September 2001
From Duke University
National Biomedical Engineering Society meeting Oct. 4-7 in North Carolina DURHAM, N.C. -- The annual fall meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society is expected to attract more than 1,100 researchers to Research Triangle Park area Oct. 4-7 for an array of presentations in areas encompassing the breadth of the bioengineering field.Research talks and poster sessions will describe the latest findings in areas ranging from artificial organs and prosthetics to molecular and cellular bioengineering, and from drug and gene delivery to neural systems and tissue engineering. A complete conference description is available at http://www.BMES2001.duke.edu. The conference will be held at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center near Research Triangle Park and Raleigh-Durham International Airport. It is supported by 16 institutions, organizations and companies, including the Whitaker Foundation, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, National Institutes of Health and the biomedical engineering department at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering. Donna Dean, acting director of the recently created National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, is scheduled to speak on new opportunities for NIH research funding in the field at 5:45 p.m. Oct. 6. in Empire Ballroom A-E. At 4 p.m. Oct. 6 in the Sandhills meeting room, speakers at a special historical session will recall the achievements of Duke engineers and clinicians in ultrasound imaging and instrumentation and in electrophysiology from 1965 to the present. Other presentations include: Research on the engineered control of cellular functions using synthetic "designer gene networks" will be described by Boston University researchers at 4 p.m. Oct. 5 in the hotel auditorium. Pioneering animal work that has demonstrated the feasibility of using brain signals to control movement of robot arms will be discussed by scientists from Duke and from the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn at 4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Oct. 6 in the Royal meeting room. The use of a special fiberoptic stethoscope in conjunction with magnetic resonance microscopy to image the heart will be discussed by Duke researchers at 5 p.m. on Oct. 6 in the Crown meeting room. A new approach to tissue engineering, in which stem cells and other growth and differentiation components are assembled and programmed prior to transplantation to mimic the chemical and physical microenvironment of developing tissue, will be covered by Cornell University researchers at 2:15 p.m. Oct. 7 in the Empire Ballroom B.
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