Month: November 2012

  • Metamaterials Enhanced to Improve Invisibility Functions

    Researchers at Duke University in North Carolina improved the invisibility functions of materials engineered to deflect light waves and hide objects from view, with potential uses in fiber optic communications. Engineering graduate student Nathan Landy and professor David Smith published their findings online yesterday in the journal Nature Materials (paid subscription required). In 2006, Smith…

  • Taking a break

    We’re taking a post-election break for the rest of the week, thus we will not publish anything new until Monday, 12 November. See you then. *     *     *

  • Self-Cleaning Surfaces Tested that Emulate Natural Models

    Engineers at Ohio State University in Columbus devised and tested material surfaces that clean themselves and reduce drag, based on models in nature such as shark skin and butterfly wings. Mechanical engineering professor Bharat Bhushan and doctoral candidate Gregory Bixler recently published their findings online in the journal Soft Matter (paid subscription required). Materials that…

  • Takeda Pharma to Acquire Envoy Therapeutics

    Takeda Pharmaceuticals, in Osaka, Japan, will acquire the drug discovery company Envoy Therapeutics in Jupiter, Florida for $140 million. Takeda says the merger will mean moving Envoy’s management and scientific staff to Takeda’s San Diego offices after March 2013. Envoy was founded by biophysicist and 2000 Nobel prize winner Paul Greengard, and Rockefeller University colleague…

  • Dual-Purpose Medical Imaging Contrast Agent Developed

    Biomedical engineers from University at Buffalo in New York and medical researchers at University of Toronto in Canada developed a new type of contrast agent applicable to two medical imaging technologies. The findings of the Buffalo-Toronto team are described in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (paid subscription required). The…

  • Cloud Computing Harnessed for Cancer Data Analysis

    Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore will collect large volumes of cancer data, down to the level of individual cells, using cloud computing to amass and analyze the data. The team of engineering and medical researchers is led by Denis Wirtz, associate director of Johns Hopkins’s Institute for NanoBio Technology, and funded by a…

  • Trial to Test Electronic Media for Brain Injury Care

    The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and collaborators in the upper Midwest will examine ways to use electronic media to improve the care of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in rural and underserved urban areas. The five-year clinical study is funded by a $2.2 million grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation…

  • Stronger, Tougher Steel Variety Developed

    Engineers at Wayne State University in Detroit developed a new type of steel that they say is stronger and more resistant to fracture, and can also resist the fatigue encountered with similar materials. The work of engineering professor Susil Putatunda, leading this research group, is supported by National Science Foundation, Michigan Initiative for Innovation and…

  • University Project Aims to Cut Nursing Home Hospitalizations

    A new project at University of Missouri school of nursing aims to cut avoidable hospitalizations among nursing home residents. The study, led by nursing professor Marilyn Rantz is funded by a four-year $15 million grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.…

  • Heartbeat Vibrations Found Feasible to Power Pacemakers

    Engineers at University of Michigan in Ann Arbor developed a device that can harvest enough energy from a beating heart to power an implanted pacemaker. Michigan engineering research fellow Amin Karami (pictured right) and colleague Daniel Inman presented their findings yesterday at a meeting of the American Heart Association in Los Angeles. Pacemakers help regulate…