MolES students honored with top awards for research, service

The University of Washington’s Institute for Molecular Engineering and Sciences recognized outstanding graduate students in the spring with distinguished dissertation, scientific achievement and service awards. The awards were presented at the MolES graduation ceremony in June, where our Ph.D. graduates were also celebrated.

Distinguished Dissertation Awards

Sarah Wait, advised by Professor of Bioengineering Andre Berndt, was recognized for groundbreaking work in molecular biosensor engineering. Her dissertation tackled the longstanding challenge of efficiently exploring the vast sequence space of fluorescent sensor proteins to identify gain-of-function mutations. Read More

Seaweed-infused cement could cut concrete’s carbon footprint

The modern world is built with concrete: Humans use more concrete annually than any other material besides water. Yet cement, the key component of concrete, is the source of as much as 10% of all carbon dioxide emissions worldwide.

To address this problem, researchers at the University of Washington and Microsoft developed a new type of low-carbon concrete by mixing dried, powdered seaweed with cement.  Read More

Shelly Sakiyama-Elbert elected to Washington State Academy of Sciences

Shelly Sakiyama-Elbert, professor of bioengineering and Vice Dean of Research and Graduate Education in the UW School of Medicine, for “national leadership in biomedical research, research policy, and graduate education, including pioneering novel drug delivery approaches for regenerative medicine applications in the nervous system and other tissues such as bone, cartilage, tendon and skin.”

Characterization of Materials at the MAF

A MAF employee showing people the XPS scale.

The Molecular Analysis Facility (MAF) is a state-of-the-art characterization facility that provides high end characterization tools to all users in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. 

The MAF Characterization Workshop, Aug. 4-5, includes lectures in the morning and instrument demonstrations in the afternoon. Due to the capacity of our lab space, the registration number is limited. The Molecular Analysis Facility (MAF) at the University of Washington is near the Architecture Building (across the street from the MAF) at 4000 15th Ave NE.

The demonstrations on MAF instruments will provide application examples for much of the material covered in the workshop lectures. The Read More

2025 MolES Pilot Awards fund three groundbreaking research initiatives

June 3, 2025

Shijie Cao outside, Quansan Yang and Jenny Robinson in her lab.

Three UW faculty teams received the Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute’s (MolES) new Pilot Awards. These awards, sponsored by MolES, aim to seed new research initiatives and support preliminary data generation. A committee of MolES faculty chose the projects. Each team will receive up to $10,000 in funding to kickstart their work.

The awards were created to support new collaborations spawning from MolES-sponsored scientific exchanges.  This year, one scientific exchange focused on women’s health/sex differences in the manifestation of disorders, and a second scientific exchange between MolES, Benaroya Research Institute, and UW Immunology faculty discussed immune biology, next-generation analytical tools for immunology, and immune therapies.  Read More