Full-day Hands-On Biotechnology Workshops at Rensselaer • July 24, 2013

Deepak Vashishth Named Director of Rensselaer Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies

Deepak Vashishth, a bone and tissue engineering expert, and current head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been appointed director of the Rensselaer Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS), effective April 16. He succeeds Jonathan Dordick, who is now vice president for research.

“Deepak Vashishth is well recognized as a prominent leader within his field, which is itself an embodiment of the interdisciplinary work that is at the heart of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies,” said Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson. “He is a tireless researcher and an established leader, and I am confident that the center will continue to develop and flourish under his direction.”

Vashishth was named head of the Rensselaer Department of Biomedical Engineering in 2009, and is among the tissue engineering and regenerative medicine core faculty of CBIS. His interdisciplinary research focus, propelled by more than $5 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), includes biomolecular science and engineering of extracellular matrix (ECM) with particular emphasis on diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis, cellular control of tissue growth and development, and mechanobiology of skeletal tissue regeneration. Through cellular and ECM- level studies, Vashishth develops microenvironments that are conducive to functional tissue engineering of bone.

“Having worked with Dr. Vashishth during my own tenure as director of CBIS, I know that he possesses a rich understanding of the value and complexity of interdisciplinary research, and the careful oversight that fosters collaboration and innovation in such an environment,” said Dordick. “The center will benefit from his success and insight as a researcher, as well as his energy and administrative capabilities.”

Since joining the Institute in 1999, Vashishth has won several awards, including the 2002 Rensselaer Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2003, he received the Rensselaer School of Engineering Research Award and in 2005 received the Rensselaer Class of 1951 Outstanding Teaching Award. Most recently, he was named a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. During his tenure as department head, the Department of Biomedical Engineering more than doubled its doctoral program and faculty, and received several highly valued federal research grants and National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development awards.

Vashishth is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials and a member of the NIH study section on skeletal biology and skeletal regeneration. He and his research group have published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal publications and conference proceedings in top journals including PNAS, Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, and PLOS One. Working in collaboration with others, his research group has identified new structural roles for bone proteins, developed new biomimicry-based strategies for tissue engineering scaffolds, and produced a prototype of high-throughput chip for predicting bone fracture risk. 

Vashishth received his bachelor’s degree from the Malviya National Institute of Technology in 1989, and went on to earn his master’s degree in mechanical engineering at West Virginia University in 1992, and doctorate in biomedical materials from the University of London in 1997. He joined the Rensselaer School of Engineering in 1999, after serving for two years as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Bone and Joint Research Center in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

CBIS opened in 2004 and supports several leading-edge research cores that are available to all Rensselaer faculty, staff, and students, and also to external academic and industrial collaborators and researchers. Today, these research cores include: analytical biochemistry, bioimaging, bioresearch, cell and molecular biology, microbiology and fermentation, microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, proteomics, and stem cell biology.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has named Curt Breneman as the new head of the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Breneman has been with Rensselaer since 1989. He was formerly the acting head of the department.

“I congratulate Dr. Breneman and look forward to his continued, strong leadership within the School of Science at Rensselaer,” said Dean of the School of Science Laurie Leshin. “Dr. Breneman is an exceptional teacher and scientist. As acting head of the department, his leadership has been an important part of the success of chemistry at Rensselaer and I am delighted to formalize his role here.”

Breneman has written more than 85 academic papers and 15 book chapters, and has presented over 250 invited lectures. Throughout his career, he has served as a consultant to many companies, including General Electric, Eastman Kodak, Google, and multiple pharmaceutical and drug discovery companies. He was named a fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2011.

In addition to his leadership within the department, Breneman is also the director of the Rensselaer Exploratory Center for Cheminformatics Research (RECCR). His research focuses on understanding and predicting the behavior of molecules in a variety of environments. One of his most important contributions to the field is the development of an entirely new kind of molecular modeling called the Transferable Atom Equivalent, or TAE, method. The method allows quick and accurate computational reconstruction of molecules, including new drug candidates and nanocomposite materials with specialized properties. This technology enabled the development of predictive cheminformatics methods capable of screening large databases of potential drug-like compounds for potency, metabolic outcomes, or undesirable side effects, and can also be used for screening new polymer materials for important physical and/or electrical properties.

Rensselaer Biomedical Engineers Team Up With College of Saint Rose, Capital Region Artists To Teach Visitors About Nerves and Spinal Cord Injury Through Art

A large challenge for scientists and engineers is generating public awareness and understanding of their research. Several biomedical engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have collaborated with artists from the College of Saint Rose and the surrounding Capital Region to bring their research on healing the nervous system to the public through art.

The first workshop exhibition of their collaboration will be open to the public on May 11, from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. with guided tours occurring at 3:30 p.m. or 5 p.m. in the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies at Rensselaer. Between the tours will be an exhibit symposium from 4:15 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. to discuss the future of the collaboration, which is being funded in part by the National Science Foundation.

The exhibit focuses on the research being conducted in the laboratories of two members of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Rensselaer: Assistant Professor Guohao Dai and Assistant Professor Ryan Gilbert. The creation of the artistic works was led by Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at Saint Rose, G.E. Washington. Washington was joined in the creation of the artistic works in the exhibit by Professor Kristine Tolmie, Amy Pollicino, Juan Ramos, Jason Cosco, and Saint Rose graduate assistants Melinda Crowther and Chris Skaggs. Several Rensselaer graduate students in the Biomedical Engineering Department have assisted in communicating the science to artists and in organizing the exhibit, including Courtney Dumont, Dianna Kim, Abby Koppes, Ryan Koppes, Anna Lorenz, Chris McKay, Nick Schaub, and Scott Wentzell.

Bioseparations Expert at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Recognized by Elite Scientific Societies

Belfort delivers his honorary lecture at his induction into the Institute of Bologna Academy of Sciences on March 12 in Bologna, Italy.

World-leading bioseparations expert Georges Belfort visited Germany and Italy last month as part of two prestigious honors from elite European scientific societies.

Belfort, Institute Professor and a member of the Howard P. Isermann Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was recently elected a foreign corresponding member of the Institute of Bologna Academy of Sciences. He visited the academy in March to present his honorary lecture, “Combining Science and Engineering for Molecular Separations: Thoughts from a Career.” The academy was created in 1690 by 16-year-old astronomer Eustachio Manfredi, and has grown over the centuries into one of Europe’s most renowned scientific societies.

Additionally, Belfort was recently named a member of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems. As part of the six-year appointment, Belfort visited the Institute in Magdeburg, Germany, with nine other international experts for a two-day session. The primary task of the board is to counsel the institute and to critically assess its scientific performance according to high international standards. The institute is one of 80 that make up the distinguished Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, an independent nonprofit research organization funded by the German government and named for the physicist who discovered quantum physics.