from the Pratt School ...
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  • June 6, 2008

    Students' Plan to Tackle Epileptic Seizures

    Seizures, the often frightening and historically misunderstood outward manifestations of epilepsy, have long challenged physicians and struck fear in patients. Although there are drugs on the market to control seizures, many patients receive little benefit. But there may now be a reason to hope for some of these patients. Though the technology is still in its infancy, a new approach to controlling seizures championed by five Duke University graduate students four from the Pratt School ...
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  • May 29, 2008

    Scattered Light Reveals Size and Shape Of The Nucleus

    A new technology based on the interpretation of light reflected off cells will make it faster and more efficient for researchers to document how the nucleus, which contains a cell's DNA and controls its actions, changes shape in response to its environment. The technique will enable researchers for the first time to watch some changes in the living cell as they happen. The Duke University bioengineers who developed the new method and demonstrated its effectiveness believe ...
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  • May 23, 2008

    You 2008 DuPont Young Investigator

    To support his work in the burgeoning field of synthetic biology, DuPont has awarded Lingchong You a three-year research grant as a part of its Young Professor program for 2008. You, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering and researcher at Duke's Institute of Genome Sciences and Policy, focuses his research on the creation of "living circuits" comprised of genetically altered microbes. By manipulating these circuits, You hopes to produce proteins ...
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  • May 23, 2008

    You 2008 DuPont Young Investigator

    To support his work in the burgeoning field of synthetic biology, DuPont has awarded Lingchong You a three-year research grant as a part of its Young Professor program for 2008. You, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering and researcher at Duke's Institute of Genome Sciences and Policy, focuses his research on the creation of "living circuits" comprised of genetically altered microbes. By manipulating these circuits, You hopes to produce proteins ...
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  • May 20, 2008

    Engineering the Heart - Damaged Heart Muscle Could Use Stem Cell Patch

    Five Question Interview with Nenad Bursac Nenad Bursac is an assistant professor in biomedical engineering who works with stem cells, tissue engineering and biomaterials to find a way to patch and repair the damage created by a heart attack. Q - How did you get from electrical engineering to heart muscles? I was always fascinated by the heart as an extremely complex and powerful, and yet delicate, organ. The heart is both an electrical and mechanical ...
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  • May 19, 2008

    Lee Pearson Commencement Speech 2008

    Welcome mothers and happy Mother's Day, thank you for all that you do. Welcome fathers thanks for your part in making Mother's Day possible. Welcome Pratt Class of 2008. It has been a long road and we have reached the end of this journey in what seems like much less time than anticipated. Although our parents were certainly focused on getting to the destination on time and on budget, we were more focused on what interesting ...
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  • May 11, 2008

    Duke University Awards Degrees to 404 Engineers

    Duke University and its Pratt School of Engineering awarded degrees to 230 undergraduate and 174 graduate students May 11 and engineering Dean Robert L. Clark said Pratt's graduating seniors are ready to help tackle some of the many challenges facing the nation and the global society. "You are about to accept a much greater responsibility for yourselves, and as engineers, for all of humanity," Clark told a standing-only-crowd of graduates, and their friends and families gathered ...
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  • May 8, 2008

    Gift to Drive Better Understanding of Uncertainty Analysis

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering has received a gift of $5 million from an anonymous donor to establish a new undergraduate curriculum that will encourage students to think critically about problems that lack obvious solutions, like those they will encounter after graduation, President Richard H. Brodhead announced Wednesday. The planned curriculum will be open to undergraduates from all majors. "Duke's strategic plan, 'Making a Difference,' calls for investments in programs that help students ...
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  • May 6, 2008

    First Steps Toward Autonomous Robot Surgeries

    DURHAM, N.C. The day may be getting a little closer when robots will perform surgery on patients in dangerous situations or in remote locations, such as on the battlefield or in space, with minimal human guidance. Engineers at Duke University believe that the results of feasibility studies conducted in their laboratory represent the first concrete steps toward achieving this space age vision of the future. Also, on a more immediate level, the technology developed ...
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  • May 6, 2008

    First Steps Toward Autonomous Robot Surgeries

    DURHAM, N.C. The day may be getting a little closer when robots will perform surgery on patients in dangerous situations or in remote locations, such as on the battlefield or in space, with minimal human guidance. Engineers at Duke University believe that the results of feasibility studies conducted in their laboratory represent the first concrete steps toward achieving this space age vision of the future. Also, on a more immediate level, the technology developed ...
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  • April 24, 2008

    New 3-D Ultrasound Could Improve Stroke Diagnosis, Care

    DURHAM, N.C. Using 3-D ultrasound technology they designed, Duke University bioengineers can compensate for the thickness and unevenness of the skull to see in real-time the arteries within the brain that most often clog up and cause strokes. The researchers believe that these advances will ultimately improve the treatment of stroke patients, whether by giving emergency medical technicians (EMT) the ability to quickly scan the heads of potential stroke victims while in the ambulance ...
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  • April 21, 2008

    Clare Boothe Luce Fellows Two Years Later

    Two years after receiving prestigious fellowships designed to support women scientists, three Pratt graduate students are well into their research with such diverse projects as brain-computer interfaces, nanoparticle exposures and a new method for breast cancer screening. In 2006, Katie Hedlund, Christine Robichaud and Christina Shafer were named Clare Boothe Luce Fellows. The fellowship program is the largest such private program for women studying science, mathematics or engineering. More than 1,500 women scientists have received support ...
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  • April 17, 2008

    Joseph Izatt Elected SPIE Fellow

    SPIE, the international society for the science and application of light, has elected Duke biomedical engineering professor Joseph Izatt a fellow of the society. This year SPIE chose only 72 new fellows worldwide. Fellows are members of distinction who have made significant scientific and technical contributions in the multidisciplinary fields of optics, photonics, and imaging. They are honored for their technical achievement, for their service to the general optics community, and to SPIE in particular. More than ...
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  • April 15, 2008

    Novel Living System Recreates Predator-Prey Interaction

    DURHAM, N.C. The hunter-versus-hunted phenomenon exemplified by a pack of lionesses chasing down a lonely gazelle has been recreated in a Petri dish with lowly bacteria.   Working with colleagues at Caltech, Stanford and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a Duke University bioengineer has developed a living system using genetically altered bacteria that he believes can provide new insights into how the population levels of prey influence the levels of predators, and vice-versa. The Duke experiment ...
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  • April 2, 2008

    Three Duke Students Awarded Goldwater Scholarships

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Three Duke University students have been selected for Goldwater Scholarships in science, mathematics and engineering for the 2008-09 academic year.They were among 321 sophomores and juniors chosen on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,035 mathematics, science and engineering students nationwide. Three of Duke's four nominees were selected. The award provides up to $7,500 toward annual tuition and expenses. Duke's Goldwater Scholars are Mark Hallen, Nicholas Patrick and engineering student Daniel ...
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  • March 25, 2008

    Living on $2 a Day

    When the severe drought in North Carolina precluded his scheduled monsoon rainwater project, Bob Malkin was forced to devise an alternative experience for his Design for the Developing World course. In an attempt to simulate on the personal level the experience of poverty, he asked his students to live on $2 a day, just as billions of people around the world do. While the costs of lodging, heat and other utilities were not included in the ...
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  • March 17, 2008

    Duke optical spinoff company wins Frost & Sullivan North America Award for Excellence in Research

    Bioptigen, a spinoff company co-founded by Duke biomedical engineer Joseph Izatt, has won the Frost & Sullivan 2007 North American Optical Coherence Tomography Excellence in Research Award. Bioptigen was singled out for its work in spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) for ophthalmology. "This recognition is validation of our vision for the current and future potential of SD-OCT," said Izatt, professor of biomedical engineering and opthamology, and Chief Technology Officer at Bioptigen. "Our emphasis looking forward is ...
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  • March 17, 2008

    Duke optical spinoff company wins Frost & Sullivan North America Award for Excellence in Research

    Bioptigen, a spinoff company co-founded by Duke biomedical engineer Joseph Izatt, has won the Frost & Sullivan 2007 North American Optical Coherence Tomography Excellence in Research Award. Bioptigen was singled out for its work in spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) for ophthalmology. "This recognition is validation of our vision for the current and future potential of SD-OCT," said Izatt, professor of biomedical engineering and opthamology, and Chief Technology Officer at Bioptigen. "Our emphasis looking forward is ...
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  • January 22, 2008

    Pratt Fellow Amoozegar Aims for Better Detection of Early Cancer

    Cyrus Amoozegar, a Pratt Undergraduate Research Fellow in the laboratory of Biomedical Engineering Professor Adam Wax, is working to improve a new, light-based method of early cancer detection. The technology, known as "angle-resolved low coherence interferometry" (a/LCI), can distinguish between cancer and non-cancer by measuring features within the cells that cover the outer surfaces of organs, where most cancers get their start. "It's superior because it is completely non-invasive," Amoozegar said. "Now, doctors have to take ...
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  • January 22, 2008

    Pratt Fellow Yamanaka Aims for Gene Therapy in a Pill and Career in Global Health

    Yvonne Yamanaka, a biomedical engineering major and Pratt Undergraduate Research Fellow, is developing a method for incorporating the genes encoding insulin into cells of the intestine, a promising new method for the treatment of diabetes. Unlike earlier approaches to gene therapy, which rely on viruses to insert new genes into cells, her research in the laboratory of Biomedical Engineering Professor Kam Leong aims to make gene therapies as easy as popping a pill. Such oral ...
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  • January 7, 2008

    High-Energy Ultrasound Sharpens View of Liver Tumors

    A high-energy form of ultrasound imaging developed by researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering produces pictures of liver tumors that are better than those made with traditional ultrasound, according to results of a clinical study. The study suggests that the imaging method known as Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) ultrasound might offer a new tool for screening patients at increased risk for liver cancers, according to the researchers. They say it might also ...
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  • December 17, 2007

    Duke Undergraduate Entrepreneurs in Action

    Ideas that included promoting childrens books for African-Americans and creation of a cooperative kitchen for low-income single mothers were among the student presentations Dec. 6 at the Undergraduate Entrepreneurs Pitch Session, part of the University's inaugural Entrepreneurship Week. Six groups of undergraduate entrepreneurs made presentations before a large audience and a panel of venture capitalists and other professional entrepreneurs, including Chris Kroeger, partner of The Aurora Funds, which co-sponsored the event; Bonny Moellenbrock, director of SJF ...
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  • December 5, 2007

    A Summer of Adventure on Two Continents

    This article is part of Summer Stories, a special, online issue of Dukengineer Magazine, in which students wrote about their experiences in the Summer of 2007 during their time away from Duke. by Varun Gokarn BME/ECON '09 This summer, I was blessed with the opportunity to travel and work in South Africa for two months through the Robertson Scholars Program. Along with nine other students, I flew to Johannesburg where we visited the Soweto township, former ...
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  • December 5, 2007

    Researching Health and Human Rights in Accra, Ghana

    This article is part of Summer Stories, a special, online issue of Dukengineer Magazine, in which students wrote about their experiences in the Summer of 2007 during their time away from Duke. by Stesha Doku, BME '08 Florence Okra did not have an office. Instead, her office was her home--an apartment in the police barracks of Accra, Ghana. When I met her, I was surprised to discover that she had never had a place to separate her ...
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  • December 5, 2007

    Research and Play in Dresden, Germany

    This article is part of Summer Stories, a special, online issue of Dukengineer Magazine, in which students wrote about their experiences in the Summer of 2007 during their time away from Duke. by Rae Luan, BME '09 I had the opportunity to do a ten-week internship at the Vodafone Mobile Communications Chair, at Technische Universitat Dresden from May to August 2007. Dresden is a city in mid-eastern Germany about two hours south of Berlin. It ...
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  • December 5, 2007

    Catching Rain in Uganda

    This article is part of Summer Stories, a special, online issue of Dukengineer Magazine, in which students wrote about their experiences in the Summer of 2007 during their time away from Duke. by Patrick Ye, BME '10 This past summer, I was one of six students on a Duke Engineers Without Borders team that traveled to Uganda. Our goal was to build a rainwater harvesting system to supply a community with a clean and reliable source of ...
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  • December 5, 2007

    Orthopedic Medical Device Design at Kinamed, Inc.

    This article is part of Summer Stories, a special, online issue of Dukengineer Magazine, in which students wrote about their experiences in the Summer of 2007 during their time away from Duke. by Michael Schaper, BME/ME '08 During the summer, I worked at Kinamed, Inc., an orthopedic medical device engineering firm in Camarillo, Califa. Vineet Sarin, a 1995 graduate of Duke engineering, arranged for me to make the most of my time at Kinamed through tasks that ...
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  • December 5, 2007

    Moldy Human Cells, Water Pipes, 2-Watt Computers, and Concrete Machines: One Pratt Senior's Summer Extravaganza

    This article is part of Summer Stories, a special, online issue of Dukengineer Magazine, in which students wrote about their experiences in the Summer of 2007 during their time away from Duke. by Lee Pearson, BME/CEE '08 "Viva Peeeruuu!" the perfect stranger yelled to me with Pisco on his breath as he threw his arm around my back and we proceeded to walk towards the concert stage. It was July 27th, the night before the Independence Day ...
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  • December 5, 2007

    DukEngage Internship in New Orleans

    This article is part of Summer Stories, a special, online issue of Dukengineer Magazine, in which students wrote about their experiences in the Summer of 2007 during their time away from Duke. by Kristen Bova, BME '08 After spending most of my second semester junior year going to information sessions, submitting resumes through e-recruiting, and going to first round interviews, it was the beginning of April, and I was still not sure what I was doing over ...
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  • December 5, 2007

    Pratt Fellow Garrett Wood Models Cervical Spine Muscles

    This article is part of Summer Stories, a special, online issue of Dukengineer Magazine, in which students wrote about their experiences in the Summer of 2007 during their time away from Duke. by Garrett Wood, BME/ME'08 Every year, millions of serious injuries in the U.S. are caused by automobile crashes. Of those incidents that lead to long-term disabilities or death, head and neck injuries stand as a major culprit. Therefore, it is important for automobile ...
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  • December 5, 2007

    Fixing Broken Hearts: Craig Silverman's Internship at Edwards Lifesciences

    by Craig Silverman, BME '08 This summer I worked as a Manufacturing Engineer in the Peripheral Vascular Systems division of Edwards Lifesciences in Irvine, Calif. Edwards Lifesciences is the leader in treating advanced cardiovascular diseases and is the number-one heart valve company in the world. As a Manufacturing Engineer in the Peripheral Vascular Systems division, I focused my work on the production of stents and catheters. A stent is an expandable, laser cut tube that is ...
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  • December 1, 2007

    Eleven Selected for Chambers Fellowships

    Eleven graduate students have been selected by the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics for two-year John T. Chambers Fellowships. They are Greg Nusz, Henry Fu and Robert Graf, all of BME; Jiefu Chen, Justin Migacz, Sabarni Palit, Samuel Drezdozon, See Hoon Lim, Thomas Hand, and Zhiya Zhao, all of ECE; and Joel Greenberg of physics.
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  • November 26, 2007

    Tumor Assessment Device Wins Seed Funding from The Carolinas Photonics Consortium

    The Carolinas Photonics Consortium (CPC) has selected biomedical engineering postdoctoral researcher Quincy Brown of Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering to receive $10,000 in seed funding for the development of a device aimed at dramatically decreasing the number of repeat surgeries for women with breast cancer. "In the U.S., more than 145,000 women with breast cancer have to undergo two or more invasive surgeries to completely remove their cancer," Brown said. "Those second surgeries impose a ...
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  • November 20, 2007

    Capturing the Inner Workings of Early Stage Cancer in 3-D

    Biomedical engineers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have captured three-dimensional images revealing microscopic changes to the inner workings of cells that occur at the earliest stages of cancer, suggesting a possible new way of disease detection. Their findings in animals also suggest that so-called multi-photon fluorescence microscopy a technique that had generally been limited to the basic science laboratory might also find use in the clinic. "We were able to ...
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  • November 5, 2007

    Why Engineers Make Good Business People

    Note: The following represents a speech presented by Sy Sternberg, chairman and CEO of New York Life Insurance Co., at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering on Saturday, Nov. 3, during Parents Weekend. Sternberg is an engineer by education, with bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering. Download his power point slides. It's great to be here this week with so many other Duke parents. My son, Matthew, has just entered his senior year at ...
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  • November 1, 2007

    Robert Malkin to Take Seat on World Health Organization's Executive Board

    Robert Malkin Robert Malkin, a professor of the practice in biomedical engineering at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering and a founder of Engineering World Health (EWH), has accepted a new role as a representative to the Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) beginning in January 2008, when he will attend his first board meeting and The World Health Assembly in Geneva. The WHO board serves in a manner analogous to the board of directors ...
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  • November 1, 2007

    First NCCU-Duke STEM Partnership Awards Granted

    Three master's students from North Carolina Central University (NCCU), along with their NCCU advisers and Duke mentors, have been selected as the first recipients of $25,000 awards granted by the Duke-NCCU STEM Partnership. The program aims to help increase the number of underrepresented minority students who pursue one of the "STEM disciplines" of science, technology, engineering or math. Each award will provide the students with a $15,000 stipend, $5,000 for tuition and $5,000 for the supplies ...
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  • October 3, 2007

    Ashutosh Chilkoti Named Director of Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Material Systems

    Professor Ashutosh Chilkoti has been appointed director of the Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Materials Systems (CBIMMS), Pratt Dean Robert Clark announced on Oct. 2. CBIMMS is an interdisciplinary Duke center focused on bio-nano-manufacturing, biointerface science and nanomechanics, using designs found in nature as inspiration for engineering advances. In his capacity as center director, Chilkoti will also lead Pratt's strategic research initiative in materials. "As associate director of CBIMMS, Chilkoti provided extensive leadership on multi-investigator proposals ...
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  • October 3, 2007

    Why Women Succeed

    Note: The following article, written by Sally Hicks, first appeared in the Fall '07 issue of Gist from the Mill, a publication of the Social Science Research Institute at Duke University. When Nan Jokerst studied engineering in the 1980s, being a woman meant being surrounded by men. Not that there's anything wrong with that, says Jokerst, the J.A. Jones Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke. "I had more dates than anybody. If you want ...
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  • October 1, 2007

    Shamji wins Physician Services Resident Research Award

    BME doctoral student Mohammed Shamji has been awarded a Resident Research Award from Physician Services Incorporated in Canada. Shamji will present his research at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada meeting in Winnipeg.
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  • October 1, 2007

    Five Guilak Students Win Graduate Fellowships

    Five graduate students and post-docs in Professor Farshid Guilak's Orthopedic Bioengineering Laboratory have received individual fellowships. Brian Diekman and Rebecca Wilusz, both of whom were previous Pratt Undergraduate Fellows, have received graduate research fellowships from the National Science Foundation to pursue PhDs in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Amy McNulty, a post-doctoral fellow, has received a three-year National Research Service Award from the NIH to study novel therapies for repair of the knee meniscus. Tim Griffin, a post-doctoral ...
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  • October 1, 2007

    Pratt Pair Wins YouTube Contest

    Watch Laura Moore and Lisa Richard's video "Shedding Light on Breast Cancer," which highlights their research done as Pratt Undergraduate Research Fellows. Two seniors in the Pratt School of Engineering have won the Duke University prize in a national YouTube video competition. Laura Moore (BME '08) and Lisa Richards (BME '08) produced a three-minute film about a research project that is using specially filtered light to improve breast cancer detection and measurement. Both students have been working ...
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  • October 1, 2007

    Pratt Pair Wins YouTube Contest

    Watch Laura Moore and Lisa Richard's video "Shedding Light on Breast Cancer," which highlights their research done as Pratt Undergraduate Research Fellows. Two seniors in the Pratt School of Engineering have won the Duke University prize in a national YouTube video competition. Laura Moore (BME '08) and Lisa Richards (BME '08) produced a three-minute film about a research project that is using specially filtered light to improve breast cancer detection and measurement. Both students have been working ...
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  • October 1, 2007

    Annual Fitzpatrick Meeting to Highlight 'Science and Technology for a Purpose'

    Fitzpatrick Institute Director Tuan Vo-Dinh The seventh annual meeting of Duke's Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics, which will be held at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering on Oct. 11 and 12, will highlight "Photonics in the Translational Era: Science and Technology for a Purpose." Photonics is the science and technology of light and its interaction with materials. "The main purpose of the symposium is to bring together scientists, engineers and practitioners from multiple disciplines and provide a forum ...
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  • October 1, 2007

    Annual Fitzpatrick Meeting to Highlight 'Science and Technology for a Purpose'

    Fitzpatrick Institute Director Tuan Vo-Dinh The seventh annual meeting of Duke's Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics, which will be held at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering on Oct. 11 and 12, will highlight "Photonics in the Translational Era: Science and Technology for a Purpose." Photonics is the science and technology of light and its interaction with materials. "The main purpose of the symposium is to bring together scientists, engineers and practitioners from multiple disciplines and provide a forum ...
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  • October 1, 2007

    In New Position, Lawrence Boyd to Boost Student Entrepreneurship at Duke

    Lawrence Boyd teaches a new course called Introduction to Business and Technology-Based Companies. Three days after completing his doctoral work in biomedical engineering, Lawrence Boyd got started in a completely new role, as associate director of Duke's Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization (CERC). The position was created with funding support from several departments and programs across the university in an effort to boost student entrepreneurship at Duke. Founded and directed by Biomedical Engineering Professor Barry Myers, ...
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  • October 1, 2007

    In New Position, Lawrence Boyd to Boost Student Entrepreneurship at Duke

    Lawrence Boyd teaches a new course called Introduction to Business and Technology-Based Companies. Three days after completing his doctoral work in biomedical engineering, Lawrence Boyd got started in a completely new role, as associate director of Duke's Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization (CERC). The position was created with funding support from several departments and programs across the university in an effort to boost student entrepreneurship at Duke. Founded and directed by Biomedical Engineering Professor Barry Myers, ...
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  • October 1, 2007

    Duke's Smart Home – Finally A Reality

    An illustration of the Home Depot Smart Home. After almost five years of plans, the dorm has finally become a reality. After almost five years of plans, dreams, fundraising and ultimately construction, Duke's new smart home will be finished in November. Ten Pratt engineers and Trinity students anticipate moving into the Home Depot Smart Home in January prepared to become Duke's newest ambassadors of E-Living. Their goal is to seamlessly integrate technology into the home and ...
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  • October 1, 2007

    Duke's Smart Home – Finally A Reality

    An illustration of the Home Depot Smart Home. After almost five years of plans, the dorm has finally become a reality. After almost five years of plans, dreams, fundraising and ultimately construction, Duke's new smart home will be finished in November. Ten Pratt engineers and Trinity students anticipate moving into the Home Depot Smart Home in January prepared to become Duke's newest ambassadors of E-Living. Their goal is to seamlessly integrate technology into the home and ...
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  • October 1, 2007

    David Fitzpatrick Named to Lead Neuroscience Institute at Duke

    David Fitzpatrick, a professor of neurobiology at Duke University, has been named the first director of the new interdisciplinary Institute for Brain, Mind, Genes, and Behavior, Provost Peter Lange announced Monday. The institute, an outgrowth of the university's latest strategic plan, is being created "to build on our existing strengths in a variety of disciplines that are critical for understanding brain function," Fitzpatrick explained. "I'm looking forward to working together with the faculty and administration ...
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  • September 19, 2007

    As Founder of Shoeboxed.com, Recent Grad Starts a 'Consumer Revolution'

    The Shoeboxed logo. As an undergraduate, Taylor Mingos ('07) was the first student at the Pratt School of Engineering to officially participate in the Duke-in-Berlin program's special engineering option, in which students take an intensive year of German and enroll in engineering-related courses at the Technical University of Berlin. Immediately after graduating with a triple major in electrical engineering, biomedical engineering and German studies, he led a diverse team of 16 back to the vibrant European ...
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  • September 19, 2007

    As Founder of Shoeboxed.com, Recent Grad Starts a 'Consumer Revolution'

    The Shoeboxed logo. As an undergraduate, Taylor Mingos ('07) was the first student at the Pratt School of Engineering to officially participate in the Duke-in-Berlin program's special engineering option, in which students take an intensive year of German and enroll in engineering-related courses at the Technical University of Berlin. Immediately after graduating with a triple major in electrical engineering, biomedical engineering and German studies, he led a diverse team of 16 back to the vibrant European ...
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  • September 19, 2007

    A Summer of Engagement

    Student members of the Duke Engineers Without Borders (EWB) chapter took part in three projects over the past summer all designed to improve the quality of life for people living in Uganda and Peru. Meanwhile, Engineering World Health (EWH), an organization founded by the Pratt School of Engineering's Robert Malkin, took more than 40 students to Tanzania and Central America to install or repair medical equipment in local clinics and hospitals. "It gives me great pride ...
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  • September 19, 2007

    A Summer of Engagement

    Student members of the Duke Engineers Without Borders (EWB) chapter took part in three projects over the past summer all designed to improve the quality of life for people living in Uganda and Peru. Meanwhile, Engineering World Health (EWH), an organization founded by the Pratt School of Engineering's Robert Malkin, took more than 40 students to Tanzania and Central America to install or repair medical equipment in local clinics and hospitals. "It gives me great pride ...
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  • September 1, 2007

    Nusz Wins Best Poster Award

    Greg Nusz, a graduate student in the lab of BME Professor Ashutosh Chilkoti, won the best poster award at the European Science Foundation Symposium on Biological Surfaces and Interfaces held July 1-6 at Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain. His poster was titled "Label-free Plasmonic Detection of Biomolecular Binding by a Single Gold Nanorod: Sensitivity and Detection Limits."
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  • September 1, 2007

    Klinger wins Nanoscience Ethics Essay contest

    Rebecca Klinger, a BME Ph.D. student working under the direction of Nenad Bursac, has taken the first place, $1,000 prize in the Nanoscience Ethics Essay contest sponsored by the Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Material Systems. As an emerging technology, nanoscience presents a fertile ground for investigation into key questions of research ethics.
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  • September 1, 2007

    Liang wins Poster Award

    Yun Liang, a Ph.D. student in Morton Friedman's lab, won first prize in the Biofluids and Imaging category in the Ph.D. student paper competition for her poster, "Coronary Artery Wall Strain Estimation from Clinical IVUS Images."
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  • September 1, 2007

    Back to School and Time to Think about Next Summer

    Kirsten Shaw In the midst of settling back into campus life and a new course schedule, it's already time to start thinking about next summer's internship or full-time job, says Kirsten Shaw, assistant director of Corporate and Industry Relations at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. The good news is that there are plenty of resources available on campus to get undergraduates prepared. The first stop should be an appointment with the Career Center, where students can get ...
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  • September 1, 2007

    Back to School and Time to Think about Next Summer

    Kirsten Shaw In the midst of settling back into campus life and a new course schedule, it's already time to start thinking about next summer's internship or full-time job, says Kirsten Shaw, assistant director of Corporate and Industry Relations at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. The good news is that there are plenty of resources available on campus to get undergraduates prepared. The first stop should be an appointment with the Career Center, where students can get ...
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  • August 30, 2007

    New Insights into Common Knee Injuries

    The sort of swelling that occurs when a joint is damaged by injury or degeneration is normally essential to the healing process, but when it comes to the knee, that inflammation can actually interfere with healing. These findings in experiments with pigs may lead to treatments for injuries or osteoarthritis in the knee, according to Duke University orthopedic researchers. There are drugs that can block the action of these immune system proteins that trigger joint inflammation. The ...
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  • August 15, 2007

    See More, Know More

    For patients, minimally invasive surgery done through tiny "keyhole" incisions generally means less trauma to the body, less blood loss, smaller surgical scars and less need for pain medication. Surgeons now use optical endoscopes thin tubes with a tiny video camera--or two-dimensional ultrasound to navigate the surgeries. Did you know? Professors Stephen Smith and Olaf Von Ramm, also of the Pratt School, developed the first 3D ultrasound scanner in 1987 for imaging the heart from outside ...
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  • August 15, 2007

    Feel the Beat

    In addition to displaying cardiac anatomy, various medical imaging techniques including PET, CT, MRI and echocardiography provide information related to heart function. However, the potential complications with the use of contrast agents as well as the cost of these imaging methods are limiting factors for their widespread clinical application, and none of these methods can "see" the heart as it stiffens and softens with each beat. Did you know? The average heartbeat is 72 times per minute. ...
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  • August 15, 2007

    Probing the Living Cell

    Nanotechnology is offering up new methods to unravel the workings of the tiny human cell the basic building block of our body's tissues. Did you know? Think of poking a hole in a cell and sticking in a flashlight. Tuan Vo-Dinh A unique nanobiosensor developed by Duke biomedical engineering Professor Tuan Vo-Dinh represents a significant advance for systems biology the ability to study the molecular and biochemical activities of a single cell in real time, without destroying the ...
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  • August 15, 2007

    DNA, a la carte

    In 2007, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first human vaccine to offer protection against the H5N1 influenza virus, commonly known as avian or bird flu. Yet, in the event that a viral strain began spreading from human to human, the vaccine is expected to provide only limited protection until a tailored vaccine could be developed and produced. Did you know? The freedom to synthesize the precise DNA sequences you want would change the way ...
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  • August 15, 2007

    Reigning in HIV/AIDS

    An estimated 12,000 people contract the AIDS virus each day, including a disproportionate number of women. Microbicides might help protect at-risk women by serving as "molecular condoms"--physical barriers or filters with HIV-neutralizing ingredients that slow viral passage from semen into body tissues. Human Need In many cases, women lack the control needed to protect themselves against the virus. Microbicide development is a response to the demonstrated need for new female-controlled methods for HIV prophylaxis. David Katz A team ...
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  • August 15, 2007

    Drug Depot

    Osteoarthritis--a degenerative joint disease that affects 21 million people in the U.S. and is the nation's leading cause of disability--had been attributed primarily to the gradual wear and tear of joint surfaces. More recently, scientists have discovered that inflammation sparked by the immune system also plays an important role in the worsening of the disease. However, trials of a drug aimed at blocking that joint inflammation have had limited success, primarily because the medication clears ...
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  • August 15, 2007

    Drugs that Deliver

    Chemotherapy often falls short of achieving its full impact because the drugs diffuse in and out of tumors too rapidly. That's because the small size of current chemotherapy drugs which typically have a molecular weight in the 300 to 600 range allow them to be readily excreted through the kidneys before their anti-cancer effects are fully achieved. Did you know? If you balance the ability of drug to penetrate tumors with its staying ...
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  • August 15, 2007

    Special Delivery

    Gene therapy is a promising approach for treating many genetic disorders, particularly those such as hemophilia and some metabolic diseases, in which a missing or dysfunctional gene fails to provide a protein required for normal bodily functions. However, the therapeutic potential of gene therapy has been limited by the lack of safe and efficient delivery systems. Did you know? About one in every 5,000 males has hemophilia A, in which a deficiency for a single blood clotting ...
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  • August 15, 2007

    Ultrasound Solution

    Many major diseases of the liver cause the organ to stiffen over time due to scarring, a condition known as fibrosis. Ultimately, such disorders--including hepatitis and fatty liver disease--can lead to cirrhosis, in which scarred tissue becomes an obstacle to blood flow and liver function. Today, doctors remove liver tissue through biopsy procedures to determine how far a patient's disease has progressed. Did you know? Cirrhosis is the 12th leading cause of death by disease, killing about ...
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  • July 30, 2007

    Duke Scientists to Explore Networks and Systems of Biology

    DURHAM, N.C. -- The National Institute for General Medical Sciences has awarded Duke University a $14.5 million, five-year grant to establish a new national center for systems biology in the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP). The center will bring together experimentalists and modeling experts from biology, statistics, computer science, mathematics, physics and engineering to explore how the intricate biological networks that govern living cells operate at three different time scales: minutes, days and ...
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  • July 27, 2007

    Underwater Robot Competition Proved a 'Rollercoaster Ride' for Duke Robotics Club

    The 10th annual International Autonomous Underwater Vehicle competition held in San Diego, Calif., from July 11-15 proved a "rollercoaster ride" for student members of the Duke Robotics Club. While early indications suggested that their newly designed robot, named Scylla, had a shot at landing in the top three, a series of operational failures ultimately forced the team to forfeit the competition before their second qualifying run. "In the end, this competition served as a reminder that ...
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  • July 9, 2007

    'Virtual' Mouse Brains Now Available Online

    A multi-institutional consortium including Duke University has created startlingly crisp 3-D microscopic views of tiny mouse brains -- unveiled layer by layer -- by extending the capabilities of conventional magnetic resonance imaging. "These images can be more than 100,000 times higher resolution than a clinical MRI scan," said G. Allan Johnson, Duke's Charles E. Putman Distinguished Professor of radiology and professor of biomedical engineering and physics. He is first author of a report describing the innovations ...
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  • June 25, 2007

    Carolina Universities Form Photonics Consortium To Boost Technology Commercialization

    Getting photonics (light-based) technologies to the marketplace has just gotten easier. Duke University has joined four Carolina universities in forming the Carolinas Photonics Consortium (CPC). Representatives of North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Western Carolina University, Clemson University and Duke University signed a CPC Inter-Institutional Agreement that establishes a foundation for collaborative university work aimed at the commercialization of photonics or light-based technologies. "This is a tremendous opportunity to bring science ...
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  • June 20, 2007

    3-D Ultrasound Provides Window on the Brain

    Biomedical engineers at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering have adapted a three-dimensional ultrasound scanner that might guide minimally invasive brain surgeries and provide better detection of a brain tumor's location. The "brain scope," which is inserted into a dime-sized hole in the skull, may be particularly useful for the bedside evaluation of critically ill patients when computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment is unavailable, the researchers said. They report the development in a ...
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  • June 5, 2007

    Diagnosing Skin Cancers with Light, Not Scalpels

    In an early step toward nonsurgical screening for malignant skin cancers, Duke University chemists have demonstrated a laser-based system that can capture three-dimensional images of the chemical and structural changes underway beneath the surface of human skin. "The standard way physicians do a diagnosis now is to cut out a mole and look at a slice of it with a microscope," said Warren Warren, the James B. Duke Professor of chemistry, radiology and biomedical engineering, ...
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  • June 1, 2007

    Duke and Pratt Award Degrees to 382 Undergraduate and Graduate Students

    A webcast of Pratt's graduation is available for download here. Duke University and its Pratt School of Engineering awarded degrees to 382 undergraduate and graduate students May 13 and Dean Kristina M. Johnson told Pratt's Class of 2007 and their families and friends at a Chapel celebration that "It's a perfect time to be an engineer." Johnson awarded Bachelor of Science in Engineering degrees to 212 students, including eight who completed their work in December and six ...
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  • June 1, 2007

    Duke and Pratt Award Degrees to 382 Undergraduate and Graduate Students

    A webcast of Pratt's graduation is available for download here. Duke University and its Pratt School of Engineering awarded degrees to 382 undergraduate and graduate students May 13 and Dean Kristina M. Johnson told Pratt's Class of 2007 and their families and friends at a Chapel celebration that "It's a perfect time to be an engineer." Johnson awarded Bachelor of Science in Engineering degrees to 212 students, including eight who completed their work in December and six ...
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  • June 1, 2007

    Commencement Speech: Benjamin Schaefer Abram

    Sunday, May 13, 2007 Inspired by Hurricane Katrina, Ben Abram looked for lessons in historical records related to past floods as a Pratt Undergraduate Research Fellow. For the last four years, every graduate in this room has been solving engineering problems. None of us here escaped circuit diagramming whether in physics alone, for us Civils and Environmentals, or in Dr. (Rhett) George's EE 148 for Mechanicals, or by way of the Hotchkin-Hucksley for the Biomedicals, or twice ...
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  • June 1, 2007

    Commencement Speech: Benjamin Schaefer Abram

    Sunday, May 13, 2007 Inspired by Hurricane Katrina, Ben Abram looked for lessons in historical records related to past floods as a Pratt Undergraduate Research Fellow. For the last four years, every graduate in this room has been solving engineering problems. None of us here escaped circuit diagramming whether in physics alone, for us Civils and Environmentals, or in Dr. (Rhett) George's EE 148 for Mechanicals, or by way of the Hotchkin-Hucksley for the Biomedicals, or twice ...
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  • May 30, 2007

    How Brain Pacemakers Erase Diseased Messages

    Brain "pacemakers" that have helped ease symptoms in people with Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders seem to work by drowning out the electrical signals of their diseased brains. Despite the clinical success of the devices, which have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and can be found in the heads of about 30,000 people, the mechanisms by which deep brain stimulation alleviates disease symptoms aren't well understood. Biomedical engineers at Duke University's Pratt School ...
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  • May 22, 2007

    Lloyd Wins NSBE Paper Contest

    BME graduate student Andre Loyd won third place and $1,000 in the National Society of Black Engineers technical paper writing contest. His paper was entitled Thresholding Techniques for Developing Geometrically Accurate Pediatric Skull and Cervical Spine Models. Co-authors were BME graduate students Jason Luck and N. Buraglia, and Professors Donald Frush (pediatrics), Barry Myers (BME) and Roger Nightingale (BME).
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  • May 1, 2007

    Kahler, Saaem Elected to Graduate Student Government

    David Kahler, CEE graduate student, was elected to a second term as treasurer of the Graduate and Professional Student Council, and Ali Saaem, BME graduate student, was elected as 2007-2008 Community Affairs Coordinator. Kahler is the only member of the 2006-2007 executive board to remain on the executive board for the coming year. Other engineers who served on the executive board this year were Lara Oliver (ECE, attorney general), Elizabeth Irish (MEMS, student groups liaison), ...
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  • May 1, 2007

    Pedrotty and Miller win WiSE OWL Awards

    Two of three winners of the first WiSE OWL Award are from Pratt. The winners are Dawn Pedrotty, a graduate student in Professor Nenad Bursac's lab in BME; Molly Miller, a graduate student in Professor Anne Lazarides' lab in MEMS; and Audrey Chang, a graduate student in the biology department. The WiSE OWL Awards are sponsored by Women in Science and Engineering and co-sponsored by Graduate Student Affairs. They honor female graduate students, post-docs and ...
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  • May 1, 2007

    CUREs Winner Tackles Cervical Cancer in Haiti and Around the World

    The winning CUREs team with EWH founder Robert Malkin. The winning team of the second annual Duke-Engineering World Health CUREs non-profit business competition has developed a device to help catch cervical cancer early in women of developing countries. The low-cost device called a cerviScope might also hold promise for use in industrialized countries, including the U.S., according to Duke physicians familiar with the new cancer-screening instrument. "Our ambition is to save the lives of 19,000 women in ...
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  • May 1, 2007

    CUREs Winner Tackles Cervical Cancer in Haiti and Around the World

    The winning CUREs team with EWH founder Robert Malkin. The winning team of the second annual Duke-Engineering World Health CUREs non-profit business competition has developed a device to help catch cervical cancer early in women of developing countries. The low-cost device called a cerviScope might also hold promise for use in industrialized countries, including the U.S., according to Duke physicians familiar with the new cancer-screening instrument. "Our ambition is to save the lives of 19,000 women in ...
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  • May 1, 2007

    Coulter-Duke Translational Partnership – Year Two

    Four new projects have been selected for funding through the 2007 call for proposals for the Coulter-Duke Translational Partnership. Biomedical engineering professor Ashutosh Chilkoti is partnering with Assistant Professor Philip Febbo of the Duke School of Medicine and Institute for Genome Science and Policy (IGSP) on a project titled "Ultra-Sensitive Microarray Platform for the Detection of Serum Markers of Prostate Cancer." Biomedical engineering Associate Professor Warren Grill is partnering with Associate Professor Cindy Amundsen of the Department ...
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  • May 1, 2007

    Coulter-Duke Translational Partnership – Year Two

    Four new projects have been selected for funding through the 2007 call for proposals for the Coulter-Duke Translational Partnership. Biomedical engineering professor Ashutosh Chilkoti is partnering with Assistant Professor Philip Febbo of the Duke School of Medicine and Institute for Genome Science and Policy (IGSP) on a project titled "Ultra-Sensitive Microarray Platform for the Detection of Serum Markers of Prostate Cancer." Biomedical engineering Associate Professor Warren Grill is partnering with Associate Professor Cindy Amundsen of the Department ...
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  • April 24, 2007

    Ultrasound Upgrade Produces Images That Work Like 3-D Movies

    Parents-to-be might soon don 3-D glasses in the ultrasound lab to see their developing fetuses in the womb "in living 3-D, just like at the IMAX movies," according to researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering.The same Duke team that first developed real-time, three-dimensional ultrasound imaging says it has now modified the commercial version of the scanner to produce an even more realistic perception of depth. Paired images seem to pop out of the ...
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  • April 10, 2007

    Keck Futures Grant Supports Development of Liquid Electrodes for 'Smart' Prosthetics

    The National Academies Keck Futures Initiative today announced that Warren Grill, of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, and David Martin, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, are recipients of a 2006 Futures grant to support their work on smart prosthetics. The competitive seed grants aim to fill a critical gap for research on bold new ideas, according to The National Academies. Grill and Martin will investigate whether rubber electrodes can record electrical signals from and ...
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  • April 2, 2007

    Vote for InnoWorks

    United Innoworks Academy, an organization founded at Duke by recent Pratt graduate William Hwang, is in the running for a Golden BR!CK award worth $15,000 in funding from the not-for-profit organization Do Something Inc. InnoWorks is competing against 11 other finalists for the top prize. The award will go to the organization that generates the greatest number of web-based votes. Vote now. InnoWorks has made it possible for middle-school kids all over the country to attend free, ...
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  • April 1, 2007

    From Aquifers to Goo, Event Encourages Girls' Interest in Science and Engineering

    Students build a model aquifer in an activity led by Pratt Professor Helen Hsu-Kim and Nicholas Professor Heather Stapleton. At the end of February, 160 local fourth through sixth grade girls spent their Saturdays at Duke exploring science with a creative twist, including topics ranging from the pollution of groundwater in underground aquifers to the chemistry of goo. The event marked the second annual Females Excelling More in Math, Engineering and Science (FEMMES) organized by Duke junior ...
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  • April 1, 2007

    From Aquifers to Goo, Event Encourages Girls' Interest in Science and Engineering

    Students build a model aquifer in an activity led by Pratt Professor Helen Hsu-Kim and Nicholas Professor Heather Stapleton. At the end of February, 160 local fourth through sixth grade girls spent their Saturdays at Duke exploring science with a creative twist, including topics ranging from the pollution of groundwater in underground aquifers to the chemistry of goo. The event marked the second annual Females Excelling More in Math, Engineering and Science (FEMMES) organized by Duke junior ...
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  • April 1, 2007

    Duke's First Engineers Week Draws a Crowd

    Duke's first campus-wide Engineers Week celebration, offering a week-long series of events for both Pratt and Trinity students, proved a big success. The week's grand finale, an E-social loaded with contests and competitions that pitted "Team Pratt" against "Team Trinity," drew more than 500 students to the engineering campus. Watch the video on YouTube. The festivities were kicked off with a week-long clothing drive competition between departments for the Durham Rescue Mission. Tuesday featured guest speaker ...
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  • April 1, 2007

    Duke's First Engineers Week Draws a Crowd

    Duke's first campus-wide Engineers Week celebration, offering a week-long series of events for both Pratt and Trinity students, proved a big success. The week's grand finale, an E-social loaded with contests and competitions that pitted "Team Pratt" against "Team Trinity," drew more than 500 students to the engineering campus. Watch the video on YouTube. The festivities were kicked off with a week-long clothing drive competition between departments for the Durham Rescue Mission. Tuesday featured guest speaker ...
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  • April 1, 2007

    Pratt Dean: The U.S. Needs More Women and Minorities in Engineering

    Dean Kristina M. Johnson of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering told an International Women's Day audience March 8 that the nation needs more women and minorities in engineering so they will be able to help solve some of the increasingly complex challenges she said the world will face in years ahead. "Simply put, unless we bring more women and minorities into science and engineering fields, we will not have the intellectual capital to address the global ...
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  • April 1, 2007

    Pratt Dean: The U.S. Needs More Women and Minorities in Engineering

    Dean Kristina M. Johnson of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering told an International Women's Day audience March 8 that the nation needs more women and minorities in engineering so they will be able to help solve some of the increasingly complex challenges she said the world will face in years ahead. "Simply put, unless we bring more women and minorities into science and engineering fields, we will not have the intellectual capital to address the global ...
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  • April 1, 2007

    Light-Based Probe 'Sees' Early Cancers in First Tests on Human Tissue

    Listen to Adam Wax's answers to questions about the new device: --Why would you want to look at organ surfaces? --What is Barrett's esophagus and how is it linked to cancer? --Who is at risk of Barrett's esophagus? --How do doctors check for early cancer in the esophagus now? --What are the advantages of the new "fa/LCI" device? --What do changes in the cell nucleus mean? --How does the new device work? --Will this device be useful for other types of cancer? --Will there ...
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  • April 1, 2007

    Light-Based Probe 'Sees' Early Cancers in First Tests on Human Tissue

    Listen to Adam Wax's answers to questions about the new device: --Why would you want to look at organ surfaces? --What is Barrett's esophagus and how is it linked to cancer? --Who is at risk of Barrett's esophagus? --How do doctors check for early cancer in the esophagus now? --What are the advantages of the new "fa/LCI" device? --What do changes in the cell nucleus mean? --How does the new device work? --Will this device be useful for other types of cancer? --Will there ...
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  • March 27, 2007

    Off-Road Wheelchair Pioneer and Designer to Speak April 2

    John Davis, off-road wheelchair racing champion and pioneer, and John Castelano, his wheelchair designer, will speak at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering on Monday, April 2. The talk begins at 4:00 p.m. in the Nello L. Teer Building, room 203, and is free and open to the public. Parking is available in the parking garage next to the Bryan Center. Davis is expected to discuss his experience as an outdoors enthusiast an avid surfer and mountain ...
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  • March 27, 2007

    Off-Road Wheelchair Pioneer and Designer to Speak April 2

    John Davis, off-road wheelchair racing champion and pioneer, and John Castelano, his wheelchair designer, will speak at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering on Monday, April 2. The talk begins at 4:00 p.m. in the Nello L. Teer Building, room 203, and is free and open to the public. Parking is available in the parking garage next to the Bryan Center. Davis is expected to discuss his experience as an outdoors enthusiast an avid surfer and mountain ...
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  • March 26, 2007

    Light-Based Probe 'Sees' Early Cancers in First Tests on Human Tissue

    Listen to Adam Wax's answers to questions about the new device: --Why would you want to look at organ surfaces? --What is Barrett's esophagus and how is it linked to cancer? --Who is at risk of Barrett's esophagus? --How do doctors check for early cancer in the esophagus now? --What are the advantages of the new "fa/LCI" device? --What do changes in the cell nucleus mean? --How does the new device work? --Will this device be useful for other types of cancer? --Will there ...
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  • March 20, 2007

    'Graduate Student of the Year' Audrey Ellerbee Leads by Example

    Audrey Ellerbee, of Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, has been selected by The National Society of Black Engineers as its "Graduate Student of the Year." Ellerbee will receive her 2007 Golden Torch Award at the society's 33rd national convention held in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, March 31. Ellerbee also will be discussing her path and future as a participant in the web-based Engineers Week Global Marathon on Thursday, March 22. The 24-hour Global Marathon, For, ...
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  • March 20, 2007

    'Graduate Student of the Year' Audrey Ellerbee Leads by Example

    Audrey Ellerbee, of Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, has been selected by The National Society of Black Engineers as its "Graduate Student of the Year." Ellerbee will receive her 2007 Golden Torch Award at the society's 33rd national convention held in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, March 31. Ellerbee also will be discussing her path and future as a participant in the web-based Engineers Week Global Marathon on Thursday, March 22. The 24-hour Global Marathon, For, ...
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  • March 1, 2007

    Pratt Supporters Donald Alstadt and John Strohbehn Die

    Duke's Pratt School of Engineering lost two good friends in February with the deaths of Donald M. Alstadt, chairman emeritus of the Lord Corp. and former member of Pratt's Board of Visitors, and John Strohbehn, former Duke provost and professor emeritus of biomedical engineering. "I had the great honor and privilege of working with both of these great men as dean, and their efforts on behalf of the Pratt School are in large measure the reason ...
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  • March 1, 2007

    Pratt Supporters Donald Alstadt and John Strohbehn Die

    Duke's Pratt School of Engineering lost two good friends in February with the deaths of Donald M. Alstadt, chairman emeritus of the Lord Corp. and former member of Pratt's Board of Visitors, and John Strohbehn, former Duke provost and professor emeritus of biomedical engineering. "I had the great honor and privilege of working with both of these great men as dean, and their efforts on behalf of the Pratt School are in large measure the reason ...
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  • March 1, 2007

    Civic Engagement to Become Integral to a Duke Undergraduate Education

    A destroyed house in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans remained virtually untouched months after Katrina's devastation. A DukeEngage pilot program will send 20 students to the New Orleans area this summer to help in the ongoing rebuilding effort (see sidebar). In one of the most ambitious efforts of its kind in U.S. higher education, Duke University will make civic engagement an integral part of its undergraduate experience beginning in 2008, university president Richard H. Brodhead ...
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  • March 1, 2007

    Civic Engagement to Become Integral to a Duke Undergraduate Education

    A destroyed house in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans remained virtually untouched months after Katrina's devastation. A DukeEngage pilot program will send 20 students to the New Orleans area this summer to help in the ongoing rebuilding effort (see sidebar). In one of the most ambitious efforts of its kind in U.S. higher education, Duke University will make civic engagement an integral part of its undergraduate experience beginning in 2008, university president Richard H. Brodhead ...
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  • March 1, 2007

    Taking Advice from Alumni

    Natalie Wisniewski, a Pratt alumna and medical device consultant On Feb. 9, Pratt school alums offered advice to current students at two different forums. Natalie Wisniewski, a medical device consultant who obtained her doctorate in biomedical engineering in Professor Monte Reichert's lab, spoke at a Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) event on enhancing personal innovation and problem solving. Later in the day, John Glushik, a venture capitalist who obtained his bachelor's in mechanical engineering from ...
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  • March 1, 2007

    Taking Advice from Alumni

    Natalie Wisniewski, a Pratt alumna and medical device consultant On Feb. 9, Pratt school alums offered advice to current students at two different forums. Natalie Wisniewski, a medical device consultant who obtained her doctorate in biomedical engineering in Professor Monte Reichert's lab, spoke at a Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) event on enhancing personal innovation and problem solving. Later in the day, John Glushik, a venture capitalist who obtained his bachelor's in mechanical engineering from ...
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  • March 1, 2007

    How to Catch a Monsoon

    Using a fire hose, BME seniors test devices they built to catch monsoon rain. Duke undergraduates in the biomedical engineering capstone course "Design for the Developing World" tested devices they designed and built to catch monsoon rainwater. The devices, each built with no more than $20 worth of parts from The Home Depot, were tested Feb. 15 with simulated monsoon rains delivered by fire hose on the Engineering Quadrangle. "In some parts of the world, if a ...
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  • March 1, 2007

    How to Catch a Monsoon

    Using a fire hose, BME seniors test devices they built to catch monsoon rain. Duke undergraduates in the biomedical engineering capstone course "Design for the Developing World" tested devices they designed and built to catch monsoon rainwater. The devices, each built with no more than $20 worth of parts from The Home Depot, were tested Feb. 15 with simulated monsoon rains delivered by fire hose on the Engineering Quadrangle. "In some parts of the world, if a ...
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  • February 16, 2007

    Biomedical Engineers Advance on 'Smart Bladder Pacemaker'

    Duke University biomedical engineering researchers have moved a step closer to a "smart bladder pacemaker" that might one day restore bladder control in patients with spinal cord injury or neurological disease. The team's latest findings show that a device that taps into the urinary "circuit" in the spinal cord could selectively coordinate the contraction and release of muscles required for maintaining continence. Warren Grill of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering and his colleagues have shown in cats ...
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  • February 15, 2007

    NDI Medical

    Formed in 2002, NDI Medical develops, manufactures, commercializes and markets neurostimulation products. Their experienced team of business executives, engineers and regulatory professionals have built a successful, growing, implantable neurostimulation medical device company located in Cleveland, one of the world's leading centers for neurostimulation research. Founder Warren Grill is an associate professor in Duke's Biomedical Engineering Department. URL: www.ndimedical.com/index.htm
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  • February 15, 2007

    Memscept

    Photonics and ultrasound engineering researchers from Duke's Pratt School of Engineering and George Washington University created a spinoff company in 2003 to market a novel optical scanner miniaturized enough to be inserted into the body, where its light beams could someday detect abnormalities hidden in the walls of the colon, bladder or esophagus. The experimental device is called an "electrostatic micromachine scanning mirror for optical coherence tomography." Memscept founders include Jason Zara, an assistant professor ...
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  • February 15, 2007

    Illuminus

    Illuminus is a Duke spinoff company developing technology to measure the removal of breast tumors during breast conserving surgery. An estimated 125,000 women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer receive breast conserving surgery each year. The project manager, Dr. Nimmi Ramanujam, an internationally recognized researcher in biomedical engineering, will provide the technical direction for the venture. She is a tenured faculty member at Duke University. She was the winner of the MIT Technology Review TR100 ...
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  • February 9, 2007

    Humacyte

    Humacyte is a vascular tissue engineering company pioneering the production of replacement blood vessels on demand with a patient's own cells. Humacyte's patented technology will focus specifically on producing small diameter grafts for patients suffering from coronary artery disease (CAD) or peripheral artery disease (PAD). Founder and former Duke bioengineering professor Laura Niklason is conducting preclinical tests now and hopes to enter clinical trials within the next few years. Humacyte is actively working to bridge ...
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  • February 9, 2007

    Bioptigen

    Bioptigen has pioneered a new class of in vivo optical imaging systems for biomedical applications. These systems enable real-time non-invasive imaging of internal tissue microstructure, advancing critical applications in drug development, genetics research, tissue engineering, and medical vision. Bioptigen is a spin-out of the Duke University Biomedical Engineering Department. Bioptigen was incorporated in North Carolina in August, 2004, to commercialize technologies originating in the laboratories of Professor Joseph Izatt. Bioptigen technology is based ...
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  • February 5, 2007

    Woven Scaffolds Could Improve Cartilage Repair

    Using a unique weaving machine of their design, Duke University Medical Center researchers have created a three-dimensional fabric "scaffold" that could greatly improve the ability of physicians to repair damaged joints with the patient's own stem cells. "If further experiments are successful, the scaffold could be used in clinical trials within three or four years," said Franklin Moutos, a graduate student in the Orthopedic Bioengineering Laboratory who designed and built the weaving machine. "The first joints ...
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  • February 1, 2007

    Pratt Fellow Wilusz Advances on a Solution to a Common Knee Injury

    Pratt Undergraduate Research Fellow Rebecca Wilusz has made a discovery that could lead to changes in the way that physicians treat a common form of knee injury. Her studies in the lab of Professor Farshid Guilak suggest that anti-inflammatory medications might help to encourage tears of the knee cartilage, or meniscus, to heal. "Meniscus tears are fairly common something like 15 percent of all knee injuries and 75 percent of knee injuries in athletes under the ...
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  • February 1, 2007

    Schoenleber, Pratt Fellow, Maps the Growing Human Skull

    As children grow, their skulls grow with them. But physicians have lacked a good description of that developmental process, and a reliable way of recognizing early when something goes awry. Pratt Undergraduate Research Fellow John Schoenleber, a biomedical engineering major from Columbia, Mo., is working with Assistant Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering Srinivasan Mukundan Jr. on a project designed to fill that knowledge gap. His goal is to create a series of quantitative models of ...
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  • January 1, 2007

    Markey wins AMIA New Investigator Award

    Mia K. Markey, who received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at Pratt in 2002 and is now an assistant professor at the University of Texas in Austin, has won the 2006 American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) New Investigator Award. This award recognizes an individual for early informatics contributions and significant scholarly contributions on the basis of scientific merit and research excellence.
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  • January 1, 2007

    New Institute for Brain, Mind, Genes and Behavior Established

    A new Duke University institute is asking what makes people think, feel and behave the way they do -- and its researchers say the answers may not only advance scientific understanding but also provide insight into societal problems and help patients who have a variety of disorders or diseases. One of several interdisciplinary groups that will participate in the new institute is the Duke Center for Neuroengineering. "The mission of the Institute for Brain, Mind, Genes ...
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  • January 1, 2007

    New Institute for Brain, Mind, Genes and Behavior Established

    A new Duke University institute is asking what makes people think, feel and behave the way they do -- and its researchers say the answers may not only advance scientific understanding but also provide insight into societal problems and help patients who have a variety of disorders or diseases. One of several interdisciplinary groups that will participate in the new institute is the Duke Center for Neuroengineering. "The mission of the Institute for Brain, Mind, Genes ...
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  • January 1, 2007

    BME Students Built $40 Insulin Pump, Handsfree Computer Mouse

    Kelly Fitzgerald and Patrick Parish with $40 insulin pump. Biomedical engineering students in BME 264, the biomedical instrumentation course taught by Associate Professor Patrick Wolf, capped off another semester with poster presentations of their inventions on Dec. 12. Kelly Fitzgerald and Patrick Parish presented a $40 insulin pump. By stripping the pump down to its bare essentials, such a device could offer those with diabetes who are unable to afford a $6,000 commercially available pump the advantage ...
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  • January 1, 2007

    BME Students Built $40 Insulin Pump, Handsfree Computer Mouse

    Kelly Fitzgerald and Patrick Parish with $40 insulin pump. Biomedical engineering students in BME 264, the biomedical instrumentation course taught by Associate Professor Patrick Wolf, capped off another semester with poster presentations of their inventions on Dec. 12. Kelly Fitzgerald and Patrick Parish presented a $40 insulin pump. By stripping the pump down to its bare essentials, such a device could offer those with diabetes who are unable to afford a $6,000 commercially available pump the advantage ...
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  • December 14, 2006

    New Institute for Brain, Mind, Genes and Behavior Established

    A new Duke University institute is asking what makes people think, feel and behave the way they do -- and its researchers say the answers may not only advance scientific understanding but also provide insight into societal problems and help patients who have a variety of disorders or diseases. One of several interdisciplinary groups that will participate in the new institute is the Duke Center for Neuroengineering. "The mission of the Institute for Brain, Mind, Genes ...
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  • December 12, 2006

    "Molecular Condom" Holds Promise in the Fight against HIV/AIDS

    Scientists at the University of Utah and Duke University designed a "molecular condom" that women could use daily to prevent AIDS. The condom consists of a vaginally inserted liquid that turns into a gel-like coating and then, when exposed to semen, returns to liquid form and releases an antiviral drug. "We have developed a new vaginal gel that we call a molecular condom because it is composed of molecules that are liquid at room temperature and, ...
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  • December 1, 2006

    Long & Darling Wins NIH Fellowships

    CBTE postdoctoral fellows David Long in Biomedical Engineering, and Eric Darling in the Department of Surgery for winning prestigious NIH National Research Service Award fellowships. Long will continue his work with BME Professor Mort Friedman to study the interactions of biomechanics and genomics in atherosclerosis. Darling will continue his work with professors Farshid Guilak and Stefan Zauscher studying the mechanical properties of living cells using atomic force microscopy. We also welcome three new postdocs to ...
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  • December 1, 2006

    Ellerbee wins NSBE Grad Student of the Year

    Audrey Ellerbee, Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering, was selected Graduate Student of the Year by the National Society of Black Engineers. She will receive her 2007 Golden Torch Award at the NSBE's national meeting in Columbus, Ohio, in March. This honor recognizes Ellerbee's academic and extracurricular contributions. She is president of the Duke Graduate and Professional Student Council, and is a member of Duke's Latin dance troupe. She also volunteers for the Volunteer Income Tax ...
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  • December 1, 2006

    Industry Internship Survey Results

    More than 330 Duke engineering students took part in a survey on summer internships earlier this fall. According to the survey results, more than 61% of students who completed an internship reported their experience as 'excellent' or 'good' and 82% received compensation for their time. At right are charts that provide detailed information on student majors, gender and types of internships. Internships give students a chance to network with role models and potential employers and see ...
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  • December 1, 2006

    Industry Internship Survey Results

    More than 330 Duke engineering students took part in a survey on summer internships earlier this fall. According to the survey results, more than 61% of students who completed an internship reported their experience as 'excellent' or 'good' and 82% received compensation for their time. At right are charts that provide detailed information on student majors, gender and types of internships. Internships give students a chance to network with role models and potential employers and see ...
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  • December 1, 2006

    Industry Internship Survey Results

    More than 330 Duke engineering students took part in a survey on summer internships earlier this fall. According to the survey results, more than 61% of students who completed an internship reported their experience as 'excellent' or 'good' and 82% received compensation for their time. At right are charts that provide detailed information on student majors, gender and types of internships. Internships give students a chance to network with role models and potential employers and see ...
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  • December 1, 2006

    BME Undergrads Make Skating Wheelchair for Hockey Fan, Other Devices for Disabled

    Kuppy Sampale, Eric Blatt and Keigo Kawaji demonstrate their ice skating wheelchair. A wheelchair on ice is just one of several novel prototypes that biomedical engineering undergraduates presented during a Nov. 2 demonstration of projects designed for the capstone course BME 260: Devices for People with Disabilities. "It really feels like you're gliding or ice skating when you are using the chair," said Kuppy Sampale, one of the wheelchair's engineers. A three-member student team created the adapted wheelchair--complete ...
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  • December 1, 2006

    BME Undergrads Make Skating Wheelchair for Hockey Fan, Other Devices for Disabled

    Kuppy Sampale, Eric Blatt and Keigo Kawaji demonstrate their ice skating wheelchair. A wheelchair on ice is just one of several novel prototypes that biomedical engineering undergraduates presented during a Nov. 2 demonstration of projects designed for the capstone course BME 260: Devices for People with Disabilities. "It really feels like you're gliding or ice skating when you are using the chair," said Kuppy Sampale, one of the wheelchair's engineers. A three-member student team created the adapted wheelchair--complete ...
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  • December 1, 2006

    Upper-Class E-Team Members Advise Freshmen Engineers on Course Loads

    First-year engineering students get advice about course registration from senior E-Teamer Toby Kraus. First-year engineering majors got some valuable advice on their spring semester course loads from upper-class members of the student mentoring group known as E-Team on Nov. 7. Freshmen gathered over slices of pizza to hash out their schedules with student representatives of each of the four engineering departments in the Fitzpatrick Center atrium. "Biomedical engineering is a difficult major," said senior Toby Kraus, a ...
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  • December 1, 2006

    Upper-Class E-Team Members Advise Freshmen Engineers on Course Loads

    First-year engineering students get advice about course registration from senior E-Teamer Toby Kraus. First-year engineering majors got some valuable advice on their spring semester course loads from upper-class members of the student mentoring group known as E-Team on Nov. 7. Freshmen gathered over slices of pizza to hash out their schedules with student representatives of each of the four engineering departments in the Fitzpatrick Center atrium. "Biomedical engineering is a difficult major," said senior Toby Kraus, a ...
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  • December 1, 2006

    Reassurance, Advice and Laughs at 2006 Engineering Parents' Weekend

    Brook Byers Brook Byers, a venture capitalist and Pratt parent, kicked off the 2006 Parents' Weekend seminar and barbeque by soothing parents' fears that their child wouldn't get a good job. He described five hot technology areas, and gave seniors advice on how to choose their first position. His presentation to the crowd of 600 parents and students Oct. 27 was followed by an interactive panel of four Duke engineering seniors who provided their own take on ...
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  • December 1, 2006

    Reassurance, Advice and Laughs at 2006 Engineering Parents' Weekend

    Brook Byers Brook Byers, a venture capitalist and Pratt parent, kicked off the 2006 Parents' Weekend seminar and barbeque by soothing parents' fears that their child wouldn't get a good job. He described five hot technology areas, and gave seniors advice on how to choose their first position. His presentation to the crowd of 600 parents and students Oct. 27 was followed by an interactive panel of four Duke engineering seniors who provided their own take on ...
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  • November 27, 2006

    Cancer Spinoff Company Bags Early Attention in Duke Start-Up Challenge

    A company founded in June 2006 by Assistant Biomedical Engineering (BME) Professor Adam Wax and (BME) Research Scientist William Brown has won the "Most Intriguing Idea" award in the healthcare category of the Phase 1 competition of the Duke Start-Up Challenge. The company is called Oncoscope and its goal is to build an accurate, quick and cost effective optical biopsy system for detecting pre-cancerous cells in epitheal tissues. The initial target is the esophagus. The Oncoscope ...
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  • November 19, 2006

    Pratt Professors' High School Mentees to Compete in National Science Competition

    A pair of high school students from the N.C. School of Science and Math received regional honors in the nation's top high school science competition Nov. 17. Sagar Indurkhya of Charlotte and Nicholas Tang of Cary earned top honors at the regional finals of the 2006-07 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology in Atlanta. The team was mentored by biomedical engineering professors Lingchong You and Jingdong Tian from Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering. The students ...
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  • November 1, 2006

    Cutler & Madhav win Training Grants

    Two BME graduate students recently received pre-doctoral training grants totaling $90,000 over a three-year period. Spencer J. Cutler received his grant for "Automation and Preclinical Evaluation of a Dedicated Emission Mammotomography System for Fully 3-D Molecular Breast Imaging." Priti Madhav received a grant for "Development and Optimization of a Dedicated, Hybrid Dual-Modality SPECT-CmT System for Improved Breast Lesion Diagnosis." Both are students of Martin Tornai, associate professor of radiology and BME.
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  • November 1, 2006

    Pratt In Focus - Recruitment Event

    More than 185 prospective high school students and family members hailing from Durham to California gathered on Saturday, Oct. 21, at the first "Pratt in Focus" to meet engineering professors and undergraduates and learn more about engineering at Duke. More than 60 Pratt students volunteered their time at the day-long engineering recruiting event by leading tours, staffing tables at the student activities fair, explaining their Pratt Fellows research projects and talking one on one with prospective ...
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  • November 1, 2006

    Pratt In Focus - Recruitment Event

    More than 185 prospective high school students and family members hailing from Durham to California gathered on Saturday, Oct. 21, at the first "Pratt in Focus" to meet engineering professors and undergraduates and learn more about engineering at Duke. More than 60 Pratt students volunteered their time at the day-long engineering recruiting event by leading tours, staffing tables at the student activities fair, explaining their Pratt Fellows research projects and talking one on one with prospective ...
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  • November 1, 2006

    Packard Fellow to Examine Processing Speed of 'Reprogrammed' Bacteria

    Packard Fellow Lingchong You Lingchong You, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the Pratt School of Engineering, has won a fellowship from the David & Lucile Packard Foundation for his research into the information processing speed of bacteria that have been "reprogrammed" to perform new, and potentially useful, tasks. The Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering aims to provide support for "unusually creative researchers" within their first three years as faculty, according to the foundation's web site. ...
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  • November 1, 2006

    Packard Fellow to Examine Processing Speed of 'Reprogrammed' Bacteria

    Packard Fellow Lingchong You Lingchong You, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the Pratt School of Engineering, has won a fellowship from the David & Lucile Packard Foundation for his research into the information processing speed of bacteria that have been "reprogrammed" to perform new, and potentially useful, tasks. The Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering aims to provide support for "unusually creative researchers" within their first three years as faculty, according to the foundation's web site. ...
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  • November 1, 2006

    The Home Depot Sponsors Duke Smart Home

    Imagine a college dormitory that touts more audiovisual equipment than most theaters, runs on electricity generated by solar panels and is protected with biometric security. This unique living experience will become a reality for 10 students of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. The university and The Home Depot are partnering to create "The Home Depot smarthome," a residential laboratory where students will research and develop innovative solutions for the home in areas such as security and ...
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  • November 1, 2006

    The Home Depot Sponsors Duke Smart Home

    Imagine a college dormitory that touts more audiovisual equipment than most theaters, runs on electricity generated by solar panels and is protected with biometric security. This unique living experience will become a reality for 10 students of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. The university and The Home Depot are partnering to create "The Home Depot smarthome," a residential laboratory where students will research and develop innovative solutions for the home in areas such as security and ...
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  • October 30, 2006

    3-D Ultrasound Scanner Could Guide Robotic Surgeries

    Duke University engineers have shown that a three-dimensional ultrasound scanner they developed can successfully guide a surgical robot. The scanner could find application in various medical settings, according to the researchers. They said the scanner ultimately might enable surgeries to be performed without surgeons, a capability that could prove valuable in space stations or other remote locations. "It's the first time, to our knowledge, that anyone has used the information in a 3-D ultrasound scan to actually ...
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  • October 30, 2006

    Duke Packard Fellow to Examine Processing Speed of "Reprogrammed" Bacteria

    Lingchong You, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, has won a fellowship from the David & Lucile Packard Foundation for his research into the information processing speed of bacteria that have been "reprogrammed" to perform new, and potentially useful, tasks. The Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering aims to provide support for "unusually creative researchers" within their first three years as faculty, according to the foundation's web site. You--one of ...
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  • October 24, 2006

    Duke Announces Construction of "The Home Depot Smart Home," A Live-in Laboratory Where Students Test Residential Technology

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Imagine a college dormitory that touts more audiovisual equipment than most theaters, runs on electricity generated by solar panels and is protected with biometric security. This unique living experience will become a reality for 10 students of Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering.The university and The Home Depot are partnering to create "The Home Depot Smart Home," a residential laboratory where students will research and develop innovative solutions for the home in ...
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  • October 24, 2006

    Duke Announces Construction of "The Home Depot Smart Home," A Live-in Laboratory Where Students Test Residential Technology

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Imagine a college dormitory that touts more audiovisual equipment than most theaters, runs on electricity generated by solar panels and is protected with biometric security. This unique living experience will become a reality for 10 students of Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering.The university and The Home Depot are partnering to create "The Home Depot Smart Home," a residential laboratory where students will research and develop innovative solutions for the home in ...
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  • October 16, 2006

    New Engineered Drug May Offer Prolonged Arthritis Relief

    Researchers at Duke University have devised a new way to significantly prolong the effects of an anti-inflammatory drug, potentially making it useful for providing longer-lasting treatment for osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis.The modified drug, which would be injected directly into arthritic joints, could last for several weeks rather than just the few hours the unmodified drug would last, the researchers said. In their study, the researchers modified a drug called interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL1RA). ...
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  • October 3, 2006

    Improving Microbicide Design for HIV/AIDS Prevention

    Duke University biomedical engineers have developed a computer tool they say could lead to improvements in topical microbicides being developed for women to use to prevent infection by the virus that causes AIDS.Providing women with improved microbicides is a pressing challenge because women now account for a growing number of new infections worldwide, the researchers said.By applying fundamentals of physics and chemistry, the researchers developed a computer model that can predict the effectiveness of various ...
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  • October 3, 2006

    Improving Microbicide Design for HIV/AIDS Prevention

    Duke University biomedical engineers have developed a computer tool they say could lead to improvements in topical microbicides being developed for women to use to prevent infection by the virus that causes AIDS.Providing women with improved microbicides is a pressing challenge because women now account for a growing number of new infections worldwide, the researchers said.By applying fundamentals of physics and chemistry, the researchers developed a computer model that can predict the effectiveness of various ...
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  • October 3, 2006

    Fitzpatrick Event Spotlights Interdisciplinary Scientific Collaboration

    Tuan Vo-Dinh, director of the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics The annual Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics symposium on "Photonics at the Frontiers of Science and Technology" at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering highlighted the value of collaboration across disciplines for making future advances in science and technology. Photonics is the science and technology of light and its interaction with matter. Held on Sept. 28 and 29, the event drew 250 registrants, three times the number that had participated ...
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  • October 3, 2006

    Fitzpatrick Event Spotlights Interdisciplinary Scientific Collaboration

    Tuan Vo-Dinh, director of the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics The annual Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics symposium on "Photonics at the Frontiers of Science and Technology" at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering highlighted the value of collaboration across disciplines for making future advances in science and technology. Photonics is the science and technology of light and its interaction with matter. Held on Sept. 28 and 29, the event drew 250 registrants, three times the number that had participated ...
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  • September 29, 2006

    Study Defines Effective Microbicide Design for HIV/AIDS Prevention

    Duke University biomedical engineers have developed a computer tool they say could lead to improvements in topical microbicides being developed for women to use to prevent infection by the virus that causes AIDS. Providing women with improved microbicides is a pressing challenge because women now account for a growing number of new infections worldwide, the researchers said. By applying fundamentals of physics and chemistry, the researchers developed a computer model that can predict the effectiveness of various ...
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  • September 26, 2006

    Silverman Internship at Kinamed - Summer 2006

    Craig Silverman Hometown: Santa Barbara, CA Year: junior Major: biomedical engineering This summer 2006 I worked at Kinamed, Inc. as a summer intern in the engineering department. Kinamed is an orthopedic implant and neurosurgery devices company. They are located in Camarillo, California and employ about 25 people. I mainly worked on the IsoElastic Cerclage System. This product is an implantable cable that is used for serious femur fractures and revision hip replacements. I conducted research on the cable and made ...
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  • September 26, 2006

    Huang Internship at Abbott Labs - Summer 2006

    Alex Huang Hometown: New York, NY Year: junior Major: biomedical engineering, economics This summer I worked for the Quality organization in Abbott's Global Pharmaceutical Operations (GPO) division in the Document Management Transformation Program team, which is a part of the Manufacturing Quality Assurance (MQA) service area. My projects included: • Analyzing pilot data on a new change control process and creating a 20-slide presentation to support recommendations to senior management • Developing and assembling a poster presentation about my contributions ...
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  • September 26, 2006

    Smith Internship at GE Healthcare - Summer 2006

    Cameron Smith Hometown: Charlotte, NC Year: junior Major: biomedical engineering My internship this summer has been in the CT Systems Engineering department at GE Healthcare headquarters in Waukesha, WI (just outside of Milwaukee). My project this summer has primarily been to work on characterizing the size of the x-ray focal spot produced by the x-ray tube employed in GE Healthcare's newest line of high definition CT scanners that is yet to be released. In order to do this I ...
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  • September 25, 2006

    Six Pratt Faculty To Be Honored At Founder's Day Convocation

    Duke University will honor outstanding students, faculty, employees and alumni at its annual Founders' Day Convocation in Duke Chapel at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 28. Among the winners are six members of the Pratt School of Engineering faculty. Honorees at the service, which is open to the public, include philanthropists Russell Robinson II and his wife, Sally Dalton Robinson; Ruby Leila Wilson, dean emerita of Duke School of Nursing; and longtime university photographer William "Jimmy" Wallace ...
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  • August 11, 2006

    Pratt spinoff company, Bioptigen, Lands $1.3 million in First-Round Funding

    DURHAM, N.C. Business is coming more into focus for Bioptigen, an optical start up company founded by biomedical engineering Professor Joseph Izatt at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. The Durham-based startup, which has licensed technology from Duke University, has closed on $1.3 million in financing. Investors include two angel networks Piedmont Angel Network and the Inception Micro-Angel Fund as well as several individuals. Bioptigen is developing a new class of ...
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  • July 18, 2006

    Student-Built Reaching Assist Device for 7-Year-Old Wins RESNA Award

    A custom-built reaching assist device developed and built by a team of students at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering won an award at the design competition of the Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) in Atlanta. The students created the device -- called "BRAD" for Biomimetic Reaching Assist Device -- for a 7-year-old boy with TAR syndrome. The condition is characterized by skeletal abnormalities including the absence of portions of both arms. The student ...
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  • June 23, 2006

    Fulbright Sends Mugler to Study Brain-Machine Interface in Germany

    Emily Mugler, who graduated last month from Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, has won a 2006 Fulbright Scholarship to study neuroscience in southwestern Germany. The award will take her to the Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology at the Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen for up to 12 months of research and study. Mugler , a former Pratt Research Fellow, will explore the brain-machine interface in the lab of Niels Birbaumer. She will focus on the ...
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  • June 23, 2006

    Fulbright Sends Mugler to Study Brain-Machine Interface in Germany

    Emily Mugler, who graduated last month from Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, has won a 2006 Fulbright Scholarship to study neuroscience in southwestern Germany. The award will take her to the Institute of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology at the Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen for up to 12 months of research and study. Mugler , a former Pratt Research Fellow, will explore the brain-machine interface in the lab of Niels Birbaumer. She will focus on the ...
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  • June 16, 2006

    Graduate Zach Jones Dedicated to Medical Devices for Developing Nations

    Written June 2006 Newly minted biomedical engineering graduate Zach Jones wants to make a real difference in the lives of people world-wide, and he isn't wasting any time getting there. Inspired by a capstone design course that led him to produce multiple medical devices already in use around the globe and his experiences traveling in Chile, Jones has started a company with a decidedly altruistic aim: the improvement of medical care for people in developing nations. For ...
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  • June 1, 2006

    Pratt School Celebrates Graduation of Class of 2006

    Ian Kazi Shakil receives the Pratt School of Engineering Student Service Award from Associate Dean Linda Franzoni Duke University awarded degrees to 346 undergraduate and graduate engineering students on May 14 in ceremonies beginning with a university-wide commencement celebration in Wallace Wade Stadium and ending with a Pratt School of Engineering ceremony in Duke Chapel. Pratt Dean Kristina M. Johnson presented Bachelor of Science in Engineering diplomas to 244 students, including 12 who completed their work in ...
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  • June 1, 2006

    Pratt School Celebrates Graduation of Class of 2006

    Ian Kazi Shakil receives the Pratt School of Engineering Student Service Award from Associate Dean Linda Franzoni Duke University awarded degrees to 346 undergraduate and graduate engineering students on May 14 in ceremonies beginning with a university-wide commencement celebration in Wallace Wade Stadium and ending with a Pratt School of Engineering ceremony in Duke Chapel. Pratt Dean Kristina M. Johnson presented Bachelor of Science in Engineering diplomas to 244 students, including 12 who completed their work in ...
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  • May 24, 2006

    Student Leader Jesse Longoria Finds Broad Use for Engineers' Problem-Solving Skill

    Biomedical engineer Jesse Longoria chose Duke because he saw it as a place offering "the freedom to find a path all your own." The graduating senior has certainly made the most of that opportunity, serving as the first engineer ever elected to the position of student body president, while engaging as a biomedical engineer in courses and independent study to develop, for one, a technique for detecting inflammation in people with diabetes. "Duke provides you the ...
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  • May 1, 2006

    Bouchard & Byram win Whitaker Fellowships

    BME graduate students Richard Bouchard and Brett Byram received Whitaker International Fellowships. Bouchard will be conducting biomedical research in the Netherlands for the next full year while Byram will be conducting research in Denmark. The one-year fellowships include a stipend to cover anticipated living expenses, travel, health insurance, and tuition, if applicable. The goal of the program is to give young biomedical engineers an international outlook.
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  • May 1, 2006

    Woock wins NSF Fellowship

    John Woock, a biomedical engineering graduate student, has been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Woock is working with BME Associate Professor Warren Grill on a bladder pacemaker to restore bladder emptying following neurological disease or injury. Specifically, Woock will characterize the bladder response elicited by electrical stimulation of pelvic peripheral nerves in hopes of developing a minimally invasive neural prosthesis capable of restoring urinary function. Grill has accepted an invitation to serve ...
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  • May 1, 2006

    Brown wins NIH NRSA Fellowship

    J. Quincy Brown, a postdoctoral associate working for Ramanujam, has been awarded an NIH NRSA postdoctoral fellowship from the National Cancer Institute for his project entitled "Multi-label molecular FLIM of breast cancer." Mark Dewhirst, professor of radiation oncology, is a co-mentor on the project. The objective of the research is to use fluorescence lifetime imaging as a tool for optical molecular imaging of receptor status and enzyme expression in breast carcinomas.
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  • May 1, 2006

    Distinguished Alums and Faculty Honored at Awards Ceremony

    Three distinguished alumni and six faculty members were honored for their career accomplishments, service to Pratt and excellence in teaching, mentoring and research at the 2006 annual Engineering Alumni Council Banquet held at the Searle Center on April 28. William A. Hawkins III E'76, was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award. James G. Whayne E'90, was awarded the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award. And Pratt Senior Associate Dean of Development and Alumni Affairss Judge Carr was awarded the ...
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  • May 1, 2006

    Distinguished Alums and Faculty Honored at Awards Ceremony

    Three distinguished alumni and six faculty members were honored for their career accomplishments, service to Pratt and excellence in teaching, mentoring and research at the 2006 annual Engineering Alumni Council Banquet held at the Searle Center on April 28. William A. Hawkins III E'76, was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award. James G. Whayne E'90, was awarded the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award. And Pratt Senior Associate Dean of Development and Alumni Affairss Judge Carr was awarded the ...
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  • May 1, 2006

    Duke Engineer Wins Beckman Young Investigator Award

    Jingdong Tian Biomedical engineer Jingdong Tian of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering has been named a Beckman Young Investigator by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. Tian will receive $264,000 over three years to pursue research titled "High-Throughput Forward Engineering of Novel Biological Systems Using Microfluidic DNA Microchip." Tian aims to develop new strategies and enabling technologies for efficient engineering, fabrication, and optimization of novel, genetically encoded bionanosystems. Such technology has the potential to aid in gene ...
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  • May 1, 2006

    Duke Engineer Wins Beckman Young Investigator Award

    Jingdong Tian Biomedical engineer Jingdong Tian of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering has been named a Beckman Young Investigator by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. Tian will receive $264,000 over three years to pursue research titled "High-Throughput Forward Engineering of Novel Biological Systems Using Microfluidic DNA Microchip." Tian aims to develop new strategies and enabling technologies for efficient engineering, fabrication, and optimization of novel, genetically encoded bionanosystems. Such technology has the potential to aid in gene ...
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  • April 23, 2006

    Duke Student's Idea For Treating Jaundice In Newborns Could Impact Millions In Developing World

    PhotoGenesis launches as a not-for-profit after winning Duke student business plan competition DURHAM, N.C. A team led by Duke University engineering graduate student Vijay Anand has developed an affordable LED-based jaundice treatment for newborns that will cost roughly 95 percent less than currently available technology. The technology, called Photogenesis, won the $100,000 Duke University Engineering World Health CUREs competition. Anand will receive an executive salary and one year of incubation in Duke's Pratt School ...
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  • April 23, 2006

    Duke Student's Idea For Treating Jaundice In Newborns Could Impact Millions In Developing World

    PhotoGenesis launches as a not-for-profit after winning Duke student business plan competition DURHAM, N.C. A team led by Duke University engineering graduate student Vijay Anand has developed an affordable LED-based jaundice treatment for newborns that will cost roughly 95 percent less than currently available technology. The technology, called Photogenesis, won the $100,000 Duke University Engineering World Health CUREs competition. Anand will receive an executive salary and one year of incubation in Duke's Pratt School ...
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  • April 18, 2006

    Duke Student Entrepreneurs To Compete for Start Up Funds

    DURHAM, N.C. - Physicians who have struggled for years to monitor and treat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa could soon have a low-cost solution thanks to a team of students at Duke University. These students, and others with unique ideas to improve health care technology in developing countries, are vying for the top prize in a Duke University business plan competition Saturday. The student business named Global ImmunoDiagnostics has developed what its organizers believe is ...
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  • April 18, 2006

    Duke Student Entrepreneurs To Compete for Start Up Funds

    DURHAM, N.C. - Physicians who have struggled for years to monitor and treat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa could soon have a low-cost solution thanks to a team of students at Duke University. These students, and others with unique ideas to improve health care technology in developing countries, are vying for the top prize in a Duke University business plan competition Saturday. The student business named Global ImmunoDiagnostics has developed what its organizers believe is ...
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  • April 14, 2006

    Duke Engineer Wins Beckman Young Investigator Award

    Biomedical engineer Jingdong Tian of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering has been named a Beckman Young Investigator by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. Tian will receive $264,000 over three years to pursue research titled "High-Throughput Forward Engineering of Novel Biological Systems Using Microfluidic DNA Microchip." Tian aims to develop new strategies and enabling technologies for efficient engineering, fabrication, and optimization of novel, genetically encoded bionanosystems. Such technology has the potential to aid in gene medicine ...
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  • April 12, 2006

    Duke Research Teams Win Keck Futures Initiatives Grants

    Two research teams led by Duke faculty have been granted $75,000 each from the National Academies Keck Futures Initiative in support of interdisciplinary research on genomics and infectious disease. Duke won two grants out of a total of 14 awarded. Debra Schwinn, professor of anesthesiology, pharmacology/cancer biology and surgery at the School of Medicine, leads a team developing an inexpensive diagnostic for malaria using combined nanotechnology and genomic approaches. With this project, the researchers will develop ...
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  • April 4, 2006

    Factor Stimulates Cartilage Growth from Stem Cells

    A novel growth factor significantly improves the ability of specialized stem cells derived from human fat to be transformed into cartilage cells, according to Duke University Medical Center and Pratt School of Engineering researchers. Such growth factors are crucial to the bioengineering of tissues for clinical use in humans, the researchers said, because cells would need to be grown quickly and in large numbers in order to be practical. For the current study, as well as ...
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  • April 1, 2006

    Duke Awards First Coulter Translational Research Grants

    The Duke-Coulter Translational Partners Grant Program has selected its first four projects for funding, focusing on improved cancer treatment, intraoperative breast cancer diagnoses, improved therapy for degenerative arthritis of the knee, and bioengineered cartilage for hip joint repair. Each team will receive roughly $100,000 to bring their technology to a marketable stage. Farshid Guilak, professor of orthopaedic surgery and biomedical engineering, is partnering with Kam Leong, professor of biomedical engineering and surgery and T. Parker Vail, ...
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  • April 1, 2006

    Duke Awards First Coulter Translational Research Grants

    The Duke-Coulter Translational Partners Grant Program has selected its first four projects for funding, focusing on improved cancer treatment, intraoperative breast cancer diagnoses, improved therapy for degenerative arthritis of the knee, and bioengineered cartilage for hip joint repair. Each team will receive roughly $100,000 to bring their technology to a marketable stage. Farshid Guilak, professor of orthopaedic surgery and biomedical engineering, is partnering with Kam Leong, professor of biomedical engineering and surgery and T. Parker Vail, ...
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  • April 1, 2006

    Myers Named Senior Associate Dean for Industrial Partnerships and Research Commercialization

    Barry Myers, Ph.D., M.D., M.B.A. Professor Barry Myers has been appointed senior associate dean for industrial partnerships and research commercialization at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. Myers will lead the school's efforts to increase industry involvement in engineering education, research, technology commercialization and entrepreneurship. A member of the Duke faculty since 1991, Myers earned his M.D.-Ph.D. from Duke in 1991 and an M.B.A. from Duke in 2005. He is the Anderson-Rupp Professor in the Department of Biomedical ...
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  • April 1, 2006

    Myers Named Senior Associate Dean for Industrial Partnerships and Research Commercialization

    Barry Myers, Ph.D., M.D., M.B.A. Professor Barry Myers has been appointed senior associate dean for industrial partnerships and research commercialization at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. Myers will lead the school's efforts to increase industry involvement in engineering education, research, technology commercialization and entrepreneurship. A member of the Duke faculty since 1991, Myers earned his M.D.-Ph.D. from Duke in 1991 and an M.B.A. from Duke in 2005. He is the Anderson-Rupp Professor in the Department of Biomedical ...
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  • April 1, 2006

    Tuan Vo-Dinh To Lead Duke's Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics

    Tuan Vo-Dinh Tuan Vo-Dinh, a pioneer in the field of photonics at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has joined the department of biomedical engineering at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, where he will serve as director of the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics. Vo-Dinh said he plans to establish Duke as a national "center of gravity" for photonics research by tapping into the breadth of faculty expertise and facilities of the Pratt School of Engineering, as well as ...
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  • April 1, 2006

    Tuan Vo-Dinh To Lead Duke's Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics

    Tuan Vo-Dinh Tuan Vo-Dinh, a pioneer in the field of photonics at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has joined the department of biomedical engineering at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, where he will serve as director of the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics. Vo-Dinh said he plans to establish Duke as a national "center of gravity" for photonics research by tapping into the breadth of faculty expertise and facilities of the Pratt School of Engineering, as well as ...
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  • March 30, 2006

    3D Ultrasound Device Poised to Advance Minimally Invasive Surgery

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Three-dimensional ultrasound probes built by researchers at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering have imaged the beating hearts of dogs. The engineers said their demonstration showed that the probes could give surgeons a better view during human endoscopic surgeries in which operations are performed through tiny "keyhole" incisions. If the probes prove beneficial in human testing, the advance might lead to more precise and safer endoscopic surgeries, said the Duke engineers. The researchers reported ...
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  • March 29, 2006

    New Insight into Joint Lubrication that Keeps Osteoarthritis at Bay

    ATLANTA -- New evidence to explain how the body's natural joint lubricant prevents the wear and tear that can lead to osteoarthritis has been uncovered by researchers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering The findings may lead to new methods for treating arthritis, the researchers said. The team found in realistic models of joints that, rather than simply reducing friction, a component of joint fluid called lubricin forms a very thin barrier that repels joint ...
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  • March 29, 2006

    Duke Engineers Building 'Erasible' Detectors, 'Nanobrushes' and DNA 'Highrises'

    ATLANTA -- A Duke University engineering group is doing pioneering work at very diminutive dimensions. Their basic studies could lead to genetically engineered proteins that can form erasable chemical detectors; self-grown forests of molecular "bottlebrushes" that keep themselves contamination-free; and auto-assembled DNA "towers" that could become anchors for the tiniest of devices. Professor of biomedical engineering Ashutosh Chilkoti of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering will describe such advances in designing bio-detectors and structures scaled in the ...
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  • March 28, 2006

    New Pratt Senior Associate Dean for Industrial Partnerships and Research Commercialization Appointed

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Professor Barry Myers has been appointed senior associate dean for industrial partnerships and research commercialization at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. Myers will lead the school's efforts to increase industry involvement in engineering education, research, technology commercialization and entrepreneurship. A member of the Duke faculty since 1991, Myers earned an M.D.-Ph.D. from Duke in 1991 and an M.B.A. from Duke in 2005. He is the Anderson-Rupp Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, ...
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  • March 28, 2006

    New Pratt Senior Associate Dean for Industrial Partnerships and Research Commercialization Appointed

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Professor Barry Myers has been appointed senior associate dean for industrial partnerships and research commercialization at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. Myers will lead the school's efforts to increase industry involvement in engineering education, research, technology commercialization and entrepreneurship. A member of the Duke faculty since 1991, Myers earned an M.D.-Ph.D. from Duke in 1991 and an M.B.A. from Duke in 2005. He is the Anderson-Rupp Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, ...
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  • March 17, 2006

    Tuan Vo-Dinh to Lead Duke's Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Tuan Vo-Dinh, a pioneer in the field of photonics at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has joined the biomedical engineering department at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, where he will serve as director of the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics. Vo-Dinh said he plans to establish Duke as a national "center of gravity" for photonics research by tapping into the breadth of faculty expertise and facilities at the Pratt School, as well as Duke's ...
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  • March 14, 2006

    Ellerbe Aims to Capture 3D Dynamics in Single Cells

    For most doctoral students, the path forward is clear: industry research career or academic research and teaching career. But Audrey Ellerbee, originally from New York, is considering a different path. And that's not at all unusual for her. Ellerbee earned her B.S.E. in electrical engineering from Princeton in 2001. She competed on Princeton's rugby team, and held local and regional leadership roles with the National Society of Black Engineers. After her undergraduate work, Ellerbee was accepted to ...
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  • March 14, 2006

    Mian Finds Meaning through Research, Outreach

    For senior Pratt fellow Matt Mian, engineering represents a way to apply his broad interest in science in "a more meaningful sense a way to get involved." During his time at Duke, the Charlotte-area native has found many methods for doing just that, from research aimed at unraveling the mechanisms behind irregular heart rhythms that can portend sudden cardiac death to work geared toward changing the attitudes of underprivileged kids about science and ...
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  • March 14, 2006

    Clifford Hou Makes Sense out of Whale Flipper's Bumps

    Clifford Hou first learned about the Pratt Fellows program when he visited Duke as a prospective student during Blue Devil Days. He remembers thinking then that the program which provides students an opportunity to do intensive research in their engineering major, including course credit and paid summer research -- was "something to strive for." Now in his senior year, the mechanical and biomedical engineering double major and Pratt Fellow from St. Louis has conducted ...
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  • March 14, 2006

    Rack-Gomer on Way to Improving Breast Cancer Detection

    Pratt Fellow Anna Rack-Gomer finds it difficult to piece together the events that first led her from her hometown of Phoenix to Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. But, now a senior double major in electrical and computer (ECE) and biomedical engineering (BME) with nearly three years of cancer-related research under her belt, Rack-Gomer could hardly be clearer about her future as an engineer dedicated to the fight against breast cancer. "The research projects that I have ...
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  • March 9, 2006

    Light-Based Device Probes for Early Cancer

    A novel device that could use light to harmlessly and almost instantly probe for early signs of cancer has been developed by researchers at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. The device would allow physicians to search for cancer in epithelial cells that line body surfaces, including the skin, lungs and digestive and reproductive tracts, by simply inserting a fiber optic probe. The team has reported the first clinically practical version of their "angle-resolved low coherence interferometry" ...
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  • March 2, 2006

    Weighting Cancer Drugs To Make Them Hit Tumors Harder

    Scientists have devised a blueprint for boosting anti-cancer drugs' effectiveness and lowering their toxicity by attaching the equivalent of a lead sinker onto the drugs. This extra weight makes the drugs penetrate and accumulate inside tumors more effectively. Chemotherapy drugs often fall short of achieving their full impact because the drugs diffuse in and out of the tumor too rapidly, said the scientists from Duke's Pratt School of Engineering and Duke University Medical Center. The scientists increased ...
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  • March 1, 2006

    Leong to Lead Initiative Aimed at Nanomedicine

    Kam Leong Kam Leong, a national leader in drug and gene delivery at Johns Hopkins University, has joined the department of biomedical engineering at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, where he will serve as director of the school's Bioengineering Initiative. Leong said he plans to focus on the emerging field of "nanotherapeutics," the application of devices on the scale of nanometers - one billionth of a meter -- for treating disease via drug, gene and ...
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  • March 1, 2006

    Leong to Lead Initiative Aimed at Nanomedicine

    Kam Leong Kam Leong, a national leader in drug and gene delivery at Johns Hopkins University, has joined the department of biomedical engineering at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, where he will serve as director of the school's Bioengineering Initiative. Leong said he plans to focus on the emerging field of "nanotherapeutics," the application of devices on the scale of nanometers - one billionth of a meter -- for treating disease via drug, gene and ...
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  • February 21, 2006

    Kam Leong to Lead Duke Initiative Aimed at Nanomedicine

    Kam Leong, a national leader in drug and gene delivery at Johns Hopkins University, has joined the department of biomedical engineering at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, where he will serve as director of the school's Bioengineering Initiative. Leong said he plans to focus on the emerging field of "nanotherapeutics," the application of devices on the scale of nanometers - one billionth of a meter -- for treating disease via drug, gene and immunization ...
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  • February 13, 2006

    New 3-D Breast Scanner Lowers Radiation Dose, Improves Image

    Scientists at Duke University Medical Center have created a new breast scanner that will dramatically improve their ability to visualize small tumors while also reducing radiation exposure to one-tenth that of normal mammograms. Moreover, the new device does not compress the breast, as do traditional mammograms. The new scanner uses computed tomography (CT) a sophisticated form of X-ray imaging -- with a unique variation: it provides a three-dimensional image of the breast. Moreover, the ...
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  • February 4, 2006

    Engineered Heart Tissue Offers Insights into Irregular Heartbeats, Defibrillator Failure

    Note: Video of electrical activity in engineered heart tissue is available as a Quicktime file or as a Realmedia file. In the movie, voltage sensitive dyes cause the cells to fluoresce in proportion to their electrical activity level. The colors, ranging from red to blue, denote the level of cell activity, with red indicating active cells and blue cells at rest. Engineers who have induced heart cells in culture to mimic the properties of the heart ...
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  • January 24, 2006

    Duke's Ramanujam Wins MIT's Global Indus Technovators Award

    Associate professor Nimmi Ramanujam of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering is a recipient of the 2005 Global Indus Technovators Award for her work developing minimally invasive, light-based technologies for early cancer detection. An awards reception was held on Jan. 24, 2006, in Boston. The honor is bestowed on top scientists and engineers by the Indian Business Club at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to inspire a culture of innovation among young people of South Asian ...
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  • January 24, 2006

    Fruit Fly's Beating Heart Helps Identify Human Heart Disease Genes

    In a discovery that could greatly accelerate the search for genetic causes of heart disease, a multi-disciplinary Duke University research team has found that the common fruit fly can serve as a powerful new model for testing human genes implicated in heart disease. The finding is important, the Duke team said, because the entire genome of the fruit fly is well understood and catalogued, enabling researchers to systemically screen genes to identify potential gene mutations or ...
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  • January 18, 2006

    Finan Wins $10,000 and a Car in Motorola Essay Competition

    John Finan, a graduate student at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, has won a $10,000 scholarship and new car from Motorola Inc. for an essay proposing a "Mood Phone" that may be able to interpret the mood of the people speaking by analyzing variations in tone and speech patterns. Finan was the grand prize winner Jan. 17 of Motorola's first "MOTOFWRD" competition. He was chosen from a pool of entries representing more than 500 students ...
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  • January 1, 2006

    Prolific Alum Offers Students Roadmap for Success

    George Truskey, Robert Fischell and Dean Kristina Johnson A prolific innovator and entrepreneur who Dean Kristina Johnson calls "one of Duke's most successful alumni" offered Pratt School of Engineering students a roadmap for finding fun and profit while also benefiting humanity at a Distinguished Alumni Seminar held in the Fitzpatrick Center on Jan. 11. Robert Fischell ('51) invented drug-eluting stents that keep heart vessels open in those prone to heart attacks and a series of other ...
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  • January 1, 2006

    Prolific Alum Offers Students Roadmap for Success

    George Truskey, Robert Fischell and Dean Kristina Johnson A prolific innovator and entrepreneur who Dean Kristina Johnson calls "one of Duke's most successful alumni" offered Pratt School of Engineering students a roadmap for finding fun and profit while also benefiting humanity at a Distinguished Alumni Seminar held in the Fitzpatrick Center on Jan. 11. Robert Fischell ('51) invented drug-eluting stents that keep heart vessels open in those prone to heart attacks and a series of other ...
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  • January 1, 2006

    Mood Phone Concept Wins Motorola Competition

    John Finan, creator of the winning mood phone concept "John Finan, a graduate student at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, has won a $10,000 scholarship and new car from Motorola Inc. for an essay proposing a "Mood Phone" that may be able to interpret the mood of the people speaking by analyzing variations in tone and speech patterns. Finan was the grand prize winner Jan. 17 of Motorola's first "MOTOFWRD" competition. He was chosen from a ...
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  • January 1, 2006

    Mood Phone Concept Wins Motorola Competition

    John Finan, creator of the winning mood phone concept "John Finan, a graduate student at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering, has won a $10,000 scholarship and new car from Motorola Inc. for an essay proposing a "Mood Phone" that may be able to interpret the mood of the people speaking by analyzing variations in tone and speech patterns. Finan was the grand prize winner Jan. 17 of Motorola's first "MOTOFWRD" competition. He was chosen from a ...
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  • January 1, 2006

    BME Seniors Expand Design Skill, Open Doors for People with Disabilities

    Another crop of biomedical engineering seniors at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering expanded their design skills while helping individuals with physical and developmental disabilities last semester. Their design projects -- the culmination of the elective capstone course BME 260: Devices for People with Disabilities -- ranged from a guitar strummer for a teenager with limited use of his right side to a tailored exercise machine for a woman with cerebral palsy. The undergraduates showed off their ...
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  • January 1, 2006

    BME Seniors Expand Design Skill, Open Doors for People with Disabilities

    Another crop of biomedical engineering seniors at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering expanded their design skills while helping individuals with physical and developmental disabilities last semester. Their design projects -- the culmination of the elective capstone course BME 260: Devices for People with Disabilities -- ranged from a guitar strummer for a teenager with limited use of his right side to a tailored exercise machine for a woman with cerebral palsy. The undergraduates showed off their ...
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  • December 7, 2005

    How Brain-operated Machines Can Be Stable, Functional

    DURHAM, N.C. -- In order to function stably over long periods, brain-operated devices such as neural prosthetic limbs for paralyzed people will require brain signals fed from hundreds of infinitesimal recording electrodes in the brain, Duke University researchers have concluded. Their findings in studies with monkeys are defining the requirements for successful brain-machine systems, as the researchers progress toward the first clinical trials of fully functional neural prosthetics. The researchers, led by neurobiologist Miguel Nicolelis, published their ...
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  • November 19, 2005

    Polymer Gel Can Block Toxic Leakage Problem In Gene Therapy

    Note to editors: A high-resolution digital photo of Fan Yuan posed with visual evidence for his findings can be accessed at http://www.dukephoto.duke.edu/pages/Duke_News_Service/Yuan114205029.jpg. The evidence shows glowing viruses concentrated in the liver of a "control" animal not receiving the poloxamer mixture. In contrast, the viruses stayed in the tumor of an animal injected with the polymer. DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University biomedical engineers have devised a potentially patentable method to arrest toxic leakages of genetically engineered viruses ...
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  • November 11, 2005

    Duke Biomedical Engineering Receives Wallace Coulter Translational Partnership Award

    DURHAM, NC The Biomedical Department at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering is one of only nine departments selected nationally to receive a Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Translational Research Partnership Award in Biomedical Engineering. This Award will provide $580,000 each year for the next five years. Through this Award, the Foundation will form a working partnership with the Biomedical Engineering Department to promote, develop, and support translational research through such activities as funding promising ...
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  • November 11, 2005

    Duke Biomedical Engineering Receives Wallace Coulter Translational Partnership Award

    DURHAM, NC The Biomedical Department at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering is one of only nine departments selected nationally to receive a Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Translational Research Partnership Award in Biomedical Engineering. This Award will provide $580,000 each year for the next five years. Through this Award, the Foundation will form a working partnership with the Biomedical Engineering Department to promote, develop, and support translational research through such activities as funding promising ...
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  • November 5, 2005

    Duke Engineers Developing Ultrasound Devices Combining 3-D Imaging With Therapeutic Heating

    Durham, N.C. -- Duke University engineers are developing technology that may enable physicians to someday use high frequency ultrasound waves both to visualize the heart's interior in three dimensions and then selectively destroy heart tissue with heat to correct arrhythmias. "No one else has developed a way for ultrasound to combine therapy and imaging in a catheter, let alone 3-D imaging," said Stephen Smith, the biomedical engineering professor who heads the project at Duke's Pratt School ...
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  • October 13, 2005

    Engineers Build DNA "Nanotowers" with Enzyme Tools

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke engineers have added a new construction tool to their bio-nanofabrication toolbox. Using an enzyme called TdTase, engineers can vertically extend short DNA chains attached to nanometer-sized gold plates. This advance adds new capability to the field of bio-nanomanufacturing. "The process works like stacking Legos to make a tower and is an important step toward creating functional nanostructures out of biological materials," said Ashutosh Chilkoti, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Duke's Pratt ...
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  • September 27, 2005

    Duke Engineering Program Improves Hospital Conditions in Developing Countries

    Durham, N.C. -- Duke engineering student Le (Lucy) He was stunned to discover that the lights in the operating room of her adopted Rosales, El Salvador, hospital flickered off and on during the day. Similarly, upon her first visit to the hospital, she saw patients in beds everywhere but few working monitors hooked up to them. Lucy He is one of five Duke University students who have returned to campus from a challenging and rewarding summer ...
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  • September 17, 2005

    Designing 'Gene Circuits' that Control Cell Populations with Killer Genes

    Durham, N.C. -- Lingchong You's Duke University research team makes and programs circuits, although not the kind that work in electronics devices. His are "synthetic gene circuits" that can regulate cell populations with molecular signaling and intentional extermination. Such biocircuits have great potential for applications in biotechnology, computation, environmental engineering and medicine. For example, a "suicide" biocircuit could potentially be programmed into bacteria used to clean up pollution, making the microbes die off once their job ...
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  • September 1, 2005

    Expanding Application of Unique Ultrasound Technique

    Trahey and Nightingale Pratt engineers evaluating a unique Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) ultrasound are now expanding the technique's usage beyond previous applications to breast cancers, to include other kinds of tumors, and more tissues. The sound waves produced by ARFI ultrasound "push" on tissues to help physicians diagnose abnormalities such as tumors. "We have really advanced our technique," said Kathy Nightingale, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering who, together with her thesis adviser Gregg Trahey, pioneered ...
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  • September 1, 2005

    Expanding Application of Unique Ultrasound Technique

    Trahey and Nightingale Pratt engineers evaluating a unique Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) ultrasound are now expanding the technique's usage beyond previous applications to breast cancers, to include other kinds of tumors, and more tissues. The sound waves produced by ARFI ultrasound "push" on tissues to help physicians diagnose abnormalities such as tumors. "We have really advanced our technique," said Kathy Nightingale, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering who, together with her thesis adviser Gregg Trahey, pioneered ...
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  • June 17, 2005

    Arteries Bio-engineered from Elderly Cells

    DURHAM, N.C. Researchers from Duke University's Medical Center and Pratt School of Engineering have demonstrated that they can grow new human blood vessels from cells taken from patients who especially need such assistance older adults with cardiovascular disease. The researchers said the results of their latest experiments represent a "proof of principle" for an approach that could be clinically applicable within five to ten years. The first to benefit from such bio-engineered ...
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  • June 1, 2005

    Monkeys Adapt to Robot Arm as if it Were Their Own

    Monkeys that learn to use their brain signals to control a robotic arm are adapting to treat the arm as if it were their own appendage, Duke University Medical Center and biomedical engineers have found. The finding has profound implications both for understanding the extraordinary adaptability of the primate brain and for the potential clinical success of brain-operated devices to give the handicapped the ability to control their environment, the researchers said. Led by neurobiologist Miguel Nicolelis ...
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  • June 1, 2005

    Monkeys Adapt to Robot Arm as if it Were Their Own

    Monkeys that learn to use their brain signals to control a robotic arm are adapting to treat the arm as if it were their own appendage, Duke University Medical Center and biomedical engineers have found. The finding has profound implications both for understanding the extraordinary adaptability of the primate brain and for the potential clinical success of brain-operated devices to give the handicapped the ability to control their environment, the researchers said. Led by neurobiologist Miguel Nicolelis ...
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  • June 1, 2005

    Duke Awards 300 Engineering Degrees

    Duke University and its Pratt School of Engineering awarded degrees to 300 undergraduate and graduate engineering students May 15 in a series of ceremonies starting with a university-wide commencement celebration in Wallace Wade Stadium and winding up with an inspiring ceremony in Duke Chapel. Dean Kristina Johnson Pratt Dean Kristina M. Johnson presented Bachelor of Science in Engineering diplomas to 237 students, including eight who completed their work in December and six last September, before a standing-room-only ...
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  • June 1, 2005

    Duke Awards 300 Engineering Degrees

    Duke University and its Pratt School of Engineering awarded degrees to 300 undergraduate and graduate engineering students May 15 in a series of ceremonies starting with a university-wide commencement celebration in Wallace Wade Stadium and winding up with an inspiring ceremony in Duke Chapel. Dean Kristina Johnson Pratt Dean Kristina M. Johnson presented Bachelor of Science in Engineering diplomas to 237 students, including eight who completed their work in December and six last September, before a standing-room-only ...
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  • May 27, 2005

    Duke Engineers Develop New 3-D Cardiac Imaging Probe

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Biomedical engineers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have created a new three-dimensional ultrasound cardiac imaging probe. Inserted inside the esophagus, the probe creates a picture of the whole heart in the time it takes for current ultrasound technology to image a single heart cross section. The new probe has considerable potential not only for evaluating the condition of the heart, but also for use in guiding therapeutic treatment devices, the researchers ...
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  • May 11, 2005

    Monkeys Adapt Robot Arm as Their Own

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Monkeys that learn to use their brain signals to control a robotic arm are not just learning to manipulate an external device, Duke University Medical Center and biomedical engineers have found. Rather, their brain structures are adapting to treat the arm as if it were their own appendage. The finding has profound implications both for understanding the extraordinary adaptability of the primate brain and for the potential clinical success of brain-operated devices to ...
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  • May 1, 2005

    Alumni, Faculty Honored at Engineering Banquet

    Duke's Engineering Alumni Association Saturday night honored 1974 graduate Capers McDonald of Potomac, Md., with its Distinguished Alumnus Award and 1990 graduate Edward L. Trimble of Atlanta with the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award. Professor F. Hadley Cocks of the Pratt School of Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS), received the Distinguished Service Award for 33 years of service to the School of Engineering, joining the school in 1972 as assistant professor after six ...
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  • May 1, 2005

    Alumni, Faculty Honored at Engineering Banquet

    Duke's Engineering Alumni Association Saturday night honored 1974 graduate Capers McDonald of Potomac, Md., with its Distinguished Alumnus Award and 1990 graduate Edward L. Trimble of Atlanta with the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award. Professor F. Hadley Cocks of the Pratt School of Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS), received the Distinguished Service Award for 33 years of service to the School of Engineering, joining the school in 1972 as assistant professor after six ...
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  • May 1, 2005

    Diekman Receives Fulbright to Study in Ireland

    Pratt senior Brian Diekman has been selected to receive a 2005 Fulbright Scholarship from the Irish Fulbright Commission. The award will provide Diekman support for up to 12 months of research and coursework at the National University of Ireland in Galway. Diekman, from West Lafayette, Ind., is majoring in biomedical engineering with a minor in religion, and will graduate in May. He is the second Pratt student to receive a Fulbright this spring. It was announced last ...
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  • May 1, 2005

    Diekman Receives Fulbright to Study in Ireland

    Pratt senior Brian Diekman has been selected to receive a 2005 Fulbright Scholarship from the Irish Fulbright Commission. The award will provide Diekman support for up to 12 months of research and coursework at the National University of Ireland in Galway. Diekman, from West Lafayette, Ind., is majoring in biomedical engineering with a minor in religion, and will graduate in May. He is the second Pratt student to receive a Fulbright this spring. It was announced last ...
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  • April 24, 2005

    Engineering Alumni and Faculty Members Honored

    Duke's Engineering Alumni Association April 23 honored 1974 graduate Capers McDonald of Potomac, Md., with its Distinguished Alumnus Award and 1990 graduate Edward L. Trimble of Atlanta with the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award. Professor F. Hadley Cocks of the Pratt School of Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science (MEMS), received the Distinguished Service Award for 33 years of service to the School of Engineering, joining the school in 1972 as assistant professor after six ...
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  • April 15, 2005

    3D Doppler Ultrasound Could Make Diagnostics Safer

    Doctoral candidate Matt Fronheiser wants to lift a heavy weight from doctors' shoulders and cast off the collar around their necks. He's not campaigning for changes to Medicare or lobbying for reduced hospital shifts, however. He's focused on the lead vests and collars doctors wear during fluoroscopy procedures to protect themselves from x-ray exposure.Fluoroscopy, which creates a sort of x-ray movie, helps doctors position diagnostic and therapeutic treatment devices inside their patients. This technique is ...
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  • April 13, 2005

    Diekman Receives Fulbright Scholarship in Ireland

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University student Brian Diekman has been selected to receive a 2005 Fulbright Scholarship from the Irish Fulbright Commission. The award will provide Diekman support for up to 12 months of research and coursework at the National University of Ireland in Galway. Diekman, from West Lafayette, Ind., is majoring in biomedical engineering with a minor in religion, and will graduate next month. The Irish Fulbright Commission provides 12 postgraduate Fulbright Awards for U.S. citizens ...
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  • April 1, 2005

    Reichert Receives Mentoring Award

    William Reichert The Duke University Graduate School is giving its Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring to Professor of Biomedical Engineering William Reichert; Linda K. George, professor of sociology and psychology; and Alexander Rosenberg, R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy and professor of biology. "This year's award recipients have diligently applied themselves in various ways to ensuring that the experience of dedicated scholars remains accessible to the full spectrum of eager and curious minds that enter Duke's ...
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  • April 1, 2005

    Reichert Receives Mentoring Award

    William Reichert The Duke University Graduate School is giving its Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring to Professor of Biomedical Engineering William Reichert; Linda K. George, professor of sociology and psychology; and Alexander Rosenberg, R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy and professor of biology. "This year's award recipients have diligently applied themselves in various ways to ensuring that the experience of dedicated scholars remains accessible to the full spectrum of eager and curious minds that enter Duke's ...
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  • April 1, 2005

    Hwang Wins Goldwater Scholarship

    (l-r)Adam Chandler, William Hwang, Peter Blair William (Billy) Hwang, a junior majoring in biomedical engineering, physics, and electrical and computer engineering, is one of three Duke students awarded Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships for their achievements in the sciences, mathematics or engineering. In addition to Hwang, who is from Potomac, Md., this year's winners are Peter Q. Blair, a junior from Chicago who is majoring in mathematics and physics; and Adam Chandler, a junior from Burlington, N.C., majoring ...
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  • April 1, 2005

    Hwang Wins Goldwater Scholarship

    (l-r)Adam Chandler, William Hwang, Peter Blair William (Billy) Hwang, a junior majoring in biomedical engineering, physics, and electrical and computer engineering, is one of three Duke students awarded Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships for their achievements in the sciences, mathematics or engineering. In addition to Hwang, who is from Potomac, Md., this year's winners are Peter Q. Blair, a junior from Chicago who is majoring in mathematics and physics; and Adam Chandler, a junior from Burlington, N.C., majoring ...
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  • March 31, 2005

    Hwang Wins Goldwater Scholarship

    William (Billy) Hwang, a junior majoring in biomedical engineering, physics, and electrical and computer engineering, is one of three Duke students awarded Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships for their achievements in the sciences, mathematics or engineering. In addition to Hwang, who is from Potomac, Md., this year's winners are Peter Q. Blair, a junior from Chicago who is majoring in mathematics and physics; and Adam Chandler, a junior from Burlington, N.C., majoring in mathematics and chemistry. They ...
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  • March 26, 2005

    Reichert is Among Three Professors to Receive Graduate School Mentoring Award

    The Duke University Graduate School is giving its Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring to Professor of Biomedical Engineering William Reichert; Linda K. George, professor of sociology and psychology; and Alexander Rosenberg, R. Taylor Cole Professor of Philosophy and professor of biology. "This year's award recipients have diligently applied themselves in various ways to ensuring that the experience of dedicated scholars remains accessible to the full spectrum of eager and curious minds that enter Duke's graduate ...
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  • March 24, 2005

    Biomedical Engineering Professor Emeritus Fredrick L. Thurstone Dies

    Duke University engineering professor emeritus Fredrick L."Fritz" Thurstone, a pioneer of diagnostic ultrasound, died of cancer March 17 in Kissimmee, Fla. He was 73. Thurstone moved to Duke in 1967 as one of the founding members of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. He is credited with playing a key role in Duke engineering's development and commercialization of ultrasound in medicine. "Professor Thurstone was a leader in the field of ultrasound holography and a pioneer of the use ...
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  • February 28, 2005

    Reichert Honored for Role in Minority Recruiting in Biomedical Engineering

    Ten years ago there were no black doctoral students in engineering at Duke and few in the other math and science departments at the university. Biomedical Engineering Professor William "Monty" Reichert decided to see what he could do about that. With funding from the engineering school and the Graduate School at Duke, Reichert took a sabbatical leave in 1996 at North Carolina Central University, a historically black university in Durham. He immersed himself in minority education ...
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  • February 15, 2005

    Eric Schwartz To Pursue Investment Banking

    By Gabriel Chen,'05 It is mid-afternoon and a chess game is underway. The game proceeds at a furious pace. On one side of the table, white creates a pawn lever and then unleashes the light squared bishop to strengthen the center. White sees no way for black to attack immediately and therefore feels safe. After thirty minutes, black cannot stop the threatening mate and resigns. A win no doubt, but for Eric Schwartz, a biomedical and ...
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  • February 1, 2005

    Devices Combine 3-D Ultrasound with Heat Therapy

    Stephen Smith. Duke University engineers are developing technology that may enable physicians to someday use high frequency ultrasound waves both to visualize the heart's interior in three dimensions and then selectively destroy heart tissue with heat to correct arrhythmias. "No one else has developed a way for ultrasound to combine therapy and imaging in a catheter, let alone 3-D imaging," said Stephen Smith, the biomedical engineering professor who heads the project at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. Smith's ...
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  • February 1, 2005

    Devices Combine 3-D Ultrasound with Heat Therapy

    Stephen Smith. Duke University engineers are developing technology that may enable physicians to someday use high frequency ultrasound waves both to visualize the heart's interior in three dimensions and then selectively destroy heart tissue with heat to correct arrhythmias. "No one else has developed a way for ultrasound to combine therapy and imaging in a catheter, let alone 3-D imaging," said Stephen Smith, the biomedical engineering professor who heads the project at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. Smith's ...
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  • February 1, 2005

    Gel Blocks Toxic Leakage Problem In Gene Therapy

    Fan Yuan Duke University biomedical engineers have devised a potentially patentable method to arrest toxic leakages of genetically engineered viruses that have plagued attempts to use gene therapy against cancerous tumors. The problem has been that viruses carrying anti-tumor genes have tended to leak from tumors, proving toxic to other body tissues. The researchers have developed a biocompatible polymer that briefly changes from a liquid at 39 degrees Fahrenheit to a gel at body temperatures to block ...
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  • February 1, 2005

    Gel Blocks Toxic Leakage Problem In Gene Therapy

    Fan Yuan Duke University biomedical engineers have devised a potentially patentable method to arrest toxic leakages of genetically engineered viruses that have plagued attempts to use gene therapy against cancerous tumors. The problem has been that viruses carrying anti-tumor genes have tended to leak from tumors, proving toxic to other body tissues. The researchers have developed a biocompatible polymer that briefly changes from a liquid at 39 degrees Fahrenheit to a gel at body temperatures to block ...
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  • January 28, 2005

    Studies Suggest 'Bladder Pacemaker' for People With Spinal Cord Injury

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Biomedical engineers at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have demonstrated for the first time that stimulating a specific nerve in the pelvis triggers the process that causes urine to begin flowing out from the bladder, refuting conventional thinking that "bladder emptying" requires signals from the brain. Their research, carried out with animals, could lead to a "bladder pacemaker" to restore bladder control for the more than 200,000 Americans living with spinal cord ...
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  • January 1, 2005

    Research Suggests 'Bladder Pacemaker' for Spinal Cord Injury

    Biomedical engineers at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering have demonstrated for the first time that stimulating a specific nerve in the pelvis triggers the process that causes urine to begin flowing out from the bladder, refuting conventional thinking that "bladder emptying" requires signals from the brain. Their research, carried out with animals, could lead to a "bladder pacemaker" to restore bladder control for the more than 200,000 Americans living with spinal cord injury (SCI) or disease-related ...
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  • January 1, 2005

    Research Suggests 'Bladder Pacemaker' for Spinal Cord Injury

    Biomedical engineers at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering have demonstrated for the first time that stimulating a specific nerve in the pelvis triggers the process that causes urine to begin flowing out from the bladder, refuting conventional thinking that "bladder emptying" requires signals from the brain. Their research, carried out with animals, could lead to a "bladder pacemaker" to restore bladder control for the more than 200,000 Americans living with spinal cord injury (SCI) or disease-related ...
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  • January 1, 2005

    Pratt Senior Tyler Brown Killed in Traffic Accident

    Tyler Brown, a Duke senior engineering student who recently went to help rebuild tsunami-ravaged Sumatra, was killed in San Francisco Oct. 9 when the taxicab in which he was riding was hit by a pickup truck. The driver of the pickup was allegedly drunk and has been charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter and one count of felony drunken driving. Brown and the driver of the taxi were both killed instantly. Michael Giedgowd, a Trinity ...
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  • January 1, 2005

    Pratt Senior Tyler Brown Killed in Traffic Accident

    Tyler Brown, a Duke senior engineering student who recently went to help rebuild tsunami-ravaged Sumatra, was killed in San Francisco Oct. 9 when the taxicab in which he was riding was hit by a pickup truck. The driver of the pickup was allegedly drunk and has been charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter and one count of felony drunken driving. Brown and the driver of the taxi were both killed instantly. Michael Giedgowd, a Trinity ...
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  • January 1, 2005

    New Tool for Bio-Nanofabrication

    Duke engineers have added a new construction tool to their bio-nanofabrication toolbox. Using an enzyme called TdTase, engineers can vertically extend short DNA chains attached to nanometer-sized gold plates. This advance adds new capability to the field of bio-nanomanufacturing. "The process works like stacking Legos to make a tower and is an important step toward creating functional nanostructures out of biological materials," said Ashutosh Chilkoti, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. The ...
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  • January 1, 2005

    New Tool for Bio-Nanofabrication

    Duke engineers have added a new construction tool to their bio-nanofabrication toolbox. Using an enzyme called TdTase, engineers can vertically extend short DNA chains attached to nanometer-sized gold plates. This advance adds new capability to the field of bio-nanomanufacturing. "The process works like stacking Legos to make a tower and is an important step toward creating functional nanostructures out of biological materials," said Ashutosh Chilkoti, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. The ...
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  • December 15, 2004

    Chance to Help People Inspires Emily McDowell

    Gabriel Chen, Dec. 2004Observation one: Soft, bright flaxen hair; kindly, thoughtful blue eyes and an earnest, penetrating smile reaching like sunshine into the heart of anyone on whom it shines. Observation two: Cheerful-looking flowered chintz dress and dark rimmed glasses. Combine the two and voila! The prototype for your kindergarten school teacher? "Perhaps not," said Emily McDowell, a biomedical engineering (BME) senior, who strikes you as an effusively warm person and who describes herself ...
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  • December 1, 2004

    Engineering Program Helps Latin Hospitals

    Marquette student Jennifer Wozniczka (left) and Duke student Lucy He testing a defibrillator in Rosales, Nicaragua using a board designed and build by Engineering World Health students. Duke engineering student Le (Lucy) He was stunned to discover that the lights in the operating room of her adopted Rosales, El Salvador, hospital flickered off and on during the day. Similarly, upon her first visit to the hospital, she saw patients in beds everywhere but few working monitors ...
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  • December 1, 2004

    Engineering Program Helps Latin Hospitals

    Marquette student Jennifer Wozniczka (left) and Duke student Lucy He testing a defibrillator in Rosales, Nicaragua using a board designed and build by Engineering World Health students. Duke engineering student Le (Lucy) He was stunned to discover that the lights in the operating room of her adopted Rosales, El Salvador, hospital flickered off and on during the day. Similarly, upon her first visit to the hospital, she saw patients in beds everywhere but few working monitors ...
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  • December 1, 2004

    Pratt Engineer Works on Synthetic Gene Circuits

    Lingchong You's research team at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering makes and programs circuits, although not the kind that work in electronics devices. His are "synthetic gene circuits" that can regulate cell populations with molecular signaling and intentional extermination. Such biocircuits have great potential for applications in biotechnology, computation, environmental engineering and medicine. For example, a "suicide" biocircuit could potentially be programmed into bacteria used to clean up pollution, making the microbes die off once their ...
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  • December 1, 2004

    Pratt Engineer Works on Synthetic Gene Circuits

    Lingchong You's research team at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering makes and programs circuits, although not the kind that work in electronics devices. His are "synthetic gene circuits" that can regulate cell populations with molecular signaling and intentional extermination. Such biocircuits have great potential for applications in biotechnology, computation, environmental engineering and medicine. For example, a "suicide" biocircuit could potentially be programmed into bacteria used to clean up pollution, making the microbes die off once their ...
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  • October 15, 2004

    Cancer Drives Jason Smith's Choice of Research

    By Gabriel Chen Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there, to serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson or help figure out who you are or who you want to become.Mention the word "cancer" to Jason Smith, a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering at Duke, and it invariably stirs in him this aura of deep reflection. Smith's chemistry teacher in college, mission president ...
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  • October 15, 2004

    Shiyi Teo Serves as Volunteer Emergency Medical Technician

    Gabriel Chen, Oct. 2004 You may have heard of Singapore, the 'miracle city,' which has the world's best airport, one of the world's busiest seaports and is regarded by business travelers the world over as the 'best business destination.' Singapore, a vibrant, multi-cultural, cosmopolitan and sophisticated city-state, expresses the essence of today's New Asia. Its many names describe its attributes: city of diverse cultures, the garden city, the fun city and city for the arts. This ...
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  • October 15, 2004

    Self-motivation Key to Success for Hwang

    Gabriel Chen, Oct. 2004 It's hard to imagine a college student with a more energetic schedule than that of junior William Hwang's. After all, Hwang, an Angier B. Duke Scholar, is a triple major in Biomedical Engineering, Physics, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, and a double minor in English and Chemistry. Outside the classroom, he plays for the Duke Men's Volleyball Team, serves as an Editor for Eruditio, the Duke Undergraduate Journal for Humanities, Associate ...
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  • September 15, 2004

    Chancey Unravels Mechanics of Neck Muscles

    By Claire Cusick, September 2004 Even though Carol Chancey's field is called biomechanics, it's the mechanics that came first for her. "I'm a traditional mechanical engineer by training," she said, complete with a bachelor's and master's degree in the field from Auburn University. Like many engineers, Carol has always been fascinated by how things work. Growing up on a farm in Ozark, Ala., meant a childhood spent around large machinery that inevitably needed fixing. She watched both her ...
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  • September 15, 2004

    Does a BME Degree Really Prepare You for Medical School? --Duke's Kemi Oni Says Yes

    Written in 2004After surviving a six-week med school boot camp, Pratt biomedical engineering student Kemi Oni says she's more than ready for medical school. Oni and 107 other minority students from around the U.S. gathered in New York City this past summer for the Minority Medical ...
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  • September 15, 2004

    Sean Marshall Designs Replacement Parts for Human Skulls

    By Gabriel Chen, September 2004 Scenario: There has been a car accident. A patient arrives unconscious at the Duke hospital on a stretcher he has a hole in his skull. The blood has soaked his long, dark hair. His eyes are slits; his stare, distant. A neuro-surgeon tends to him immediately. He calls for a computed tomography scan (also known as a CT scan) of his skull, and sends it to a laboratory in ...
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  • September 1, 2004

    Nine New Faculty Join Pratt

    The Pratt School of Engineering has hired nine new professors, bringing the total number of tenure track faculty for this academic year to 91. The new professors bring expertise in a wide range of fields, including neural prosthesis and neuroengineering, cancer imaging, materials, nanoscience, photonics, sensing, microbial engineering, environmental science and power and propulsion system development. The Department of Biomedical Engineering has three new tenure track faculty starting the semester. Jean-Marc Fellous Jean-Marc Fellous, previously a post-doctoral fellow ...
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  • September 1, 2004

    Nine New Faculty Join Pratt

    The Pratt School of Engineering has hired nine new professors, bringing the total number of tenure track faculty for this academic year to 91. The new professors bring expertise in a wide range of fields, including neural prosthesis and neuroengineering, cancer imaging, materials, nanoscience, photonics, sensing, microbial engineering, environmental science and power and propulsion system development. The Department of Biomedical Engineering has three new tenure track faculty starting the semester. Jean-Marc Fellous Jean-Marc Fellous, previously a post-doctoral fellow ...
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  • August 26, 2004

    Three new faculty join Pratt's BME Department

    At the start of the fall semester, Pratt's Department of Biomedical Engineering welcomes three new tenure track faculty members. Jean-Marc Fellous, previously a post-doctoral fellow at the Salk Institute, became an assistant professor in the BME department and a core member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience in September 2004. Fellous earned his Ph.D. in computer science and artificial intelligence at University of Southern California, Los Angeles. He research involves a combination of in vitro, in ...
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  • August 15, 2004

    Chance To Build Inspires Kityee Au-Yeung

    By Claire Cusick, August 2004 The best part about graduate school for Kityee Au-Yeung? Building things from scratch."I like the part where you get to make a lot of your own decisions about what to try," she said. Au-Yeung is getting to do just that in her research. She is building a pacemaker-like implant that will help monitor and study atrial fibrillation, a common cardiac disorder. To build it, she has had to study existing literature on ...
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  • July 30, 2004

    Duke Engineering Professor Named to Federal Scientific Review Panel

    DURHAM, N.C. - Duke University's Gregg E. Trahey has been appointed a member of the Biomedical Imaging Technology Study Section of the National Institute of Health's Center for Scientific Review. Trahey, Ph.D., is the James L. and Elizabeth M. Vincent Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Pratt School of Engineering, and also holds an appointment as professor of radiology at Duke University Medical Center. He is a specialist in medical ultrasound and instrumentation, adaptive imaging, ...
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  • May 1, 2004

    Enzyme 'Ink' Shows Potential for Nanomanufacturing

    Duke University engineers have demonstrated that enzymes can be used to create nanoscale patterns on gold. Since many enzymes are already commercially available and well characterized, the potential for writing with enzyme 'ink' represents an important advance in nanomanufacturing. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation through a Nanotechnology Interdisciplinary Research Initiative (NIRT) grant. Enzymes are nature's catalysts -- proteins that stimulate chemical reactions in the body and are used in a wide range of ...
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  • May 1, 2004

    Enzyme 'Ink' Shows Potential for Nanomanufacturing

    Duke University engineers have demonstrated that enzymes can be used to create nanoscale patterns on gold. Since many enzymes are already commercially available and well characterized, the potential for writing with enzyme 'ink' represents an important advance in nanomanufacturing. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation through a Nanotechnology Interdisciplinary Research Initiative (NIRT) grant. Enzymes are nature's catalysts -- proteins that stimulate chemical reactions in the body and are used in a wide range of ...
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  • May 1, 2004

    2004 Alumni Banquet

    On April 24, the Pratt School of Engineering honored three exceptional individuals at the annual Engineering Alumni Banquet, held at the Washington Duke Inn. Alan L. Kaganov BSME'60, received the Distinguished Alumnus Award; Gregory R. Maletic BSE'90, received the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award; and William H. Younger Jr. received the Distinguished Service Award. Kaganov was awarded the 2004 Distinguished Alumnus by the Engineering Alumni Association for his achievement in the health care and medical device industries, ...
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  • May 1, 2004

    2004 Alumni Banquet

    On April 24, the Pratt School of Engineering honored three exceptional individuals at the annual Engineering Alumni Banquet, held at the Washington Duke Inn. Alan L. Kaganov BSME'60, received the Distinguished Alumnus Award; Gregory R. Maletic BSE'90, received the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award; and William H. Younger Jr. received the Distinguished Service Award. Kaganov was awarded the 2004 Distinguished Alumnus by the Engineering Alumni Association for his achievement in the health care and medical device industries, ...
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  • May 1, 2004

    Duke Engineers Probing Contortions of the Heart's Blood Vessels

    Duke biomedical engineers have received more than $2.2 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue their explorations of how the complex moving and flexing of blood vessels during a heartbeat might contribute to heart disease. They are combining clinical images of beating hearts and computer software to perform challenging visualization studies of the coronary arteries that that supply the heart with blood. Their goal is to determine whether there are certain motions that ...
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  • May 1, 2004

    Duke Engineers Probing Contortions of the Heart's Blood Vessels

    Duke biomedical engineers have received more than $2.2 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue their explorations of how the complex moving and flexing of blood vessels during a heartbeat might contribute to heart disease. They are combining clinical images of beating hearts and computer software to perform challenging visualization studies of the coronary arteries that that supply the heart with blood. Their goal is to determine whether there are certain motions that ...
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  • April 29, 2004

    Niklason Named to NIH Panel

    Duke University's Laura E. Niklason has been appointed a member of the Bioengineering, Technology and Surgical Sciences Study Section of the National Institute of Health's Center for Scientific Review. Niklason, who has M.D. and Ph.D. degrees, is an assistant professor with joint appointments in biomedical engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering and anesthesiology and surgery at Duke Medical Center. She is a specialist on tissue engineering, a rapidly developing field that integrates areas of biomaterials, ...
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  • April 29, 2004

    Duke Engineers Probing Contortions of the Heart's Blood Vessels

    Duke biomedical engineers have received more than $2.2 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue their explorations of how the complex moving and flexing of blood vessels during a heartbeat might contribute to heart disease. They are combining clinical images of beating hearts and computer software to perform challenging visualization studies of the coronary arteries that that supply the heart with blood. Their goal is to determine whether there are certain motions that ...
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  • April 21, 2004

    Enzyme 'Ink' Shows Potential for Nanomanufacturing

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University engineers have demonstrated that enzymes can be used to create nanoscale patterns on gold. Since many enzymes are already commercially available and well characterized, the potential for writing with enzyme 'ink' represents an important advance in nanomanufacturing. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation through a Nanotechnology Interdisciplinary Research Initiative (NIRT) grant. Enzymes are nature's catalysts -- proteins that stimulate chemical reactions in the body and are used in a ...
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  • April 1, 2004

    Research Suggests New Way to Repair Cartilage Damage

    Duke biomedical engineers have developed a technique to use a natural polymer to fill in and protect cartilage wounds within joints, and to provide supportive scaffolding for new cartilage growth. Their advance offers a potential solution for a central problem in generating new cartilage -- providing a support for cartilage cells as they regenerate cartilage tissue. In tests on rabbits, Lori Setton, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, and her research ...
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  • April 1, 2004

    Research Suggests New Way to Repair Cartilage Damage

    Duke biomedical engineers have developed a technique to use a natural polymer to fill in and protect cartilage wounds within joints, and to provide supportive scaffolding for new cartilage growth. Their advance offers a potential solution for a central problem in generating new cartilage -- providing a support for cartilage cells as they regenerate cartilage tissue. In tests on rabbits, Lori Setton, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, and her research ...
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  • April 1, 2004

    Engineers Developing Technology for Brain-Machine Interfaces

    Biomedical engineers at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering are developing much of the basic technology behind Duke experiments aiming to enable primates and ultimately humans to operate machines exclusively with their brain signals. Their efforts include custom engineering of interface devices, programming of "neural net" computer systems and extensive computer analysis. "The issue here is really the challenge of developing technology and also understanding how the brain works," said Craig Henriquez, the Pratt School's W.H. Gardner ...
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  • April 1, 2004

    Engineers Developing Technology for Brain-Machine Interfaces

    Biomedical engineers at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering are developing much of the basic technology behind Duke experiments aiming to enable primates and ultimately humans to operate machines exclusively with their brain signals. Their efforts include custom engineering of interface devices, programming of "neural net" computer systems and extensive computer analysis. "The issue here is really the challenge of developing technology and also understanding how the brain works," said Craig Henriquez, the Pratt School's W.H. Gardner ...
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  • April 1, 2004

    Pratt Alumnus Wins Soros Fellowship

    Pavan Cheruvu, a 2001 Pratt alumnus and Rhodes Scholar, has won a 2004 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and will enter the Health Science and Technology program of Harvard University and MIT in September. Cheruvu, a triple major at Duke in electrical and biomedical engineering and chemistry, is currently pursuing M.S. degrees in Neuroscience and Computer Science at Oxford University. He was among 30 2004 recipients of the Soros Fellowships selected from 1,300 applicants. ...
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  • April 1, 2004

    Pratt Alumnus Wins Soros Fellowship

    Pavan Cheruvu, a 2001 Pratt alumnus and Rhodes Scholar, has won a 2004 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and will enter the Health Science and Technology program of Harvard University and MIT in September. Cheruvu, a triple major at Duke in electrical and biomedical engineering and chemistry, is currently pursuing M.S. degrees in Neuroscience and Computer Science at Oxford University. He was among 30 2004 recipients of the Soros Fellowships selected from 1,300 applicants. ...
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  • April 1, 2004

    National Awards Honor Student Inventors of Devices to Help People with Disablilities

    What does a tricycle, an envelop stuffer and a neck brace have in common? These are technologies that won national awards for three student teams at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. The devices were created as part of a biomedical engineering course called Devices for People with Disabilities. The team of twins Shin Yeu Ong and Shin Rong Ong, and the team of Diana Hsu and Elizabeth Strautin Schwartz tied for first place in the NISH ...
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  • April 1, 2004

    National Awards Honor Student Inventors of Devices to Help People with Disablilities

    What does a tricycle, an envelop stuffer and a neck brace have in common? These are technologies that won national awards for three student teams at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering. The devices were created as part of a biomedical engineering course called Devices for People with Disabilities. The team of twins Shin Yeu Ong and Shin Rong Ong, and the team of Diana Hsu and Elizabeth Strautin Schwartz tied for first place in the NISH ...
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  • March 26, 2004

    Students at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering Win national Awards for Devices Helping Disabled

    DURHAM, N.C. - Three student teams at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering have won national awards for devices created in a biomedical engineering course called Devices for People with Disabilities. Twins Shin Yeu Ong and Shin Rong Ong, who are from Singapore, and the team of Diana Hsu, of Raleigh, and Elizabeth Strautin Schwartz, of Mt. Olive, N.C., tied for first place in the NISH Workplace Technology Scholarship competition. NISH, formerly the National Industries for the ...
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  • March 25, 2004

    Duke Engineers Developing Technology Underlying Brain-Machine Interfaces

    Biomedical engineers at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering are developing much of the basic technology behind Duke experiments aiming to enable primates and ultimately humans to operate machines exclusively with their brain signals. Their efforts include custom engineering of interface devices, programming of "neural net" computer systems and extensive computer analysis. "The issue here is really the challenge of developing technology and also understanding how the brain works," said Craig Henriquez, the Pratt School's W.H. Gardner ...
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  • March 15, 2004

    Chem-E to BME - Betre's Path to Graduate School

    For soft-spoken New Yorker Helawe Betre, biomedical engineering research offers just the right amount of predictability vs. surprise to keep him intrigued for a lifetime."Certainly there are frustrations with experiments that don't go as planned or that just puzzle me, but that's the challenge and why I'm in the field," said Helawe, who emigrated to the U.S. from Ethiopia as a teenager. "You think carefully designed experiments are going to produce certain results, and you ...
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  • March 9, 2004

    Research Suggests New Way to Repair Cartilage Damage

    DURHAM, N.C. Duke biomedical engineers have developed a technique to use a natural polymer to fill in and protect cartilage wounds within joints, and to provide supportive scaffolding for new cartilage growth. Their advance offers a potential solution for a central problem in generating new cartilage -- providing a support for cartilage cells as they regenerate cartilage tissue. In tests on rabbits, Lori Setton, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Duke's Pratt School of ...
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  • March 1, 2004

    Schuler, Wax Receive NSF Career Awards

    Assistant professors Andrew Schuler and Adam P. Wax at Dukey's Pratt School of Engineering have received Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation. Each award is expected to total $400,000 over five years. "The CAREER award is NSF's most prestigious honor for junior faculty members," the federal research agency said. "The CAREER program recognizes and supports the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders ...
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  • March 1, 2004

    Schuler, Wax Receive NSF Career Awards

    Assistant professors Andrew Schuler and Adam P. Wax at Dukey's Pratt School of Engineering have received Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation. Each award is expected to total $400,000 over five years. "The CAREER award is NSF's most prestigious honor for junior faculty members," the federal research agency said. "The CAREER program recognizes and supports the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders ...
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  • February 25, 2004

    Two Duke Engineering Professors Win Career Awards

    Assistant professors Andrew Schuler and Adam P. Wax at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering have received Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation. Each award is expected to total $400,000 over five years. "The CAREER award is NSF's most prestigious honor for junior faculty members," the federal research agency said. "The CAREER program recognizes and supports the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic ...
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  • January 1, 2004

    Science Recognizes Chilkoti As Top Prof for Postdocs

    Duke's Ashutosh Chilkoti, associate professor of biomedical engineering, was named a Top Principal Investigator in a Science magazine Science Careers survey, published in October. The goal of the survey was to determine what characteristics postdocs value most in the researchers they work for, and to identify the principal investigators who best embody those characteristics. For Chilkoti, building successful working relationships with postdoctoral fellows is all about 'learning the individual.' "There is no one mode of success, but ...
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  • January 1, 2004

    Science Recognizes Chilkoti As Top Prof for Postdocs

    Duke's Ashutosh Chilkoti, associate professor of biomedical engineering, was named a Top Principal Investigator in a Science magazine Science Careers survey, published in October. The goal of the survey was to determine what characteristics postdocs value most in the researchers they work for, and to identify the principal investigators who best embody those characteristics. For Chilkoti, building successful working relationships with postdoctoral fellows is all about 'learning the individual.' "There is no one mode of success, but ...
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  • January 1, 2004

    Bench to Bedside -- Leading Medical Devices to Market

    The medical devices sector is a rapidly growing industry, but getting new and often novel medical technology innovations from the idea to moneymaking stage is a long, complex process. Duke's Fuqua School of Business and the Pratt School of Engineering are offering a first-of-its-kind graduate course in medical device marketing and device business strategies to increase the chances of success for would-be inventers and industry leaders. "The premise for the course is taking a product from the ...
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  • January 1, 2004

    Bench to Bedside -- Leading Medical Devices to Market

    The medical devices sector is a rapidly growing industry, but getting new and often novel medical technology innovations from the idea to moneymaking stage is a long, complex process. Duke's Fuqua School of Business and the Pratt School of Engineering are offering a first-of-its-kind graduate course in medical device marketing and device business strategies to increase the chances of success for would-be inventers and industry leaders. "The premise for the course is taking a product from the ...
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  • December 4, 2003

    New Study to Improve Understanding of Osteoarthritis

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Using a three-pronged approach, basic scientists and clinicians at Duke University hope not only to better understand the underlying mechanisms of osteoarthritis, but to develop strategies to help sufferers cope with this debilitating disorder. The need is great, the researchers argue, since there are more than 40 million Americans with the disorder, which is known as the "wear-and-tear" form of arthritis. The other major form, rheumatoid arthritis, occurs when the body's immune system ...
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  • December 1, 2003

    Duke Engineers Work on NASA's Vomit Comet

    Isaac Chan (left) and Dan Choi run their experiment and try to keep track of Duke-jersey clad Cookie Monster In late July four Pratt seniors took turns enduring parabolic roller coaster-style rides on a NASA KC135A aircraft nicknamed the "Vomit Comet" to perform cellular experiments of their own design during fleeting minutes of weightlessness. Isaac Chan, Daniel Choi, John Fang and Gary Sing, all senior year biomedical engineering majors, came away from the experience ...
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  • December 1, 2003

    Duke Engineers Work on NASA's Vomit Comet

    Isaac Chan (left) and Dan Choi run their experiment and try to keep track of Duke-jersey clad Cookie Monster In late July four Pratt seniors took turns enduring parabolic roller coaster-style rides on a NASA KC135A aircraft nicknamed the "Vomit Comet" to perform cellular experiments of their own design during fleeting minutes of weightlessness. Isaac Chan, Daniel Choi, John Fang and Gary Sing, all senior year biomedical engineering majors, came away from the experience ...
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  • November 1, 2003

    New Training Grant Combines Engineering and Life Sciences

    Engineers and life scientists at Duke University believe that by combining the strengths and insights of their specialties, they can train researchers uniquely qualified to manipulate molecules, cells and tissues to treat human diseases and disorders. "In recent years, there has been a surge in the application of biotechnology to clinical medicine through such fields as tissue engineering, drug delivery, biomaterials, biosenors, genomics and proteomics," said Duke's Farshid Guilak, Ph.D. "At Duke, we have created a ...
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  • October 16, 2003

    Alum Capers McDonald Describes Undergrad as Time for Growth

    Capers W. McDonald, President and Chief Executive Officer of BioReliance Corporation since 1992, graduated from Duke University in 1974 with a Bachelors degree in engineering. After moving on to earn a Masters degree in engineering from MIT (1976), an MBA from Harvard Business School (1983), and establishing himself as a successful corporate leader, community member and family man, McDonald proudly admits, "I still bleed Duke Blue after all these years." McDonald describes his undergraduate experience as ...
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  • October 14, 2003

    Monkeys Control Robot Arm Using Brain Signals As If It Were Their Own

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Researchers at Duke University have taught rhesus monkeys to consciously control the movement of a robot arm in real time, using only signals from their brains and visual feedback on a video screen. The scientists said that the animals appeared to operate the robot arm as if it were their own limb. The scientists and engineers said their achievement represents an important step toward technology that could enable paralyzed people to control "neuroprosthetic" ...
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  • September 15, 2003

    Engineering Intern Finds Life-Changing Experience in Africa

    Written in 2003.Awakening as his plane landed in Tanzania, biomedical engineering student Sumit Shah looked out a dusty window and saw an acacia tree. It took a while before his sleepy mind conjured an explanation for the odd, flat-topped canopy of leaves on slanting, nut-brown tree limbs. He was finally in Africa. Shah, whose ambition is to pursue HIV/AIDS research as a physician, decided to intern in Tanzania in part because Africa is struggling to survive ...
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  • September 12, 2003

    New Solution for Toxicity Problems in Gene Therapy

    DURHAM, N.C. - A Duke research collaboration has identified a likely route for "leakage" of therapeutic gene-bearing viruses out of tumors in experimental anti-cancer gene therapy experiments in laboratory animals. The group also found this toxic leakage can be avoided by using a chemical extracted from common brown algae. Their work was described in a presentation Monday, September 8, 2003, at the American Chemical Society's national meeting in New York, as well as in a research ...
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  • September 1, 2003

    Special Drug Delivery

    By Dennis Meredith, for DukeMed Magazine A cloud of gelatinous capsules swirls into the bloodstream from the tip of a comparatively colossal hypodermic needle. At a thousandth of the diameter of a human hair, the capsules spreading through the circulation are nearly a hundred times smaller than the blood cells that stream alongside them. Yet tiny as they are, these submicroscopic capsules bear the stamp of human design their surfaces are a waxy patchwork not found ...
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  • September 1, 2003

    Special Drug Delivery

    By Dennis Meredith, for DukeMed Magazine A cloud of gelatinous capsules swirls into the bloodstream from the tip of a comparatively colossal hypodermic needle. At a thousandth of the diameter of a human hair, the capsules spreading through the circulation are nearly a hundred times smaller than the blood cells that stream alongside them. Yet tiny as they are, these submicroscopic capsules bear the stamp of human design their surfaces are a waxy patchwork not found ...
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  • September 1, 2003

    George Truskey Named Chair of Department of Biomedical Engineering

    Professor George A. Truskey, director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, has been named chair of the department, Dean Kristina Johnson announced July 1. Truskey succeeds Professor Morton Friedman, who is returning to full-time teaching and research in the department. "Dr. Truskey is a world class researcher who also is one of our most gifted teachers," Johnson said. "His role in shaping the department, which will be expanding ...
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  • September 1, 2003

    George Truskey Named Chair of Department of Biomedical Engineering

    Professor George A. Truskey, director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, has been named chair of the department, Dean Kristina Johnson announced July 1. Truskey succeeds Professor Morton Friedman, who is returning to full-time teaching and research in the department. "Dr. Truskey is a world class researcher who also is one of our most gifted teachers," Johnson said. "His role in shaping the department, which will be expanding ...
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  • August 15, 2003

    Entrepreneurial Engineering Student Gets Taste Of Start Up Company

    Neil Abraham started his first company a technology news Web site with four friends while still in high school in Nutley, New Jersey. Abraham and friends served as consumer-testers for new hardware and software products that companies sent them for free. The team assessed the product performance and then wrote comparative reviews for the Web. "I was careful to be very professional, and did my work mostly through e-mail, so companies sending me products didn't know I ...
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  • July 1, 2003

    George Truskey Named Chair of Department of Biomedical Engineering

    DURHAM, N.C. Professor George A. Truskey, director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, has been named chair of the department, Dean Kristina Johnson announced Tuesday. Truskey succeeds Professor Morton Friedman, who is returning to full-time teaching and research in the department. "Dr. Truskey is a world class researcher who also is one of our most gifted teachers," Johnson said. "His role in shaping the department, which ...
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  • June 16, 2003

    Special Delivery

    (From DukeMed Magazine) By Dennis Meredith A cloud of gelatinous capsules swirls into the bloodstream from the tip of a comparatively colossal hypodermic needle. At a thousandth of the diameter of a human hair, the capsules spreading through the circulation are nearly a hundred times smaller than the blood cells that stream alongside them. Yet tiny as they are, these submicroscopic capsules bear the stamp of human design their surfaces are a waxy patchwork not found in ...
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  • May 1, 2003

    Engineers Design New Optical Microprobe to Detect Organ Abnormalities

    Photonics and ultrasound engineering researchers from Duke's Pratt School of Engineering and George Washington University have collaborated to design an optical scanner miniaturized enough to be inserted into the body, where its light beams could someday detect abnormalities hidden in the walls of the colon, bladder or esophagus. The experimental device, called an "electrostatic micromachine scanning mirror for optical coherence tomography," is described in an article published in the April 15 issue of the research journal ...
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  • May 1, 2003

    Engineers Design New Optical Microprobe to Detect Organ Abnormalities

    Photonics and ultrasound engineering researchers from Duke's Pratt School of Engineering and George Washington University have collaborated to design an optical scanner miniaturized enough to be inserted into the body, where its light beams could someday detect abnormalities hidden in the walls of the colon, bladder or esophagus. The experimental device, called an "electrostatic micromachine scanning mirror for optical coherence tomography," is described in an article published in the April 15 issue of the research journal ...
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  • May 1, 2003

    Pratt Honors Faculty and Alumni

    Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering recognized two alumni for their achievements and two faculty members for excellence in teaching and research at the annual alumni banquet April 26 that concluded the spring meeting of the school's Board of Visitors. Mechanical Engineering and Materials Sciences Professor Charles Harman received the distinguished faculty teaching award, consisting of a plaque and $2,000. The award, selected by a faculty committee with student input, recognizes "superior dedication to undergraduate teaching." Harman joined the faculty in 1961 and ...
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  • May 1, 2003

    Pratt Honors Faculty and Alumni

    Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering recognized two alumni for their achievements and two faculty members for excellence in teaching and research at the annual alumni banquet April 26 that concluded the spring meeting of the school's Board of Visitors. Mechanical Engineering and Materials Sciences Professor Charles Harman received the distinguished faculty teaching award, consisting of a plaque and $2,000. The award, selected by a faculty committee with student input, recognizes "superior dedication to undergraduate teaching." Harman joined the faculty in 1961 and ...
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  • May 1, 2003

    Pratt Fellow examines genetic manipulation

    Imagine conducting innovative and potentially life saving biomedical research all before your 22nd birthday. Jamie Bergen will tell you that such dreams are possible through the Pratt Fellows program. Bergen is one of two dozen undergraduates selected annually to receive the school's distinguished Pratt Fellowship, which allows students to receive course credit and a summer stipend to conduct research under the direct supervision of faculty members. Fellows are selected their junior year based upon research interests, academic record, intellectual ability and maturity. Bergen's ...
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  • May 1, 2003

    Pratt Fellow examines genetic manipulation

    Imagine conducting innovative and potentially life saving biomedical research all before your 22nd birthday. Jamie Bergen will tell you that such dreams are possible through the Pratt Fellows program. Bergen is one of two dozen undergraduates selected annually to receive the school's distinguished Pratt Fellowship, which allows students to receive course credit and a summer stipend to conduct research under the direct supervision of faculty members. Fellows are selected their junior year based upon research interests, academic record, intellectual ability and maturity. Bergen's ...
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  • May 1, 2003

    Duke Engineering Students Win National Design Competition

    Two separate ideas developed by students in a Duke engineering design class that seeks to improve the lives of children and adults with disabilities have become winning entries in the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) national design competition. David Chong of Wheaton, Ill., and Billy Watson of Tacoma, Wash., were named winners for adapting a baseball glove with an aluminum brace and a Velcro strap to aid the catching prowess of ...
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  • May 1, 2003

    Duke Engineering Students Win National Design Competition

    Two separate ideas developed by students in a Duke engineering design class that seeks to improve the lives of children and adults with disabilities have become winning entries in the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) national design competition. David Chong of Wheaton, Ill., and Billy Watson of Tacoma, Wash., were named winners for adapting a baseball glove with an aluminum brace and a Velcro strap to aid the catching prowess of ...
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  • April 29, 2003

    Duke Engineering Students Win National Design Competition

    Two separate ideas developed by students in a Duke engineering design class that seeks to improve the lives of children and adults with disabilities have become winning entries in the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) national design competition. David Chong of Wheaton, Ill., and Billy Watson of Tacoma, Wash., were named winners for adapting a baseball glove with an aluminum brace and a Velcro strap to aid the catching prowess of ...
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  • April 17, 2003

    Engineers Design New Optical Microprobe to Detect Subsurface Organ Abnormalities

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Photonics and ultrasound engineering researchers from Duke University and The George Washington University have collaborated to design an optical scanner miniaturized enough to be inserted into the body, where its light beams could someday detect abnormalities hidden in the walls of the colon, bladder or esophagus. The experimental device, called an "electrostatic micromachine scanning mirror for optical coherence tomography," is described in an article published in the April 15, 2003, issue of the ...
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  • April 1, 2003

    Shah Takes the Helm of Student Government

    After serving as president of his engineering class for each of the past three years, Sumit Shah will take the reins of ESG in the fall with hopes of building upon the successes of his predecessor and expanding the role of ESG into academic affairs. At the top of the list is an improvement to the course-evaluation system used by students. Shah hopes that improvements will allow students better information in deciding their class schedule. In addition to the course-evaluation system, ...
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  • April 1, 2003

    Shah Takes the Helm of Student Government

    After serving as president of his engineering class for each of the past three years, Sumit Shah will take the reins of ESG in the fall with hopes of building upon the successes of his predecessor and expanding the role of ESG into academic affairs. At the top of the list is an improvement to the course-evaluation system used by students. Shah hopes that improvements will allow students better information in deciding their class schedule. In addition to the course-evaluation system, ...
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  • April 1, 2003

    Chandran Family Giving $1 Million to Pratt School of Engineering

    Clarence Chandran and his late wife Beverley are giving Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering $1 million in separate gifts for the new Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences (CIEMAS) and for research in brain tumor imaging. "These gifts are a very significant contribution to our effort to make Pratt a global leader in engineering research and education," said Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane in announcing the gifts March 24. "We are deeply grateful to Clarence and Beverley for their ...
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  • April 1, 2003

    Chandran Family Giving $1 Million to Pratt School of Engineering

    Clarence Chandran and his late wife Beverley are giving Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering $1 million in separate gifts for the new Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences (CIEMAS) and for research in brain tumor imaging. "These gifts are a very significant contribution to our effort to make Pratt a global leader in engineering research and education," said Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane in announcing the gifts March 24. "We are deeply grateful to Clarence and Beverley for their ...
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  • April 1, 2003

    Human Testing Starts of Engineered Anti-Cancer Drug Carrier

    The first phase of clinical testing has begun of a heat-triggered, sub-microscopic drug carrier invented by Professor David Needham of the Pratt Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and developed in collaboration with Dr. Mark Dewhirst in the Department of Radiation Oncology. The drug carriers are liposomes that are engineered to release the agents they carry at the cancer site when tumor temperatures are raised to 41 degrees Celsius. The clinical trial just getting underway is using the special liposomes to carry ...
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  • April 1, 2003

    Human Testing Starts of Engineered Anti-Cancer Drug Carrier

    The first phase of clinical testing has begun of a heat-triggered, sub-microscopic drug carrier invented by Professor David Needham of the Pratt Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and developed in collaboration with Dr. Mark Dewhirst in the Department of Radiation Oncology. The drug carriers are liposomes that are engineered to release the agents they carry at the cancer site when tumor temperatures are raised to 41 degrees Celsius. The clinical trial just getting underway is using the special liposomes to carry ...
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  • March 25, 2003

    Chandran Family Giving $1 Million to Duke's Pratt School of Engineering

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Clarence Chandran and his late wife Beverley are giving Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering $1 million in separate gifts for the new Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences (CIEMAS) and for research in brain tumor imaging. "These gifts are a very significant contribution to our effort to make Pratt a global leader in engineering research and education," said Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane in announcing the gifts Monday. "We are ...
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  • March 15, 2003

    Peaceful mind, intellectual curiosity key to success for BME student

    by Gabriel Chen, written in 2003 They come every year with brilliant test scores, grades and resumes, drawing accolades without breaking a sweat. Then, when the semester draws to a close, many of them start to fret, as they do not make straight A's for the first time. Some of them become nerve-wracked, and they are pressured relentlessly by their parents and professors to perform. Sounds all too familiar? The only thing to do with good advice ...
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  • February 1, 2003

    Does a BME Degree Really Prepare You for Medical School?

    After surviving a six-week med school boot camp, Pratt biomedical engineering student Kemi Oni says she's more than ready for medical school. Oni and 107 other minority students from around the U.S. gathered in New York City this past summer for the Minority Medical Education Program, sponsored by Columbia University. The MMEP is an intensive six-week course designed to emulate the first year medical experience. In addition to lectures, students get to observe doctors practicing medicine ...
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  • February 1, 2003

    Does a BME Degree Really Prepare You for Medical School?

    After surviving a six-week med school boot camp, Pratt biomedical engineering student Kemi Oni says she's more than ready for medical school. Oni and 107 other minority students from around the U.S. gathered in New York City this past summer for the Minority Medical Education Program, sponsored by Columbia University. The MMEP is an intensive six-week course designed to emulate the first year medical experience. In addition to lectures, students get to observe doctors practicing medicine ...
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  • February 1, 2003

    New Training Grant Combines Engineering and Life Sciences

    Engineers and life scientists at Duke University believe that by combining the strengths and insights of their specialties, they can train researchers uniquely qualified to manipulate molecules, cells and tissues to treat human diseases and disorders. "In recent years, there has been a surge in the application of biotechnology to clinical medicine through such fields as tissue engineering, drug delivery, biomaterials, biosenors, genomics and proteomics," said Professor Farshid Guilak. "At Duke, we have created a formal, ...
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  • February 1, 2003

    New Training Grant Combines Engineering and Life Sciences

    Engineers and life scientists at Duke University believe that by combining the strengths and insights of their specialties, they can train researchers uniquely qualified to manipulate molecules, cells and tissues to treat human diseases and disorders. "In recent years, there has been a surge in the application of biotechnology to clinical medicine through such fields as tissue engineering, drug delivery, biomaterials, biosenors, genomics and proteomics," said Professor Farshid Guilak. "At Duke, we have created a formal, ...
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  • February 1, 2003

    Aruna Venkatesan: Making the Most Out of Engineering

    While many students at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering say designing theoretical research projects highlights their undergraduate experience, biomedical junior Aruna Venkatesan says she is most excited by learning more about how engineering can improve the quality of life of others. This appreciation for engineers' applicability probably stems from her own experience with the uses of biomedical engineering. In middle school, Venkatesan, who is from Pleasanton, Calif., was diagnosed with scoliosis -- an irregular curvature of the spine. She ...
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  • February 1, 2003

    Aruna Venkatesan: Making the Most Out of Engineering

    While many students at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering say designing theoretical research projects highlights their undergraduate experience, biomedical junior Aruna Venkatesan says she is most excited by learning more about how engineering can improve the quality of life of others. This appreciation for engineers' applicability probably stems from her own experience with the uses of biomedical engineering. In middle school, Venkatesan, who is from Pleasanton, Calif., was diagnosed with scoliosis -- an irregular curvature of the spine. She ...
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  • January 1, 2003

    Pratt Students Mentor Youngsters at Sally Ride Science Camp

    By Jessica Manson (Manson is a sophomore double majoring in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering) "Science camp?" That is the question most of these middle-school girls would probably hear if they told their peers how they spent their summer vacation. However, this past summer, a new science camp tore down the common stereotypes of lab scientists or engineers and replaced them with new ideas about those who pursue science and engineering. This summer, the Sally Ride Science Camp, held ...
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  • January 1, 2003

    Pratt Students Mentor Youngsters at Sally Ride Science Camp

    By Jessica Manson (Manson is a sophomore double majoring in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering) "Science camp?" That is the question most of these middle-school girls would probably hear if they told their peers how they spent their summer vacation. However, this past summer, a new science camp tore down the common stereotypes of lab scientists or engineers and replaced them with new ideas about those who pursue science and engineering. This summer, the Sally Ride Science Camp, held ...
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  • January 1, 2003

    Monkeys Control Robot Arm Using Brain Signals

    Researchers at Duke University have taught rhesus monkeys to consciously control the movement of a robot arm in real time, using only signals from their brains and visual feedback on a video screen. The scientists said that the animals appeared to operate the robot arm as if it were their own limb. The scientists and engineers said their achievement represents an important step toward technology that could enable paralyzed people to control "neuroprosthetic" limbs, and even ...
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  • January 1, 2003

    Monkeys Control Robot Arm Using Brain Signals

    Researchers at Duke University have taught rhesus monkeys to consciously control the movement of a robot arm in real time, using only signals from their brains and visual feedback on a video screen. The scientists said that the animals appeared to operate the robot arm as if it were their own limb. The scientists and engineers said their achievement represents an important step toward technology that could enable paralyzed people to control "neuroprosthetic" limbs, and even ...
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  • January 1, 2003

    Tissue Engineering at Pratt

    By Anu Kotha (Kotha is a freshman at Pratt) Within the next 10 years, more than 70 million people are going to join the ranks of seniors. As they age, they will face several medical problems. One such problem concerns joints. The articular cartilage that allows bones to smoothly move over each other wears down with time. Unlike most tissues in the body, articular cartilage cannot heal itself. Due to the loss of this cartilage, bones rub ...
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  • January 1, 2003

    Tissue Engineering at Pratt

    By Anu Kotha (Kotha is a freshman at Pratt) Within the next 10 years, more than 70 million people are going to join the ranks of seniors. As they age, they will face several medical problems. One such problem concerns joints. The articular cartilage that allows bones to smoothly move over each other wears down with time. Unlike most tissues in the body, articular cartilage cannot heal itself. Due to the loss of this cartilage, bones rub ...
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  • December 1, 2002

    Researchers Find Possible Causes for Toxics Leaking from Tumors

    A Duke research collaboration has identified a likely route for "leakage" of therapeutic gene-bearing viruses out of tumors in experimental anti-cancer gene therapy experiments in laboratory animals. The group also found this toxic leakage can be avoided by using a chemical extracted from common brown algae. Their work was described in a presentation Sept. 11 at the American Chemical Society's national meeting in New York, as well as in a research paper accepted for publication in ...
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  • December 1, 2002

    Researchers Find Possible Causes for Toxics Leaking from Tumors

    A Duke research collaboration has identified a likely route for "leakage" of therapeutic gene-bearing viruses out of tumors in experimental anti-cancer gene therapy experiments in laboratory animals. The group also found this toxic leakage can be avoided by using a chemical extracted from common brown algae. Their work was described in a presentation Sept. 11 at the American Chemical Society's national meeting in New York, as well as in a research paper accepted for publication in ...
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  • December 1, 2002

    Pratt Intern Finds Life-Changing Experience in Africa

    Awakening as his plane landed in Tanzania, biomedical engineering student Sumit Shah looked out a dusty window and saw an acacia tree. It took a while before his sleepy mind conjured an explanation for the odd, flat-topped canopy of leaves on slanting, nut-brown tree limbs. He was finally in Africa. Shah, whose ambition is to pursue HIV/AIDS research as a physician, decided to intern in Tanzania in part because Africa is struggling to survive the worst ...
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  • December 1, 2002

    Pratt Intern Finds Life-Changing Experience in Africa

    Awakening as his plane landed in Tanzania, biomedical engineering student Sumit Shah looked out a dusty window and saw an acacia tree. It took a while before his sleepy mind conjured an explanation for the odd, flat-topped canopy of leaves on slanting, nut-brown tree limbs. He was finally in Africa. Shah, whose ambition is to pursue HIV/AIDS research as a physician, decided to intern in Tanzania in part because Africa is struggling to survive the worst ...
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  • November 19, 2002

    Two Grants to Aid Genomic Technology and Biophotonics at Pratt School of Engineering

    DURHAM, N.C. -- The Whitaker Foundation has awarded two grants totaling nearly $2 million to Duke's Pratt School of Engineering to accelerate promising research and teaching programs in genomic technology and biomolecular modeling, and in biophotonics, the merger of optical technologies with medicine. Both "Special Opportunity Awards" went to the school's Department of Biomedical Engineering. Together, they will fund four new faculty members, support new Ph.D. fellowships, outfit two new laboratories and help develop new undergraduate ...
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  • September 1, 2002

    DARPA To Support Brain-Machine Research

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Devices including "neuroprosthetic" limbs for paralyzed people and "neurorobots" controlled by brain signals from human operators could be the ultimate applications of brain-machine interface technologies developed under a $26 million contract to Duke sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The DARPA support will help launch Duke's Center for Neuroengineering, co-directed by Miguel Nicolelis, professor of neurobiology, and Craig Henriquez, the W.H. Gardner Jr. Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering. The center's scientists and engineers will seek ...
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  • September 1, 2002

    DARPA To Support Brain-Machine Research

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Devices including "neuroprosthetic" limbs for paralyzed people and "neurorobots" controlled by brain signals from human operators could be the ultimate applications of brain-machine interface technologies developed under a $26 million contract to Duke sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The DARPA support will help launch Duke's Center for Neuroengineering, co-directed by Miguel Nicolelis, professor of neurobiology, and Craig Henriquez, the W.H. Gardner Jr. Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering. The center's scientists and engineers will seek ...
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  • August 16, 2002

    DARPA to Support Development of Human Brain-Machine Interfaces

    DURHAM, N.C. -- Devices including "neuroprosthetic" limbs for paralyzed people and "neurorobots" controlled by brain signals from human operators could be the ultimate applications of brain-machine interface technologies developed under a $26 million contract to Duke University sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The contract is part of DARPA's Brain-Machine Interfaces Program (http://www.darpa.mil/dso/thrust/sp/bmi.htm), which seeks to develop new technologies for augmenting human performance by accessing the brain in real time and integrating the ...
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  • April 9, 2002

    Ultrasound Technique May Help Detect Breast Abnormalities

    DURHAM, N.C. - New and promising ultrasound techniques devised at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering can "remotely palpate" tissues, detecting and in some cases characterizing breast abnormalities that are deeper and smaller than the 1-centimeter-sized lesions that physicians can detect by feel, said the lead author of a just-released study. The technology has many other potential clinical applications, such as detecting clogged arteries and deep vein blood clots, Kathy Nightingale, an assistant research professor of ...
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  • February 1, 2002

    Two Whitaker Foundation Grants to Fund Genomic Technology and Biophotonics

    The Whitaker Foundation has awarded two grants totaling nearly $2 million to the Pratt School of Engineering to accelerate promising research and teaching programs in genomic technology and biomolecular modeling, and in biophotonics, the merger of optical technologies with medicine. Both "Special Opportunity Awards" went to the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Together, they will fund four new faculty members, support new Ph.D. fellowships, outfit two new laboratories and help develop new undergraduate and graduate courses in biophotonics and genomic technology. "These awards build on the ...
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  • February 1, 2002

    Two Whitaker Foundation Grants to Fund Genomic Technology and Biophotonics

    The Whitaker Foundation has awarded two grants totaling nearly $2 million to the Pratt School of Engineering to accelerate promising research and teaching programs in genomic technology and biomolecular modeling, and in biophotonics, the merger of optical technologies with medicine. Both "Special Opportunity Awards" went to the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Together, they will fund four new faculty members, support new Ph.D. fellowships, outfit two new laboratories and help develop new undergraduate and graduate courses in biophotonics and genomic technology. "These awards build on the ...
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  • February 1, 2002

    Class Lets Students Engineer Devices for the Disabled

    To help a five-year-old with cerebral palsy cut paper as easily as her classmates, two students at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering designed an electric scissors attached to a common computer mouse and a specialized paper stabilizer. Engineering senior Andrew Reish, of Vienna, Va., and graduate student Travis McLeod, of Winston-Salem, NC., designed their electric paper cutting assister as part of a class, BME 260 Devices for Disabled, that gives engineering students the opportunity to design special instruments that will enable their disabled ...
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  • February 1, 2002

    Class Lets Students Engineer Devices for the Disabled

    To help a five-year-old with cerebral palsy cut paper as easily as her classmates, two students at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering designed an electric scissors attached to a common computer mouse and a specialized paper stabilizer. Engineering senior Andrew Reish, of Vienna, Va., and graduate student Travis McLeod, of Winston-Salem, NC., designed their electric paper cutting assister as part of a class, BME 260 Devices for Disabled, that gives engineering students the opportunity to design special instruments that will enable their disabled ...
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  • December 11, 2001

    Engineering Student Is One of Three Duke Rhodes Scholarship Winners

    Pavan Cheruvu, a triple major in biomedical engineering, electrical engineering and chemistry, was one of three Duke seniors to win a prestigious 2002 Rhodes Scholarship. The awards were announced Sunday. Cheruvu, of Tampa, has been involved in research on artificial hearts, and has helped develop a software model for a cardiac device. He has a 4.0 grade point average. He spent a summer in southern India, where he worked in a community hospital as the organizer of ...
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  • November 13, 2001

    Biomedical Engineering Celebrates 30 Years

    Biomedical Engineering Celebrates 30 Years By Monte Basgall The Pratt School of Engineering's Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) turned 30 this year with a burgeoning faculty and student body and a national ranking of second-best in U.S. News & World Report's latest assessment of programs offering BME doctoral degrees. Those who've watched its early development, as well as newcomers who long knew it by reputation, say the department's fortunes have benefitted from location, early enlightened leadership, an interdisciplinary ...
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  • August 31, 2001

    Duke Researchers' Tree-Like Biomolecule Under Evaluation for Applications in Eyes and Joints

    Note to editors: Mark Grinstaff can be reached at (919) 660-1621 or mwg@chem.duke.edu. A matching graphic slugged molecule.tif is available at http://photo1.dukenews.duke.edu/pages/Duke_News_Service. DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University Chemistry Department researchers are creating unique polymers out of naturally occurring building blocks that don't provoke immune reactions and in some cases also biodegrade in the body. The tree-like, globular-shaped substances are being evaluated for a variety of medical uses. Called biodendrimers, these structures are prepared by systematically reacting acids ...
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  • May 1, 2001

    Boyd Wins Graduate Student Mentoring Award

    BME graduate student Lawrence M. Boyd has been selected to receive one of three Dean's Awards for Excellence in Mentoring. This is the time first time graduate students have been honored for mentoring.
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  • March 1, 2000

    Heat-Triggered Liposomes Carry Drugs to Eradicate Tumors in Mice

    DURHAM, N.C. - Human tumors implanted into mice regressed completely within about 12 days when treated with heat-triggered, sub-microscopic drug carriers called "liposomes," and most of those tumors didn't regrow during 60-day trials at Duke University and Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, researchers reported Tuesday. The finding raises the possibility of treating cancers by injecting such liposomes into cancer patients and applying heat only at the region of a tumor to selectively release cancer-killing drugs. The studies, published ...
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  • February 19, 1999

    Duke Students Design Device to Aid Paralyzed Musician

    Last fall, Duke biomedical engineering seniors Lindsay Johnson and Corey Weiner pooled their engineering and musical knowledge to design and build a custom electronic device whose big round sensor pads sound electric guitar-like notes when struck by light wooden hammers. Their hope is that Hamer will be able to play bass string guitar-like riffs with the new made-to-order instrument in the same manner he now plays an acoustic string instrument called the hammered dulcimer, which he ...
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  • October 16, 1993

    Robert E. Fischell

    What do you call a man who provides advice to the federal government, is Chairman of the Board of Directors of two companies, ...
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