Shelly Peyton, associate professor of chemical engineering, has been elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). The college is made up of 2,000 members, the top 2% of the medical and biological engineering community, who are outstanding bioengineers in academia, industry, clinical practice and government.
AIMBE is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization that represents the most accomplished individuals in the fields of medical and biological engineering. “As chair of AIMBE’s College of Fellows, I oversee the nomination, review and election process,” says Paul Citron. “I can say without any hesitation the Class of 2020 is truly remarkable. This year AIMBE received the largest number of nominations - all of which were qualified candidates.”
Peyton’s induction will take place during AIMBE’s Annual Meeting and Induction Ceremony on March 29-30, 2020 in Washington, D.C.
Peyton is the head of the Peyton Research Group. She says, “We are several women and men, engineers, and biologists, and our mission is to learn how cells process information from their chemical and physical tissue environment.”
Peyton says, “We design polymeric biomaterials to create models of human tissue and use them to study how cells move, grow, and respond to drugs in different tissue environments. We use this approach to find new ways to stop cancer metastasis, discover more effective cancer drugs, prevent heart disease and build scaffolds for regenerative medicine.”
“To do this,” says Peyton, “our lab uses both 2D and 3D biomaterial model systems, which can be engineered from the ground-up to instruct cells via both biochemical and biophysical signaling pathways.”
Peyton says that she looks forward to attending the induction ceremony this spring, when she will spend time on Capitol Hill petitioning members of Congress to continue, or even increase, their support of higher education and the important research going on at UMass and universities across the nation.