# Presentation: 682628

## Biomedical Engineering

**Bioengineering & Engineering Healthcare Cluster**
**Biomedical Engineering**
**Program Director  -  Semahat Demir, Ph.D.   ****	****	****	****        ****sdemir@n****sf.gov**

**Research Focus of the BME Program**
**** **The ****Biomedical Engineering**** **(**BME**)** program**
**    **** ****supports fundamental, transformative, and**
**    **** ****discovery research applied to biological systems.**

## The mission of BME Program

**The mission of BME Program**

** ****to ****provide opportunities**** to develop novel**
**    **** ****ideas into discovery-level and transformative**
**    **** ****projects that integrate engineering and life**
**    **** ****science principles in solving biomedical**
**    **** ****problems that serve humanity in the long-term**
** ****to ****advance both engineering and life sciences**** **
**    **** ****with biomedical engineering projects that are **
**   ****   ****at the interface of engineering and biomedical**
**    **** ****sciences.**

**Notes:**
 During FY 1999, NSF took action on 28,504 competitive, merit reviewed research and education proposals. The number of proposals reviewed annually by NSF has been reasonably stable at around 30,000 proposals since 1995.
 51,900 individuals either served on a panel, were sent a proposal for mail review, or served in both functions. Of these reviewers, 16 percent were female, 77 percent were male, and for 7 percent the gender was unknown. The data for minorities is not of sufficient quality to publish. (due in part to voluntary self-reporting).
 NSF funding was awarded to 9,112 of the proposals, resulting in an overall funding rate of 32 percent.  The number of awards made each year has varied between approximately 9,000 and 10,000.  The overall funding rate has varied little since 1995. However, funding rates among directorates varied considerably, ranging from 27 percent to 42 percent.

## The BME unsolicited projects must

**The BME unsolicited projects must**

- o
**Be fundamental, transformative, and discovery research**
**Develop novel ideas integrating engineering and life science principles in solving biomedical problems that serve humanity in the long-term**
**Focus on high impact transforming methods and technologies and include**
**methods, models and tools of understanding and controlling  of living systems; **
**fundamental improvements in deriving information from cells, tissues, organs, and organ systems;**** **
**new approaches to the design of structures and materials for eventual medical use;**
**information technology relevant to biotechnology including bioinformatics;**
** **
**and new novel methods of reducing health care costs through new technologies**
**Emphasize the advancement of fundamental engineering knowledge, possibly leading to the development of new methods and technologies**
**Emphasize novel application of existing technologies to advance fundamental knowledge of both engineering and life science**
**Highlight multi-disciplinary nature, integrating engineering and the life sciences**
**Balance theory, mathematical modeling, and experiment**** **

**Notes:**
 During FY 1999, NSF took action on 28,504 competitive, merit reviewed research and education proposals. The number of proposals reviewed annually by NSF has been reasonably stable at around 30,000 proposals since 1995.
 51,900 individuals either served on a panel, were sent a proposal for mail review, or served in both functions. Of these reviewers, 16 percent were female, 77 percent were male, and for 7 percent the gender was unknown. The data for minorities is not of sufficient quality to publish. (due in part to voluntary self-reporting).
 NSF funding was awarded to 9,112 of the proposals, resulting in an overall funding rate of 32 percent.  The number of awards made each year has varied between approximately 9,000 and 10,000.  The overall funding rate has varied little since 1995. However, funding rates among directorates varied considerably, ranging from 27 percent to 42 percent.

## Answers to FAQs

**Answers to FAQs**

**The Biomedical Engineering (BME) program supports fundamental, transformative, and discovery research applied to biological systems.**
** **
**Integration of engineering expertise with life science principles is an essential requirement for advances in this field.**
** **
**Projects submitted to the BME Program must advance both engineering and life sciences and be at the interface of engineering and life sciences.**
**The projects can be with diagnosis or treatment-related goals in the long-term. The BME program does not support clinical studies.**

**Notes:**
 During FY 1999, NSF took action on 28,504 competitive, merit reviewed research and education proposals. The number of proposals reviewed annually by NSF has been reasonably stable at around 30,000 proposals since 1995.
 51,900 individuals either served on a panel, were sent a proposal for mail review, or served in both functions. Of these reviewers, 16 percent were female, 77 percent were male, and for 7 percent the gender was unknown. The data for minorities is not of sufficient quality to publish. (due in part to voluntary self-reporting).
 NSF funding was awarded to 9,112 of the proposals, resulting in an overall funding rate of 32 percent.  The number of awards made each year has varied between approximately 9,000 and 10,000.  The overall funding rate has varied little since 1995. However, funding rates among directorates varied considerably, ranging from 27 percent to 42 percent.

## Aging, Tooth Fracture and the Success of Restorative Dentistry

**   **** ****Dwayne D. Arola  -  University of Maryland Baltimore County**

**Aging, Tooth Fracture and the Success of Restorative Dentistry**

**The **_**specific aims**_** were to: ****1)  Identify the influence of aging on the mechanics of crack growth in dentin, and ****2)  Quantify energy dissipation in dentin using a hybrid approach.****The **_**results**_** showed that changes in the microstructure of dentin with age cause a significant reduction in the resistance to both crack initiation and steady-state growth      (i.e. toughness).  This work is addressing the need for age-specific restorative practices ****in dentistry.**                                                                                              **CBET-BES-023823**

**Young dentin (age≤30)**

**Old dentin (age≥55)**

## NSF/FDA SIR: Fiber-Optic Common-Path Endoscopic Optical Coherence Tomography for Non-Invasive Optical Biopsy

**Aim:****  The aim of this work is to investigate a novel method of achieving ultrahigh-resolution, high speed, *****in-vivo***** cancer imaging based on common-path endoscopic optical coherence tomography (CP-OCT)**
**Result:****  The Kang Research Team has fully investigated, experimentally and theoretically, the signal-to-noise issues with both time domain CP-OCT and Fourier-domain CP-OCT.**
**Based on that the Team has optimized the CP-OCT and obtained in-vivo images of rat brain tumors, retina and other tissues.                                                                          ****CBET-0716515**

**NSF/FDA SIR: Fiber-Optic Common-Path Endoscopic Optical Coherence Tomography for Non-Invasive Optical Biopsy**

**Rat Brain Tumor**

**Frog Retina**

##   ITR: High-Resolution Cortical Imaging 

** **** ****ITR: High-Resolution Cortical Imaging **
** **** ****of Brain Electrical Activity**

_**Aim**_**:****  Develop and evaluate functional neuroimaging techniques integrating functional MRI and EEG source imaging.**
_**Results**_**:****  fMRI and EEG during visual stimulation were acquired simultaneously and integrated together. **
- (**a**)** outside of MRI scanner;**
** **
- (**b**)** inside MRI scanner without fMRI;**
** **
- (**c**)** simultaneous fMRI-EEG recordings.**
**Multimodal neuroimaging shows enhanced spatial resolution compared to source imaging using EEG alone.**
** **
**Image from Im et al., J. Neurosci. Meth, 157(1): 118-123,** **2006.**

** ****NSF BES-0411898**

##   CAREER: Educational Program in Neuromuscular Biomechanics 

** ****Aims:**** To quantify the sensorimotor **** capabilities of the brain-hand**** system for dexterous manipulation**** ****Results:**** 1**)** Healthy people all have a very****     **** ****consistent limit of dexterity**** 2**)** Specific diseases have ****     **** ****“signatures,” which enable ****     **** ****quantification of impairment ****     **** ****and recovery **** 3**)** The Research Team can ****     **** ****systematically test the ****     **** ****neuromechanical control of the ****     **** ****fingers and networks of brain activity to study the neuroanatomical foundations of****     **** ****dexterous manipulation**** 4**)** We are applying this to study the development of dexterity in children****  **

** **** ****CAREER: Educational Program in Neuromuscular Biomechanics **
** ****and Uncovering the Neuromuscular Biomechanics **
** ****of Dexterous Manipulation**

**  ****CBET-BES-0237258**

##  ADVANCE Fellows Award:  The Development of a Tissue-

-   **Goal:****  To fabricate a tissue-engineered vascular graft that can be fabricated from a treated**** ****protein matrix and seeded with bone marrow-derived cells.  The differentiated phenotype of**** ****the cells comprising the graft can be controlled by the matrix**** ****Result:****  A novel matrix was developed based on PEGylated fibrin.  The Suggs Team**** ****determined that this matrix has the unique ability to promote the transdifferentiation **** ****of MSCs towards an endothelial cell phenotype**

** ****ADVANCE Fellows Award:  The Development of a Tissue-**
** ****Engineered Vascular Graft from Multipotent Adult Progenitor Cells**

**Immunohistochemical staining against **
**CD31(A) and vwf (B) of hMSCs embedded in BTC-PEG fibrin.**
** **
**Nuclear counterstain with DAPI.(20x)**

**Expression of angiogenic genes in hMSCs cultures in PEGylated fibrin at days 3, 7 and 14.**
** **
**Results normalized to actin levels and again to expression of hMSCs in fibrin only.**

**CBET-BES-0137590**

##  Biomimetic Engineering of Responsive Biomaterials

-  **Aims:**** ****1. Investigate the nature and consequence of spasmin conformational **** ****change in response to calcium.**** ****2. Formulate design criteria for calcium-responsive contractile materials **** ****mimicking spasmoneme and test the validity of the design through ****  **** ****constructing synthetic polymer hydrogels.**

** ****Biomimetic Engineering of Responsive Biomaterials**

** ****Calcium-responsive spasmin hydrogel**

**A model structure of spasmin**

**Spasmoneme contractile fiber**
**[from *****Science***** 2000, 288, 95]**

**BES 0547613**

## CAREER: Hydrogels for Matrix-Tethered Gene Delivery

**University of California, Los Angeles**

**CAREER: Hydrogels for Matrix-Tethered Gene Delivery**

**The Segura Research Team is interested in the design and synthesis of hydrogel materials that can deliver DNA to infiltrating cells.  The aim of these results was to synthesize an enzymatically degradable hydrogel scaffold that contained DNA nanoparticles that could transfect cells.  The Research Team found that cells seeded in this scaffold were able to infiltrate the scaffold, internalize DNA nanoparticles and express the transgene for the 21-days of incubation. **

**Cluster **
**of cells**

**DNA nanoparticle**

**Invading Cell**

**Hydrogel**

**4-days**

**9-days**

**13-days**

**17-days**

**CBET-0747539**

## CAREER:  Biomechanics of Polymerization Motors

**CAREER:  Biomechanics of Polymerization Motors**
** ****and Cell Motility**

**The cytoskeleton of cells changes dynamically in response to mechanical forces.  In order to study reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton in the direction of an applied force, the Research Team developed a “side view” Atomic Force Microscope.**

**CBET-0348758**

## NIRT: Active Nanostructure Enabled On-Chip 

** ****Ultimate goal:****  ****On-chip spectroscopy system for cancer detection**** **(**1**)** *****Tunable nanostructure for focusing and frequency selection:*****  ****Fabricated**** ****       tunable photonic crystal structure for focusing and spectroscopy (Fig. 1).  Also**** ****       fabricated mechanical actuators (Fig. 2) for mechanical tuning.  Currently working**** ****       on optimizing mechanical flexibility for stable operation.**** **(**2**)** *****New nanostructure design based on nanoclusters*****:****  ****Demonstrated high-quality**** ****       periodic array of nanoclusters by template-directed self-assembly (Fig. 3).  The new**** ****       design provides strong magnetic response at optical frequencies.**** **** **(**3**)** *****Nanoprobes for biomarker detection*****:****  ****Demonstrated synthesis of nanoprobes**** ****       and DNA conjugation, Demonstrated detection of point mutation both in solution**** ****       and in cells, Achieved enhanced sensitivity by scattering measurements.**

**NIRT: Active Nanostructure Enabled On-Chip **
**Spectroscopy System for Cancer Detection**

**Fig. 1**

** ****Fig. 2**

**Fig. 3**

** ****BES-0608934**

## Multi-Scale Modeling of the Heart: From Genotype to Phenotype 

**New multi-scale models of cardiac electromechanical interactions****, ****that integrate from molecular ****to organ system scales, have provided new mechanistic insights into the molecular mechanisms of inherited arrhythmias **(**in this case LQT3**).

**Multi-Scale Modeling of the Heart: From Genotype to Phenotype**