Rubinsky papers receive Best Paper in Cryobiology awards
Two papers by Professor Boris Rubinsky have been selected for Best Paper in 2022 awards by the journal Cryobiology. “Methods to stabilize aqueous supercooling identified by use of an isochoric nucleation detection (INDe) device” was named Best Paper of 2022, and “Isochoric supercooling cryomicroscopy” was the runner-up best paper. The Rubinsky lab is a world leader in cryobiology research and applications to health.
Alumnus Teisseyre named COO at Hyperfine
Congratulations to PhD alumnus Tom Teisseyre, promoted to Chief Operating Officer at Hyperfine, Inc.! Hyperfine created the Swoop® system, the world’s first FDA-cleared portable magnetic resonance brain imaging system.
Banfield and Doudna are Officially Audacious
Graduate program faculty Jill Banfield and Jennifer Doudna will head a new initiative in precision microbiome engineering at the Innovative Genomics Institute. The research initiative, “Engineering the Microbiome with CRISPR to Improve our Climate and Health,” is funded by a gift of $70m dollars through The Audacious Project, an initiative housed at TED, and is the largest scientific project funded from The Audacious Project to date.
Alumna Li named 2023 RISE Founder
Congratulations to PhD alumna Amy Li, Founder & CEO of Concha Labs, named to the 2023 cohort of health innovators in the UCSF Rosenman Institute RISE program! RISE identifies promising entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds in health technology and provides top-notch mentorship from the vast UCSF network of advisors and strategic partners. Concha Labs battles hearing loss through a software that creates fully personalized hearing profiles.
H.R. Lissner Medal Awarded to Boris Rubinsky
Professor Emeritus Boris Rubinsky has been awarded the 2023 H.R. Lissner Medal in Bioengineering from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The Medal recognizes achievements in the form of significant research contributions in bioengineering; development of new methods of measuring in bioengineering; design of new equipment and instrumentation in bioengineering; and/or educational impact in the training of bioengineers. Rubinsky is known for developing several technologies that are now clinical standards in the field, including imaging-monitored cryosurgery, non-thermal irreversible electroporation, non-invasive electromagnetic detection of internal bleeding, and MEMS technology for single cell analysis.
UCSF is No. 1 Public Recipient of National Institutes of Health Funding
UCSF is once again the top public recipient of funding from the National Institutes of Health in 2022, for the 16th year running. The University’s total funding came to $823 million, setting a record for NIH funding to a public university.
Can synthetic polymers replace the body’s natural proteins?
Ting Xu, a UC Berkeley Professor of Materials Science & Engineering, has developed a way to mimic specific functions of natural proteins using only two, four or six different building blocks — ones currently used in plastics — and found that these alternative polymers work as well as the real protein and are a lot easier to synthesize than trying to replicate nature’s design. Her ultimate goal is to totally rethink how biomaterials are currently designed, because current methods — focused primarily on mimicking the amino acid structures of natural proteins — are not working.
Olivia Teter advances to UCSF Grad Slam finals
PhD student Olivia Teter is one of ten finalists competing April 4 in the UCSF Grad Slam! The Slam challenges PhD students to present a compelling presentation of their dissertation research in three minutes or less, using language that not only their peers but also non-specialists will understand. The top prize winner will compete in the UC systemwide Grad Slam competition in May. Cheer her on Tuesday, April 4, at 4 p.m. PDT.
Jill Banfield Wins the 2023 van Leeuwenhoek Medal
Professor Jill Banfield has been awarded the 2023 van Leeuwenhoek Medal for her contribution to the understanding of microbial communities and interactions between microbes and the environment. Her pioneering work includes the development of genome-resolved metagenomics and advancing community proteomics to study diverse bacteria, archaea, and phages, adding new branches to the tree of life.
From EarEEG to quantum computing, Bakar Prize winners go for broke
Congratulations to graduate program faculty Markita Landry and Rikky Muller, 2023 Bakar Prize winners!
Evolution on fast forward: Grace Gu engineers AI-optimized, bioinspired materials
Read about how Mechanical Engineering Professor Grace Gu takes inspiration from nature and uses machine learning to create more efficient materials.
Long-term functional regeneration of radiation-damaged salivary glands
Patients battling certain forms of cancer may find their salivary glands are severely depleted after radiotherapy. UCSF professor Chelsea Bahney and collaborators have published research into neurogenic hydrogels to restore the epithelial organ structure and function that has vast implications for human patients.
Joni Wallis named AAAS Fellow
UC Berkeley professor of psychology and graduate program member Joni Wallis has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), “for distinguished contributions to systems and translational neuroscience, using single cell and neural oscillations to delineate the physiological basis of decision making and reward processing in the prefrontal cortex.”
Sekar named Quad Fellow
Congratulations to Nandini Periyapalayam Sekar, first year PhD student, named to the 2023 class of Quad Fellows! The Quad Fellowship is an initiative of the governments of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, designed to build ties among the next generation of scientists and technologists. The program sponsors 100 exceptional master’s and doctoral students in STEM to study in the United States.
Finding solutions for living on Mars — and a rapidly changing Earth
Prof Adam Arkin and the Center for the Utilization of Biological Engineering in Space are leading efforts to create zero-waste biomanufacturing systems in “Mars-like conditions”, for human futures on other worlds and our own.
How one device may help solve some of the most complex mysteries in cell biology
A microfluidic device developed by Berkeley professors Lydia Sohn and Michael Lustig may help solve some of the most complex mysteries in cell biology.
These ‘aliens’ assimilate DNA from other microbes
Prof Jill Banfield of UC Berkeley is studying Borgs, microbes that assimilate pieces of the microbes they infect in a way that looks similar to the workings of CRISPR. She suspects there may be applications of Borgs that are just as revolutionary.
Congratulations 2023 Siebel Scholars
Five Bioengineering PhD students have been named Siebel Scholars of the class of 2023: Jordan Baker, Kelsey Gray DeFrates, Juan Eduardo Hurtado, Gabriela Lomeli, and Connor Tsuchida. The Siebel Scholars program annually recognizes top students at the world’s leading graduate schools of bioengineering, business, computer science and energy science.
Single-cell studies offer new view of how HIV infections persist
Professors Adam Abate and Iain Clark were able to analyze single cells harboring latent HIV using a technique that isolates single, infected cells as tiny amounts of blood move through their microfluidic devices. Their work was featured in Science news.
Foundational Rubinsky paper honored as 2nd most cited in ABME history
An article published by Professor Emeritus Boris Rubinsky in 2005 was the first to suggest irreversible electroporation as a potential method for minimally invasive surgical tissue ablation. Now, as the second most cited paper in ABME history, irreversible electroporation has been implemented in the clinic as an effective approach to eradicating unresectable tumors in over 50 clinical trials and has helped more than 5500 cancer patients.
Scientists Map Networks of Disease-Associated Immune Genes
Using new technologies to study thousands of genes simultaneously within immune cells, researchers led by bioengineering graduate group faculty member Alex Marson have created the most detailed map yet of how complex networks of genes function together. The new insights into how these genes relate to each other shed light on both the basic drivers of immune cell function and on immune diseases.
Congratulations UCSF fellowship winners!
Four bioengineers will be receiving 2022-23 UCSF Graduate Division PhD fellowships! Gauree Shriram Chendke receives the Achievement Reward for College Scientists (ARCS), Nadia Mohammed Elmassalami Ayad the Lloyd M. Kozloff Fellowship, Caleb Tong the Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation PhD Scholarship, and Diana Cruz Garcia the NIGMS Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) Fellowship. Congratulations!
Three faculty receive 2022 Bakar Fellows Spark Awards
Congratulations to Grace Gu, Phillip Messersmith and Wenjun Zhang, all faculty in the Bioengineering graduate program and 2022 recipients of the Bakar Fellows Spark Award. The Spark award is designed to accelerate UC Berkeley faculty-led research and produce tangible, positive societal impact through commercialization.
Supercharging Plants and Soils to Remove Carbon from the Atmosphere
A new research program at the Innovative Genomics Institute led by bioengineering graduate faculty Jill Banfield and Jennifer Doudna, supported by a $11 million commitment from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), seeks to use CRISPR genome editing to enhance the natural ability of plants and soil microbes to both capture and store carbon from the atmosphere.
Ivry elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Richard Ivry, professor of psychology and member of the bioengineering graduate program, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (AAAS). Ivry is also head of The Cognition and Action Lab and a member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. He studies cognitive neuroscience, with a focus on how people plan and execute actions and movements, and neurological disorders such as ataxia.