Biotech Developing “Tissue Therapeutics” to Treat Diseased Organs Launches from BU and MIT Labs
Greater Boston has become the nation’s biotech hub—the Silicon Valley of life sciences, according to some—and Massachusetts is now reportedly home to more than 1,000 biotech companies, employing more than 80,000 people. One of the newest multimillion-dollar firms helping to drive the boom has its roots in a Boston University lab. Satellite Bio—fueled by technology codeveloped by BU biomedical engineer Christopher Chen—launched in April after announcing it had secured $110 million in venture funding.
Making Water Out of Thin Air?
By Joel Brown Some 300 million to 500 million people in the world have no access to safe water at all, and perhaps 2 billion have inadequate access, “so it’s a big deal internationally,” says Greg Blonder, a College of Engineering visiting researcher and an ENG professor of the practice of mechanical engineering from 2015 […]
ENG Awarded MassTech Grant to Build Robotics Lab
The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative has awarded a $4.4 million grant to the College of Engineering to construct a new robotics lab focusing on graduate education at the master’s degree level. Boston University is contributing another $4.4 million, bringing the overall investment to $8.8 million over three years. The grant will fund the development of the Robotics & Autonomous Systems Teaching & Innovation Center (RASTIC), a hands-on robotics teaching facility that is expected to complement the College’s master’s degree program in Robotics & Autonomous Systems and enhance robotics capstone experiences for undergraduate students.
Distinguished Alumna Delivers DeLisi Lecture
Returning to her alma mater and paying tribute to former mentors, Zhiping Weng (’97) shared insights from the first and largest international effort to characterize the functional elements of the human genome as she delivered the Charles DeLisi Distinguished Lecture on April 27. The first alum to receive the Charles DeLisi Award, Weng spoke on […]
Growing Tissue and Engineers
CELL-MET summer programs broaden the pipeline of research engineers By Patrick L. Kennedy “Graduate school was never a thought,” says Nicole Bacca. As a teenager applying to Florida International University (FIU), Bacca picked engineering for a major because she couldn’t imagine following four years of college with additional years of law or medical school. “I […]
New Miniature Heart Could Help Speed Heart Disease Cures
Boston University–led team has engineered a tiny living heart chamber replica to more accurately mimic the real organ and provide a sandbox for testing new heart disease treatments By Andrew Thurston There’s no safe way to get a close-up view of the human heart as it goes about its work: you can’t just pop it […]
BU Alum Robert Hines Is on a Mission—to the International Space Station
NASA pilot is one of four crew members scheduled to launch from Kennedy Space Center By Steve Holt NASA is about to send a Terrier into space. Astronaut Robert Hines will pilot NASA’s SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station, where the crew of four will study microgravity—the condition in which people or […]
BU Bestows Top Honor on Grinstaff
BU President Robert Brown has announced the appointment of College of Engineering Professor Mark Grinstaff (BME, Chemistry, MSE, MED), along with Gary Lawson of the School of Law and Dana Robert of the School of Theology, as William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professors—the highest recognition the University bestows on faculty. The funds that come with the […]
Xin Zhang a Guggenheim Fellow
Professor Xin Zhang (ME, ECE, BME, MSE) has been awarded a highly prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship, in recognition of her exceptional record of research in the fundamental and applied aspects of microelectromechanical systems and metamaterials. Zhang was one of 180 scholars and artists to receive the honor, out of a pool of nearly 2,500 applicants. The […]
Sharon Garners $4.9 Million to Test Green Home Retrofits
The Department of Energy has awarded the Fraunhofer USA Center for Manufacturing Innovation, led by Professor Andre Sharon (MSE, ME), a grant of $4.9 million to demonstrate a super-insulated wall retrofitting process in affordable housing sites across Vermont, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Sharon’s center is one of seven awardees of a grant aimed at greening the […]