Shaochen Chen receives NSF BRITE Award to develop 3D printed microscale human organs-on-a-chip

NSF Brite Fellow Shaochen Chen of the University of California San Diego will create a nanoscale biomanufacturing platform powered by artificial intelligence that can serve as a functional, three-dimensional model of human tissues, organs and systems. This “human-on-a-chip” could transform regenerative medicine and tools for disease modeling, drug screening, environmental studies, space exploration, and other applications. 

The National Science Foundation has awarded an engineering research grant to Shaochen Chen, professor and chair of nanoengineering at the University of California San Diego, to explore 3D printed microscale human organs-on-a-chip. 

Funded through the NSF Boosting Research Ideas for Transformative and Equitable Advances in Engineering (BRITE) program, the 5-year BRITE Fellow grants provide up to $1 million per project. The NSF BRITE program is funded by NSF Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation (CMMI) in the NSF Engineering Directorate. 

"NSF created the BRITE Fellows opportunity to support proven researchers who have a high-risk vision with the potential for high reward for the Nation," said CMMI Division Director Robert Stone. "We anticipate that the research of the BRITE Fellows will create new fields, challenge current paradigms, or present unconventional approaches to intractable problems."

With funding from the NSF Brite program, Chen will create a nanoscale biomanufacturing platform powered by artificial intelligence that can serve as a functional, three-dimensional model of human tissues, organs and systems. This "human-on-a-chip" could transform regenerative medicine and tools for disease modeling, drug discovery and screening, environmental toxicity studies, and other applications.

By powering his 3D bioprinting platform with artificial intelligence, Chen aims to minimize the trial-and-error associated with the process that often leads to waste of cells and time. "This is a critical issue for bioprinting since live cells are quite expensive, difficult to acquire (think of patient cells, for example), and do not survive well outside the incubator," he said. 

The ultimate goal of the project is to fabricate a human-on-a-chip in a microfluidic platform that integrates major human tissues including heart, liver, kidney, lung, and gut, and then study the chip's biomechanics and tissue functions. 

UC San Diego Student Motorizes Bike

Do you ever find yourself hitting the snooze button over and over, and then wishing you could fly or had roller skates for feet so you could make it to class on time? James Yao, a first year Visual Arts major, solved this problem by building an electric bike.

Yao came to UC San Diego to build his bike.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for awhile, ever since I first saw electric bikes in my junior year of high school,” said Yao. “I designed the bike over the summer but I didn’t have the time or money to hire someone to machine the parts. My top two choices for schools were the University of Washington or UC San Diego, but my design wasn’t good for the rainy weather.”

When Yao arrived at UC San Diego, he asked his orientation leader about resources for makers on campus and heard about EnVision. When he saw the photos of the space on the website, he knew he could finish the project.

Yao used the 3D printers to prototype brackets for mounting his electric motor and the soldering stations to build the electronics.

According to Yao, the 3D printers provided the biggest benefit. “At first, my design didn’t work – the bracket wasn’t strong enough,” said Yao. “I was able to iterate on the design by printing versions.”

Yao’s bike goes up to 25 mph, which helps him get from Warren to his 8:00 a.m. class on the other side of Peterson Hill! Jealous? Who knows, maybe he’ll help you build one!

Curbing the HIV Epidemic: UC San Diego Students Design Low-Cost HIV Viral Load Monitoring System for Tijuana, Mexico

A group of students from the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California San Diego will spend the summer trying to curb the HIV epidemic in Tijuana, Mexico. 

Two teams from UC San Diego’s Engineering World Health (EWH) student organization and Global TIES program are combining forces this summer to bring a device they created to monitor viral load in HIV patients to a clinical setting in Tijuana, Mexico for testing. 

The teams were tasked with building a low-cost HIV monitoring device for a hospital in Mozambique. UC San Diego Health doctors Matt Strain and Davey Smith are advising both of the teams. 

“Patients in the United States on HIV therapy are tested every three to six months to make sure their treatment is still effective,” said Yajur Maker, Co-President of Engineering World Health and bioengineering undergraduate student at the Jacobs School. “This enables doctors to change the patient’s therapy if the virus has become resistant to the drugs being given.”

To establish when the virus has become resistant, the patient’s viral load or the amount of virus present in the blood, must be assessed.

“If a therapy is working, the viral load goes down,” said Maker. “If the virus has become resistant, it goes up.”

Viral load test equipment costs roughly $80,000, and $65 per test. The students from the Global TIES Open Viral Load (OVL) Team and EWH have each developed prototype viral load testing devices that cost under $2,000.  The projected cost per test is $5. 

The two teams are combining forces to take their completed devices to a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico for testing, with the help of their advisors.

EWH Team

“We’ll adopt the best components from each team’s design and incorporate them into a system that’s ready for field implementation,” said Maker.

The teams have won over $31,000 in funding this year, including the Open Viral Load and Engineering World Health systems winning first and second place respectively in the Big Ideas at Berkeley Global Health track and receiving $2,000 each from the UCSD Social Innovation Fund. 

"The Open Viral Load Team was one of two [Global TIES] teams selected for this year's Clinton Global Initiative University, said Mandy Bratton, the Executive Director for Global TIES at UC San Diego.  “We are very proud of the work these students are doing and the impact it promises to have for HIV patients in low resource areas.”

Low-Cost HIV Monitoring

The key is determining the viral load, or the copies of HIV present in the body. After a certain threshold, or above a certain number of copies, the virus is determined to be resistant to HIV therapy, and patients must start new therapies. However, in low resource settings and without the necessary equipment, changing therapies is nearly impossible for doctors to justify.

The OVL and EWH teams are approaching the problem differently. In EWH’s case, the device consists of a low-cost centrifuge, PCR thermocycler, and a gel electrophoresis box.

The centrifuge, part of the Open Viral Load HIV-Monitoring device, processes blood.

“The centrifuge processes the blood so that we can get to the viral RNA,” said Maker. “After we extract the RNA, we amplify a gene specific to HIV using the thermocycler. Finally, we run it through the gel box to see whether viral RNA is present in large quantities. This helps doctors make the call on whether the patient’s HIV medication is not working. This process isn’t novel, but we’re making it accessible to hospitals and clinics in low-resource areas, such as Tijuana, which is so close to home.”

The difference between EWH’s device and the device the Global TIES team has built is the output.

“The difference is a qualitative versus a quantitative output. EWH’s device has a qualitative yes or no output, identifying for the doctor when a viral load threshold has been reached,” said Maker. “On the other hand, the OVL Team has built a device that quantifies the amount of virus present.”

Hayley Chong and Kirk Hutchison are part of the OVL Team. 

Chong is a third year bioengineering major. “I chose Global TIES as a freshman because every student I met that was in the program was passionate about their project,” said Chong.

Hutchison, a second year biology major, chose to participate in Global TIES after hearing a talk by a Global TIES member at an event.

“Global TIES is the reason I came to UC San Diego,” said Hutchison.

The two joined the OVL Team at the same time, after taking the introductory course  in the Global TIES program. 

“We decided to come up with a way to quantify the viral load,” said Chong. “We started with a microwell chip – once we extract the RNA, we can deposit it on the microwell chip and use a fluorescent probe to detect the number of copies in each sample. If five wells on the chip light up, there are five copies of the virus.”

The device is also advantageous because its components can be used separately to identify other diseases. Students will also be working with Dr. Davey Smith this summer to adapt the device as a rapid response test for the Zika virus.

Impact

Over the course of the summer, groups of students from the two teams now look to clinically validate the designs and begin field implementation. Lab testing will continue under Drs. Strain and Smith here in the U.S. and with their new partner Dr. Jose Roman Chavez Mendez at the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (UABC) in Tijuana. With the teams collaborating and working together this summer, the future looks bright as they look to make an impact on the first of many low-resource settings.

Ph.D. alum helps make robotics and programming accessible

As a Ph.D. student at the Jacobs School of Engineering, Nick Morozovsky built many robots, including SkySweeper, a power line inspector, and Switchblade, a roving and balancing robot. And he worked on bringing robotics to everyone, especially young students.

Morozovsky worked with Solana Beach-based Rokenbok Education on a robotics kit that teaches children as young as 8 how to program Arduino microcontrollers. The ROKbuino Programmable Robotics Set is now available on Kickstarter for $99 off its retail pricing. Morozovsky designed the original prototypes on a low-cost 3D printer. Rokenbok is now seeking funding to mass-produce the kits by using injection molding, which is much faster but requires a significant upfront capital investment. The company hopes to bring the sets to homes across the country as well as under-served schools where children have limited access to STEM opportunities.

The kit allows students to connect motors and a variety of sensors to build and program a beetle bot, a scorpion hunter and a Ferris Wheel. It includes more than 400 building components. The Kickstarter campaign runs until June 30.

After earning his Ph.D. in 2014, Morozovsky co-founded start up Accel Robotics with fellow Jacobs School alum Marius Buibas. 

Morozovsky with SkySweeper, a robot designed to inspect power lines.

Engineering World Health Presents Low-Cost HIV Monitoring System at TEDxUCSD

Last weekend at the TEDxUCSD event, Co-President Yajur Maker and Mechanical Lead Alan Loi of the Engineering World Health Organization presented their Low-Cost HIV Monitoring System. The organization composed of 30+ students focuses on building low cost medical devices for low resource settings, and has currently partnered with the Health Frontiers Clinic to deliver their low-cost Centrifuge, PCR Thermocycler, and Gel Electrophoresis Box to help with monitoring the growing HIV Epidemic in Tijuana.

To learn more about the organization visit: ewh.ucsd.edu

Structural Engineering and Visual Arts Students To Exhibit Final Projects Mar. 14-17

Students from a structural engineering and a visual arts class are working together, shoulder to shoulder, on a collaborative final project. They will showcase the results of this collaboration at the Envision: The Future is Here exhibition. 

The projects will be on public display in the Structural and Materials Engineering building, rooms 201 and 202, Mar. 14-17, from 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m each day, with a reception to be held on the 17th at 7:00 p.m. 

This experimental class, happening in the new EnVision Maker Studio at UC San Diego, blends the pedagogical needs of artists and engineers. The goal is for the students to work collectively to create a “whole object” where the aesthetics and design of the sub-structure and art object are integrated in such a way that they work together aesthetically, conceptually, and structurally.

The artist in each group led the design and 3D printing or other assembly method for a 3D object representing their idea of science fiction. The engineers took the lead on the surrounding structure. Some of the projects include:

• A squid monster sculpture on a pagoda-style structure
• A suspended car sculpture 
• A third team is constructing something akin to the big tic-tac-toe systems you see in playgrounds

Learn more about EnVision here.

Freshman bioengineering students 3D print bones in hands-on class

UC San Diego bioengineering undergraduates are close to wrapping up the winter quarter of a new hands-on bioengineering course designed to expose freshmen to central topics and tools of bioengineering work on three hands-on projects. The class meets in the new EnVision Maker Studio at UC San Diego and is part of the Jacobs School's Experience Engineering Initiative.

* Electrophysiology
* Glucose monitoring for the blind
* 3-D bone printing

Rachel Daniels, a student in the class, says she learned a lot about the human spine from the bone printing project.

"By analyzing real life CT scans we were able to pull important data, allowing us to print a replica of the T10 vertebrae using plastic printing material," she said. "Once several prints were made we tested the correlation between load and displacement in the inter-vertebral disks by simply placing varying forces upon the vertebrae and measuring displacement. We concluded the heavier the load, the larger the total displacement until a plateau was reached."

We wrote about the very first iteration of this experiential bioengineering course in Pulse magazine last summer.

Below are images from the course.

Tools used include BioRadios, MATLAB, CAD software, 3D printers, foam cutters, hand tools.

Engineering professors share their big ideas for 2016—and beyond

The new year is a time to take stock of past accomplishments, and UC San Diego has no shortage of those. We once again surpassed $1 billion in research funding in 2014–15, an extraordinary accomplishment that places us among the top five research universities in the nation. And we put that research funding to good use—in 2015, Washington Monthly once again ranked UC San Diego as the No. 1 university in the nation for its positive impact.

The new year is also a time to look forward to what we want to accomplish next. Here, professors from the Jacobs School of Engineering share their "big ideas" for revolutionizing research and education for the benefit of human health and society.

3D-print patient-compatible organs and tissues for transplants

Shaochen Chen, professor in the Department of NanoEngineering and co-director of the Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Center

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are in need of organ transplants. Unfortunately, organs for transplants are in short supply and even when they are available, there are risks of transplant rejection due to significant molecular and biological differences between the donor and the patient. 3D bioprinting is an ideal technology to create patient-specific tissues or organs, especially when human-induced pluripotent cells from the same patient are used for tissue growth. “If we could encourage more interdisciplinary collaboration among bioengineers, materials scientists, biologists, and clinical doctors to focus on 3D printing patient-specific functional tissues and organs, we could help more people get the lifesaving organ transplants they need before it’s too late,” says Chen. 

Develop microtechnologies to personalize treatment regimens

Shyni Varghese, professor in the Department of Bioengineering and director of the Bio-Inspired Materials and Stem Cell Engineering Laboratory

Drug responses vary significantly from patient to patient. Therefore, developing a therapeutic regimen tailored for each patient is critically important. “Today we can personalize everything from computers and phones to Facebook profiles, so why not medicine?” asks Varghese. “Let’s engineer patient-specific, three-dimensional ‘organs-on-a-chip’ from patients’ own stem cells. We can use these patient-specific test beds to identify the best combination of drugs and dosages to maximize therapeutic efficacy in each individual. Such next-generation technologies will revolutionize the standard of patient care and push the boundaries of medicine.” 

Build robots that provide surgeons with super-human capabilities

Michael Yip, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Advanced Robotics and Controls Lab

The practice of surgery has only ever been as good as the skills of the surgeon. Even the best surgeons are limited by what their own hands are able to achieve and can still make mistakes. But technology in this age is giving rise to robotics systems that are equipped with more capabilities and can perform various tasks with more precision than humans could ever achieve. "We routinely see popular media portray superheroes like Iron Man using robotics as a means of delivering massive power and destruction, and yet the reality is that robotics has the ability to improve the precision and delicate touch of surgeons beyond what their own hands can do alone," says Yip. "I invite San Diego researchers and industry to work with me to develop new robot-assistive devices and systems that will provide surgeons with super-human abilities—to navigate the body remotely and access anatomies they could not previously reach, to have augmented reality ‘X-ray vision’ to visualize subsurface lesions, and to perform surgeries with robotically enhanced, micromillimeter precision."

Check out more "big ideas" from other visionaries around campus in the story from This Week @ UC San Diego.

Squishy robot that jumps is in the media spotlight

It's been compared to a frog, called "extremely cute" and "a bouncing bot." A robot designed by engineers at Harvard University and the University of California, San Diego, became a media darling this week. The robot is the first of its kind with a 3D-printed body that transitions from hard at the core to soft on the outside. It also is capable of more than 30 untethered jumps.
Below are some of the videos it starred in this week: And many more...

Make-A-Thon 2015: Hack-A-Thon Takes on 3D Printing

Recently, I had the pleasure of stopping by UC San Diego’s first annual Make-A-Thon. I wasn’t entirely sure of what I should expect, but I was excited and knew I would be amazed. Upon entering the room, I could feel something special—you know, that buzz and energy only a room full of driven and tenacious people working with grit could create.

The student organization Triton 3D-Printing Club (T3D), new since January of this school year, arranged a 3D printing hack-a-thon event with the hope of encouraging students to learn how to approach problems in a team setting and exposing them to experiment with 3D printing. The competition was split into two categories: novice and advanced, with participants ranging from first years to graduating seniors. I had the opportunity to speak with winning advanced team.

Shake and Bake's award-winning design

The four members of the winning team, Shake and Bake, were awarded their own 3D printer for their design, which resembled the pod racer from Star Wars. The team consisted of graduating seniors Narek Geghamyan, Daniel Ip, Victor Long and Glen Padilla, all studying either mechanical or aerospace engineering, and most of them had no prior experience with 3D printing. It took the team about thirty minutes to brainstorm, and four to five hours of pure design before they were ready to print. They each made their own individual designs before reconvening to take the best aspects of each idea and build prototypes until they knew each part was entirely functional and efficient. They described their experience as a “very enjoyable process,” and praised 3D printing for its rapid prototyping ability. As one Shake and Bake member said, “You rarely have the ability to build an entire device out of scratch in one sitting.” And I believe the event’s lead coordinator, Andy Kieatiwong, would vigorously nod his head in agreement.

Andy Kieatiwong

I also had the pleasure of meeting and speaking to Kieatiwong at the event. He is a third year aerospace engineering student, and, as one of the co-founders of T3D, he is no stranger to 3D printing and the many opportunities it offers. He described 3D printing as a “new way to solve problems in scientific fields” such as aerospace engineering. For example, 3D printing enables engineers to make lighter materials, lower manufacturing costs and “democratize the act of making things.” For the future, Kieatiwong says he and T3D will mostly likely collaborate with other organizations to expand the event to twice its size, moving from fifteen available printers to thirty or even forty. As for the future of 3D printing, he said, “3D printing is not an answer within itself. It’s just a tool, but a very powerful tool.” 

The novice team's design

For some of us, this tool is still very new. I also spoke with one of the novice teams; the group consisted of freshmen Zenas Heng, Emilee Kang, Kasey Li, and Joe Wong, all students pursuing – or at least interested in – some form of engineering. None of them had any experience with hack-a-thon-type events, nor did they have much experience working with 3D printers. They learned a lot – miscommunication and technical errors prevented them from printing on time, leaving them with very small models. Despite the drawbacks, none of them regret having participated in the event. As a freshman myself, I agreed with them that the Make-A-Thon is one of the many opportunities that contribute to our above-average engineering experience here at UC San Diego.

Beyond the grandeur and promise 3D printing holds, the Make-A-Thon offered experience to those without the means of obtaining it. Furthermore, the event was less about competitive feelings and more about having fun. The novice team I spoke to chose to participate in the Make-A-Thon after having heard about the event from their friends. One of the Shake and Bake members even called his group the “all-star team.” Perhaps he said that because they all had extensive experience with modeling software, but I’d like to believe it was because the accomplished something else – they simply made memories with friends.

Some 3D printers!

This event was sponsored by ARRK, Forecaset 3D, Pixologic, Polymaker, and XYZPrinting. ARRK and Forecast3D attended the networking event. As prizes, Pixologic donated ZBrush licenses (software for design) and XYZ contributed a smartwatch and lanyards. For the competition Polymaker donated filament (PolyFlex, PolyMax, and Plywood), and XYZ loaned printers. Also, special thanks goes to Adrienna Yan and Joe Wong for photographs from the event.

Shake and Bake
(From left to right) Narek Geghamyan, Daniel Ip, Glen Padilla, and Victor Long

This Jacobs School Ph.D. student is now a toy maker

Just because you're about to get a Ph.D., it doesn't mean you have to stop playing with toys--or at least making them. That's the lesson we take away from the career trajectory of one of our graduate students here at the Jacobs School.
We caught up with Nick Morozovsky at the booth for the toy company Rokenbok at the Bay Area Maker Faire May 17 to 18. The Solana Beach-based company recently partnered with Kid*Spark, an organization that aims to make STEaM and Maker education more accessible and fun, and created an Open Source Library of building parts that can be 3D printed. That's where Morozovsky comes in. He set up the library for Rokenbok and created an interface that allows users to 3D-print customizable parts as well.
While a 3D-printer hummed nearby, Morozovsky explained how the library worked. Meanwhile, kids were building catapults made of Rokenbok pieces and playing with remote controlled vehicles.
The booth later won an editor's choice award from Make magazine. Morozovsky plans to graduate sometime this year. We'll see where his next adventure in toy land takes him.