Brenda Ellis

THE IDEA A team of researchers led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory microscopist Miaofang Chi and Vanderbilt theoretical physicist Sokrates Pantelides has used a new Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope technique to image the electron distribution in ionic compounds known as electrides— especially the electrons that float loosely within pockets and appear separate from the atomic... Read More

The idea Karl Zelik (Vanderbilt University) Erik Lamers (Vanderbilt University) Karl E. Zelik, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and recent Ph.D. graduate Erik P. Lamers revealed a new exosuit designed to bring back relief to workers who have been under high strain throughout the pandemic, including last-mile delivery drivers and essential workers. The suit can... Read More

Vanderbilt engineers used  a drop of rubbing alcohol, an office laminator and creativity to develop scalable processes for manufacturing single atom thin membranes. Their membranes outperformed state-of-the-art dialysis commercial membranes and the approach is fully compatible with roll-to-roll manufacturing. Details of the imaginative experiment are recently published in the journal of the Royal Chemistry Society:... Read More

Researchers at the Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering have developed a minuscule robot that could revolutionize surgical procedures for treating prostate cancer, which affects one in nine men in the United States. Using a lifelike model, the team demonstrated that the surgical robot could not only remove the prostate gland and tissues through the... Read More

Vivian Gama, assistant professor of cell and developmental biology, and Leon Bellan, associate professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering, have won a $2.3 million, three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative. Vivian Gama Leon Bellan (Vanderbilt University) The researchers will be developing three-dimensional brain organoids and... Read More

Vivian Gama, assistant professor of cell and developmental biology, and Leon Bellan, associate professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering, have won a $2.3 million, three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative. Vivian Gama Leon Bellan (Vanderbilt University) The researchers will be developing three-dimensional brain organoids and... Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have developed the next generation of ultrafast data transmission that may make it possible to make already high-performance computing “on demand.” The technology unjams bottlenecks in data streams using a hybrid silicon-vanadium dioxide waveguide that can turn light on and off in less than one trillionth of a second. The article, “Sub‐Picosecond Response... Read More

One of the largest obstacles for patients seeking effective substance abuse treatment is a lack of transportation to the treatment facilities. Vanderbilt University researcher Janey Camp, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, is working on a project to help clear those roadblocks. Janey Camp (Vanderbilt University) Camp is leading an 18-month, in-depth analysis of... Read More

Christos Constantinidis has been appointed professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering beginning Jan. 1, 2021. At Vanderbilt, he also will be a member of the university’s Brain Institute and the Vision Research Center. Read More

IBM will use a Vanderbilt model as the end-user scripting assistant in its open-source Command Line AI Project. Read More

Anita Mahadevan-Jansen (Vanderbilt University) The Vanderbilt Biophotonics Center, directed by Anita Mahadevan-Jansen, Orrin H. Ingram Professor of Biomedical Engineering, conducts research on clinical photonics, neurophotonics and multiscale photonics to develop optical technologies that improve patient care. When Vanderbilt ramped down in-person research activities in mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mahadevan-Jansen and her team did... Read More

Justus Ndukaife, assistant professor of electrical engineering, spent 20 minutes describing his optical nanotweezers to a panel of five distinguished professors from the United States, Australia, and China during a live online competition—Rising Stars of Light—that has drawn 260,000 viewers worldwide. Read More

Measuring changes in functional connectivity of the brain’s white matter, which is made up of nerve fibers and their protective myelin coating, can predict Alzheimer’s disease progression, researchers in the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science have found. Previous studies have correlated variations in blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signals detected by functional magnetic resonance... Read More

A collaboration between international and Vanderbilt University researchers is helping to update a tried-and-true medical technology for the 21st century. The development of an intelligent and autonomous Magnetic Flexible Endoscope holds the promise of making colonoscopies safer, less painful, more widely available and less expensive. The article “Enabling the future of colonoscopy with intelligent and... Read More

The lab of Ethan Lippmann, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and biomedical engineering, seeks to model, understand, and ultimately treat neurodegeneration, focusing primarily on the blood-brain barrier, a border of protective blood vessels found in the brain. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Lippmann’s team in the Neurovascular Engineering and Therapeutic Design Laboratory was firing... Read More

A trans-institutional team of Vanderbilt engineering, data science and clinical researchers has developed a novel approach for monitoring bone stress in recreational and professional athletes, with the goal of anticipating and preventing injury. Using machine learning and biomechanical modeling techniques, the researchers built multisensory algorithms that combine data from lightweight, low-profile wearable sensors in shoes... Read More

There is huge momentum toward adoption of battery electric vehicles primarily because performances are meeting or exceeding the properties of traditional automobiles. Consumers want electric vehicles that have similar driving range (energy density) and charging styles and times (power density) to gasoline powered vehicles. “One pathway to improving the energy density of the battery, or... Read More

Vanderbilt researchers awarded one of NSF’s 24 new projects to drive future manufacturing One of the challenges of drug delivery systems is to optimize their targeting properties so therapeutic compounds used in smaller amounts reach only a specific area of the body and result in little or no side effects. The ability to engineer the... Read More

George E. Cook, associate dean for research and graduate studies and professor of electrical engineering, emeritus, at Vanderbilt, died Monday, Sept. 14. He was 82. Read More

Nobel Prize-winning chemical engineer Frances Arnold will deliver Vanderbilt's fall John R. and Donna S. Hall Engineering Lecture on Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 4 p.m. Arnold's lecture, “Innovation by Evolution: Bringing New Chemistry to Life,” will be live streamed, and registration is required. Read More