CWRU, Partner Institutions Receive Grant for Stroke Research Center

Five Cleveland biomedical research and health care institutions have received a $1 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), one of the National Institutes of Health, to collaborate on developing the Cleveland Stroke Clinical Trials Regional Coordinating Center. Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine will administer the five-year grant…

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Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Chairs Named

Case Western Reserve University has appointed Robert F. Kirsch chairman of the biomedical engineering department and Kenneth A. Loparo chairman of the electrical engineering and computer science department. Kirsch and Loparo are prolific researchers, proven leaders among their peers and consistently highly regarded in annual student reviews. “They are doers who will take action and…

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Biomedical Engineering’s Musa Audu Receives Outstanding Teaching Award

Musa Audu, research associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, received the Case Western Reserve University Biomedical Engineering Society’s Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award for 2012-2013. Audu was cited for his unique ability to motivate students, provide assistance both inside and outside of class and personally impact students’ careers. He has more than 35 years…

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Ohio’s Neurostimulation Industry: On the Brink of a Breakout

After decades of research and development in neurostimulation technology, Ohio is riding a national commercialization wave in neurodevices. Neurostimulation, also referred to as electrostimulation, uses electricity as an alternative to drug therapy. Treatment applications include relief of chronic pain, paralysis and depression. There are approximately 725 persons currently employed in Ohio manufacturing industries related to…

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Biomed Students Translate Science Into Healing

Most translators are language specialists. They change ancient Greek into English, or English into Mandarin, or speech into American Sign Language. Emily Hromi and Erika Woodrum are translators, too, but of a very different kind: They are artists who change complex and vitally important medical information into imagery that the average person can easily understand.…

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Neuroprosthetics: Once More, With Feeling

Prosthetic arms are getting ever more sophisticated. Now they just need a sense of touch. The Modular Prosthetic Limb will help patients to feel and manipulate objects just as they would with a native hand. Sitting motionless in her wheelchair, paralyzed from the neck down by a stroke, Cathy Hutchinson seems to take no notice…

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VA Research in FES: Changing Lives

Financial planner Scott Fessler was a highly energetic, athletic young father when at the age of 33, he was in a near-fatal motorcycle crash. Scott suffered fractures to his cervical vertebrae, resulting in paralysis from the neck down. Immediately after the July 2006 accident, Scott underwent spinalsurgery to fuse his C4-C6 vertebrae. He suffers chronic…

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Biomedical Engineering Program Named One of The Top 10 in The Country

Case Western Reserve University’s undergraduate biomedical engineering program jumped to eighth nationally in U.S. News & World Report’s 2013 college rankings, up from 13th last year. The rise coincides with the enrollment of the program’s largest first-year class in history—estimated to be more than double the size of recent classes. The first-year class across the university…

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Raising Funds – Not the White Flag

Six years ago, a spinal cord injury suffered in a motorcycle crash left Scott Fessler without use of his arms or legs. An innovative neuroprosthetic device, however, has helped him regain control in his hand. “It’s monumental to be able to just pick up your own fork and eat by yourself, to hold your own…

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Remapping a Brain, Creating Hope

Bob Veillette will never move again. But that does not mean he will never again grab a cup of coffee. The technology that may allow him to do that, called Brain Computer Interface or BCI, produces results of an almost Biblical level: it can allow the deaf to hear, the blind to see and the…

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Grasping For Hope

Bob Veillette was alert. A thick ribbon of gauze coiled around his shaved head. Underneath the bandages lay the teapot-like spout that researchers hope would be the channel that would capture Veillette’s neural signals and allow him to move a cursor across a computer screen just by imagining it. As Veillette, former managing editor of…

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Scott Fessler featured at “A Nation in Motion”

Financial planner Scott Fessler was a highly energetic, athletic young father when, at the age of 33, he was in a near-fatal motorcycle crash. Scott suffered fractures to his cervical vertebrae, resulting in paralysis from the neck down. Immediately after the July 2006 accident, Scott underwent spinal surgery to fuse his C4-C6 vertebrae. He suffers…

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