Our sense of smell is something we often take for granted. Besides allowing us to take in such wonderful aromas as flowers or fresh-baked cookies, our olfactory receptors help us keep a healthy appetite and tell us when to steer clear of hazards like pollution or spoiled food. Therefore, it’s concerning that olfactory dysfunction affects one in every hundred Americans under the age of 65, and over 50% of the population over 65. Fortunately, researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor have made recent breakthroughs in the restoration of smell to those who have lost it over time or were born without it.
Tags: University of Michigan, Midwest, 2012, Michigan, Ann Arbor, BioResearch Product Faire Event, MI, UM
One of the most prestigious scientific awards, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), has been awarded to not one University of Michigan Ann Arbor researcher, but three! This award, started in 1996 by President Bill Clinton, was founded to recognize "the most meritorious scientists and engineers whose early accomplishments show the greatest promise for assuring America's preeminence in science and engineering and contributing to the awarding agencies' missions," as per a White House press release. These scientists are nominated by eleven different US government departments and agencies including the Departments of Energy and Health and Human Services, as well as the National Science Foundation.
Tags: University of Michigan, Midwest, Bioresearch, 2012, Michigan, scientific research, Ann Arbor, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Research Funding, MI, research scientists, research scientist, UM
ARCHITECT'S RENDERING OF NEW PROTON BEAM THERAPY FACILITY IN ROCHESTER, MINN.(Courtesy of mayoclinic.org)
Tags: Minnesota, 2012, Rochester, Mayo Clinic, Cancer Treatment, Cancer, BioResearch Product Faire Event, MI, Proton, Treatment
Plans are underway at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor for a new science research building which will serve as a nursing education facility. The building was recently proposed to the Board of Reagents and will likely cost over $50 million.
Tags: University of Michigan, New research facilities, Michigan, MI
There's been a lot of news coming out of Chicago this week from the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Two announcements concerning prostate cancer research are especially worth broadcasting. An Ann Arbor pathologist, Arul M. Chinnaiyan, of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, will be leading a "dream team" of specialists from 5 of the top cancer research institutes in the world in a $10M, 3-year research project titled “Precision Therapy for Advanced Prostate Cancer.” The funding comes from AACR partner, Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), and the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF). Heading up the team with Dr. Chinnaiyan is Dr. Charles L. Sawyers of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Tags: University of Michigan, Midwest, Bioresearch, cancer research, nanotechnology, genome research, genomic medicine, 2012, Ann Arbor, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, Research Funding, Conference, MI, science event, scientific conference, science current event, scientific events, UMich, Cancer Center, science research funding
The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has been producing top scientists for a long time. One notable alum, who went on to found the research science company SAIC, has recently donated $15 million to his alma mater, ensuring that Michigan will continue to train and support future generations of innovative engineers. In honor of this generous gift, the University will name its new engineering building on the North Campus after the donor and his wife, hence the Bob and Betty Beyster Building for Computer Science and Engineering. This isn't Robert Beyster's first gift to UM Ann Arbor either. In recent years, he has contributed toward research in biofuels, cloud computing and security, and gene therapeutics. He has also funded a class on employee ownership though the Center for Entrepreneurship. Michigan has one of the top engineering programs in the country.
Tags: University of Michigan, Midwest, New research facilities, 2012, Ann Arbor, Engineering, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Funding, MI, UMich, charitable giving
Acquiring the 28-building, 2.1 million sf former Pfizer complex on the north side of its Ann Arbor campus, renamed the North Campus Research Complex (NCRC), was a coup for the University of Michigan in 2009. (Read our earlier blog on the NCRC.) While some labs were filled quickly, planning, retrofitting, and moving into that much space doesn't happen overnight, so administrators developed a master plan for occupancy. That timeline has the complex reaching capacity by the end of this year, 2012, and they are ahead of schedule.
Tags: University of Michigan, Midwest, New research facilities, new science wet labs, 2012, Ann Arbor, BioResearch Product Faire Event, MI, UMich
Despite a challenging economic climate, Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing is thriving and continues to develop strong research programs. Currently the university is working on constructing a $40-million bioengineering facility, along with other building projects in progress that include the Bott Building for Nursing Education and Research and a state-of-the-art Plant Science Building. When completed, these buildings will add to an already strong research hub at MSU.
Tags: Michigan State University, Midwest, 2012, BioResearch Product Faire Event, Research Funding, MI, research laboratories, East Lansing, MSU, 2011
Do you think of chemical engineers as life scientists? How about petroleum engineers? Surely there's nothing biological going on in a tank of gasoline? Not now perhaps, but millions of years ago that black ooze we call crude oil was alive, in the form of plant and animal matter. Hurrying the chemical breakdown of living matter into something we can burn in our cars is the challenge for some of today's brightest chemical engineers who work on turning algae into fuel in an efficient, sustainable green chemistry process.
Tags: Midwest, green chemistry, Plant science, MI, Energy, Ecology, NSF, Univ of Michigan
In a speech given at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh on June 24, President Obama announced the launch of the $500M Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP) between university research science, government agencies, and industry to increase investment in technologies that create 21st Century manufacturing jobs here in the United States. In addition to Carnegie Mellon, the research institutions involved in the initiative are: the University of Michigan, the University of California-Berkeley, MIT, Stanford, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Tags: University of Michigan, Midwest, nanotechnology, Translational Research, Ann Arbor, BioResearch Product Faire Event, MI, biotech industry, UMich, 2011