With a $2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), researchers from Rensselaer’s School of Engineering are developing a physics-based virtual model that can simulate a patient’s breathing in real time. When used in conjunction with existing 3-D models, adding the fourth dimension of time could significantly improve the accuracy and effectiveness of radiation treatment for lung and liver cancers.

José González is fluent in the international language of science. Born the son of a medical doctor in Puerto Rico, he has been speaking this language since he was a child. On May 19, González will take the next step in a long journey as he crosses the platform at Rensselaer’s 201st Commencement.

Nanomaterials are being used in everything from golf clubs to computer circuitry, but little is known about the effects these minuscule materials could have on our health and environment. Two teams of Rensselaer scientists recently worked to better understand the effect of nanomaterials on both mammalian cells and bacteria. The researchers found that while carbon nanotubes inhibited growth in the cells, they sustained the growth of commonly occurring bacteria.

Using powerful computers to model the intricate dance of atoms and molecules, Rensselaer researchers have revealed the mechanism behind an important biological reaction.

Rensselaer researchers will continue to advance the frontiers of computational science with the help of IBM’s Blue Gene supercomputer. Awarded under IBM’s Shared University Research program, this Blue Gene will complement the $100 million partnership between Rensselaer, IBM, and New York state to create one of the world’s most powerful university-based supercomputing centers.

A team of researchers has received a four-year, $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to study improved methods for biological separations. Led by Ravi Kane, the Merck Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer, the group plans to develop nanoscale surfaces that actively reassemble in the presence of DNA, which could eventually lead to more efficient separation tools for genomics and proteomics.

In a new approach to treating anthrax exposure, a team of scientists has created an inhibitor designed to tackle the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant strains. Reporting in this week’s online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers from Rensselaer and the University of Toronto describe the new anthrax toxin inhibitor, which performed successfully in both laboratory and animal tests.

Rensselaer hosted an international Symposium on the Glycomics of Glycosaminoglycans in the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies on July 8. Approximately 50 scientists from Japan, Europe, Canada, and the United States gathered to discuss developing technologies for studying structural and functional glycomics.

Changing a surface from sticky to slippery could now be as easy as flipping a molecular light switch. Rensselaer researchers have created an “optically switchable” material that alters its surface characteristics when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light. The new material, which is described in the June 19 issue of the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition, could have a wide variety of applications, from a protein filter for biological mixtures to a tiny valve on a “lab-on-a-chip.”

Researchers at Rensselaer and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered an alternative way to produce heparin, a drug commonly used to stop or prevent blood from clotting. The findings could enable the current supply of the drug — now extracted from animal organ tissue — to be replaced or supplemented by the synthetic version. The new process also can be applied as a tool for drug discovery, according to the researchers.

In March, Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson and New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno joined biotechnology researchers and business leaders at the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies to unveil a powerful new tool — a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer — that aids in research on the cause and treatment of disease.

Two driven Rensselaer science students who will participate in the university’s 200th Commencement on May 20 are speeding up their education. Part of a new accelerated Ph.D. science program at Rensselaer, Jordan Mader (chemistry and chemical biology) and Amanda Lund (biology) are on track to finish their bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in seven years, two ahead of average.

Researchers from Rensselaer have engineered nanoscale materials that are blood compatible using heparin, an anticoagulant. The heparin biomaterials have potential for use as medical devices and in medical treatments such as kidney dialysis.

Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute and Rensselaer are collaborating to further research at the intersection of medicine and engineering. Under terms of a recently signed agreement, the institutions will jointly undertake research in several areas including nano-medicine, nano-bio materials, smart orthopaedic implants, biomolecular imaging, biocomputation and bioinformatics, bio-MEMS and the development of drug-delivery devices.

Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson and New York Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno joined biotechnology researchers and business leaders March 13 at the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies at Rensselaer to unveil a powerful new tool — a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer — that aids in research on the cause and treatment of disease.

On Feb. 8, leaders of New York’s major research universities and institutions — including Rensselaer — called on lawmakers in Albany to act quickly to establish a state fund to support stem cell research.

Researchers at Rensselaer and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered an alternative way to produce heparin, a drug commonly used to stop or prevent blood from clotting. The findings could enable the current supply of the drug — now extracted from animal organ tissue — to be replaced or supplemented by the synthetic version. The new process also can be applied as a tool for drug discovery, according to the researchers.

Recalls of popular prescription drugs are raising public concern about the general safety of new pharmaceuticals. A collaborative group of Rensselaer and other researchers says that identifying which drug candidates are toxic early in the discovery process can help prevent harmful pharmaceuticals from being placed on the market in the first place, and they have developed a tool to do it.

Deanna Thompson, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Rensselaer, has received one of six New York State Office of Science, Technology, and Academic Research (NYSTAR) James D. Watson Investigator Program Awards. The Watson Program is designed to recognize and support outstanding scientists and engineers who, early in their careers, show potential for leadership and scientific discovery in the field of biotechnology. The $200,000 grant was recently announced by Governor George E. Pataki.

A Science 101 briefing on the power of high-performance supercomputing drew 35 congressional staff members on Capitol Hill Nov. 14. Professor Angel Garcia, senior constellation chair in bioinformatics and biocomputation at Rensselaer, served as an invited speaker on how supercomputing is enabling new advances in molecular biology. He provided an overview and answered questions at the Science 101 briefing, sponsored by the Science Coalition to educate congressional staff on basic science and research topics.

Rensselaer has been selected as one of six universities nationwide to be awarded a two-year, nearly $1 million planning grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that will provide a foundation for the development of a center for cheminformatics research. The Rensselaer Exploratory Center for Cheminformatics Research (RECCR) will bring together an interdisciplinary research team to seek improved understanding of the relationships between chemical structure and function for use in biotechnology applications.

A team of researchers led by Rensselaer has been awarded a five-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to work on improving the prediction of bone fracture risk by developing a new way to measure bone quality.

The Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship in the Lally School of Management and Technology at Rensselaer will launch the 2005-2006 Biotechnology Management & Entrepreneurship Seminar Series on Sept. 28.

John Bogdan Jr. ’86 of Westminster, Md., will receive the Rensselaer Alumni Association (RAA) Fellows Award from the Department of Biology on Friday, Sept. 16. The award will be presented following a lecture on careers in science and biotechnology beginning at noon in the auditorium of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. The program is open to the campus community.

Rensselaer recently announced that Thomas and Constance D'Ambra have made a $3 million commitment to endow a faculty chair in synthetic organic chemistry, in support of biotechnology initiatives at the Institute.

Rensselaer is leading a team of researchers awarded a three-year, $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to develop 3-D virtual patient models that will more accurately compute radiation doses for CT imaging, nuclear medicine, and radiation treatment of cancer patients. The grant is funded by the National Cancer Institute, part of NIH.

Rensselaer researchers are developing a tiny, highly efficient heat spreader to be used in a new device to be implanted in the brains of patients who suffer from severe epileptic seizures. The implant device is designed to detect and arrest epileptic seizures as they begin by cooling a small region of the brain, thereby effectively blocking the erratic electrical activity.

Chunyu Wang, assistant professor of biology at Rensselaer, has received one of 10 New York State Office of Science, Technology, and Academic Research (NYSTAR) James D. Watson Investigator Program Awards.

Christopher Bystroff, associate professor of biology at Rensselaer, has been awarded a Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Bystroff will use the projected five-year, $783,768 grant to work on developing five statistical models that represent various stages in the folding of proteins.

Rensselaer's Office of Research hosted the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering's (NIBIB) first regional Grantsmanship Seminar on April 20 at the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies.

Governor George E. Pataki, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver today announced that Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has received one of 10 New York State Office of Science, Technology, and Academic Research (NYSTAR) James D. Watson Investigator Program Awards. The $200,000 grant was awarded to Chunyu Wang, assistant professor of biology at Rensselaer, whose research focuses on the application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to study Alzheimer’s disease and other significant problems in neuroscience and aging.

In recent advances, large numbers of promising compounds for potential new drugs have been identified. Yet, the biggest obstacle that remains in drug discovery is the lack of a reliable way to screen these drug candidates to determine toxicity levels early enough in the process.

Seeking to improve and accelerate drug discovery, researchers at Rensselaer and University of California at Berkeley have developed a new technique to rapidly analyze the toxicity of compounds at early stages in the drug discovery process. The technique uses a human enzyme chip called the MetaChip, or metabolizing enzyme toxicology assay chip.

An impressive array of some of today’s most prominent scientists gathered at Rensselaer September 9-10, 2004, to mark the opening of the new Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, and to speak of promising innovations in the field of biotechnology.

James Mullen '80 leads a major biotech business by keeping a sharp eye on the future.

Scientists at the forefront of emerging, innovative biomedical research shared their discoveries at a symposium and Presidential Colloquy held to mark the opening of Rensselaer’s Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies in early September.

Robert Palazzo, professor and chair of the Department of Biology, has been appointed director of Rensselaer’s Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. As director, Palazzo will oversee Rensselaer’s priorities in biotechnology research, coordinating and developing the center’s research programs and core facilities and facilitating strategic growth opportunities.

Angel E. Garcia, a renowned theoretical physicist in biomolecular research, has been appointed a senior constellation chaired professor in biocomputation and bioinformatics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Garcia will join Rensselaer on Jan. 1, 2005.

The opening of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies marks a new era in research at Rensselaer. As the building reshapes the physical campus, it also serves as concrete evidence of the Institute's ambitious research agenda in bioscience and biotechnology.

Jan Stegemann, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, is combining nanotechnology and tissue engineering to develop new cellular tissue that can bridge and support damaged regions of the cardiovascular system.

Ravi Kane, the Merck Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, has been selected as one of the top 100 young innovators in technology from around the world by Technology Review, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's magazine of innovation.

Drug discovery can frustrate the most patient of researchers, let alone the people who need better treatments for diseases like cancer, heart disease, and AIDS. Researchers at Rensselaer are trying to accelerate the process — and a major grant should help them do just that.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a Rensselaer research team a $2.7 million, four-year grant to develop new tools for drug discovery.

At Rensselaer, a researcher and an alumnus are demonstrating how working at the nexus of biology and nanotechnology could lead to the tailoring of bacterial processes for a host of smaller, faster semiconductors and other electronic devices.

Orthopedic, dental, and other bone implants are becoming commonplace, but they are not yet trouble free. Rensselaer scientists are studying such implants to discover how weight loading influences blood supply, cell differentiation, and bone healing around these increasingly common devices.

George Plopper's work with adult human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) may lead to breakthroughs in the treatment of bone injuries and breaks, hip and knee replacements, and arthritis.

Julie Stenken, associate professor of analytical chemistry, has received a four-year, $750,000 grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) to develop a new technique to study the body’s reaction to implants at the cellular level.

If plastics lived and breathed, what would they do? They might detect biological weapons. Keep medical implants free of germs. Extend the life of a ship. Two Rensselaer professors have had such advances squarely in their sights. Now their use of simulations is propelling these advances to the next level.

Lakshmi Santhanam is searching for molecules with properties that may someday be used as medicines able to pre-empt the damaging inflammatory response involved in atherosclerosis.

Rensselaer researchers have developed adaptive computer simulation software that promises to advance tissue engineering. This paves the way for new implants and safer transplants engineered from human tissue. Better products mean less risk of patient rejection and infection.

How do you improve on plastic, a modern material that has already changed the way we do everything from designing medical devices to building cars? Embed it with specialized proteins called enzymes, says Shekhar Garde, assistant professor of chemical engineering.

Sometime in the not-too-distant future, a critical cardiac patient will receive a bioengineered blood vessel that saves her life - and she won't know whom to thank. Jan Stegemann would be a good start.

A promising approach to fighting cancer is to shut off a tumor’s blood supply by preventing new capillaries from forming in abnormal tissue. For this to happen, researchers must understand how the blood vessels form in tumors.

Jan Stegemann is a biological architect of sorts. The Rensselaer assistant professor of biomedical engineering is building better three-dimensional scaffolds of naturally derived polymers. The goal is to create bioengineered tissues capable of replacing damaged body parts, such as blood vessels, or eventually entire organs, such as the pancreas and liver.

Rensselaer has received $22.5 million to create the Gen*NY*sis Center for Bioengineering and Medicine. New York State Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno made the announcement on campus in September 2002.

Rensselaer has created the Center for Ethics and Complex Systems to conduct social, ethnographic, and historical research into the way technological change drives scientific and societal change — and to contribute to the establishment of “best practices” for biotechnology.

Mammogram results are ambiguous for about half the women who undergo the procedure, but Rensselaer researchers are working to reduce that number with a new tool intended to complement a mammogram.

Consider the myriad areas of expertise wrapped under the umbrella of biomedical engineering: biophysics, system physiology, molecular biology, modeling and simulation, instrumentation and sensing, and the list goes on.

All eyes are on research now under way by a team led by Badrinath Roysam, professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering. His research focuses on the development of a new class of "spatially aware" systems for improved diagnostics and treatment of retinal diseases.

While other biochemists unravel the mysteries of natural enzymes, Christin Choma, associate professor of biochemistry, is attempting to design completely synthetic ones from scratch.

The cause of Lou Gehrig’s Disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS) has remained elusive since it brought down one of baseball’s greatest players 60 years ago.

Fundamental research conducted at Rensselaer on how proteins behave under high pressure is providing insights that could lead to novel engineering and biotechnology applications.

Researchers at Rensselaer have found a link between the protein that acts as glue in mussels' feet and the molecular makeup of the surface to which they adhere. Understanding this relationship has applications for the development of non-stick surfaces for marine environments, as well as for biomedical procedures and drug development.

Using experimental and mathematical models, Natacha DePaola and a team of biomedical engineering researchers are examining how blood flow causes changes in the circulatory system. Her research could lead to a better understanding of how atherosclerosis develops.