Biomedical engineering

Biomedical engineers at the University of California, Davis, have created semi-living “cyborg cells.” Retaining the capabilities of living cells, but unable to replicate, the cyborg cells could have a wide range of applications, from producing therapeutic drugs to cleaning up pollution.

A groundbreaking approach to treating spina bifida in developing babies combining fetal surgery with stem cells at UC Davis Health received research assistance from Biomedical Engineering Professor Aijun Wang.

Biomedical Engineering Assistant Professor Randy Carney has received the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development, or NSF CAREER, Award.   The CAREER program offers the foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as academic role models and lead advances in the mission of their department. 

Alzheimer’s is a disease without a clear diagnostic test nor a cure. However, researchers are developing new techniques and methods every day and in Professor Aijun Wang’s Lab at UC Davis, Biomedical Engineering graduate students Leora Goldbloom-Helzner and David Wang are exploring potential diagnoses and treatments for Alzheimer’s patients using extracellular vesicles.

For Joseph Morrison, a graduating senior in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, or BME, this Saturday’s commencement ceremony is just the beginning of his educational journey. After graduation, he plans on earning his MD and Ph.D., which will take him eight to nine years.

The UC Davis College of Engineering welcomed six new faculty members to campus this fall, for a total of nine in 2022. Their arrival strengthens the college’s expertise in teaching and research in aerodynamics, bioinstrumentation, molecular dynamics, public transportation and bio-integrated electronics.

Giving students hands-on learning experiences has been a pillar of the College of Engineering for decades. Thanks to support from donors from the 2022 Give Day, it is sure to continue for decades to come. Give Day is a 29-hour online fundraiser held every year in conjunction with UC Davis Picnic Day. This past Give Day the university raised a record-breaking $4.1 million from more than 5,000 gifts to support colleges and departments across the university.

A new center that stands to transform surgical procedures and brain monitoring on a national scale using light-based, artificial intelligence-informed technologies is now part of UC Davis thanks to the efforts of an interdisciplinary team led by Laura Marcu, professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Bangyan Huang, a second-year doctoral student at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, was recently awarded first place in the 2022 Christopher J. Thompson Best Student Paper Award for his oral presentation “Statistical Image Reconstruction of Positron Lifetime via Time-Weighting (SIMPLE).” Huang received the award at the IEEE Medical Imaging Conference, which was held both online and in Milan, Italy in November 2022.

The UC Davis Office of Research celebrated an unprecedented milestone in university history on Nov. 1, bringing together changemakers and leaders from across the campus and the University of California system to acknowledge surpassing $1 billion in research funding. Four College of Engineering faculty members were among a select group of featured speakers invited to share their most bold and grand visions.