Brink Bites: Major Grant Advances BU Imaging Facilities; BU-Developed Invention Funds Endowed Professorship
Research news, stories, and tidbits from around BU, including a series of new grants and insights into military strategy
A new endowed professorship honors Ed Damiano, an ENG research professor of biomedical engineering and the inventor of a bionic pancreas for people with type 1 diabetes. Photo by Cydney Scott
Brink Bites: Major Grant Advances BU Imaging Facilities; BU-Developed Invention Funds Endowed Professorship
Research news, stories, and tidbits from around BU, including a series of new grants and insights into military strategy
The Brink’s latest collection of news nuggets, short stories, and other thought-provoking snippets from the world of Boston University research—including a boost for BU’s imaging facilities, a professorship funded by a BU-developed invention, and insights into battlefield strategy.
Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Grant Will Boost BU’s Imaging Facilities
The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) has awarded BU a major grant to advance the University’s imaging facilities. The $1.58 million research infrastructure grant will allow BU to add two high-speed, high-resolution microscopes to the BU Photonics Center and support training opportunities for emerging and external life scientists. An economic development investment agency, the MLSC awarded close to $20 million to 23 projects to “strengthen Massachusetts’ life sciences ecosystem” and position “the commonwealth to lead in emerging areas of scientific innovation.” The grants were announced by the Healey-Driscoll Administration.
“This investment will equip Boston University with advanced spatial and molecular imaging capabilities at resolutions essential to understand and interact with biology at the most fundamental scale,” says Kenneth Lutchen, BU’s vice president and associate provost for research. “The award further amplifies how the Photonics Center can advance interdisciplinary collaboration and hands-on training for the next generation of life sciences researchers. Moreover, this new facility will reinforce Massachusetts’ leadership in scientific innovation and the commonwealth’s broader life sciences ecosystem.”
Other notable recent grant awards to BU include:
- Researchers at the School of Public Health and College of Arts & Sciences will launch a center focused on the demography and economics of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias with support from a $2.8 million National Institute on Aging grant.
- The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has awarded $4.6 million to the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine’s long-running research training effort, Biology of the Lung: A Multidisciplinary Program.
And make sure to check out our recent stories on major new funding for BU’s cloud lab and the Framingham Heart Study Brain Aging Program.
Endowed Professorship Honors Bionic Pancreas Inventor
Since hitting the market in 2023, a bionic pancreas invented in a Boston University lab has been used by more than 24,000 people with type 1 diabetes. Marketed by Beta Bionics, the iLet is an automated insulin delivery device. Now, the BU College of Engineering has endowed a new professorship honoring the innovator behind the technology, Ed Damiano, an ENG research professor of biomedical engineering. The $5 million Edward Damiano Professorship in Biomedical Engineering was endowed “through a portion of the licensing income generated by Beta Bionics,” reports the ENG news team.
“Ed is that rare innovator whose impact in the laboratory and clinic is equaled by his impact in the classroom,” said Shannon Stott, an ENG professor and chair of biomedical engineering. “This professorship celebrates his relentless pursuit of a technology that is life changing for those with type 1 diabetes, while ensuring we continue to attract visionary faculty who will push the boundaries of the field.”
BU Study Finds Battlefield Coalitions Improve Chances of Military Success
A new study of how battlefield coalitions form has found that teaming up in a military campaign can improve chances of success—and reduce casualties. The research was coauthored by Rosella Cappella Zielinski, a BU Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies associate professor of political studies, with Ryan Grauer of the University of Pittsburgh. They looked at 371 land battles between 1900 and 2003 and discovered that battlefield coalitions—states fighting alongside each other, not just on the same side—won “53 percent of their battles compared to 46 percent for solo belligerents,” reports the Pardee School news team. “They suffer roughly 4 percent fewer casualties per battle—a difference equivalent, in a hypothetical engagement of 40,000 troops, to more than 1,500 fewer dead and wounded.” The findings were published in Security Studies. The researchers say their work has implications for interstate cooperation and highlights the importance of investing in shared logistical capacity.
Smarter AI for for More Accurate Brain Scans
A BU team is developing a smarter artificial intelligence (AI) system for evaluating brain scan images that could one day help clinicians spot diseases sooner—and save more lives. They’ve figured out a way to speed up the AI training process, while also boosting accuracy and increasing flexibility, building an AI model that can quickly pivot to recognize a range of conditions—even if it only gets fed a few sample cases. The multidisciplinary team included a mechanical engineer, photonics expert, and radiologist. “Early detection could be clinically significant,” one of the researchers, Chad Farris, told the ENG news team. “When you get an MRI, it might take a few days or a week for it to get read. But there could be an acute reading, like a stroke, that you’d want to know about right away.” A BU medical school assistant professor of radiology, Farris said the technology—developed in the lab of Xin Zhang, an ENG distinguished professor—“offers hope for being able to make more accurate diagnoses and, potentially, more timely diagnoses.”
