The SQI community is mourning the loss of ANTEC director Alexandra Kolot, the longest-standing staff member at the Institute. SQI director Samuel Stupp shared a message on her important contributions to SQI and Northwestern University.

SQI member Evan Scott has been selected as the 2022 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Mid-Career Award winner in recognition of his leadership and achievements in biomedical engineering. Scott investigates the basic inflammatory and immunological processes contributing to diverse pathologies and strives to develop targeted therapeutic approaches using engineering- and materials-based strategies.

A team of Northwestern researchers led by Michael Bedzyk and SQI member Monica Olvera de la Cruz has shown how different shapes of chiral molecules can be created. This insight could be useful in designing chiral molecular assemblies for biosensing, drug delivery and nanoelectronics.

Rebecca Keate is a graduate student co-advised by SQI members Guillermo Ameer and Jonathan Rivnay. In this Q&A, Keate previews her Aug. 31 Rising Stars of SQI Lecture titled “Conductive Polymer Form Influences Composite Properties and Cell Response" and discusses her future research plans.

Over the past two decades, Mark Seniw has produced thousands of 2D and 3D illustrations for research articles and presentations, journal cover submissions, grant proposals, news releases and websites. He recently landed his 13th journal cover and now offers his Scientific Illustration services to the entire Northwestern research community through SQI's Analytical bioNanoTechnology Equipment Core (ANTEC).

Researchers led by SQI member Michael Jewett have created a new version of an engineered tethered ribosome dubbed Ribo-T, which provides a foundation to propel broad, new efforts in synthetic biology. The advances could lead to new classes of peptide drugs that address rising antibiotic resistance as well as improvements in flexible electronics, adaptive materials and wound-healing materials.

SQI member Guillermo Ameer has received the 2022 Innovation/Commercialization Award from the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society-Americas (TERMIS-AM). The award recognizes the application of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine in the production of a product or technology that ultimately will benefit patients.

SQI member Evan Scott was profiled in the Spring 2022 issue of Northwestern Engineering Magazine. The article describes Scott’s efforts to use nanocarriers and immunology to combat a range of diseases, including cancer, infectious disease, glaucoma and type 1 diabetes.

SQI member Guillermo Ameer has been named the 2022 Bioactive Materials Lifetime Achievement Award winner by the Bioactive Materials academic journal. Established in 2021, the annual award recognizes excellence in research and development in the field of bioactive materials.

SQI visiting scholar Zaida Alvarez has received the Rafael Hervada Award for Biomedical Research in recognition of her recent first-author paper in Science describing an injectable therapy that reversed paralysis in mice following severe spinal cord injuries. The Hervada Award honors innovation in scientific and medical research, and is considered one of the top prizes awarded in Spain for biomedical research.

Michael Vincent recently earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering under co-advisors Mark Johnson and SQI member Evan Scott. In this interview, Vincent discusses his primary projects in the Scott Lab and the work he is currently doing at Grove Biopharma, a startup based on technology developed in the laboratory of SQI member Nathan Gianneschi.

SQI member Shana Kelley was one of three Northwestern University faculty members recently named a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. With the fellowship, Kelley will develop a new class of sensors for the human body that will enable continuous monitoring of biochemical markers of health and disease.