Biomedical Devices Concentration – UC Berkeley Department of Bioengineering

Concentration: Biomedical Devices

Biomedical Devices focuses on the development of new biomedical technology for life science research and advanced health care. This concentration provides training in fundamental aspects of cell biology and physiology in addition to traditional areas of mechanical and electrical engineering as applied to biotechnology and medical devices.

Sample Schedule

Real-World Applications

Diagnostics, sensing and monitoring, remote healthcare, lab-on-a-chip, drug delivery systems, brain-machine interface, microfluidics.

Faculty who work in Biomedical Devices

Iain Clark

For more information, see: 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

For more information, see: https://bisl.berkeley.edu/

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

For more information, see: https://fletchlab.berkeley.edu/

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

For more information, see: https://herrlab.berkeley.edu/

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.

Dorian Liepmann

For more information, see: https://liepmannlab.squarespace.com/

BioMEMS, microfluid dynamics, experimental biofluid dynamics, hemodynamics associated with valvular heart disease and other cardiac and arterial flows.

Gerard Marriott

For more information, see: 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.

S. Shankar Sastry

For more information, see: https://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~sastry

The Sastry Lab explores embedded and autonomous software, AI, robotics, computer vision, nonlinear and adaptive control and learning, robotic vehicles in the air, ground and underwater, control of hybrid systems, robotic surgery, and biological motor control and prosthetics.

Aaron Streets

For more information, see: 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.

Moriel Vandsburger

For more information, see:

We are developing novel molecular imaging diagnostics for quantitative imaging of disease physiology and gene/cell therapies using MRI as a platform technology.

Michael Yartsev

For more information, see: https://www.michaelyartsev.com/

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.

News About: Biomedical Devices

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Tony Consiglio, Alan Maida and Boris Rubinsky in their Etcheverry Hall lab. (Photo by Adam Lau/Berkeley Engineering)

Cool it down

How isochoric preservation can protect food, organs — and even the planet. Professor Boris Rubinsky discusses the state of the art in cryogenics and preservation.

Yartsev wins Boehringer Ingelheim FENS Research Award 2024

The Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) has selected Professor Michael Yartsev for the 2024 Boehringer Ingelheim FENS Research Award, given in recognition of outstanding and innovative work from all areas of neuroscience. The award will be presented at the FENS Forum conference in Vienna.

photo of Dueber in lab coat working at lab bench

Berkeley’s ecosystem of innovation, entrepreneurship combats climate change

Professors John Dueber and David Schaffer are featured in this article highlighting campus research and entrepreneurship in sustainability.

Rubinsky Lab project wins Big Ideas award

A project supervised by Professor Boris Rubinsky and run by MCB/ME/EECS students Maxwell Johnson and Valentin Astie, has been selected as a Big Ideas Winner and will receive a $5,000 award. The MEGAN Protocol is developing a neuro-haptic AI-based device technology that has the ability to detect the onset of Parkinson disease years before the actual syndromes appear.

image of small fruit bat hanging upside down in the lab

What bats can teach us about the evolution of human speech

In a paper in the journal Science, a team led by Professor Michael Yartsev’s lab identified the part of the brain in Egyptian fruit bats that controls vocalizations and found that it contains very similar neural wiring to the part of the human brain that controls speech.

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Concentration: Biomedical Devices

Real-World Applications

News About: Biomedical Devices