FALL 2016
University of California, Irvine Department of Biomedical Engineering
Inspiring Engineering Minds to Advance Human Health
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Chair’s Message
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Genomic Improvisation
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National Recognition for CADMIM’s Research
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Groundbreaking Experiment May Help
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Paraplegics Walk Again
IN THIS ISSUE
On the cover: Patterns of DNA fragments and the molecules of life. Genetic engineering holds great promise for medicine, food and the environment. UC Irvine biomedical engineering researchers are working on systems that would make it easier for genetic engineers to reprogram how cells make proteins and fast track their evolution of new functions.
Faculty and Research Accolades
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Student Highlights
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Faculty
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Affiliated Faculty
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................................................................. 2016 Fall BME Discovery Magazine BME Discovery Magazine is published once a year in the fall by the Biomedical Engineering Department, UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering. Chair: Abraham Lee Department Administrator: Cathy Ta Business Analyst/Magazine Coordinator: Julio Rodriguez Contributing Writers: Lori Brandt, Anna Lynn Spitzer, Brian Bell Photography: Steve Zylius, Debbie Morales, Joshua Kim Established in 2002, the UCI BME Department offers two undergraduate degree programs, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in biomedical engineering and a combined M.D./Ph.D. degree in conjunction with the UCI School of Medicine. There are currently 23 full-time faculty and 59 affiliated faculty. Research areas include micro/nano medicine, biophotonics, biocomputation and tissue engineering, with clinical emphases in neuroengineering, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and ophthalmology. For more information, visit www.bme.uci.edu.
From the Chair
As I write this message, the 2016 Rio Olympics are halfway over. Many of us are proud of the splendid record Team USA has compiled. At the same time, it is equally exciting to see national, cultural and racial barriers blurred and shattered at this quadrennial sports event that brings together the best athletes of the world. The Olympic spirit sees athletes demonstrate their prowess as a result of years of repetitive, grinding practices and sheer drive to be the best in the world. Athletes from different corners of the world compete fairly, regardless of skin color, economic status or country of origin. I believe the same should be said about the science and technology world. Here at UCI, the Olympic spirit is alive and well in biomedical engineering: we strive to be the best at what we do, not necessarily for the glory and accolades but out of the drive to develop the best engineering solutions to advance the health of our fellow world citizens. We not only excel at individual sports (faculty grants and awards), but our team sports also garner many highlights (research center grants and recognition). Examples include Assistant Professor Chang Liu’s groundbreaking work on in vivo biosensor engineering and the five-year renewal of Professor Enrico Gratton’s NIH P41 Center (Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics). We are recruiting the best coaches
(faculty – see new Assistant Professor Tim Downing) to join a highly accomplished coaching staff (see faculty and research accolades). Most exciting of all are the up-andcoming BME star athletes – our students – starting to make waves as fearless rookies. Please take time to get to know some of our outstanding students. Here you will read about Anteater Biomedical Engineers: students who are garnering fellowships (the first SLAS Fellowship Grant for $100K), participating in reality shows (“America’s Greatest Makers”), topping business plan competitions and winning prestigious research competitions (the MIT Convergence Idea Challenge). This newsletter is about the people we cherish at UCI BME – their stories, their aspirations, their visions and their accomplishments. Sincerely,
Abe Lee William J. Link Professor and Chair BME at UC Irvine
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Featured Research
Genomic improvisation Musician-turned-UCI bioengineer strives for on-demand evolution, enabling cells to conduct specific beneficial functions For Liu, the fascination comes from two angles: exploring unknown boundaries in life science, and discovering how to use biological materials to build new structures on the molecular and genetic scales. It’s this goal of learning how cells, DNA and RNA, enzymes, amino acids and proteins can be taken apart and reassembled like a gooey erector set that has earned him a place at the Samueli School of Engineering.
In the right hands, the 88 keys on a piano offer unlimited creative possibilities. To a talented biomedical engineer, the molecules of the human genome likewise enable compositions of enormous complexity and inventiveness. UC Irvine’s Chang
“I came here initially through a search by UCI’s multidisciplinary Center for Complex Biological Systems,” Liu said. “I was matched with the Samueli School because of my work in genetics, which many consider to be a frontier in engineering.” He now runs a lab in UCI’s Natural Sciences II building with six Ph.D. students, three postdoctoral scholars, two lab technicians and two undergraduates. The Tucson, Ariz., native earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Harvard University, but science wasn’t the main reason he moved from the Southwest to Cambridge, Mass.
Liu, who has shown brilliance in both music and genetic engineering, thinks he has found his muse in the cells of living organisms. “Much of what’s most exciting in science right now is in biology,” said Liu, an assistant professor. “It’s an unconquered frontier.”
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“I was serious about music and concert piano performance at the time, and I had an audition with a very famous pianist, musicologist and music theorist at Harvard,” said Liu, who was raised in a family of scientists and amateur musicians. “He only mentors two or three students at a time, and he offered to take me on if I did my undergrad degree there.”
In addition to music, Liu delved deeply into chemistry and physics. He went on to receive a doctorate in the former from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. “This period of time was pivotal for me,” he said, “because it showed me the importance of understanding how chemistry is done in the service of answering biological questions.” Now Liu and his lab mates are attempting to engineer cells that have new capabilities using a novel approach to biological research known as directed evolution, a method used in protein engineering that mimics the process of natural selection to evolve proteins or nucleic acids toward a userdefined goal. “The larger theme of our lab is trying to engineer genetic systems that can process and transfer information,” he said. While the role of DNA is to store and propagate information, it doesn’t actually “go around performing functions at the cellular level,” he noted. Instead, instructions are transcribed from DNA to RNA and translated to proteins, which are the more functional molecules. Liu and his colleagues are working to get to the bottom of this process to see if they can evolve the genome at will to perform such desired actions as attacking diseased cells and boosting healthy ones.
“A lot of our projects are figuring out how to experiment on cells at rates necessary to see evolution occur in the time scales of a laboratory rather than in the natural biological world.”
inert chemicals that sorted themselves out billions of years ago, so it’s not possible to just go in and rearrange molecules. If a reactive chemical were introduced into the genetic code, “cross talk” would cause the cell to die. Liu’s lab has improvised a way around this problem by developing a technique called orthogonal DNA replication, in which the host’s genetic code is augmented by an engineered one inserted within the same cell. “We’re basically installing reactive and chemically privileged groups into the genetic code that are not normally there so that we can make proteins that are better therapeutics,” Liu said. In other words, his team has learned how to create cells with an auxiliary replication system, an enzyme that works with a piece of DNA that’s living in the same cell but acting independently of that cell’s genome. This allows Liu and his colleagues to experiment on genes at very rapid rates in the lab – the goal being to make cells that accomplish beneficial tasks. “A lot of our projects are figuring out how to experiment on cells at rates necessary to see evolution occur in the time scales of a laboratory rather than in the natural biological world,” he said. These efforts have drawn the attention of leaders in this area of research beyond UCI. Liu has received a number of recent awards in support of his work: a Sloan Research Fellowship, NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, Beckman Young Investigator Award and DuPont Young Professor Award as well as major grants from the National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. “Chang Liu’s work will play a major role as the field moves from gene editing to actually composing new genes. Directed evolution is the composer’s muse and editor combined,” said Frances Arnold, the Dickinson Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering & Biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology. “Chang has an audacious and creative vision tempered by reality and an engineer’s ability to get things done.” By Brian Bell
Genetics researchers tend to develop a certain level of respect and admiration for this system that has taken eons to evolve to what it is today. Liu said the genome is based on a set of
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National Recognition for CADMIM’s Research CADMIM, an I/UCRC created in partnership with the University of Cincinnati, is directed by biomedical engineering professor and chair, Abe Lee. It is one of nearly 80 active I/UCRCs around the country involving approximately 180 universities and 775 industry partners. CADMIM’s recognized project, an integrated microfluidic device that isolates and enriches rare cells from untreated liquid samples, advances diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities by combining two microfluidic components – each with its own advantages – into one device. The integrated device combines precise cell-sorting capabilities with rapid-purification capabilities, resulting in higherquality cell isolation from complex mixtures. This allows users to more easily analyze complex samples like whole blood or untreated water. UCI”s Abe Lee (left) and University of Cincinnati’s Ian Papautsky serve as co-directors of CADMIM.
Research undertaken at the Samueli School’s Center for Advanced Design & Manufacturing of Integrated Microfluidics (CADMIM) is featured in a national publication listing groundbreaking technology projects. The 2016 National Science Foundation Compendium of Industry-Nominated Technology Breakthroughs of Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers (I/UCRC) includes a nod to an integrated microfluidic device developed at CADMIM. The compendium lists projects expected to result in technological breakthroughs – process improvements or techniques, new products or services and/or benefits to the nation’s economy. The publication is intended to help Congressional and White House staffers, NSF visitors and the general public understand the impact of research taking place at the country’s 33 I/UCRCs.
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Additionally, scalable production methods, easily transferrable to industry, are being developed for the fabrication of the devices. The microfluidic technology creates a miniature lab-on-a-chip that facilitates portable use – homes, hospitals, crime scenes or anywhere point-of-care diagnosis is needed. Lee collaborated on the research with CADMIM codirector Ian Papautsky from the University of Cincinnati. “By facilitating discussions to match industrial need with academic innovation, the NSF I/UCRC provided the
“This is a particularly big achievement for CADMIM since our center is only two years old; most of the other centers are much older.”
‘perfect storm’ that resulted in the initial conceptualization of the device,” said Lee. “Encouraging our two labs – with dissimilar technologies – to integrate and complement each other resulted in a system with higher performance than what is out there. With initial success demonstrated, we are now embarking on a wide range of follow-on research projects.” “This is a particularly big achievement for CADMIM since our center is only two years old; most of the other centers are much older,” added Gisela Lin, CADMIM Center development manager. “Of the 33 I/UCRCs featured in the 2016 compendium, the average center is 8 years old.”
The CADMIM mission is to develop design tools and manufacturing technologies for integrated microfl uidics targeting quick and easy, cost-effective diagnosis of the environment, agriculture and human health. CADMIM is the primary resource for: n expertise in every type of lab-on-a-chip innovation & development; n world-class and manufacturing-compliant
prototype facilities; n a strong technology transfer foundation, including
Now in its sixth edition, the compendium is intended to acquaint readers with how knowledge and technology in these centers are being discovered, developed and translated into commercial and industrial advances and applications. Projects under consideration were limited to work that was undertaken during the 2013-14 academic year and concluded by the end of 2015.
interdisciplinary projects, engaged IAB mentors, and world-renowned leading faculty who are also industry-driven and experienced entrepreneurs; n producing premier talent at B.S., M.S., Ph.D.,
and post-doc levels.
By Anna Lynn Spitzer
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Groundbreaking Experiment May Help Paraplegics Walk Again A motorcycle accident left Adam Fritz, a Southern California insurance claims adjuster, without the use of his legs, but thanks to a proof-of-concept study led by Associate Professor Zoran Nenadic, Fritz took his first steps since the accident. The process uses an electroencephalogram-based (EEG) system that manipulates brain signals to bypass the spinal cord by magnifying the signals and sending those commands directly to the legs. “Even after years of paralysis, the brain still can generate robust brain waves that can be harnessed to enable basic walking,” stated Nenadic. “We showed that you can restore intuitive, brain-controlled walking after a complete spinal cord injury. This noninvasive system for leg muscle stimulation is a promising method and is an advance of our current brain-controlled systems, which use virtual reality or a robotic exoskeleton.” Before Fritz could walk again, he had to undergo months of rigorous physical and mental training. He started using a computer avatar, which he learned to move by using his thoughts, and a modified EEG cap. It took weeks just to get the avatar to move slightly. An algorithm sorted through the brainwaves to determine if Fritz was trying to walk or remain idle. After months of training, he was able to make the avatar move inside a computer replica of the course he intended to walk. The next step was to test this process using robotic legs on a treadmill, requiring months of intense physical training to strengthen his atrophied legs. He then practiced the movements while suspended, allowing him to move without risk of fall or injury. Finally, when he was ready, he was able to transfer his learned skills to the ground, successfully taking a few steps. Since this is a single-patient study, said project co-leader and neurologist Dr. An Do, additional studies using a larger population of subjects are necessary before researchers can investigate more invasive procedures, such as brain implants.
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Faculty and Research Accolades Fluorescence Dynamics Laboratory Celebrates 30 Years of NIH Funding 1986 while a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He moved LFD to UCI in 2006. Since its move to UCI, the lab has developed new microscopy methods to detect molecular aggregates and the movements of single protein molecules in live cells and tissue samples. “This is one of the unique technologies developed at the LFD and now used in many laboratories around the world,” said Gratton. Another important development in fluorescence microscopy at UCI was the introduction of the phasor method for the analysis of fluorescence decay time in entire cells and tissue. This technology allows determination of metabolic levels in cells, with specific application to diseases such as cancer, diabetes and other such diseases that alter cells’ metabolism.
UC Irvine’s Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics (LFD) has received a five-year, $7.2 million operating grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This marks the 30th year of NIH funding for the lab, the country’s only national research center dedicated to fluorescence. The LFD is a state-of-the-art laboratory that uses fluorescence with advanced imaging technologies (microscopy and spectroscopy) to view live cells and study cellular processes. The research can lead to a better understanding of cell function, with potential applications in diagnosing and identifying treatment for many human diseases, including Huntington’s disease, kidney disorders and cancers. The NIH grant will help LFD continue its work developing new imaging technologies and methods in fluorescence as well as supporting the dissemination of the latest advances in the field.
The lab provides technical assistance and user-friendly service for visiting scientists who come from around the world. Proceeds from LFD’s data analysis software, Globals for Spectroscopy and Globals for Imaging, are used to fund research-related conferences and workshops. “This grant allows us to continue our work in developing new fluorescence instrumentation for biomedical applications and basic research,” explained co-investigator and biomedical engineering Assistant Professor Michelle Digman. “It also strengthens our mission to spread knowledge and training to the scientific community. These opportunities enable not only developments but create novel ways for scientists to solve the driving biological questions of the day.” A special symposium, Frontiers in Biological Fluorescence, was held in September at the Beckman Center to celebrate LFD’s 30th anniversary and the 70th birthday of its founder, Gratton. By Lori Brandt
Enrico Gratton, principal investigator for the lab and a professor of biomedical engineering, established the lab in
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Faculty Honored for Excellence in Teaching and Research
Faculty Innovation in Teaching
Seven Samueli School faculty members received recognition awards from Dean Gregory Washington at the spring faculty meeting last May. Washington initiated the awards three years ago to acknowledge and honor the valued contributions of faculty. Awards were given to one early-career, mid-career and senior faculty member in the categories of research excellence and innovation in teaching. And one professor was selected as the Innovator of the Year. Four awardees were BME faculty or affiliated faculty.
Innovator of the Year 2016 Innovator of the Year: David Reinkensmeyer
This award, presented to an individual or team who best demonstrates innovation in the development of a product or technology, specifically recognizes achievements in which the innovation has successfully translated laboratory research into new products and technologies that can be used by the public.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....................................... Faculty Excellence in Research Mid-Career: Szu-Wen Wang
This recognition is given to faculty members who have conducted exceptional fundamental or applied research in one or more areas, or who have made a single or unique contribution to engineering concepts, and in which the research is responsive to or has an impact on society as a whole.
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Early Career: Michelle Digman (left) Senior: Nancy DaSilva (right)
This award is presented to a faculty team or individual in the Samueli School who has made outstanding contributions to the improvement of undergraduate engineering education. It is meant to recognize the demonstrated impact of innovation in the education process, including the design, development and application of new pedagogy, teaching tools and assessment methods. Exceptional teaching in the classroom is also considered. Selection favors those whose contributions have made important, pervasive improvements in engineering education with a significant potential for long-term impact.
Zoran Nenadic Wins Seed Funding A biomedical engineering researcher is among the eight winners of a second round of seed funding for single and multiinvestigator research projects announced in June. The Research Seed Funding Program, sponsored jointly by UCI’s provost, vice chancellor for research and vice chancellor for health affairs, drew 92 applications. Biomedical engineering Associate Professor Zoran Nenadic won $50,000 in funding for an implantable brain-computer interface system that can restore lower extremity movement and sensation after neural injuries. The first-round winners of the seed funding program were announced in March 2016. At that time, 19 projects were selected from 141 proposals; six of those winners were Samueli School-affiliated.
Beth Lopour Earns Junior Investigator Award Biomedical engineer Beth Lopour uses computational techniques to study electrical signals recorded from the brains of people with epilepsy. Although these signals are typically interpreted by neurologists, Lopour says that by using an engineering approach, she can study characteristics and properties of the data that are not readily apparent by eye. “This not only helps us learn more about epilepsy, but it can also lead to improvements in treatment and outcome,” said Lopour, an assistant professor. The American Epilepsy Society (AES) has recognized her work with the Junior Investigator Award, which provides one year of research funding ($50,000). Lopour was one of three early career scientists to receive the AES award. The society is one of the largest non-governmental funders for those starting their careers in epilepsy research.
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Jered Haun Receives NIH Grant from National Cancer Institute’s Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies Program BME Assistant Professor Jered Haun was awarded a $500,000 three-year grant by NIH National Cancer Institute’s Innovative Molecular Analysis Technologies program (IMAT) to implement a novel design of nanotechnology-based imaging probes for fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy. This research will improve multiplex imaging capabilities through an imaging-based detection approach complementary to traditional fluorescence. Haun’s lab will be creating and testing a new concept for molecular probes − the first library of probes for performing fluorescence lifetime imaging. This is similar to traditional fluorescence, which uses probes that emit light with different colors. They will expand each color window with a set of probes that emit light for different periods of time, allowing them to look at many more probes concurrently.
The IMAT program was established to support the development, technical maturation and dissemination of novel and potentially transformative next-generation technologies through an approach of balanced but targeted innovation. “We now know that tumors are extremely diverse, and thus the goal of this project is to develop an imaging platform that can detect tens to even hundreds of functional targets on a cell-by-cell basis so that oncologists can assess this diversity and better design therapeutic plans for their patients,” said Haun. Collaborators include Enrico Gratton’s Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics, which has the necessary imaging equipment, and Dr. Edward Nelson, a professor of medicine and chief of the hematology/oncology division at UCI Medical Center, who will help validate the work using human tumor tissue specimens.
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Rishi Jajoo Named Jane Coffin Childs Fellow
“This support will give me the intellectual freedom to push the boundaries of my research and pursue my own ideas.”
said Jajoo, who came to UCI last year from Harvard Medical School, where he earned his doctorate in systems biology. He works in the lab of UCI biomedical engineering Assistant Professor Chang Liu. With very few exceptions, all life uses a specific set of 20 amino acid building blocks to produce proteins that do the work of the cell. Jajoo has proposed using the mitochondria to make new proteins from an expanded (more than the usual 20) set of amino acids, drawing on those synthesized in the lab. He is also planning to speed the evolution of mitochondrial DNA to allow evolution to draw on that increased number of building blocks to produce new proteins that could be used as novel therapeutics, or for fuels or biomaterials.
Postdoctoral scholar Rishi Jajoo is re-engineering the mitochondrial genetic code to produce new proteins with functions not found in nature. The Jane Coffin Childs (JCC) Memorial Fund for Medical Research awarded Jajoo a three-year postdoctoral fellowship in recognition of this promising research. The JCC offers highly qualified scientists the opportunity to pursue research into the causes and origins of cancer. “This support will give me the intellectual freedom to push the boundaries of my research and pursue my own ideas,”
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Since its founding in 1937, the JCC fund has taken a broad approach to the study of cell growth and development, emphasizing the study of the basic biology and chemistry of the underlying processes. Fellows are selected by its Board of Scientific Advisers from among the best young scientists at what is often a critical stage in their careers. To date, there have been over 1,500 Jane Coffin Childs Fellows doing basic cancer-related research in laboratories in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia.
Timothy Downing Joins the BME Faculty The BME Department welcomes its newest faculty member, Timothy Downing. Previously a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University in the Alexander Meissner Lab, Downing received his doctorate in bioengineering and biomedical engineering from UC Berkeley in 2013. When asked what drew him to UCI, Downing explained, “UC Irvine has an unusually high number of young faculty. I think having so many faculty members at the earlier stages of their research careers facilitates a more innovative environment, because we all have big ideas about how we want to shape the future of our fields. And so you end up with this very collaborative environment where we’re all trying to work together and help each other take those next big steps in our respective research visions. Of course UCI also has a large number of established faculty who are excellent resources for young faculty because they have already been in our shoes and have made (and continue to make) significant contributions to their fields. UCI strikes
an ideal balance between early and established faculty, and this was definitely one thing that attracted me.” Downing’s research seeks to understand how environmental cues translate into biochemical signals that alter the epigenome, and how these epigenetic changes then lead to a cascade of intracellular events enabling single genomes to give rise to multiple cell types that comprise highly complex mammalian tissues. These goals can be broken down into two areas: how cells inherit or maintain their identity and how cells then shed their identity during fate specification. This kind of understanding into the molecular dividers of cell identity will ultimately result in better designed cellbased therapies as well as engineering new tissues and organs for the betterment of human health. “I think what’s most important is for students to develop a confidence where they are sure that no matter what the question is, they can come up with a path to finding a suitable answer. As my father always told me, ‘you have to know what you don’t know,’ and I think the next step after that is also knowing how to get help,” said Downing about his teaching philosophy. Downing is the recipient of the 2014 UNCF/Merck Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2014 Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2014 Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellowship - Harvard Medical School, the 2013 Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award at UC Berkeley, and the 2012 Siebel Scholar award.
“I think what’s most important is for students to develop a confidence where they are sure that no matter what the question is, they can come up with a path to finding a suitable answer.”
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Student Highlights Student Inventors Debut Research on New Reality Show
Nicole Mendoza (left) and Kimberly Veliz, both first-generation college students, work in the lab of BME Professor Michelle Khine.
Samueli School students Nicole Mendoza and Kimberly Veliz haven’t plotted strategy on a desert island, served as apprentices for industry moguls or belted out songs in blind auditions. But they are reality TV stars nonetheless. United Artist CEO Mark Burnett, the producer behind mega-hits like “Survivor,” “Shark Tank,” “The Apprentice” and “The Voice,” last spring launched “America’s Greatest Makers,” and Mendoza and Veliz were selected to work their way toward the grand prize. The weekly show debuted on TBS April 5 along with an interactive online component. It pitted teams of inventors against each other to develop the next big thing in wearable
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Joshua Kim
technology and smart connected devices, and seemed a natural fit for graduate student Mendoza and Veliz, an undergraduate. The two have been working together in the lab of UC Irvine biomedical engineering Professor Michelle Khine to develop sensor-based wearables that can measure the body’s physiological signals. The duo, called Team Slapband, made it onto the show with an activity-tracker device that measures blood pressure. The device’s sensors are built into a flexible wristband, which users don by slapping it against their wrist. They were one of 24 initial teams selected by the show to present their project to a panel of four celebrity judges, and one of only 15 teams chosen to move forward.
“Heart disease kills more people around the world than any other disease,” Mendoza told the judges on the series opener. Known as the “silent killer,” high blood pressure can result in heart attack, stroke or organ damage. And there is no device yet on the market that can continuously measure this vital sign. “The blood pressure cuff hasn’t [changed] in 100 years,” Veliz added. The next step for Team Slapband was the “Make it or Break it” elimination rounds during which three teams competed each week for $100,000 and a spot in the finals. Unfortunately, Team Slapband was eliminated. Mendoza and Veliz’s slapband derived from their research into flexible polymer biosensors that conform to the wearer’s skin. The sensors can be adapted for different applications, says Mendoza, including monitoring temperature, respiration, heart rate and glucose levels. They also can track fetal movement – the basis for Tiny Kicks, a startup that originated in the lab last year. For “America’s Greatest Makers,” though, the two students decided to stick with the blood pressure-tracking system. The show required that each team use Intel’s Curie module in its invention. The technology – Mendoza calls it “really cool” – is a button-sized system-on-a-chip with the capabilities of a full computer, including Bluetooth, motion sensors, low-energy radio, battery charging and pattern-matching capabilities. “It has lots of features you’d want for a wearable product,” she says. The team has developed algorithms that extract blood pressure and heart rate information from the sensor data; the device sends that information through an app to the user’s smart phone or directly to his or her doctor. Mendoza and Veliz, who met through their participation in UCI’s Minority Science Program, both are first-generation college students who credit their families, at least in part, for their success. “My parents always told me, ‘Education is how you’re going to achieve the American dream,’” Veliz said in an online interview with the show’s host. She is the oldest of three siblings whose parents immigrated to the U.S., and the first to attend college.
taking research to another level – getting it out there to the public – is actually just as important as doing the research in an institution.” “We definitely got exposed to different aspects that we don’t get doing research,” adds Mendoza. “Michelle Khine’s lab is actually very entrepreneurial, so those experiences, along with the show’s experiences, really drove me to develop a passion for the startup world and for bringing new technologies to the public.”
“Being a part of this showed me that taking research to another level – getting it out there to the public – is actually just as important as doing the research in an institution.” “As Nicole and Kim’s adviser, I am very proud of both of them,” Khine says. “They are fantastic makers as well as incredible role models for girls in STEM. The vital sensors we are developing hopefully will be changing the paradigm of how medicine is practiced, so we can move from reactive to proactive.” That goal is the inspiration for Mendoza and Veliz as well. “I really think that medical devices are going to go from the doctors’ offices more into people’s homes and daily lives,” Mendoza says. “The slapband was our cool idea but the biosensors themselves are what we really want to market. Hopefully we can make those available for other wearables as well.” By Anna Lynn Spitzer
Both students say their participation on the series was life-changing. “I never thought of being an entrepreneur until now,” says Veliz. “Being a part of this showed me that
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Erik Werner Receives First SLAS Fellowship Grant His team is working to improve high-throughput screening for drug discovery. “Typically, the first step in developing a new drug is to test millions of drug-like compounds against a therapeutic target,” Werner explained. His project will use integrated microfluidic digital logic to address a large array of droplets, shrinking reaction volumes in a typical screening assay more than 100 times and greatly decreasing the cost of each screen. In addition, entire libraries of molecules can be screened on a single chip, increasing throughput dramatically. “We had a number of excellent proposals and candidates, and Erik rose above,” said Susan Lunte, chair of the SLAS Grant Review Panel. “Since the research is centered around a microfluidic device, the funding will allow us to make the most of the microfabrication facilities at UCI such as BiON and the INRF,” Werner said.
Biomedical engineering graduate student Erik Werner has been named the first recipient of the new SLAS Graduate Education Fellowship Grant by the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening. Werner, who collaborated on the grant application with his faculty adviser, Elliot Hui, will use the $100,000, two-year fellowship to hone an innovative high-throughput droplet-array screening device that can improve drug discovery. SLAS is an international organization of more than 20,000 scientists, engineers, researchers, technologists and others from academic, government and commercial laboratories. It seeks to improve the practice of life sciences research and development, discovery and technology. Werner was selected from a field of 24 candidates from four countries based on his accomplishments as well as the quality and promise of his research proposal.
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Werner, who expects to complete his degree in 2019, is highly regarded by his UC Irvine mentor. “Erik is one of the most promising researchers I have seen,” said Hui. “He gets his hands dirty and gets things done. Beyond simply having ideas, he executes and builds. Furthermore, he is very strong in his ability to assess failed attempts and understand what needs to change.”
“We had a number of excellent proposals and candidates, and Erik rose above.”
Artificial Retina Team Wins Research Competition
Professor Albert Yee, center, is flanked by his award winning team: from left, Elena Liang, Emma Mah, Mary Nora Dickson and Rachel Rosenzweig.
A team of biomedical engineering, chemical engineering and materials science engineering graduate students is one step closer to turning its artificial retina research into reality after sweeping both categories of a national research competition in July. Samueli School students Rachel Rosenzweig, Elena Liang, Mary Nora Dickson and Emma Mah beat out 22 other teams to win the first-place prize of $3,000 in the MIT Convergence Idea Challenge for their artificial bio-nanoelectronic retina idea; they also won the Community Choice award of $1,000. The Convergence Idea Challenge was launched to encourage emerging researchers to combine the disciplines of life sciences, physical sciences, information technology, social sciences and engineering to improve human health. The competition was sponsored and judged by a panel of eminent academics: Nobel Laureate Phil Sharp, MIT President Emerita Susan Hockfield and Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research Director Tyler Jacks. Research was judged on its potential impact, creativity and presentation.
Retinal degeneration, including retinitis pigmentosa, agerelated macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy affect nearly 15 million Americans alone, the first-place UCI team says. The only available therapy is an artificial retina, but so far, none has been completely successful in restoring vision. The team is combining biology, nanotechnology and electronics to design an artificial retina as a flexible organic photovoltaic cell. They are using inexpensive biocompatible, photo-sensitive, polymer-based material, which converts light into pulsed electric signals, stimulating nearby neurons for visual processing through optical excitation. Because the nanomaterial is coupled with living neuronal tissues, the retina is expected to adhere to the patient’s own cells more effectively than current artificial models, reducing rejection and increasing the chances that surrounding cells will stay viable. Continued on next page
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In addition to beating out teams from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and University of Cambridge, among others, the group also received the most “likes” on the contest Facebook page, earning it the Community Challenge Award.
“Afterwards, we plan to share our research finding with the broader community through conferences and symposia,” she said. “We hope our contribution will inspire elected officials, government agencies and the community to further promote convergence research.” By Anna Lynn Spitzer
The winning research also was mentioned at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C., alongside the release of a convergence policy report, “Convergence: The Future of Health,” as aligning with the policy’s goals.
“Our proposed idea will provide a cost-efficient, mechanically robust, long-term solution to patients suffering from retinal degeneration.”
In their contest application, the graduate students explained: “Our proposed idea will provide a cost-efficient, mechanically robust, long-term solution to patients suffering from retinal degeneration. … The grand vision of our multidisciplinary approach is to engineer an affordable, long-lasting, biocompatible, self-contained, high-resolution and electrically efficient bio-nanoelectronic device as an artificial retina to restore native vision in patients around the world.” “Winning this contest has made us extremely proud to be such collaborative, multidisciplinary Anteaters in the AFYee Research Group,” says Rosenzweig, referring to the team’s adviser, Albert Yee, chemical engineering and materials science professor. “It has bolstered our commitment to interdisciplinarity for executing creative, cutting-edge solutions to healthcare problems.” Rosenzweig said they plan to use the $4,000 prize to fund materials and equipment to further their research and development, adding that a prototype is in the design phase.
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Ahmed Farhat Selected for Chancellor’s Award of Distinction Ahmed Farhat, premed/biomedical engineering, was selected by the UC Irvine Alumni Association as one of four graduating engineering students for the Chancellor’s Award of Distinction. The annual award acknowledges UCI’s most outstanding graduating seniors: students who represent exceptional academic achievement and a commitment to cutting-edge research, leadership and service to UCI. Farhat will attend the UCI School of Medicine to pursue a career in emergency medicine. He plans to focus on global medicine and extending care to underserved and overlooked populations. Award recipients wore blue and gold shoulder cords with their commencement regalia at the 2016 Commencement Ceremony in June. A total of 34 UCI students were chosen for the award.
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Four Engineering Teams in Business Plan Top 12 Four entrepreneurial-minded Samueli School of Engineering teams were among the top winners in UC Irvine’s 2016 Business Plan Competition, hosted by The Paul Merage School of Business and UCI Applied Innovation. The competition started with more than 80 applicants. The top 40 teams pitched their company to judges from the business community, and the 12 winning teams shared $100,000 in cash and prizes. The engineering teams in the top 12 were:
.............................................. ......... CeleriBio, which is developing a novel diagnostic device to identify extremely low concentrations of pathogens at early stages for diagnosing infection with greater accuracy and speed. The team, consisting of students Sean Freeman, Nikki Koe, Louai Labanieh, Binh Le and Sadaf Mirnia, won second place and $5,000 in the life sciences/clean tech track.
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EmbryLux, which won first place in two categories and $20,000: $10,000 in the life sciences/clean tech track and $10,000 for the UCI intellectual property track. The team is developing a device that quantitatively screens embryos before in vitro fertilization (IVF) implantation to predict the chances of successful birth. Team members are students Tiffany Chien, Yingkai (Kyle) Su, Thai Nguyen, Shin Fukazawa and Daniel Tran.
Curaflow, which seeks to construct a smaller, quieter CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) mask that will eliminate problems associated with obstructive sleep apnea in a more effective and desirable manner. Team members Jeffrey Chum, Josh Drum, Michael Shenk, Matthew Vasquez and Sam Pasin won second place and $5,000 in the consumer products track.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ................................... Sher Biomedical, which won $10,000 and the School of Medicine Award. Team members include graduate students Rachel Gurlin and Avid Najdahmadi, postdoc Bhupinder Shergill, Professor Jonathan Lakey and Professor Elliot Botnivick. The team’s concept is to create an implantable and refillable system for treatming insulin-dependent diabetes.
....................................................... The annual Business Plan Competition, started by the Beall Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship at the Merage School, was sponsored this year by the Beall Family Foundation, UCI’s Blum Center for Poverty Alleviation, Microsemi, the Stradling law firm, the Fish & Tsang law firm, the Nguyen & Tarbet law firm, Iris Technology, Calit2 and the UCI School of Medicine.
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Faculty Abraham P. Lee, Ph.D. William J. Link Chair in Biomedical Engineering and Department Chair and Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Research Interests: lab-on-a-chip health monitoring instruments, drug delivery micro/nanoparticles, integrated cell sorting microdevices, lipid vesicles as carriers for cells and biomolecules, high-throughput droplet bioassays, microfluidic tactile sensors
Bernard Choi, Ph.D. Associate Professor in Residence of Surgery; Biomedical Engineering Research Interests: biomedical optics, in vivo optical imaging, microvasculature, light-based therapeutics choib@uci.edu
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aplee@uci.edu
.................................... Michael Berns, Ph.D. Arnold and Mabel Beckman Chair in Laser Biomedicine and Professor of Surgery; Biomedical Engineering; Developmental and Cell Biology
Michelle Digman, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Research Interests: biophotonics, fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy, nano-scale imaging, mechanotransduction, cancer cell migration, fluorescence lifetime and metabolic mapping mdigman@uci.edu
Research Interests: photomedicine, laser microscopy, biomedical devices
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mwberns@uci.edu
.................................... Elliot Botvinick, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Surgery; Biomedical Engineering Research Interests: laser microbeams, cellular mechanotransduction, mechanobiology elliot.botvinick@uci.edu
.................................... Gregory J. Brewer, Ph.D. Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering Research Interests: neuronal networks, decoding brain learning and memory, brain-inspired computing, Alzheimer’s disease, brain aging, neuron cell culture gjbrewer@uci.edu
.................................... James Brody, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Research Interests: bioinformatics, micro-nanoscale systems
Tim Downing, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Research Interests: stem cell and tissue engineering, regenerative biology, cell reprogramming, epigenomics, mechanobiology tim.downing@uci.edu
.................................... Enrico Gratton, Ph.D. Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Developmental and Cell Biology; Physics and Astronomy Research Interests: design of new fluorescence instruments, protein dynamics, single molecule, fluorescence microscopy, photon migration in tissues egratton@uci.edu
.................................... Anna Grosberg, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Research Interests: computational modeling of biological systems, biomechanics, cardiac tissue engineering grosberg@uci.edu
jpbrody@uci.edu
.................................... Zhongping Chen, Ph.D. Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Chemical Engineering and Materials Science; Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Otolaryngology; Surgery Research Interests: biomedical optics, optical coherence tomography, bioMEMS, biomedical devices
.................................... Jered Haun, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Research Interests: nanotechnology, molecular engineering, computational simulations, targeted drug delivery, clinical cancer detection jered.haun@uci.edu
z2chen@uci.edu
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Elliot E. Hui, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Research Interests: microscale tissue engineering, bioMEMS, cell-cell interactions, global health diagnostics
Wendy F. Liu, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Research Interests: biomaterials, microdevices in cardiovascular engineering, cell-cell and cell-microenvironment interactions, cell functions and controls
eehui@uci.edu
. . . ................................. Tibor Juhasz, Ph.D. Professor of Ophthalmology; Biomedical Engineering Research Interests: laser-tissue interactions, highprecision microsurgery with lasers, laser applications in ophthalmology, corneal biomechanics
wendy.liu@uci.edu
.......................... .......... Beth A. Lopour, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Research Interests: computational neuroscience, signal processing, mathematical modeling, epilepsy, translational research
tjuhasz@uci.edu
. . . ................................. Arash Kheradvar, M.D. Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; and Medicine Research Interests: cardiac mechanics, cardiovascular devices, cardiac imaging arashkh@uci.edu
. . . ................................. Michelle Khine, Ph.D. Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Research Interests: development of novel nano- and micro-fabrication technologies and systems for single cell analysis, stem cell research, in-vitro diagnostics mkhine@uci.edu
. . . .................................
beth.lopour@uci.edu
.......................... .......... Zoran Nenadic, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Research Interests: adaptive biomedical signal processing, control algorithms for biomedical devices, brain-machine interfaces, modeling and analysis of biological neural networks znenadic@uci.edu
.......................... .......... William C. Tang, Ph.D. Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Research Interests: micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) nanoscale engineering for biomedical applications, microsystems integration, microimplants, microbiomechanics, microfluidics wctang@uci.edu
Frithjof Kruggel, M.D. Professor of Biomedical Engineering Research Interests: biomedical signal and image processing, anatomical and functional neuroimaging in humans, structure-function relationship in the human brain fkruggel@uci.edu
. . . .................................
.......................... .......... Bruce Tromberg, Ph.D. Director of Surgery; Biomedical Engineering; Physiology and Biophysics Research Interests: photon migration, diffuse optical imaging, non-linear optical microscopy, photodynamic therapy bjtrombe@uci.edu
Chang C. Liu, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering; Chemistry Research Interests: genetic engineering, directed evolution, synthetic biology, chemical biology ccl@uci.edu
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Affiliated Faculty Alpesh N. Amin, M.D. Endowed Chair in Medicine and Professor of Medicine; Biomedical Engineering; Paul Merage School of Business; Program in Nursing Science anamin@uci.edu
Pierre F. Baldi, Ph.D. UCI Chancellor’s Professor of Computer Science; Biological Chemistry; Biomedical Engineering; Developmental and Cell Biology pfbaldi@ics.uci.edu
Lubomir Bic, Ph.D. Professor of Computer Science; Biomedical Engineering; Electrical Engineering and Computer Science lbic@uci.edu
Bruce Blumberg, Ph.D. Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology; Biomedical Engineering; Environmental Health Sciences; Pharmaceutical Sciences blumberg@uci.edu
Donald J. Brown, Ph.D. Associate Professor Emeritus in Residence of Ophthalmology; Biomedical Engineering dbrown@uci.edu
Peter J. Burke, Ph.D. Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Biomedical Engineering; Chemical Engineering and Materials Science pburke@uci.edu
Maxime Cannesson, Ph.D. Professor of Clinical Anesthesiology, Biomedical Engineering mcanness@uci.edu
Dan M. Cooper, M.D. Professor of Pediatrics; Biomedical Engineering dcooper@uci.edu
Robert Corn, Ph.D. Professor of Chemistry; Biomedical Engineering rcorn@uci.edu
Carl W. Cotman, Ph.D. Professor of Neurology; Biomedical Engineering; Neurobiology and Behavior cwcotman@uci.edu
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Nancy A. Da Silva, Ph.D. Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science; Biomedical Engineering ndasilva@uci.edu
Hamid Djalilian, M.D. Professor of Otolaryngology; Biomedical Engineering hdjalili@uci.edu
James Earthman, Ph.D. Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science; Biomedical Engineering earthman@uci.edu
Aaron P. Esser-Kahn, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Chemistry; Biomedical Engineering; Chemical Engineering and Materials Science aesserka@uci.edu
Ranjan Gupta, Ph.D. Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery; Anatomy and Neurobiology; Biomedical Engineering ranjang@uci.edu
Frank P. Hsu, M.D. Department Chair and Professor of Neurological Surgery; Biomedical Engineering; Otolaryngology fpkhsu@uci.edu
Christopher Hughes, Ph.D. Director of Edwards Lifesciences Cardiovascular Technology Center and Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry; Biomedical Engineering cchughes@uci.edu
James V. Jester, Ph.D. Professor in Residence, Ophthalmology; Biomedical Engineering jjester@uci.edu
Gregory R. Evans, M.D. Professor of Surgery; Biomedical Engineering gevans@uci.edu
Lisa Flanagan-Monuki, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Neurology; Biomedical Engineering lflanaga@uci.edu
Ron Frostig, Ph.D. Professor of Neurobiology and Behavior; Biomedical Engineering rfrostig@uci.edu
John P. Fruehauf, M.D. Professor of Medicine; Biological Chemistry; Biomedical Engineering; Pharmaceutical Sciences jfruehau@uci.edu
Steven P. Gross, Ph.D. Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology; Biomedical Engineering; Physics and Astronomy sgross@uci.edu
Zhibin Guan, Ph.D. Professor of Chemistry; Biomedical Engineering zguan@uci.edu
Gultekin Gulsen, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Radiological Sciences; Biomedical Engineering; Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Physics and Astronomy ggulsen@uci.edu
Joyce H. Keyak, Ph.D. Professor in Residence of Radiological Sciences; Biomedical Engineering; Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering jhkeyak@uci.edu
Baruch D. Kuppermann, M.D. Professor of Ophthalmology; Biomedical Engineering bdkupper@uci.edu
Young Jik Kwon, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences; Biomedical Engineering; Chemical Engineering and Materials Science; Molecular Biology and Biochemistry kwonyj@uci.edu
Jonathan Lakey, Ph.D. Professor of Surgery; Biomedical Engineering jlakey@uci.edu
Arthur D. Lander, Ph.D. Donald Bren Professor and Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology; Biomedical Engineering; Logic and Philosophy of Science; Pharmacology adlander@uci.edu
Richard H. Lathrop, Ph.D. Professor of Computer Science; Biomedical Engineering rickl@uci.edu
Thay Q. Lee, Ph.D. Professor in Residence of Orthopaedic Surgery; Biomedical Engineering; Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation tqlee@uci.edu
Guann-Pyng Li, Ph.D. Director of the UCI Division of Calit2, Director of the Integrated Nanosystems Research Facility and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Biomedical Engineering; Chemical Engineering and Materials Science gpli@uci.edu
Shin Lin, Ph.D. Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology; Biomedical Engineering shinlin@uci.edu
John Lowengrub, Ph.D. UCI Chancellor’s Professor of Mathematics; Biomedical Engineering; Chemical Engineering and Materials Science jlowengr@uci.edu
Ray Luo, Ph.D. Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry; Biomedical Engineering rluo@uci.edu
Marc J. Madou, Ph.D. UCI Chancellor’s Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Biomedical Engineering; Chemical Engineering and Materials Science mmadou@uci.edu
John Middlebrooks, Ph.D. Professor of Otolaryngology; Biomedical Engineering; Cognitive Sciences; Neurobiology and Behavior j.midd@uci.edu
Sabee Y. Molloi, Ph.D. Professor of Radiological Sciences; Biomedical Engineering; Electrical Engineering and Computer Science symolloi@uci.edu
Jogeshwar Mukherjee, Ph.D. Professor and Director, Preclinical Imaging, Radiological Sciences School of Medicine, Biomedical Engineering Professor j.mukherjee@uci.edu
J. Stuart Nelson, Ph.D. Professor of Surgery; Biomedical Engineering jsnelson@uci.edu Hung Duc Nguyen, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science; Biomedical Engineering hdn@uci.edu
Qing Nie, Ph.D. Professor of Mathematics; Biomedical Engineering qnie@math.uci.edu
Pranav Patel, M.D. Chief, Division of Cardiology; Director of Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory and Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) and Health Sciences Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine; Biomedical Engineering pranavp@uci.edu
Susanne M. Rafelski, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology; Biomedical Engineering susanner@uci.edu
David J. Reinkensmeyer, Ph.D. Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology; Biomedical Engineering; Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation dreinken@uci.edu
Phillip C-Y Sheu, Ph.D. Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Biomedical Engineering; Computer Science psheu@uci.edu
Andrei M. Shkel, Ph.D. Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Biomedical Engineering; Electrical Engineering and Computer Science ashkel@uci.edu
Zuzanna S. Siwy, Ph.D. Professor of Physics and Astronomy; Biomedical Engineering; Chemistry zsiwy@uci.edu
Ramesh Srinivasan, Ph.D. Professor of Cognitive Sciences; Biomedical Engineering r.srinivasan@uci.edu
Roger F. Steinert, M.D. Irving H. Leopold Chair in Ophthalmology and Professor of Ophthalmology; Biomedical Engineering steinert@uci.edu
Vasan Venugopalan, Sc.D. Department Chair and Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science; Biomedical Engineering; Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Surgery vvenugop@uci.edu
Szu-Wen Wang, Ph.D. Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science; Biomedical Engineering wangsw@uci.edu
H. Kumar Wickramasinghe, Ph.D. Henry Samueli Endowed Chair in Engineering and Department Chair and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Biomedical Engineering; Chemical Engineering and Materials Science hkwick@uci.edu
Brian Wong, M.D. Professor of Otolaryngology; Biomedical Engineering bjwong@uci.edu
Xiangmin Xu, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology; Biomedical Engineering; Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Microbiology and Molecular Genetics xiangmin.xu@uci.edu
Albert Fan Yee, Ph.D. Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science; Biomedical Engineering; Chemistry afyee@uci.edu
Fan-Gang Zeng, Ph.D. Director of Hearing Research and Professor of Otolaryngology; Anatomy and Neurobiology; Biomedical Engineering; Cognitive Sciences fzeng@uci.edu
Weian Zhao, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences; Biomedical Engineering weianz@uci.edu
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University of California, Irvine The Henry Samueli School of Engineering Department of Biomedical Engineering 3120 Natural Sciences II Irvine, CA 92697-2715
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Invest in a brilliant future. Be a BME supporter As we embark on the journey toward our centennial, we invite you to invest in the future of UC Irvine and biomedical engineering. It is through private donations like yours that we can continue to provide life-enhancing research and outstanding academic programs. To find out more about supporting the advancement of the Biomedical Engineering Department, please visit us at https://ua-web.uadv.uci.edu/egiving/. If you prefer to support specific initiatives, please contact Ed Hand, assistant dean for development, at elhand@uci.edu.