Title:Micro- and
Nano-scale Technologies for
Applications in Medicine and Biology Speaker: Faculty
candidate Dr. Hadi
Shafiee
Thursday,
March 27, 2014 1:00
PM ENGR
3507
Abstract
Micro- and nano-scale
technologies can have a
significant impact on medicine and biology in the areas of cell
manipulation,
diagnostics, and monitoring. At the convergence of these new
technologies and
biology, I research for enabling solutions to the real world
problems at the
clinic. Emerging nano-scale and microfluidic technologies
integrated with
biology offer innovative possibilities for creating intelligent,
mobile medical
lab-chip devices that could transform diagnostics and monitoring,
tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. This seminar will
outline Dr.
Shafiee’s work in developing micro-technologies with applications
in disease
diagnostics and treatment monitoring at the point-of-care and
primary care
settings. Several microchip technologies developed to detect
infectious
diseases such as HIV/AIDS through CD4 count and viral load
monitoring,
peritonitis (inflammation of peritoneal membrane in patients with
end stage
renal disease failure) through neutrophil count, and cancer
through circulating
tumor cells detection and count in unprocessed fingerprick volume
whole blood
and serum samples will be presented. These emerging technologies
could shape our future creating broadly applicable platforms for
scientific discovery, providing clinical solutions for
resource-constrained
settings in the developing world as well as for primary care
settings in the
developed world.
Biography
Dr. Shafiee is a Research
Fellow at Harvard-MIT
Division of Health Science and Technology and Brigham and Women’s
Hospital. His
research is focused on developing micro- and nano-scale diagnostic
technologies
for real world problems in medicine such as infectious diseases
detection and
treatment monitoring at the point-of-care, and early cancer
diagnosis.
Dr. Shafiee is the author of more than 10 journal articles
published in Nature
Scientific Reports, Small, Lab-Chip, Journal of Haematology, and
Electrophoresis, 1 book chapter, 27 conference proceedings,
and 3
provisional patents. His work has been featured on the cover of
premier journals
in the field of micro- and nano-technologies including Small,
Lab-Chip, and
Electrophoresis. His research was also highlighted in NewsWise,
Medical
News, VT Research Magazine, Chemical Biology, Small, BWH
Clinical Research
News, and Lab-on-a-Chip and has been recognized by national
awards
including Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award
from
National Institute of Health (NIH), MIT Media Lab, Paul
Torgersen Research
Excellence Award, and Liviu Librescu Fellowship. His
publications in
microfluidics have been cited more than 200 times in the past 2
years. Dr.
Shafiee has also been enthusiastic about translational aspect of
his academic
research. He conducted his PhD work to develop a microfluidic
technology from
proof-of-concept through a commercial licensing agreement. He has
been actively
involved in technology transfer and commercialization in two
biotech start-ups
through preparing business plans, SBIR, and STTR grant proposals.
He also has
several years of industrial experience as lead engineer in
managing a team of
engineers to design the piping routes and equipment arrangement of
multiple
petrochemical and power plants. Dr. Shafiee hopes for a day that
his ideas at
the interface of engineering and medicine change people’s lives
with a better
global health, particularly those with urgent and unmet clinical
needs in the
developing countries. --------------------------------------------------------------
Graduate
Student Workshop:Public
Speaking Skills: Mar 28, 11am
Being
Present
in Your Presentation: A Workshop on Public Speaking Skills
Friday,
March 28, 2014 11:00am-1:00pm Performing
Arts Building Room 105
Preparing
a talk or presentation for a job interview? Want to feel more
comfortable in
front of the classroom or colleagues? Or just wondering how to
feel more
confident as a public speaker overall? Join us for an interactive
workshop
specially designed for Mason graduate students, facilitated by
renowned faculty
from Mason’s School of Theatre, Ken Elston and Edward Gero. This
workshop will
specifically address removing jargon when talking about your
research and/or
professional interests, communicating with your body in space, and
putting on
the character or costume of presence. Lunch will be provided.
Sponsored
by the College of Visual and Performing Arts, Graduate Student
Life, Center for
Teaching and Faculty Excellence, and the Office of the Provost.
For
more information contact Julie Choe Kim Director of Graduate Student Life George Mason University Phone: 703-993-4031 Email: [log in to unmask] --------------------------------------------------------------
Funding
Opportunity:Big Data
Science & Engineering (NSF) On
March 12, the National Science Foundation (NSF) released a
solicitation entitled
Critical Techniques and Technologies for Advancing Big Data
Science &
Engineering (BIGDATA). This is the second round for this program,
which
supports research to address “critical challenges for big data
management, big
data analytics, or scientific discovery processes impacted by big
data.”
BIGDATA will be supported by five NSF directorates (Computer and
Information
Science and Engineering (CISE), Social, Behavioral and Economic
Sciences (SBE),
Education and Human Resources (EHR), Biological Sciences (BIO),
and Engineering
(ENG)). Unlike the previous BIGDATA competition, this
solicitation is not
in partnership with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and
the Directorate
for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) is no longer
participating.
Proposals
should address critical challenges for big data management, big
data analytics,
or scientific discovery processes impacted by big data. Proposals
may include
computational, statistical, or mathematical techniques,
technologies, and
methodologies, and can focus on theoretical analysis or
experimental
evaluation. Proposals are invited in all areas of science and
engineering
that fall within the purview of the participating directorates as
outlined
above.
The
2014 BIGDATA solicitation invites proposals that fall under two
categories:
Foundations
(F) – for projects that aim to develop broadly applicable
novel techniques,
theoretical analysis, or experimental evaluation of
techniques. Proposals
should be highly innovative and focused on fundamental
research.
Innovative
Applications (IA) – for projects with more specific
applications or adaptations
of existing techniques, technologies, and methodologies to new
application
areas. Proposals are expected to be interdisciplinary, and
will largely be
funded by the Directorate responsible for funding research in
the application
area.
In
addition to the two categories above, all proposals should
identify one or more
themes that the proposal will address (which differ from the
previous
solicitation). The three themes are:
Data
and Knowledge Management (DKM)
Data
and Knowledge Analytics (DKA)
Computational
Scientific Discovery (CSD)
Additional
consideration will also be given to proposals that include
partnership with
other parties such as industry, government, or domestic or
international
institutions that would enable access to specific expertise,
resources, or data
to test, modify, and refine their techniques. All proposals must
describe
how they will address a critical big data problem, what is novel
about the
approach, and how the project will address the NSF Broader Impacts
criterion.
NSF
encourages researchers interested in this solicitation to consult
the list of
related NSF solicitations available at: http://www.nsf.gov/cise/news/bigdata.jsp.
Additional programs that may be more relevant for specific
projects include
Data Infrastructure Building Blocks (DIBBS) and Computational and
Data Enabled
Science and Engineering (CDS&E).
Funding
Opportunity:Biological
Big Data Science (NIH)
The
NIH Big Data to Knowledge initiative (BD2K, http://bd2k.nih.gov/) recently
announced the release of an RFA for software and methods
development in
biomedical Big Data Science:
This
opportunity targets four topic areas of high need for researchers
working with
biomedical Big Data: - Data
Compression/Reduction - Data
Provenance - Data
Visualization - Data
Wrangling
The
receipt deadline for applications is June 19, 2014, with an
optional letter of
intent due May 19, 2014.
BD2K
is a new major trans-NIH initiative that aims to support advances
in data
science, other quantitative sciences, policy, and training that
are needed for
the effective use of Big Data in biomedical research. Interested
applicants are
encouraged to join the listserv (on the BD2K homepage) to receive
the most
up-to-date information about BD2K events and funding
opportunities. --------------------------------------------------------------
“The
Justices have danced around the question for years. Critics
(including a
decided majority of academic analysts) have bemoaned the drag on
innovation for
decades. But now the Supreme Court will have a chance to face the
question squarely, in Alice Corp. v.
CLS Bank International: does the Patent
Act authorize patents on software
– more specifically, on computer-implemented inventions? …
“The
case reaches the Court because the Court’s last word on the
subject, the 2010
decision in Bilski v. Kappos, left the topic
in such disarray. The Court in that case invalidated a patent on
a
hedging method as presenting an unpatentable subject matter, too
abstract to be
claimed by an inventor. The reasoning of Bilski, however,
has left
the Federal Circuit completely at sea. In this case, for example,
heard before an en banc panel of ten judges, the court issued
seven separate
opinions, none of which garnered the support of a majority.…” --------------------------------------------------------------
Funding
Announcements: Sponsors
Requiring No Publicity
Mason’s
Office of Sponsored Programs sends me an announcement when a grant
or contract
is received by a faculty member in the Volgenau School.I then include the
announcement in my weekly
notices, and a notice is placed on the School’s website: http://volgenau.gmu.edu/research-news Some
sponsors insist that there be no public announcement of an award,
but I have no
way of knowing this from the information that I am provided.
If
you receive such an award, please let me know and I will try to
ensure that no
announcement is released.In
cases where
an announcement is posted, please contact me ([log in to unmask]) or Martha
Bushong ([log in to unmask]) to have it
removed. --------------------------------------------------------------
Yotam
Gingold Receives Funding from
Google
Yotam
Gingold of the Computer Science Department received $42K from the
Google
Research Awards program for his project, “Diamonds from the Rough:
Improving
Creative Performance via Aggregation.”
--
===============================================================
Stephen G. Nash
Senior Associate Dean
Volgenau School of Engineering
George Mason University
Nguyen Engineering Building, Room 2500
Mailstop 5C8
Fairfax, VA 22030
[log in to unmask]
Phone: (703) 993-1505
Fax: (703) 993-1633
http://volgenau.gmu.edu/web/volgenau/senior-associate-dean