Tag: FabLab

Rising Sparks: Kayla Huemer, biomedical engineering alum

Morgridge alum Kayla Heumer helps accelerate healthcare access for underserved communities in Africa, powered by technology and the ‘spirit of frugal innovation.’

New cancer imaging startup harnesses Wisconsin expertise

Morgridge scientists are working with a Madison biomedical company to improve the success rates of cancer immunotherapy treatments, which harness patients’ own immune response to fight cancer.

The American investment in research is about people

Early-career scientists are essential to the Morgridge mission, and the majority have some level of competitive support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Here, early-career researchers share thoughts on how federal funding supports their mission to conduct high-impact research.

Congratulations to our 2024 graduates

Congratulations to our 2024 graduating students and research staff moving on into their next chapters.

Rising Sparks: Ed Evans, biomedical imaging

Ed Evans sees every challenge as an opportunity to grow, and uses his passion for problem-solving to develop new imaging tools that will help other scientists.

Morgridge Postdoctoral Fellow receives Simons Foundation award to support her future research

Morgridge Postdoctoral Fellow Liz Haynes received a Simons Foundation Transition to Independence Award to support her career studying the aging brain using a zebrafish model.

Eliceiri receives 2023-24 Romnes Award from WARF

Morgridge Investigator Kevin Eliceiri is one of 18 UW–Madison professors to be honored this summer with an H.I. Romnes Fellowship from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).

UW–Madison Faculty Make Strong Showing on Global Highly Cited Researchers List

via UW–Madison

Morgridge investigator Kevin Eliceiri is one of 16 UW–Madison researchers to make the 2022 list of “Highly Cited Researchers,” compiled annually by the Office of Scientific Information.

Multiple Morgridge Investigators received prestigious awards in early 2022 

Morgridge Investigators Jason Cantor, Kevin Eliceiri, and Melissa Skala received award funding to advance projects in metabolism and biomedical imaging.

New collaborative research center to provide clearer image of tumor microenvironment

via College of Engineering

Morgridge Investigator Kevin Eliceiri and collaborators at the University of Minnesota will develop and test an integrated toolkit of imaging and data analysis technologies for immunotherapies, funded by the National Cancer Institute.

Time to SHINE: UW, Morgridge spinoff has great hopes for fusion’s future

SHINE, a spinoff company that spent its formative years at Morgridge, is helping usher in the fusion energy age with several technologies, including a safe way to create life-saving medical isotopes.

By citations, UW–Madison faculty demonstrate strong impact

via UW–Madison

Morgridge biomedical imaging investigator Kevin Eliceiri is one of 17 UW–Madison researchers who made the 2021 Highly Cited Researchers List. Eliceiri has been cited more than 68,000 times in 228 publications and is recognized for his cross-disciplinary influence.

Illuminating Alzheimer’s disease through microscopy

Elizabeth Haynes recently joined the institute as a Morgridge Postdoctoral Research Fellow who is harnessing microscopy to model the early progression of Alzheimer’s disease in zebrafish. Haynes’s fellowship is a collaboration between the Kevin Eliceiri Lab and Tyler Ulland in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UW–Madison.

Finding Clarity: Fellowship supports Sajdak’s career path

Morgridge Postdoctoral Fellow Ben Sajdak bridges advanced microscopy and neuroscience, while bringing his own scientific path into focus.

Congratulations to May 2021 Graduates

Congratulations to our 2021 graduating students and research staff moving on into their next chapters. A few of them shared their experiences at Morgridge and their plans for the future.

Beckman Foundation awards Morgridge Investigators to develop smart light sheet technology

Jan Huisken and Kevin Eliceiri will lead an initiative to develop and advance light sheet microscopy technology through a grant funded by the Beckman Foundation.

Bringing fluorescence imaging out of the dark

Morgridge Institute spinoff company OnLume had a banner year in 2020, receiving Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, meeting its venture funding goals and launching its first clinical trial with a California company. And they are getting expert feedback from UW Health physicians on their groundbreaking fluorescence imaging device.

Building a better bioimaging community: Chan Zuckerberg Initiative supports international partnership

Investigator Kevin Eliceiri leads a grant with BioImaging North America, which was recently awarded $1.2 million in funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Where are they now? Morgridge alumni look back (and ahead) at their careers

A few of our Morgridge alumni shared thoughts on their research experience at the Morgridge Institute, their plans moving forward and their warm shoutouts to some of the people who helped them along the way.

Fab Lab alumna tackles machine learning at Stanford

Kayla Huemer, a graduate of the Morgridge Fab Lab and alumna of UW–Madison, is tackling machine learning at Stanford. Huemer brings a depth of experience in engineering and design which she honed during her time in the BerbeeWalsh Prototype Pathway.

Engineering through and after COVID-19: A Global Perspective

Engineers are well-equipped to address the world’s development challenges, but good engineering alone is not enough. We need the emerging field of ‘global engineering,’ argues Kevin Eliceiri, a Morgridge medical engineering investigator, and Rebecca Alcock, a recent alumna of the UW–Madison graduate program in biomedical engineering.

Optical Society elects Eliceiri as fellow

via UW College of Engineering

Morgridge Institute investigator and UW–Madison biomedical engineering professor Kevin Eliceiri has been elected a fellow by The Optical Society, an honor given to only one in 10 members.

Challenging and fun: Prototype Pathway propels forward-thinking medical engineer

After ten years as a student, mentor, and engineer in the Morgridge Institute, Ben Cox is finishing his postdoctoral fellowship in the BerbeeWalsh Prototype Pathway and heading to the University of Chicago Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Seize the Moment: Adapting old tools for a novel coronavirus

Morgridge scientists John Brubacher, Anthony Gitter, Brian Bockelman, Ben Cox and Katie Overmyer, joined Gabriella Gerhardt on July 22 for a Fearless Science webinar about rapidly applying technology and methods to answer COVID-19 questions.

Congratulations to May 2020 Graduates

Congratulations to the graduating students and research staff as they move onward and upward. A few of these students and staff shared about their time at the Morgridge Institute, their accomplishments and their plans for what’s next.

Making a difference: Madison makers build safety equipment for frontlines of COVID-19 fight

via The Capital Times

From designers and engineers to sewists and 3D printing hobbyists, they’re joining a global movement to combat the shortage of personal protective equipment.

Professor will make ‘workhorse’ microscope more powerful

via UW–Madison

Kevin Eliceiri says he has always believed that science is best done by building on the work of others and openly sharing what you have done.

Protecting the most vulnerable patients during anesthesia

Pediatric anesthesia is a stressful and critical procedure. A project with the Morgridge Fab Lab aims to create a new medical device that alerts clinicians to compromised airways.

Novel imaging tech brings together Madison, Milwaukee vision researchers

A Madison-Milwaukee scientific partnership is powering an effort to better understand the complicated mechanics of human vision.

Training tomorrow’s engineers

Since 2015, engineering students at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have teamed up with Morgridge Institute for Research engineers and clinicians at UW Hospital.

The Role of the Student Engineer in Medicine and Innovation

via Xconomy

In a March 18 Xconomy opinion piece, Morgridge Fab Lab Director Kevin Eliceiri describes how a trifecta of engineering training, clinical experience and entrepreneurship is putting Wisconsin students in a great position for future success.

Congratulations to our graduating students

With the semester winding down, we are thrilled to congratulate graduating students and research staff who are moving on and up. More than 110 undergraduate and graduate students, in addition to post-doctoral fellows, work across six biomedical research themes at the Morgridge Institute.

OnLume receives SBIR support for image-guided surgery

OnLume received the $300,000 Phase I SBIR grant through the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the development of imaging and lighting systems for transient lighting in fluorescence image-guided surgery.

Morgridge ‘prototype pathway’ yields a novel organ transplant technology

Organ transplantation has come a long way from its early days in the mid-twentieth century. But even with major medical advances, there’s still an admittedly familiar factor at play: ice.

Curious research: Endowed chair honors developmental biologist Phil Newmark

Newmark, who joined the Regenerative Biology research focus at the Morgridge Institute and the Department of Zoology this summer, is also serving as the first recipient of the Burnell R. Roberts Chair in Regenerative Biology.

Play us a song: the (Hyper)piano man

Christopher Taylor has the hands of a musician, his fingers most at home striking the keys of a piano, and an analytical mind honed by years of computer programming. Now after tackling his latest endeavor, Taylor can also call himself an engineer, a builder, a maker.

Linectra and Xemex tie for second in manufacturing category of statewide competition

Two Morgridge-affiliated inventors tied for second place in the advanced manufacturing category of this year’s statewide Governor’s Business Plan Contest.

Three Morgridge-affiliated inventors are state business plan finalists

The Morgridge Institute for Research will be well represented in this year’s statewide Governor’s Business Plan Contest, with three of the 13 finalists having direct ties to the Morgridge Medical Engineering research group.

Collagen imaging: Bridging the gap between microscopy and the clinic

When it comes to diagnosing breast cancer and predicting how the disease will progress in a patient, current practice is seeing a gap between the imaging information scientists can get from a high resolution microscope and the lower resolution images typically gathered in the clinical setting.

Melissa Skala: Follow the Light to Better Cancer Treatment

Skala’s research problems focus on cancer detection and treatment, and her expertise in light-based, optical imaging is giving clinicians revolutionary new tools for the fight. Skala will be bringing her talents this summer from Vanderbilt University to the Morgridge Institute for Research and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, as a Morgridge investigator and professor of Biomedical Engineering (BME).

‘Prototype Pathway’ open for business in Morgridge Fab Lab

The Morgridge Institute’s medical engineering team brought UW–Madison clinicians to the Advanced Fabrication Laboratory, or “Fab Lab,” Oct. 1 to celebrate the launch of the BerbeeWalsh Prototype Pathway.

Remex Static Mixer team working to bring innovation to market

Eric Ronning, a recent UW–Madison graduate and member of Morgridge Institute’s medical engineering team, also appreciates the importance of fostering a cohesive, talented team for collaborative innovation.

Novel Morgridge technology may illuminate mystery Moon caves

It’s widely believed that the Moon features networks of caves created when violent lava flows tore under the surface from ancient volcanoes. Some craters may actually be “skylights” where cave ceilings have crumbled.

Morgridge CT innovation wins WARF Accelerator support

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) Accelerator Program helps discoveries patented by WARF move further along the commercialization process by providing funding and connections to a network of industry experts.

Gift to Morgridge Institute ‘Fab Lab’ to boost medical device innovations

A gift to the Morgridge Institute for Research will help spur medical device innovations coming directly from clinicians — the people who know firsthand where the advances are needed.

OnLume a top competitor in statewide business competition

OnLume LLC, a Madison-based company, placed second in the life sciences division of the 2015 Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest.

Adam Uselmann works to advance imaging tech in new postdoctoral fellowship

Time and again the Madison community has shown itself to be an incubator for collaborative ideas and innovative work. Adam Uselmann, a research associate at the Morgridge Institute for Research, has seen some of his collaborations grow into a new postdoctoral opportunity.

Madison-based Gel Combs honored at Bioscience Vision Summit

Gel Combs LLC, a company founded by Matt Copeland, Ben Cox and Brandon Walker, was one of five honored at the 2014 Bioscience Vision Summit’s Emerging Company Showcase. BioForward, promoting

System for growing, distributing microgreens wins Wisconsin Innovation Award

In the growing movement for urban agriculture, microgreens are becoming a popular, profitable option for producers. Tasty and nutritious, microgreens can be grown inside any time of year, mature from seed to harvest in 10-14 days, and sell at $20-30 per pound.

Andreas Velten: Taking imaging to new extremes

Unlike many of us, Andreas Velten loves working in windowless rooms. His research tools are shrouded in sealed black boxes to keep out unwanted light. He’s been known to cover red building exit signs to extinguish any trace of visual noise.

Kevin Eliceiri to bring multi-scale imaging focus to Morgridge Institute

Scientific imaging has long been a research strength at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, home of major advances in cellular-scale optical imaging, human-scale medical imaging and many spaces in between.

Morgridge forges into microfluidics

The Moore’s Law that has computer processing power doubling every two years may have its equivalent in biology, where microfluidics technology is taking the smaller-faster-cheaper quest to new levels.

Rock Mackie: Applying physics and engineering to medicine

While growing up in Canada, Thomas Rockwell (Rock) Mackie, director of Medical Engineering, had three heroes: Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, and antarctic explorer Ernest Shackelton. They inspired a fascination with nuclear physics and scientific expedition that Mackie has pursued in both academia and industry.

Mackie to receive highest honor in medical physics

Thomas “Rock” Mackie, director of medical engineering at the Morgridge Institute for Research, will receive the highest honor in the field of medical physics for his game-changing contributions to medical imaging.

Med tech: New imaging invention a ‘Google Earth for microscopy’

A team in the Morgridge Institute for Research’s Advanced Fabrication Laboratory, in collaboration with the UW–Madison Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation (LOCI), is developing a technology that visualizes an important middle ground for biomedical and basic research applications.

UW–Madison student team takes on global health challenge in Hult Prize

A group of student entrepreneurs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison will compete this spring in the international Hult Prize, in which college students attack global problems with sustainable business ideas.

New advocacy group focuses on kick-starting UW business creation

A newly-launched advocacy group is aiming to increase the number and success rate of start-up ventures stemming from UW–Madison ideas, building on the renewed commitment in 2013 to campus innovation.

Morgridge Institute’s Velten named a top young inventor

Andreas Velten, an associate scientist with the Morgridge Institute for Research, has been recognized by MIT’s Technology Review as a TR35 honoree for 2012.

New round of federal funding received for $85 million medical isotope project

The Morgridge Institute for Research has received a $20.6 million cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration to support development of a new process and manufacturing plant for a medical isotope needed by tens of thousands of U.S. patients daily.