News
December 5, 2006
Joint Cartilage Gets Slippery during Flex Time
Bioengineering researchers at UC San Diego have shown that sliding forces applied to cartilage surfaces prompt cells in cartilage to produce molecules that lubricate and protect joints. Full Story
November 2, 2006
Novel Experiment Documents Evolution of Genome in Near-Real Time
A team led by bioengineering researchers at UC San Diego report in the November issue of Nature Genetics rapid evolutionary changes in a bacterial genome, observed in near-real time over a few days. Scientists have previously published static “snapshots” of the genome sequences of more than 100 bacterial species, from the harmless to those that cause plague, but this new report shows how these genomes are moving targets. Full Story
October 11, 2006
UCSD Bioengineer Receives National Award
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) will present its 2006 Founders Award to Shu Chien, a scientist at UC San Diego who forged the field of biomedical engineering, at an Oct. 15 ceremony in Washington, D.C. Chien, an NAE member, is the Y.C. Fung Professor of Bioengineering and Medicine at UCSD and University Professor for the University of California system. He will receive the academy’s highest honor, "for outstanding contributions to elucidating the engineering foundation of cardiovascular dynamics, and integrating engineering and biomedical sciences for the development of the biomedical engineering profession." Full Story
October 11, 2006
NSF Renews Pacific Rim Grid Engineering Project
The NSF has renewed PRAGMA, a UCSD-based effort to promote cyberinfrastructure research interactions among U.S. and Pacific Rim engineers and scientists, including many from the Jacobs School. The program is a collaborative effort of SDSC, Calit2 and Center for Research in Biological Systems. Full Story
October 9, 2006
UCSD Developing New Genome Sequencing Technology
The current cost to determine the sequence of nucleotide bases in the 6-billion-base-pair human genome is roughly $10 million, but researchers at UC San Diego and eight other universities and biotech companies hope to use a federal grant to lower the cost to only $1,000 per human genome sequenced Full Story
October 2, 2006
Jacobs School Welcomes Eleven New Faculty
The Jacobs School welcomes 11 new faculty hires, bringing the School’s total faculty membership to 175. The new faculty help advance the School’s focus on nanotechnology and nanomaterials, and compliment existing strengths in earthquake engineering, broadband communications, computer architecture, information theory, machine learning, and visualization. Full Story
September 19, 2006
UCSD Ranks Among World's Top Biotech Hotbeds
UC San Diego, long recognized for its pivotal role in seeding what has become one of the largest and most dense biotech sectors in the nation, was ranked among the top universities in the world for its prowess in developing and translating biotechnology into medical treatments, drugs, and other commercial applications. The 300-page study, Mind to Market: A Global Analysis of University Biotechnology Transfer and Commercialization, released today by The Milken Institute, examines and ranks universities worldwide on several key factors that measure biotechnology development and transfer success, including published research, patents issued and commercial outcomes. Full Story
September 15, 2006
Shu Chien named to Y.C. Fung Endowed Chair in Bioengineering
UCSD today announced that Shu Chien has been appointed the inaugural holder of the Y.C. Fung Endowed Chair in Bioengineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering. Chien, director of the UCSD Whitaker Institute of Biomedical Engineering and former chair of the Jacobs School of Engineering’s Department of Bioengineering, is a world leader in understanding how blood flow and pressure affect blood vessels. Full Story
August 7, 2006
Researchers Devise New Tools to Help Pinpoint Treatments for Heart Failure
UCSD scientists studying heart cells have devised a new way to visualize and quantify the rise and fall in the activity of a key enzyme linked to heart failure, offering them a window to the inner workings of heart cells that is expected to help in the development of more effective drugs to treat heart failure. Full Story
July 12, 2006
Beyond Lipids: Understanding the Mechanics of Atherosclerosis
A study in the October issue of Cellular Signalling by a team of UCSD scientists reports that the type of mechanical stretching found at branches of blood vessels activates a cellular protein known to damage cells. The report is the first to link mechanical forces with structural and biochemical changes in blood vessel cells that could explain why atherosclerotic lesions form preferentially at branches of coronary arteries. Full Story