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.berkeley.edu/

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 Prof Amy Herr and Overton with their poster

Overton wins best poster at MicroTAS

BioE PhD student Maya Overton won the CHEMINAS Young Researcher Poster Award at this year’s MicroTAS (Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences – Micro-Total Analysis Systems ) 2026 conference in Granada, Spain. Her winning poster from Amy Herr’s lab described “Single-cell Mass Spectrometry Proteomics Paired With Imaging-Based Morphology.”

flying bat Photo by Yuval Barkai @bats.tlv

Digital Bat Twins – NeuroAI generates testable hypotheses about higher-level cognitive function

Researchers in Michael Yartsev’s lab, led by postdocs Adam Lowet and Krishna Kasuba, built a digital twin of the bat hippocampus – an AI model trained on large-scale neural activity during natural flight. The model generated new, testable hypotheses about hippocampal organization that were confirmed by real-world data.

An Egyptian fruit bat extends its hand-like wing toward a researcher’s gloved hand.

From bat flight to the most complex human movements

Examining large-scale neural activity from the motor cortex of freely flying Egyptian fruit bats helps Michael Yartsev’s lab understand how the brain supports very complex behaviors, like buttoning a shirt or playing piano.

Overton stands before her poster at conference

Overton wins SCP Best Poster

Congratulations to PhD student Maya Overton of Herr Lab, winner of Best Poster at the Single Cell Proteomics Conference (SCP2026)!

Aris and Lowet receive Jane Coffin Childs Fellowships

Congratulations to two postdoctoral scholars in BioE lab who have been named 2026 Jane Coffin Childs Fellows! The charitable fund supports brilliant postdoctoral fellows conducting fundamental research on cancer and human disease. Kevin Aris, PhD, works in Aaron Streets’ lab on tools to measure DNA supercoiling in living cells, to build a genome-wide map of DNA shape. Adam Lowet, PhD. works with Michael Yartsev to explore the computational and biological mechanisms underlying social decision-making in the Egyptian fruit bat.

Herr Lab and partners receive grant to study biology in time and space

Our researchers have received a new grant from the Biohub non-profit research organization, looking to advance the field of Spatiotemporal omics – the ability to sample biomolecules at different locations and times to watch disease processes unfold. Amy Herr and her UCSF partners Jennifer Rosenbluth and Amrita Basu will be studying integrated organoid systems for immunotherapy toxicity.

Herr wins Weill Neurohub Investigator Award

A research project on “the protein code of brain aging: from molecules to mechanisms,” by Professor Amy Herr has been selected for a Weill Neurohub Investigator Award. The Investigators program funds top faculty to form cross-campus, interdisciplinary teams to explore, create, and test bold new concepts and technologies.

A cardiac microphysiological system under fluorescent lighting with fluidic tubing.

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

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.

Fletcher elected to National Academy of Medicine

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

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.

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Concentration: Biomedical Devices

Real-World Applications

News About: Biomedical Devices