Newsletter - Summer/Fall 2017

Riverside, Ca –

Dear Colleagues:

The Department of Bioengineering (BIEN)

at the University of California, Riverside, turned a new page in 2016, when we started a phase of growth and revitalization. As you can see in this issue of our newsletter, we have added 5 new faculty members (4 started in July, 2017 and one starting in July, 2018), and we will continue our faculty recruiting efforts in 2017-2018. We have also seen a major surge in NIH research funding and our faculty are publishing in prominent journals in our field. Furthermore, our students are gaining recognitions from our peers. We are proud to highlight these exciting news with you and hope you enjoy reading this newsletter.

Regards,

Xiaoping Hu, PhD
Chair, UCR Bioengineering
Provost Fellow

Visit Bioengineering Home

New Faculty

Four faculty members joined the department during the summer (from left: Dr. Justin Chartron, Dr. Kevin Freedman, Dr. Joshua Morgan, Dr. Megan Peters). Dr. Jia Guo (far right) will arrive in 2018.

Bioengineering welcomes five assistant professors

This summer marked the arrival of new members to the department. The new faculty augment the department's research areas of biomaterials & regenerative medicine, biomedical imaging, computational bioengineering, molecular & cellular engineering, and neuroengineering.

Dr. Justin Chartron investigates how proteins assemble into elaborate machines. This allows his group to design and produce new protein-derived materials, enzymes, and therapeutics.
Dr. Kevin Freedman designs, characterizes, and employs micro/nanotechnology for studying single cells and single molecules, often through the integration of novel fabrication techniques, nanomaterials, and transport phenomenon.
Dr. Joshua Morgan uses synthetic and natural polymers to build tissue-scale models of aging tissue. This allows his group to better understand and address tissue degeneration with age.
Dr. Megan Peters uses neuroimaging, computational models, neural networks, and machine learning to understand how the brain represents and uses information.
Dr. Jia Guo, who will arrive on campus in July of 2018, will develop magnetic resonance imaging techniques.

Bioengineering Faculty Receive Extramural Funding

Professor Dimitrios Morikis received a four-year, $1.5 millon grant (R01) from the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health to discover biomarkers for age-related macular degeneration. This work will be performed in collaboration with fellow Bioengineering faculty members Dr. Kaustabh Ghosh, Dr. Valentine Vullev, and Dr. Hyle park.

Assistant Professor Kaustabh Ghosh and his collaborators at Case Western Reserve University received a five-year, $1.9 million grant (R01) from the National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health to understand the role of retinal capillary stiffness in diabetic retinopathy.

Professor Bahman Anvari and his collaborators at Radoptics LLC and colleagues at City of Hope have received a $270,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institutes of Health for the project "Erythrocyte-derived optical nano-probes for image-guided identification of tumor margins and cancer resection."

Corporate Collaborations

Associate Professor B. Hyle Park and colleagues Amir Kashani and Mark Humayun of the University of Southern California recieved $800,000 in research funding from Santen, Inc. for hyperspectral imaging of the retina.

Professor Dimitrios Morikis has established a one-year research collaboration with Achillion Pharmaceuticals on computational studies of the complement system.

Associate Professor Jiayu Liao is collaborating with Biomiga and Allele Biotechnology.

Noteworthy Publications

	Professor Hu’s group published a paper in the journal The Cerebellum, describing a new atlas of the dentate nucleus of the cerebellum derived from MRI images. The publication is: He N, Langley J, Huddleston DE, Ling H, Xu H, Liu C, Yan F, Hu XP: Improved Neuroimaging Atlas of the Dentate Nucleus. The Cerebellum 2017

A complete list of publications from the Bioengineering Department is available here

Faculty Honors & Awards

Assistant Professor Kaustabh Ghosh was appointed to the editorial board of the journal Scientific Reports, part of the Springer Nature Publishing Group.

Dr. Ghosh received the 2017-18 UC Regents Faculty Development Award.

Dr. Ghosh was also highlighted as a "Featured Scientist" by the BrightFocus Foundation.

Professor Dimitrios Morikis was appointed as Editor-in-Chief to the journal BMC Biophysics, part of Springer Nature Publishing Group.

Dr. Morikis and his research group were recognized for their issued patent on novel compstatin analogs for the treatment of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases by UCR's Research and Economic Development Office and EPIC (Entrepreneurial Proof of Concept and Innovation Center) in a ceremony for UCR patents issued in 2016-2017.

Associate Professor Jiayu Liao has been invited to be a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Huaxi Hospital, China. The appointment is associated with RMB 5 million in funding.

Assistant Professor William Grover received the2017 Distinguished Teaching Award from the UCR Bourns College of Engineering.

Dr. Grover received a grant from the Frank G. and Janice B. Delfino Agricultural Technology Research Initiative in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at UC Riverside. Dr. Grover will be working with Prof. Hollis Woodard of the UCR Department of Entomology developing tools to accelerate research on bumblebees.

Student Achievements

	Senior Design Team Mantis received the first place award at the 18th Annual University of California Systemwide Bioengineering symposium.
	Zhehao Xiong and Dieanira Erudaitius received awards for their research presentations at the 18th Annual University of California Systemwide Bioengineering symposium.
	Reed Harrison, a Ph.D. student in the Morikis Lab, has received a University of California President's Dissertation Year Fellowship for the 2017/2018 academic year.
	Bioengineering alumnus Devin McBride (Rodgers Lab) accepted an Assistant Professor position at the University of Texas Medical Health Science Center.
	Heran Bhakta (Grover Lab) completed a summer internship at Illumina in San Diego.
	Rohith Mohan (Morikis Lab) completed a summer internship at Biogen in Boston.
	Vipul Madahar and George Way (Liao Lab) completed six month internships at the Chinese National Compound Library/National Drug Screening Center of China.

Recent PhD Graduates

Over the summer, five Ph.D. students successfully defended their research theses. These include:

Ph.D. students

Dieanira Erudaitius, Advisor: Dr. Victor Rodgers

Erica Freeman, Advisor: Dr. Anupama Dahanukar

Karen Low, Advisor: Dr. Jin Nam

Junchao Wang, Advisor: Dr. William Grover

Cheyann Wetteland, Advisor: Dr. Huinan Liu