What's Happening Now
Stupp elected to the Spanish Royal Academy of Pharmacy
Delivered Inaugural Address at International Symposium
Samuel I. Stupp was elected to the Spanish Royal Academy of Pharmacy in Madrid. The induction ceremony was part of the international symposium on Drugs, Nanomedicine and Biomaterials: a common objective held on April 24-25 where Stupp delivered an inaugural address on “Nanomedicine for Regeneration and Pharmacology.” Ruth Duncan of Cardiff University in Wales and Nicholas A. Peppas of the University of Texas at Austin were also inducted at the meeting which was sponsored by the Ramón Areces Foundation, a privately-funded non-profit institution that fosters science through research and contributes to the generation of human capital and dissemination of knowledge in three specific areas: Life and Materials Sciences, Social Sciences, and Humanities.
The Spanish Royal Academy of Pharmacy, established in 1737 by King Philip V, is one of the Royal Academies of the Institute of Spain under the reigning King of Spain, Juan Carlos I. The Academy is composed of 50 academicians and 173 corresponding academicians worldwide, who represent excellence and the highest scientific and intellectual merit in the field.
Clever mussels
Messersmith's Research Featured on WBEZ 91.5
Phillip Messersmith, professor of biomedical engineering, was interviewed by Gabriel Spitzer, host of WBEZ 91.5 "Clever Apes," to explain how mussel adhesive protein mimetics work. The public radio show focuses on the scientific community in Chicago and explores creative research being performed and the people behind the ideas. Messersmith is creating a stronger medical adhesive by using an organic material secreted by the blue mussel. Properties of this particular material could aid surgeons in tissue repair and prove less toxic than what is currently used. Devin Barrett, an IBNAM-Baxter postdoctoral fellow in the Messersmith lab, demonstrated how their synthetic material adheres to a tissue replica.
National Academy of Engineering Election
Stupp Honored for Work on Self-assembled Polymers for Biomedical Applications
Samuel I. Stupp, Board of Trustees Professor of Materials Science, Chemistry, and Medicine and Director of the Institute for BioNanotechnology in Medicine, was added to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) membership roster for 2012. The organization recognized Stupp for advances in processes of self-assembled polymers for biomedical applications.
Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature," and to the "pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."
NAE Announcement | Press Northwestern
Biomaterials Science: A New Scientific Journal
Messersmith Named an Editor-in-Chief
Phillip Messersmith, professor of biomedical engineering, has been named an Editor-in-Chief of the new journal, Biomaterials Science. The new publication is a joint venture of the Royal Society of Chemistry in the United Kingdom and Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) in Japan. This international journal focuses on material science, biology, chemistry, and biophysics and is aimed at bringing together the molecular and mesoscopic interactions of biomaterials and their prospective applications.
Press Release | Biomaterials Science
Highlight in Science
Innovative Fibers May Help Conquer Worldwide Concerns
Performance and cost are among the major issues in developing answers to improvements in healthcare and sustainable energy resources. In Science Samuel Stupp, Takuzo Aida (professor of chemistry at the University of Tokyo), and E.W. Meijer (professor of biomedical engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology) define their years of research in functional supramolecular polymers and how these rationally designed systems can contribute to advancements in the areas of medicine, energy, and the environment. Supramolecular chemistry offers economical advantages in creating functional materials to resolve global issues. These scientists are optimistic their work can address long-standing challenges such as developing synthetic materials with structure and bioactivity to repair native tissues, designing tunable plastics to make cars stronger and lighter, as well as enabling electronic circuits to become flexible and consume less power.
Link to paper | Press Northwestern
Ramille Shah honored by Association of Women in Science
Role Model in the Lab and Scientific Community
The Chicago Chapter of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) profiled Ramille N. Shah as the October 2011 Scientist of the Month. Shah’s research group is based at IBNAM where they develop soy-based biomaterials, create scaffolds from hybrid biomaterials, and explore mechanical and ultrasonic stimulation of cells in scaffolding systems with the goal of regenerating musculoskeletal tissues such as cartilage, bone, meniscus, tendon, and ligament. Learn about Shah’s career path, research interests, and her leadership role in Chicago’s research scene.
Shah will participate in an AWIS Chicago panel discussion on November 1 to share insights on career paths for women scientists.
Full Article | AWIS Event Information
IBNAM APPOINTS DEPUTY DIRECTOR
Melina Kibbe Steps into New Leadership Role
Melina R. Kibbe, MD, associate professor of surgery in the Division of Vascular Surgery at Feinberg School of Medicine (FSM), will serve as the first Deputy Director of the Institute for BioNanotechnology in Medicine (IBNAM). Kibbe has been a resident member of the Institute since 2006 and she has spawned many important research collaborations with other IBNAM members. In this key leadership role Kibbe will work closely with IBNAM Director, Samuel I. Stupp, Board of Trustees Professor of Materials Science, Chemistry, and Medicine, on strategic initiatives that will influence the Institute’s future development. In particular, she will help develop new programs designed to foster connections between Feinberg faculty, key collaborators at IBNAM, and other faculty based on the Evanston campus.
Blood vessels by design
Stupp and Losordo Collaboration
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that researchers from IBNAM and the Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute have developed and tested in vivo a nanostructure that promotes growth of new blood vessels and shows promise as a therapy to increase blood flow to oxygen-deprived tissue. Samuel Stupp's group designed the nanomaterial that mimics the protein called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). 
The nanomaterial induces the biological effect of VEGF to signal processes in cells that lead to blood vessel growth, and it exhibited the added advantages of remaining in the tissue longer and having greater potency than VEGF. In vivo tests in an animal model of peripheral arterial disease performed in the Losordo laboratory demonstrated that the nanofiber was effective in increasing blood flow. This project was launched by an IBNAM/Baxter Incubator Award and nanomaterials were produced by the IBNAM Peptide Synthesis Core Facility.
Link to Paper | Press Northwestern, Chicago Tribune, MIT
Creating Cell-like Microcapsules
Work Done at IBNAM and NUANCE Facilities
Peptide amphiphiles and oppositely charged polymers can self-assemble into highly organized membranes at the interface of two aqueous solutions. In Angewandte Chemie International Edition Dorota Rozkiewicz, Ben Myers, and Samuel Stupp reported how the biopolymer was sprayed into a peptide amphiphile solution to template the formation of cell-like microcapsules. Highlighted as the cover of the week, the cover image shows SEM micrographs of a group of filamentous microcapsules, a single capsule (blue), the surface nanofilaments (yellow), and a membrane cross section (sepia).
IBNAM-Baxter Projects
Early Career
IBNAM-Baxter Early Career Development Award recipients for 2010 begin their postdoctoral fellowships at IBNAM. Devin Barrett will explore new clinical applications for mussel-inspired adhesives as Stephanie Seidlits investigates ways to optimize neural cell development.