BioE News – Page 30 – UC Berkeley Department of Bioengineering

Welcome Professor Iain Clark

We are pleased to welcome Iain Clark, joining the Department of Bioengineering as an Assistant Professor on January 1, 2021. Dr Clark is currently developing tools to study cell-cell interactions in the context of neuroinflammation as a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School, and has a strong background in microfluidics, microbiology, and immunology. He has…

Yartsev named Bakar Faculty Fellow

Michael Yartsev has been named a 2020-21 Bakar Fellow, pursuing research on Biologically Inspired Innovations for Autonomous Vehicles. The Bakar Fellows Program supports faculty working to apply scientific discoveries to real-world issues in the fields of engineering, computer science, chemistry and biological and physical sciences

Yartsev named 2020 Vallee Scholar

Professor Michael Yartsev is one of six new 2020 Vallee Scholars. The program provides unrestricted funding for national and international junior faculty at a critical stage in their tenure-track careers. Yartsev was recognized for his work studying spatial navigation behavior in freely flying bats to show how mammalian neural circuits participate and contribute to complex spatial behaviors at both the individual and group level.

UC Berkeley accelerates bio-preservation research as part of $26M NSF center

Professor Kevin Healy will lead the UC Berkeley efforts in a new multi-university research center funded by the National Science Foundation at the University of Minnesota, Massachusetts General Hospital, UC Berkeley and UC Riverside. The Engineering Research Center for Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems (ATP-Bio) aims to advance methods for storing and preserving biological cells and tissues, work that could benefit biomedical research and dramatically expand organ transplant networks.

Vlassakis receives Burroughs Wellcome Fund award

Congratulations to recent BioE PhD Julea Vlassakis, now a postdoctoral scholar in Amy Herr’s lab, one of eight US scholars receiving a 2020 Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award at the Scientific Interface. Scholars receive $500,000 over five years to bridge advanced postdoctoral training and the first three years of faculty service. “I am incredibly honored…

Welcome Professor Delcassian!

The Department of Bioengineering is excited to announce that Dr. Derfogail Delcassian will be joining our faculty as an Assistant Professor in January 2021. Delcassian received her Ph.D. in the Department of Materials, Faculty of Engineering, Imperial College London, where she performed research under the mentorship of Dr. Iain Dunlop and Professor Molly Stevens.

How is the coronavirus spreading around the Bay Area?

Professor Liana Lareau is using genome sequencing to study how COVID-19 is spreading around the Bay Area.

Remembering Bertram Lubin, Former President of Children’s Hospital Oakland

The bioengineering and Bay Area communities are mourning the loss of Dr. Bert Lubin, former president and CEO of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. Lubin was a tireless advocate for bringing the power of engineering to bear on human health, a great champion of the Berkeley-UCSF partnership, and a huge contributor to our campus. He was also a warm and generous person and we are grateful to have known him. The family has asked that donations be made in his name to the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Center of Excellence for Immigrant Child and Wellbeing and/or the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Center for Child and Community Health.

Patrick Hsu’s COVID-19 antibody test review featured on 60 Minutes

Early in March, a team of 50 scientists in California did what the FDA had not: they started testing the antibody tests.

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