Bioinstrumentation is the development of technologies for the measurement and manipulation of parameters within biological systems, focusing on the application of engineering tools for scientific discovery and for the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Examples include instrumentation for imaging, disease diagnosis, and therapeutics.
Two important challenges in which many of our faculty are engaged are the miniaturization of traditional bioinstrumentation for consideration of single cells or microscale tissues, and the adaptation of traditional bioinstrumentation for distribution and deployment outside traditional care environments, such as the home and resource-poor settings.
Faculty working in bioinstrumentation:
Thomas Budinger
Professor Emeritus, Bioengineering
Professor Emeritus, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, UCB
Professor Emeritus, Radiology, UCSF
Medical imaging instrumentation and data analysis methods development are the main focus of research from the standpoints of innovations and new techniques. Human physiology investigations using tools of imaging and wireless biomonitoring is a secondary focus.
Iain Clark
Assistant Professor, Bioengineering
http://clarklab.berkeley.edu/The Clark Lab develops microfluidic and molecular methods for the high throughput analysis of single cells. We use these techniques to study HIV latency in CD4 T cells and profile cellular interactions during central nervous system inflammation.
Steve Conolly
Montford G. Cook Professor, Bioengineering
Professor, Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences
The Conolly Lab has built the world’s highest spatial resolution MPI scanner and the only projection MPI scanner in the world. In addition, the lab has built the only 3D Projection-Reconstruction MPI scanner currently in existence.
Daniel A. Fletcher
Purnendu Chatterjee Chair in Engineering Biological Systems, Bioengineering
Faculty Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
The Fletcher Lab develops diagnostic technologies and studies mechanical regulation of membrane and cytoskeleton organization in the context of cell motility, signaling, and host-pathogen interactions. We specialize in development of optical microscopy, force microscopy, and microfluidic technologies to understand fundamental organizational principles through both in vitro reconstitution and live cell experiments. Recent work includes investigating the mechano-biochemistry of branched actin network assembly with force microscopy, studying membrane deformation by protein crowding and oligomerization with model membranes, and reconstituting spindle scaling in encapsulated cytoplasmic extracts. The long-term goal of our work is to understand and harness spatial organization for therapeutic applications in cancer and infectious diseases.
Amy E. Herr
John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Professor, Bioengineering
Faculty Scientist, Biological Systems & Engineering Division, LBNL
Faculty Director, UC Berkeley Bakar Fellows Program and Bakar BioEnginuity Hub
Use of scale-dependent phenomena to design tools for quantifying biomolecules in complex biological fluids down to single cell and sub-cellular resolution. Applications include clinical diagnostics, protein signaling + biomarker validation.
Luke Lee
Professor Emeritus
Bioengineering and Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences
Dr. Lee’s research interests are biophotonics, quantum nanoplasmonics, in-vivo nanoscopy, single cell biophysics, quantitative systems biology, SERS, molecular diagnostics, BioMEMS, soft-state Biological Application Specific Integrated Circuits (BASICs), neural interfaces, and systematic neurological science and engineering by Biologically-inspired Photonics & Optofluidic Electronics Technology and Science (BioPOETS).
Dorian Liepmann
Professor, Bioengineering
Professor, Mechanical Engineering
BioMEMS, microfluid dynamics, experimental biofluid dynamics, hemodynamics associated with valvular heart disease and other cardiac and arterial flows.
Gerard Marriott
Professor, Bioengineering
https://www.marriottlab.com/The Marriott lab is recognized for its innovative research programs at the interface of bioengineering, chemistry, and biophysics. Our technology-driven research programs are advanced through long-standing interests in the design, synthesis, and engineering of biosensors and biomaterials, and their applications to biosensing, microscope imaging, drug delivery, and wearable diagnostics.
Boris Rubinsky
Professor Emeritus, Bioengineering
Professor of the Graduate School, Mechanical Engineering
Bioelectronic devices, biotransport, medical imaging, electrical impedance tomography.
S. Shankar Sastry
Thomas Siebel Professor of Bioengineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, and Mechanical Engineering
https://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~sastry
Aaron Streets
Associate Professor, Bioengineering
https://streetslab.com/The Streets lab is interested in applying lessons from mathematics, physics, and engineering, to invent tools that help us dissect and quantify complex biological systems. Our goal is to uncover laws that govern the interactions of molecules inside the cell and the interactions between cells in a tissue or organism, by making precision measurements on single cells. In pursuit of this goal, we exploit three core technologies; microfluidics, microscopy, and genomics.
Michael Yartsev
Associate Professor, Bioengineering
Associate Professor, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute
Associate Professor, Berkeley Nanosciences and Nanoengineering Institute
Our lab seeks to understand the neural basis of complex spatial and acoustic behaviors. We advance and develop technologies for studying neural activity in freely behaving and flying bats and apply those to our investigation of their neural circuits. An example is our recent development of methods for wireless recording of neural activity from freely flying bats. We plan to develop technologies for optogenetic control and imaging of neural activity in freely behaving and apply these tools in our studies. We aim to uncover basic principles of brain function that are general across mammals.