Presenters

George Whitesides

Woodford L. and Ann A. Flowers University Professor. Born, 1939, Louisville, KY.  A.B., Harvard, 1960.  Ph.D., 1964, California Institute of Technology (with J.D. Roberts).  Faculty: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1963 to 1982; Harvard University, 1982-present. Memberships and Fellowships:  Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, American Philosophical Society; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Institute of Physics, American Physical Society, New York Academy of Sciences, World Technology Network, and American Chemical Society; Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Science; Honorary Member of the Materials Research Society of India; Honorary Fellow of the Chemical Research Society of India, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Royal Society of Chemistry (UK); Foreign Associate of the French Academy of Sciences; Honorary Professor, Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), India. Present research activities include: physical and organic chemistry, materials science, biophysics, water in biology, surface science, microfluidics, self-assembly, micro- and nanotechnology, science for developing economies, the origin of life, rational drug design, magnetic levitation, dissipative systems and emergence, complexity, and simplicity.

John Kimura

John Kimura is President and CEO of Sensorium, offering precision and high accuracy measurement systems for the measure of potential difference and current, mainly of biology.  As opposed to the conventional strict engineering approach to bio-potential measurements, Dr. Kimura’s is based on knowledge of the biology.  His early work under the mentorship of Albert Szent-Gyorgi, Nobel Laureate, was in the characterization of charge movement and distribution in various charge transfer molecules associated with cancer.  Following undergraduate training in chemical physics and applied mathematics, he received a PhD under Professor’s Keynes and Hodgkin (Nobel Laureate) at the University of Cambridge.  Research involved measuring movement of charge associated with the molecular gating of the rising phase of the action potential.  Subsequently, his work has characterized forces between lipid membrane components and proteins responsible for voltage and chemically gated neuronal events.  In parallel with the development of an extended life mono-layer culture of the hippocampus for studying the dynamics of circuits, Dr. Kimura founded Concept 2000, which offered very high resolution measurement of charge movement at the molecular and cellular levels.  Subsequently, Dr. Kimura led Sensorium to develop instrumentation to study recurrent and feedback activity in what Donald Herb referred to as “cell assemblies.”  Sensorium was approached by scientists seeking to accurately record evoked responsive potentials from the scalp with the intention of feature extraction from few to single trials, based on Kimura’s expertise in and high accuracy bio-potential measurement systems.    Recently, the Department of Defense asked Kimura to collaborate in characterizing neuro-physiological deficits caused by bomb blasts.  In the past three years, Sensorium designed and refined a portable EEG/ERP recording system to measure neuronal integrity of soldiers before and following bomb blast.  Kimura, co-founder of M and K Design, is working on an easy to use electrode system incorporating system on a chip semi-conductor technologies.  Owing to his expertise in the measurement of electrical activity in the brain Dr. Kimura is retained by leading Fortune 1000 companies.

Sydney Cash

Sydney Cash, is an Associate Professor in the Epilepsy Division of the Neurology Department at Massachusetts General Hospital and at Harvard University. Dr. Cash received his MD and PHD from Columbia University in New York City. He then came up to Boston for neurological training in the Partners Program. He stayed on at MGH for further training in epilepsy and neurophysiology during a research fellowship funded by the American Epilepsy Society and a Grass-Morison Fellowship. Current research in Dr. Cash’s lab is, broadly speaking, dedicated to trying to understand normal and abnormal brain activity, particularly oscillations, using multi-modal and multi-scalar approaches.  Specifically, his group combines novel microelectrode approaches with both invasive and non-invasive techniques such as electroencephalography and magnetoencephalography to record directly from both human and animal cortex and subcortical structures. One part of the lab studies the neurophysiology of epilepsy; trying to understand how seizures start and stop and how they might be predicted and terminated.  These questions overlap with investigations into the mechanisms of sleep, normal language, auditory and other cognitive processing. The laboratory also focuses on the development of novel neurotechnological approaches to develop neuroprosthetic devices which can help diagnose and treat common and devastating neurological diseases.  To this end, Dr. Cash is a member of the BrainGate clinical trial team, Co-director of the Department of Neurology NeuroTechnology Trials Unit and and clinical trials director of the New England Pediatric Device Consortium.

William Crone

William E. Crone started his professional biomedical engineering career at Harborview Hospital in Seattle under the leadership of Dr. Leonard Cobb, Chief of the Department of Cardiology, Harborview Hospital, Seattle, WA. in 1971 upon completion of his BEE studies at Seattle University.  Bill worked with Dr. Cobb while completing his Masters Thesis at the University of Washington on ECG R-Wave Detection. Mr. Crone built specialized electronics for Dr. Cobb for use in evaluating Holter Scans. Bill’s thesis was on reliable R-wave detection of the ECG. While working on his thesis and Masters program, Bill also became involved with physicians at The Oregon Health Sciences Center in Portland, Oregon, and assisted in developing a research biosensor for evaluation of the human cochlea (Human Inner Ear). Presently Bill is employed at Physio Control as a Senior Principal Research Scientist to work in Advanced Development and Research in the areas of physiological sensor technologies, wireless technologies, and DSP algorithm development. Mr. Crone has patents in the fields of Cardiology, Optics, Ultrasound, perfusion, and Respiration.

Michael Filbin

Dr. Michael Filbin is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Attending Physician with the Department of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Filbin has expertise in management of septic shock in the emergency department, with a particular interest in early identification. In collaboration with critical care investigators both locally and nationally, he has conducted NIH- and industry-funded clinical trials in septic shock. Dr. Filbin has recently co-authored the largest prospective clinical trial to date investigating the merits of goal-directed therapy for patients with septic shock (The ProCESS Investigators. A Randomized Trial of Protocol-Based Care for Early Septic Shock. New England Journal of Medicine: Epub ahead of print March 18, 2014).

Michael Luna

Michael Luna is responsible for Jawbone’s long-term technology and innovation strategy, intellectual property protection, and research. He is a pioneer in the wireless data industry with more than 30 years of management and engineering design experience in the medical and mobile engineering fields. Prior to joining Jawbone in 2007, Michael served as Chief Technologist and Chief Technology Officer of Openwave Systems, a mediation and messaging solution provider that has since been divided into two companies. His background also includes CTO experience at 724 Solutions and senior technical positions at SBC Communications and AT&T Wireless. Before beginning his telecommunications career, he was employed at Physio-Control and Beckman Instruments as a biomedical engineer. Michael has been the primary inventor or major contributor to 25 issued patents and has currently filed more than 96 additional patent applications in the mobile telecommunications field. He has also co-authored industry standards and held industry leadership positions in OMA, WAP Forum, CDG, TIA and PCMIA.

Thomas Lipoma

Thomas Lipoma is the co-founder of Rest Devices, a Boston based company specializing in wearable technologies. Before leading Rest Devices’ research and development, he received a degree in mechanical engineering from MIT with a focus on propulsion technology.

Janusz Bryzek

Janusz Bryzek received his MSEE and Ph.D. from Warsaw Technical University, Poland.  He completed Executive Management Program at Stanford University. Janusz is considered as one of the pioneers of MEMS. He cofounded nine Silicon Valley MEMS companies: Sensym (now Honeywell), ICSensors (now Elmos/MSI), NovaSensor (now General Electric), Intelligent MicroSensor Technology (now Maxim), Transparent Networks (now Intel), LVSI (now Atmel), Jyve (now Fairchild Semiconductor), BN Ventures (Strategic Consulting) and TSensors Summit. Bryzek has been performing due diligence for top tier VC firms, including USVP, Mayfield, Benchmark, Morgenthaler and Panorama.  He also worked as an advisor or Board member for over 40 startups. In 2013, Janusz started TSensors (Trillion Sensors) initiative, aiming at accelerated development of new sensor types to support the Abundance targeting elimination of major global problems in one generation. In 1989 he was recognized as “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Arthur Young.  In 1994 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by Sensors Magazine and in 2003 by MANCEF. Bryzek has delivered over 250 presentations and papers wrote sections of 4 books, organized and chaired many international conferences and has 23 issued US patents.  He started several sensor standardization efforts, including AAMI Disposable Blood Pressure Transducers, IEEE-1451 Smart Sensor Communication and Trillion Sensors. Janusz serves on the Boards of several companies and is Advisory Board Member of The Global Medical Microtechnology Association.  He is also a member of IEEE-MEMS Program Committee.

Marilyn Moy

Marilyn L. Moy, MD graduated from Harvard Medical School and trained as a pulmonologist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  She also holds a MSc. in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.  Funded through the VA and the NIH, she is investigating the role of physical activity in modifying outcomes and the disease course in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Dr. Moy also examines novel interventions to promote and sustain physical activity in patients with chronic lung disease.  Leveraging advances in wearable sensors and telehealth, Dr. Moy’s vision is to bring individualized and accessible exercise programs to the patient.

Omer Inan

Omer Inan is an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he researches physiological and biomedical sensing and monitoring. Before joining Georgia Tech, Omer finished his BS, MS, and PhD in electrical engineering in ‘04, ‘05, and ‘09, respectively, from Stanford University, where he was awarded the Lieberman Fellowship in 2008-’09 for outstanding scholarship, teaching, and service. From 2009-‘13, he continued his research at Stanford as a Visiting Scholar while also working as Chief Engineer at Countryman Associates, a high-end professional audio manufacturer. He is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics and the annual IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference, and technical program committee member for several international biomedical engineering conferences. During his undergraduate studies at Stanford, Omer competed as a discus and shot put thrower on the Track and Field Team, and was a three-time All-American in the discus throw.

Steffen Leonhardt

Director, Philips Chair for Medical Information Technology (MEDIT), Helmholtz-Institute for Biomedical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University. Steffen has 4.5 years of industrial experience as a R&D project manager at Dräger Medical AG & Co. KG, Lübeck, Germany (1999 – 2003)

 Jeffrey Chu

Jeff is a seasoned medical device developer and technologist.  He is directly responsible for the creation and development of nascent technologies from ideation through transfer to manufacturing at Simbex. Over the past 15+ years, he has delivered multiple products to market  based on a wide spectrum of technologies in both the medical device and consumer marketplaces. His deep experience in software, hardware, and algorithm development coupled with his biomechanical systems expertise helps realize innovative solutions that seamlessly integrate with the consumer.  He has served as Principal Investigator on several federally funded research programs from both the NIH and Department of Defense in the  areas of rehabilitation, blast, and impact biomechanics. His work has received national recognition from Time Magazine, Sybase, Edison Awards, and Computerworlds.  Prior to Simbex, Jeff worked as an advance concepts consultant for several companies in the sporting goods industry and taught graduate courses in the areas of clinical biomechanics and computer modeling.

Paolo Bonato

Paolo Bonato, Ph.D., serves as Director of the Motion Analysis Laboratory at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Boston MA. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA, a member of the Affiliated Faculty of the Harvard–MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Cambridge MA, an Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the MGH Institute of Health Professions, Boston MA, and an Associate Faculty Member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. He has held Adjunct Faculty positions at the University of Ireland Galway and the University of Melbourne. His research work is focused on the development of rehabilitation technologies with special emphasis on wearable systems and robotics.  Dr. Bonato is the Founding and Current Editor-in-Chief of Journal on NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation, an Associate Editor of the IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics and the IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine. Dr. Bonato served as an Elected Member of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) AdCom (2007-2010), and as President of the International Society of Electrophysiology and Kinesiology (2008-2010). He served as Chair of the 33^rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE EMBS (2011). Dr. Bonato served as Chair of the IEEE EMBS Technical Committee on Wearable Biomedical Sensors and Systems in 2008 and as founding member of this committee (2004-2012). Dr. Bonato is currently serving as IEEE EMBS Vice President for Publications (2013-present). He received the M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy in 1989 and the Ph.D. degree in biomedical engineering from Universita` di Roma “La Sapienza” in 1995. Dr. Bonato’s work has received more than 3,500 citations (Google Scholar). To learn more about Dr. Bonato’s work, visit http://srh-mal.net/.