Bioengineering

New biomaterial has some nerve

10/14/14 — Berkeley bioengineers have taken proteins from nerve cells and used them to create a “smart” material that is extremely sensitive to its environment. This marriage of materials science and biology could give birth to a flexible, sensitive coating that is easy and cheap to manufacture in large quantities.

The Demilune walker team with their prototype

Devices: Ninja walker

10/07/14 — One team in Professor Amy Herr's senior capstone bioengineering course came up with an elegant solution to improve on walkers for the elderly and infirm that don't fit into tight spaces: the Ninja Walker.

8 grad students named Siebel Scholars

09/11/14 Siebel Scholars Foundation — Eight Berkeley Engineering graduate students - five from bioengineering and three from EECS - have been selected as Siebel Scholars for 2015, joining a class of 83 of the most talented students from the world's leading graduate schools.

Bakar Fellow Michel Maharbiz of EECS explaining neural dust

Bakar research fellows make their case in Silicon Valley

09/09/14 — Sixteen Bakar Fellows, including several Berkeley Engineering faculty members, recently presented their research ideas to a a packed room of potential investors on Sand Hill Road.

Berkeley students launch health tech incubator

09/05/14 Daily Californian — A group of UC Berkeley students, led by co-founders Taner Dagdelen and Zachary Zeleznick, both bioengineering juniors, have launched what they call the first-ever student-run health tech incubator.

Wafer used to build "organoid chips"---chips that mimic the behavior of the human body.

New ‘biochips’ that mimic our bodies could speed development of drugs

08/27/14 Wired — Researchers in the labs of Berkeley bioengineers Kevin Healy and Luke Lee are collaborating on a project to recreate parts of the human body on chips. The research aims to find ways to get tissue to live and mimic how real organs function in order to eliminate years of animal and human testing of medical treatments.

Professor Seung-Wuk Lee is interviewed on Danish TV

Bioengineering research on Danish TV

08/26/14 Jyske Bank — The Danish television program “Tech and City” filmed an episode at UC Berkeley showcasing bioengineering professor Seung-Wuk Lee's virus-electric energy work, and the CellScope project from professor Dan Fletcher's lab, explained by PhD alum and lecturer Frankie Myers.

Capstone team takes 2nd in ASME Undergraduate Design Competition

08/14/14 — A team of students in the Fall 2013 Bioengineering Senior Capstone Design course have won Second Place in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Undergraduate Design Competition this summer.

Christine Leon Swisher dancing with the 49ers Gold Rush cheerleaders.

Giving her all in the lab, on the field

08/14/14 — Dr. Christine Leon Swisher (Ph.D.'14 BioE) talks about juggling her passions for science and dance, simultaneously pursuing a PhD and dancing with the 49ers Gold Rush cheerleaders.

Antimalarial drug based on Berkeley technology shipped to Africa

08/13/14 Berkeley Lab — The road from lab bench to market can be long, but UC Berkeley's Jay Keasling has been patient. Thirteen years after he discovered how to make an antimalarial drug in microbes, the product - the world's first semisynthetic antimalarial drug - has been shipped from Italy to Africa to bolster the fight against this killer disease.

Rep. Scott Peters and Jay Keasling at House committee hearing

On Capitol Hill, Keasling calls for ‘national initiative’ to boost bioengineering

07/21/14 — UC Berkeley professor and synthetic-biology pioneer Jay Keasling was on Capitol Hill Thursday, stressing the need for a federal strategy to ensure continued U.S. leadership in a field he said can yield significant medical benefits for people throughout the world.

Slides of young and old blood, showing the effect of adding oxytocin

‘Trust hormone’ oxytocin helps old muscle work like new

06/10/14 — Berkeley researchers, led by Irina Conboy of bioengineering, have discovered that oxytocin – a hormone associated with maternal nurturing, social attachments, childbirth and sex – is indispensable for healthy muscle maintenance and repair. It is the latest target for development into a potential treatment for age-related muscle wasting.

Bioengineer Jay Keasling wins renewable energy prize

06/09/14 Joint BioEnergy Institute — Jay Keasling, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and bioengineering and CEO of JBEI, has won the 2014 Renewable Energy Prize portion of the prestigious Eni Awards for his achievements in “the microbial production of hydrocarbon fuels.”

CNEP researchers target brain circuitry to treat intractable mental disorders

05/27/14 — Neuroscientists, engineers and physicians from Berkeley and other university and industry partners are teaming up for an ambitious 5-year, $26 million project to develop new techniques for tackling mental illness by using devices implanted in the brain to target and correct malfunctioning neural circuits in conditions such as clinical depression, addiction and anxiety disorders.

Bakar fellows Ana Claidia Arias, John Dueber, Shawn Shadden and Laura Waller

Four Berkeley Engineering faculty among new Bakar Fellows

05/27/14 Berkeley Research — The Bakar Fellows Program's new fellows for 2014-15 include Ana Claudia Arias (EECS), who is working to improve MRI hardware; John Dueber (bioengineering), who uses synthetic biology to improve green chemistry; Shawn Shadden (mechanical engineering), whose research integrates medical diagnostic imaging with computational modeling; and Laura Waller (EECS), who develops new methods for optical imaging as head of the Computational Imaging Lab.

University Medal finalists Brooke Liang and Robin Shah

Two Berkeley Engineers among medal finalists

05/13/14 — Finalists for the 2014 University Medal, UC Berkeley's highest honor for graduating seniors, include Brooke Liang, a bioengineer from Ottawa, Canada, and Rohin Shah, an EECS major from Pune, India.

Health care apps offer patients an active role

05/02/14 New York Times — The CellScope Oto, based on a device born in professor Dan Fletcher's bioengineering lab in 2009, is one of two tools featured in a New York Times article on a new breed of apps and devices that increasingly put medical tools in the hands of consumers.

True colors

05/01/14 — Berkeley bioengineers found inspiration in turkey skin for a new type of biosensor that changes color when exposed to chemical vapors.

Reprogrammed

05/01/14 — A team of Berkeley scientists, led by bioengineering professor Song Li has shown that physical cues can replace certain chemicals when nudging mature cells back into a pluripotent stage.

Adam Arkin wins DOE’s 2013 Lawrence Award

04/16/14 Berkeley Lab — Bioengineering professor Adam Arkin, director of Berkeley Lab's Physical Biosciences Division and a biologist who is recognized as a leading authority on the evolutionary design principles of cellular networks and populations and their application to systems and synthetic biology, has been named one of six recipients of the 2013 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, the Department of Energy's highest scientific honor.