Bioengineering News
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.
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.
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.
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.
Samantha Grist, postdoctoral researcher in Prof Amy Herr’s lab, is one of only 20 UC researchers selected to participate in this year’s Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. The fellows will travel this summer to attend a week of invitation-only lectures and small seminars with some 40 Nobel laureates gathered in Lindau, Germany. They will join about 600 university students and postdoctoral fellows from around the world. This is the third member of Prof Herr’s lab selected to attend a Lindau meeting in the past 12 years!
Learn about the startup journey from BioE PhD alum Akwasi Apori!
Alumna Elizabeth Schneider, PhD 2011, shares her experience catching, and surviving, COVID-19.
BioE PhD alumna Kate Hammond Rosenbluth is featured in the San Francisco Business Times series, “Women Who Lead in Life Sciences”. “Cala Health aims to restore functionality to essential tremor patients with wearables” explains her company’s successful launch of a revolutionary therapeutic device.
Prof Adam Arkin is Director of the Center for the Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space, a multi-institution center partnering with NASA to build the technology for a self-sustaining, zero-waste human settlement on Mars. Their revolutionary synthetic biology-based food production and closed-loop biomanufacturing could transform human space travel and address the growing food crisis on Earth.
Professor Amy Herr, Faculty Director of the new Bakar BioEnginuity Hub, played a major role in the launch of UC Berkeley’s Light the Way fundraising campaign at the kickoff event on February 29. Herr previewed the new campus hub building and showcased an amazing group bioengineering startup entrepreneurs, including: alum Kelly Gardner and Josh Molho of ProteinSimple, Prof John Dueber and alum Tammy Hsu of Tinctorium, Prof Niren Murthy and postdoc alum Naresh Sunkara of BioAmp Diagnostics, and Prof Steve Conolly and alum Patrick Goodwill of Magnetic Insight.
Alumni startup Eko Devices has received FDA clearance for six new algorithms that, when combined with their digital stethoscope and artificial intelligence software, can help physicians predict whether a patient is at risk for heart diseases with a much greater degree of accuracy.
Check out this article from our BioE MEng student, Gregory Suematsu!
Congratulations Assistant Professor Patrick Hsu! The Rainwater Prize rewards outstanding achievements of a scientist in the early stages of their academic career in neurodegenerative disease research. Hsu was chosen by a committee of international scientific leaders based on his scientific contributions, leadership, mentorship, and overall contributions to the scientific community.
Correlia Biosystems was named the 2020 SLAS Ignite Award winner from the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening, an award that recognizes the best exhibiting start-up or emerging company at the conference Innovation AveNEW. Correlia was founded by BioE PhDs Akwasi Apori and Samuel Tia, and former postdoc Kursad Araz, all from Professor Herr’s lab.
Joint Professor Tejal Desai, PhD alumna and chair of the UCSF Department of Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences, was named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. The NAI Fellows Program highlights academic inventors who have demonstrated a spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.
Check out this interview with Dennis, a BioE MEng student who has lived abroad in Germany and China, and is looking forward to exploring the innovative environment of the Bay Area.
By Julia Lanoha, MEng BioE ’20. This op-ed is part of a series from E295: Communications for Engineering Leaders
BioE startup Novome Biotechnologies, founded by BioE PhDs Will DeLoache, Zachary Russ, and Weston Whitaker, has secured $33 million in a Series A financing. Novome is focused on treating chronic diseases with the first platform for controlled and robust colonization of the human gut with engineered therapeutic bacteria.
Tara Armand, MEng ’17 (BIOE), currently works as an R&D Scientist at Siemens Healthcare Laboratory. A two-time Cal graduate, Tara takes us through her academic and professional career, and provides some tips for current students.
Our MEng capstone team worked to increase access to tissues and organs for millions through on-demand 3D bioprinting and quadrupling current preservation times.
This MEng capstone team is using AI-powered eye tracking technology to monitor multiple sclerosis progression and treatment with unprecedented speed and accuracy.
Professor David Schaffer, of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering and Bioengineering, has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
How do you speed up the patent approval process? Dive in!
Eko and Mayo Clinic Prove Heart Failure is Detectable at Point of Care Using ECG-Enabled Stethoscope
At the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2019 alumni startup Eko Devices presented results in collaboration with Mayo Clinic demonstrating the use of the DUO digital stethoscope as a heart failure screening tool. This is the first time that a point of care device with a single lead ECG combined with an AI algorithm identified low ejection fraction in patients.
Check out a BioE MEng Capstone team’s work on treating stroke with electromagnetic field therapy.