Biomedical Engineering

Researchers believe they can address problems stemming from heart rate, respiration and digestion by untangling which nerves control which bodily functions and then stimulating them with light. Read More

Sinead Miller was headed for the Olympic games. Now, thanks to a Department of Defense grant to find new sepsis treatments, the Vanderbilt Ph.D. has developed a device that cleans the blood. Read More

An interdisciplinary team of Vanderbilt University researchers has received a two-year, $2-million federal grant to develop an “organ-on-chip” model for two genetic forms of epilepsy. Read More

Vanderbilt University engineers find existing human protein is ideal carrier for powerful molecules that can signal tumors to self-destruct. Read More

A new energy harvesting system developed at Vanderbilt University can generate electrical current from the full range of human motions and is thin enough to embed in clothing. Read More

Signaling through a complex of proteins called mTORC2 plays a role in breast cancer migration, invasion and metastasis, Vanderbilt researchers reported. Read More

The liver is a particularly squishy, slippery organ, prone to shifting both deadly tumors and life-preserving blood vessels by inches between the time they’re discovered on a CT scan and when the patient is lying on an operating room table. Vanderbilt University’s Michael Miga and his team have published the potential solution. Read More

A team of investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) wants to improve patient outcomes in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) settings by silencing audible medical alarms in hospital rooms. Read More

The first drug to treat calcification of heart valves may be one originally designed for rheumatoid arthritis. Read More

VUMC anesthesiologist Joseph Schlesinger is teaming up with undergrads in neuroscience and biomedical engineering to make hospital alarms better, quieter and easier to work with. Read More

Alumnus Jerry Wilmink discusses with Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos Wilmink's journey from engineer to entrepreneur and the deeply personal reason he launched his company. Read More

Vanderbilt students Lauren Branscombe, Joshua Fleck and David Zhang have been recognized in this year’s Goldwater Scholars competition. They are among a group of 240 scholars selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,286 mathematics, science and engineering students nationwide. Read More

A novel fluorescent nanobeacon can distinguish normal from diseased colon tissue, potentially offering advantages for colorectal cancer screening. Read More

Scientists at Vanderbilt University have created a three-dimensional organ-on-a-chip that can mimic the heart’s amazing biomechanical properties in order to study cardiac disease, develop heart drugs. Read More

David Merryman will study how to treat heart disease using drugs originally developed for rheumatoid arthritis and applying the lessons learned from failed weight loss drugs like Fen-Phen. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have developed a new optical sensor that can accurately detect different types of inflammatory bowel disease and can be easily integrated into routine colonoscopy exams. Read More

Biomedical engineer Craig Duvall has received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) to support his research into advanced wound healing technology. Read More

Tumors cause the intracellular material surrounding them to stiffen. Softening this protective layer could make existing cancer treatments more effective, according to new research. Read More

Vanderbilt engineers have developed a new method for duplicating DNA that makes devices small enough to hold in your hand that are capable of identifying infectious agents before symptoms appear. Read More

L. Ensign Johnson Jr., an emeritus professor who early in his career was one of three faculty members to lay the foundation for the biomedical engineering department at Vanderbilt, died Nov. 3. He was 85. Read More