Newsletter
of the Whitaker Institute of Biomedical Engineering
University of California, San Diego October 2001 Vol. 8, No. 2

Announcements

Dr. John West, professor of medicine and physiology, and Dr. Charles Zuker, professor of biology and neurosciences, were elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Membership in the academy recognizes people who have made significant contributions to their fields and professions.

Dr. Bernhard Palsson, Professor of Bioengineering, gave the Bayer Lecture at University of California, Berkeley on September 26, 2001. The Bayer Lectures were created to support an annual lectureship in subjects related to molecular and cellular biology and biotechnology. The title of Dr. Palsson’s lecture was The Phase Transition from In Vivo to In Silico Biology.

Dr. Shu Chien gave the Distinguished Lecture in Biomedical Engineering at Stanford University on June 4, 2001, and he has been elected the Chair of the National Organizing Committee of the XXXVth International Union of Physiological Congress to be held in San Diego from March 31 to April 5, 2005. Dr. Chien will give the Zweifach Memorial Lecture, which was established to honor UCSD Bioengineering co-founder Dr. Benjamin Zweifach, at the City College of New York on October 1, 2001.

Industrial Advisory Board Meting: The WIBE Industrial Advisory Board meeting will be held on October 19, 2001 at 7:30 a.m. in SERF 232. The Industrial Advisory Board is composed of representatives from companies participating in the Industrial Affiliates Program. It meets, approximately every quarter during the academic year, with faculty members and graduate student representatives to foster academia-industry cooperation. The activities include the planning of the Annual Symposia, planning and implementation of the internship program, discussions on future developments of biomedical engineering at UCSD, providing input to undergraduate and graduate curricula, and supporting student interactions with industry.

Graduate student Per Jambeck together with Cynthia Gibas wrote a book on Bioinformatics. The title of the book is "Developing Bioinformatics Computer Skills". The book is a practical introduction to the developing field of bioinformatics. The book will help biologists, researchers, and students develop a structured approach to biological data and the computer tools they will need to analyze it. The book covers the Unix file system, building tools and databases for bioinformatics, computational approaches to biological problems, an introduction to Perl for bioinformatics, data mining, data visualization, and tips for tailoring data analysis software to individual research needs.

MRU Proposal. The Proposal to Establish a Multicampus Research Unit (MRU) on Bioengineering in the entire UC system has been reviewed by the Committee on Research and the Graduate Council and received enthusiastic endorsement of both units of the UCSD Academic Senate. This proposal will be reviewed next by the Committee on Planning and Budget in the Fall. If approved there, this proposal will be submitted to the University of California for review by the various campuses.

U.S. News & World Report magazine survey ranked UCSD #2 in Bioengineering in 2002 in their special issue of "America's Best Colleges" (Sept 17, 2001). The rankings are 1-Johns Hopkins; 2-University of California, San Diego (UCSD); 3-Duke; 4/5-Case Western and MIT) More information is available at the website www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/engineering/phd/biomed.htm.

Peter D. Wagner, M.D., Professor of Medicine & Bioengineering, gave the J. Burns Amberson Lecture at the 2001 ATS annual meeting, May 19-23. The title of the talk was: Exercise limitation in cardiopulmonary disease: molecular, mathematical and physiological perspectives.

The Department of Bioengineering received a 5-year $1,501,303 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant with Dr. Geert Schmid-Schönbein as the Principal Investigator. The title of the proposal is “Microvascular Injury and Pancreatic Enzyme Products”. This research, in collaboration with Dr. Tony Hugli at the La Jolla Institute for Molecular Medicine, is directed to examine the mechanims for organ failure in physiological shock due to the action of pancreatic digestive enzymes.

Dr. Schmid-Schonbein was also awarded a 5-year NIH Program Project Grant (PPG) entitled “Biomechanics of the Heart, Vessels, and Blood Cells”. The award amount for the first year is 1,593,745. The project leaders are Drs. Schmid-Schönbein, Shu Chien, Yuan-Cheng Fung, Jeff Omens, and Amy Lanping Sung. The core directors are Drs. Schönbein, Robert L-Y Sah, and Shunuchi Usami. This research program is aimed at elucidating the roles of different biomechanical forces in modulating the function of cardiovascular cells, the microcirculation, blood vessels, and the heart.