Bioinstrumentation

Recent news:

A cardiac microphysiological system under fluorescent lighting with fluidic tubing.

Heart-on-a-chip may lead to new treatments for heart failure

November 3, 2025

A team led by Professors Kevin Healy and Niren Murthy have developed a microfluidic heart-on-a-chip, with which they were able to discover a lipid nanoparticle that could penetrate the dense heart muscle and efficiently deliver its cargo of therapeutic mRNA into heart muscle cells. This new drug delivery method and testing platform may pave the way to new cardiac treatments.

photo of Fletcher

Fletcher elected to National Academy of Medicine

October 21, 2025

Professor Dan Fletcher has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine for his contributions to the mechanistic understanding of biological self-assembly and mechanotransduction, and his work developing mobile phone-based microscopy for remote diagnosis of infectious diseases. Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.

Photo of Streets holding certificate in front of AIMBE banner, flanked by two organization officials

Aaron Streets named AIMBE Fellow

March 31, 2025

Professor Aaron Streets has been named to the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). Streets was selected for “developing innovative technology to elucidate genome regulation with single-cell and molecule resolution, and for impactful leadership to diversify bioengineering.

still frame from animated video explaining single cell analysis

BlotSeq single cell sequencing – animated!

February 7, 2025

BioE postdoc Trinh Lam’s animated video explains how Herr Lab’s BlotSeq single-cell tool uses sequencing data to guide protein selection without the need to predefine targets, making the process more flexible.

Photo of gloved hands with sample containers and receptacle during RNA sample extraction in the centrifuge. Image taken in the Healy lab and courtesy of Jazmin Isabel Velazquez.

Diverse paths to discovery at UC Berkeley

December 3, 2024

BioE graduate student Jazmin Isabel Velazquez examines the unique paths every graduate student takes on the road to their PhD in this story based on her experience in the Healy and Rubinsky Labs.

Photo of Lam receiving best paper certificate on stage at conference

Herr Lab Postdoc Wins AIP Best Paper

November 12, 2024

Trinh Lam, a postdoc in Amy Herr’s lab, has won the Biomicrofluidics Best Paper Award from AIP Publishing at the 28th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences – Micro-Total Analysis Systems (µTAS 2024).

Michael Yartsev stands in a darkened room with his hands on his hips. Yellow and teal lights swirl around him.

Yartsev new HHMI Investigator

July 23, 2024

Congratulations Professor Michael Yartsev, named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator!

flying bat Photo by Yuval Barkai @bats.tlv

So to speak: how bats and humans communicate

June 13, 2024

Berkeley researchers led by Professor Michael Yartsev, working with scientists at Carnegie Mellon University, have identified the part of the brain in Egyptian fruit bats that controls vocalizations and found that it contains similar neural wiring and genetics to the part of the human brain that controls speech.

computer graphic showing towers of red and blue DNA and flames

Putting on the heat

June 11, 2024

Professor Seung-Wuk Lee discusses pyroelectricity: the finding that viruses can generate electricity when exposed to heat, and how this may pave the way for next-generation biosensors and diagnostic tools.