Three Biomedical Engineering Graduate Students Win Award

Brown biomedical engineering graduate students Gozde Durmus, Kim Kummer '11, and Erik Taylor were one of ten graduate student teams to win the Prize for Primary Healthcare Award (Phase I) from the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT). The title of their project is "Using Nano-material Science to Inhibit Medical Device Infections".

Each winning team received $10,000, and they will now be able to use these funds to develop a final proposal over the next few months as they compete for the top three spots and a total of $300,000 in additional funds against teams from other top schools such as MIT, Johns Hopkins, and Yale.

“This is an outstanding achievement,” said Associate Professor Thomas Webster, “and places Brown among the top biomedical programs in the country.” Webster serves as the advisor to the three students on the research.

The award is for innovative technology ideas to improve the quality and efficiency of primary care in medicine. The Brown team was selected out of 76 applicants from 38 of the top engineering programs in the country. The goal of the competition is to stimulate the development of innovative technology to serve the needs of the frontlines of healthcare.

Erik Taylor Wins BMES Graduate Student Award

At the annual meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society, Brown University graduate student Erik Taylor won the Graduate Student Extended Abstract Award for outstanding research. His submission, “Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Could Be Better than Antibiotics at Reducing Biofilm Produced by Staphylococcus Aureus” was considered by the committee strong enough to be only one of ten such awards presented.

This award consists of a certificate, a stipend of $500, and complimentary registration for the 2011 BMES Annual Meeting. The certificate was presented at the awards ceremony at the BMES Business Meeting on Thursday, October 13, 2011, in Hartford, Conn. The award has been presented each year since 1992 in recognition of outstanding biomedical engineering research.

Taylor, who was selected for a Fulbright Fellowship, will be leaving for India next semester to work on biofilm research and anti-infection strategies at IIT-Bombay in Mumbai for nine months. He will be working with Dr. Rinti Banerjee from IIT-Bombay through the Indo-U.S. Center for Biomaterials for Healthcare, co-directed by professors Bikram Basu and Thomas Webster.

Erik Taylor PhD’13 Receives Fulbright Fellowship to India

Erik Taylor PhD ’13, a biomedical engineering graduate student at Brown University, has been selected for a Fulbright Fellowship. He will conduct research on anti-infection strategies in Mumbai, India, for six to nine months with Dr. Rinti Banerjee from IIT-Bombay through the Indo-U.S. Center for Biomaterials for Healthcare, co-directed by professors Bikram Basu and Thomas Webster.

The title of his project is, “Lipid Nanoparticles for the Treatment of Hospital Acquired Infections”. Medical devices are the standard of care in the United States, and internationally, to improve healthcare. Yet, as the use these devices increases, so does the chance of device related infections (DRI). It is the purpose of this study to apply knowledge of nanotechnology towards a novel therapy for DRI.

On a previous internship to IIT-Bombay, Taylor found in collaboration with Dr. Banerjee that a biocompatible lipid nanoparticle was promising method to treat resistant infections.  Additionally, commercial resources were realized with Piramal Life Sciences, a Mumbai based biotechnology company, and Dr. Arun Balakrishnan. It will be the goal of this fellowship to further develop these efforts towards treatment of infections.

The Fulbright Program, the U.S. Government’s flagship international exchange program, is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The Fulbright Program has provided approximately 294,000 participants —chosen for their academic merit and leadership potential — with the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research.

The Fulbright Program operates in more than 155 countries worldwide, and approximately 7,500 grants are awarded annually.

The Program was established by the U.S. Congress in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas. It is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.           

The term "Fulbright Program" encompasses a variety of exchange programs.  For further information, please visit http://fulbright.state.gov/.

Taylor selected for Veterans Affairs Pre-doctoral Fellowship

Erik Taylor (Biomedical Engineering Graduate Student) was select for the 2010-2011 Veterans Affairs Pre-doctoral Fellowship based on his research to develop anti-bacterial implants for injured soldiers. His clinical mentor is Roy Aaron, Director of the VA Center for Restorative and Regenerative Medicine, and Professor Thomas Webster is his research/academic advisor.

A profile of Erik Taylor:

Growing up roaming the Texan prairies instilled in Erik an ambition to study humanity’s ability to not only co-exist with nature, but to flourish in accordance with Earth’s natural attributes. While one would be hard-pressed to find cattle navigating the roads of a contemporary American metropolis, micro-biotic life flourishes on subways, in apartment complexes, and even in the most allegedly sterile of environments - the modern hospital. Erik's research is geared towards designing treatments for antibiotic resistant biofilms on medical devices. He uses nanotechnology to create novel interfaces promoting the natural elimination of biofilm.

Erik received his Bachelor of Science from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. His senior design project was “An arthroscopic tool for the delivery of a thermo-sensitive hydrogel into damaged knee cartilage.” Erik’s research excellence wrought him an Office of the Vice President Undergraduate Research Fellowship for his work with Reese Endowed Professor Miguel Jose Yacaman in the Department of Chemical Engineering.

Erik is currently a graduate student working towards his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at Brown University. He is advised by the Graduate Director of the Center for Biomedical Engineering, Associate Professor Thomas J. Webster. Through Prof. Webster’s guidance and expertise, Erik is working on his thesis entitled “Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (SPION) for the Treatment of Implant Infection.” The Society for Biomaterials recently bestowed upon Erik the Student Travel Achievement Recognition (STAR) graduate student award one of its most prestigious graduate student honors for his exemplary work in nanotechnology. He was also a National Science Foundation Graduate K-12 teaching fellow for two years (the maximum duration allowed for the fellowship program) where he taught science to grades 3-6 at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Providence, Rhode Island.