July 2016

Juan Jiménez, mechanical and industrial engineering, has been selected to receive the 2016 BMES Innovation and Career Development Award during the Biomedical Engineering Society annual meeting in Minneapolis in October.

The award recognizes early career faculty from underrepresented populations in biomedical engineering for their accomplishments, significant contributions, and service to the field. It is intended to support research focused on health disparities and minority health.

Neil S. Forbes, chemical engineering, comments in a story about how scientists are using Salmonella bacteria that has been detoxified to deliver drugs to kill cancer tumors. “The major advance is that this is a way to provide sustained release of therapeutics in tumors,” Forbes says. He conducts similar research using Salmonella.

D. Julian McClements, CBD and food science, is teaming up with Kayon Partners, an investment group and business development firm, to commercialize foods that enhance the body’s ability to absorb drugs and vitamins.

Seven inaugural IALS Seed Grants have been awarded to the following projects which align with the objectives of the seed grant program and the mission of IALS, which is to accelerate translational projects that improve human health and well-being. Each researcher has been awarded a $50,000 grant to be completed within a period of 12 months.

The UMass team, (left to right) Emily Bechtold (Rich Lab), Aleksey Morozov (Rich Lab), Taylor Smart (PCCL), John Solitro (PCCL), Zachary Brother (PCCL), Nolan Fernandez (Rich Lab), have won the $5,000 award in seed funding at the Lyme Innovation Hackathon held on June 17–19 at the Microsoft Nerd Center in Cambridge, MA. The team presented one of the five winning proposals, entitled "High volume screening of plant extracts to develop pharmaceutical combination therapy to eradicate bacteria." In September they will present in more detail for additional funding.