Biomedical Imaging Concentration – UC Berkeley Department of Bioengineering

Concentration: Biomedical Imaging

The Biomedical Imaging concentration helps us see inside the body through work on new imaging systems and refinements to technologies like MRI, CT and ultrasound. We learn to analyze imaging systems with quantitative assessments of resolution, contrast, and noise.

Sample Schedule

Real-World Applications

Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Magnetic Particle Imaging, signal improvement, image analysis, new imaging modalities.

Faculty who work in Biomedical Instrumentation

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 Imaging

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.

still frame from animated video explaining single cell analysis

BlotSeq single cell sequencing – animated!

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

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).

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.

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.

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