News Archive
May 23, 2005
Entrepreurial Engineering Students Stage Sell-Out Biotechnology Conference
Engineering students played a leading role in a biotech conference staged on May 21 by the UCSD student organization VentureForth, which brought together top academic and industry speakers to talk about biotechnology entrepreneurship. Full Story
May 6, 2005
Researchers Map Circuitry of Yeast Genes Using Technique That Could Be Applied to Humans
Researchers at UCSD have invented a technique that organizes the genetic information contained in the 16 chromosomes of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae into a wiring diagram resembling an electronic circuit board. In a paper published in the May issue of Nature Biotechnology, professor Trey Ideker and graduate student Ryan Kelley reported that their new approach allowed them to predict new functions for 343 yeast proteins based on their positions in the new wiring diagram. Full Story
May 4, 2005
Bioengineering Chair Shu Chien Elected to National Academy of Sciences
Shu Chien, chair of the department of bioengineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He is one of only eight scientists in the nation to be elected to all three national academies: NAS, the Institute of Medicine, and National Academy of Engineering. Full Story
April 20, 2005
Human Cells Filmed Instantly Messaging for First Time
Researchers at UCSD and UC Irvine have captured on video for the first time chemical signals that traverse human cells in response to tiny mechanical jabs, like waves spreading from pebbles tossed into a pond. Full Story
March 31, 2005
Jacobs School Ranks #11 in Annual U.S. News Survey
In the annual survey of graduate programs released April 1 by U.S. News, the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering ranks 11th among 179 engineering schools, 6th in the nation among public universities. The Jacobs School of Engineering and ranked second in the nation for research expenditures per faculty member, reflecting UCSD’s leadership as a research university. Full Story
March 10, 2005
UCSD Installs Supercomputer Dedicated to Bioengineering and Computational Biology
The University of California, San Diego, with support from the National Institutes of Health and the Whitaker Foundation, has installed a $350,000 supercomputer dedicated to solving a wide range of challenging biological problems. The 210-node Dell PowerEdge Linux cluster capable of 2.6 trillion mathematical operations per second will be used to analyze everything from the behavior of protein molecules and subcellular structures such as nerve synapses and cardiac muscle cells, to multicellular tissue and the whole heart. Full Story
February 28, 2005
UCSD Bioengineer Shu Chien Accepts Lifetime Achievement Award
UCSD bioengineering chair Shu Chien received the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award from the Asian American Engineer of the Year (AAEOY) Awards Committee on February 26 during National Engineers Week. Chien was cited for his pioneering work in the field of bioengineering and the role he has played in grooming the next generation of Asian American bioengineers. It's the second year in a row that the prize went to a UCSD faculty member: in 2004, Y.C. 'Bert' Fung -- the founder of the bioengineering program at UCSD -- accepted the award. Full Story
February 22, 2005
New Course at UCSD Prepares Undergraduates for Success in Bioinformatics Research
CSE professor Eleazar Eskin's new course, "Research Training in Bioinformatics" is designed for students majoring in bioinformatics as part of the joint degree program offered by CSE, Biology, Chemistry and Bioengineering departments at UCSD. Full Story
February 18, 2005
UCSD Bioengineering Professor Coauthors Book on Neuroinformatics
Shankar Subramaniam, a professor in the Department of Bioengineering and the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCSD and director of the Bioinformatics Graduate Program, has co-authored the first comprehensive book on neuroinformatics. The extensively illustrated book covers everything from relevant computational science and modeling issues to their diverse applications. Full Story
February 11, 2005
UCSD Bioengineering Professor Elected to the National Academy of Engineering
Geert Schmid-Schönbein, a professor of bioengineering and an adjunct professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Schmid-Schönbein is an expert on experimental and mathematical tools used to identify mechanism of cardiovascular diseases, stroke, and shock. Full Story
February 10, 2005
Jacobs School to Expand 'Teams in Engineering Service' Program
The Jacobs School is recruiting new students, community partners and corporate sponsors for its innovative Teams in Engineering Service (TIES) program, the first of its kind in San Diego, with plans to go from just over 40 students this quarter, to roughly 100 by next fall, and 200 eventually. Teams are currently working technologoy projects for two non-profit organizations in the San Diego area. Full Story
February 8, 2005
Examination of Internal 'Wiring' of Yeast, Worm, and Fly Reveals Conserved Circuits
Researchers in California, Israel, and Germany have compared three distantly related species – baker’s yeast, a worm, and the fruit fly – and reported that protein “wiring” connections in one species are often conserved in all three. This first-of-its-kind analysis of three higher level organisms published in the February 8 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences supports both the concept of a basic wiring diagram for all eukaryotic cells, and the idea that more selective pharmaceuticals could be designed to tweak the wiring plan of human cells to more effectively treat diseases while also generating fewer side-effects. Full Story
February 3, 2005
Calit2 Launches Prize Program to Encourage Bioinformatics Research by UCSD Undergraduates
The UCSD division of Calit2 is funding two new multidisciplinary programs to encourage more undergraduates to do research in the field of bioinformatics. The first two Calit2 Undergraduate Bioinformatics Scholar Awards were announced at a Feb. 2 research symposium organized by UCSD computer science and engineering professor Eleazar Eskin, who hopes to make the symposium a quarterly event, thanks to funding from the institute. Full Story
January 24, 2005
UC San Diego Expands Overseas Research Program for Undergrads to China, Thailand
Engineering and other UCSD undergraduates attended an orientation session for the NSF-funded Pacific Rim Undergraduate Experiences (PRIME) program in summer 2005, when they will get the chance to do cyber infrastructure research at leading institutions in Japan, Taiwan, Australia, China or Thailand. Up to 18 internships will be awarded, double the number in the inaugural program last summer. Full Story
January 21, 2005
Priming Embryonic Stem Cells to Fulfill Their Promise
Bioengineering researchers at the University of California, San Diego have invented a process to help turn embryonic stem cells into the types of specialized cells being sought as possible treatments for dozens of human diseases and health conditions. Sangeeta Bhatia, a UCSD bioengineering professor, Shu Chien and Christopher J. Flaim, a bioengineering graduate student, described the cell-culture technique in a paper published by Nature Methods in its Jan. 21 online edition. Full Story
January 14, 2005
Uncovering the Secrets of Abalone Body Armor
Engineering researchers at the University of California, San Diego are using the shell of a seaweed-eating snail as a guide in the development of a new generation of bullet-stopping armor. The colorful oval shell of the red abalone is highly prized as a source of nacre, or mother-of-pearl, jewelry, but the UCSD researchers are most impressed by the shell’s ability to absorb heavy blows without breaking. Full Story
January 10, 2005
Entrepreneurism Center Funds New Projects from All Five UCSD Engineering Departments
The William J. von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement has awarded more than $300,000 to eight projects led by faculty members of the Jacobs School of Engineering, to help commercialize innovations developed in their labs. It is the Center's sixth round of funding, and for the first time, all five Jacobs School departments were represented among the researchers leading the winning projects. Full Story
December 1, 2004
Nanogen Funding Advances Nanotech Research
Released December 01, 2004 by Nanogen--Nanogen, Inc. (NASDAQ: NGEN), developer of advanced diagnostic products, announced today that it has agreed to provide $300,000 of funding over a two-year period to support the nanotechnology research of Michael Heller, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Jacobs School of Engineering, University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and cofounder of Nanogen. Full Story
October 15, 2004
UCSD Bioengineering Professor Wins 2004 Packard Foundation Fellowship
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has named Trey Ideker, an assistant professor at UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering, as one of this year’s 16 recipients of the Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering. Ideker and each of the other fellows will receive unrestricted research grants of $625,000 over five years. Full Story