Professor and alumna Tejal Desai was named President-Elect of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering at their annual event March 24-25. She has been Chair of the AIMBE College of Fellows for the past year. Great leadership Dr. Desai!
Retraining the brain’s vision center to take action
Researchers led by UC Berkeley Professor and member of the graduate program Jose Carmena have demonstrated the astounding flexibility of the brain by training neurons that normally process input from the eyes to develop new skills, in this case, to control a computer-generated tone.
O’Connell’s mechanical engineering to aid back surgery
Grace O’Connell, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, heads a project to develop a systematic way to predict which patients are most vulnerable to secondary fractures or disc degeneration following spinal fusion.
How Close Are We to Growing Human Body Parts in Laboratories?
BioE program faculty Todd McDevitt talks about his work creating organoids and the challenges faced in manufacturing human tissues in this video series by Seeker.
Prof Edward Chang in “Rebooting Kimberly’s Brain”
UCSF Bioengineering program faculty and neurosurgeon Edward Chang is part of the team unlocking new ways of treating epilepsy and mental health, featured in this news video about innovative treatments at UCSF.
Desai Lab diabetes startup featured on NPR
Encellin, a biotech startup formed from research in Professor Tejal Desai’s lab at UCSF, may have engineered and insulin-releasing implant to manage type-1 diabetes.
Roy Lab artificial kidney featured on Wired
Learn more about Professor Shuvo roy’s artificial implantable kidney.
Ten faculty named Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigators
Ten graduate program faculty have been named to the inaugural class of Investigators in the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. Congratulations to UCSF faculty Adam Abate, Hana El-Samad, Zev Gartner, Bo Huang, and Tanja Kortemme, and Berkeley faculty Dan Fletcher, Amy Herr, Michel Maharbiz, Aaron Streets, and Ke Xu!
Desai named to new endowed chair
PhD alumna and chair of the UCSF Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, Tejal Desai, will hold the Ernest L. Prien Endowed Professorship in Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences.
Carmena receives federal BRAIN initiative grant
Professor Jose Carmena will receive one of the third round of grants to support the goals of the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative announced three years ago by President Barack Obama. Carmena will receive $225,000 from the National Eye Institute to test newly developed wireless sensors, dubbed neural dust, to record activity in the central nervous system.
Ke Xu new 2016 Packard Fellow
UC Berkeley professor of chemistry Ke Xu has received one of 18 prestigious 2016 fellowships from The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Xu develops new tools to interrogate biological, chemical, and materials systems at the nanoscale with extraordinary resolution and sensitivity.
DeRisi to lead Chan Zuckerberg Biohub
UCSF Professor Joe DeRisi, professor and chair of biochemistry and biophysics, will co-lead the new collaborative center joining UCSF, Stanford, and UC Berkeley. The first philanthropic science investment made by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Biohub will provide basic researchers and clinical scientists with flexible laboratory space, the latest technological tools and funding for ambitious research projects.
DeRisi Elected to the National Academy of Sciences
Joseph L. DeRisi, chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, and member of the Bioengineering Graduate Program, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Majumdar awarded ISMRM Gold Medal
Sharmila Majumdar, bioengineering graduate program faculty and Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at UCSF has been awarded the 2016 Gold Medal of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) for her innovative contributions to the development of quantitative imaging methods.
Full and Keasling new AAAS members
Professors Robert Full and Jay Keasling, both of UC Berkeley, have been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for 2016.
Bidens tour UCSF Bioengineering laboratories
Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden, PhD, visited UCSF as part of the National Cancer Moonshot initiative. They toured the UCSF Center for Advanced Technology, where they met with graduate program faculty Zev Gartner, associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and Wendell Lim, professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology.
Desai featured in Bay Area Women in Science show
Tejal Desai was featured in a special KQED-TV segment on Bay Area women in STEM, explaining bioengineering, nanotechnology, and careers in science. Tejal is Chair of the UCSF Department of Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences and an alumna of our own bioengineering graduate program.
Tejal Desai featured on CBS News
BioE alum and UCSF professor Tejal Desai was featured on the evening news for her lab’s work to create a tiny implantable nanostructures that will monitor blood sugar and secrete and dispense insulin for diabetics.
Ke Xu named Sloan Research Fellow
Ke Xu, UC Berkeley Chevron Professor of Chemistry, has been named a Sloan Research Fellow. The fellowships honor early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as rising stars and the next generation of scientific leaders.
Dumont receives CAREER and New Innovator Awards
Sophie Dumont, UCSF Assistant Professor of Cell and Tissue Biology, has been awarded the an NSF CAREER Award, and has also received an NIH New Innovator Award!
Full Lab designs robot inspired by cockroach locomotion
Members of UC Berkeley integrative biology professor Bob Full’s lab have designed a cockroach-inspired robot that can squeeze through the tiniest cracks and run at high speeds even when flattened. Full and recent PhD Kaushik Jayaram will publish their findings this month in the early online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Herr receives 2016 AES Mid-Career Achievement Award
Professor Amy Herr is the 2016 recipient of the Mid-Career Achievement Award from the American Electrophoresis Society! This award is given for exceptional contributions to the field of electrophoresis, microfluidics, and related areas by an individual who is currently in the middle of their career. The award will be presented at the SciX Meeting this […]
Dueber Lab runner-up for Breakthrough of the Year!
A breakthrough from John Dueber’s lab, led by BioE PhD William DeLoache, was a runner-up for Science magazine’s 2015 Breakthrough of the Year! They were recognized for creating an engineered yeast that can convert sugar into the makings of opioid painkillers.
Illuminating Depression’s Circuitry
A UCSF magazine feature describes faculty member Ed Chang’s work mapping the disrupted circuits in the brain to treat mood disorders.