News
December 7, 2012
New Biomaterial gets 'Sticky' with Stem Cells
Just like the bones that hold up your body, your cells have their own scaffolding that holds them up. This scaffolding, known as the extracellular matrix, or ECM, not only props up cells but also provides attachment sites, or “sticky spots,” to which cells can bind, just as bones hold muscles in place. A new study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego and the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom found these sticky spots are distributed randomly throughout the extracellular matrix in the body, an important discovery with implications for researchers trying to figure out how to grow stem cells in the lab in ways that most closely mimic biology. Full Story
November 29, 2012
Two Jacobs School Engineers Named AAAS Fellows
Two faculty members at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, better known as AAAS. Ratnesh Lal, in the Departments of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and Bioengineering, and Victor Vianu, in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, join 700 other AAAS members who have been elected fellows—including 10 at UC San Diego—for their efforts to advance science and its applications. Full Story
October 16, 2012
New NIH Center to Map Individual Cells in Human Cortex
Bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego have received a $9.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish a single-cell genomics center and develop a three-dimensional map of gene activities in individual cells in the human cortex. Researchers believe understanding variations between individual cells within the same tissue may be critical to understanding the origins of diseases, including brain disorders. The cerebral cortex is the outer layer of neural tissue responsible for cognitive functions including memory, attention and decisionmaking. Full Story
October 5, 2012
Updated With New Positions: Jacobs School Recruiting for 12 Positions in 2012-13
The Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego currently is recruiting for 11open faculty positions in the 2012-13 academic year. The positions fall within three strategic research focus areas identified by the school: energy, sustainability and environment; engineering in medicine; and information technology and applications. Several of the positions are part of a three-year recruitment plan in the area of advanced energy research. Full Story
September 27, 2012
New Way of Fighting High Cholesterol Upends Assumptions
Atherosclerosis – the hardening of arteries that is a primary cause of cardiovascular disease and death – has long been presumed to be the fateful consequence of complicated interactions between overabundant cholesterol and resulting inflammation in the heart and blood vessels. However, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues at institutions across the country, say the relationship is not exactly what it appears, and that a precursor to cholesterol actually suppresses inflammatory response genes. This precursor molecule could provide a new target for drugs designed to treat atherosclerosis, which kills tens of thousands of Americans annually. Full Story
September 21, 2012
With $6M Grant, UC San Diego Bioengineers Take On Key Role in New NIH Common Funds Metabolomics Program
With a $6 million grant over five years, bioengineers from the University of California, San Diego will play a central role in a new program from theNational Institutes of Health (NIH) to accelerate “metabolomics”, an emerging field of biomedical research that offers a path to a wealth of information about a person’s nutrition, infection, health, disease status and more. Full Story
September 18, 2012
Five UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Graduate Students Named 2013 Siebel Scholars
Five University of California, San Diego graduate students pursuing research at the intersection of bioengineering, medicine and biology are among the 85 recipients of 2013 Siebel Scholars awards, announced by the Siebel Scholars Foundation on September 10, 2012. Full Story
August 30, 2012
Science study: 'Promiscuous' enzymes still prevalent in metabolism
Open an undergraduate biochemistry textbook and you will learn that enzymes are highly efficient and specific in catalyzing chemical reactions in living organisms, and that they evolved to this state from their “sloppy” and “promiscuous” ancestors to allow cells to grow more efficiently. This fundamental paradigm is being challenged in a new study by bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego, who reported in the journal Science what a few enzymologists have suspected for years: many enzymes are still pretty sloppy and promiscuous, catalyzing multiple chemical reactions in living cells, for reasons that were previously not well understood. Full Story
August 20, 2012
Program trains professionals in medical device engineering
Dan Braun earned a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering at the University of California, San Diego in 2006. Five years later he came back to enroll in the inaugural class of the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering’s Master of Advanced Study Program in Medical Device Engineering. The cross-disciplinary program is designed to train working professionals to apply their engineering know-how and workforce experience to a new career in one of the region’s fastest growing technology sectors. Full Story
August 7, 2012
Computer models calculate systems-wide costs of gene expression
Bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego have developed a method of modeling, simultaneously, an organism’s metabolism and its underlying gene expression. In the emerging field of systems biology, scientists model cellular behavior in order to understand how processes such as metabolism and gene expression relate to one another and bring about certain characteristics in the larger organism. Full Story