Bioengineering News
Sophia Sneddon is a current Berkeley MEng candidate studying Bioengineering. Here, she shares her aspirations to become an attorney, her passion for inclusivity, and her love for biking.
Alumna Tammy Hsu is finding a way to produce fabric dye with a lower environmental impact – feature article in Nature online.
What the only flying mammal can teach us about the brain:
Professor Michael Yartsev’s unique flight room and studies of the neural circuitry of Egyptian fruit bats are yielding fascinating insights into the capabilities of the mammalian brain — including navigation, communication, and language.
Congratulations BioE startup Huue and founder PhD alumna Tammy Hsu! Huue’s process for creating environmentally friendly indigo dye through synthetic biology has been named one of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2021.
Congratulations to Dr. Kiana Aran, former bioengineering postdoc and collaborator, now a professor at the Keck Graduate Institute. Aran was named the Scientific Achievement Winner in the 2021 Nature Research Awards for Inspiring Women in Science for her work inventing the CRISPR-Chip.
Neuroscientists led by Michael Yartsev used wireless neural recording devices to track the brain activity of Egyptian fruit bats as they freely interacted in groups and occasionally vocalized to each other through high-pitched screeches and grunts. The study published in the journal Science provides the first glimpse into how the brains of social mammals process these types of complex group interactions.
Big congratulations to Abi Anbuchelvan, Vindhya Kilaru, Peter Sinnott, Aditya Subramanian, Cindy Tung, and Sharicka Zutshi, new 2021-22 Fung Fellows, and Isha Shah and Niki Shakouri who will be continuing as Honors Fellows. The Fellowship trains undergraduate students to develop tech solutions that address societal challenges.
Berkeley researchers, including Professor Jay Keasling, have for the first time engineered bacteria to produce a molecule that, until now, could only be synthesized in a laboratory. This advance opens the door to production of a broader range of chemicals from yeast and bacterial fermentation.
Cecil Chikezie, current Master of Engineering student in BioE, received a 2021 Mastercard Foundation Scholarship, which supports future leaders in Africa. In this article, MEng student and scholarship recipient, Cecil Chikezie, speaks about what it means to be a MasterCard Foundation Scholar and his long term bio-engineering goals of supporting the financial stability and respiratory health of Kenyan communities.
Congratulations Nathanial Huebsch, BS BioE 2003, now Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. Huebsch has been named a 2021 Young Innovator by Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering!
Bats’ navigation system was designed by the world’s top engineer: evolution. A new effort in the lab of Michael Yartsev, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and Neuroscience, to translate the bats’ neurological “rules of the road” into computational algorithms to guide development of navigation systems for driverless cars.
UC Berkeley’s Irina Conboy, Ph.D., is unlocking the keys to healthy longevity
Diablo Magazine features the Conboy Lab’s research on the aging process, and ways to reverse it.
Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Jay Keasling has been named a Distinguished Scientist Fellow by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science. Keasling was recognized for his “national scientific leadership in synthetic biology that has advanced DOE’s strategy in renewable energy, especially the realization of biofuels and bioproducts that enable biomanufacturing at scale and inspire and grow the U.S. bioeconomy,” according to the Office of Science award citation.
Five Bioengineering PhD students have been named Siebel Scholars of the class of 2022: Kristen Cotner, K.L. Barry Fung, Kazuomori Lewis, Alden Moss, and Soo Hyun Shin. The Siebel Scholars program annually recognizes top students at the world’s leading graduate schools of bioengineering, business, computer science and energy science.
Researchers led by Professor Emeritus Boris Rubinsky successfully revived human heart tissue after it had been preserved in a subfreezing, supercooled state for 1 to 3 days.
After qualifying for the Olympics in June, incoming BioE 1st-year student Annika McEnroe says that swimming provides her with a safe space to de-stress. Annika will be swimming for Cal this year.
The Berkeley Bioengineering undergraduate program has been ranked #6 among U.S. undergraduate bioengineering programs, by US News & World Report. This is our highest ranking yet, as Berkeley BioE continues our climb to the top!
Alumni-founded company Lygos is featured in the Wall Street Journal for their efforts to produce targeted cannabinoid compounds through synthetic biology.
BioE undergraduate Andrea Palomo has been named a 2021 Outstanding Collegiate Member by the Society for Women Engineers, one of only ten in the country. This award is bestowed upon SWE collegiate members who have made an outstanding contribution to SWE, the engineering community and their campus. Congratulations Andrea!
Professor Amy Herr has been named to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine “Standing Committee on Biotechnology Capabilities and National Security Needs. The standing committee will work to identify advanced biotechnologies that have promising capabilities to meet national security needs, and to identify early-stage research that may lead to new or enhanced biotechnologies. BioE PhD alumni Professor Amina Qutub of the University of Texas, San Antonio, has also been appointed.
UC Berkeley has made Newsweek’s list of The Best Maker Schools 2021 – schools with innovative programs that demonstrate the ingenuity and community engagement that are hallmarks of the maker movement. Keep making, keep innovating!
The Summer Biodesign Immersion Experience (BIE) has been a unique 8-week summer program for UC Berkeley juniors and seniors that prepares bioengineers to bridge engineering innovation and unmet clinical needs. After ten summers of incredible experiences, the BIE has had it’s last cohort and will sunset in 2021.
Irina Conboy is one of the principal partners of a new joint study on the aging brain. Conboy, an expert in aging and blood-based rejuvenation, will partner with Yi Zuo, a professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology at UC Santa Cruz, and Philippe Mourrain, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University. The group are looking specifically at changes to blood composition and how immune cells in the brain and central nervous system called microglia alter cognition with age, hoping to identify therapeutic interventions.
Patrick Hsu, Liana Lareau and Daniel Fletcher have collaborated on a new rapid COVID test that rivals the sensitivity of the gold-standard qRT-PCR testing, with results in less than an hour.
Congratulations to PhD student Kwasi Amofa, named to the 2021 class of Gilliam Fellows by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Fellowships are awarded to pairs of graduate students and their advisors, who are conducting outstanding research in life science fields and committed to building a more inclusive scientific ecosystem. The program includes a year of training for the advisor on effective and culturally aware mentoring, support and community for the student, and significant research funding. Professor Sanjay Kumar is Amofa’s research advisor.