photo by Nicole Capello U.A. Whitaker Building

Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering offices, laboratories and classrooms are primarily located in the nearly 100,000-square-foot U.A. Whitaker Building on the Georgia Tech campus. The building, funded by grants from the Whitaker Foundation and the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, was dedicated on November 4, 2003.

Biomedical engineering faculty members on the Georgia Tech campus also have offices and laboratories in the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience Building and the Molecular Science and Engineering Building.

On the Emory University campus, basic research laboratories of the biomedical engineering department are housed in the Woodruff Memorial Research Building and imaging laboratories in the Emory University Hospital Education Annex.

Assistant professor Charlie Kemp has developed a robot that moves to an object, picks it up and delivers it when a user designates the object and recipient with a green laser pointer. He is collaborating with Jonathan Glass, director of the Emory ALS Center, to study the use of the robot by people with severe motor impairments. This project was funded by a Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Translational Research Partnership in Biomedical Engineering award.

Associate professor Steve Potter has developed a multi-electrode neuronal stimulator to help control bursts of activity in neural cultures associated with epileptic seizures. Potter has teamed with Emory’s Robert Gross to test this system in vivo and translate it to a non-drug treatment for epilepsy. This project was funded by the Epilepsy Research Foundation and a Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Translational Research Partnership in Biomedical Engineering award.

photo by Rob Felt A researcher administers the DETECT test.

4-D Imaging creates technologies to improve magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography data, enabling improved visualization of cardiovascular structures and blood flow patterns. The company is based on research conducted by Dave Frakes, a Ph.D. graduate from the laboratory of Ajit Yoganathan, The Wallace H. Coulter Distinguished Faculty Chair in Biomedical Engineering.

Vivonetics designs and produces innovative molecular beacon probes to detect gene expression in live cells and tissues. Gang Bao, Robert A. Milton Chair in Biomedical Engineering and College of Engineering Distinguished Professor, serves as the company CEO.

Zenda Technologies, founded by associate professor Michelle LaPlaca and Emory’s David Wright, aims to commercialize DETECT, a portable device that makes quick neuropsychological assessments, which are important in identifying brain disorders such as concussion and early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

photo by Gary Meek Regents’ Professor Ajit Yoganathan holds a newly designed tricuspid valve repair ring.

Cardiac-Solutions is a startup company formed to commercialize novel heart valve technologies that involve surgical and minimally invasive platforms. It was co-founded by Ajit Yoganathan, The Wallace H. Coulter Distinguished Faculty Chair in Biomedical Engineering, and Jorge Jimenez, a recent Coulter Department doctoral graduate.

SpherIngenics, co-founded by professor Barbara Boyan, visiting professor Zvi Schwartz and director of design instruction Franklin Bost, is commercializing a method to deliver stem cells non-surgically through the skin for soft-tissue applications such as cranial facial plastic surgery.

After two workshops with Peking University (PKU) – one in Beijing, China and one in Atlanta – the Coulter Department launched a seed grant program to encourage investigators to collaborate across the globe. The grants, funded by the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, will allow six Atlanta-based faculty members to collaborate on research projects with PKU faculty members this year. The two biomedical engineering departments are also developing a curriculum for a joint Ph.D. degree.

“Our partnership with PKU is an opportunity for us to create a new paradigm for international biomedical engineering education and research,” says Larry McIntire, chair of the Coulter Department. “At the same time, our students and faculty are learning how to conduct research and business in a global arena.”

Similarly, the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholars program recruits renowned scientists to Georgia from many parts of the world to lead extraordinary programs of research and development with high potential economic development impact for the state. Four Coulter Department faculty members hold this honor: Don Giddens, Barbara Boyan, Xiaoping Hu and Eberhard Voit.