Category Archives: BioEngineering

Los Angeles has a well-earned reputation as a world center for arts and entertainment but thats just one part of the picture according to Paul Weiss, UCLA distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry. He told a downtown Los Angeles audience that he believes that the same restless creative energy also drives the research community on campus.

Weiss was speaking as part of a new collaboration between UCLA and MindshareLA; that partnership is a key component of UCLAs commitment to share the knowledge its scholars are creating with people in communities beyond Westwood. The night served as the kickoff for a yearlong, four-event series, called Vision 2020.

We have this pressure on us here that if youre not doing something a little crazy and going out on a limb, youre not doing your job, said Weiss, a member and former director of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. Its a very different environment than the typical conservative academic places that many of us have seen in our training.

Weiss, who also is a distinguished professor of bioengineering and of materials science and engineering, relates this atmosphere of ingenuity and freedom to the sometimes-surprising collaborations hes part of as a nanoscientist, connecting with everyone from neuroscientists to transplant surgeons.

The potential of interdisciplinary work involving nanoscience explorations at the scale of billionths of a meter was a theme that cropped up repeatedly during It Came from Nanospace , an evening of presentations and hands-on experiences produced by UCLA and MindshareLA. Weiss was among four from UCLA who were featured in the Feb. 1 event at the Cross Campus office space in downtown Los Angeles, to a crowd of about 275 attendees.

Weiss, who holds a UC Presidential Chair and is founding editor-in-chief of the journal ACS Nano, shared highlights of his own activities as a leader in his field, from his work while at IBM on a microscope capable of imaging individual atoms to his involvement with ambitious public research initiatives launched during the Obama era. He also discussed the part that nanoscience itself an interdisciplinary field encompassing chemistry, physics, engineering and more is playing in tackling problems in other fields.

It Came from Nanospace began with a presentation by Adam Stieg, a UCLA research scientist and an associate director of CNSI. He provided a brief and engaging history of computing, leading up to a new paradigm hes exploring in his own research with UCLA distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry James Gimzewski: nanoscale devices physically and functionally modeled after certain aspects of the human brain. Potential future devices based on this approach wouldnt separate processing and memory, as contemporary computers do, and as a result are expected to operate with much greater energy efficiency.

Stieg noted that such interdisciplinary work fits naturally with nanoscience.

As much as nano is a thing of scale it absolutely is it ultimately becomes something of thinking, where we have to think differently about what we expect, because things dont behave as we would expect them to at the smallest of scales, he said.

We need to expect to see the unexpected, he continued, and to think creatively about how to leverage and harness these unique properties, and in many cases that requires talking across disciplines that we normally wouldnt.

Marc Roseboro/UCLA

Attendees enjoy the It Came from Nanospace event, which combined presentations and hands-on experiences in downtown Los Angeles.

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After a musical interlude, the attendees heard from Clarice Aiello, UCLA assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and a member of CNSI. She discussed her investigations into the quantum behavior behind chemical sensors in nature such as those that underlie birds ability to use faint signals from Earths magnetic field to guide their migration.

The question that my group and other groups are trying to answer is, Can quantum physics be established or refuted to account for relevant biological phenomena, and importantly be manipulated and controlled for technological and therapeutic advantage? said Aiello, who leads the Quantum Biology Tech Lab at UCLA, known as QuBIT.

She spoke about recent discoveries about cryptochrome, a protein found in the retinas of birds that is believed to be the key to their magnetic sense. She also provided examples of potential applications for knowledge about these kinds of quantum-based biochemical reactions: drugs that protect from the harmful effects of radiation, magnetic therapies that correct metabolic disorders and quantum computers that work at room temperature instead of requiring extreme cold.

Aiello echoed the importance of collaborations across scientific fields.

I really think that by joining forces we can actually solve a lot of more-interesting problems than if we are just restricted to our own disciplines, she said.

Attendees also enjoyed musical performances and hands-on experiences such as Noise Aquarium, an art installation by Victoria Vesna, professor of design media arts and director of the UCLA Art|Sci Center, which is a collaboration between the design media arts department in the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture and CNSI.

The interactive installation provided participants with an immersive virtual reality trip beneath the oceans surface, where they had close encounters with enlarged projections of plankton collectively the largest source of oxygen in our atmosphere and experienced the underwater noise pollution that results from human activities such as sonar navigation and fracking.

A collaboration involving artists and scientists in Vienna, the installation uses three-dimensional scans of the microscopic plankton, as well as actual sounds recorded in the ocean. Noise Aquarium, which evolved from a linear video that has been presented to audiences around the globe, is meant to bring awareness to issues such as climate change and pollution.

MindshareLA is an event series and mecca for entrepreneurs, designers, technologists and other creative, forward-thinking Angelenos seeking inspiration and connection. It has hosted 150 events and spawned numerous successful companies and countless relationships.

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Bruins go to downtown Los Angeles to share the big potential of the very small - UCLA Newsroom

Genetically modified diamondback moths designed to wipe out wild pest populations were released in fields for the first time in New York state.

Diamondback moths are migratory pests found in the Americas, Europe, New Zealand and Southeast Asia, but especially in areas where crops can be grown yearround.

In these parts where its not too hot nor too cold are where diamondback moths cause the greatest problems, including billions of dollars in damages to cruciferous crops such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and canola. Theyre one of the most damaging insects because of their high reproduction rate and resistance to most insecticides.

To address these problems in a sustainable, environmentally friendly way, researchers have successfully genetically engineered (GE) male diamondback moths to control the pest population of their wild counterparts, according to findings published Wednesday in the journal Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology.

Theres a lot of interest in using genetically engineered insects for controlling medically important diseases, said Anthony Shelton, lead author of the study and entomology professor at Cornell Universitys College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

In agriculture, though, I think we can take the advantage of genetically engineered insects to control a major pest species.

The moths were engineered by Oxitec, a developer of insect biological control systems that is known for its modified mosquito releases to reduce mosquitoes that carry malaria or dengue fever.

When rearing the moths, developers incorporated what they call a self-limiting gene that makes female offspring die shortly after hatching.

Typically, tetracycline, an antibiotic used to suppress the gene, is included in the moths diet so that female moths can be produced as well.

However, when you want to release populations of males, you do not include tetracycline, Shelton said. So all the female larvae that are feeding on the artificial diet will die. And then youll just have thousands and thousands of males which you can release in the field.

In cabbage field studies in Geneva, New York (about 260 miles from New York City) the moths were marked with different fluorescent powders, released together, then captured in a trap. The GE moths behaved similarly to their wild counterparts in regard to factors that would determine their potential to suppress pests.

They traveled the same distance and survived roughly as much as their wild counterparts did, in a ratio of two modified insects to one wild type, which was remarkable because in previous programs the ratio was much higher, Shelton said.

The GE moths also competed equally to the wild moths for female mates. However, wild female moths that mate with GE moths will not produce viable offspring the self-limiting gene passed to offspring prevents them from surviving, leading the authors to conclude that with ongoing releases, pests can be suppressed in a targeted, sustainable way without using insecticides.

The GE moths would eventually have no one to mate with, which means they would decline as well and disappear from the environment within a few generations, the authors said. More releases would be needed to continue to suppress wild populations.

With a method that could largely reduce the amount of pests and insecticides needed to eradicate them, the potential impact for the growers and producers of those crops is huge, said Alton Sparks, an entomology professor in the University of Georgias College of Agriculture.

If this works and can be implemented, it would make my job a lot easier for this one specific group of crops, said Sparks. Ive been battling diamondback moths on crops in South Texas and here [in Georgia] for 32 years.

Shelton previously conducted greenhouse studies in which they had diamondback moths feeding on broccoli. They had similar findings regarding pest suppression and elimination, but they also had moths that were resistant to insecticides.

Though the field releases have been successful, the practice isnt that common, as its only been used on a few insects.

If the technology works, it has tremendous potential, but its a very small set of agriculture because diamondback moths only affect a very small group of crops, Sparks said.

There have been programs funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the US Food and Drug Administration that are geared toward modifying insects to fight diseases and illnesses including the ZIka virus, malaria and dengue fever.

In 2016, the FDA cleared a modified mosquito developed by Oxitec for a field trial in Florida, saying that it hadnt found any negative effect on human health or the environment.

Some of these programs have been successful: From 2013 to 2015, Oxitec released roughly 450,000 modified male mosquitoes, which reduced the overall population by about 90%.

However, modifying insects is controversial, as the long term effects are unknown.

Many experts agree that more studies are needed to determine the long term effects of genetically engineering insects and whether manipulating genes upsets natural ecological cycles.

As for concerns for human health, Shelton said that contrary to the effect of insecticides on human health and the environment, the upside for GE insects is that the process is species specific, as theyll only mate with each other.

So, its not going to affect pollinators, Shelton said. Its not going to affect biological control organisms and its not going to affect human health.

Additional, longer studies are needed to fully assess modified moths ability to suppress pests and reduce insecticide resistance.

We all live in the age of genetics, Shelton said. Whether it be looking at your family tree or genetically engineering plants, we just know so much more about the genes in insects that we can now utilize this knowledge to control the pest populations in a much more environmentally friendly way and a much more sustainable way.

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Genetically engineered moths have been released into the wild to wipe out pests - KTVZ

Registration for the second Neurological Surgery P.C. Health Science Competition (NSPC HSC), a program of the Center for Science Teaching and Learning (CSTL), is now open at http://www.cstl.org/nspc. Last year the competition drew teams from 38 Long Island high schools, and 50 prize winners shared $80,000 in score-based awards.

Created to foster interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs, applications for the 2020 competition must be received by no later than 12 p.m. on April 30. A $25 non-refundable registration fee per team applies to all entries. The NSPC HSC is available exclusively to high school teams in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The competitions finals will be held on Wednesday, May 27.

Health and science careers are in high demand. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that health care-related occupations are expected to generate 2.3 million new jobs through 2024, representing faster employment growth than any other industry.

As leaders in the medical profession, we must focus on inspiring and motivating young people to take interest in STEM education and pursue careers in health and science, Michael H. Brisman, an attending neurosurgeon and CEO of Neurological Surgery, P.C., said. This is especially important with the high demand for health care and medical science positions, locally and nationally.

Student teams will be judged in one of five categories, including behavioral sciences; biology, medicine/health; biology, microbiology/genetics; health-related biochemistry/biophysics; as well as bioengineering, computational biology.

The five first-place winners in last years competition were Feyi Rufai, of Roslyn High School, in the behavioral sciences category; Alessi Demir, of Manhasset High School, in the biology: medicine/health category; Michael Lawes, of Elmont Memorial High School, in the biology: microbiology/genetics category; Jason Sitt, of Lynbrook Senior High School, in the health-related biochemistry and biophysics category and Christopher Lu, of Great Neck North High School, in the bioengineering and computational biology category.

Each winner received a $5,500 prize. The exact breakdown of prizes can be found at http://www.cstl.org/nspc/hsc-prizes.

The young people who were part of the first competition were brilliant and inspiring, Brisman said. Their understanding of medicine and health-related subjects was impressive. These students are exactly what we need to address the high demand of STEM, health science and health care-related jobs here on Long Island and across the nation. I believe the 2020 competition will further motivate both those who participate and others.

For more information about the NSPC Health Science Competition (NSPC HSC), competition rules and deadlines, visit http://www.cstl.org/nspc or call 516-764-0045.

Submitted by the Center for Science Teaching and Learning

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Registration Opens For NSPC Health Science Competition - Long Island Weekly News

A team of Stanford and Caltech scientists attached low-power microelectronics to the undersides of jellyfish to create biohybrid robots that swim three times as fast as normal ones.

The idea is to one day allow cyborg jellyfish, equipped with sensors, to explore the vast depths of our planets oceans rather than relying on unwieldy and inefficient submarines, Scientific American reports.

In a trial, the scientists were capable of using electrical jolts from microelectronic controllers to make jellyfish swim not only faster but also more efficiently,according to a paper published in Science Advances today.

Weve shown that theyre capable of moving much faster than they normally do, without an undue cost on their metabolism, said co-author and Stanford bioengineering PhD candidate Nicole Xu, in a statement.

This reveals that jellyfish possess an untapped ability for faster, more efficient swimming, Xu added. They just dont usually have a reason to do so.

Thanks to the simplicity of the design, the electronics use orders of magnitude less external power per mass than other aquatic robots, according to the paper.

The jellyfish cyborgs could revolutionize the way we explore the mysteries of the planets oceans. To do that, the researchers are already looking to take their project a step further by adding controls, using only a few modifications to the microelectronics.

If we can find a way to direct these jellyfish and also equip them with sensors to track things like ocean temperature, salinity, oxygen levels, and so on, we could create a truly global ocean network where each of the jellyfish robots costs a few dollars to instrument and feeds themselves energy from prey already in the ocean, said lead author and Caltech mechanical engineer John Dabiri.

READ MORE: Cyborg Jellyfish Could One Day Explore the Ocean [Scientific American]

More on cyborgs: This Biohacker Conference Sounds Absolutely Outrageous

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Scientists Want to Explore Ocean With "Cyborg Jellyfish" - Futurism

New cancer immunotherapies involve extracting a patients T cells and genetically engineering them so they will recognize and attack tumors. This type of therapy is not without challenges, however. Engineering a patients T cells is laborious and expensive. And when successful, the alterations to the immune system immediately make patients very sick for a short period of time, with symptoms including fever, nausea and neurological effects.

Now, Penn researchers have demonstrated a new engineering technique that, because it is less toxic to the T cells, could enable a different mechanism for altering the way they recognize cancer, and could have fewer side effects for patients.

The technique involves ferrying messenger RNA (mRNA) across the T cells membrane via a lipid-based nanoparticle, rather than using a modified HIV virus to rewrite the cells DNA. Using the former approach would be preferable, as it only confers a temporary change to the patients immune system, but the current standard method for getting mRNA past the cell membrane can be too toxic to use on the limited number of T cells that can be extracted from a patient.

The researchers demonstrated their technique in a study published in the journalNano Letters. It was led by Michael Mitchell,Skirkanich Assistant Professor of Innovationof bioengineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Margaret Billingsley, a graduate student in his lab.

They collaborated with one of the pioneers of CAR T therapy: Carl June, the Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy and director of theCenter for Cellular Immunotherapiesin the Abramson Cancer Center and the director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the Perelman School of Medicine.

Read more at Penn Engineering.

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Penn nanoparticles are less toxic to T cells engineered for cancer immunotherapy - Penn: Office of University Communications

Indian Institute of Technology Madras is hosting the India-EMBO Symposium on 'Engineering meets evolution: Designing biological systems' from 30th January to 1st February 2020. The event brought together leading scientists, researchers, and first-stage research scholars to discuss the advances and latest research findings in the field of 'Synthetic Biology' and 'Bioengineering'.

It is jointly organised by Initiative for Biological Systems Engineering (IBSE), IIT Madras, and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO).

The aim of the India-EMBO symposium is to provide a platform to the research community for exchanging ideas, discussing challenges encountered and sharing research experiences. It focused on various aspects of bioengineering and synthetic biology, such as:

The India-EMBO symposium will help to identify the research opportunities and priorities in bioengineering and synthetic biology. The perspective of speakers over the three days from different sectors will explain the possible future scope in this field and provide information about the funding availability and ethical considerations to ensure that the research on synthetic biology will be carried out responsibly to realise its full potential.

The interaction sessions between the research scholars and the leading scientists will benefit in promoting collaborations, analysing the bottlenecks in the research fields, and the possible innovative solutions to overcome the challenges. On a concluding note, this symposium will be a potential platform that elicits confidence among research scholars to establish their career in synthetic biology.

Delivering the Keynote address on 'thinking big: engineering SynBio interventions on a global scale,'"The environmental microbiome once improved and reprogrammed with the tools of synthetic biology, can become our main ally to fight climate change," said, Dr. Victor de Lorenzo, Group Leader, Molecular Environmental Microbiology Laboratory, National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB), Spain

About EMBO:

EMBO is an organisation that comprises 1,800 active leading researchers who support excellence in life sciences. The primary goals of EMBO are to endorse talented researchers, aid in building a better research environment, and promote the exchange of scientific ideas and information.

Several contributions through short courses, workshops, conferences, and press publications support EMBO to maintain high standards of excellence in research practice.

About IIT Madras:

IIT Madras has been designated as one of the premier centres for basic and applied research, technical education, and industrial collaborations in India. The internationally recognised faculties, talented student's pool, and intensive research contribute to achieving the pre-eminent status of IIT Madras. IIT Madras houses 16 departments and a few advanced research centres in various disciplines.

About IBSE:

IBSE is an interdisciplinary group that works on developing innovative methodologies to integrate multi-omics data to understand, predict, and manipulate complex biological systems.

The research undertaken at IBSE includes the study of gene-gene and gene-host interactions in order to unravel the genotype to phenotype map that facilitates adaptation in yeast and the study of design principles for building synthetic biological parts. The students at IITM have been active participants at the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition, which is a premier competition for building synthetic biological parts.

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IIT Madras Hosts International convention on 'Synthetic Biology' - India Today