Annual BE Graduate Group Research Symposium

Save the date: 
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Annual Bioengineering Graduate Group 
Research Symposium
Beginning at 1pm, check in at 12:30pm
Singh Center for Nanotechnology
Galleria and Glandt Forum
Please RSVP using the google form below:
The Symposium will feature:
Graduate Student Research Talks
Graduate Student Poster Session and Competition
Refreshments and afternoon snack break
Key Note Speaker:
Jonathan M. Rothberg, Ph.D
“Building the Future of Medical Technology”
Human health is the new frontier of technological progress—the area where technology has the greatest potential to improve the human condition. Dr. Jonathan Rothberg, the inventor of next-generation DNA sequencing who was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Barack Obama, has spent his career leveraging advances in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and cloud computing to usher in a new age of precision medicine. With his 4Catalyzer incubator, Dr. Rothberg is working at the intersection of healthcare and technology to build devices that save lives and make healthcare more accessible. Dr. Rothberg will discuss his vision on where medical technology is headed in the decades to come, and how his companies are working to build that future.

MINS Year of Brain Science Technology

The 2019 Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences (MINS) Year of Brain Science Technology Student Kick-Off Symposium will take place Friday, September 13th from 1pm-6pm. Ph.D. students Nicolette Driscoll and Brendan Murphy helped coordinate this event as members of the MINS Year of Brain Science Technology Student Committee.

Among a number of speakers are lab members Nicolette Driscoll and Robert Pierson.

Nicolette Driscoll – “Carbon Nanomaterial for Neural Interfaces”

Robert Pierson – “Automatic Classification of Huntington’s Disease Severity Using a Wearable Device”

 

The lab goes to ICTALS

Many of our own lab members attended and participated in the International Conference for Technology and Analysis of Seizures (ICTALS) in Exeter, UK.

ICTALS 2019 aims to bring together neurologists, neuroscientists, researchers from quantitative disciplines and people with lived experience of epilepsy in order to work as a community to advance our understanding of epilepsy and develop practical ways to improve diagnosis and treatment.

Dr. Kathryn Davis gave a talk titled “Localizing seizure “hotspots” with quantitative neuroimaging”

MD/PhD candidate John Bernabei gave a talk titled “Virtual resection predicts surgical outcome for drug-resistant epilepsy”

Dr. Arian Ashourvan presented a poster titled “Long-term changes in response to neurostimulation and
synaptic dynamics in the epileptic brain”

Dr. Fadi Mikhail presented a poster titled “Interictal network integration-segregation and recruitment in the identification of the seizure onset zone”

MD/PhD candidate Andy Revell presented a poster titled “Localizing seizure foci in intractable epilepsy using structure and function correlation”

PhD candidate Brittany Scheid presented a poster titled “Controllability of brain networks in patients receiving responsive neurostimulation”

Brian Litt, MD

Dr. Brian Litt – Neurosurgery Grand Rounds

Dr. Brian Litt has been invited to speak at Penn’s Neurosurgery Grand Rounds on Thursday, August 15th. He will give a talk titled “Neuroengineering Collaboration in the CNT: Hardware, Software, and Wetware.”

Grand Rounds will take place at 7am-8am in the Smilow Research Center.

Penn Health Tech

Funding Available: Medical Devices and Health Technology Development Pilot Award

Penn Health-Tech and the Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation invite faculty and staff from the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Medicine, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) to submit proposals for pilot funding by September 23, 2019 at 5pm. The goal of this funding is to support the development of medical device and health technology projects that address important unmet medical needs. Proposals that cross departments and schools and promote sharing expertise are strongly encouraged.

Selected proposals will receive

  • Pilot funding: From $5,000 up to $50,000
  • Mentorship and project support: Advisors will help you refine your design, build partnerships and work towards achieving proof of concept
  • Access to experts

HOW TO APPLY

  1. Create a SurveyMonkey account using your University of Pennsylvania, Penn Medicine, or Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia email address.
  2. Verify your email address.
  3. Fill out the application in its entirety. To preview a sample application, click here.
  4. Submit your application by 5 PM on Monday, September 23.

Dr. Davis to Lecture at 33rd International Epilepsy Congress

From June 22-26, the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) will hold its major biennial event in Bangkok, Thailand. Dr. Davis’s lecture will be given as part of the XV Workshop on Neurobiology of Epilepsy (WONEOP). The major topic of WONOEP XV will be to discuss working definitions and classification schemes for epileptic seizures across the lifespan, improve methods of seizure recognition, detection, and classification and facilitate translation across species.

To read more about the event, click here.

Congratulations Graduates!

Congratulations to the Class of 2019 Graduates!

Bioengineering Master’s Students

Arjun Shankar

Christopher Painter

Placid Unegbu

Matthew Zimpfer

Bioengineering Undergraduates

Kayla Prezelski

Theodore Wang

Preya Shah

Preya Shah to receive the Sol Pollack Award

Preya Shah
Dr. Preya Shah has been selected to receive the Sol Pollack Award. This award is given annually to the most deserving bioengineering graduate student who has successfully completed research that is original and recognized as being at the forefront of its field.
Preya recently completed her doctoral dissertation titled Quantitative multimodal mapping of seizure networks in drug-resistant epilepsy.

Congratulations Preya!

Funding Available! T32 Training Grant Applications OPEN!

Applications are NOW OPEN for Dr. Litt’s NIH Neuroengineering and Medicine T32 Training Grant.

To begin your application complete this form.

Goal: to train predoctoral engineering students and physician postdoctoral fellows in neuroengineering and its clinical translation, including device development, neuro-stimulation, machine learning, algorithm development, cloud computing, nanotechnology, and materials science

Funding: covers stipend, tuition, travel and research supplies for 1-2 years

  • 2 Predoctoral trainees: Engineering PhD students who have completed their course work
  • 2 Postdoctoral trainees: MD clinical fellows (preferably)
  • Trainees must be US citizens or resident aliens (green card holders)

Applications due by Sunday, April 28, 2019 at 11:59 pm

To begin your application complete this form.

Research proposal presentations to the T32 review panel will take place Wednesday, May 15, 2019

More Information: on Litt Lab website under Education & Outreach and on the CNT website.

Part-Time Research Assistant Position Available

The CNT is looking for a highly motivated, independent, detail-oriented student for a part-time research assistant position. This individual will be assisting various researchers with projects that involve pre-processing, de-identifying, and organizing of clinical EEG, MRI, and medical history data. The Center is seeking a one-year commitment for this position.

  • Excel and REDCAP experience preferred.
  • Familiarity with Linux/Python/MatLab preferred.

Up to 20 hours per week – $12.80 per hour.

Please email a copy of your resume and a cover letter to Carolyn Wilkinson at wilkinsc@seas.upenn.edu.