Professor leaving KU to lead new OU School of Biomedical Engineering; updates on a few other Jayhawks
photo by: Mike Yoder
Michael Detamore, director of the biomaterials and tissue Engineering Laboratory at KU, describes how 3-D printing technology is being researched at KU in tissue engineering efforts focused mainly on bone and cartilage regeneration. In background working with a 3D printer at left is Stefan Lohfeld, Marie Curie Visiting Scientist at KU, and incoming freshman Mason Wilde, Louisburg.
Around this time last year, I visited the lab of Kansas University professor Michael Detamore, where he oh-so-patiently answered questions for a feature on what he does there: tissue engineering. At least to a nonscientist like me, the concept of creating replacement body parts from combinations of biological and synthetic material is pretty mind-blowing, so his patience was much appreciated. (New jawbones, regenerative cartilage plugs, trachea patches — click here to read that story.)
Detamore will be leaving KU to lead a unit at the University of Oklahoma dedicated solely to work in this scientific area.
He has been named founding director of the Peggy and Charles Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma, The Oklahoman reports. According to the newspaper the newly established school — to be based in a new academic building — will integrate engineering and medicine and will further develop three areas of existing strength in OU’s College of Engineering: biomedical imaging, nanomedicine and neuroengineering.
“It will be a showcase school for OU that will attract top talent to the region and invigorate health care discovery and innovation. I’m proud to be a part of the school’s beginnings,” Detamore said in the article.
At KU, Detamore — a biomedical engineer — is a professor in the Chemical and Petroleum Engineering Department. KU does have a bioengineering graduate program, but it does not have a biomedical engineering program.
photo by: Mike Yoder
Michael Detamore, director of the biomaterials and tissue Engineering Laboratory at KU, describes how 3-D printing technology is being researched at KU in tissue engineering efforts focused mainly on bone and cartilage regeneration. In background working with a 3D printer at left is Stefan Lohfeld, Marie Curie Visiting Scientist at KU, and incoming freshman Mason Wilde, Louisburg.
I didn’t catch Detamore this afternoon to ask more questions, including when he starts at OU.
A couple other quick KU people updates:
• Paralyzed student tackling classes: At last word Tom Babb, the KU freshman who was paralyzed from the neck down over winter break, had moved from Craig Hospital back home with his parents in Colorado and was catching up on college coursework there, according to his “Prayers for Tom Babb” Facebook page, which his family updates.
“In May he was busy with a two week, three credit public speaking class, which kept him busy with a lot of school and homework on top of everything else. He somehow pulled of a perfect balance that landed him a B in the class and a better social life than I’ll ever have,” Babb’s sister recently wrote. “He had about a week break before starting the writing class that he is taking throughout the rest of the summer, which means he now spends two days a week at Craig and two days a week in class. He is learning to use adaptive technology that allows him to participate in class like a mostly-normal student. Using a software called Dragon, he is able to fully control his computer by wearing a baseball cap with a little metal chip on it that tracks his head motion. He can then click and type using voice control, which I would argue might be more efficient than typing with your fingers. It’s a huge learning curve, but in typical Tommy fashion, he already has it figured out!”
Fifty members of Kansas University's Beta Theta Pi fraternity took an overnight bus ride to Evergreen, Colo., where they initiated freshman Tom Babb in a special ceremony Feb. 20, 2016. The rest of Babb's pledge class had been initiated Feb. 7 in Lawrence, but Babb could not be there. While on a family vacation in Hawaii over winter break, Babb was paralyzed in an accident and hospitalized more than three months following.
• Jayhawks in the Olympics: At least one Jayhawk has qualified to compete in the summer Olympics in Rio. KU senior Daina Levy won the hammer throw at the Jamaican National Championships on Saturday, making her the first Jamaican female to compete in the Olympic hammer throw. Olympic trials are ongoing; watch kusports.com for word on other KU athletes who are competing.
photo by: Nick Krug
Kansas University's Daina Levy spins through her rotation during an attempt in the Women's Hammer Throw event of the NCAA Track and Field West Regionals at Rock Chalk Park on Friday, May 27, 2016.
• Perry Ellis and Perry Ellis, together at last: This is kind of old news now, but in case you missed it on the sports blogs, you should know that Perry Ellis menswear is now sponsoring recently graduated KU men’s basketball player Perry Ellis. I love that this is happening.
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• I’m the Journal-World’s KU and higher ed reporter. See all the newspaper’s KU coverage here. Reach me by email at sshepherd@ljworld.com, by phone at 832-7187, on Twitter @saramarieshep or via Facebook at Facebook.com/SaraShepherdNews.