News Releases

The Center for Bioanalytic Metrology announced the launch of 11 new research projects to be carried out in 2022 by 12 faculty members and their students across the campuses of the University of Notre Dame, Purdue University and Indiana University. The projects were chosen by, funded by, and will be carried out in close collaboration with CBM’s Industry Advisory Board, which is comprised of AbbVie, Agilent, Corteva Agriscience, ExxonMobil, Genentech, Indiana Biosciences Research Institute, Lilly, Merck, Pfizer, Sartorius and Takeda.

CBM, a National Science Foundation-sponsored Industry-University Cooperative Research Center, is a joint venture that focuses the innovative problem-solving capabilities of faculty and students on the key measurement science concerns of industry members. The funded projects emerged from a yearlong process in which industry members defined urgent needs and faculty members proposed potential solutions.

The eleven new projects launched by the center span a wide range of topics including measuring the moisture content of pharmaceutical powders, phase transitions within pharmaceutical formulations, quantitation of peptide D-isomers , matrix effects in LC-MS, depth profiling of plant tissues, the development of a pulse-picking coherent Raman scattering microscope, a miniaturized cell culture platform,  rapid screening of waste plastics, enhanced biomolecule imaging, studying viromimetic nanoparticles as non-classical light emitters and the application of deep learning to chemical property prediction.

“We’re very pleased to see how the center continues to adapt to the ever-changing measurement science needs of our industry members” commented Notre Dame professor and Center Director Paul Bohn. “The CBM is building important collaborative bridges between academia and industry. We are familiarizing our faculty and students with the key problems and unmet needs of industry in the measurement science arena, while tackling challenging problems with significant ‘real world’ importance.” Stephen Jacobson, Indiana University Site Director, added, “CBM continues to evolve and develop since our launch in 2019. Over this past two years, despite interruptions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the group has developed a productive and friendly atmosphere that is mutually benefitting industry and university participants alike.”

“Our students are loving the CBM”, noted Garth Simpson, Purdue University Site Director. “We have now generated some spectacular science in collaboration with our industry partners and have placed numerous graduating Ph.D. students with experience on CBM projects into really great positions in industry. The students feel that working closely with industry scientists gives them a better sense of what to look for in a career outside of academia.”

Interested in learning more about CBM? 

Visit cbm.nd.edu or contact Chris.Welch@ICASE.center 

Six Researchers from the ICASE Network were included in the recently announced Analytical Scientist POWER LIST for 2021 including R. Graham Cooks (Purdue), Gary Hieftje, Lane Baker and David Clemmer (Indiana University), Paul Bohn (Notre Dame) and Chris Welch (ICASE).  Congratulations!

Link to entire list

A team of collaborators at Purdue, Notre Dame, Indiana University and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IU-PUI) have received a planning grant for a new NSF IUCRC - The Center for Quantum Technologies.  The new center will partner with industry and government stakeholders to identify compelling needs and challenges, and then develop novel quantum technologies to address them.

CQT engineers and scientists from the four partner institutions will develop and transfer foundational knowledge into industry-friendly quantum devices, systems, and algorithms with enhanced functionality and performance.

The NSF provides a financial and procedural framework for membership and operations in addition to best practices learned over decades of fostering public/private partnerships that provide significant value to the nation, industry and university faculty and students. Members guide the direction of center research through active involvement and mentoring.  Questions?  Please contact David Stewart.

Notre Dame Professor Merlin Bruening has been awarded an NSF Partnerships for Innovation grant to explore commercialization of the 96 well microplate membrane technology developed in his laboratory.  In conjunction with commercial parther, Takara, the Brueining Lab will explore the use of these microplates containing functionalizable membranes for high throughput immunoassays. Read more here.

Three graduate students working on projects within the NSF Center for Bioanalytic Metrology at Notre Dame, Purdue and Indiana University will be spending the summer in Industry labs working on industry-relevant aspects of their projects.  Funded by the NSF INTERN program, graduate student, Nancy Fu, from the Hilkka Kenttamaa group at Purdue, will be carrying out research on Ion-Molecule reactions for machine learning enhanced structure elucidation via mass spectrometry at Corteva Agrisciences, while fellow graduate students Lu Zeng and Nita Takanti, from the Garth Simpson group at Purdue, will be carrying out research on two photon imaging of phase boundaries in pharmaceutical formulations at Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly & Co., respectively.. 

For more information about the NSF CBM, click here.

For more information about the NSF INTERN program, click here.