CHICAGO BIOMEDICAL COMMUNITY TO CONVERGE ON IIT

Illinois Institute of Technology’s (IIT) Department of Biomedical Engineering hosts the third annual Chicago Universities Bioengineering Industry Consortium (CUBIC) on January 29-30, 2004, at the Hermann Union Building, 3241 S. Federal St.

CUBIC, which includes IIT, University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) and Northwestern University, brings together academia and industry to discuss advances in biomedical research and products in the Chicagoland area. The conference will, for the first time, offer sessions on education, business and entrepreneurial issues in the field. Vince Turitto, chairman and director of IIT’s Pritzker Institute of Biomedical Science and Engineering serves as the principal organizer for the CUBIC 2004 meeting.

Faculty and scientists from various universities and companies within the Chicago region will be among those presenting at the two-day event. Victor Perez-Luna and Rong Wang, both from IIT, will participate in the pre-conference tutorial, “Surface Functionalization: A Key to Advances in Bioassays, Biosensors, and Advanced Studies of Cell-Surface Interactions,” chaired by Mike Stroscio of UIC on Jan. 29. In addition, Perez-Luna will chair a session on Sensors and Diagnosis in Medicine on Jan. 30.

Again this year, special emphasis will be placed on recruiting more women into the biomedical arena. That issue will be the focus of a breakfast seminar entitled “Making Career Changes,” hosted by Steph Morti, Ph.D., Baxter Healthcare, at 7:30 a.m., Jan. 30.

The keynote address will feature Adrian Kantrowitz at 8:30 a.m. Jan. 30, entitled “Thirty Years of Left Heart Assist Devices: The Science, the Business and the Regulation.”

The son of a physician, Kantrowitz received his M.D. from Western Reserve University (1943), returning after World War II to study cardiovascular physiology under Carl John Wiggers. He devised, with Alan Lerrick, a plastic heart valve (1954), a heart-lung machine (1958), an internal pacemaker (1961-62), and (with Tetsuzo Akutsu) an auxiliary left ventricle (1964). In 1966 he performed the first implantation of a partial mechanical heart in a human, and on Dec. 6, 1967, the second human cardiac transplant.

A plenary panel session devoted to “Regulation of Biomedical Devices: Emerging Challenges” has been organized by Rob Linsenmeier of Northwestern University. Panelists from Ethicon, the Food and Drug Administration and several Chicago companies will consider issues related to the novel problems associated with the development, testing and approval of modern biomedical devices, especially those which involve functional living tissues as an integral component of their design.

For detailed information and a schedule of events and speakers please visit the CUBIC 2004 Web site at http://www.cubic-online.org/.

Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting technological university awarding degrees in the sciences, mathematics and engineering, as well as architecture, psychology, design, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum prepares the university’s 6,200 students for leadership roles in an increasingly complex and culturally diverse global workplace.