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Poppy field

Discovery paves way for homebrewed drugs, prompts call for regulation

05/18/15 — Research led by Berkeley bioengineers has completed key steps needed to turn sugar-fed yeast into a microbial factory for producing therapeutic drugs. But because the work could lead to home-brewing of opiates and other controlled substances, the researchers warn that regulators and law enforcement need to pay attention, too.
Microglia in young and old brains

Drug perks up old muscles and aging brains

05/13/15 — UC Berkeley bioengineers have discovered that a small-molecule drug simultaneously perks up old stem cells in the brains and muscles of mice, a finding that could lead to drug interventions for humans that would make aging tissues throughout the body act young again.

Smartphone video microscope automates detection of parasites

05/06/15 — A UC Berkeley-led research team has developed a mobile phone microscope, based on CellScope technology from bioengineer Daniel Fletcher's lab, that uses video to automatically detect and quantify infection by parasitic worms in a drop of blood.
Charvi Shetty and a prototype of her affordable monitoring device. 

KNOX Diagnostics

05/01/15 — Knox Diagnostics is a new medical device company that is working on a cheaper and more portable asthma monitoring device.
David Shaffer and virus-delivered genes

‘Intelligent design’ — can it deliver?

04/28/15 Berkeley Research — Berkeley bioengineer David Schaffer uses a strategy known as directed evolution to find variations in a common virus that will allow it to effectively deliver drugs to target cells.
Ivy clinging to wall

Synthetic coatings: Super surfaces

03/26/15 Nature — Characteristics adapted from lizards, ivy and other natural materials could help to engineer everyday objects with remarkable properties. Professor Phillip Messersmith, a Berkeley materials scientist and bioengineer, is studying mussel adhesive, which is ideal for securing objects underwater.
EECS professor Ana Claidia Arias demonstrates her wearable MRI wrap to Barbara Bakar and Arnold Silverman.

Bakar Fellows show off their discoveries to tech entrepreneurship world

03/25/15 — Sixteen UC Berkeley faculty, including many Berkeley Engineers, who are conducting commercially promising research supported by the Bakar Fellows Program traveled to San Francisco to deepen their connections with prominent venture capital firms, industry partners and entrepreneurs.
Heart on a chip device

Bioengineers put human hearts on a chip

03/09/15 — Researchers have created a “heart-on-a-chip” technology that effectively uses human cardiac muscle cells derived from adult stem cells to model how a human heart reacts to cardiovascular medications. The system could one day replace animal models to screen for the safety and efficacy of new drugs.
Ashley Tsai and colleagues

Generation innovation: battling neglected tropical diseases

02/25/15 Blum Center — The career trajectory of Ashley Tsai, bioengineering and material science major, was transformed by a Global Policy and Practice experience at Kohn Kaen University in Thailand, where she researched liver fluke infections, a disease common among the rural poor in many countries.
John Dueber (right) and bioengineering graduate student Zach Russ examine a culture of indigo-producing E. coli bacteria.

Greener blue jeans

02/23/15 Berkeley Research — The indigo that dyes your favorite pair of jeans blue is wildly popular, but very "dirty" to synthesize chemically. Bioengineering professor and Bakar fellow John Dueber thinks he has found an environmentally green way for industry to churn out the dye without toxic compounds.
Eko Devices founders with Core stethoscope

Forbes’ “30 Under 30” includes Eko stethoscope

01/20/15 California magazine — The SkyDeck Berkeley startup accelerator landed two teams on Forbes magazine's "30 Under 30" list of the brightest entrepreneurial stars, including Eko Devices (founded by Berkeley bioengineer Connor Landgraf), which developed the Core digital stethoscope.
Dr. Jessica Kaplan examines Izzy Cohen

Got an earache? S.F. startup says a smartphone’s the cure

12/09/14 SFGate — CellScope, a San Francisco startup born in Dan Fletcher's bioengineering lab, believes that telemedicine's next frontier is buried under earwax. On Tuesday, the company started selling a device that transforms an iPhone into an ear-viewing otoscope.
Zachary Zeleznick

Bioengineer Zeleznick selected for Silicon Valley Bank Trek

11/21/14 Silicon Valley Bank Trek — Bioengineering undergraduate Zachary Zeleznick was one of 18 students from around the country selected to participate in the 2014 Silicon Valley Bank Trek. The Trek brings together top student innovators for a 3-day series of events with a “who's who” of influential investors and entrepreneurs in the tech community.
Connor Landgraf and the digitally enhanced stethoscope

Devices: Smarter stethoscopes

11/01/14 — BioE alum Connor Landgraf has transformed the classic stethoscope into a tool with the potential to save lives and eliminate billions of dollars a year in unnecessary spending.