Bioengineering News

Researchers engineer E.Coli to eat switchgrass and make fuel

November 29, 2011

November 29, 2011 – Research by Bioengineering and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Professor Jay Keasling is taking synthetic biology another step closer to full-scale production of biofuels.

Berkeley iGEM video featured at SciAm

November 27, 2011

November 27, 2011 – A molecular animation by the Berkeley iGEM team was featured at Scientific American. Check it out!

New Master’s in Forefront

November 20, 2011

November 20, 2011 – Bioengineering’s new Master’s Degree focusing in translational medicine was featured in the latest Forefront Magazine. Read it online!

Lee turns viruses into molecular legos

November 12, 2011

 November 12, 2011 –   Berkeley Bioengineering Associate Professor Seung-Wuk Lee has turned a benign virus into an engineering tool for assembling structures that mimic collagen, one of the most important structural proteins in nature. The process developed in his lab could eventually be used to manufacture materials with tunable optical, biomedical and mechanical properties.

Anderson in Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News

November 12, 2011

Synthetic Biology Delivers Cool Tools but New Therapeutics Are a Ways Off October 17, 2011 – What does it take to transform a microbe normally found in the intestinal tract into a cancer-killing machine? These and other questions about the applicability of synthetic biology abound…. SBI’s J. Christopher Anderson, assistant professor of bioengineering at Berkeley, is…

First of Its Kind Gene Map of Sulfate-reducing Bacterium

November 9, 2011

November 9, 2011 – Desulfovibrio vulgaris is a sulfate-reducing bacterium with the unique ability to metabolize metals. A boon to toxic waste cleanup and a curse to oil drilling and storage, understanding how D. vulgaris responds to environmental changes is key for managing use of the bacteria.

New CellScope video

November 8, 2011

November 8, 2011   The California Academy of Sciences has posted a new video about the CellScope – Fletcher lab’s mobile, cellphone-based microscopy platform. Check it out! 

Apori wins Widmer Award at MicroTAS!

October 7, 2011

October 7, 2011 – Bioengineering Ph.D. student Akwasi Apori won the Lab on a Chip Widmer Poster Award at the 2011  International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences (MicroTAS).

Conboy reprograms muscles to combat degeneration

September 22, 2011

September 22, 2011 Berkeley Bioengineering Assistant Professor Irina Conboy has achieved a breakthrough in regenerative medicine, reprogramming muscles to form new muscle cells.

Herr analyzes tears for diagnosis

September 19, 2011

September 19, 2011 Bioengineering Assistant Professor Amy Herr, along with graduate student Kelly Karns, has developed a microfluidic assay which can test tears for proteins that signal disease.

Berkeley BioE ranked in Top 10!

September 14, 2011

September 14. 2011 UC Berkeley Bioengineering was ranked in the TOP TEN undergraduate bioengineering programs in the United States, according to US News and World Report Best Colleges rankings this week!

CellScope hits the big time

June 21, 2011

June 21, 2011  The CellScope, a portable cellphone-based microphone from Berkeley BioE Professor Dan Fletcher’s class and laboratory, has been making more big news lately. Most recently the CellScope has been featured in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle.

Terry Johnson collects more teaching awards

May 17, 2011

May 17, 2011 Bioengineering Lecturer Terry Johnson has been recognized with the Spring 2011 Outstanding Instructor Award from the Bioengineering Honor Society. He was also awarded the 2011 Outstanding Faculty of the Year Award and named an Eminent Engineer by the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society.

Alum named to White House OSTP

May 15, 2011

May 2011  Heather Bowerman, a graduate of UC Berkeley Bioengineering (B.S. ’05), has been appointed by the White House as an Associate in the Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP).

Li Lab awarded CIRM grant

May 4, 2011

May 4, 2011 UC Berkeley Bioengineering Associate Professor Song Li was one of nineteen University of California scientists receiving grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine for stem cell research.

BioEs win big in Big Ideas

May 3, 2011

May 3, 2011 Bioengineering students won big in this year’s Big Ideas @ Berkeley competition. UC Berkeley’s annual “Big Ideas” prize competition inspires innovative and high-impact student projects aimed at solving the world’s most pressing problems. Both teams sharing the first place prize in the Social Entrepreneurship category include Bioengineering students, as well as the…

Synthetic Biology Institute launches

April 25, 2011

April 25, 2011 An alliance of top researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has formed the UC Berkeley Synthetic Biology Institute (SBI), advancing efforts to engineer cells and biological systems in ways that promise to transform technology in health and medicine, energy, the environment, new materials, and a host of other critical arenas.

Healy wins Clemson Award

April 15, 2011

April 15, 2011  Bioengineering and Materials Science & Engineering Professor Kevin Healy was awarded the 2011 Clemson Award for Basic Research from the Society for Biomaterials. 

BioE gets NIH grant for capstone design

March 30, 2011

March 30, 2011 The Department of Bioengineering has been awarded a 5-year grant by the National Institutes of Health to support our senior Bioengineering design course.

Arkin and Schaffer look at Cellular Networking

March 18, 2011

March 18, 2011 Bioengineering Professors Adam Arkin and David Schaffer are the authors of an essay in the journal Cellwhich describes in detail key technologies and insights that are advancing systems biology research.

Lee Lab achieves lab on a chip milestone

March 17, 2011

March 17, 2011 UC Berkeley Bioengineering Professor Luke Lee and his laboratory have made a major advancement in microfluidics research, which could lead to stand-alone, self-powered chips that can diagnose diseases within minutes.

Herr and Kumar Receive NSF CAREER Awards

February 14, 2011

February 14, 2011  Berkeley Bioengineering Assistant Professors Amy Herr and Sanjay Kumar have received 2011 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program awards. CAREER awards are given to young researchers in science and engineering who have also translated their work into significant educational activities.

Conolly and Schaffer reap more CIRM awards

February 9, 2011

February 9, 2011   Bioengineering Professors Steve Conolly and David Schaffer were awarded renewals for their Tools & Techniques grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Their grants were the only ones of this type from UC Berkeley renewed in this round.

Herr named Lilly Young Investigator

January 4, 2011

January 4, 2011 Berkeley Bioengineering Assistant Professor Amy Herr has been chosen to receive a 2010 Eli Lilly and Company Young Investigator Award in Analytical Chemistry.

Alumnus Di Carlo engineers restraint

November 16, 2010

November 2010 Bioengineering Phd and BS alumnus Dino Di Carlo, now Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at UCLA, was profiled in the November 2010 edition of Innovations, from Berkeley Engineering.