Bioengineering

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.

Dermatologically derived

04/01/14 The Scientist — Inspired by turkey skin, bioengineering professor Seung-Wuk Lee's team has devised a bacteriophage-based sensor whose color changes upon binding specific molecules.

Scientists ‘herd’ cells in new approach to tissue engineering

03/11/14 — Berkeley engineers have found that an electrical current can be used to orchestrate the flow of a group of cells. This achievement sets the stage for more controlled forms of tissue engineering and for potential applications such as “smart bandages” that use electrical stimulation to help heal wounds.

Bacteria interacting with a nanostructure

Scientists show which surfaces attract clingy Staph bacteria

03/04/14 Berkeley Lab — Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley researchers are investigating how shapes and surface texture influence the adhesion of infectious Staphylococcus Aureus bacteria. Their work, led by Mohammad Mofrad, a Berkeley Lab faculty scientist and a professor of bioengineering and mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, could guide the development of bacteria-resistant materials.

Connor Landgraf with phone and stethoscope

Startup founded by students aims to revolutionize stethoscope

02/12/14 Daily Californian — Family doctors' iPhones may soon be incorporated into regular checkups to help monitor and detect heart conditions, thanks to a startup company run by UC Berkeley students and led by CEO Connor Landgraf (B.S.'13, M.Eng.'14 BioE).

A ‘game-changer’ for HIV/AIDS

02/12/14 — Second-year bioengineering doctoral student Sylvia Natividad-Diaz may have found a way around a persistent obstacle in the treatment of HIV/AIDS-identifying when an HIV-positive patient's condition is worsening before irreversible symptoms are evident. Having that information allows health care providers to deliver the right medications at the right time, leading to better outcomes.

BioE’s Herr and Li are new AIMBE Fellows

02/06/14 — Bioengineering professors Amy Herr and Song Li have been named members of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering College of Fellows. The college is composed of the top two percent of medical and biological engineers in the country.

Turkeys inspire smartphone-capable early warning system for toxins

01/21/14 — UC Berkeley bioengineers looked to turkeys for inspiration when developing a new type of biosensor that changes color when exposed to chemical vapors. They mimicked the way turkey skin changes color to create easy-to-read sensors that can detect toxins or airborne pathogens.

Kumar and Murthy get Keck grant for cancer cell research

01/10/14 — Bioengineering professors Sanjay Kumar and Niren Murthy have been granted a $500,000 research award from the W.M. Keck Foundation for their research, which aims to develop an assay platform that will allow researchers to routinely perform single-cell proteomic experiments.

MTM article in Science Translational Medicine

01/08/14 — In a Focus article for the journal Science Translational Medicine, leaders of the joint Berkeley Engineering-UCSF Master of Translational Medicine program explore how the innovative program helps scientists and physicians cross the gap from lab bench to patient bedside.

Stanley Berger, known for his work in blood flow, dies at 79

12/04/13 — Stanley A. Berger, Montford G. Cook professor emeritus of mechanical engineering and bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and a renowned expert in fluid mechanics, died on Nov. 25, 2013. He was 79.

Kevin Healy named AAAS Fellow

11/26/13 — Kevin Healy, professor of bioengineering, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an honor bestowed upon the association's members by their peers. Healy was cited for his distinguished contributions to the fields of bioengineering and biomaterials science, particularly for the understanding and development of bioinspired materials.

Under observation

11/01/13 — Scientists have discovered a better way to study integrins experimentally, by creating a computer model.

Researchers developing brain-controlled prosthetic devices

10/31/13 USA Today — Scientists at the UCSF-UC Berkeley Center for Neural Engineering and Prostheses are among many teams nationwide working on brain-machine interfaces, promising bionic limbs controlled by users' thoughts. "We're still very far from decoding thoughts," says Berkeley bioengineer Amy Orsborn of the CNEP team. "These devices are not for mind control. They're for providing new means of control for sensory processes."

Berkeley to house NSF-funded nanoscale microscope

09/20/13 QB3 — Researchers using a new tool in QB3-Berkeley's Biomolecular Nanotechnology Center will investigate matter on an unprecedented scale, thanks to a $2 million NSF grant for the purchase and installation of a new ORION Nanofab microscope.

Cypriot BioE student receives HHMI award

09/11/13 — Elena Kassianidou left her home to come study in the United States seven years ago. Now pursuing a Ph.D. in bioengineering at Berkeley, she recently became the first student from Cyprus - and the first Berkeley-UCSF bioengineering student - to be awarded the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's (HHMI) prestigious International Predoctoral Fellowship.

8 Berkeley Engineers among 2014 Siebel Scholars

09/06/13 Siebel Foundation — The Siebel Scholars Foundation has named 85 talented graduate students to its Siebel Scholars class of 2014, including five bioengineering students and three computer science students from UC Berkeley.

Elena Kassianidou wins HHMI Fellowship

08/14/13 — BioE graduate student Elena Kassianidou has been awarded an International Predoctoral Fellowship from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Kassianidou, from Cyprus, is pursuing her dissertation in Berkeley bioengineering professor Sanjay Kumar's lab.

From problem to prototype

06/18/13 — For bioengineering undergraduate students Nasim Barzanian, Sakthivel Nagaraj, Neil Ray and Jeffrey Yang, inspiration took the form of a ballpoint pen, which sparked their development of an innovative technology for laparoscopic surgery. The student team formed during a bioengineering course, which partnered undergraduates with a physician to address a real clinical challenge, providing in-depth experience with the formal engineering design process.

Oxford-bound

05/13/13 — Graduating senior Daniel A. Price, a double major in bioengineering and electrical engineering and computer sciences with a minor in physics, was selected as one of this year's Rhodes Scholars. Next fall at Oxford University, Price will pursue research in medical diagnostic equipment. Here he tells us more about his studies, his research and future plans.