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November, 2020

Alumnus-founded GreenLight Medical expands to answer COVID-related needs

Nov. 30, 2020—As the COVID-19 crisis hit, businesses around the world pushed pause. GreenLight Medical CEO Austin Dirks saw things differently. “If we could double down and get aggressive, this could be an opportunity,” he says. “As medical supplies became scarce, we could connect the dots—linking hospitals and health care systems with suppliers.” GreenLight bills itself as...

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Engineering professor Ndukaife wins award in Rising Stars of Light global competition

Nov. 30, 2020—Justus Ndukaife, assistant professor of electrical engineering, spent 20 minutes describing his optical nanotweezers to a panel of five distinguished professors from the United States, Australia, and China during a live online competition—Rising Stars of Light—that has drawn 260,000 viewers worldwide. After two sessions in which 10 finalists presented their research in a global campaign...

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Vanderbilt is key partner as Chattanooga named G20 Alliance ‘pioneer city’ for global smart tech roadmap

Nov. 23, 2020—Chattanooga, Tennessee is one of only two U.S. cities that will pioneer a smart technology policy roadmap as part of the G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance and Vanderbilt researchers are playing a significant role in shaping the city’s roadmap. The announcement came last week from the World Economic Forum amid the global broadcast of the Smart...

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Imaging brain’s white matter is predictive “biomarker” for Alzheimer’s disease progression

Nov. 20, 2020—Measuring changes in functional connectivity of the brain’s white matter, which is made up of nerve fibers and their protective myelin coating, can predict Alzheimer’s disease progression, researchers in the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science have found. Previous studies have correlated variations in blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) signals detected by functional magnetic resonance...

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Vanderbilt researchers bring paradigm-shifting technology to endoscopic procedures

Nov. 19, 2020—A collaboration between international and Vanderbilt University researchers is helping to update a tried-and-true medical technology for the 21st century. The development of an intelligent and autonomous Magnetic Flexible Endoscope holds the promise of making colonoscopies safer, less painful, more widely available and less expensive. The article “Enabling the future of colonoscopy with intelligent and...

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Rafat receives Conquer Cancer Award from Concern Foundation

Nov. 18, 2020—Marjan Rafat, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, has received an award for young and innovative cancer researchers from the Concern Foundation. With it, she will investigate whether and how radiation therapy for triple negative breast cancer encourages circulating tumor cells to return to the original tumor site, creating conditions for relapse. She...

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Engineering scholar Katherine Russo receives AAUW fellowship

Nov. 17, 2020—AAUW programs aim to tackle barriers women face in education Graduate student Katherine Russo has been awarded a 2020-2021 fellowship from the American Association of University Women. The AAUW awards grants and fellowships to scholars who pursue academic work and lead innovative community projects to empower women and girls. It is one of the world’s...

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Engineering lab returns during Vanderbilt’s Research Ramp-up to advance research in neurodegeneration

Nov. 16, 2020—The lab of Ethan Lippmann, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and biomedical engineering, seeks to model, understand, and ultimately treat neurodegeneration, focusing primarily on the blood-brain barrier, a border of protective blood vessels found in the brain. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Lippmann’s team in the Neurovascular Engineering and Therapeutic Design Laboratory was firing...

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