Housed at the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research (QB3) on the Mission Bay Campus, the program also hosts the Joint Graduate Group in Bioengineering (JGGB) at UCSF and UC Berkeley.

In addition to their cutting-edge work in biomedical imaging, researchers in the bioengineering program are:

• designing new molecules and genes to deliver drugs and other therapies
• developing new tissues to replace damaged tissue in the body
• creating computational models of complex biological systems
• examining the interactions between neural elements and external devices
• inventing new light and electron technologies for looking at cell and molecular structures
• engineering new sensors to evaluate normal and abnormal physiology
• fine tuning computer-aided simulations to be used in invasive procedures, such as robotic surgery and hyperthermia.

An important part of bioengineering research is to enable, link and integrate other disciplines, programs and individual research efforts across the Parnassus, Mission Bay and other UCSF campuses.

Tools For Understanding Biology

"The biological and medical worlds have large quantities of complex information available to them right now," Dr. Nelson says. "The challenge is figuring out what we do with all that information. How do we divide it up to understand its critical components? Bioengineering is important for that challenge, because it allows us to apply quantitative tools for understanding biology and developing new therapies that are targeted at specific biological processes."

Many of the scientists that are involved in bioengineering research at UCSF have their academic home in clinical departments. This provides a unique opportunity to integrate cutting-edge technology into clinical and translational research.

The program is part of the Department of Radiology and currently offers four areas of research:

• Cellular and Molecular Engineering
• Therapeutic Bioengineering
• Neurological Engineering
• Biological and Medical Imaging.

New faculty members that have recently been recruited into the Program are Mats Gustaffson and Tejal Desai. Further recruitments are underway, including one that has been assigned directly to bioengineering and others that represent collaborative efforts with other programs and departments.

The close collaboration with the Department of Bioengineering at UC Berkeley allows ready access to the facilities and expertise in the College of Engineering that includes not only the joint Graduate Group but also a large undergraduate program.

Source: Susan Davis