Bioengineering News
Congratulations Professor Sanjay Kumar, named to the 2020 class of Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Kumar was recognized for his “distinguished contributions to the field of bioengineering, particularly the development of biomaterial and single-cell technologies to investigate mechanobiological signaling in health and disease.”
PROVEN, the world’s first microbial biofertilizer for cereal crops, has been named one of the 100 Best Inventions of 2020 by Time Magazine. Developed by PivotBio, a BioE spinout company founded by Karsten Temme, PhD 2010, the product replaces synthetic solutions with nitrogen-fixing microbes, which capture nitrogen from the air and convert it into a form that plants can use.
Congratulations to Associate Professor Moriel Vandsburger, the first holder of our new Timothy and Karen Guertin Chair in Bioengineering. Timothy Guertin (B.S. alum, EECS) is the former Chief Executive Officer of Varian Medical Systems, a member of the Board of Directors at Teradyne Inc., and Chair of the Global Access to Cancer Care foundation, which works to expand the availability of modern cancer care in developing countries. The Guertins are passionate supporters of biomedical research and global access to quality healthcare, and have endowed this faculty chair to provide additional support to an early career professor pursuing promising research.
Despite physical separation, our students and faculty are finding new ways to pursue collaboration, team projects, and hands-on education. Our BioE 192 Senior Capstone Design course is one of the innovative efforts featured for their ability to pivot to remote learning.
On Tuesday the first rapid, at-home COVID-19 test was authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. The test, made by BioE-founded company Lucira, uses their loop mediated amplification reaction process, a molecular nucleic acid amplification technology, in a battery-powered standalone unit. Rather than detecting antibodies, their test is designed to detect whether an individual is shedding the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The company was developing this technology for an at-home influenza test before rapidly pivoting to address COVID-19. Lucira is led by Debkishore Mitra (PhD 2013), who founded the company with John Waldeisen (PhD 2012).
Former BioE postdoc Kiana Aran, now professor at KGI, explains the one-year journey of the CRISPR-Chip from academic publication in June 2019 to a flourishing product in 2020. Berkeley bioengineers, including professors Niren Murthy and Irina Conboy, co-authored the original research.
Professor Terry Johnson, also Faculty Director of the Berkeley Center for Teaching and Learning, joined the San Francisco Chronicle’s discussion of cheating during remote education.
Adam Arkin explains the latest research in synthetic and systems biology on the Science is Fun! podcast.
Congratulations to Professor David Schaffer, 2020 recipient of the Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical Engineering from the AIChE Foundation.
Four bioengineering undergraduates spent the summer working online to increase PPE compliance in universities as part of the first ever Biomedical Engineering Virtual Summer Internship hosted through the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University. Check out each student’s idea pitch in the videos below:
The 2020 Fung Institute Technical Leadership Capstone Award for 2020 went to the “Smart eye-drop bottle to monitor medication habits of glaucoma patients” capstone team, including BioE student Fang-Jhen Su.
The “Precision Freezing 3D Bioprinter for Large Scale Tissue Engineering” Master of Engineering capstone team won this year’s Most Innovative Project Award from the Fung Institute. The team designed a level-controlled cooling bath to precisely freeze biomaterials as they are printed. This new approach allows for larger printed structures than previously possible.
BioE spinout company Eko won the Best Hospital Diagnostics category at the 2020 UCSF Digital Health Awards digital stethoscope and ECG.
Congratulations to five Berkeley-based bioengineers named to the 2021 class of Siebel Scholars! Nicolas Altemose is developing microfluidic and molecular tools for studying genome regulation in single cells; Tiffany Chien is building a flexible simulation framework for calcium neuron imaging, simulating the 3D physical sample and the lens-less imaging system; Anjali Gopal is investigating the progression and resistance mechanisms of HER2 isoforms in HER2+ breast cancer via simultaneous single-cell proteoform and RNA sequencing measurements; Marc Lim is studying the physiological transport of three-helix-micelle (3HM) nanocarriers in solid tumors; Zoë Steier has developed totalVI, a computational framework for the joint probabilistic analysis of paired transcriptome and proteome measurements in single cells; and Alison Su is designing and validating measurement tools and workflows for biomedical applications ranging from bench to bedside.
Gauss Surgical – a company launched by MTM alumnus Siddarth Satish – has partnered with Cellex to develop the first-ever rapid, at-home COVID-19 antigen test and mobile app.
Professor Amy Herr has been named the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Professor at UC Berkeley. The MacArthur Professorship is one of the most prestigious endowed chairs on campus, providing an annual stipend for scholarly activities and well-deserved recognition of Herr’s exceptional research, teaching, and service to the Berkeley community.
Berkeley Bioengineering is now ranked #7 in the nation among undergraduate bioengineering programs in the US News & World Report college rankings, released this week.
BioE company Bolt Threads and alumnus David Breslauer are in the news again, featured in the Washington Post for their sustainably-grown mycelium-based leather materials.
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…
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
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.
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.
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…
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.
Professor Liana Lareau is using genome sequencing to study how COVID-19 is spreading around the Bay Area.