Streamlined
05/01/13 — Since its debut in 1979, the Western blot has remained basically unchanged, but the Herr Lab may have developed a better version to work with.
Bioengineering
Experiential ed.
05/01/13 — Many hands-on labs, shops and workspaces around campus allow students to learn by doing.
Berkeley junior wins prestigious Goldwater scholarship
04/22/13 Daily Cal — Ritankar Das, 18, a junior double-majoring in bioengineering and chemical biology, has been selected as a 2013 Goldwater scholar, the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields.
Beyond genomics – mining the proteome
04/03/13 Berkeley Research — Amy Herr, associate professor of bioengineering and a 2013 Bakar Fellow, is on the front lines of proteomics research – the ambitious effort to determine the variety and function of all human proteins.
Mind over matter
03/26/13 Berkeley Research — Neuroengineer Jose Carmena and bioengineer Michel Maharbiz do research in BMI, an emerging technology for retraining the brain to operate a prosthetic device such as an artificial limb. They are supported by the campus's new Bakar Fellows Program, which helps early-career faculty pursue innovative research with commercial potential.
Simulations yield clues to how cells interact with surroundings
03/22/13 Berkeley Lab — Cells interact constantly with their surroundings, but it's very difficult to observe the main player in this interaction – a protein called integrin. Mohammad Mofrad, associate professor of bioengineering and mechanical engineering, and bioengineering graduate student Mehrdad Mehrbod have developed a computer model of integrin that gives researchers a new way to explore how the protein connects a cell's inner and outer environments.
BIOFAB engineers cooperate to establish precision grammar for programming cells
03/22/13 SynBERC — Researchers at BIOFAB, a collaboration among academia, industry and government, have created a professional-grade collection of public domain DNA parts, in effect establishing rules for the first language for engineering gene expression and greatly increasing the reliability and precision by which biology can be engineered. Bioengineering professor Adam Arkin is BIOFAB's co-director.
The worldwide reach of Berkeley Engineering
03/05/13 — Global problems demand global cooperation. To tackle a wide range of challenges, from clean energy and intelligent infrastructure to cost-effective healthcare delivery, we are launching ambitious research and teaching partnerships with a number of international colleagues.
Compressing breast cancer
02/07/13 — Berkeley engineers, in collaboration with scientists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, have put the squeeze - literally - on malignant mammary cells to guide them back into a normal growth pattern. The work, led by bioengineering professor Daniel Fletcher, shows for the first time that mechanical forces alone can stop the out-of-control growth of cancer cells.
Berkeley students make finals for Disney design competition
01/30/13 Daily Californian — A trio of UC Berkeley students, including Kathryn Moore from Mechanical Engineering and Andrew Lin from Bioengineering, have made it to the finals of a national Disney-sponsored design competition with their plan for SAMM-E, a robot-turned-food-truck.
New bioengineering master’s degree approved
01/24/13 — Berkeley's Master of Engineering program now includes a track in bioengineering. The one-year program integrates engineering and entrepreneurship, preparing graduates for industry leadership. February 1 is the deadline to apply for fall 2013.
BioE alumna advising legislator through science and technology fellowship
01/22/13 Daily Cal — An-Chi Tsou (Ph.D. '12), who received her doctorate from the UC Berkeley-UCSF Bioengineering Graduate Program, is serving in the office of Assemblymember Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, as a health and science adviser. Tsou is one of 10 scientists and engineers appointed to one-year advisory posts by the California Science and Technology Policy Fellowship.
Amy Herr’s lab has shrunk the Western Blot
12/12/12 — Bioengineering professor Amy Herr and BioE graduate student Alex Hughes have created a microfluidic Western blot device that can run 48 assays in an hour or less. Their improvement of the Western blot, a workhorse of biology labs, has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Sanjay Kumar named Stem Cells Young Investigator
12/10/12 — Bioengineering professor Sanjay Kumar has been named the 2012 STEM CELLS Young Investigator Award winner by AlphaMed Press.
Shining a light on brain tumors
11/05/12 — Llewellyn “Trey” Jalbert knows what cancer looks like up close. Before applying to be a Ph.D. candidate in the Joint UC Berkeley/UCSF Graduate Program in Bioengineering, he had spent two years as a research associate examining MRI images of patients with malignant brain tumors in the UCSF lab of Professor Sarah Nelson. Then, Jalbert himself was diagnosed with cancer-a malignant melanoma-and underwent surgery.
Electricity goes viral
11/01/12 — Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered a novel way to create electrical energy with the tap of a finger.
Mistaken identity
11/01/12 — Berkeley Stem Cell Center researchers have identified a multipotent stem cell as the cause of blocked arteries.
Within reach
11/01/12 — Director of the Brain-Machine Interface Systems Lab Jose Carmena discusses the future of meshing mind and machine.
2013 Siebel Scholars announced
09/10/12 Siebel Foundation — Nine Berkeley Engineering graduate students have been named 2013 Siebel Scholars. This year's cohort of 85 graduate students in the nation's leading business, bioengineering and computer science programs join a group of almost 800 in the program, which fosters leadership and academic achievement. Honorees receive $35,000 to complete their final year of study. Congratulations to this year's winners: In Bioengineering: Lukasz Jan Bugaj, Laura Rose Croft, Timothy Lamont Downing, Alex James Hughes and Debkishore Mitra; and in EECS: Yunlong Li, Antonio Lupher, Brandon Wang and Wei Wu.
NSF awards $2 million to develop flexible bioelectronics systems
08/30/12 — The National Science Foundation has awarded $2 million over four years for a UC Berkeley project to develop flexible bioelectronics systems. The research would support the development of electronic materials that could not only be implanted into the body for medical applications such as wound healing, but that could also be safely resorbed into the body.