‘Melissa Skala’
Biomedical engineering researcher receives NSF Early Career award
Mar. 4, 2016—A Vanderbilt biomedical engineering researcher has received a Faculty Early Career Development award from the National Science Foundation. Melissa Skala, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, is a pioneering researcher in the development of optical imaging, optical spectroscopy and nanotechnology for cancer diagnosis and therapy. The $509,000, five-year award begins May 1, 2016. According to the...
Amy Shah receives Vanderbilt’s Lai Sulin Scholarship
Jan. 15, 2016—Amy T. Shah, a biomedical engineering doctoral candidate, has received the 2015 Lai Sulin Scholarship. The award, given to a Vanderbilt University graduate student who conducts research in an area related to cancer, carries a $5,000 stipend and will be presented in early 2016. Shah’s current research with biomedical engineering professor Melissa Skala applies optical...
Improving breast cancer chemo by testing tumors in a dish
Oct. 28, 2014—One of the tragic realities of cancer is that the drugs used to treat it are highly toxic and their effectiveness varies unpredictably from patient to patient. However, a new “tumor-in-a-dish” technology is poised to change this reality by rapidly assessing how effective specific anti-cancer cocktails will be on an individual’s cancer before chemotherapy begins....
Kristin Poole awarded an SPIE Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship
May. 29, 2014—Biomedical engineering Ph.D. candidate Kristin Poole has been awarded a 2014 Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics for her potential contributions to the field of optics, photonics or related field. Poole’s research focus is optical imaging methods for evaluating the arteries response to ischemia – a partial...
New technique tracks breast cancer subtypes, treatment effectiveness
Oct. 21, 2013—Ph.D. biomedical engineering candidate Alex Walsh and colleagues are studying new imaging techniques to distinguish breast cancer subtypes and determine if specific therapies are working against cancer cells. (photo by John Russell) A group of Vanderbilt researchers has used laser technology and a custom-built multiphoton microscope to distinguish breast cancer subtypes and determine if specific...
School of Engineering recruits 4 new faculty members
Sep. 20, 2010—The Vanderbilt University School of Engineering announces the appointment of four new faculty members to its full-time teaching staff. They are Melissa Skala, Jason Valentine, Nabil Simaan and Matthew Lang. Assistant professor of biomedical engineering Melissa Skala focuses her research on optical spectroscopy and nanotechnology for cancer diagnosis and therapy. She joins the department’s Biomedical...