Calvin Kersbergen presented at the annual Cornell BioExpo poster competition for the lab's research on manipulating capillary plug rate through depletion of leukocytes in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. BioExpo is a research symposium that celebrates biological and biomedical research performed by undergraduates and masters of engineering students on campus and is organized by the Institute of Biological Engineers at Cornell. His poster, “Stalled blood flow in cortical capillaries, caused by recurrent plugging by leukocytes, contributes to brain blood flow reductions in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease", placed 2nd in the poster competition, winning a $250 cash prize!

 

 

A number of people have completed degrees at Cornell from the lab this year. Ida Bernstein, Rob Fetcho, Dalanda Jalloh, Susie Jin, Sanket Pattanaik, and Steve Tilley all received undergraduate degrees. Morgan Brophy, Ryan Chowdhury, Jason Jones, and Andy Siliciano all received Master of Engineering degrees. Finally, Matt Farrar and Puifai Santisakultarm received Ph.D. degrees. Congratulations to all the graduates!

 

 

Ladies of the lab show off their karaoke skillz at The Haunt

 

 

Matt Farr, pictured with the mouse spinal implant he invented, worked with colleagues to develop surgical techniques and imaging procedures that enable long-term, time-lapsed imaging in the mouse spinal cord. An advanced online version of the paper on this work appeared in Nature Methods in late January and the paper will appear in the print version of the journal later this year. The new procedure will enable researchers to study the dynamic interaction among spinal cord axons, inflammatory cells, and other components of the spinal cord after spinal cord injury with unprecedented detail. The approach may also prove useful in studying other diseases of the spinal cord. An article highlighting this new work also appeared in the Cornell Chronicle. A second article discussing the impact of this work appeared in the Cornell Daily Sun. The Alzheimer Research Forum also highlighted the work.

 

 

Several Schaffer Lab members participated in Cornell's Commencement Ceremony this year. Nate Rosidi, John Nguyen, and Flor Cianchetti (see photo!) all participated in the Ph.D. ceremony in the Biomedical Engineering department. All three will defend their thesis and complete their Ph.D.'s this summer. In addition, Bennett Rummel and Bong Kyo Seo completed their Master of Engineering degrees in Biomedical Engineering. Finally, four undergraduates from the lab graduated: Evan Bander, Gabe Otte, Sally Dimiduk, and Francesca Minale. Congratulations to all the graduates!

Nozomi speaks on The Academic Minute about her new Menopause Health Engineering Initiative!

The McClintock Letters program, organized by Cornell's ASAP (and advised by Chris Schaffer), is being officially recognized by Research Amer!ca for being a "clear voice" for public health communication in a time when it's desperately needed.
Read more about the McClintock Letters here.

 

 

MouseGoggles, the cutesy VR headset developed by Matt Isaacson and Hongyu Chang in the Schaffer-Nishimura and Ellwood Labs, has made its way to the Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Move over Nature - being a 15-second gag on late night TV is the real scientific achievement.

Cornell's new Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) program, funded by the National Institutes of Health, was profiled in Science Careers. One track in Cornell's BEST program focuses on science policy and is led by Chris Schaffer.

A blog post on the AAAS Member Central website describes the goals of Chris Schaffer's new science policy course, BME 4440 Science Policy Bootcamp: From Concept to Conclusion. This course is being offered for the first time this Fall, with an enrollment of about 20 undergraduate and graduate student scientists.