News
February 3, 2005
Calit2 Launches Prize Program to Encourage Bioinformatics Research by UCSD Undergraduates
The UCSD division of Calit2 is funding two new multidisciplinary programs to encourage more undergraduates to do research in the field of bioinformatics. The first two Calit2 Undergraduate Bioinformatics Scholar Awards were announced at a Feb. 2 research symposium organized by UCSD computer science and engineering professor Eleazar Eskin, who hopes to make the symposium a quarterly event, thanks to funding from the institute. Full Story
January 24, 2005
UC San Diego Expands Overseas Research Program for Undergrads to China, Thailand
Engineering and other UCSD undergraduates attended an orientation session for the NSF-funded Pacific Rim Undergraduate Experiences (PRIME) program in summer 2005, when they will get the chance to do cyber infrastructure research at leading institutions in Japan, Taiwan, Australia, China or Thailand. Up to 18 internships will be awarded, double the number in the inaugural program last summer. Full Story
January 21, 2005
Priming Embryonic Stem Cells to Fulfill Their Promise
Bioengineering researchers at the University of California, San Diego have invented a process to help turn embryonic stem cells into the types of specialized cells being sought as possible treatments for dozens of human diseases and health conditions. Sangeeta Bhatia, a UCSD bioengineering professor, Shu Chien and Christopher J. Flaim, a bioengineering graduate student, described the cell-culture technique in a paper published by Nature Methods in its Jan. 21 online edition. Full Story
January 14, 2005
Uncovering the Secrets of Abalone Body Armor
Engineering researchers at the University of California, San Diego are using the shell of a seaweed-eating snail as a guide in the development of a new generation of bullet-stopping armor. The colorful oval shell of the red abalone is highly prized as a source of nacre, or mother-of-pearl, jewelry, but the UCSD researchers are most impressed by the shell’s ability to absorb heavy blows without breaking. Full Story
January 10, 2005
Entrepreneurism Center Funds New Projects from All Five UCSD Engineering Departments
The William J. von Liebig Center for Entrepreneurism and Technology Advancement has awarded more than $300,000 to eight projects led by faculty members of the Jacobs School of Engineering, to help commercialize innovations developed in their labs. It is the Center's sixth round of funding, and for the first time, all five Jacobs School departments were represented among the researchers leading the winning projects. Full Story
December 1, 2004
Nanogen Funding Advances Nanotech Research
Released December 01, 2004 by Nanogen--Nanogen, Inc. (NASDAQ: NGEN), developer of advanced diagnostic products, announced today that it has agreed to provide $300,000 of funding over a two-year period to support the nanotechnology research of Michael Heller, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Jacobs School of Engineering, University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and cofounder of Nanogen. Full Story
October 15, 2004
UCSD Bioengineering Professor Wins 2004 Packard Foundation Fellowship
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has named Trey Ideker, an assistant professor at UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering, as one of this year’s 16 recipients of the Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering. Ideker and each of the other fellows will receive unrestricted research grants of $625,000 over five years. Full Story
May 5, 2004
UCSD Bioengineers Develop First Genome-Scale Model of Gene Regulation
San Diego, CA, May 5, 2004-- It has taken more than 50 years to accumulate the current body of knowledge on Escherichia coli, a bacterium which is one of the best studied organisms in biology. Now, bioengineers at the University of California San Diego have integrated this knowledge into the first genome-scale model of the gene regulatory system in E.coli. The computational model helps to define the rules governing cell function and quickly enabled an exponential increase in the understanding of the regulatory system in E. coli. Their work, which is published in the May 6, 2004 issue of Nature, represents a new way to systematically drive biological discovery Full Story
March 31, 2004
UC San Diego Bioinformatics Experts Help Reconstruct the Genomic Makeup of our Ancestors as International Consortium Completes Rat Genome Sequencing
San Diego, CA, March 31, 2004 -- Scientists have generated and begun to analyze the rat genome, paving the way for comparisons with the two other mammalian genomes sequenced so far -- human, and mouse. The primary results of the Rat Genome Sequencing Project Consortium (RGSPC) are presented in the April 1 issue of Nature, and an additional thirty manuscripts describing further detailed analyses are contained in the April issue of the journal Genome Research. Full Story
March 23, 2004
UCSD and SDSC to Host National Computational Molecular Biology Meetings
San Diego, CA, March 23, 2004 -- Faculty and researchers at the Jacobs School of Engineering and San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) are preparing to host what has become one of the most influential conferences in the world dealing with bioinformatics. This year's Research in Computational Molecular Biology -- RECOMB 2004 for short -- will take place March 27-31 in San Diego (http://recomb04.sdsc.edu/), and will feature the best research in bioinformatics, combined with invited talks from experimental biologists. "This is a scientific forum for theoretical advances in computational biology and their applications in molecular biology and medicine," says UCSD pharmacology professor Philip Bourne, who is Director of Integrative Biosciences at SDSC and also Conference General Chair of RECOMB 2004. "The origins of the conference came from the mathematical and computational side of the field, but the effective use of computational techniques for biological innovation is also an important aspect of the conference." SDSC took the lead in sponsoring the 2004 conference. Full Story