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We’re happy to announce BioEngage’s move to its new home on the web – https://sites.bioe.uw.edu/bioengage/. This move was made possible by the Department of Bioengineering’s web hosting service.

With this new site, we’re excited to continue connecting UW BioE students, faculty, postdocs, staff and resources to biomedical industry partners. In months to come, we’ll bring you the latest on BioEngage events, student recruitment efforts, design projects and research collaborations.

We also seek to continue fostering productive, mutually beneficial relationships with biomedical industry in Seattle and beyond. Through our site, we offer companies the opportunity to learn about BioEngage events and share job opportunities with the BioE community. On the heels of announcing our partnership with BioEngage Founding Members, Just Biotherapeutics and NanoString Technologies, we welcome companies interested in connecting with BioEngage to consider joining our Industry Partnership Program. Sponsoring BioEngage provides many benefits, including access to online resume books, invitations to UW BioE/BioEngage events — registration fees waived — and advertisement on our digital and print communications.

UW Bioengineering’s BioEngage welcomes its first two Founding Member companies, Just Biotherapeutics and NanoString Technologies, Inc. Now in its third year, BioEngage serves as a catalyst for mutually beneficial engagement between BioE and biomedical industry. BioEngage offers industry partners opportunities to attend events, recruit students, and collaborate on design and research projects that accelerate technology development.

BioEngage’s Founding Member program enables companies to build lasting relationships with BioE. Founding Members are any company that joins in the program’s inaugural year, and will forever be recognized as founding members upon their renewal. For an annual fee of $5,000, Partner Member companies attend all BioEngage events and programs with no fee, are highlighted on the BioEngage website and social media accounts.

Just-Evotec Biologics is an integrated design company focused on technologies that accelerate development of biotherapeutics and substantially reduce their manufacturing cost. Centering on core strengths of molecular design, process and product design, and manufacturing plant design, Just-Evotec Biologics aims to catalyze expansion into cost-sensitive markets and create new therapeutic approaches. Working with selected partners and collaborators, Just will deliver lasting value by enabling access to biologics in the global marketplace.

NanoString Technologies, Inc. is a publicly held provider of life science tools for translational research and molecular diagnostics. These technologies enable a wide variety of basic research, translational medicine and in vitro diagnostics applications. NanoString’s nCounter® Analysis System uses a molecular color-coded barcode technology for the direct, digital and multiplexed measurement of hundreds of unique transcripts in a single reaction. Additionally, with 3D Biology™ capability DNA, RNA and protein can be simultaneously analyzed in a single assay from the same sample.

During BioEngage’s Cardiovascular Symposium, a poster session was held in which fourteen posters were displayed by students, staff, and industry representatives. Poster topics spanned a breadth of research conducted in cardiovascular health, from devices to drugs and more. BioEngage would like to extend a sincere thank our poster session sponsor, MyoKardia, for making the poster session possible. We would like to congratulate the two poster session winners: Rebecca Zaunbrecher and Eric Juang. Rebecca’s poster titled “Genetically Engineered Human Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes to Understand the Functionality of Cronos Titin” was selected by the judging panel of industry leaders as the MyoKardia Best Student Poster Prize. Eric was selected as the MyoKardia Popular Vote Poster Prize with his poster titled “Engineered 3D Microvessels for the Study of Angiogenesis and Sonoporation”. We would also like to thank our judging panel who selected a winner for the judges’ prize from the many fantastic posters:

• Tom Clement – CEO – Aqueduct Critical Care
• Shannon Eubanks – VP Engineering & Operations – Aortica
• Sarah MacInnes – Scientist – Myokardia
• Bernardo Zepeda – Senior Research Associate – Myokardia
• Sarah Fernandes – Research Scientist – Myokardia
• Scott Thielman – CTO – Product Creation Studio
• Jeffry Powers – Principal Scientist – Philips Medical Systems

https://youtu.be/G9wlnFECUyc

BioEngage held their first symposium of the year on February 28, 2017, titled “Cardiovascular Devices, Diagnostics, and Therapeutics”. The day-long symposium was sponsored by MyoKardia, Abbott, and Medtronic, and gave attendees an excellent opportunity to network, learn about opportunities to work with UW Bioengineering, and share their own work in cardiovascular healthcare. Over a dozen companies, five clinical programs, and several UW bioengineering labs attended and presented at the symposium, bringing with them a diverse range of backgrounds and perspectives in cardiac healthcare and technologies.

The morning session began with several short talks focused on molecular therapies towards cardiac diseases, followed by short talks on device-based therapies. These included an implantable cardiovascular MEMS system, gene therapies to help remove cholesterol, and multimodality modeling for improved device development.

The mid-day break featured a poster competition. Attendees enjoyed lunch as they browsed through over a dozen posters from both companies and students in the field. Judges awarded Rebecca Zaunbrecher as the winner of ‘Best Poster’ for her poster titled “Genetically Engineered Human Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes to Understand the Functionality of Cronos Titin”, while attendees voted to give the ‘Best Overall’ award to Eric Juang for his poster titled “Engineered 3D Microvessels for the Study of Angiogenesis and Sonoporation.”

The afternoon plenary session featured longer talks by speakers from the Vascular Imaging Lab, Philips, UW Cardiology, and Medtronic. These talks covered several imaging techniques, as well as sensor-less diagnostics and the use of cadaveric models in the clinic. The afternoon also featured an excellent panel discussion on the future of medicine in cardiovascular healthcare. Panelists discussed the importance of simulation tools and precision medicine, noting the huge opportunity for collaboration between the groups present.

Thank you to our sponsors: