News Archive
February 7, 2017
New method to identify bacteria in blood samples works in hours instead of days
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a desktop diagnosis tool that detects the presence of harmful bacteria in a blood sample in a matter of hours instead of days. The breakthrough was made possible by a combination of proprietary chemistry, innovative electrical engineering and high-end imaging and analysis techniques powered by machine learning. The team details their work in Feb. 8 issue of Nature Scientific Reports. Full Story
December 20, 2016
Bert's Biomechanics
Bioengineering professor emeritus Dr. Yuan-Cheng (Y.C.) "Bert" Fung, now age 97, was a successful aeronautical engineering professor at Caltech when his mother developed acute glaucoma in 1958. He was on sabbatical in Germany that year and immersed himself in the glaucoma literature in a library near the aerodynamics research institute. He sent summaries of what he learned to his mother’s physician back in China. Full Story
December 15, 2016
Bioengineer receives NSF award to study cell migration in a 3D environment
The National Science Foundation has awarded a $1.1 million CAREER award to Stephanie Fraley, a bioengineering assistant professor at the University of California San Diego. The five-year award will allow Fraley and colleagues to continue developing a unique and innovative technology to study how cells migrate in a 3D environment. The work has applications for the study of cancers, wound healing and regenerative medicine. Full Story
December 13, 2016
Dennis Abremski appointed as Executive Director of the Institute for the Global Entrepreneur at UC San Diego
The UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering is pleased to announce the appointment of Dennis Abremski as the Executive Director of The Institute for the Global Entrepreneur (IGE). The Institute is a collaboration between the Jacobs School of Engineering and Rady School of Management, dedicated to training global technology leaders and translating university discoveries to market. Full Story
December 8, 2016
Creating Clinical Bioengineers
In a clinical bioengineering class, students observe physicians, identify problems in their clinical practices, and propose engineering-based solutions to bridge the gap between the bench and the bedside. In some cases, students have even obtained funding to turn their solutions into reality. Full Story
November 29, 2016
Jacobs School Recruiting for 16 Positions in 2016-17
The Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego is recruiting for 16 open faculty positions in the 2016-17 academic year. Many recruitments have been posted—each of which can lead to more than one hire. The positions include 11 research faculty and six teaching faculty. Areas of focus include robotics, plasma science and engineering as well as and the social impact of science, medicine and technology. Full Story
November 21, 2016
Bioengineer Among Five UC San Diego Professors Named 2016 AAAS Fellows
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the nation’s largest general science organization, has awarded the distinction of fellow to 391 members, including five from the University of California San Diego.New fellows will be honored for “their efforts toward advancing science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished” on Feb. 18 during the 2017 AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston. Continuing a tradition started in 1874, AAAS members are considered for the rank of fellow if nominated by a steering group of their respective sections, by three existing fellows or by AAAS’s chief executive officer. Full Story
November 15, 2016
UC San Diego Graduate Students Bring the Sparkle of GEM to Preuss Students
The Galvanizing Engineering in Medicine (GEM) program has launched a series of monthly talks at the Preuss School with the goal of inspiring the next generation of scientists. GEM, a program supported by UC San Diego Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute (ACTRI) and UC San Diego Institute of Engineering in Medicine (IEM), brings engineers and clinicians together to develop innovative technology solutions to challenging problems in medical care. In the talk series, UC San Diego graduate students share research highlights from GEM projects with Preuss students. Full Story
November 10, 2016
Hacking a Revolution in Biology
Graduate studies within any single scientific discipline are challenging endeavors on their own. But imagine combining graduate school-level training in physics and mathematics with advanced research in engineering and biology.That’s the challenge of a new graduate program at UC San Diego that’s teaching Ph.D. students how to combine the power of physics and math-based reasoning with practical engineering skills and biology in an effort to unravel the fundamental principles of living systems—principles that will likely encompass concepts reaching well beyond those of traditional biology. Full Story
October 26, 2016
New analysis of big data sheds light on cell functions
Researchers have developed a new way of obtaining useful information from big data in biology to better understand—and predict—what goes on inside a cell. Using genome-scale models, researchers were able to integrate multiple different data sets and discovered new biological patterns among different cellular processes. Full Story
October 13, 2016
Getting to a Zero Carbon Future
Avoiding the worst consequences of climate change by reducing global carbon emissions to as close to zero as possible is one of humanity’s most pressing challenges. The University of California San Diego has launched the Deep Decarbonization Initiative to do just that. And they plan to do so in the real world—where costs matter. The initiative is a collaborative effort of UC San Diego faculty from across campus working at the intersection of science, technology and policy. It embeds the study of modern societies—economics, politics and social organization—within expert technical research on energy systems. The goal is to understand not just how energy systems function, but also how policy and social movements can transform energy and protect the planet. Full Story
October 12, 2016
Four UC San Diego Physician-engineer teams receive the 2016 Galvanizing Engineering in Medicine awards
Four physician-engineer teams from UC San Diego have been selected to receive the 2016 Galvanizing Engineering in Medicine (GEM) awards, which were created to bring engineers and clinicians together to develop innovative technology solutions to challenging problems in medical care. One engineer-physician team is developing battery-free wireless wearable sensors for sleep monitoring that could eventually be widely deployed at minimal cost. Full Story
October 7, 2016
UC San Diego breaks income boundaries in engineering
“This is just the beginning of what technology like this can do,” said Gabriel Davalos, an incoming aerospace engineering major. Davalos was referring to a miniature table lamp he and some of his peers built that turned on when something nearby made a loud noise. The students also fabricated a tiny house to protect the lamp using 3D printed materials and rapid prototyping tools. Full Story
October 6, 2016
From Satellites to Biodegradable Surfboards
UC San Diego showcases real-world applications of research at Maker FaireA surfboard made of algae-based foam. A small satellite that could be put into orbit around the moon. A balloon that carries experiments to the outer reaches of the atmosphere. These were some of the innovations that students, faculty and alumni from UC San Diego showed off this weekend at San Diego Maker Faire, a gathering of more than 200 innovators in a festival-like atmosphere at Balboa Park. Full Story
September 27, 2016
Five Ph.D. students named Siebel Scholars
Five engineering graduate students from the University of California, San Diego have been named 2017 Siebel Scholars. The Siebel Scholars program recognizes exceptional students at the world’s leading graduate schools of business, computer science, and bioengineering and provides them with a financial award for their final year of studies. Full Story
September 6, 2016
'Inside Innovation' Series at UC San Diego Kicks Off with Todd Coleman
“Inside Innovation,” a new series of free, public presentations, will feature the latest innovation technologies by UC San Diego, with opportunities for participants to get an inside look at what’s happening in our labs, explore commercialization opportunities, and inquire about licensing. Full Story
August 31, 2016
Researchers use a single molecule to command stem cells to build new bone
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have discovered an easy and efficient way to coax human pluripotent stem cells to regenerate bone tissue—by feeding them adenosine, a naturally occurring molecule in the body. The stem-cell-derived bone tissue helped repair cranial bone defects in mice without developing tumors or causing infection. Full Story
August 4, 2016
Nanobowls offer a way to magnetically deliver drugs in the body
Imagine a device that could transport drugs to any diseased site in the body with the help of a small magnet. Engineers at UC San Diego have taken a step toward that goal by developing nano-sized vessels, called nanobowls, that could be filled with drug molecules and controlled with magnets for guided delivery to specific tissues and organs, including cancer tissue, small organs such as the pancreas and hard to access areas like the brain. Full Story
July 25, 2016
Researchers ID Cancer Gene-Drug Combinations Ripe for Precision Medicine
In an effort to expand the number of cancer gene mutations that can be specifically targeted with personalized therapies, researchers at University of California San Diego looked for combinations of mutated genes and drugs that together kill cancer cells. Such combinations are expected to kill cancer cells, which have mutations, but not healthy cells, which do not. The study, published July 21 in Molecular Cell, uncovered 172 new combinations that could form the basis for future cancer therapies. Full Story
July 20, 2016
Synthetic Biology used to limit bacterial growth and coordinate drug release
Researchers at the University of California San Diego and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with a strategy for using synthetic biology in therapeutics. The approach enables continual production and release of drugs at disease sites in mice while simultaneously limiting the size, over time, of the populations of bacteria engineered to produce the drugs. Full Story