SBE
March 2011
 
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  • Engineers at UCLA led by Jim Liao, SBE Advisory Board member and 2009 Bailey Award recipient, construct a modified Clostridial n-butanol biochemical pathway in E. coli and increase the titer up to 30 grams of n-butanol per liter- a record-setting increase over the typical 1-4 g/L in the past in E.coli, and comparable to native producers.
    http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-engineers-drive-e-coli-to-197675.aspx

  • Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School have engineered a portable device which uses a small tissue sample and quickly analyzes it for telltale cancer proteins. The novel diagnostic device plugs into a smart phone and reduces the time it takes to detect cancer to just an hour, detecting malignancies with 96 % accuracy.
    http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/32443/?mod=chthumb

  • A small human trial has shown for the first time that stem cells injected into enlarged hearts reduced their size as well as scar tissue, while improving function to injured heart areas, a promising result for the more than five million Americans who suffer from enlarged hearts - typically due to damage sustained from heart attacks.
    http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-03/aha-hdi031711.php

  • Biological engineers develop a novel fluorescent protein that glows in turquoise when excited with ultraviolet light, by incorporating a synthetic non-natural amino acid into green fluorescent protein.
    http://portal.mytum.de/pressestelle/pressemitteilungen/NewsArticle_20110308_141853
    /newsarticle_view

  • Environmental scientists model how switching from corn to a perennial grass as a biomass source for biofuels can alter the local water cycle and sunlight reflection (albedo) dramatically, having a larger impact in remediating green-house gas driven warming than what the actual harvesting of the plants to produce the fuels would.
    http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/03/switching-biofuels-could-do-a-double-whammy-on-climate-change.ars

  • Today's biological engineers face difficult challenges and exciting opportunities when it
    comes to algal biofuels. Three great articles have just been published
    in the March edition of CEP Magazine:
    — Algal Biofuels: The Backstory
    — Algal Biofuels: The Process
    — Algal Biofuels: The Research
 
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btec
 
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Register today for Aprils's webinar on cybernetic modeling — from its basic¬Ýtenets to its relationship to modeling metabolism and its unique dynamic capabilities. The webinar will be presented by Dr. Doraiswami Ramkrishna (Purdue) on April 12th at 4pm.
 
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Call for Nominations: SBE's James E. Bailey Award For Biological Engineering. Submit your nomination package by June 1st.
 
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SBE's Journal Biotechnology Progress is offering a new annual prize for excellence in publications in biological engineering. The deadline is July 15, 2011. For more information, visit http://www.aiche.org/SBE/About/Press.aspx.
 
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Register now! The 6th International Conference on Ethical Issues in Biomedical Engineering will take place on April 1-3 in Brooklyn, NY.
 
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SBE ad
 
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Congratulations to Jean Hunter (Cornell) for correctly answering February's What Protein Am I? quiz. The correct answer was Immunoglobulin. Try to answer March's quiz today!
 
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SBE welcomes Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU Poly) as our newest student chapter! Check out our student start page and let us know if you'd like to bring SBE to your college or university.
 
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SBE will be at the Southwest, Southern, and Mid America AIChE Student Regional Conferences so look out for our booth for more information on how to get involved.
 
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SBE's e-Connections is edited by Adrian Andrew Fay, Web Science Editor, with input from SBE staff. Contact us at bio@aiche.org.
 
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Not a current SBE member? It's never too late to join or renew. Costs are $75 for regular members, $25 for graduate students, $10 for AIChE, ACS and IBE members, or free for undergraduates. Join now at http://www.aiche.org/apps/ecommerce/bio/index.asp.

Member benefits include:
• Subscription to SBE's semi-annual BioSupplement to Chemical Engineering Progress.
• Discounts on leading biological engineering conferences including SBE and SBE cosponsored meetings and courses.
• Access to online membership directory.
• A voice in education, employment and technology advancement topics.
 
The Society for Biological Engineering (SBE) is a new technological community of AIChE
Its mission is to promote the integration of biology with engineering and realize its benefits
through bioprocessing, biomedical, and biomolecular applications.
For comments and contributions to SBE Connections, email bio@aiche.org.

AIChE © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers