Five NIBIB grantees received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers: Ambika Goel Bajpayee, Northeastern University; Samira Kiani, University of Pittsburgh; Kanaka Rajan, Harvard Medical School; Parisa Rashidi, University of Florida; and William Renninger, University of Rochester. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. Government on outstanding scientists and engineers at the early career stage.

AI, specifically, machine learning, can help improve the quality of these MRI images, making it easier for doctors to diagnose patients. Machine learning involves training AI on a lot of data to recognize trends and make predictions on new data it receives. Source: Curious Science Writers

Rice University bioengineers have developed a new construction kit for building custom sense-and-respond circuits in human cells. The research, published in the journal Science, represents a major breakthrough in the field of synthetic biology that could revolutionize therapies for complex conditions like autoimmune disease and cancer. Source: Rice University News & Media Relations

Former NIBIB Director Dr. Roderic I. Pettigrew's viewpoint article in JAMA discusses the integration of medicine and engineering to transform how disease is prevented, diagnosed, and treated. JAMA

A new gene editing tool that helps cellular machinery skip parts of genes responsible for diseases has been applied to reduce the formation of amyloid-beta plaque precursors in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign report. Source: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign News Bureau

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineers developed AI frameworks to identify evidence-driven hypotheses that could advance biologically inspired materials. Source: MIT News

Researchers at Boston University and the Wyss Institute at Harvard University have invented a new approach to biologically engineering tissue structures called ESCAPE (engineered sacrificial capillary pumps for evacuation). Source: Wyss Institute/Harvard University News

Parinaz Fathi, a Rockville native who graduated from the University of Maryland in 2015 before moving on to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to complete her Ph.D.in 2020, has been named tot he 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 List in the Science category. Source: The MoCo Show

Parinaz Fathi ’15 (mechanical engineering) was featured on the Science list. She developed VIPER (Vital Injury Protein Evaluation for Recovery), a powerful tool that can predict survival in cases of traumatic injury. Source: Maryland Today