Research Category
Like geese and race cars, cancer cells draft their way to new sites
Mar. 25, 2019—Finding gives boost to fighting through cell metabolism NASCAR has nothing on cancer cells when it comes to exploiting the power of drafting, letting someone else do the hard work of moving forward while you coast behind. Building on the relatively new discovery that metastatic cancer cells leave tumors and travel in clusters, not singles,...
New low-profile ankle exoskeleton fits under clothes for potential broad adoption
Mar. 21, 2019—A new lightweight, low-profile and inexpensive ankle exoskeleton could be widely used among elderly people, those with impaired lower-leg muscle strength and workers whose jobs require substantial walking or running. Developed by Vanderbilt mechanical engineers, the device is believed to be the first ankle exoskeleton that could be worn under clothes without restricting motion. It...
Robot-guided video game prompts peer interaction among older adults
Mar. 18, 2019—Two residents of Elmcroft Senior Living sat side-by-side facing a large screen, raising their hands in tandem as watch-style devices on their wrists controlled the avatars in front of them. Every so often, a squat little robot off to the side would remind them the object of the game: Get your avatar’s books into the...
Biomedical engineering professor named a Fellow of optics society
Mar. 4, 2019—Audrey Ellerbee Bowden has been named a Fellow of SPIE, international society for optics and photonics, “for achievements in optical coherence tomography.” Bowden, associate professor of biomedical engineering, has developed several new system designs that advance optical coherence tomography, an imaging technique that provides high-resolution imaging of subsurface tissue structures. She works with clinicians to...
Skin diseases study uses crowdsourcing to gather data
Mar. 1, 2019—For any number of diseases involving the skin, research into causes and cures requires isolating and quantifying in a reliable way the proportion of affected skin, one research subject after another, the more the better. This is achieved with medical photography, computer monitors, and mouse-dragging by a research dermatologist to carefully demarcate affected areas. With...
Webster named Richard A. Schroeder Chair in Mechanical Engineering
Feb. 28, 2019—Robert J. Webster III, whose work has led to tools and methods for surgeries that require little or no incision, has been named the Richard A. Schroeder Chair in Mechanical Engineering. He is among Vanderbilt University’s newest endowed chair holders. In all, eight recipients were celebrated for their path-breaking scholarship and research by family members,...
Yale expert in advanced membrane materials to deliver Hall Lecture on March 13
Feb. 28, 2019—Menachem Elimelech, an internationally recognized scholar of membrane-based technologies for next-generation desalination and water purification, will deliver the John R. and Donna S. Hall Engineering Lecture on March 13. Elimelech is the Roberto Goizueta Professor at the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale University. His research focuses on the water-energy nexus, next-generation materials...
Researchers collaborate on $3.9 million NIH study of child-specific cochlear implant programming
Feb. 27, 2019—Researchers from the School of Engineering and Vanderbilt University Medical Center are working to improve outcomes for children with significant hearing loss by providing individualized, prescription-like programming for their cochlear implants. The study, funded by a $3.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, to aims to determine whether the approach will impact a...