News Archive 2011 - 2012
Summer 2012 | Spring 2012 | Fall 2011
Summer 2012
Researchers Test Treatment for Late-stage Cancer June 13, 2012
This summer, BME researchers led by Professor Damir Khismatullin begin the second phase of studies geared at developing a minimally invasive technique for treatment of large primary tumors and metastases to the liver and kidneys.
Recent Alum Secures Start-up Funding June 12, 2012
While still in school, Ben Cappiello '10 designed a device that makes it easier to insert an IUD. After graduating, he co-founded Bioceptive, a company that is developing and testing the insertion device before marketing it around the world. The Bioceptive device has an automatic sensing mechanism that replaces the current surgical tool used in measuring the depth of the uterus, while also incorporating a force-limiting mechanism.
Spring 2012
Goldwater Scholar Making the Most of Summer Break May 22, 2012
Volunteering in East Africa, writing a cookbook, designing medical equipment — these all add up to making a difference for Angela Czesak, a biomedical engineering undergraduate who received a 2012 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. The Scholarship is awarded to about 300 college sophomores and juniors nationwide.
Czesak’s application for the scholarship was based on her volunteer work in Africa and research in the laboratory of Prof. Sergey Shevkoplyas.
Biomedical Engineers Earn Recognition from Colleagues April 30, 2012
Each year, the Department recognizes students and faculty who’ve achieved notable success in scholarship, research and teaching. At this year’s ceremony, we honored:
Maria Oden Wins ASEE Merryfield Design Award April 24, 2012
The American Society for Engineering Education has honored Maria Oden (BSE '89, MSE '91, PhD '94) , Professor in the Practice of Engineering Education at Rice University, with its prestigious 2012 Fred Merryfield Design Award.
After her third graduation from Tulane, Dr. Oden worked in orthopedic biomechanics and computational modeling as a senior research associate at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She joined the Department of Bioengineering at Rice as a lecturer and laboratory coordinator in 2004, and guides the technical design efforts of undergraduates participating in Beyond Traditional Borders and Global Health Technologies. She has developed and taught a two-semester Bioengineering Capstone Design course sequence, mentoring more than160 students in 43 design teams.
Freshmen Engineers Design Towers April 23, 2012
Tulane's curriculum is unusual because the first “real-world” engineering design and analysis course is a part of the Freshman year. The introductory course, ENGP1410 Statics, has a rather dry description in the catalog about “...particles and rigid bodies. Concepts of force, moments, free body diagrams, equilibrium and friction ...” but it comes alive when Prof. Annette Oertling teaches the class every Spring semester.
Photo: Prof. Annette Oertling, Mark Tortorich(BME), Peter Herman (ENGP) and Nwamaka Ikenze (BME) watch load testing of the tower designed by Peter and Nwamaka.
Professor David Rice is Honored by Colleagues, Students, and Alumni April 13, 2012
Nearly a hundred students and colleagues came together today to recognize Prof. David Rice's contributions to engineering education and to the New Orleans community. Rice has been a member of our faculty for 31 years, and has assumed leadership of our undergraduate design program for over twenty years.
Senior Design Show Features Devices for Clients March 3, 2012
Eight teams of Biomedical Engineering Seniors demonstrated the assistive technology projects they've designed to their clients today. As part of a year-long capstone design class taught by Professors David Rice and Lars Gilbertson, the students must design and build an engineered solution that addresses a client's special need. First prize was awarded to "Team Laminar Flow" for a one-hand wheel lock control for residents of a nursing home.
Read the Times-Picayune Article »
View Photo Gallery of this Year's Projects »
Faculty Member Receives Award in University-Wide Competition February 3, 2012
Dr. Michael Moore, the Paul H. and Donna D. Flower Early Career Professor in Engineering, is the most recent winner of the Oliver Fund Scholar Award at Tulane University. The Tulane Office of Research presents the award twice yearly after competition in a specific area of research strength at Tulane. A prize of $41,000 was awarded to support Moore’s work in the area of "Application of Materials Science to Complex Problems in the Life Sciences."
Thirty Seniors Reveal Results of Year-Long Research Projects January 27, 2012
Thirty Seniors revealed the results of their year-long undergraduate research projects in the Lavin-Bernick Center this morning. These public presentations were the culmination of a year long "Research and Professional Practice" course in the Biomedical Engineering curriculum.
A Quest to Improve Treatment of Lung Disease January 23, 2012
Treatment has come a long way since the era of the iron lung, but researchers in Dr. Donald Gaver's lab hope to see greater reduction in death rates.
Fall 2011
Patent Filing Based on "Most Downloaded" Paper December 18, 2011
The paper "Integrated separation of blood plasma from whole blood for microfluidic paper-based analytical devices" has been downloaded more than any other paper in the last 30 days from the journal Lab on a Chip.
BME Grad Student Follows in His Father's Footsteps November 22, 2011
Will Glindmeyer's upcoming paper in the Journal of Applied Physiology "In situ enhancement of pulmonary surfactant function using temporary flow reversal" was so highly regarded by the journal's editors that a separate commentary "Could dynamic ventilation waveforms bring about a paradigm shift in mechanical ventilation?" will be published concurrently with the study.
Tulane Biomedical Engineers Discover New Cell Marker November 18, 2011
Tulane research on how blood vessels grow is highlighted on the cover an upcoming issue of the scholarly journal Microvascular Research. Peter Stapor, a graduate student in Dr. Lee Murfee’s Microvascular Dynamics Laboratory, was first author of "Identification of class III β-tubulin as a marker of angiogenic perivascular cells."
Angiogenesis, the process of how blood vessels grow, is a common denominator for many disease states. Understanding this complex process requires knowing when and where specific cells are present. Two cell types that are involved are endothelial cells and vascular pericytes, but our knowledge about the interaction between these cells is limited by the inability to identify them. Stapor’s study highlights the discovery of a new cell marker that can potentially be used to identify vascular pericytes during the critical stages of vessel growth. The cover image shows vascular pericytes (green) positively expressing this marker along growing vessels (red).
Three Newcomb Scholars are Biomedical Engineers November 16, 2011
In each year’s Tulane undergraduate class, only 20 of approximately 900 women are chosen for the honorary designation of Newcomb Scholar. The BME department is honored to have 3 Newcomb Scholars among our undergraduate student body.
BME Graduate Featured in Electrical Engineering Website October 10, 2011
Jeff Crystal '96 (on the right) was the featured engineer on today's EEWeb.
Jeff is Chief Operating Officer of Voltaic Systems, which makes products that produce and store their own power to run personal electronics devices anywhere. He's had previous careers as a Consultant at McKinsey & Co., COO at NetBeans and as a Fellow at the Environmental Defense Fund.
Graduate Student Awarded Prize at HENAAC Conference October 8, 2011
Jose Martin Sosa, a BME graduate student, was awarded an $800 cash prize in the Graduate Level Math/Science Technical category for a poster presentation at the 2011 The Hispanic Engineers National Achievement Awards Corporation (HENAAC) Conference. Sosa, a student in Dr. Sergey Shevkoplyas' lab, was first author of "The relationship between measures of RBC deformability and their ability to perfuse an artificial microvascular network."
BME Senior receives Louisiana Engineering Society Scholarship September 21, 2011
Luke Dantin, a Senior from the town of Cut Off, was presented with a $1,000 scholarship award by the New Orleans Chapter of the Louisiana Engineering Society (LES-NO) today. These scholarships are funded through dues check off contributions from LES members, and only one undergraduate scholarship is awarded annually at each of the state's Engineering schools. Luke came to Tulane from the Louisiana High School for Science and Math in Natchitoches, but he continues to spend his summers and semester breaks at his family's seafood processing plant in Cut Off.
BME Junior Chosen as Jean Danielson Memorial Scholar September 15, 2011
Angela Czesak BME ’13 has been chosen as one of three inaugural Jean Danielson Memorial Scholars. Last Summer she volunteered in Tanzania through Engineering World Health. While there, she repaired valuable medical equipment in local hospitals and received intensive language training in Swahili.
“I have loved my experiences in Africa so far,” Csezak says. “It’s a place I know I can really help out in. Why not do it where it’s needed most?”
Students Present Research at BME Society’s Annual Meeting October 12, 2011 September 12, 2011
Our graduate and undergraduate students will presented papers at the BMES meeting in Hartford, Connecticut. Among the presentations:
“A cell-free system for the quantification of platelet aggregation on histamine stimulated endothelial cells” Theodore Brown and Damir Khismatullin
“Saline washing improves the ability of stored RBCs to perfuse an artificial microvascular Network” Jennie Burns, Jose Sosa, Omid Forouzan and Sergey Shevkoplyas
Seniors Learn From Internships September 3, 2011
Many of the members of the Tulane BME Class of 2012 participated in internships across the country during the Summer of 2011. We're featuring four of them.
Kimberly B. Larkin '12, from Mount Airy MD, participated in the Louisiana Biomedical Research Network program at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.
Nguyen Hoang '12, a New Orleanian, spent the summer at the Texas A&M Biomarker and Imaging REU program coordinated by Dr. Tony Hsieh.
Mathew Triscott '12 spent the summer in Boston working at Instrumentation Laboratory, a leading developer of diagnostic instruments for use in critical care.
Clarice M. Balconi-Lamica '12, from Spicewood TX, worked at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
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