News Archive
March 26, 2020
UC San Diego Engineers and Doctors Team Up to Retrofit and Build Ventilators
Even as university campuses close across the nation in an effort to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, a team of engineers and physicians at the University of California San Diego is rapidly developing simple, ready-to-use ventilators to be deployed if the need arises.The project kick-started several weeks ago when news started to trickle in that communities in Northern Italy with widespread COVID-19 were in dire straits.“One of the biggest things we heard was that there weren’t enough ventilators to treat all of the patients coming into the hospitals,” said James Friend, a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Department of Surgery at UC San Diego. “It’s clear that if we’re not careful, we might end up in the same situation.” Full Story
March 17, 2020
Making cell modeling more realistic
UC San Diego researchers have developed a computational tool that makes modeling and simulation of complex cellular processes more true to life. The tool, dubbed GAMer 2, simplifies the process of using realistic cell geometries in mathematical models. Full Story
March 16, 2020
Undergraduate students bring Intranet to rural Ghanaian school
A team of undergraduates, who are part of the Global Ties program at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, developed a self-sustaining and scalable computer server and intranet system. The system will allow teachers at the Semanhyiya American School (SAS) in the rural village of Senase, Ghana, to download Internet pages and educational materials that students can access anytime at school—even when there is no Internet. Full Story
March 4, 2020
UC San Diego synthetic biologists redesign the way bacteria 'talk' to each other
Bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have redesigned how harmless E. coli bacteria “talk” to each other. The new genetic circuit could become a useful new tool for synthetic biologists who, as a field, are looking for ways to better control the bacteria they engineer to perform all sorts of tasks, including drug delivery, bioproduction of valuable compounds, and environmental sensing. Full Story
February 27, 2020
Scientists Design Way to Use Harmless Bacteria to Detect Heavy Metals in Drinking Water
A team from UC San Diego and the San Diego startup Quantitative BioSciences has a new approach to continuous monitoring of heavy metal contamination in drinking water using bacteria as sensors of contamination. The team recently published their advances in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). Full Story
February 19, 2020
Controlling CAR T cells with light selectively destroys skin tumors in mice
UC San Diego bioengineers have developed a control system that could make CAR T-cell therapy safer and more powerful when treating cancer. By programming CAR T cells to switch on when exposed to blue light, the researchers controlled the cells to destroy skin tumors in mice without harming healthy tissue. Full Story
February 4, 2020
Jacobs School faculty, student, staff honored with Inclusive Excellence Awards
Three members of the Jacobs School of Engineering community were awarded 2020 Inclusive Excellence Awards for their outstanding contributions toward increasing diversity at all levels at UC San Diego. Full Story
February 3, 2020
Algae Shown to Improve Gastrointestinal Health
A widespread, fast-growing plant called Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is famous in scientific laboratories due to its position as the world’s most exhaustively studied algae. Researchers at the University of California San Diego recently completed the first study examining the effects of consuming C. reinhardtii and demonstrated that the algae improves human gastrointestinal issues associated with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) such as diarrhea, gas and bloating. Results of the project are published in the Journal of Functional Foods. Full Story
February 3, 2020
Assessing 'stickiness' of tumor cells could improve cancer prognosis
Researchers led by UC San Diego built a device that sorts and separates cancer cells from the same tumor based on how “sticky” they are. They found that less sticky cells migrate and invade other tissues more than their stickier counterparts, and have genes that make tumor recurrence more likely. Full Story
December 20, 2019
News Obituary: Y.C. Bert Fung
Yuan-Cheng “Bert” Fung, known as “the father of biomechanics” and one of the founders of the discipline of bioengineering at the University of California San Diego, passed away Dec. 15, 2019 of natural causes. He was 100. Full Story
December 5, 2019
UC San Diego Engineering Dean Albert P. Pisano inducted into National Academy of Inventors
Albert P. Pisano, professor and dean of the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, has been named a 2019 fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). UC San Diego bioengineering faculty affiliate Paul Citron and electrical engineering alumna Mihri Ozkan (Ph.D. ECE ‘01) are also among the 168 new fellows inducted into National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellows in 2019. Full Story
December 4, 2019
Machine learning provides new paradigm in understanding microbial gene regulation
UC San Diego bioengineers developed a method that would enable them to understand how E. coli coordinate their expression of thousands of genes. The method uses a machine learning algorithm to automatically interpret gene expression datasets. Full Story
November 25, 2019
How diversity of respiratory quinones affects microbial physiology
A new study provides a fundamental understanding of the diversification of small molecules called respiratory quinones and its adaptive consequences in bacterial species. Bioengineers at the University of California San Diego specifically examined how respiration is affected by different types of quinones present in bacteria growing in aerobic environments. Full Story
November 25, 2019
UC San Diego Bioengineering Department Makes Strong Showing in List of Highly Cited Researchers Around the World
Eleven faculty members and affiliates of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California San Diego are among the world’s most influential in their fields, according to a new research citation report from the Web of Science Group. UC San Diego played key roles in launching the discipline of bioengineering over 50 years ago, and the new report is yet another indicator that the Department of Bioengineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering continues to shape the future of bioengineering. Full Story
October 17, 2019
Pioneering bioengineer Shu Chien retires after 31 years at UC San Diego
UC San Diego bioengineering professor Shu Chien made many foundational scientific discoveries over the course of his 62-year academic career, ranging from uncovering a key reason why sedentary lifestyles can be unhealthy to how to more efficiently screen for adverse effects of small molecule drugs in patients. He taught hundreds of students, colleagues and collaborators not only how to do good science, but how to be a better person. Full Story
October 15, 2019
Drug-light combo could offer control over CAR T-cell therapy
UC San Diego bioengineers are a step closer to making CAR T-cell therapy safer, more precise and easy to control. They developed a system that allows them to select where and when CAR T cells get turned on so that they destroy cancer cells without harming normal cells. Full Story
October 3, 2019
Bioengineering Pioneer Y.C. Bert Fung Turns 100
Thousands of professors, engineers, scientists and students around the world work in the field of biomechanics, the study of physics and mechanics applied to living tissues. But they are all somehow connected to Professor Y.C. “Bert” Fung at the University of California San Diego. Some use Fung’s findings in their work. Others were trained by or worked with Fung’s students. A core group studied directly under him. Fung realized that physics and mechanics apply to living tissues just as they do to manmade structures. He is often referred to as “the father of biomechanics.” Full Story
October 1, 2019
Three UC San Diego Researchers Receive Top Honors with NIH Director's Awards
Three UC San Diego researchers have received prestigious awards through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program, including the Pioneer Award and the New Innovator Award. Full Story
September 25, 2019
Five UC San Diego Bioengineering graduate students honored as Siebel Scholars
Five UC San Diego bioengineering graduate students working at the interface of biology, engineering and health have been honored as 2020 Siebel Scholars. They are working to deepen our understanding of the gut microbiome; more accurately diagnose diseases like stroke; develop biomarkers for metastasis; innovate to repair the heart after a heart attack; and engineer T cells to suppress tumor growth. Full Story
September 23, 2019
Strip Steak: Bacterial Enzyme Removes Inflammation-Causing Meat Carbohydrates
When we eat red meat, the animal carbohydrate Neu5Gc is incorporated in our tissues, where it generates inflammation. UC San Diego researchers discovered how gut bacteria enzymes strip our cells of Neu5Gc, introducing the possibility of using the enzymes to reduce the risk of inflammatory diseases. Full Story