research

The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded a team of researchers led by Case Western Reserve University a four-year, $2.75 million grant to explore new technology to generate and stabilize a protein called fibrin that is essential to maintain protective blood clots in an injured body. Anirban Sen Gupta, the Wallace R. Persons Endowed Professor of Engineering and professor of biomedical engineering, is leading the project with two researchers from other institutions.

Issued in two phases—$20.4 million in the first and, if certain milestones are met, $27.3 million in the second—this work, which is backed by an award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), has the potential to change lives. 500 million people globally suffer from the degenerative joint disease osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis. The usual treatments target pain relief, often with prescription opioids or prosthetic surgery. Now, a research team led by the Case School of Engineering will begin work on engineering, growing and commercializing “live” replacement joints to treat this painfully debilitating disease.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the medical community’s use of remote healthcare as an alternative to conventional medicine—and wireless biomedical devices are a huge part of that shift.

The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has named seven Case Western Reserve University researchers to its 2024 class of senior members, an honor that recognizes their “remarkable innovation-producing technologies that have brought, or aspire to bring, real impact on the welfare of society.” This year’s class of NAI senior members is the largest to date and hails from 60 NAI-member institutions nationally. The Daily sat down to learn more about the seven honorees from CWRU.

When Brandon Prestwood took walks with his wife after losing part of his arm in an industrial accident in 2012, she favored holding his prosthetic hand—even though he couldn’t feel her touch. But the North Carolina man’s desire to restore the physical sensation of holding her hand was why he volunteered to join groundbreaking research at Case Western Reserve University. Dustin Tyler, the Kent H. Smith II Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Case School of Engineering, said Prestwood is his personal inspiration for co-founding Afference.

In the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, postdoctoral student Saudagar Dongare has one main focus: effectively capturing CO2. He’s working alongside Burcu Gurkan’s team in the Energy Lab at Case Western Reserve University to develop functional sorbents—such as ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents—for high CO2 capture capacity.

Umut Gurkan, Wilbert J. Austin Professor of Engineering, has been re-elected for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s New Voices in Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine program. Gurkan, one of five members from the previous cohort who is extending his service by one year, will join the 2024 cohort.

A Case Western Reserve University engineering researcher was awarded $2 million in federal funding to develop a worm-inspired construction tool that can install underground powerlines. The funding is part of $34 million the U.S. Department of Energy is investing in 12 projects nationally to strengthen and modernize America’s aging power grid through the development of cost-effective, high-speed and safe undergrounding technologies.

Last spring, CBS News correspondent Scott Pelley led viewers of the popular 60 Minutes program to a place where biomedical engineering pioneers are expanding the possibilities of human movement and touch: Case Western Reserve University. The roughly 13-minute segment featured A. Bolu Ajiboye, among other university researchers, who explained how his team is using neuroprosthetics to restore movement and a renewed sense of touch to people with paralysis. Of the millions of viewers who watched, one family was especially inspired—and put that inspiration to action.

For the 11th-straight year, leading innovators, engineers and developers from Case Western Reserve University will demonstrate their startup companies and other creations Jan. 9-12 at CES, one of the world’s largest technology shows. Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association, CES features every aspect of the tech sector, from startups to global brands. Case Western Reserve has 18 exhibitors this year, including 10 student/alumni ventures, two CWRU startup companies and five faculty innovations—the most ever from the university.