Friday, April 13, 2018

[351] Acclaimed MTSU professor sees biomedical physics research flourish



MURFREESBORO, Tenn. —His work led to a prestigious Fulbright award for teaching and research in Ethiopia in 2016-17. Back at MTSU this academic year, professor Daniel Erensowas among nine College of Basic and Applied Sciencesfaculty who made 10-minute talks “to make you love science.”

It was part of the Tuesday (March 20) MT Talks, a College of Basic and Applied SciencesScholars Day activity that is a portion of the university’s annual Scholars Weekevents. It was held in the Science Building.

Open to the public and the MTSU community, MT Talks shared how science is about discovering the wonders of how the world works. From physics to biology to aerospace, audience members could channel their inner Mr. Wizard (host Don Herbert’s1950s and ’60s TV show) as they watched and listened to the presenters.

Erenso discussed recent advances in biomedical physics research at MTSU

He emphasized the technique developed to measure radiation doses at the single cell level and recent observations made in creating electromagnetic radiation (light) from blood, he said.

His study pinpoints what has taken place in the past three years, though research in biophysics has been around since 2005. Erenso has been at MTSU since fall 2003.

“The research that led to these two interesting new things is our research on biophysical techniques in the study of human red blood cells in relation to the sickle cell disorder,” he said.

Erenso provided a brief review of the use of lasers in sickle cell research. A video within the PowerPoint reveals “interesting results — single cell ionization of various types of cancer cells and the transformation of blood into radiation (light),” he said.

In his study of the red blood cells in the sickle cell disorder, Erenso has been a part of a collaboration with Meharry Medical College in Nashville and with the MTSU Department of Biology in his study cancer cells. He received his college’s Distinguished Research Award for 2016.


MTSU alumnus Michelle Kelley, a physics major and Honors CollegeBuchanan Scholar, often assisted Erenso with laboratory work.

To learn more about his research, visit www.mtsu.edu/faculty/derensoor http://capone.mtsu.edu/derenso/.

During his Fulbright experience overseas, Erenso taught an undergraduate physics course, mentored graduate students and conducted an outreach activity. He also trained physics high school teachers about a modern approach to teaching introductory physics.

Other MT Talks presenters and their topics included:

• Karim Salman(engineering), “Using Cellular Automata in Encryption/Decryption: Theory, History and Future Aspects.”
• John DiVincenzo(chemistry), “Pesticides in Our Environment: Should We Be Concerned.”
• John Wallin(computational sciences), “How Virtual and Mixed Reality Will Be Used in the Future Classroom.”
• Tyler Babb(aerospace), “iPads as Electronic Flight Bags.”
• Mary Farone(biology), “The Microbiome — Your 10 Trillion Frenemies and BFFs.”
• Clay Harris(geology), “To Model or Not to Model: Could There Be a Downside?”
• Sal Barbosa(computer science), “Moving AI (artificial intelligence) Into the Future Responsibly.” 
• Brian Robertson(biology), “CRISPR Genome Editing and Its Biomedical Applications.”

To learn more about the College of Basic and Applied Sciences and its 11 departments, call 615-898-2613.

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