Bioengineering

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.

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.