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Two universities, one mission
We award a Ph.D. in Bioengineering jointly from UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco, among the top public universities in the world in health sciences and engineering. Drawing on the strengths of both campuses, our program trains future leaders and innovators in bioengineering.
Recent News

New MRI method offers deeper insight into brain physiology
Researchers led by UC Berkeley Professor Michael Lustig have developed Displacement Spectrum MRI, an innovative imaging technique that traces blood flow sources ‘in reverse’ to study brain function and disease.

Kapil named SJSU ME Alumna of the Year
Congratulations to BioE PhD alumna Monica Kapil, the first woman ever named Alumna of the Year by the SJSU Mechanical Engineering Department!

Bowman receives Hertz Fellowship
Congratulations to first-year PhD student Chance Bowman, awarded one of only nineteen 2025 Hertz Foundation Fellowships! The highly prestigious Hertz Fellowship is among the oldest and most coveted awards in science and engineering graduate studies.

Indigenous knowledge helps biotech find new drugs. This grad student wants those companies to give back.
Bioengineering doctoral student Maria Astolfi and her colleagues argue for a new type of partnership with indigenous peoples to create a more ethical bioeconomy, one that will sustain indigenous biodiversity and bring these communities into science as equal partners.

Landry Awarded 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship
The Guggenheim, one of the most prestigious fellowships in the country, provides unrestricted funding to pursue cutting-edge creative research. Landry plans to study how compounds extracted from plants used in Indigenous Bolivian medicine might have potential as treatments for nervous system disorders.

Congratulations new NSF Fellows!
Congratulations to our new NSF Graduate Research Fellows! Among the winners are current PhD students Ashley Qin and incoming PhD students Erin Ahern and Steven Robles Blasini. Well done!
Messersmith, Christman, Lam named AAAS Fellows
UC Berkeley Professor Phillip Messersmith, Chair of the Department of Bioengineering, has been named to the 2024 class of fellows elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Also named this year were PhD Alumni Karen Christman, Professor at UC San Diego, and Wilbur Lam, Professor at Emory University / Georgia Institute of Technology.
Schoen and Sipes are UCSF Grad Slam finalists!
Devin Schoen and Benjamin Sipes are two of this year’s ten finalists in the UCSF Grad Slam competition. On April 2 each finalist will present their research in three minutes or less, in language accessible to a general audience, and the winner will go on to the UC Grad Slam. Attend in person or tune into the YouTube live stream to vote for the People’s Choice award!
