News & Events

The orientations and positions of fluorescent molecules quantified by single-molecule orientation localization microscopy (SMOLM) highlight their sensing capabilities. By visualizing how Nile red transiently binds to grooves formed by crossed-beta sheets, SMOLM resolves the organization of amyloid fibers that cannot be detected by standard localization microscopy. (Credit: Lew lab)

WashU Expert: Optical microscopes take a big leap forward

Thanks to Matthew Lew’s research, we can now see not just where a molecule is in matter, but also where it is “facing.” The positive implications for research in biomedicine and nanotechnology are profound.

09.17.2025

$4.87 million grant supports development of sepsis diagnostic device

Fast, precise tool could offer personalized critical care to ICU patients, military personnel.

09.17.2025

With a $2.8 million grant from the NIH, WashU biomedical engineer Christine O’ Brien and colleagues will develop a wearable device to track blood loss to prevent postpartum hemorrhage. (Credit: Shutterstock)

Tracking the deadly and unpredictable postpartum hemorrhage

To prevent dangerous birth complication, WashU researchers will develop wearable device to track blood loss.

09.17.2025

Researchers in Elijah Thimsen’s lab in the McKelvey School of Engineering has shown that carbon monoxide is a more promising starting source for producing organic acids than carbon dioxide. (Credit: Alcina Johnson Sudagar)

Plasma: The fourth state of matter drives sustainable carbon upcycling

Research in Elijah Thimsen’s lab shows benefits of carbon monoxide in creating organic acids.

09.15.2025

Mark Lawrence, assistant professor in the Preston M. Green Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering, plans to develop sensors and cameras powered by taking advantage of the properties of light with a five-year, nearly $560,000 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. (Credit: iStock photo)

Light as data and power source

Mark Lawrence plans to develop light-powered sensors with NSF CAREER Award.

09.15.2025

Time-lapse 3D optical coherence microscopy (OCM) and bright-field imaging of a developing mouse embryo during the blastocyst stages. The top row features standard bright-field images, while the second and third rows display the en face slice projection and OCM 3D rendering derived from OCM images, respectively. (Credit: Zhou lab)

An inside look at the earliest stage of life

Chao Zhou’s lab images embryo development from a single cell.

09.12.2025

In this model, cell clusters can “feel” farther beyond their surrounding environment in the human body by acting as a collective, shown here “reaching out” with the red indicating the spatial distribution of the collagen deformation over a layer of stiff tissue. WashU researchers share details on this emergent property in the journal PNAS. (Image: Pathak lab)

Working together, cells extend their senses

New research has implications for tracking cancer.

09.11.2025

Aerial view of fermentation tanks used in industrial sewage treatment. WashU researchers will investigate adding light to tanks such as these to further increase production of volatile fatty acids from sludge. (Photo: Shutterstock)

A silver lining in sewer sludge: volatile fatty acids

WashU researchers find ways to more efficiently reclaim useful feedstock from waste.

09.11.2025

A team of WashU researchers in McKelvey Engineering and WashU Medicine is developing an at-home wearable device that would monitor electrical and mechanical signals in the uterus during pregnancy and labor and provide information about preterm birth. (Credit: Chuan Wang)

Wearable imaging system could provide insight into preterm birth

Chuan Wang, Shantanu Chakrabartty, Yong Wang developing AI-integrated device.

09.08.2025

Events

The latest events

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MEMS SEMINAR: Sandra Matteucci, Senior Lecturer, Washington University in St. Louis at Stephen F. & Camilla T. Brauer Hall

Imaging Science & Engineering Seminar | Muriah D. Wheelock at Preston M. Green Hall

Sep 19 10:00 am

ESE Seminar Series | Edwin Chong

Latest News Briefs

John Gleaves, former chemical engineering faculty, 79

Gleaves was co-inventor of the TAP reactor system.

06.18.2025

BME professor participates in data rescue

05.14.2025

Matthew Bersi (right) works with a student in the Soft Tissue Biomechanics Lab. (Photo: Whitney Curtis)

Bersi named 2025 Young Innovator in Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering

Matthew Bersi has been recognized by the Biomedical Engineering Society as an innovative and impactful junior faculty member in bioengineering.

04.03.2025

View all briefs View news notables

Hong Chen, her collaborators and her lab members have been using focused ultrasound to deliver drugs to the brain, to treat brain diseases and to aid in noninvasive brain liquid biopsy for the molecular diagnosis of brain diseases. Photo by Douglas Garfield

Wonderland

Focused ultrasound making strides in diagnosis, unlocking potential treatment of brain disorders.

06.05.2025

Kahan Chavda, who earned a bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering in 2016, is a co-founder and chief commercial officer of Inversa, which is working to manage invasive species in a unique way. Photo by Lisa Beth Anderson

How fashion could heal the planet

06.05.2025

Clockwise from left: Avery Cohen, Geoffrey Goffman, Sophie Fendler and Jack Galloway assemble the ground station frame. Photos by Jerry Naunheim

On a mission

WashU Satellite has big plans for its spaceflight technologies.

06.05.2025

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Katie Auyeung, a Washington University junior engineering major from Chicago, right, and Zachary Fine, a sophomore biomedical engineering major from Silver Spring, Md., left, help Craig Oberle, of Florissant, put on a device they invented that would help limit his hand tremors at the end of the school’s annual Make-a-Thon program on Thursday in St. Louis’ Central West End neighborhood. (Brian Munoz / St. Louis Public Radio)

Students invent new adaptive tech during 10-day Make-a-Thon blitz

This year's Make-a-Thon yielded eight projects.

02.26.2025

Image: Mark Ross

In the media: Mysterious blobs found inside cells are rewriting the story of how life works

Tiny specks called biomolecular condensates are leading to a new understanding of the cell.

01.22.2025

Hong Chen

In the Media: New Technique for Diagnosing Brain Diseases is Successfully Put to the Test

HEC Science & Technology explores Hong Chen's new method of detecting Alzheimer's disease.

07.31.2023

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