Two M.D./Ph.D. students with a biomedical engineering focus have been awarded grants from the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine. The grants support leading-edge research aimed at improving patient care and advancing health equity.
When biomedical engineering students walked into a room full of clinicians at UC Davis Health, they carried two medical device prototypes. One was an alum’s late-night sketch, while the other was theirs. What unfolded in that room over several hours became the basis for First Bite, a medical device designed to safely secure breathing tubes for infants.
Development engineers and a biomedical engineering graduate student from the University of California, Davis, were part of a study granting scientists a rare glimpse into how the human brain navigates space. This research could be the foundation of future treatments for debilitating conditions like dementia.
Led by the UC Davis Department of Computer Science, the AI for Health Initiative will connect researchers and clinicians across disciplines to advance responsible AI use in medicine, support student training and strengthen partnerships with UC Davis Health.
UC Davis researcher Rich Whittle joined an international team aboard a parabolic flight to study how microgravity affects blood flow to protect astronauts during long-duration space missions.
As part of their senior design project, five biomedical engineering students developed First Bite, a medical device that includes headgear and an external guard with a built-in adjustable cable to hold the endotracheal tube in place.
In its first year, the UCOP Early Career Faculty Research Excellence Awards seek to advance the university’s commitment to the scholarship and creative activity of early career faculty across all 10 UC campuses. Engineering professors Hyoyoung Jeong and Jie Zheng help make up the inaugural cohort.
UC Davis researchers have received a nearly $4 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to develop the world’s first standardized method for measuring and describing the neurotoxicity of nanoplastics inhaled as part of air pollution.
Professor of Biomedical Engineering Aijun Wang co-leads a $4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to test a bioengineered graft infused with molecules to treat neuropathic bladders of children with spina bifida or spinal cord injuries.
Clinicians and engineers at the University of California, Davis, are collaborating on AI-driven tools to analyze vast digital archives of brain tissue scans — work that cannot be done at scale by humans alone — to better understand dementia and improve diagnosis and treatment.
