News
January 9, 2014
How to Manage Mobile Medical App Development Under FDA Regulation
A consortium of six leading universities, more than a dozen industry trade associations and professional societies, and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration announced their unprecedented collaboration to develop a series of educational programs designed to help mobile app developers learn about FDA requirements for producing higher risk medical apps as well as the business issues associated with entering this space.Called the “MMA Roadshow: Managing App Development under FDA Regulation,” the four-hour workshops are scheduled over several months across the country, including Jan. 27 at the University of California, San Diego. Full Story
January 6, 2014
Biomaterials Get Stem Cells to Commit to a Bony Future
With the help of biomimetic matrices, a research team led by bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego has discovered exactly how calcium phosphate can coax stem cells to become bone-building cells. This work is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of Jan. 6, 2014. Full Story
December 13, 2013
2013: The Year in Review
From the largest alumni gift in the campus’ history, which went to the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, to the arrival of Dean Al Pisano, it’s been a busy year here at the Jacobs School of Engineering. The school produced many research milestones, from a Google map of the human metabolism to the world’s first zoomable contact lens. Students got into the action too and UC San Diego became the first university to design, build and test a 3D-printed rocket engine. Here are some of the most memorable stories of the year—but not all: the list would be too long. Full Story
November 25, 2013
Bioengineering Professor Among Six UC San Diego Faculty Named 2013 AAAS Fellows
Six professors at the University of California, San Diego have been named 2013 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the nation’s largest general science organization. Full Story
November 18, 2013
New Models Predict Where E. coli Strains Will Thrive
Bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego have used the genomic sequences of 55 E. coli strains to reconstruct the metabolic repertoire for each strain. Surprisingly, these reconstructions do an excellent job of predicting the kind of environment where each strain will thrive, the researchers found. Their analysis, published in the Nov. 18, 2013 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could prove useful in developing ways to control deadly E. coli infections and to learn more about how certain strains of the bacteria become virulent. Full Story
November 12, 2013
Single-Cell Genome Sequencing Gets Better
Researchers led by bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego have generated the most complete genome sequences from single E. coli cells and individual neurons from the human brain. The breakthrough comes from a new single-cell genome sequencing technique that confines genome amplification to fluid-filled wells with a volume of just 12 nanoliters. Full Story
October 30, 2013
Genomatica Among 100 Companies Highlighted for Economic Boost of Research
Two innovative UC San Diego spinoffs are among the 100 companies cited by The Science Coalition in a new report touting the positive economic payoff of federally funded university research. Genomatica, a biotechnology company that grew from research conducted in Bernhard Palsson’s laboratory at UC San Diego; and Senomyx, a provider of flavor ingredients for the food and beverage industries that arose from research conducted by Charles Zuker at UC San Diego, help demonstrate how support of basic and applied research at American universities pays strong economic dividends. Full Story
October 22, 2013
Bioinformatics Breakthrough: High Quality Transcriptome from as Few as Fifty Cells
Bioengineers from the University of California, San Diego have created a new method for analyzing RNA transcripts from samples of 50 to 100 cells. The approach could be used to develop inexpensive and rapid methods for diagnosing cancers at early stages, as well as better tools for forensics, drug discovery and developmental biology. Full Story
October 17, 2013
Bioengineers Team with High School Students to Study Age-Related Heart Disease
Bioengineering professor Adam Engler recently launched a six-week fruit fly experiment with a group of 11th grade biology students in a study of age-related heart disease. The question driving the project is whether genetic mutations in the heart, mutations that are common in humans as we age and that are correlated with poor heart function, also contribute to a shortened lifespan? Full Story
October 8, 2013
Bioengineers uncover cause, treatment for insulin resistance in shock patients
Bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego have discovered that insulin resistance in shock patients is caused by the leakage of powerful digestive enzymes from the small intestine that eat away and destroy the insulin receptor in cells. Reporting in the journal Shock, the team has also found a way to stop these enzymes’ destructive path by blocking them in the intestine, where they are normally used to digest food. The research team includes Frank DeLano, lead investigator, and co-investigator Geert Schmid-Schönbein, professor and chair of bioengineering at UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. Doctors have long known that trauma patients going into shock are at risk of developing acute insulin resistance, leading to hyperglycemia. The pancreas releases insulin to deliver glucose to cells to convert into energy for the body. When cells are unable to process insulin properly, a condition known as insulin resistance, blood sugars rise and the pancreas releases more insulin, compounding the problem. Until now, doctors have not known what mechanism causes insulin resistance to develop in shock patients or how to treat it. Full Story