Features

$1 Million Pledged for Biomedical Department

New momentum has provided support for biomedical engineering research and education programs.

A generous $1 million grant from The Whitaker Foundation of Rosslyn, Virginia, will pave the way for a permanent Biomedical Engineering Department with an ambitious program of new research.

Wayne State will commit more than $1 million for the new department, and with support from several industry partners — the Ford Motor Co. and the Alliance for Automobile Manufacturers — more than $4.6 million overall has been pledged.

With the expected approval by the WSU Board of Governors, undergraduates can earn for the first time a degree from an institution that established a wide reputation for its research in auto design safety and impact injuries.

“This grant will not only give us the opportunity to teach students in an emerging field, but it will also enable us to research biomedical areas that will make a difference in our lives,” says WSU President Irvin Reid. “We’ll be exploring the interdisciplinary frontier of biomedical knowledge — such as the effect of injuries at a cellular level — territory few research institutions can approach.”

Organizers hope to launch the new department with two new graduate laboratory courses in the fall. Graduate students will have the opportunity to study impact injuries, nanotechnology, and neurophysiology.

Albert King, director of the Bioengineering Research Center since 1979, is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and an internationally recognized researcher in impact injuries, particularly closed-head injuries.

“We will be able to hire faculty to study the microscopic view of injuries to understand why the cell stops functioning when it is injured,” says Professor King. “We’re in the right position to provide a new generation of engineers the tools to reduce human suffering as well as reduce skyrocketing hospital costs associated with traumatic injuries,” he adds.

In the fall of 1998, the center launched a graduate program offering students for the first time the opportunity to earn a degree in biomedical engineering. A permanent department will greatly expand this program. Besides the existing strong interdisciplinary partnership with the WSU School of Medicine and faculty in neurophysiology, the new department would add diverse faculty and researchers from biochemistry and molecular biology.

For 69 years, pioneering research in human tolerance and impact biomechanics at the Bioengineering Research Center has led to improvements in automobile and aircraft safety design. Now, WSU bioengineers will be poised to leverage their experience in the area of impact biomechanics to address debilitating injuries. For example, automobile safety technology, established through Wayne State research, has increased survivability and decreased injuries in crashes, while WSU’s biomedical engineers are now examining neurological injuries to the head and the causes of whiplash pain with promising results.

Notes

Honors

Rounds

Continuing Medical Education

Women's Health Lecture Series