Biomedical Engineering

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

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

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

Vanderbilt researchers have shown that an injectable material improves wound healing and may be useful for large skin wounds such as those in patients with diabetes. Read More

Vanderbilt University’s William Grissom and Charles Caskey are throwing open doors with a do-it-yourself, open-source software and hardware guide to enabling existing imaging machines with focused ultrasound technology. Read More

Vanderbilt researcher Eduard Chekmenev, Ph.D., has been elected to the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) for his efforts to develop imaging markers for cancer and lung disease using hyperpolarized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Read More

New findings offer a potential strategy for preventing heritable pulmonary arterial hypertension. Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center nephrologist and Associate Professor of Medicine Dr. William Fissell IV is making major progress on a first-of-its kind device to free kidney patients from dialysis. He is building an artificial implantable kidney with microchip filters and living kidney cells that will be powered by a patient’s own heart. Read More

The elasticity of a scaffold used for healing skin wounds is a key factor in promoting regeneration versus scarring. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators report an improved model for estimating brain health, using MRI. Read More

A wireless electrocardiogram (ECG) system invented at Vanderbilt University and marketed by a Nashville company, InvisionHeart, has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. Read More

Two innovative but very different products designed by Vanderbilt University engineers are getting a financial push onto the market, thanks to National Science Foundation Accelerating Innovation Research–Technology Translation (AIR-TT) grants of about $200,000 each. Read More

Area Girl Scouts will have the opportunity to earn their “Engineering Day” patches at an event hosted by Vanderbilt University engineering students on Saturday, Oct. 3. Read More