Articles
Healing Chronic Wounds
Prof. Millie Sullivan receives Fulbright Award to study gene therapies promoting wound healing at University of Melbourne
Nov 5, 2020 | Cuts, scratches and scrapes. A tumble on the playground, a misadventure making dinner or a crisp piece of paper can make wounds and injuries a natural part of life. Each time the skin breaks, a concert of activity happens within the body, starting with the body’s immune system kicking in to prevent infection. Healing work takes place on the inside and out, as a scab forms on the surface so the damaged skin can heal underneath.
A Window into Adolescence
UD researchers study biological roots for adolescent risk-taking
Sep 4, 2020 | As any parent will tell you, no two children behave in exactly the same way. It is part of what makes each individual unique.
So, why do some adolescents take more risks than others? University of Delaware Biomedical Engineer Curtis Johnson and graduate student Grace McIlvain think they may have an idea.
Gecko Stickiness
UD researcher explores connection between human cartilage and the famous lizard
Jun 24, 2020 | When people consider the humble gecko (assuming people consider the gecko at all), it’s likely car insurance that comes to mind. But these colorful little lizards do more for humans than animate TV commercials.
Robot Researcher Honored
Engineering’s Fabrizio Sergi Lands NSF CAREER Award for work that could help rehabilitation
Feb 26, 2020 | Fabrizio Sergi, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Delaware, has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award to support fundamental research in motor control that could in the future improve practices in neurorehabilitation for individuals with motor impairment.
BLOOD STEM CELL RESEARCH
UD’s Emily Day among researchers funded through Science Center program
January 15, 2020 | University of Delaware biomedical engineer Emily Day is working on technology that may one day replace bone marrow transplants.
BIOMECHANICS RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM
Students show how their studies could make people healthier
May 8th, 2019 | A University of Delaware graduate student develops pressure-detecting sensors that could help injured patients recover. Another student analyzes brain scans to understand balance in children with cerebral palsy.
HONOR FOR JILL HIGGINSON
Engineering professor named Fellow by American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
March 25, 2019 | There’s a treadmill in the center of Professor Jill Higginson’s laboratory, and it’s not for impromptu workouts. Higginson studies human motion and gait so that she and other scientists can develop devices to help people recover from injuries and illnesses that limit their mobility.
$25 MILLION FOR RESEARCH
UD is lead institution in program funded by NIH, State of Delaware
October 26, 2018 | The University of Delaware and four other institutions will receive $25 million over five years from the National Institutes of Health and the state of Delaware to continue research programs that improve patient care and public health, officials announced Friday.
Delaware’s Center for Translational Research ACCEL Program will continue its efforts to bolster and expand clinical and translational research in the First State, thanks to the grant renewal from the federal and state agencies.
YOUNG INNOVATORS
Two UD biomedical engineering professors receive prestigious national honor
October 11, 2018 | University of Delaware assistant professors Emily Day and Jason Gleghorn have been named Young Innovators of Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering for 2018.
Both have articles featured in this month’s special issue of the journal Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering, which established the Young Innovators Award to highlight the research of outstanding assistant professors. Day and Gleghorn will also give invited talks in a session devoted to the award winners at the 2018 meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society, to be held Oct. 17-23.
UD GRADS HELP GE FLY
Team of young Blue Hens ride leading edge of jet technology
September 28, 2018 | Consider the humble coffee cup. Its simple duties conceal a deceptively formidable character: The ceramic it is made of is harder than steel, and the scalding liquids it holds never seem to do it much harm.
Now imagine a roaring, flaming jet engine — possibly the pinnacle of 20th century power plant engineering — and try to envision what a touch of ceramics might do to make it even better.
ENGINEERING FOR FUN
Students design and build toys, pitch to Melissa and Doug representatives
September 20, 2018 | Engineering students at the University of Delaware recently pitched their own inventions to representatives from a major toy company.
A trio of professionals from Melissa and Doug, a toymaker with revenue of more than $350 million per year, visited UD in May to evaluate toy prototypes made by mechanical engineering students with help from early childhood education students. Companies like Melissa and Doug employ mechanical engineers because they have foundations in product design, mechanics, dynamics and other skills that are useful when making tiny consumer products
BIOMECHANICS CENTER TO CONTINUE REU
UD’s Center for Biomechanical Engineering Research receives REU funding through 2021.
September 4, 2018 | For the next three summers, UD will welcome select undergraduate students from across the country for an opportunity to apply their engineering skills to biomechanical problems.
NSF has awarded funding to the University of Delaware’s Center for Biomechanical Engineering Research (CBER) to be a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site through 2021. NSF first funded this site, called “Dare to BE FIRST” Biomechanical Engineering Foundations in Impactful Research, Science and Technology (BE FIRST), in 2015 for a three-year term. The program hosted 49 students in the last three years.
A BANNER YEAR FOR BLUE HEN RACING
UD Formula SAE team records highest finish yet
August 27, 2018 | If you dream of building or driving a race car, you can do it at the University of Delaware — all while earning an engineering degree.
Just ask Sean Nelan. The recent graduate, who earned a degree in electrical engineering, led UD’s Formula SAE team, which builds a prototype race car, to its best-ever finish in competition this year. At the annual Formula SAE competition in Lincoln, Nebraska, held from June 20 to 23, 2018, UD finished 23rd, up from 43rd in 2017. Although UD’s Formula SAE team was founded in 1996, they took a hiatus from competition for several years and resumedin 2017.
TRANSPORT IN UD’S SCALED SMART CITY
Student helps tackle traffic challenges for autonomous vehicles
September 4, 2018 | Yiming Wan is a senior majoring in mechanical engineering from Yangzhou, China
Q: What is your research focus at UD?
Wan: I study the use of connected and automated vehicles, known in the industry as CAVs, at University of Delaware with Andreas Malikopoulos, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Stanley Family Foundation Gift
The presentation of the Stanley Family Foundation gift of $20,000 in memory of Vincent Baro, a former CBER student whose life ended too early, took place at the 2017 CBER Biomechanics Research Symposium.
“I am grateful that the Baro family set up this undergraduate research fellowship in CBER,” said Liyun Wang, incoming CBER director and one of Mr. Baro’s former advisers. “Vincent enjoyed doing research, and he had long-lasting impacts on the field by publishing three papers and several conference abstracts, all accomplished in two years.”
In honor of Mr. Baro, CBER will support summer undergraduate scholars in orthopedic research during the next two years.
The following undergraduate engineering students were selected to do biomechanics research in labs at UD this summer:
- Mary Athanasopoulos will work with Jason Gleghorn, assistant professor of biomedical engineering.
- Sida Jiang will work with with Liyun Wang.
- Rachel O’Sullivan will work with Emily Day, assistant professor of biomedical engineering.
- Christian Poindexter will work with Elisa Arch, assistant professor of kinesiology and applied physiology.
- Tiange Zhang will work with X. Lucas Lu, associate professor of mechanical engineering.
SHINING A LIGHT ON GENE REGULATION
UD engineers lay groundwork for cutting-edge cancer drugs
June 22, 2018 | Cancer treatments—from radiation to surgery to chemotherapy—are designed to remove or kill cancerous cells, but healthy cells often become collateral damage in the process. What if you could use lasers to pinpoint the treatment area and deliver medicine to cancer cells only?
A research team at the University of Delaware, led by Emily Day, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, is laying the groundwork for a method to inhibit cancer-promoting genes in cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact. In a new paper published in Nano Letters, the team reveals unprecedented insights into this promising method, which involves coating nanoparticles with gene-regulatory agents and then exposing them to a dose of laser light to unleash that material.
A CHANGEMAKER IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION
UD professor Jenni Buckley heralded for her innovative approach
June 11, 2018 | Talk to a few of Jenni Buckley’s students, and they might tell you she’s their favorite professor. Now, this University of Delaware engineering professor is being recognized as one of the best anywhere.
Buckley, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, was named to the American Society for Engineering Education’s “20 Under 40,” a list that recognizes outstanding engineering educators under age 40. An article about Buckley appears in the organization’s latest issue of ASEE Prism, the most popular magazine covering engineering education in the U.S.
ACHIEVING A BALANCE OF POWER
UD research team solves mathematical discrepancy in biomechanics
June 6, 2018 | Every engineer knows that the two sides of any equation should be equal. But when you are dealing with experimental data, sometimes the numbers don’t match up. When Anahid Ebrahimi, who recently earned a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Delaware, noticed that an important equation in biomechanics never balanced, she was determined to figure out why.
A GLIMPSE INSIDE BONES, JOINTS, TENDONS AND MORE
15th annual symposium highlights biomechanics research at UD
June 5, 2018 | In laboratories across the University of Delaware, scholars are uncovering new insights about the human body: how a compound in red wine might protect joint cartilage from damage, how bad posture wears down the discs in your back, how your knee heals after an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear, and more.
These are just a few of the new research findings presented at the 15th annual Biomechanics Research Symposium, held on May 18 at UD. More than 90 scholars attended, the event, which included 10 podium presentations and 33 poster presentations.
NIH GIVES UD PROFESSOR $2.3 MILLION FOR STUDIES OF ACHILLES INJURIES
Physical therapy’s Karin Grävare Silbernagel will research exercise treatments for Achilles tendinopathy
April 17, 2018 | University of Delaware assistant professor Karin Grävare Silbernagel (Physical Therapy) received a five-year, $2.3 million Research Project Grant (R01) from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases to study Achilles tendinopathy. This overuse injury is most prevalent in active individuals between the ages of 35 and 55, but occurs in people of all ages and activity levels.
UD BIOMEDICAL ENGINEER LANDS NSF CAREER AWARD
John Slater to build an in vitro model of microstroke
April 5, 2018 | John Slater, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Delaware, has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Career award to develop a tissue-engineered model of ischemic microstroke. The grant, which is expected to total $530,000, started on March 15, 2018 and will last until February 28, 2023.
DRIVING HIGH-SPEED INNOVATION
Blue Hen Racing team heads to DC festival with UD-built Formula car
April 4, 2018 |As a little kid, maybe 2 or 3 years old, Sean Nelan carried a socket wrench wherever he went. Cars were his thing. So when he was a high school student touring the University of Delaware campus and saw the Formula Society of Automotive Engineers shop in Spencer Laboratory – he had the feeling UD was the place for him.
SEARCHING FOR THE BIG PICTURE
$1.9 million NIH grant helps UD computer scientists make biomedical research easier to peruse
March 27, 2018 | Whether you visit The New York Times or Buzzfeed, you probably first glance at images and then scan headlines and captions to see what the articles are about. Now, imagine that you could sort through tens of thousands of articles and get an idea of what they are about in just a few minutes.
FEMALE ENGINEERING PIONEERS
Meet 21 women who made history in UD’s College of Engineering
March 8, 2018 | The University of Delaware is committed to the success of women in engineering. Our efforts to increase diversity in our College of Engineering were discussed in a recent Q&A. In honor of Women’s History Month, here are just a few of the women who set the course for the engineers of today and tomorrow.
ENGINEERING CHANGE ABROAD
Engineers Without Borders helps UD alumni launch careers in international development
March 8, 2018 | For Sarah Hartman and Melissa Landman, one small decision to join the University of Delaware’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders set them on a greater path toward a profession in international development, a journey which has landed them, most recently, in Mexico.
2018 JOR Manuscript AWARD RECIPIENT
UD recognized by The Journal of Orthopaedic Research
March 2018 | Gait Mechanics and Second ACL Rupture: Implications for Delaying Return-to-Sport by Jacob J. Capin, Ashutosh Khandha, Ryan Zarzycki, Kurt Manal, Thomas S. Buchanan, Lynn Snyder-Mackler received The Journal of Orthopaedic Research (JOR) Excellence in Clinical Science Award at the 2018 Orthopaedic Reserach Society (ORS) Annual Meeting in March 2018 in New Orleans.
2018 ICMRS WEBSTER JEE YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD RECIPIENT
UD doctoral student wins award at 2018 ORS Meeting
March 2018 | Congratulations to Mengxi Lv, who won the 2018 ICMRS Webster Jee Young Investigator award. Mengxi works on statin for osteoarthritis treatment under the supervision of Dr. X. Lucas Lu. Co-authors include Yilu Zhou and Dr. Liyun Wang. The award ceremony was held in New Orleans during the 2018 annual meeting of the Orthopedic Research Society. Mengxi also received the Alice L. Jee Young Investigator Award in the ORS 47th International Musculoskeletal Biology Workshop at Sun Valley and the 2nd prize in the PhD Paper Competition at SB3C Bioengineering Meeting in 2017.
READY FOR TAKEOFF
UD engineering students build, fly a radio-controlled aircraft
March 1, 2018 | Kyle Panariello, a senior mechanical engineering student at the University of Delaware, was in the middle of a final exam in December when he saw a sign pressed against the door that read: WE’RE FLYING.
STUDENT INVENTION A SUCCESS ON KICKSTARTER
UD engineers design, crowdfund a levitating top
January 5, 2018 | Only 36 percent of Kickstarter projects are successful. Adam Stager passed his funding goal of $5,000 in just 48 hours, and he still has nearly two weeks to go.
STUDENTS OF INNOVATION
At UD, engineering students are making next-generation consumer products
December 21, 2017 | When a Maryland-based boat kit company wanted help designing a component that rowers sit in, they contacted a University of Delaware engineer with ideal expertise. Jenni Buckley, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and a rower in the UD Athletics Hall of Fame, advises students in Senior Design, a one-semester capstone engineering design program.
NEW LEADER OF CENTER FOR BIOMECHANICAL ENGINEERING RESEARCH
Mechanical engineering Professor Liyun Wang is the sixth director of UD’s CBER
November 9, 2017 | Liyun Wang, a professor of mechanical engineering, has been named director of the University of Delaware Center for Biomechanical Engineering Research (CBER), a research center that develops engineering science and clinical technology to reduce the impact of diseases like osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, degenerated discs, and cystic fibrosis on people.