Message from the Department Chair
In the past, I’ve explored the theme of growth: of our faculty, our student body, our facilities, awards, and our funding. I can’t help returning to it now, with so many wonderful things happening now and in the near future:
BioE-based startup companies—including Wesk Medical, which invented a drug-delivering endotracheal tube; SafleLiCell, which produces solid-state polymer electrolytes for lithium-ion batteries; and Diagnostic anSERS, which produces printed, paper sensors—are all hard at work, refining their products and marketing strategies while applying for patents and participating in business plan competitions. Associate Professor Silvia Muro won the university’s Professor Venture Fair for a novel drug delivery system that could make oral delivery of certain drugs possible for the first time.
Meanwhile, Remedium Technologies, co-founded by alumnus and former Fischell Fellow Matt Dowling (Ph.D. ‘10), has received a $500,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the NSF to support pre-clinical trials of Hemogrip™, a sprayable foam that halts bleeding caused by traumatic injuries.
We have more graduating seniors than ever. This spring, 15 Capstone design teams, advised by an ever-expanding roster of faculty and regional physicians, exhibited new biomedical devices they hope will someday improve human health around the world.
Our international partnerships are blossoming as well, including student exchanges with the Centre for Integrative Biology at the University of Trento, Italy, and research partnerships with Wuhan University, one of China’s top ten educational institutions, where Gregory Payne is currently serving a guest professorship.
This summer, we’ll welcoming our newest faculty member, Steven M. Jay, who specializes in vascular biology, exosomal nanotechnology, and clinical translation—among many other things!
And where are we going to put our growing bioengineering community? We’re thrilled to announce we’ll soon break ground on a new bioengineering building, scheduled for completion in 2017. The facility will finally gather most if not all of our faculty, staff, labs and students in one place, and also serve as a home to both the Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices and the University of Maryland’s Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation, part of our partnership with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
We have so many great things to report, I can't list them all here! For the latest news about our research, faculty, students, honors and awards, please visit bioe.umd.edu/news.
All the Best,
William E. Bentley
Robert E. Fischell Distinguished Professor and Chair
2330 Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building
University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
Email: bentley@umd.edu
Phone: 301-405-4321
Fax: 301-405-9953
Visit Professor Bentley's websites: www.bentley.umd.edu and www.biochip.umd.edu
Learn More:
Undergraduate Studies in Bioengineering »
The Graduate Program in Bioengineering »
