May 2009
Several Bioengineering students won prizes again in this year’s UC Berkeley Bears Breaking Boundaries competition.
The Bears Breaking Boundaries is a series of “idea competitions” to encourage student teams to propose the next generation of research, education, and service activities on the UC Berkeley campus. 2008-2009 was the fourth annual “Bears Breaking Boundaries” competition, with a total of $85,000 in cash prizes available.
BioE winners this year:
Neglected Diseases Competition:
1st prize of $5000: A point-of-care malaria drug resistance assay by Peter Ledochowitsch (BioE, Ardian Sprenger (BioE), Debkishore Mitra, and Latitha Muthusubramaniam,: We propose to develop a palm-sized microfluidic device which permits culturing of malaria-infected red blood cells under physiological conditions in suspension. The extent of parasitemia is determined by a label-free magneto-optic technique. Such a device will enable point-of-care antibiotic resistance assays for testing different malarial strains primarily targeting countries in the developing world.
Synthetic Biology Competition:
1st prize of $5000: Engineering Health-Conscious E coli: Probiotics That Reduce Saturated Fats by W. Roger Lowe (BioE undergrad),: Intake of saturated fats has been linked to heart diseases such as atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Engineering probiotic bacteria that can turn saturated fats into unsaturated fatty acids, generally deemed healthful, could help reduce saturated
3rd prize of $2000: Synthesis of Coral-like Material by Susan Chen (BioE undergrad in Seung-Wuk Lee’s lab): This project proposes to make a synthetic coral-like material using the methods of synthetic biology for bone graft applications.
Partnerships for Social Innovation Competition:
Honorable Mention – Future Scientist by Richard Novak (BioE grad student): Future Scientist seeks to improve the lives of resource-poor communities through science education. We believe that technical knowledge is inseparable from any outreach effort, as it enables communities to help themselves.