News Releases from 2020
10 Jacobs School Faculty Named in 2020 List of Highly Cited Researchers
Ten professors at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering are among the world’s most influential researchers in their fields, according to a new research citation report from the Web of Science Group. The professors, Ludmil Alexandrov, Trey Ideker, Rob Knight, Nathan E. Lewis, Prashant Mali, Ying Shirley Meng, Bernhard O. Palsson, Joseph Wang, Kun Zhang and Liangfang Zhang, are amone 52 professors and researchers at UC San Diego named in the prestigious list of Highly Cited Researchers in 2020. Full Story
UC San Diego nanoengineer Liangfang Zhang inducted into National Academy of Inventors
Liangfang Zhang, professor of nanoengineering and director of the chemical engineering program at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, has been named a 2020 fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Zhang is recognized for his revolutionary work in the field of nanomedicine, which focuses on nanomaterials for medical applications. He invented a way to make nanoparticles perform therapeutic tasks in the body without being rejected by the immune system. Full Story
UC San Diego and LINK-J Seminar Series
UC San Diego professor Nicole Steinmetz and Kyoto University professor Yasuhiko Tabata will discuss the latest trends in nanoengineering and drug delivery technologies at this joint webinar on December 18, 2020 between UC San Diego and LINK-J. Full Story
Virus-like probes could help make rapid COVID-19 testing more accurate, reliable
Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed new and improved probes, known as positive controls, that could make it easier to validate rapid, point-of-care diagnostic tests for COVID-19 across the globe. The advance could help expand testing to low-resource, underserved areas. Full Story
Start-up receives up to $15 M to develop nanoparticle therapy for sepsis licensed from UC San Diego
San Diego-based Cellics Therapeutics, which was co-founded by UC San Diego nanoengineering Professor Liangfang Zhang, has received an award of up to $15 M from Boston-based accelerator CARB-X to develop a macrophage cellular nanosponge—nanoparticles cloaked in the cell membranes of macrophages—designed to treat sepsis. Full Story
Nanoengineers, radiologists work toward immunotherapy for liver cancer
A team of nanoengineers and interventional radiologists at UC San Diego and the VA San Diego Healthcare System received a $575,000 grant from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) to develop a new method to treat liver cancer by combining ablation—a treatment to destroy tumors—with an immunotherapy derived from a plant virus. Full Story
Nanoengineering and chemical engineering at UC San Diego in the spotlight
A creative group of faculty, students and staff within the University of California San Diego are taking innovative approaches to develop breakthroughs in nanomedicine, flexible electronics, and energy storage. Together, this group makes up the Department of NanoEngineering and the Chemical Engineering Program at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. A virtual issue of the journal ACS Nano highlights the wide ranging research, educational and workforce-development contributions of this extraordinary group. Full Story
A nanomaterial path forward for COVID-19 vaccine development
From mRNA vaccines entering clinical trials, to peptide-based vaccines and using molecular farming to scale vaccine production, the COVID-19 pandemic is pushing new and emerging nanotechnologies into the frontlines and the headlines. Nanoengineers at UC San Diego detail the current approaches to COVID-19 vaccine development, and highlight how nanotechnology has enabled these advances, in a review article in Nature Nanotechnology published July 15. Full Story
Nature Nanotechnology webinar with Nicole Steinmetz
Watch this Nature Nanotechnology webinar with Nicole Steinmetz, UC San Diego nanoengineering professor. She discusses how nanotechnology can contribute to COVID-19 research. Full Story
NIH grant to bioprint nanoparticles for ovarian cancer immunotherapy
Nanoengineers at UC San Diego received a five-year, $2.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop an immunotherapy for ovarian cancer using plant virus nanoparticles. The particles will be produced using 3D-bioprinting, enabling them to be released at specified intervals, instead of a continuous slow release. Full Story
Nanosponges Could Intercept Coronavirus Infection
Nanoparticles cloaked in human lung cell membranes and human immune cell membranes can attract and neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 virus in cell culture, causing the virus to lose its ability to hijack host cells and reproduce. Instead of targeting the virus itself, these nanosponges, developed by engineers at UC San Diego, are designed to protect the healthy cells the virus invades. Full Story
Virtual Q&A: nanotech and COVID-19
The journal Nature Nanotechnology is hosting an online Q&A session with Nicole Steinmetz, UC San Diego nanoengineering professor, and Ronit Satchi-Fainaro, Tel Aviv University professor. Nicole and Ronit will present their work on COVID-19 and discuss how nanotechnology can contribute to COVID-19 research. The event is Wednesday June 17, 2020 from 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM. Full Story
I'm gonna contribute to the revolution of the pharmaceutical world
When Qiangzhe “Oliver” Zhang was still a high school student in China applying to colleges in the United States, UC San Diego’s chemical engineering program at Jacobs School of Engineering was at the top of his list. “I knew they had this very new, very innovative nanoengineering program,” he said. “It’s one of a kind, and that got me really excited.” Now, almost eight years later, Zhang is working at the leading edge of biomedical research under Liangfang Zhang in the Nanomaterials and Nanomedicine Laboratory, developing new technologies that could completely change how scientists combat viruses like HIV and SARS-CoV-2 Full Story
Marrying molecular farming and advanced manufacturing to develop a COVID-19 vaccine
UC San Diego nanoengineers received a Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant from the National Science Foundation to develop—using a plant virus—a stable, easy to manufacture COVID-19 vaccine patch that can be shipped around the world and painlessly self-administered by patients. Full Story
'Decoy' nanoparticles can block HIV and prevent infection
Flipping the standard viral drug targeting approach on its head, engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a promising new “nanosponge” method for preventing HIV from proliferating in the body: coating polymer nanoparticles with the membranes of T helper cells and turning them into decoys to intercept viral particles and block them from binding and infiltrating the body’s actual immune cells. Full Story
Part 2: Treating Cancer with Plant Viruses: A Conversation with Nicole Steinmetz
In this second episode of Stories from the NNI featuring UC San Diego nanoengineering professor Nicole Steinmetz, she describes her work using plant virus-based nanoparticles to train the immune system to fight cancer. Full Story
Treating Cancer with Plant Viruses: A Conversation with Nicole Steinmetz
In this episode of Stories from the NNI, nanoengineering professor Nicole Steinmetz at UC San Diego describes her work using plant virus-based nanoparticles to train the immune system to fight cancer, as well as for targeted delivery of pesticides to improve plant health. Steinmetz also discusses the mission of the Center for Nano-ImmunoEngineering at UC San Diego, for which she serves as the director. Full Story
Controlling CAR T cells with light selectively destroys skin tumors in mice
UC San Diego bioengineers have developed a control system that could make CAR T-cell therapy safer and more powerful when treating cancer. By programming CAR T cells to switch on when exposed to blue light, the researchers controlled the cells to destroy skin tumors in mice without harming healthy tissue. Full Story