about.duke bme
Consistently ranked as one of the top biomedical engineering programs in the nation, Duke BME combines a hands-on educational experience and an interdisciplinary research environment that prepares graduates to be leaders in integrating engineering and biology to detect and treat human diseases.
A unique aspect of the program is the integration of research and education. Over two-thirds of the undergraduates are involved in independent study research. And the graduate program offers students early immersion into research. Current departmental research activities include biomechanics of blood flow, cells, and hard and soft tissues; biomolecular and tissue engineering; electrical activity of the heart; neuroengineering; and biomedical optics, biophotonics and ultrasound imaging systems. Duke BME faculty and students collaborate with many departments across the University and the Medical Center.
The department is undergoing a period of significant growth. The recently opened Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Science. Over 30,000 net square feet are occupied by BME faculty, staff and students. The space provides new state-of-the-art research and teaching facilities for the department. In 2004-2005, we seek to fill three tenure-track faculty positions.
BME News
November 2, 2009
DURHAM, N.C. -- Going smaller could bring better results, especially when it comes to cancer-fighting drugs.
Duke University bioengineers have developed a simple and inexpensive method for loading cancer drug payloads into nano-scale delivery vehicles and demonstrated in animal models that this new nanoformulation can eliminate tumors after a single treatment. After delivering the drug to the tumor, the delivery vehicle breaks down into harmless byproducts, markedly decreasing the toxicity for the recipient.
Nano-delivery systems have become ...
October 5, 2009
DURHAM, N.C. -- As scientists work toward making genetically altered bacteria create living “circuits” to produce a myriad of useful proteins and chemicals, they have logically assumed that the single-celled organisms would always respond to an external command in the same way.
Alas, some bacteria apparently have an individualistic streak that makes them zig when the others zag.
A new set of experiments by Duke University bioengineers has uncovered the existence of “bistability,” in which an individual ...
September 11, 2009
For Claude Flynn, long bicycle rides in the fresh air were therapy for the mind and exercise for the body. Every Sunday, she’d ride her bike 35 to 40 miles through the rolling Chatham County countryside south of Chapel Hill, N.C. Often, she would stop in a meadow, take in the sun, listen to the birds singing and enjoy a sandwich and bottled water.
That all changed in 2003, when a car accident ...
August 20, 2009
DURHAM, N.C. – A new method for attaching a large protective polymer molecule to a protein appears to improve protein drugs significantly.
Bioengineers at Duke University developed the new approach and demonstrated in an animal model that the newly created protein-polymer combinations, known as conjugates, remained in circulation significantly longer than an unprotected protein.
The scientists say they are encouraged that their findings represent a new strategy to improve the efficacy of protein drugs.
Protein-based drugs are an ...
July 7, 2009
DURHAM, N.C. -- The Rosetta Stone of bacterial communication may have been found.
Although they have no sensory organs, bacteria can get a good idea about what’s going on in their neighborhood and communicate with each other, mainly by secreting and taking in chemicals from their surrounding environment. Even though there are millions of different kinds of bacteria with their own ways of sensing the world around them, Duke University bioengineers believe they have found a ...
June 18, 2009
DURHAM, N.C. – Bioengineers at Duke University have developed a laboratory robot that can successfully locate tiny pieces of metal within flesh and guide a needle to its exact location -– all without the need for human assistance.
The successful proof-of-feasibility experiments lead the researchers to believe that in the future, such a robot could not only help treat shrapnel injuries on the battlefield, but might also be used for such medical procedures as placing and ...
June 16, 2009
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University engineers have taken a first step toward a minimally invasive treatment of brain tumors by combining chemotherapy with heat administered from the end of a catheter.
The proof-of-concept study demonstrated that it should be technically possible to treat brain tumors without the side effects associated with the traditional approaches of surgery, systemic chemotherapy or radiation.
The bioengineers designed and built an ultrasound catheter that can fit into large blood vessels of the ...
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