News

August 20, 2026
A Practical Tool for Selecting Reliable PCR Primers
Bioengineers at UC San Diego have developed an online tool that helps biomedical researchers solve a well-known and persistent laboratory challenge: successfully measuring gene expression within a cell by way of reverse-transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction, or RT-qPCR. Full Story

August 17, 2026
Advanced Semiconductor Tech Enables UC San Diego Researchers to Probe Biological Systems in New Ways
A new generation of bioelectronic technologies that integrate biology with advanced semiconductor systems will be developed at UC San Diego through a research contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Full Story

August 7, 2026
Corn Stalks. It’s What’s for Dinner … If You’re a Microbe.
Engineers have developed a strain of a common bacterial species that can feed exclusively on the three major sugars present in corn stalks. While the new multiple-sugar-consuming strain of the bacteria Pseudomonas putida is interesting in its own right, a new paper published in Nature Communications on July 29, 2026 outlines the broader implications of this project for the future of biomanufacturing. Full Story
