Brown Engineers were involved in a variety of worthwhile projects this summer:
or visit:
http://www.youtube.com/user/brownengin
or visit:
http://www.youtube.com/user/brownengin
Friday, 11 September 2009
Engineering welcomed three new faculty members recently. Read more about them:
Sean Deoni
http://today.brown.edu/faculty/2009/deoni
Christian Franck
http://today.brown.edu/faculty/2009/franck
Domenico Pacifici
http://today.brown.edu/faculty/2009/pacifici
Sean Deoni
http://today.brown.edu/faculty/2009/deoni
Christian Franck
http://today.brown.edu/faculty/2009/franck
Domenico Pacifici
http://today.brown.edu/faculty/2009/pacifici
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Listen to audio excerpts from a recent highlight interview with Professor Thomas Webster talking about his start-up company Nanovis.
Nanovis' leaders say, depending on the type of conventional implant, up to five percent can become problematic because the body rejects it, recognizing it as a foreign object because its smooth surface doesn't match the rough surface features of human tissue. However, the nanosurfaced implants Nanovis is developing feature a "roughness" that mimics human tissue, allowing the body to "accept" them. Webster says the nanosurfaced implants decrease infection, reduce the growth of scar tissue and promote the growth of healthy tissue. Listen
Using the same core idea of mimicking the natural roughness of human tissue, Nanovis is developing nanosurface technology for orthopedic, spinal, dental, cardiovascular and soft tissue implants. Listen
"It's a pretty exciting time for me as a researcher and a pretty exciting time for this mysterious sounding field of nanotechnology. There's actually real world application for this field—not just the nano iPod!" laughs Webster. "There are actual medical devices and real clinical treatments that can benefit from nanotechnology."
Monday, 17 August 2009
"Scientists are preemptively testing the potentially ill effects of the tiny molecules and even atoms engineered at the scale of one billionth of a meter or smaller."
Carbon nanoparticles appear to be benign when fed to fruit fly larvae, but adults exposed to the nanoparticles in powdery form are not as lucky. Research led by David Rand and Robert Hurt show two varieties of carbon nanoparticles stuck to the flies, impeded them from climbing and ultimately caused them to die.
See full article at Scientific American:
www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=carbon-nanomaterials-bad-for-fruit-fly-coating
See Brown news release: news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2009/08/nanotoxicity
Carbon nanoparticles appear to be benign when fed to fruit fly larvae, but adults exposed to the nanoparticles in powdery form are not as lucky. Research led by David Rand and Robert Hurt show two varieties of carbon nanoparticles stuck to the flies, impeded them from climbing and ultimately caused them to die.
See full article at Scientific American:
www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=carbon-nanomaterials-bad-for-fruit-fly-coating
See Brown news release: news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2009/08/nanotoxicity
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Codirector of Brown University’s Center for Biomedical Engineering, Jeff Morgan leads a team of scientists who have developed novel ways of forming individual cells into living tissue. Some day, their techniques, in combination with stem-cell technology, could cure or lessen the suffering of diabetes and other debilitating diseases.
Strictly speaking, Morgan is a tissue engineer –– one of a substantial number of scientists around the world who are learning how to create groupings of cells that mimic the function of tissues or organs. Formed in the laboratory, these tissues can be transplanted into living creatures. Research is still largely confined to experimental animals –– but success so far in mice and rats holds great promise for humans.
Morgan’s advance is his unique method of growing and assembling individual cells into larger clusters –– what he calls the potential “building blocks” of tissues and organs that could be produced on demand.
More from the Providence Journal here:
http://www.projo.com/news/content/tissue_man_08-03-09_O4F81UM_v10.3b3bef6.html
Strictly speaking, Morgan is a tissue engineer –– one of a substantial number of scientists around the world who are learning how to create groupings of cells that mimic the function of tissues or organs. Formed in the laboratory, these tissues can be transplanted into living creatures. Research is still largely confined to experimental animals –– but success so far in mice and rats holds great promise for humans.
Morgan’s advance is his unique method of growing and assembling individual cells into larger clusters –– what he calls the potential “building blocks” of tissues and organs that could be produced on demand.
More from the Providence Journal here:
http://www.projo.com/news/content/tissue_man_08-03-09_O4F81UM_v10.3b3bef6.html
Thursday, 30 July 2009
In 2003, three Brown University undergraduates, Eric Shashoua, Ben Rubin and Jason Donahue, sat in a school cafeteria and mused about their grogginess after an all-night study session. They knew that the stress of exams played a role, but they started wondering about the science of their exhaustion.
Little did they imagine that their discussion would eventually lead to the founding of Zeo, maker of the first direct-to-consumer sleep device that analyzes nighttime sleep patterns. Zeo's product, the Personal Sleep Coach, uses a soft headband loaded with sensors to monitor brain waves. The data are sent wirelessly to a small device on a nightstand; from there they can be uploaded to the MyZeo.com Web site. MyZeo.com then analyzes the data and e-mails back a strategy and suggestions for improving the next night's sleep.
However, once these three would-be entrepreneurs decided to create a science-based aid for the estimated 70 million Americans suffering from chronic sleep disorders, they realized they were lacking a key ingredient: an investor--or several--to fund their research and development.
Initial fundraising began in the cafeterias at Brown. "We literally went table-to-table to talk about our innovation and get people interested in contributing," Shashoua recalls. Those discussions led to introductions to wealthy Brown alumni, experts in sleep research and so-called "angel investors."
More of the article on Forbes.com.
Little did they imagine that their discussion would eventually lead to the founding of Zeo, maker of the first direct-to-consumer sleep device that analyzes nighttime sleep patterns. Zeo's product, the Personal Sleep Coach, uses a soft headband loaded with sensors to monitor brain waves. The data are sent wirelessly to a small device on a nightstand; from there they can be uploaded to the MyZeo.com Web site. MyZeo.com then analyzes the data and e-mails back a strategy and suggestions for improving the next night's sleep.
However, once these three would-be entrepreneurs decided to create a science-based aid for the estimated 70 million Americans suffering from chronic sleep disorders, they realized they were lacking a key ingredient: an investor--or several--to fund their research and development.
Initial fundraising began in the cafeterias at Brown. "We literally went table-to-table to talk about our innovation and get people interested in contributing," Shashoua recalls. Those discussions led to introductions to wealthy Brown alumni, experts in sleep research and so-called "angel investors."
More of the article on Forbes.com.
Monday, 20 July 2009
Created in March 2000, the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF), established under an agreement between the Governments of India and the United States of America functions to synthesize collaborative research and promote substantive interaction among government, academia and industry. The overall goal of IUSSTF is “to provide opportunities, to exchange ideas, information, skills and technologies, and to collaborate on scientific and technological endeavours of mutual interest that can translate the power of science for the benefit of mankind at large.” (http://indousstf.org/)
This Forum has a specific biomaterials area in which Brown University and Indian Institute Technology (ITT) Kanpur (along with other affiliated schools and companies) had a competitive proposal accepted in November 2008. Co-Coordinator Bikramjit Basu of ITT Kanpur most recent visit in Phase I of this project was to fellow coordinator Thomas Webster at Brown University. This July 2009 visit included many collaborative meetings and a talk on the biomaterials research in Dr. Basu’s lab. The goals of these types of visits are to facilitate collaboration and increase their outreach potential. A core deliverable of the project is to “train the next generation of scientists in the international interdisciplinary arena.” (http://www.iitk.ac.in/indo_us_biomaterials/)
Dr. Basu explains, “This collaboration depends on the two way visits between researchers in the US and India.” It is clear that these visits help researchers develop concrete projects. The dialogue between the different institutions and researchers allows for sharing of research results and a better understanding of the challenges faced by each group. The biomaterials area specifically faces the unique challenge of bridging the gap between traditional biology and materials engineering. The next steps for this project include working to integrate more industrial partners and medical professionals into the research collaborations.
Pictured above are National Metallurgical Laboratory Scientist Dr. S. Nayar, Associate Professor at IIT Kanpur Bikramjit Basu, and Associate Professor at Brown Thomas Webster.
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