Bone Marrow

Artificial bone marrow that can continuously make red and white blood cells has been created in Nicholas Kotov's lab. This development could lead to simpler pharmaceutical drug testing, closer study of immune system defects, and a continuous supply of blood for transfusions. The marrow is not made to be implanted in the body, like most 3-D biomedical scaffolds. It is designed to function in a test tube.

A paper about these research findings was published in the February 2009 issue of Biomaterials.

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Glotzer recives NSS grant

Sharon Glotzer received a $4.3 million, five-year grant through a National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship. This fellowship will allow Sharon and her students to use modeling and simulation to discover how to create shape-shifting materials from nanoparticles.
In the national security realm, such materials could be used for protective uniforms and gear, chemical detection, and stealth, for example. An aircraft conceivably could be painted with a material that changes its appearance as a chameleon does.
Also, see Physics Today article (PDF)

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Nature and Nanotechnology Fuse in Electric Yarn

Researchers in the Department of Chemical Engineering have been working on a carbon nanotube-coated "smart yarn" that conducts electricity that could be woven into soft fabrics that detect blood and monitor health. Nick Kotov and Bongsup Shim, a doctoral student in the department, are among the co-authors of a paper on this material currently published online in Nano Letters.

"Currently, smart textiles are made primarily of metallic or optical fibers. They're fragile. They're not comfortable," says Kotov. "We have found a much simpler way [of creating smart textiles]-an elegant way-by combining two fibers, one natural and one created by nanotechnology."

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Shtein recieves PECASE

Max Shtein received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The award from the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy is the federal government's highest honor to early-career scientists and engineers.

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Podsiadlo wins Collegiate Inventors Competition

Paul Podsiadlo, recent PhD graduate, was the winner of the 2008 Collegiate Inventors Competition in the graduate category. His invention "Ultra-Strong and Stiff, Optically Transparent Plastic Nanocomposites" was based on his doctoral research with Professor Nick Kotov on ultra-strong nanostructured composites.

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Michigan professor's lab-on-a-chip kit a top innovation of 2008

Mark Burns' lab's make-your-own-microfluidic-device kit has been named one of The Scientist magazine's top 10 innovations of 2008. Minsoug Rhee, a graduate student in the Burns' group, developed the 16-piece set of microfluidic building blocks

The device, also known as a "lab-on-a-chip," integrates multiple laboratory functions onto one chip just millimeters or centimeters in size. The kit in essence brings the lab on a chip to the scientific masses. It cuts the costs and the time involved in making one from days to minutes. (Illustration above by Hanna Bae)(2008)

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Faculty Recognition Award, Michael J. Solomon

Researcher and scholar Michael Solomon, associate professor of chemical engineering and macromolecular science and engineering, is known as a passionate teacher and mentor and a cherished colleague. He has established a world-recognized laboratory for the study of complex fluids and is one of the leaders of a new generation of chemical engineering faculty who are using advances on confocal microscopy, as well as other state-of-the-art methods in scattering, to reveal the microstructure and dynamics of colloidal materials in real space.(2008)

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Versatile coating for biomedical devices lets them interact with live cells

A new type of plastic coating made from vapor developed by Joerg Lahann and his research group (left) could lead to better biomedical devices such as stents and catheters that are "bioactive," meaning they can interact with the living cells around them in unique ways.The coating binds to a broad range of materials including glass, stainless steel, Teflon and silicon. More like a paint than a blanket, it is able to preserve the precise shape of the device it covers. The outer surface of the coating can be made to attract or repel certain molecules such as platelets or proteins. "We recognized that the biomedical devices have to be bioactive. You need to have biological signatures that can actively mitigate the response of the body to the implant," said Lahann, the Dow Corning Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering. (2008)

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Yang recieves DOE award

Ralph Yang has received the Department of Energy's (DOE) 2008 DOE Hydrogen Program R & D Award at the Annual Hydrogen Review Conference in Washington DC in June. This award was given to him for his "pioneering work on hydrogen storage by spillover."

The hydrogen spillover phenomenon that occurs in many catalytic reactions has been known to exist for over 40 years. About 7 years ago, Dr. Yang started using this phenomenon to develop sorbents for hydrogen storage at ambient temperature, which could be used in future fuel cell cars. Few thought this approach would work, but Yang and his research group were able to show promising results under the DOE sponsorship and now over 30 research groups around the world are following their approach in the search for new materials for hydrogen storage. (2008)

Fogler named one of top 30 Authors of Groundbreaking ChE Books

Scott Fogler was named by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) as one of the "Thirty Authors of Groundbreaking Chemical Engineering Books" for his widely used textbook Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering. (2008)

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Weber chosen as an "Engineer of the Modern Era"

Walt Weber was chosen as one of the American Institute of Chemical Engineer's (AIChE) "One Hundred Engineers of the Modern Era" in honor of his many accomplishments in the area of environmental process dynamics & system sustainability. (2008)

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Kotov wins NASA Nanotech Brief award

Nick Kotov and his group have won a NASA Nanotech Briefs Nano 50 Award for their work on Ultrastrong Layered Polymer Nanocomposites. Nanotech Briefs is a digital newsletter on nanotechnology. Nick received the award for the group at a ceremony in November. (2008)

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Linic recieves DuPont award

Suljo Linic is a recipient of the 2008 DuPont Young Professor award. Initiated in 1968, the DuPont award provides research support for three years. The award is awarded annually to 10-15 investigators worldwide, across multiple scientific disciplines. (2008)

Glotzer recieves Stine Award

Sharon Glotzer will receive the 2008 Charles M. A. Stine Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers for her work in pioneering simulations of glass-forming liquids and self-assembled nanomaterials, and for her leadership and service to the materials community.(2008)

Levi Thompson: Building clean energy from the atom up

Dr. Levi Thompson is engrossed in one of the most socially important realms of engineering: finding ways to generate clean energy and reduce polluting emissions from autos and other products. He's a leader in the development of hydrogen fuel cell technology. And his work in catalysis could lead to solutions for our most pressing problems-energy, health care, and water. (2008)

Read the full story in Michigan Today.
Image: Chemical Engineering professor Levi Thompson pictured with a microfuel cell.)

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