Jim Collins Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Honor followed by grant from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Jim Collins, who has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, says his family is very excited about the possibility of meeting Sir Paul McCartney at the October induction ceremony. Photo by Cydney Scott
By Amy Laskowski
Jim Collins thought at first that the FedEx envelope from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences was another request for a grant review. It wasn’t.
“When I opened the envelope, I read the letter saying that I was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,” Collins says. “I was thrilled.”
Collins, a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor and College of Engineering professor of biomedical engineering, was recognized by the academy for his contributions to engineering sciences and technologies, one of eight inductees in the field.
The academy, founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock, and others, is one of America’s most respected honor societies. It recognizes extraordinary work in the areas of academia, public affairs, the arts, business, and the humanities.
“It’s a honor that was unexpected; it means a lot to me because membership is based on selection by peers,” Collins says. “I have many outstanding colleagues who are members of the academy, so to be joining them is a huge honor for me.”
Collins was also awarded a Grand Challenges Explorations grant last week from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to pursue a new approach to cholera prevention. He and two postdoctoral fellows in his lab, Ewen Cameron and Peter Belenky, hope to use synthetic biology to engineer a probiotic yogurt bacterium to detect and kill the cholera bacterium in the human intestine. Initial Grand Challenges Explorations grants of $100,000 are awarded twice a year, and successful projects are eligible for a follow-on grant of up to $1 million.
Collins, a codirector of the Center for BioDynamics, is a pioneer in complexity science. His lab works to create synthetic gene networks, whose many uses include fighting bacterial infections. His research has inspired new devices to treat stroke-induced brain failure and has enhanced doctors’ understanding of how human posture is warped by aging and Parkinson’s disease. He is known among his engineering students for his humor and clarity—in 2000 he won the University’s highest teaching honor, the Metcalf Cup and Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
A Rhodes scholar, Collins won a MacArthur “genius” award in 2003. Two years later, Scientific American named him one of the 50 top leaders in science and technology. In 2008 he became BU’s first Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, a position he holds concurrently with his BU appointment. In 2010, Collins received the Lagrange-CRT Foundation Prize, given by the Institute for Scientific Interchange Foundation in Turin, Italy. In 2011, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineers. He earned a BA from the College of the Holy Cross and a PhD from Oxford University.
As a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he will be invited to contribute to its publications and studies of science and technology policy, energy and global security, social policy and American institutions, the humanities and culture, and education.
In a ceremony in October, Collins will be inducted with 220 other members, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, actor and director Mel Brooks, philanthropist Melinda Gates, actor and director Clint Eastwood, Walt Disney Company CEO and chairman Robert Iger, former Beatle Paul McCartney, and Boston Globe editor Marty Baron.
While he’s looking forward to the induction ceremony, held at the academy’s Cambridge, Mass., headquarters, Collins says, his family is wildly excited.
“This is an honor that my family can relate to—they’re overjoyed,” he says, adding that they are very excited about the possibility of meeting Sir Paul McCartney. “They insisted they attend and we’ll have some fun.”
Collins Nets Gates Foundation Grant for Cholera Prevention Research
By Mark Dwortzan
Professor James J. Collins (BME, MSE, SE)
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded Professor James J. Collins (BME, MSE, SE) a Grand Challenges Explorations grant to encourage his lab’s pursuit of a novel approach to cholera prevention.
In their proposed project, Collins and two postdoctoral fellows in his lab, Ewen Cameron and Peter Belenky, seek to use synthetic biology techniques to engineer a probiotic yogurt bacterium, Lactobacillus gasseri, to detect and kill the cholera bacterium, Vibrio cholerae, in the human intestine. The probiotic could be supplied as an inexpensive, freeze-dried powder to endemic populations to prevent cholera, an acute, food or water-borne diarrheal infection leading to more than 100,000 deaths each year.
“We are delighted to be selected for the Gates Foundation program,” said Collins. “This funding will enable us to explore using innovative synthetic biology approaches to detect and treat cholera infections, a major health problem facing many poor communities in the world, including those in Haiti that were devastated by the 2010 earthquake.”
The Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges Explorations program funds promising early-stage projects offering novel solutions to global health problems. Initial grants of $100,000 are awarded two times a year, and successful projects are eligible for a follow-on grant of up to $1 million. Collins’ project is one of 15 to be funded by an eighth-round Grand Challenges Explorations grant to apply synthetic biology techniques to health challenges impacting the developing world. Researchers are increasingly using these techniques to design and assemble new biological components (such as enzymes, genetic circuits, metabolic networks and the like) and systems or redesign natural biological systems to perform specific tasks aimed at diagnosing, managing and treating disease.
The Grand Challenges Explorations grants are funded by the Gates Foundation’s Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative, which supports researchers pursuing bold and unconventional scientific and technological solutions to major health problems in the developing world. Launched in 2008, more than 700 Grand Challenge Explorations grants have been awarded to innovative, early-stage projects in 45 countries. The Gates Foundation has committed $100 million to encourage scientists and engineers worldwide to expand the pipeline of ideas to fight our greatest health challenges.
Another Boston University recipient of a Gates Grand Challenges Explorations grant, BU School of Medicine Assistant Professor of Medicine and Microbiology Lisa Ganley-Leal, will collaborate with Pauline Mwinzi of Epsilon Therapeutics, Inc. to test a new business model for selling vaccines through medicine shops in emerging markets.
Technology Entrepreneurship Night Spotlights Potential Startups
By Mark Dwortzan
The $15K Competition winning team GreenWake's Alex Migel, Price Williams and Adam Taylor (all GSM'13); $15K judges Vinit Nijhawan, managing director of the BU Office of Technology Development, Peter Russo, ITEC director of Entrepreneurship Programs, and Gregg Adkin (ENG'86), Engineering Leadership Advisory Board Member and senior director of Business Development at EMC, Inc; and TEC officers Mikhail Gurevich (EE'07, GSM'12), Ghassan Kara (BME'13) and Stefano Tasso (EE'13).
Gathered in the Photonics Center Colloquium Room on April 20, three teams comprised primarily of graduate students and alumni from the College of Engineering (ENG) and Graduate School of Management (GSM) vied for top honors in the $15K Business Plan Competition, the main attraction at the ninth annual Boston University Technology Entrepreneurship Night. Organized by the Technology Entrepreneurship Club, the evening event drew students from across the campus to explore opportunities to develop businesses that leverage leading-edge technology research at BU.
Sponsored by ENG, GSM’s Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship & Commercialization, the BU Student Association of Graduate Engineers, the intellectual property law firm Sunstein, Kann, Murphy & Timbers LLP, and Dominion Capital, this year’s Technology Entrepreneurship Night featured a panel discussion on life sciences technologies presented by entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, attorneys and other professionals with firsthand expertise on how to develop products and apply technology to target specific needs. The panel discussion was followed by final round presentations of the $15K competition and a networking dinner.
Selected earlier from 109 teams representing every BU school and college, as well as some entrants from MIT and Northeastern University, the three $15K finalists were judged on the quality and feasibility of their engineering designs, marketing plans and teamwork.
The winning team, GreenWake, aims to help firms in the trucking industry to save money on fuel expenses through a rear attachment that promises to significantly improve fuel consumption. GreenWake’s founders, Price Williams, Alex Migel and Adam Taylor—all first-year GSM students with engineering backgrounds—plan to incorporate their company, raise additional funds and grow the idea into a real and profitable business.
The other two finalists were NexGen Arrays (ENG postdocs Carlos Lopez (PhD’07), David Freedman (PhD’10) and Philip Spuhler (PhD’12); and 2013 ENG PhD candidates Sunmin Ahn, Margo Monroe, Alex Reddington and George Daaboul), which is developing protein microarrays to boost the efficiency of clinical diagnostic devices; and TR Aeronautics (Ryan Hunter (CSE’11), Northeastern University alum Brent Sarcone, Dante Leone (SMG’11), Dane Sarcone (Aero’11) and Gozde Guckaya (MS, EE’13)), which plans to develop a “vertical axis” wind turbine that boosts power generation and operates in a wide range of wind conditions.
“The idea behind the $15K Competition and Technology and Entrepreneurship Night is to not only give students an opportunity to get funding and advice to get their idea off the ground, but more importantly to create a framework where they can learn how do it from industry experts and other entrepreneurs,”said Mikhail Gurvich (EE’07, GSM’12), vice president of fundraising for the Technology Entrepreneurship Club (TEC) and the $15K Competition. Founder and CIO of ClickFact Inc., a web security and analytics firm, and co-founder of ZepInvest.com, one of the largest aggregators of paid financial content, Gurvich organized the event with TEC and $15K Competition co-presidents Ghassan Kara (BME ’13) and Stefano Tasso (EE ’13).
“For students passionate about advancing an engineering idea into the commercial marketplace, the resources here at BU, from the Singh Imagineering Lab to ITEC, are plentiful,” Gurvich added.
NIH Grant to Fund Quantitative Biology and Physiology Training Program
By Mark Dwortzan
Professor Irving Bigio (BME) (center) directs the NIH-funded Quantitative Biology and Physiology program at BU.
By studying dynamic processes involved in the death of cells at the molecular level, Professor Irving Bigio’s (BME) BioMedical Optics Lab aims to learn more about diagnosing and monitoring cancer at the patient level. By observing how arterial cells coalesce at the tissue level, Associate Professor Joyce Wong’s (BME, MSE) Biomimetic Materials Engineering Lab is working to engineer artificial arteries for cardiovascular patients.
Key to the success of both groups is the knowledge and skills to investigate and analyze biological phenomenon at multiple length scales—from the molecular to the whole patient.
Recognizing the critical value of this capability, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded a five-year training grant in Quantitative Biology and Physiology (QBP) to the Biomedical Engineering Department that will fund seven new doctoral students per year starting in the fall 2012 semester. The award marks the third time that the BME Department has received this highly competitive grant since 2000, and boosts the number of incoming BME PhD students funded by the NIH to 11. (The NIH funds a separate BME training grant in Translational Research in Biomaterials.)
The QBP program provides first- and second-year BME graduate students with the rare opportunity to study biological and physiological phenomena from a wide range of vantage points and to analyze them with state-of-the-art quantitative methods, said Professor Irving Bigio (BME), director of the program.
“Through a combination of coursework and four lab rotations, the QBP program emphasizes knowledge and experience at multiple scale lengths of biology and physiology, from molecular to cellular to tissue to organ to whole body, and involves a substantial amount of quantitative measurement,” he noted. “As the program moves forward, students will also gain increased exposure to ethical research practices and issues involved in the translation of research into clinical applications.”
In addition to courses and lab research, QBP students participate in a journal club in which they critique recently published peer-reviewed articles, an annual symposium where they present their own research, and monthly dinners and other social events. Although they are supported after their NIH-funded year by faculty advisors’ research grants, they remain involved in program activities throughout their time as BME PhD students.
Carrying single or multiple appointments in biomedical engineering, electrical and computer engineering, mechanical engineering, physics and medicine, about two dozen QBP faculty members embody the spirit of the program and host QBP students for lab rotations. They engage in quantitative research that covers more than one length scale, and in many cases collaborate with medical researchers and clinicians. QBP students will conduct their doctoral research in one of these labs.
The program is well suited to the BME Department’s emphasis on quantitative science, said Bigio, noting that nearly all BME graduate courses incorporate a significant amount of mathematics and physical science.
“We’re one of the most quantitative BME departments in the country,” Bigio maintained.
Bringing Engineering Home
Technology Innovation Scholars Inspire K-12 Students across the Nation
By Mark Dwortzan
During her winter break, Technology Innovation Scholar Evelyn Orozco (BME'12) visited 200 sixth and eighth graders at the Academy of Aerospace and Engineering middle school near Hartford. According to the organizer of the visit, her former physics high school teacher Jake Mendelssohn, Orozco exuded confidence and excitement in her fast-paced PowerPoint presentation, and served as an inspirational, hardworking role model to students just beginning to consider their own potential career paths and high school plans.
In her presentation to the Utica Center for Math, Science and Technology, a magnet public high school in Sterling Heights, Michigan, Nicole Black (BME’14) highlighted the prominent roles that engineers have in society, from medicine to energy to transportation, drawing on examples from her courses and research at Boston University.
“Most of the students were considering careers in math and science, but coming from the metropolitan Detroit area, many did not know that engineering exists outside of the auto industry,” said Black. “At the beginning of the presentation, only a few kids raised their hands when I asked who was interested in pursuing a career in engineering, but when I asked this question at the end, over half raised their hands.”
Black is one of 30 Technology Innovation Scholars, a select group of high-performing College of Engineering sophomores, juniors and seniors charged to share their passion for innovation and engineering with elementary, middle and high school students in Greater Boston and in their hometowns. Since the program’s founding in January 2011, Technology Innovation Scholars—collectively known as the College’s “Inspiration Ambassadors”—have introduced more than 2,000 K-12 students across the country to the excitement and societal impact of engineering, guiding interactive presentations and design challenges and serving as mentors to Boston-area FIRST robotics teams.
On April 13, several Technology Innovation Scholars visited Pioneer Charter School of Science (PCSS) in Everett, Mass., transforming the middle and high school's traditional "Mad Science Day" into "Mad Engineering Day." The Scholars gave presentations on the societal impact of engineering, answered questions about the field and led demonstrations to illustrate how engineers solve critical problems in clean energy, global health and nanomedicine. On an evaluation form handed out at the end of the day, one of the 340 PCSS students in attendance observed, "Engineering is exciting because it is used to help change the world for the better."
Hometown Visits
The program’s first visits to hometown schools took place during this year’s winter and spring breaks, when 17 Technology Innovation Scholars met with K-12 students in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Pennsylvania. Incorporating information about their own engineering education and aspirations, they delivered presentations showcasing engineering’s substantial contribution to the quality of life and exciting career opportunities in the field.
Cassidy Blundell (BME’12) and Oliver Kempf (Aero’12) returned to Red Hook High School in upstate New York to share their journeys to and through the College of Engineering and field questions from a group of 60 ninth and 12th graders. Several students asked about how to overcome self-doubt and survive and thrive in a highly competitive, rigorous undergraduate engineering program. The two Technology Innovation Scholars emphasized how a love for problem-solving and a willingness to work hard and tolerate occasional failure had propelled their class through four rewarding years.
“Their theme of perseverance and being passionate for what you love to do was most evident,” said Nick Ascienzo, Blundell’s and Kempf’s high school math teacher, who hosted the visit. “I was struck by their poise, knowledge base and honesty in promoting the field of engineering and themselves as exemplary role models.”
While visiting her former public high school in South Portland, Maine, Dorothea Crowley (BME’12) gave a presentation to more than 80 students in five different classrooms on what it means to be an engineer, covering educational and research opportunities and a variety of engineering’s Grand Challenges.
“I think the students were amazed at all the cool stuff that is going on and my proximity to it as an engineering student,” she said. “I also think the fact that I was once a student in exactly each of their places encouraged them to believe that becoming an engineer was not beyond their reach.”
“These presentations not only illustrate how pervasive technology is in K-12 students’ lives and how dependent they are on it, but also provide a roadmap of how they can become part of the next generation of engineers,” said Gretchen Fougere, the College of Engineering’s assistant dean for Outreach and Diversity. “To have someone who attended their same school and went on to thrive in college return and show what’s possible for them in engineering sends a powerful message.”
Innovations in a Box
The current crop of Technology Innovation Scholars has also developed, tested and facilitated several new “Innovations in a Box” design challenges that demonstrate emerging technologies and highlight College of Engineering research in global health, nanotechnology, robotics, Smart Lighting, synthetic biology and clean energy—and its potential impact on how we live. Working in teams, they created hands-on activities and a story to place those activities in a broader, societal context and to reinforce science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) concepts.
For example, Black helped produce an Innovation in a Box involving the design of a prosthetic limb. K-12 students will receive materials such as yardsticks, tape, cups, paper, string and scissors to construct a functioning arm or leg.
“This is one example of a biomedical application of engineering which most middle and high school students are not exposed to in the typical classroom,” Black observed. “I believe that the students really enjoy learning about engineering in a hands-on way because it allows them to experience firsthand the thrill of engineering and seeing their designs in action.”
Technology Innovation Scholars facilitated another Innovation in the Box on Smart Lighting to Cambridge Rindge & Latin School, where high school students worked in teams to explore circuits with incandescent and LED bulbs and measure their power and brightness. The students evaluated the bulbs’ performance in terms of energy efficiency, environmental impact and quality of light.
“The Technology Innovation Scholars not only introduced LED technology to the students but also engaged them in a conversation about what it means to be a Societal Engineer and balance the effect of technology choices on energy, the economy and environment,” Fougere stressed.
Conveying the Excitement and Impact of Engineering
Another role for the Scholars is to mentor FIRST® robotics teams which compete annually in the Boston regional competition at BU’s Agganis Arena. This year 17 Scholars met weekly with eight teams in Quincy, Dorchester, Boston, Brighton, Roxbury and Cambridge, and three of the teams won awards at the competition. BU Academy was a finalist and won the Chairman’s Award, Brighton High School won the Judge’s Award for the second straight year and both teams were invited to the World Championship. A rookie team from Boston College High School won the Xerox Creativity Award and finished fourth in a field of 54 international teams.
“One relatable role-model, engaging presentation, design challenge and mentoring relationship at a time, Technology Innovation Scholars show younger students that engineering is cool and enhances all our lives, from developing new technologies to give access to clean water to discovering new ways to diagnose and treat disease across the world,” said Fougere. “Becoming an engineer opens a world of opportunities to transform your own life and change the world at the same time.”
Supported by the Kern Family Foundation and alumni contributions to the ENG Annual Fund, Technology Innovation Scholars receive a $1,200 stipend and ongoing training sessions.
Collins Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
By Mark Dwortzan
Professor James J. Collins (BME, MSE, SE)
Professor James J. Collins (BME, MSE, SE) has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honor that places him among the world’s most accomplished leaders in academia, business, public affairs, the humanities and the arts. Collins was recognized for his contributions to engineering sciences and technologies, and has been invited to attend an induction ceremony on October 6 at the Academy’s Cambridge headquarters.
One of the nation’s most prestigious honor societies, the Academy has elected leading “thinkers and doers” from each generation since its founding in 1780, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 19th and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the 20th. The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.
“I was surprised by the news, but thrilled to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,” said Collins. “It is a great honor to become affiliated with a prestigious organization created by the founding fathers.”
A pioneer in both synthetic and systems biology, Collins is developing innovative ways to design and reprogram gene networks within bacteria and other organisms to perform desired tasks that could bring about cheaper drugs, more effective treatments of antibiotic-resistant infections, and clean energy solutions. Also a trailblazer in efforts to improve function of physiological and biological systems, he has spearheaded several new medical devices such as vibrating insoles to improve balance in elderly people and a device to treat stroke-induced brain failure.
In addition to serving BU as William F. Warren Distinguished Professor, University Professor, and co-director of the Center for BioDynamics, Collins is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and founding core faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. His many honors include membership in the National Academy of Engineering, a MacArthur “Genius Award,” a World Technology Award for Biotechnology, a National Institutes of Health Director’s Pioneer Award, the Lagrange-CRT Foundation Prize, the Metcalf Cup and Prize (BU’s highest teaching honor) and being named on the Scientific American list of top 50 outstanding leaders in science and technology. Collins serves on the scientific advisory board of several biotechnology companies.
As a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, he will be invited to contribute to AAAS publications and studies of science and technology policy, energy and global security, social policy and American institutions, the humanities and culture, and education.
“Election to the Academy is both an honor for extraordinary accomplishment and a call to serve,” said Academy President Leslie C. Berlowitz. “We look forward to drawing on the knowledge and expertise of these distinguished men and women to advance solutions to the pressing policy challenges of the day.”
BME Professor Muhammad Zaman Featured in NYT Article
BME Assistant Professor Muhammad Zaman is featured in an online article for the New York Times on the importance of continuous student feedback to improve the quality of courses and teaching.
BME PhD Student Wins Melanoma Foundation Award
By Mark Dwortzan
Research Assistant Professor Mario Cabodi and Associate Professor Joyce Wong, Zhang's BME co-advisors; JMNMF Secretary Denise Safko; BME PhD student Chentian Zhang with 2012 Research Scholar Award certificate; and JMNMF President Gregory Safko.
The Joanna M. Nicolay Melanoma Foundation has named BME PhD student Chentian Zhang as a recipient of the 2012 Research Scholar Award (RSA). The $10,000 award recognizes the potential of Zhang’s research to produce significant outcomes for the academic, scientific, clinical and patient communities seeking new treatments for melanoma, a malignant cancer tumor responsible for the majority of skin cancer deaths. An official award ceremony was held on March 27 at BU.
Zhang is one of nine graduate students chosen from among 42 applicants at 28 leading cancer research centers across the U.S, including medical institutions based at Cornell University, Dartmouth College and Yale University. Among other things, candidates were evaluated on the innovativeness, feasibility, applicability and scope of their research.
“Receiving this award gives me encouragement and confidence for carrying out my research,” said Zhang, who is developing a microfluidic chip to determine the molecular triggers that enable the metastasis, or spread of melanoma—knowledge that could improve clinicians’ ability to predict secondary cancers in melanoma patients and lead to new drugs formulated to stop the metastasis. “By incorporating novel biomaterial design and microfluidic technologies, cancer metastasis could be studied on a chip, potentially a more physiologically relevant and cost effective approach than the current ‘gold standard’ of cancer research, animal models.”
“Chentian is an extremely focused and dedicated researcher who is not afraid to take risks as he pushes forward the development of his model melanoma system,” said Associate Professor Joyce Wong (BME). “Among his co-advisors—myself, [Research Assistant Professor] Mario Cabodi (BME) and [Boston Medical Center Dermatologist-in-Chief] Rhoda Alani—we are so proud of Chentian’s accomplishments.”
Now in its six year, the Joanna M. Nicolay Melanoma Foundation’s RSA program was the first in the nation to give recognition and support to outstanding graduate students actively involved in melanoma research. A non-profit public charity founded in 2004 to foster education, advocacy and research, the Foundation has become an influential voice in the melanoma community in pursuit of “prevention, detection, care and cure.”
“Our Foundation’s ‘Research Scholar Awards’ are invaluable at the grassroots level, to specifically grow interest in melanoma research, at qualified cancer centers across the country,” said Robert E. Nicolay, JMNMF Chairman. “If we can attract the brightest minds that are considering, or are already within, the nation’s cancer research pipelines, to pursue a career in melanoma research, we’re that much closer to better understanding the disease, identifying the means for effective treatments and, most importantly, finding a cure for this deadly and very prevalent disease.”
Colburn Lecture Showcases Trailblazing Career as Researcher/Educator
By Mark Dwortzan
Professor H. Steven Colburn (BME)
At a hearing research conference that Professor H. Steven Colburn (BME) attended in Germany several years ago, a 15-year-old girl recalled how a pair of cochlear implants changed her life. She observed that the first implant enabled her to converse with individuals in isolation, but not in groups; as conversations jumped from person to person, she couldn’t figure out which individual was talking. While the second implant didn’t completely resolve the problem, it at least made it possible for her to participate in social gatherings.
For Colburn, founder and director of the Boston University Hearing Research Center, and a leading expert on how the auditory system processes sound, this kind of testimony served as a major turning point. “My interest in this field evolved from being primarily driven by “let’s do a neat optimal signal detection problem” to “let’s do something useful in the field of hearing.”
On March 22, Colburn described this and other experiences that shaped his career as a hearing researcher and educator in the 2012 College of Engineering Distinguished Scholar Lecture, “Information Processing in the Binaural Auditory System.” Speaking at a packed hall at the School of Management, he addressed students, faculty and researchers from throughout the Boston University academic community and beyond.
“Steve’s contributions to the field of binaural hearing have had a profound influence on what it means to be an auditory scientist today,” said Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen in introductory remarks. “Since his days as a graduate student at MIT in the late 1960s, Steve has been a pioneer in exploring how the brain processes and uses sound.”
Exploiting experimental data and mathematical modeling tools, much of Colburn’s research aims to develop an integrated representation of binaural interaction and its role in human sound perception. A Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and recipient of the Acoustical Society of America Silver Medal and Javitz Neuroscience Award, he has written widely in the past 40 years on challenges faced by the binaural system in complex acoustic environments, and on issues associated with hearing impairments and hearing aids, including cochlear implants.
A College of Engineering faculty member for more than 30 years, Colburn has also played a leading role in setting the top-ranked BME Department on a path of growth and excellence and inspiring generations of students to pursue careers in hearing research. Now serving as associate chair for undergraduate studies, he chaired the Biomedical Engineering Department throughout the 1980s, was named BME Professor of the Year in 2002, 2006 and 2008.
“Ask any student or colleague, and they will tell you that what makes Steve special is his warmth, approachability and openness,” said Lutchen. “A caring and encouraging mentor, Steve’s students consistently vote him among the department’s best teachers.”
The Making of a Master Researcher/Educator
Colburn noted that conversations with neighbors employed at the local atomic energy plant in rural Ohio inspired him to go to college and become an engineer. An avid trumpet player and dancer in high school, he kept his eye on the prize, poring over textbooks and memorizing formulas, leading to an acceptance letter from MIT. But when he applied those same study habits in his first-semester physics, chemistry and math courses, he frequently failed his exams. It wasn’t until he consulted with Jim Overbeck, a fraternity brother and friend, that he found success.
“I used to go to him with questions, and he’d say, ‘I want you to start with what you absolutely know for sure. What are the basic laws that you have learned?’” Colburn recalled. “No matter what question I asked him, he would go back to some really basic stuff and build up the logical structure that was going to lead to the answer to my question. He never let me think about what formula to plug into. Suddenly, it all made sense; I got an extremely high grade on the final exam. It was an intellectually defining moment.”
Buoyed by that moment, Colburn built his own career from a foundation of rich experiences at MIT’s Electrical Engineering Department, where he earned his bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees. He traced his passion for hearing research and teaching to inspiring faculty such as mathematician Norbert Wiener and Bose Corporation founder Amar Bose; intriguing courses in detection theory, auditory processing and binaural hearing; and his PhD thesis advisors, Bill Siebert, Nat Durlach and Nelson Kiang. The thesis, which investigated the neural processing underlying auditory behavior, led him to develop a binaural perception model linking physiological response to sound and auditory perception in people with normal and impaired hearing.
Colburn described his further evolution as a binaural hearing researcher/educator at Boston University, where he has continued to shape this model and investigate critical topics such as “the cocktail party problem,” in which listeners—particularly the elderly or, like the aforementioned 15-year-old girl, those with cochlear implants—strain to determine who’s talking and what they’re saying in complex, noisy environments. His current projects, all collaborations with PhD students funded by the National Institutes of Health and BU, include measuring the cocktail party effect in listeners with hearing impairments, and developing models of neural activity in the auditory system.
Summing up his research and teaching experience and family life, Colburn concluded, “You at last can understand why I consider myself the luckiest guy in the world.”
Initiated in 2008, the annual Distinguished Scholar Lecture Series honors a senior faculty member engaged in outstanding, high-impact research at the College of Engineering. The previous four recipients are Professors Theodore Moustakas (ECE), Irving Bigio (BME), John Baillieul (ECE, ME) and Malvin Teich (ECE).
Microfluidic Chip Demonstrates Rapid, Low-Cost, Point-of-Care Flu Detection
By Mark Dwortzan
A: Two of the microfluidic chips running in parallel on lab bench. B: Close-up of one of the chips filled with blue dye to show the channel architecture. C: Schematic of the overall process flow from patient sample collection to chip loading to thermal amplification to readout of DNA concentration.
Within each chip, the top column performs solid phase extraction, selectively grabbing RNA from the suspected flu specimen and directing it into the reverse transcription (RT) chamber below. Within the RT chamber, an enzyme reverse-transcribes the RNA into DNA, which then flows into a heated, serpentine channel for replication, a 30-cycle process designed to yield sufficient DNA to be detected by an external reader.
The novel H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009 underscored weaknesses in methods widely used to diagnose the flu, from frequent false negatives to long wait times for results. Now a four-year, National Institutes of Health-funded study of 146 patients with flu-like symptoms spearheaded by Associate Professor Catherine Klapperich (BME, MSE) has validated a prototype rapid, low-cost, accurate, point-of-care device that promises a better standard of care. Once optimized and deployed in the clinic, the new device could provide clinicians with an effective tool to quickly diagnose both seasonal and pandemic strains of influenza, and thus limit the spread of infection.
The study’s research team—Klapperich, Qingqing Cao (ME PhD’11), Madhumita Mahalanabis (BME postdoctoral fellow), Jessie Chang (BME MS’10), Brendan Carey (BME’11), Christopher Hsieh (BME’11) and Ahjegannie Stanley (summer intern) from the College of Engineering; medical personnel from the Boston University Medical Center (BUMC) Emergency Department; and an infectious disease physician from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC)/ Harvard Medical School—published its findings in the March 22 online edition of PLoS ONE.
To produce a faster, cheaper, highly accurate flu diagnostic test that could be run at the point of care, the researchers miniaturized an expensive, three-hour, lab-scale diagnostic test—known as RT-PCR and now considered the gold standard in flu detection—into a single-use microfluidic chip. About the size of a standard microscope slide, the integrated chip consists of a column at the top that extracts RNA from signature proteins in the sample associated with the influenza A virus; a middle chamber that converts the RNA into DNA; and a climate-controlled lower channel used to replicate the DNA in sufficient quantities so it can be detected by an external reader.
Working with two types of nasal specimens, the researchers used the chip to produce results that matched the high accuracy and relatively fast turn-around time of the lab-scale method.
“We wanted to show that our technique was feasible on real-world samples prepared on the chip,” said Klapperich. “Making each chip single-use decreases the possibility of cross-contamination between specimens, and the chip’s small size makes it a good candidate for true point-of-care testing.”
The microfluidic chip also proved far more effective than other commonly used flu diagnostic tests including viral culture, a lab procedure requiring up to a week to produce results; rapid immunoassays, which work like pregnancy tests but were only 40 percent reliable in detecting the presence of a flu virus in this study; and direct fluorescent antigen testing (DFA), a more accurate but labor-intensive process in which medical personnel prepare and interpret samples stained with fluorescent antibodies.
“The new test represents a major improvement over viral culture in terms of turn-around time, over rapid immunoassay tests in terms of sensitivity (ability to detect the virus from minimal sample material) and over DFA and RT-PCR in terms of ease of use and portability,” Klapperich observed.
Ultimately seeking to enable clinicians to use their microfluidic chips for frontline flu virus detection, the researchers next plan to optimize their method so that it can produce results in a third less time (an hour) with chips that cost half as much to make (five dollars). In addition, they are exploring ways to develop a lower cost external reader that’s no bigger than a clinical digital thermometer.