News

Categories:

CleanTech undergrads win the UW Environmental Innovation Challenge

April 8, 2013

Congratulations to MolES faculty Lilo Pozzo’s senior design team “Polydrop,” grand prize winners at the 2013 UW Environmental Innovation Challenge, an annual event sponsored by the UW’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship. Their prize-winning prototype is an additive that transforms regular coatings into conductive coatings to enable the use of carbon fiber composites in the transportation [...]

CleanTech and the Paradox of Reduce-Reuse-Recycle

April 3, 2013

Guest post by MolES faculty member and Chemical Engineering chair Daniel Schwartz on the Foster Unplugged blog When I think Cleantech, my mind goes straight to the triangular logo on my waste container at work: "reduce, reuse, recycle." These three words are central to most enduring cleantech innovations, though sometimes in paradoxical ways. "Reduce" is [...]

Kim Woodrow named on Newsweek/The Daily Beast’s 125 Women of Impact List

April 1, 2013

UW Bioengineering assistant professor Dr. Kim Woodrow’s was named on this list, compiled by Newsweek/The Daily Beast to accompany this week’s Women in the World Summit. Dr. Woodrow was cited for her work creating dissolvable female condoms that prevent pregnancy and protect against HIV, for which she received $1 million in funding from the Bill [...]

Tenfold boost in ability to pinpoint proteins in cancer cells

March 19, 2013

By Michelle MaMarch 19, 2013 Better diagnosis and treatment of cancer could hinge on the ability to better understand a single cell at its molecular level. New research offers a more comprehensive way of analyzing one cell's unique behavior, using an array of colors to show patterns that could indicate why a cell will or [...]

UW Freshmen to Present Research Findings in D.C.

March 5, 2013

Presenting at a research conference in Washington D.C. is an unimaginable dream for most college freshmen. For six University of Washington College of Engineering students, this dream is a reality; they will present their research at the Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI) Conference on March 9. Kasey Acob, Bailey Bonaci, David Coven, Daniel Corona, [...]

James Carothers named Sloan Research Fellow

February 19, 2013

MolES Institute member and Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering James Carothers was named a 2013 Sloan Research Fellow in an announcement today by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Carothers’s research focuses on developing design platforms for engineering functionally-complex RNA-based control systems. These systems process cellular information and program the expression of very large numbers of [...]

Luce Foundation to support two professorships for women in engineering

February 6, 2013

December 18, 2012 The Henry Luce Foundation’s Clare Boothe Luce Program has awarded the University of Washington (UW) a roughly $500,000 grant to support the creation of two professorships for women in engineering. The grant, which will be distributed over the course of five years, will support the addition of two faculty members; one will [...]

UW TV: How are engineers using small molecules to solve big problems

February 6, 2013

The 2012 Engineering Lecture Series took a close look at how engineers are using small molecules to solve big problems. The emerging field of molecular engineering builds from the bottom up and aims high, promising new ways to diagnose disease earlier and treat it more precisely, and inexpensive and practical ways to harness clean sources [...]

Castner and Gao Inducted as AIMBE Fellows

February 1, 2013

UW Bioengineering faculty Drs. David Castner and Xiaohu Gao wereinducted as AIMBE Fellows at the organization’s annual meeting February 17-19 in Washington, DC. AIMBE, or the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering,is a non-profitadvocacy organization dedicated toimproving lives through medical and biological engineering. Drs. Castner and Gao join a distinguished group of more tahn [...]

Organic ferroelectric molecule shows promise for memory chips, sensors

January 25, 2013

A paper in Science describes an organic crystal that shows promise as a cheap, flexible, nontoxic material for the working parts of memory chips, sensors and energy-harvesting devices. [...]

Georg Seelig wins DARPA Young Faculty Award to develop point of care diagnostic test for infectious diseases

December 22, 2012

Georg Seelig, assistant professor of EE & CSE, has received the 2012 DARPA Young Faculty Award from the Department of Defense. The DARPA Young Faculty Award program identifies and engages rising research stars in junior faculty positions at U.S. academic institutions and exposes them to Department of Defense needs as well as DARPA's program development [...]

Energy Dept. funds UW project to turn wasted natural gas into diesel

December 17, 2012

The U.S. Department of Energy this month awarded $4 million to a team, led by UW chemical engineers, that aims to develop bacteria to turn the methane in natural gas into diesel fuel for transportation. [...]

David Castner Elected to AIMBE College of Fellows

December 13, 2012

Congratulations to MolES faculty David Castner (Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering) who has been selected as a member of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), a non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to improving lives through medical and biological engineering. Castner joins a distinguished group of 1,000 other fellows from academia, industry and government who have [...]

Rules devised for building ideal protein molecules from scratch

November 30, 2012

By Leila Gray, UW Health Sciences/UW MedicineNovember 29, 2012 By following certain rules, scientists can prepare architectural plans for building ideal protein molecules not found in the real world. Based on these computer renditions, previously non-existent proteins can be produced from scratch in the lab. The principles to make this happen appear this month in [...]

Electrically spun fabric offers dual defense against pregnancy, HIV

November 30, 2012

Electrically spun cloth with nanometer-sized fibers show promise as a cheap, versatile platform to simultaneously offer contraception and prevent HIV. New funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will help MolES faculty member Kim Woodrow further test the system's versatility and feasibility. [...]

David Ginger named AAAS fellow for photovoltaics research

November 29, 2012

Congratulations to MolES faculty David Ginger, who was named fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for 2012. Ginger was honored for advances in the physical chemistry of nanoscale materials relevant to optoelectronics, particularly photovoltaics, and innovation in surface microscopy techniques for probing such materials. [...]

MolES researchers highlighted in UW 360 feature on targeted drug delivery

November 20, 2012

Molecular Engineering & Sciences faculty Suzie Pun (Bioengineering) and David Baker (Biochemistry) were highlighted in the latest UW 360 feature on targeted drug delivery. Watch the UW360 feature on Targeted Drug Delivery [...]

UW College of Engineering's fall lecture series will focus on molecular engineering

October 11, 2012

The series of evening lectures, which are open to the public, kicks off next Tuesday (Oct. 16) in 120 Kane Hall with Launching the Molecular Engineering Revolution. Matthew O'Donnell, dean of the UW's College of Engineering, will describe how molecular engineering is poised to spark a new digital revolution, with implications for biotech, clean energy and other fields. O'Donnell will also discuss the role of the UW's newly established Molecular Engineering & Sciences Institute. [...]

Sticky paper offers cheap, easy solution for paper-based diagnostics

October 2, 2012

Global health researchers, including MolES faculty member Dan Ratner, are working on cheap systems like a home-based pregnancy test that might work for malaria, diabetes or other diseases. A new chemical technique makes medically interesting molecules stick to regular paper "” a possible route to building such paper-based diagnostics from paper you could buy at an office-supply store. [...]

New documentary details the rise of molecular engineering

September 29, 2012

In this documentary, you'll see how the new molecular engineering & sciences building at the University of Washington will bring together a collection of people "” world class talent in energy delivery and medicine to work together to address some of today's biggest challenges. [...]