Bioengineering News

cover of Time Magazine Best Inventions of 2023 issue

Two alumni innovations named to Time 2023 Best Inventions

November 2, 2023

Two PhD alumni have innovations named to the Time Magazine 200 Best Inventions of 2023 list. The Cala kIQ, developed by Cala Health, founded by alumna Kate Rosenbluth, is a wearable device that assists patients with Essential Tremor and Parkinson’s. Proven 40 OS is a fertilizer using naturally occurring microbes to reduce emissions and pollution while producing higher crop yields – developed by Pivot Bio, founded by alumnus Karsten Temme.

photo of person using Aluna device

Aluna named Tech for Global Good Laureate

November 2, 2023

BioE startup Aluna, founded by alumna Charvi Shetty, has been named a 2023-24 Tech for Global Good Laureate, one of four venures recognized for using technology to significantly advance health equity and improve lives. Aluna makes hardware and software that helps people with breathing problems.

photo of Herr accepting award plaque at conference

Herr wins Springer Nature Test of Time Award

October 26, 2023

Professor Amy Herr has won the 2023 Microsystems & Nanoengineering/Springer Nature Test of Time Award, recognizing research that was presented at MicroTAS within the last 10-15 years that is still impacting today’s research in the filed of microfluidics.

aaron streets

Diversity in academic hiring, a success story

October 24, 2023

The CZ Biohub SF-backed NextGen initiative, co-founded by Professor Aaron Streets, succeeds in diversifying faculty hiring in biological and biomedical sciences at major Bay Area universities

photo of Wilbur Lam in corridor

Wilbur Lam named to National Academy of Medicine

October 16, 2023

PhD alumnus Wilbur Lam, now Professor of Pediatrics and Biomedical Engineering, Emory University and Georgia Tech, has been named one of the 2023 new members of the National Academy of Medicine. Lam was recognized for “outstanding contributions in point-of-care, home-based, and/or smartphone-enabled diagnostics that are changing the management of pediatric and hematologic diseases as well as development of microsystems technologies as research-enabling platforms to investigate blood biophysics. He also leads national/NIH efforts to assess diagnostic tests (including those for COVID-19) for the entire country.”

photo collage of all 8 uc Berkeley Siebel Scholars

Congratulations 2024 Siebel Scholars!

October 16, 2023

Five Bioengineering PhD students have been named Siebel Scholars of the class of 2024: Cindy Ayala, Ruiming Cao, Sita Srinivasan Chandrasekaran, Cameron Tadashi Kato, and Andre Lai. The Siebel Scholars program annually recognizes top students at the world’s leading graduate schools of bioengineering, business, computer science and energy science.

Photo of Bolt Threads cofounders Dan Widmaier (left) and David Breslauer in their manufacturing facility

Bolt Threads going public

October 5, 2023

Bolt Threads, a company co-founded by BioE PhD alumnus David Breslauer, plans to go public in a SPAC deal that values the one-time unicorn at $250 million. Bolt Threads uses synthetic biology and other techniques to sustainably produce engineered biomaterials, including synthetic spider silk and mushroom-based faux leather.

photos of Karla and Elaine

Gutierrez Cebrero and Tong named Fall 23 Bakar Ignite Scholars

October 5, 2023

Congratulations to undergraduates Karla Gutierrez Cebrero and Elaine Tong, both named Fall 2023 Bakar Ignite Scholars! The program connects undergraduate students with leading scientists in the Bakar Fellows Program to conduct paid research that supports their Bakar projects.

photo of Julea Vlassakis (left) and Jerzy Szablowski

Vlassakis receives NIH New Innovator Award

October 3, 2023

PhD alumna Julea Vlassakis, now Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Rice University, has been named a 2023 NIH Director’s New Innovator! These prestigious awards support early-career investigators with ambitious, unconventional project proposals demonstrating broad impact potential.

A history of innovation: Berkeley entrepreneurs, companies that changed the way we live

October 1, 2023

Professor Aaron Streets is featured in a campus publication celebrating the culture and spirit of innovation at UC Berkeley, recognized for being a tireless advocate for increasing diversity in STEM research.

Schematic showing the electric potential generated from virus film upon heating. Heat denatures, or melts, the protein coating on the engineered phage, causing a difference in electrical potential. (Image courtesy of Seung-Wuk Lee)

Researchers demonstrate heat-induced pyroelectricity in viruses

September 29, 2023

Researchers in Professor Seung-Wuk Lee’s lab discovered for the first time “heat-induced electrical potential generation on a virus,” a phenomenon known as pyroelectricity. This work may shed light on how biomaterials — cells, tissues and proteins — generate electricity at a molecular level as well as lead to the development of biomaterials with novel medical, pharmaceutical, environmental and energy applications.

photo of Hsu in the lab

BioE alumna creating a greener future for bluejeans

September 29, 2023

PhD alumna Tammy Hsu is using synthetic biology to produce environmentally friendly dyes for industry through her company, Huue.

How scientists aim to extend human lifespans

September 28, 2023

Professor Irina and Mike Conboy were guests on the Economist “Babbage” science and technology podcast dicussing progress in research on aging.

drawing of Prof Clark

Iain Clark selected as Innovation Investigator by Arc Institute

September 21, 2023

Professor Iain Clark was named an Innovation Investigator by the Arc Institute, a scientific research organization pioneering new models for scientific discovery and translation. As a member of the inaugural Innovation Investigators program, Clark will receive $1 million over five years to pursue “curiosity-driven, ambitious research.”

cover of Aging journal 9/15/23

Conboy Lab changes the measurement of biological age

September 15, 2023

Research from Professor Irina Conboy’s lab is on the cover of the journal “Aging” this week, highlighting their exciting new research in the measurement of biological age. Their work shows that commonly-used Elastic Net DNA methylation clocks have low accuracy, and present an alternative using noise-detecting cytosines, measuring the pressure of aging and disease on an organism. BioE PhD student Xiaoyue Mei and undergraduate alumnus Joshua Blanchard are first authors.

photo of Messersmith

Messersmith receives 2023 Bakar Fellows Spark Award

August 31, 2023

Congratulations to Professor Phillip Messersmith, a recipient of the 2023 Bakar Fellows Spark Award for his work on gel protection during tumor ablation. The award is designed to accelerate faculty-led research and produce tangible, positive societal impact through commercialization.

image of Egyptian fruit bats congregating

Bat study reveals how the brain is wired for collective behavior

August 30, 2023

New research from Professor Michael Yartsev shows that the same neurons that help bats navigate through space may also help them navigate collective social environments. In a study published today in the journal Nature, the researchers found that the portion of the brain that acts as a GPS is also tuned to the social dynamic in the environment.

photo of Polly Fordyce and Phil Messersmith at the front of a classroom

BioE welcomes 2023 Rising Star Polly Fordyce

August 25, 2023

Berkeley Bioengineering was pleased to feature Professor Polly Fordyce for the 2023 Rising Star Lecture in Bioengineering on August 23, 2023. Dr. Fordyce is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering and of Genetics and Fellow of the ChEM-H Institute at Stanford University.

photograph of coral in the ocean, from the Smithsonian Institute

New Technique Could Facilitate Rapid Cryopreservation of All Coral Species

August 25, 2023

Research by Professor Emeritus Boris Rubinsky, in collaboration with Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) and Texas A&M, has achieved a breakthrough in the fight to save the world’s coral reefs from climate change annihilation. The researchers successfully cryopreserved and revived entire coral fragments, opening the door to collecting and preserving coral fragments easily and rapidly at an urgent moment for coral worldwide.

design drawing from summer 2023 engineering world health innovation workshop

BioE-focused University of Nairobi & UC Berkeley virtual summer exchange program

August 4, 2023

This summer, students from the University of Nairobi and UC Berkeley’s Bioengineering and Master of Engineering programs were challenged to come up with a solution to healthcare needs in low-resource settings under the guidance of trained Engineering World Health facilitators.

photo of Delcassian

Prof. Delcassian named to Women in Enterprising Science Program

July 18, 2023

Professor Derfogail Delcassian is one of four entrepreneurs selected for the 2023 cohort of the HS Chau Women in Enterprising Science (WIES) Program by the Innovative Genomics Institute. WIES is a unique program designed to promote gender equity in bio-entrepreneurship by helping innovative genome researchers develop their ideas into new commercial ventures. In her work, Delcassian will examine the role of macrophages in the immune response to cancer.

Welcome Professor Leah Guthrie

July 14, 2023

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Leah Guthrie will be joining the faculty of UC Berkeley Bioengineering starting January 1, 2024! Dr. Guthrie received a BA in Biology from Swarthmore College and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is currently a HHMI Hanna Gray postdoctoral fellow at Stanford…

Photo of Streets speaking on panel

How does the universe work? Promoting diversity can help answer that.

May 26, 2023

Professor Aaron Streets talks about why it’s important for those who conduct that research “to represent the full diversity of human genetic variation.”

Two BioE students speak at graduation

May 20, 2023

Bioengineering majors were both the keynote and student speakers at the 2023 Engineering Undergraduate Commencement! Dave Gilboa, B.S.’03 BioE and Co-founder and Co-CEO of Warby Parker was this year’s keynote speaker, and graduating senior Sharicka Zutshi was the student speaker. 

Congratulations 2023 Undergraduate Award Winners

May 13, 2023

Congratulations to our 2023 undergraduate award winners: Baiyu Shi, Departmental Citation, Connor Tou and Jacob Bryan, Chair’s Award in Bioengineering, and Reet Mishra, Bioengineering Service Award. Outstanding work by all! The Departmental Citation This is long-standing award is given to one bioengineering major for their exceptional academic performance, in addition to impressive achievements in other…