Eric Brey, professor of biomedical engineering at Armour College of Engineering, was awarded funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to continue the summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at Illinois Institute of Technology.

The REU at IIT stands out amongst other experiences supported by the NSF due to its focus on diabetes. As part of the program, students complete a diabetes-related research project working with an engineering mentor at IIT’s Engineering Center for Diabetes Research and Education (ECDRE). The funding will provide another three years of support for the program, achieving a total of 12 years of continuous funding support from the NSF.

ECDRE was established in 2005, as a part of the Pritzker Institute of Biomedical Science and Engineering, with the goal of applying engineering techniques to increase understanding and treatment of diabetes and its complications. Current research at the center is aimed at: biomaterials for islet encapsulation and transplantation, vascular diseases and wound healing, thrombosis prevention, artificial pancreas systems with automatic insulin pumps, glucose monitoring, retinopathy, behavior modification, and educational tools and software.