|
UCI Receives $2.9M Grant to Start
“LifeChips” Program
UC Irvine has been awarded nearly $2.9 million over
five years to create a new graduate program in which
students will combine the practices of engineering,
physical sciences, biological sciences and medicine
to produce small-scale technologies that benefit human
health. Graduates of the LifeChips program will have
the skills necessary to develop technology used to identify
new drugs, facilitate stem cell research and improve
scientists’ understanding of tissue, organs, genes,
proteins, cells, DNA and other basic components of life.
Funded by the National Science Foundation’s Integrative
Graduate Education and Research Traineeship program,
LifeChips will focus on the study of micro and nanotechnology
as it applies to life sciences. The program takes its
name from a new term scientists use to describe research
on the overlap between life sciences and technology
that naturally occurs at microscopic scales. Microtechnology
refers to devices measured in micrometers – one
micrometer is one millionth of a meter – which
are widely used in electrical and mechanical equipment
such as blood-pressure monitors and automobile airbags.
A human hair is about 50 micrometers wide. Nanotechnology
is based on work done at an even smaller level, the
nanometer, or one billionth of a meter. A red blood
cell is about 10,000 nanometers wide.
The LifeChips program is innovative because students
will study miniaturized technology as it applies to
several scientific areas, allowing them to develop a
broad base of skills. Biology students will learn engineering
principles of design and manufacturing, enabling them
to create useful and powerful tools for laboratory research,
while engineering students will study life’s remarkable
technology that has evolved over 3 billion years. Traditionally,
students specialize in one area and occasionally collaborate
with other disciplines.
LifeChips officially began July 15 and is in the process
of recruiting students.
“Today’s engineers rarely apply biological
processes and insights to nanotechnology, and nanotechnology
has yet to be fully utilized to study biology,”
said G.P. Li, head of the LifeChips program, director
of the Integrated Nanosystems Research Facility, and
professor of electrical engineering and computer science
at UCI. “By focusing on training a new group of
cross-disciplinary students, our program will encourage
development in this under-explored scientific and engineering
frontier.”
This is the first time UCI has received a highly competitive
IGERT grant, designed to support well-focused multidisciplinary
graduate programs. The grant and subsequent UCI funding
will support six new students each year, for a total
of 30 students over five years. Each student will receive
a $30,000-per-year stipend, with tuition and fees waived
each year for two years. Students will be required to
take classes in multiple disciplines, and they will
have two advisers from different campus units to encourage
interdisciplinary learning. More than 20 faculty members
in areas such as physiology, microbiology, chemistry,
physics, and biomedical and electrical engineering will
teach classes, supervise research and serve as advisers.
“The LifeChips program will benefit from the momentum
and excitement already generated by our talented faculty
who understand the importance of collaboration,”
said Bill Parker, vice chancellor for research and dean
of graduate studies at UCI. “We have outstanding
professors with expertise in micro and nanotechnology,
biochip fabrication, biology and medicine. LifeChips
will bolster our already strong interdisciplinary culture.”
Students who graduate from this program will be prepared
to lead the next generation of LifeChips research, said
Nicolaos G. Alexopoulos, dean of The Henry Samueli School
of Engineering. “They will be poised to make scientific
discoveries, transform these discoveries into broadly
available technologies and apply these technologies
to problems in the fields of engineering, medicine and
life sciences,” Alexopoulos said.
The LifeChips program is organized and supported by
the Integrated Nanosystems Research Facility, an interdisciplinary
research laboratory in The Henry Samueli School of Engineering
that serves the UCI campus and industry. LifeChips also
is affiliated with UCI’s Stem Cell Core Facility
and the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Visit www.uci.edu
|
|
