Five Cutting-edge Advances in Biomedical Engineering and Their Applications in Medicine

Bridging precision engineering and precision medicine to create personalized physiology avatars. Pursuing on-demand tissue and organ engineering for human health. Revolutionizing neuroscience by using AI to engineer advanced brain interface systems. Engineering the immune system for health and wellness. Designing and engineering genomes for organism repurposing and genomic perturbations.

Study confirms the low likelihood that SARS-CoV-2 on hospital surfaces is infectious

A new study confirms the low likelihood that coronavirus contamination on hospital surfaces is infectious. The study is the original report on recovering near-complete SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences directly from surface swabs.

Making the pieces fit: How WVU, Marshall and the state of West Virginia detect new COVID-19 variants

Picture viral RNA as a single component that you can break into one million pieces. Now imagine reassembling those pieces together, literally like a jigsaw puzzle. If there’s a chipped corner or if a piece won’t fit snugly as it should, consider that a virus mutation or variant. That’s genomic sequencing, in a nutshell, when it comes to identifying variants of COVID-19, according to Peter Stoilov, associate professor of biochemistry at the West Virginia University School of Medicine.

Split Ends: New studies show how DNA crossovers can drive healthy, abnormal sperm, egg cell division

Human genetic diversity wouldn’t be possible without DNA crossovers in egg and sperm cells. Two Harvard Medical School studies provide new insights into how crossovers go right–and wrong, leading to infertility, miscarriages and birth defects.

Discovery reveals antibiotic-resistant strep throat may be too close for comfort

Infectious disease scientists identified strains of group A streptococcus that are less susceptible to commonly used antibiotics, a sign that the germ causing strep throat and flesh-eating disease may be moving closer to resistance to penicillin and other related antibiotics known as beta-lactams.