Category Archives: BioEngineering

Concurrent with the commitment to endow the new center, Merkin and the Merkin Family Foundation have provided funds to renovate the eighth floor of Caltech Hall. The reconfigured space, scheduled to open in early 2023, will provide a home for the center as well as a base of operations for the American Institute of Mathematics (AIM), which is relocating from its current headquarters in San Jose, California, to Caltech.

Sergei G. Gukov, the John D. MacArthur Professor of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, has been named director of the Merkin Center. A member of the Caltech faculty since 2005, Gukov is known for important concepts relevant to string theory, quantum field theory, and pure mathematics.

"Caltech has cultivated extraordinary scholars who think deeply about landmark problems in pure mathematics and collaborate across disciplines," says Fiona A. Harrison, the Harold A. Rosen Professor of Physics and holder of the Kent and Joyce Kresa Leadership Chair in the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy. "The Institute is also home to a diverse community of researchers who push the frontiers of applied mathematics in areas as wide-ranging as algorithmic economics, computational biology, robotics and autonomous control, and quantum information and computing.

"The Merkin Center for Pure and Applied Mathematics will broaden and deepen the impact of the mathematical sciences across campus."

A Passion for Mathematics

As a physician and health care executive, Merkin has devoted much of his philanthropy to supporting basic science and its translation into medical treatments and cures. His love of mathematics, his undergraduate major, has been another significant thread throughout his engagement with Caltech.

Merkin previously endowed two mathematics professorships at the Institute. These positions, together with the Richard N. Merkin Distinguished Visiting Professorship in Artificial Intelligence, will be woven into the Merkin Center.

Jaka Cvitani, the Richard N. Merkin Professor of Mathematical Finance and director of The Ronald and Maxine Linde Institute of Economic and Management Sciences, is an expert in financial economics who focuses on the intersection between computer science and economics. Nikolai Makarov, the Richard Merkin Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, has worked extensively in complex analysis, which investigates functions of complex variables. This field is fundamental to many branches of mathematics and has applications in the natural sciences and engineering.

Both Cvitani and Makarov will serve as advisers to the new Merkin Center for Pure and Applied Mathematics, together with Elena Mantovan, a professor of mathematics who focuses on arithmetic geometry and number theory.

Mathematics at Caltech

Although small, Caltech's pure mathematics program is expansive in terms of focus and impact. Mathematics scholars at the Institute work together and with colleagues across disciplines to untangle some of the most difficult problems in the field and have garnered high honors for pushing the frontiers of analysis, combinatorics, group theory, mathematical physics, and number theory. They have written texts that are considered foundational to the discipline, and the Institute relies on them to help impart the quantitative skills in which all Caltech graduates become well versed.

Investigators in the Institute's highly ranked Computing and Mathematical Sciences (CMS) department are active in applied mathematics, communication and networks, computer science, and control and systems. Like Caltech's mathematics faculty, CMS faculty are highly collaborative. They have built partnerships with colleagues in mathematics as well as in applied physics, bioengineering, biology, economics, electrical engineering, geology and planetary sciences, mechanical engineering, and physics.

Caltech is also home to a world-leading research center in quantum information and computation. Scholars affiliated with the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM) explore the interplay of mathematics, computer science, and physics.

Mathematics is central to the work of faculty and students in numerous other areas across campus, in part due to the sheer amounts of data being collected. Among the researchers who stand to benefit from partnership with the Merkin Center are those working on models of neural processing and brain function, predictive modeling of health care diagnoses, election security, earthquake modeling, "smart" energy grids, and climate models to enable more accurate prediction of droughts, heat waves, and rainfall extremes.

Merkin's Previous Support of Caltech

A member of the Caltech Board of Trustees since 2007, Richard Merkin has supported a variety of initiatives across campus. His previous gifts have created the Heritage Research Institute for the Advancement of Medicine and Science at Caltech, founded in 2015 and renewed in 2018 and 2021, which provides cohorts of Caltech scientists and engineers with salary support and no-strings-attached research funds that free them to pursue high-risk, high-reward projects. Merkin also partnered with Caltech to launch the Richard N. Merkin Institute for Translational Research, which enables scientists and engineers to transform their breakthroughs into advances in human health. Additionally, beginning in 2021, the Richard N. Merkin Start-Up Scholars Grants have provided pre-arrival support to help incoming undergraduates from low-income backgrounds make a successful transition to campus life.

"Richard Merkin is a remarkable philanthropist, making possible fundamental discovery across a broad range of fields and encouraging intersections with the practical," says Caltech president Thomas F. Rosenbaum, the holder of the Sonja and William Davidow Presidential Chair and professor of physics. "Above all, Dick takes joy in making it possible for researchers to thrive, whether they be students, postdocs, or faculty members."

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Caltech Launches Merkin Center for Pure and Applied Mathematics - Caltech

Dr. Shalini Prasad

Dr. Shalini Prasad, professor and head of bioengineering at The University of Texas at Dallas, was elected a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) for her pioneering contributions in developing sweat wearables for tracking and management of chronic diseases and for prognostic monitoring in pandemics.

The AIMBE College of Fellows is composed of the top 2% of medical and biological engineers in the country. Prasad was inducted at a March 25 virtual ceremony along with 153 colleagues who make up the newest class of fellows.

As a bioengineer, I have witnessed the practical demonstration of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, said Prasad, who is also a Cecil H. and Ida Green Professor in Systems Biology Science in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. Every biomedical device technology that I have created comes together by integrating engineering and sciences, and the impact is monumental. It is fabulous to wake up every day as a bioengineer.

The most accomplished and distinguished engineering and medical school chairs, research directors, professors, innovators and successful entrepreneurs comprise the College of Fellows. Fellows include clinicians, industry professionals, academics and scientists who have distinguished themselves through their contributions in research, industrial practice and/or education.

In addition to Prasad, other UTDallas faculty members who have been elected to the College of Fellows are Dr. Stuart Cogan, professor of bioengineering; Dr. Baowei Fei, professor of bioengineering and Cecil H. and Ida Green Chair in Systems Biology Science; Dr. Joseph Pancrazio, vice president for research and innovation and professor of bioengineering; Dr. Walter Voit BS05, MS06, associate professor of materials science and engineering and of mechanical engineering; and Dr. Jie Zheng, professor of chemistry and a Cecil H. and Ida Green Professor in Systems Biology Science.

Chen Chen

Chen Chen, a doctoral electrical engineering student at The University of Texas at Dallas, received a predoctoral achievement award from the Solid-State Circuits Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

The award, which was presented in January, is given to about two dozen promising graduate students from around the world each year. Chen, who joined UT Dallas in 2018, works on developing more compact and energy-efficient power converters for electric vehicles and next-generation computing systems. Her research interests include power management integrated circuits; hybrid power converter topologies and methodologies; and zero-voltage-switching techniques.

Most recently, Chen presented her research at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference in February. She has been first author of studies in publications, including the IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits. In 2021, Chen received an outstanding student designer award from Analog Devices. Her research has been supported by Semiconductor Research Corp. and UT Dallas Texas Analog Center of Excellence.

As a UTD PhD student in the integrated circuit (IC) design research field, I am very honored and humbled to receive this prestigious award. I hope I can help as a role model for many UTD undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in the IC design research field, she said.

Chens advisors are Dr. Hoi Lee, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Dr. Jin Liu, professor of electrical and computer engineering.

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Bioengineering Professor Elected to AIMBE College of Fellows - University of Texas at Dallas

The College of Engineering and Computer Science held its annual Research Day on March 25, with the following projects taking home awards in their respective categories.

Poster Competition

First place: Elizabeth Oguntade, PhD. student in Bioengineering.On-Demand Activation of Functional Protein Surface Patterns with Tunable Topography Suitable for Biomedical Applications. Advisor: Dr. James Henderson

Second place: Natalie Petryk, MS student in Bioengineering. Synthesis of Shape Memory Polymer Foams with Off-the-Shelf Components for Improved Commercialization. Advisor: Dr. Mary Beth Monroe

Third place: Alexander Hartwell, PhD student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Introduction of a Multilayered Cathode for Improved Internal Cathode Tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Performance. Advisor: Dr. Jeongmin Ahn

Honorable Mention: Saif Khalil Elsayed, MS student in Civil Engineering.Modeling Self-Folding Hybrid SU-8 Skin for 3D Biosensing Microstructures. Advisor: Dr. Zhao Qin

Oral Presentation Competition

Communication and Security Session

First place: Kai Li, PhD student in Electrical/Computer Engineering. Detect and Mitigate Vulnerabilities in Ethereum Transaction Pool. Advisor: Dr. Yuzhe Tang

Second place: Xinyi Zhou, PhD student in Computer/Information Science. This is Fake! Shared it by Mistake: Assessing the Intent of Fake News Spreaders. Advisor: Dr. Reza Zafarani

Health and Well-Being Session

First place: Yousr Dhaouadi, PhD student in Chemical Engineering. Forming Bacterial Persisters with Light. Advisor: Dr. Dacheng Ren

Second place: Henry Beaman, PhD student in Bioengineering. Gas-Blown Super Porous Hydrogels with Rapid Gelling and High Cell Viability for Cell Encapsulation. Advisor: Dr. Mary Beth Monroe

Energy, Environment and Smart Materials Session

First place: Durgesh Ranjan, PhD student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Porous nanochannel wicks based solar vapor generation device. Advisor: Dr. Shalabh Maroo

Second place: Alexander Johnson, PhD student in Civil Engineering. Estimating Dry Deposition of Atmospheric Particles by Rain Washoff from Urban Surfaces. Advisor: Dr. Cliff Davidson

Sensors, Robotics and Smart Systems Session

First place: Lin Zhang, PhD student in Computer/Information Science. Adaptive Sensor Attack Detection for Cyber-Physical Systems. Advisor: Dr. Fanxin Kong

Second place: Zixin Jiang, PhD student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Short-term occupancy prediction driven intelligent HVAC control. Advisor: Dr. Bing Dong

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2022 Engineering and Computer Science Research Day Awards - Syracuse University News

Tender Foods, a food technology startup co-founded by four Harvard-affiliated researchers that produces alternative meats, is preparing for a product launch later this year.

The company, which produces plant-based meat spun from liquid polymers, is one of 27 startups launched in fiscal year 2021 to commercialize innovations from Harvard research labs. Tender Foods specializes in products that have a unique texture, structure, and ultimately taste, according to its founders.

A lot of the stuff that tries to mimic meat is textured, but its not fibrous, so its aligned and its a block of stuff, but its not individual fibers, said Luke A. MacQueen, one of the startups co-founders and a Harvard postdoctoral researcher in Bioengineering.

The Tender Foods products will better mimic the texture of real meat, MacQueen said.

MacQueen co-founded the company alongside three other Harvard affiliates: Bioengineering and Applied Physics professor Kevin K. Kit Parker, Grant M. Gonzalez 13, and SEAS researcher Christophe Chantre.

The fibers in Tender Foods meat are made using technology developed by Parker and his colleagues. The research group studied rotary jet-spinning, which uses centrifugal force to elongate liquid polymers into fibers. MacQueen likened the device to a cotton candy machine that works with different kinds of proteins.

The technology was initially used for various other purposes, including organ regeneration: in 2017, the researchers managed to spin nanofibers into biocompatible heart valves. Two years later, they showed the same could be done with gelatin scaffolds to hold animal muscle cells.

Every lesson learned from building tissues for regenerative medicine was applicable to building tissue to eat, Parker wrote in an email.

MacQueen said he is excited to see the variety of meats that might emerge from the startups technology.

When those fibers are spun and collected into a system, they can be tailored to be like the meat products people enjoy, whether they be as simple as a chicken breast or much more complicated layered structures, he said. Those can all be made in an artisanal way, starting with this very basic building block.

The research received funding from the Harvard Office of Technology Development and Harvards Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.

The first efforts to patent discoveries from my lab pertaining to meat were shot down by OTD around 2006, Parker wrote. We kept pushing.

MacQueen said he is excited to introduce Tender Foods products to the public.

As a young startup, weve had to kind of stay under the radar a little bit, but theres good things coming down the road, he said.

I ate some this morning, Parker added in an email. It was delicious.

Staff writer Felicia He can be reached at felicia.he@thecrimson.com.

Staff writer James R. Jolin can be reached at james.jolin@thecrimson.com.

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Company Founded by Harvard Researchers to Launch Alternative Meat Product | News - Harvard Crimson

A startup spawned from a lab at the University of California, Berkeley has won investor support to work on its patented needle-free injector, which it hopes can make therapies that traditionally require daily self-administered medicines less painful.

NovaXS Biotech, founded by 21-year-old Berkeley researcher Alina Su in 2020, recently closed a $1.5 million seed round led by Lei Ming, an angel investor known for co-founding Chinese search giant Baidu in 1999. Other investors included Chinese venture capital firms Taihill Venture and NewGen VC as well as American ones: Courtyard Ventures, a fund focused on UC Berkeley startups, MHub Impact Fund, an innovation hub based out of Chicago, medical device maker Baxter, and Edward Elmhurst Health, an integrated health system in Illinois.

NovaXS's injection gun, which patients can snuggly hold in their hand, can push biologics into the body's subcutaneous and intramuscular level within 0.3 seconds using liquid pressure. The device also comes with a cloud-based platform that collects patient information for physicians, like injection time, frequency, dosage volume, and medication temperature.

The startup has found two early use cases already -- in vitro fertilization and drug delivery for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Su is particularly passionate about the treatment of the latter. DMD, an inherited disease caused by defects in a gene that encodes the protein critical to muscle functions, can put patients in wheelchairs by the age of 12. There is an existing FDA-approved solution that uses an Adeno-associated virus (AAV) to deliver modified genetic material to cells impacted, but the treatment can potentially generate adverse side effects.

Recent advancement in gene-editing technology has given the once incurable disease new hope, though much needs to be done to actually turn the lab work into commercially viable solutions. That's what NovaXS aspires to do, with Su bringing her bioengineering professor Irina Conboy's gene-editing CRISPR therapies to DMD patients using the startup's needle-less injector.

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"Many large pharmaceutical companies lack the incentive to fund IVF or rare disease R&D because these specific markets have limited patients. On the other hand, smaller companies are lacking the resources to tackle such daunting tasks," said Su.

NovaXS is targeting gene therapy and IVF at the initial phase because Su believes they have "the biggest potential to acquire a large market share." It's also planning to work on other diseases that require in-home injections, such as diabetes and growth hormone disorders in children.

With the seed capital infusion, NovaX plans to work on the safety and stability of its products, apply for FDA clearance, and put together its core management team.

Originally from China, Su's other goal is to bring DMD gene therapies to her home country. The startup will still be headquartered in the US but conducting clinical trials for the DMD treatment in China, where local governments are luring foreign and returning science and technology talents with attractive money and policy support.

Unlike in contested arenas like semiconductors and artificial intelligence, where tech transfers between the US and China are increasingly restricted, Su reckoned that in medicines and healthcare, the two superpowers are incentivized to collaborate because of a larger pool of clinical data is the basic staple of medical advancements.

"We don't want our research to just get published in Nature. We want it to be helping people in real life," Su said.

The business prospects of cutting-edge and still evolving technology like gene editing therapies can be hard to predict, and the Theranos saga has only made venture capitalists more prudent about esoteric medicines. But Su saw a silver lining.

"The problem of Theranos isn't its business but its science. We are not short of great scientists, but we don't have enough medical talent who also understands business. We hope to fill the gap."

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NovaXS Biotech raises $1.5M to make injection therapy needle-free - Yahoo Singapore News

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