BioE News – Page 33 – UC Berkeley Department of Bioengineering

GroTech team wins NASA Growing Beyond Earth challenge

BioE undergrad Anthony Tan and his GroTech@Berkeley team have won the collegiate Phase I of NASA’s Growing Beyond Earth maker challenge, and will now advance to the Phase II competition. The contest challenges teams to design a plant growth chamber for the International Space Station. Check out their SeedShuttle!

Bioengineers continuing the fight against COVID-19

After weeks of sheltering in place, Berkeley bioengineers are only increasing their efforts to mitigate the effects of COVID-19.

Yartsev named ONR Young Investigator

Michael Yartsev has been named a 2020 Young Investigator by the Office of Naval Research for his work on “Neural Computations Underlying the Utilization of Sensory Information in Spatial Navigation”.

4 UC Berkeley students launch SF Food Friends in response to COVID-19 pandemic

To help people in need during the times of the coronavirus epidemic, 4 UC Berkeley and UCSF students, Nitasha Goyal, Marchel Schaack, Marie Rajon Bernard and Oluwatoni Adetayo, have launched a platform called SF Food Friends. This platform connects low-risk individuals with homebound people (sick, immunocompromised or elderly) in their neighborhood to provide assistance for grocery shopping, buying essential items or medications, delivering food, and mental support during this time of isolation. Goyal is a Master of Translational Medicine Student, and Schaak is pursuing an M.Eng. in bioengineering.

Bioengineers making a difference in COVID-19 research and relief

Showcasing their bottomless energy, compassion, and drive to help, Berkeley Bioengineers have launched themselves into efforts to study the COVID-19 virus and outbreak, mitigate its effects, and support victims and caregivers. The list below is just a short summary of the many, many efforts of our students, faculty and alumni.

Bioengineers play key role in PPE decontamination efforts

Berkeley Bioengineers have been working around the clock for the past two weeks in a multi-institution team of 60 scientists, engineers, students and clinicians to launch N95decon.org, a website that synthesizes the scientific literature about mask decontamination to create a set of best practices to decontaminate and reuse this protective face covering during the current emergency. Profs Amy Herr and David Rempel, graduate faculty affiliate Hana El-Samad, Phd students Anjali Gopal and Alison Su, bioengineering postdoc Samantha Grist, and BioE alumnus Tyler Chen are all key members of the team.

New technique ‘prints’ cells to create diverse biological environments

drawing of two-dimensional array of cells

With the help of photolithography and programmable DNA, researchers have created a new technique that can rapidly print two-dimensional arrays of cells and proteins that mimic a wide variety of cellular environments in the body. The work was led by recent BioE PhD Olivia Scheideler with ME professor Lydia Sohn, BioE & CBE professor David Schaffer, BioE PhD Andrew Bremer and current BioE student Roberto Falcón-Banchs, among others.

BioE is #4 graduate program in US

US News and World Report has ranked the UC Berkeley-UCSF Graduate Program in Bioengineering FOURTH among bioengineering graduate programs in the US. UC Berkeley remains the #3 engineering school, and our partner UCSF the #6 overall medical school.

By staying apart, we are working together as a community

Prof Amy Herr shared an excellent post for The Berkeley Blog this weekend, explaining how and why keeping our distance is the best way to take care of each other right now.

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