Category: Research and Innovation

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Notre Dame engineers address key hurdle for exhaled breath diagnostics

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a chronic condition that causes increasing difficulty in breathing as it progresses, is the third leading cause of death worldwide. The clinical diagnosis and monitoring of COPD and other pulmonary diseases can be taxing, often requiring blood testing, …

A colorized image of membrane-bound extracellular vesicles

Notre Dame bioengineer explores how tissue-bound particles could advance regenerative medicine

Scientists used to think that when a cell released a tiny, membrane-covered bubble—an extracellular vesicle (EV)—it was just taking out the trash. Then, in the 1990s and early 2000s, researchers discovered that these circulating microscopic bubbles were actually part of a critical …

On the right side there are two researchers in a lab next to a Nature Chemical Engineering cover featuring glowing red and yellow capillary networks on the left.

Researchers develop groundbreaking method for printing blood capillary networks

More than 100,000 people are awaiting an organ transplant in the United States, with a new candidate added to the list every 10 minutes. Even if the transplant is carried out successfully, recipients must take immunosuppressive medications, elevating their risk of broader infections, and adhere to …

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Notre Dame and Manufacturing Technology Incorporated receive Federal Railroad Administration award to lead innovation for rail joining technology

Engineers and researchers at the University of Notre Dame (ND), along with leadership at South Bend company Manufacturing Technology, Inc. (MTI), have entered a partnership to create a new rail joining technology. Together, ND and MTI were awarded a $4.6 million grant from …

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Notre Dame researchers to advance quantum microscopy, biosensing technology, and electronics fabrication with support from NDnano

Notre Dame Nanoscience and Technology (NDnano) has announced the awardees of the inaugural Notre Dame Nanofabrication Facility (NDNF) Support Grants. The grant program is designed to catalyze new research involving the NDNF, a world-class, 9,000 square-foot teaching and research …

University of Notre Dame launches Morphogenetic Bioengineering Initiative to advance research in healing and disease

The University of Notre Dame has launched the Notre Dame Morphogenetic Bioengineering Initiative (ND-MBI), a cross-disciplinary program that links artificial intelligence and mechanistic bioengineering to better understand how cells communicate with each other to build, maintain, and …

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Ink-based thermoelectric technology could be solution for replacing problematic refrigerants

Today’s refrigerants, which are specialized working fluids used in air conditioners, refrigerators, and heat pumps, come with a host of issues including leakage, emissions concerns, flammability, and limited reclamation of used refrigerants. However, a recent study by University of …

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Notre Dame engineer receives inaugural ARPA-H Emerging Health Innovators award to power lymphatic disease research

As many as 10 million people in the United States live with lymphedema, a chronic condition causing severe, painful swelling of the limbs. Secondary lymphedema occurs when a person’s lymph nodes are damaged, blocked, or impaired. Globally, the most prevalent trigger of secondary lymphedema is …

Yanliang Zhang

Notre Dame Engineering and Harvard Medical School collaborate on 4-year NIH project to create lab-grown organs

While scientists have successfully printed small patches of human tissue, scaling those tissues into full-sized organs has remained elusive. In natural organisms, every cell must be within roughly 100 to 200 micrometers—about the thickness of two human hairs—of a blood vessel to receive oxygen …

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Heart-on-a-chip device identifies youth-enhancing “cocktail” to repair old hearts

The heart is a pump that wears out over time—that, at least, was the prevailing view. New research has shown that the heart’s aging results from changes in intercellular communications, which tell heart cells, sometimes even healthy ones, to stiffen and break down. By decoding these complex …