News Archive
July 21, 2021
UC San Diego among six U.S. institutions in new Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance
UC San Diego is one of six universities invited to participate in the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, a scientific collaboration that aims to transform human health on a global scale through the discovery and translation of the biological principles underlying human performance. The UC San Diego arm of the Alliance is led by Andrew McCulloch, a professor in the departments of Bioengineering and Medicine. Full Story
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June 18, 2021
Bio-inspired hydrogel protects the heart from post-op adhesions
A hydrogel that forms a barrier to keep heart tissue from adhering to surrounding tissue after surgery was developed and successfully tested in rodents by a team of University of California San Diego researchers. The team of engineers, scientists and physicians also conducted a pilot study on porcine hearts, with promising results. They describe their work in the June 18, 2021 issue of Nature Communications. Full Story
June 10, 2021
Titans of industry, academia team up to advance engineering in medicine
As the silos that once separated engineering and medicine continue to dissolve, there is a growing need on campus for facilities where engineers, physicians and medical researchers can work in the same physical research ecosystems. Pioneering bioengineer, professor Shu Chien, and his wife K.C., joined forces with Peter Farrell, founder of medical device company ResMed, to support this vision. Full Story
May 13, 2021
Undergraduate researchers earn Goldwater Scholarship
Three UC San Diego undergraduate students with impressive academic and research credentials were selected to receive the Goldwater Scholarship, designed to foster and encourage outstanding students to pursue research careers in the fields of the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics. Full Story
May 13, 2021
Bioengineering student earns Strauss Scholarship
UC San Diego bioengineering undergraduate Zina Patel was selected to receive the $15,000 Strauss Scholarship, awarded to outstanding students developing social change or public service projects. Full Story
March 30, 2021
UC San Diego Engineering Ranks #9 in U.S. News and World Report Best Engineering Schools Rankings
For the second year in a row, the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering has ranked #9 in the nation in the influential U.S. News & World Report Rankings of Best Engineering Schools. Full Story
March 29, 2021
New ways of looking inside living cells
From developing new imaging platforms, to asking new biological questions, and developing new disease diagnostics, UC San Diego bioengineering professor Lingyan Shi is pushing the boundaries of what's possible when we look inside living cells. Full Story
March 17, 2021
How to speed up muscle repair
By studying how different pluripotent stem cell lines build muscle, researchers have for the first time discovered how epigenetic mechanisms can be triggered to accelerate muscle cell growth, providing new insights for developing therapies for muscle disease, injury and atrophy. Full Story
March 10, 2021
With gene therapy, scientists develop opioid-free solution for chronic pain
A gene therapy for chronic pain could offer a safer, non-addictive alternative to opioids. By temporarily repressing a gene involved in sensing pain, the treatment increased pain tolerance in mice, lowered their sensitivity to pain and provided months of pain relief without causing numbness. Full Story
March 9, 2021
Adhesion, contractility enable metastatic cells to go against the grain
Bioengineers at the University of California San Diego and San Diego State University have discovered a key feature that allows cancer cells to break from typical cell behavior and migrate away from the stiffer tissue in a tumor, shedding light on the process of metastasis and offering possible new targets for cancer therapies. Full Story
February 22, 2021
Engineer inducted into prestigious biomedical institution
Padmini Rangamani, a professor at the Jacobs School of Engineering, has been inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). She was recognized for outstanding contributions to multiscale computational modeling of cellular mechanobiology including spatial signal transduction and membrane trafficking processes. Full Story
February 9, 2021
In Memoriam: Juan C. Lasheras, Distinguished Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Professor
Juan C. Lasheras, University of California San Diego distinguished professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Bioengineering, passed away on February 1, 2021 after a brief battle with cancer. He was 69 years old. Full Story
January 29, 2021
Women in STEM: Picture a Scientist
Women from all different stages of their scientific careers, from undergraduate students through the UC San Diego Vice Chancellor for Research, met virtually to share their experiences as women in STEM for the UC San Diego Bioengineering Diversity Council’s Winter Quarter Town Hall. Full Story
January 26, 2021
A call to end funding discrimination against Black scientists in the United States
Representatives from a network of women deans, chairs and distinguished faculty in biomedical engineering are calling upon the National Institutes of Health and other funding agencies to address disparities in allocating support to Black researchers. The group made the call to action in the Jan. 26, 2021 issue of the journal Cell. Full Story
January 26, 2021
The Spectacular Synthesis of Spider Silk
For David Breslauer, a UC San Diego bioengineering alumnus and co-founder and chief scientific officer at Bolt Threads, a bioengineering company in Emeryville, Calif., the potential of the spider and the mushroom represent not just another way to make apparel, but a way to bring greater sustainability to the clothing industry. Full Story
January 21, 2021
UC San Diego Alumnus at Helm of Company Behind First At-Home COVID Test
In November 2020, Lucira Health received emergency use authorization for the first rapid at-home COVID-19 test from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Erik Engelson, a UC San Diego bioengineering and microbiology alumnus, is president and CEO of Lucira Health. He spoke about the process of getting the COVID-19 test kit through FDA emergency use authorization, his time at UC San Diego, and advice for students, in this Q&A. Full Story
January 13, 2021
UC San Diego professor Bernhard O. Palsson named Y.C. Fung Endowed Chair in Bioengineering
University of California San Diego professor Bernhard O. Palsson has been named the Y.C. Fung Endowed Chair in Bioengineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering. Palsson is also a professor of pediatrics, and Director of the Center for Biosustainability. Palsson’s research focuses on developing experimental and computational models of the red blood cell, E. coli, CHO cells, and several human pathogens to establish their systems biology. His Systems Biology Research Group leverages high-power computing to build interactive databases of biological information and is increasingly focused on Genome Design and Engineering. Full Story
December 15, 2020
Bioengineering alumnus named to Forbes 30 Under 30
UC San Diego bioengineering and biology alumnus Joshua Yang was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Healthcare. Yang, an MD-PhD student at Johns Hopkins, cofounded kidney diagnostics startup Nephrosant, and is active in healthcare venture capital due diligance. Full Story
December 14, 2020
A smart ring shows it's possible to detect fever before you feel it
Temperature data collected by wearable devices worn on the finger can be reliably used to detect the onset of fevers, a leading symptom of both COVID-19 and the flu, according to a team of researchers from the University of California San Diego, UC San Francisco and MIT Lincoln Lab. Full Story
December 8, 2020
10 Jacobs School Faculty Named in 2020 List of Highly Cited Researchers
Ten professors at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering are among the world’s most influential researchers in their fields, according to a new research citation report from the Web of Science Group. The professors, Ludmil Alexandrov, Trey Ideker, Rob Knight, Nathan E. Lewis, Prashant Mali, Ying Shirley Meng, Bernhard O. Palsson, Joseph Wang, Kun Zhang and Liangfang Zhang, are amone 52 professors and researchers at UC San Diego named in the prestigious list of Highly Cited Researchers in 2020. Full Story