The J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering regrets the passing of Dr. William G. "Bill" Luttge, the founding executive director of the McKnight Brain Institute at the University of Florida. In addition to his many contributions to the university, the department is appreciative of his assistance in the formative stage of the department, particularly in providing research space for department faculty before the completion of the Biomedical Sciences Building, the current home of the department.

The full memorial article can be read at Health Science Center News and Communications.

In collaboration with Dr. Stephen Grobmyer, MD of the department of Surgery at the College of Medicine and Dr. Huikai Xie, PhD of the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, in this project Dr. Huabei Jiang and his students will develop a novel photoacoustic molecular imaging approach that combines tumor targeted imaging probes with advanced microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based photoacoustic imaging instrumentation for detecting breast cancer and for outlining the tumor border during breast conserving cancer surgery. In this study, urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR) targeted near infrared (NIR) dye-labeled nanoparticles will be used to deliver the imaging probes into breast tumors. The location and depth of the tumors will be detected using photoacoustic tomography.

The BME Ballers season came to an end in the Quarterfinals of the playoffs, dropping a hard fought game 0-5 to the Kameltonians. The Ballers finish the 2012 outdoor season with a final record of 2-4-0.

Two goals in the first half, compounded by three goals in the second, were too much for BME to overcome.

Next for the Ballers is the indoor season held during the fall semester. The team will be formed during the first days of the fall semester. Anyone interested in joining the team can contact team captain, Eric Franca. Eric would also appreciate organizational help, and women players are welcome.

Biomedical Engineering graduate students Ray Kozikowski and Jennifer Lee (both pictured), together with Mechanical Engineering student Sara Smith have won the prestigious prize from the Center for Integration of Medicine & Innovative Technology. The $10,000 prize will allow them to prototype their project entitled “Differential Laser-Induced Perturbation Spectroscopy: A New Fluorescence Technique for Enhanced Non-Invasive Detection and Staging of Oral Cancers” and compete for a prize up to $150,000. 

The UF team joins the ranks of other winners from Johns Hopkins, MIT, Brown, and Boston Universities, among others.

For further reading see the CIMIT press release.

After dropping two in a row, 0-3 to MBAs Kick It and 0-5 to Bicuspid Futbol, over the last two weeks, BME came back to finish the regular season with a 4-0 win over Minesweepers. Our second win brings the Ballers to .400 on the season with a final 2-3-0 record.

A organized and stingy defense comfortably kept the Minesweeper offense at bay for the entirety of the game, allowing keeper Hans van Oostrom to record his second shut out of the season. Meanwhile, the offense recorded four goals by four different players, Phillip Jannotti, Jamal Lewis, Krishanu Mathur and Tom Cowan, with several other opportunities to easily double the tally.

Next up for the BME Ballers are the playoffs as the #6 seed in the 8-team tournament. The Ballers' first playoff opponent is Kameltonians, the overall #4 seed, in the Quarterfinals on Tuesday, March 20 at 7:00 PM at the Southwest Fields, field #4.

Biomedical Engineering students can be the perfect life savers. Not only do they understand biology and human physiology, they also understand technologies like an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED).

On February 11, 2012, nineteen BME students took on the challenge to get certified in CPR and AED. In a two-hour course offered by Gator Savers, the students learned the skills needed to save someone having a heart attack.

Please congratulate the following students:

This recently established seminar series honors the J. Crayton Pruitt Family, and especially J. Crayton Pruitt, Sr., for their exceptional support for the Department. As Dr. Pruitt was particularly interested in nurturing young scholars we have established this lecture series aimed at identifying outstanding young scholars in Biomedical Engineering, hoping that this honor helps the Scholar on her or his career path.

This week we were honored to hear a great lecture by Dr. Christine Fleming, of the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She earned her BS in ECE at MIT and MS and PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve. Dr. Fleming’s talk was entitled "Optical Coherence Tomography for Coronary Artery Disease Diagnosis." In the accompanying photograph she receives the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Scholar plaque from BME interim chair Bruce Wheeler.

After dropping the season opener, the BME soccer team reorganized and recovered. Building on their second half improvements from the first game, the Ballers notched their first win of the season to bring their record to 1-1-0.

With a strong defense and an aggressive attack, the Ballers downed the Minesweepers 4-0, with keeper Hans van Oostrom logging his first shutout of the season. Two first half goals by Wilton Williams and Phillip Jannotti were complimented by two second half goals by Joerg Matthias and Krishanu Mathur to secure the win for BME.

The BME Ballers next face table-toppers MBA's Kick It on Tuesday, February 7 at 7:00 PM at the Southwest Fields, field 4. The BME Ballers will play every Tuesday at 7:00 PM on the Southwest Fields for the next three weeks.