life sciences and healthcare News
Stanford engineers invent process to accelerate protein evolution
Monday, December 7, 2015
A new tool enables researchers to test millions of mutated proteins in a matter of hours or days, speeding the search for new medicines, industrial enzymes and biosensors.
New 'tricorder' technology might be able to 'hear' tumors growing
Monday, November 9, 2015
A new technology has promise to safely find buried plastic explosives and maybe even spot fast-growing tumors. The technique involves the clever interplay of microwaves and ultrasound to develop a detector like the Star Trek tricorder.
Bioengineering Professor Karl Deisseroth awarded $3 million Breakthrough Prize for work in optogenetics
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Three Stanford professors honored by Breakthrough Prize Foundation
Stanford engineers help discover the surprising trick jellyfish use to swim
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
A Stanford-led team shows how these ancient creatures' undulating motions cause water to pull them along. This counterintuitive insight could spur new designs for energy-efficient underwater craft.
New Bioengineering Major culminated department’s evolution
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Stanford has added a permanent undergraduate training program to this new field “at the interface of life sciences and engineering.”
Microfluidic pioneer Stephen Quake receives award in biotechnology and medicine
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Brandeis University bestows the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award in Biotechnology and Medicine on the Stanford bioengineer whose analyses using microscopic amounts of fluids are providing new medical insights.
Seven scientists awarded grants for high-risk, high-return research
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
The awards are designed to encourage scientists to pursue creative research projects with the potential of leading to big improvements in health care.
Stanford researchers genetically engineer yeast to produce opioids
Thursday, August 13, 2015
It typically takes a year to produce hydrocodone from plants, but Christina Smolke and colleagues have genetically modified yeast to make it in just a few days. The technique could improve access to medicines in impoverished nations, and later be used to develop treatments for other diseases.
NIST workshop at Stanford mulls ‘weights and measures’ for biotechnology
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Researchers from academia, industry and government launch effort to define standards for using bits and pieces of molecular biomachinery to create things such as vaccines, drugs and biosensors.
Beth Pruitt elected a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Friday, April 10, 2015
In an interdisciplinary blend of engineering and medicine, Pruitt seeks to detect and measure the minute forces generated by living cells.
Stanford team invents sensor that uses radio waves to detect subtle changes in pressure
Friday, October 10, 2014
Device is used to monitor brain pressure in lab mice as prelude to possible use with human patients; future applications of this pressure-sensing technology could lead to touch-sensitive “skin” for prosthetic devices.
Stanford engineers developing miniature wireless device to create better way of studying chronic pain
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
A team of Stanford engineers is creating a small wireless device that will improve studies of chronic pain. The engineers hope to use what they learn to develop better therapies for the condition, which costs the economy $600 billion a year.
Stanford researchers take a step toward developing a ‘universal’ flu vaccine
Monday, December 16, 2013
Stanford engineers are working to create a flu vaccine that could be produced more quickly and offer broader protection than what is available today.
Stanford Bioengineering Assistant Professor Honored by White House
Monday, June 17, 2013
Drew Endy named an Open Science Champion of Change.
Getting CLARITY: Hydrogel process developed at Stanford creates transparent brain
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Stanford bioengineers have transformed an intact, post-mortem mouse brain into a transparent three-dimensional structure that keeps all the fine wiring and molecular structures in place. Known as CLARITY, the technique stands to transform our understanding of the brain and indeed of any biological tissue.
President Obama's new $100 million brain research initiative taps several Stanford scientists
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
The Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) project, which calls for initial federal funding of $100 million, will make use of several innovative technologies invented by Stanford scientists.
Biological transistor enables computing within living cells
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
A team of Stanford University bioengineers has taken computing beyond mechanics and electronics into the living realm of biology. They have developed a biological transistor made from genetic material — DNA and RNA. The team calls its invention the “transcriptor.”
A high-resolution endoscope as thin as a human hair
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Engineers at Stanford have developed a prototype single-fiber endoscope that improves the resolution of these much-sought-after instruments fourfold over existing designs. The advance could lead to an era of needle-thin, minimally invasive endoscopes able to view features out of reach of today’s instruments.
Stanford scientist joins call for major brain research project
Monday, March 11, 2013
Stanford Professor Karl Deisseroth joins a super-team of scientists to propose the Brain Activity map, a collaborative initiative akin to the Human Genome Project, to better understand how the brain works.
Fellowship student Paurakh Rajbhandary advancing medical imaging
Monday, February 4, 2013
Paurakh Rajbhandary, the Brion Founders Graduate Fellow in the School of Engineering, discusses how he is using his fellowship to study medical imaging.
Graduate Fellow Christy Amwake tackles debilitating diseases
Monday, February 4, 2013
Christy Amwake, the Magda Hammam Fellow in the School of Engineering, discusses how her fellowship has freed her to study cures for debilitating diseases.
The 30-year story behind one cancer drug
Monday, January 14, 2013
Vismodegib—also know by its brand name Erivedge—is the first class of drugs that treats inoperable basal cell carcinomas by inhibiting one of the key regulators in human development: the hedgehog molecular signaling pathway. Bioengineer Matthew Scott was a key player in the history of hedgehog gene research.
Stanford researchers develop acrobatic space rovers to explore moons and asteroids
Sunday, December 30, 2012
An autonomous system for exploring the solar system's smaller members, such as moons and asteroids, could bring us closer to a human mission to Mars.
Summer in Shanghai
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Michael Si spent a memorable summer in Shanghai with Stanford's China Internship Program developing new skills and making new friends.
Bioengineers induce, relieve depression symptoms in mice using light
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Researchers at Stanford have pinpointed well-defined types of neurons within a specific brain region to directly tie them to the control of several symptoms of major depressive illness. Using optogenetics they can turn the symptoms on and off using light. The findings provided a much more detailed understanding of the brain circuitry of depression and could lead to concepts that help people suffering from depression.
