"Enzyme Innovation by Evolution" by Dr. Frances H. Arnold.
Scientists’ dreams of constructing new forms of life—either to enhance human well-being or just to prove that we can do it—are somewhat grander than the reality, because we are profoundly ignorant of the mapping from DNA sequence to biological function. Details of molecular interactions rule function, and we just don’t understand the details. For forward engineering of biological systems, I argue that we should look to the design algorithm that has produced the entire biological world: evolution. This simple algorithm works at all scales of complexity, from single proteins to ecosystems, and can be ‘directed’ by controlling the molecular diversity (mutations) and applying artificial selection.
By emulating evolution in the laboratory we create new, finely-tuned biological molecules that exhibit desired properties. And, by uncoupling evolution from biological function, we can explore what is physically possible versus what is merely biologically relevant at the time. These experiments provide insight into the remarkable ability of biological systems to evolve and adapt, and may help us understand how today’s proteins came about.

Treena Livingston Arinzeh. New Jersey Institute of Technology. Department of Biomedical Engineering

Ira R. Josephson. City College of New York. Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education. Department of Physiology and Pharmacology.

Open to all CCNY BME undergraduate and graduate students, this event will highlight the achievements of our faculty, students, and staff.

The 2008 CCNY Biomedical Engineering Research day will be a full day event including participation by member of the BME Industrial Advisory Board and representative from the New York Center for Biomedical Engineering hospital centers.

Ramesh Visvanathan. Siemens

Cheng Dong. Penn State University. Department of Bioengineering.

Michael Sacks. University of Pittsburgh. Engineered Tissue Mechanics Laboratory.

Frederick Silver. University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.

Brad Herman. Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Leny and Peter W. May Department of Orthopaedics.

Joe Tien. Boston University. Center for Nanoscience and Nanobiotechnology; Micro and Nano Biosystems Laboratory; Organogenesis Laboratory.

Keefe Manning. Penn State University. Department of Bioengineering.

Jeremy Mao, Columbia University. College of Dental Medicine.

Russell Stewrt, M.Sc.
City College of New York. Chemical and Biomedical Engineering Departments

Steven Tommasini, PhD Candidate, The City College of New York and Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Prof Tuo Jing, Ph.D. Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Pharmacy

BME Students and Faculty are invited to our Spring 2008 Seminar Series kickoff this Wednesday 01/30 at 3PM

Ira Josephson Ph.D.
Medical Biotechnology Center
City University of New York and
University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute

Daniel Irimia Ph.D.
BioMEMS Resource Center
Massachusetts General Hospital

Jonathan Kauffman Ph.D.
CEO and Director
CyberLogic Inc.

Anna M. Kenney Ph.D.
Cancer Biology and Genetics
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Yi-Xian Qin Ph.D.
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Stony Brook, State University of New York

Edward A. Fisher Ph.D., M.P.H., M.D., B.A.
Departments of Medicine (Cardiology) and Pediatrics (Cardiology) and Cell Biology (Administration)
New York University Medical Center

Cesare Ciani Department of Biomedical Engineering The City College of New York

Edward Guo Ph.D.
Department of Biomedical Engineeing
Columbia University

Xuejun Jiang Ph.D.
Cell Biology Laboratory
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

70th birthday celebration.

Sihong Wang Ph.D.
Department of Biomedical Engineering
The City College of New York

Elisa E. Konofagou Ph.D.
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Columbia University

Anuj Chauhan PhD
Departments of Chemical Engineering and Ophthalmology,
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611

Noshir A. Langrana, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Rutgers University “Strategies to modulate DNA-crosslinked hydrogel stiffness to understand cell behavior.”

Helen H. Lu , Ph.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University Title TBA

Mary Alpaugh, Ph.D. Department of Biology, CCNY, “A Model of Metastasis that Recapitulates Ontogeny.”

Lucas Parra , Ph.D. Department of Biomedical Engineering, CCNY, “Does the brain stimulate itself?”

Stavroula Sofou, Ph.D. Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, SUNY Polytechnic University, “Surface-active lipid-based vesicles for drug delivery”

Cameron McIntyre,, PhD. Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Department of Biomedical Engineering “Deep Brain Stimulation: Technology Development through Scientific Understanding”

Gwendalyn J. Randolph, PhD. Dept. of Gene and Cell Medicine. Mt. Sinai School of Medicine “Tissue engineering to study steps in the human immune response”

Yuliya Vengrenyuk , Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, CCNY “A new hypothesis for vulnerable plaque rupture due to stress-induced debonding around cellular microcalcifications in thin fibrous caps"

George Plopper , Ph.D., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, “Closing the gap between tissue structure and function”

Herb B. Sun, Ph.D. Department of Orthopaedics. Mount Sinai School of Medicine “CITED2 in skeletal tissue mechanotransduction and homeostasis”

Zweifach lecture by Dr. Rakesh K. Jain, Ph.D. Department of Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School "Normalization of tumor vasculature and microenvironment by antiangiogenic therapies: From the bench to bedside and back"

Raymond Tu, Ph.D., Department of Chemical Engineering, CCNY "Peptide-based Self-assemblies"

Zhong-Dong Shi, BME CCNY “Fluid Shear Stress Plays a Role in Differentiation and Migration of Adventitial Fibroblast”

Yilin Wang, BME CCNY “A model for the role of integrins in flow induced mechanotransduction in osteocytes".

Gerard A. Ateshian, Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University “Applications of Mixture Theory to Cartilage Mechanics and Tissue Engineering”

Guillermo A. Ameer, Sc.D. Northwestern University, Biomedical Engineering Department “How novel biomaterial applications will change medicine”

Paul Frenette, Department of Medicine, Immunobiology Center and Black Family Stem Cell Institute, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Icahn Medical Institute. “Identification of leukocyte subsets and microdomains contributing to sickle cell vaso-occlusion in vivo.”

Dr. Tarek Fahmy, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Yale, "Biomaterials for immune system diagnostics and modulation, novel vaccine systems, and tissue engineering approach to recapitulate the dynamic microenvironment of lymphoid organs"

Jeffery D. Zahn, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Penn. State University, "Microfluidic Devices for Clinical Diagnostics and Health Management"

Sihong Wang, Harvard Medical School – "Real Time Profiling of Gene and Protein Expression Dynamics"

Joonil Seong, “How is molecular structure designed to withstand mechanical forces? - Study of glycosaminoglycan and cell adhesion molecules by atomic force microscopy and optical tweezer”

Michael J. Jaasma, Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland and Trinity College, Dublin, - "Osteoblast Mechanical Behavior and its Adaptation to Mechanical Loading"

Dominique Durand, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, “Neural Interfacing with the Peripheral Nervous System”

Melissa A. Kacena, Department of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation, School of Medicine, Yale University, "A New Paradigm of Skeletal Homeostasis: The Role of Megakaryocytes"

James Cooper, National Institute of Standards and Technology, “Scaffolds for Musculoskeletal Tissue Engineering”

Warren Grill, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, “Electrical activation of spinal neural circuits for restoration of motor function”

Lee Murfee, University of California - San Diego, “Perivascular Cell Dynamics during Adult Microvascular Remodeling: Understanding the Importance of Arterial/Venous Phenotypes”

Keith Hanna, President and CEO, Meridian Vision Inc. "Technology Transfer"

X. Sheldon Wang, Department of Mathematical Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology “An Overview of Immersed Boundary/Continuum Methods”

Ron Cohen, M.D. President and CEO, Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. Chairman Emeritus of the New York Biotechnology Association (NYBA). "The Two Towers: Academia and Industry in the Quest for Biomedical Innovation"

Peter S Walker, NYU-Hospital for Joint Diseases Orthopedic Program, NYU School of Medicine “Development of a Kinematic Criterion for the Design of Knee Replacements”

Marcelo Magnasco, Head Mathematical Physics Lab, The Rockefeller University, “Sparse time-frequency representations and the neural coding of sound”

Kelvin Davies, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, "The Biochemistry of the Maxi-K Channel Applied to Gene Therapy and Biotechnology"

Larry Abbott, Columbia University "Signal propagation in neuronal networks"

Bruce D Gelb, Mount Sinai School of Medicine "Getting to the heart of the matter: Using Genomics to understand congenital heart defects"

Biomedical Engineering Senior design teams present their concepts for their devices.

Alexander Gersten, Ben-Gurion University "Scientific abilities of adults and percuiarities in brain's blood flow"

Ravi Iyengar, Mount Sinai School of Medicie "Analyzing Cellular Regulatory Networks"

Barclay Morrison, Columbia University "In vitro approaches can increase our understanding of head injury biomechanics using atomic force microscopy and an organotypic slice culture model of traumatic brain injury"

Donald Gaver, Tulane University "The importance of surfactant physicochemical hydodynamics in pulmonary atelectrauma"

Robert L Smith, Syracuse University "Cochlear Implants: Bringing Sound to the Profoundly Deaf"

Fortunato Battaglia, CUNY Medical School "Antidepressants, neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity in rodents and humans"

Robert M. Nerum, Georgia Institute of Technology "The Vascular Endothelial Cell: From Basic Research to a Vascular Implant" Sheppard Hall Room Room 95 at 3:00 PM; Reception follows

Molly D Frame, Stony Brook University "Preconditioning of individual arteriolar networks in vivo"

Charles Nicholson, NYU School of Medicine "Measuring and modeling diffusion of molecules in brain tissue reveals structure"

James Grotberg, University of Michigan "BIOFLUID MECHANICS IN LUNGS AND LUNG DEVICES" T-312 at 2:00-3:00 PM

Thomas Magnanit, Dean of Engineering, Massachuseets Institue of Technology "Engineering Our Future" Steinman Hall Lecture Hall at 12:00 PM

Lilianne Mujica-Parodi, Stony Brook University "A complex systems approach to limbic dysregulation: implications for health and patient population"

Sponsored by the New York Center for Biomedical Engineering.

Ofer Tchernichoski, Ph.D., The City College of New York, Department of Biology, "How sleep affects the developmental learning of song birds "

Luis Cardoso Landa, Ph.D., The City College of New York, Department of Biomedical Engineering, "Bone quality and quantity"

Sheldon Weinbaum, Ph.D., The City College of New York, Department of Biomedical Engineering, "Finding your voice: a guide for graduate students"

Dr. Robert J. Miller, Senior Director Biomat. Sci. & Eng., Genzyme
Dr. George Bourne, Group VP Endosurgery R&D, Boston Scientific
Barbara Davis, VP Human Resources & Organization Dev., Wilson Greatbatch
Sharon R. Daley, VP Human Resources, GE Global Research
Arica Drummond, Human Resources, ALZA - J&J
Dr. Troy Hershberger, Director Hip Prod. Dev., Biomet. Inc.
Darlene Whaley, VP Human Resources, Biomet. Inc.
Howie Rosen, VP Commercial Strategy, Gilead Sciences
Paul Citron, Retired VP Medtronic Inc.
Dr. Gabe Tzeghai, Assoc. Director R&D, Proctor & Gamble
Ms. Ronnie Denes, VP External Affairs, Cooper Union
Dr. Arnold Stancell, Turner Leadership Prof., Georgia Tech.
Dr. Neville Parker, H. Kayser Prof., CCNY
Peter Katona, President, Whitaker Foundation

The BME department have moved to its own space on the fourth floor of Steinman Hall. Architect Stephen Ely did a masterful job. See for yourself by taking a Tour of the new facilities.

The first Startegic Plan has been posted.

Erin Sheets, Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Chemistry, "Life as a Lipid: Rafts, Dynamics, and Interactions"

Helen Lu, Ph.D., Columbia University, Department of Biomedical Engineering, "Soft Tissue to Bone Integration: A Tissue Engineering Approach"

Babak Parviz, Ph.D., University of Washington, Department of Electrical Engineering, "Borrowing Tools and Concepts from Biology: Self-assembly for Functional Electronics and Photonics"

Savio Woo, Ph.D., Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Department of Gene and Cell Medicine, "Gene Therapy for Cancer"

Peter Caroll, MD, Ph.D., Columbia University, Department of Pathology, "Dynamic Analysis of Glioma Migration and Proliferation in Brain Slices"

Greetings BME@CCNY! Department of Biomedical Engineering "Dessert Social to Welcome New BME Students and Greet Returning BME Students"

Laoise McNamara, Ph.D, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, "Biomechanical origins of Osteoporosis"

The formal inauguration of the BME department and its new facilities will take place on November 5, 2004.

Yong S. Chang, Ph.D. Bayer Corporation, Sr. Research Scientist, "Title TBA"

David Christini, Ph.D., Weil Medical College of Cornell University, "Adaptive termination of cardiac arrhythmia precursor events"

Annual Meeting for Prospective Graduate Students & New Faculty at 7:30 PM in Salon 10, Mezzanine Level.

Kambiz Pourrezai, Ph.D. Drexel University, School of Biomedical Engineering, Science & Health Systems "Title TBA"

Edward G. Cape, Ph.D., Managing Partner, The Sapphire Group LLC, "A Wall Street Perspective on Biotechnology and Medical Technology Companies: Venture Capital, IPO’s, Mergers & Acquisitions"