FEATURES COMPUTING A HEALTHIER MOLECULAR A publication of the 8 FUTURE 18 JIGSAW PUZZLE J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida DEAN, COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING CONTENTS Cammy Abernathy DEPARTMENT CHAIR Christine E. Schmidt 2 WELCOME FROM THE CHAIR 14 HAVING AN IMPACT ON Dr. Christine Schmidt PATIENT CARE EDITOR Dr. Aysegul Gunduz, Dr. Huabei Jiang Sommer Green 4 BME FACULTY SNAPSHOT 16 STUDENT ENDEAVORS EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS 6 PRUITT HISTORICAL Rebecca Burton Laura Mize MARKER EVENT 20 GRADUATE STUDENT FEATURE Evelyn Bracho-Sanchez Michael Stone NEWS & NOTABLES 7 CONTRIBUTING 21 ALUMNI FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHERS Dr. Justin Sanchez 7 DISTINGUISHED LEADERSHIP Bernard Brzezinski SEMINAR SERIES Thinkstock.com 22 BME GIFTS BioD and the Leo Claire & Robert COVER ILLUSTRATION 12 UF PREEMINENCE & NEW FACULTY Adenbaum Foundation & DESIGN University Relations Dr. Kevin Otto, Dr. Cherie Stabler, Creative Services Dr. Lin Yang UF BME Faculty Snapshot AYSEGUL GUNDUZ BRANDI K. ORMEROD Assistant Professor Associate Professor Ph.D., University of Florida Ph.D., University of British Columbia Human neuroscience, neuroprostheses Engineered stem cell and immunomodulatory and neurorehabilitation. strategies for brain repair and aging studies. KYLE D. ALLEN RANGANATHA SITARAM Assistant Professor Assistant Professor Ph.D., Rice University Ph.D., University of Tuebingen Novel strategies to diagnose and treat Neuroscience and neuroimaging, degenerative joint diseases. brain-computer interfaces and neurofeedback, and connectomics. DAVID E. HINTENLANG KEVIN J. OTTO Associate Professor Associate Professor Ph.D., Brown University Ph.D., Arizona State University Real-time characterization and optimization of Neural engineering, device-tissue interfaces radiation dosimetry for therapy and imaging. and neurostimulation. WESLEY E. BOLCH CHERIE STABLER Professor and Associate Dean Associate Professor for Academic Affairs & Graduate Coordinator Ph.D., University of Florida Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology Dosimetry, computational medical Biomaterials, cell encapsulation, regenerative physics and dose assessment. medicine, controlled release systems and GREGORY HUDALLA PARISA RASHIDI diabetes. Assistant Professor Assistant Professor Ph.D., University of Wisconsin Ph.D., Washington State University Nanomaterials engineered to direct immune Machine learning, data mining, big data, responses for disease prophylaxis, implants biomedical informatics, pervasive health and immunotherapies. and gerontechnology. MINGZHOU DING HANS VAN OOSTROM J. Crayton Pruitt Family Professor Associate Professor UF Research Foundation Professor & Associate Chair Ph.D., University of Maryland Ph.D., Eindhoven University of Technology Cognitive neuroscience, multivariate Human physiologic simulation to enhance signal processing and multimodal noninvasive patient monitoring and neural imaging. HUABEI JIANG CARLOS RINALDI education. J. Crayton Pruitt Family Professor Professor Ph.D., Dartmouth College Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology Optical, fluorescence and photoacoustic Nanomedicine, cancer nanotechnology, tomography and microscopy. magnetic nanoparticles and transport phenomena. JON P. DOBSON BRUCE C. WHEELER Professor Professor Emeritus Ph.D., Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Ph.D., Cornell University ETH-Zurich Brain-on-a-chip, micropatterning neurons Magnetic micro- and nanoparticle-based and microelectrode arrays and neural signal biomedical applications. processing. BENJAMIN G. KESELOWSKY CHRISTINE E. SCHMIDT Associate Professor J. Crayton Pruitt Family Professor UF Research Foundation Professor & Department Chair Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology Ph.D., University of Illinois Biomaterials and controlled release systems Biomaterials for neural tissue regeneration for vaccines, immunotherapies and implants. and neural interfacing. DAVID R. GILLAND LIN YANG Associate Professor Associate Professor & Undergraduate Coordinator Ph.D., Rutgers University Ph.D., University of North Carolina Imaging informatics, biomedical image analysis, Molecular imaging, instrumentation machine learning, computer vision and and algorithm development using computer aided diagnosis. PET and SPECT. PETER MCFETRIDGE BLANKA SHARMA Associate Professor Assistant Professor Ph.D., University of Bath Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University Naturally inspired biomaterials for Nanomedicine, stem cells, biomaterials, biologically functional implants and tissue engineering and targeted drug/gene organ regeneration. delivery. 4 / CrossLink Biomedical Engineering at the University of Florida / 5 Left: Members of the Pruitt family unveiling the new historical marker News & Notables Distinguished Leadership Below: Dr. Pruitt Sr.’s daughters, Natalie Judge and Helen Wallace Seminar Series: 2014-2015 10/06/2014 MAJOR FACULTY AWARDS Dr. Michael L. Shuler, James and Marsha McCormick > Dr. Wesley Bolch appointed to U.S. delegation to United Nations Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Samuel Scientific Committee on Effects of Atomic Radiation Eckert Professor of Chemical Engineering, Cornell University “Body-on-a-Chip”: A New Approach to Drug Development > Dr. Jon Dobson elected AIMBE Fellow > Dr. Aysegul Gunduz received IAMBE Early Career Award 11/10/2014 Dr. David Hintenlang elected Fellow of the American Association of Dr. Maryellen L. Giger, A.N. Pritzker Professor of > Radiology, University of Chicago Physicists in Medicine Deciphering Breast Cancer with Imaging, Genomics, and Big Data > Dr. Gregory Hudalla received NSF CAREER Award > Dr. Benjamin Keselowsky named UF Research Foundation Professor 11/17/2014 Dr. Hans van Oostrom selected as College of Engineering and > Dr. W. Mark Saltzman, Goizueta Foundation Professor University of Florida Faculty Adviser/Mentor of the Year of Biomedical, Chemical and Environmental Engineering & > Dr. Christine Schmidt elected Chair of AIMBE’s College of Fellows Physiology, Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science Highly penetrative nanocarriers loaded with drugs targeted to > Dr. Blanka Sharma featured on cover of ASEE’s Prism magazine resistant cells improve treatment of brain tumors > Dr. Bruce Wheeler elected IAMBE Fellow 01/12/2015 Dr. Cato T. Laurencin, University Professor, Van Dusen Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Professor of KEY RESEARCH ADVANCES & INNOVATION Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Materials Science and Dr. Aysegul Gunduz’s lab highlighted in CNN’s Vital Signs with Dr. Engineering, University of Connecticut > Regenerative Engineering: The Launch of a Next Generation Field BME HONORS NAMESAKE Sanjay Gupta > Dr. Aysegul Gunduz and UF neuroengineering team awarded up to 02/23/2015 $5.4M from DARPA for neuroprosthetics research Dr. Andrés J. Garcia, Neely Chair and Regents’ Professor WITH HISTORICAL MARKER of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology > Dr. Gregory Hudalla’s article published in Nature Materials BioArtificial Materials and Mechanobiology Technologies for Regenerative Medicine The J. Crayton Pruitt Family The plaque’s inscription reads: > Dr. Huabei Jiang authored book on Photoacoustic Tomography Department of Biomedical > Dr. Benjamin Keselowsky awarded $1.5M NIH R01 grant as PI for 03/30/2015 Engineering at the University of “Biomaterial Delivery System for Type 1 Diabetes Vaccine” Dr. Metin Akay, Founding Chair and John S. Dunn Florida is made possible by the > Dr. Parisa Rashidi awarded $1.9M NIH R01 grant as Co-I for “Finding Endowed Chair Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, J. Crayton Pruitt Sr. was a visionary leader and inspiration to all who University of Houston vision and generosity of Dr. J. Good TEMporal PostOperative pain Signatures” knew him. An accomplished cardiothoracic surgeon, researcher, inventor Engineering High-Throughput 3D Platform for Targeting Crayton Pruitt and his family. This > Dr. Carlos Rinaldi invited to speak at Gordon Research Conference Gliablastome Multiforme Vasculature and Molecular Profiling and philanthropist, Dr. Pruitt had a lasting influence over innumerable on Cancer Nanotechnology fall the department honored and lives in his 80 years. Born on November 23, 1931, in Jefferson, South recognized this generosity during > Dr. Blanka Sharma received National Academies Keck Futures Initiative grant Upcoming Speakers the third annual Pruitt Research Day, Carolina, he built a thriving private surgical practice in St. Petersburg, Florida. > Dr. Cherie Stabler awarded $4.9M NIH UC4 grant as PI for an event held in celebration of the “Engineering a Human Physiomimetic Islet Microsystem” 09/14/2015 research being conducted in the BME Dr. Kristi S. Anseth, Distinguished Professor, Tisone He devoted his career to the prevention of strokes. His father suffered > Dr. Lin Yang awarded $1.5 M NIH R01 grant as PI for “Development Professor, Associate Professor of Surgery, and Howard Hughes community. and Dissemination of MuscleMiner: An Imaging Informatics Tool” Medical Institute Investigator, University of Colorado Boulder a debilitating series of strokes beginning mid-life, which motivated Dr. Pruitt to research and create improved surgical technology. In the late In addition to a successful day of 09/21/2015 talks and poster presentations, the 1970s, Dr. Pruitt co-invented the Pruitt-Inahara Carotid Shunt, one of the STUDENT AWARDS Dr. Jennifer L. West, Fitzpatrick Family University Professor of Engineering, Duke University department held a special ceremony most widely used shunts of its