UCI Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic Accepts Applications for the Multiscale Biophotonics Training Program

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UCI Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic is now accepting applications for the annual 11-day summer Multiscale Biophotonics: A Platform for Interdisciplinary Research Training and Career Development Program to be held July 23, 2024 to August 2, 2024 on the UCI campus.  The program is a National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)-sponsored Innovative Programs to Enhance Research training (IPERT) initiative.

The curriculum for academic and industry partners consists of lectures by recognized experts, hands-on labs and demonstrations, career development workshops, problem-based learning and team science activities aimed at developing technical, operational and professional skills in Biophotonics.

Application areas include:

  • Biological Microscopy
  • Optical Dosimetry
  • Optical Property Determination
  • Wide-Field Spectroscopy and Imaging
  • Physiological Monitoring

Topics include:

  • Electromagnetic Wave Propagation
  • Radiative Transport
  • Monte Carlo Methods
  • Diffuse Optics

The short course is followed by a year-long capstone problem-based learning project and supported by technical and professional mentorship. The project is designed to solidify the mastery of the technical content and advance the career development goals of trainees.

For more information, please contact Program Directors Bernard Choi, Ph.D., at choib@uci.edu or Vasan Venugopalan, Sc.D., at vvenugop@uci.edu.

Click here to apply today.

Wilder-Smith named UCI Beall Applied Innovation’s 2023 Innovator of the Year

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Photo Credit: Paul Kennedy

Petra Wilder-Smith, Director of Dentistry of UCI Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic and Professor of Surgery of UCI School of Medicine, was awarded UCI Beall Applied Innovation’s 2023 Innovator of Year during a ceremony held on Monday, April 29, 2024.  Wilder-Smith was recognized for her wide range of global and community collaborations on light-based approaches to oral health, including periodontology, dental-decay-de- and remineralization and biofilm.  Her work spans predictive and diagnostic, as well as therapeutic innovation and applications.

The UCI Innovator Awards Ceremony is an annual event, created by UCI Beall Applied Innovation and hosted at the Cove at UCI to recognize UCI researchers who are working actively to promote commercialization of university research.  The Innovator of Year awarded to Wilder-Smith recognizes distinguished innovators who have demonstrated excellence by developing a breakthrough idea, process or technology and shown its transformational potential to improve lives and create economic value.

About the UCI Beall Applied Innovation Innovator Awards

UCI Beall Applied Innovation, with generous support from Don and Ken Beall, created the annual UCI Innovator Awards to recognize UCI researchers working actively to promote commercialization of university intellectual property, which supports industry growth and moves inventions from the lab to market to benefit humankind.

Click here to learn more about Petra Wilder-Smith.

Click here to visit the UCI Beall Applied Innovation website and learn more about the 2023 Innovator Award recipients.

UCI School of Medicine 2024 Research Awards

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The School of Medicine Office of Research annually recognizes excellence in research and outstanding academic achievement in six categories. Selection criteria include: academic accomplishment, original contribution to the literature, significance of innovation to the field and relevance to the aims and priorities of the UCI School of Medicine. Each awardee receives a monetary award and an individual recognition plaque. Winners’ names are also added to an enduring plaque on display in Irvine Hall. An awards ceremony is planned for June 13, 2024.

CONGRATULATIONS 2024 AWARDEES

Outstanding Mid-Career Faculty Research Award Winners

Basic Science: Shawn (Liangzhong) Xiang, PhD, Department of Radiological Sciences

Clinical Research: Mihaela Balu, PhD, Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic

About the Outstanding Mid-Career Faculty Research Award

The Outstanding Mid-Career Faculty Research Award recognizes mid-career scientists who have made novel and significant scientific contributions.  This includes associate and full professors in the Health Sciences Clinical, Clinical X, In-Residence, In-Line and Adjunct series. Two awardees are selected, including one focused on basic research and one focused on clinical research.  Each recipient receives $1,000.

Read more on the UCI School of Medicine website.

First-Ever Joint Faculty Retreat Held with Samueli School of Engineering and School of Medicine

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On March 11, UCI hosted a groundbreaking Joint Faculty Research Retreat, collaborating for the first time between the Samueli School of Engineering and the School of Medicine. Themed “Advancing the Frontiers,” the event aimed to foster thrilling partnerships and inspire future collaborations in medicine and engineering.

The day’s program kicked off with insightful talks from Engineering Dean Magnus Egerstedt and School of Medicine Dean Michael J. Stamos, setting an ambitious tone for the retreat by highlighting current achievements and future aspirations for their respective schools. A highlight was the keynote address by Bruce Tromberg, director of the NIH’s National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, emphasizing the power of collaborative innovation in tackling healthcare challenges.

Attendees engaged in a variety of activities, from an icebreaking exercise to exploring resource tables packed with information from across campus to attending in-depth scientific presentations on topics like neurorehabilitation, brain-computer interfaces, and rapid antibody evolution. These sessions underscored the transformative potential of merging engineering and medicine.

Breakout sessions delved into critical themes such as funding opportunities across schools, accelerating research from the laboratory to the marketplace, and educational strategies in a changing environment. A reflective town hall with Deans Stamos and Egerstedt, along with faculty members from both schools, wrapped up the discussions, reiterating the retreat’s success in laying the groundwork for future interdisciplinary innovations.

Read more on the UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering website.

PROFESSOR HOWARD LEE RECEIVES PARTNERSHIP FOR INNOVATION AWARD FROM NSF

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Lucas Van Wyk Joel | UCI Physical Sciences Communications

The award will help Lee and his lab develop optical fiber technology for advanced imaging.

Professor Howard Lee of the UC Irvine Department of Physics & Astronomy recently received a Partnerships for Innovation award from the National Science Foundation. The award will give Lee and his lab $550,000 over two years to develop fiber-optical technology for advanced imaging applications. 

“Optical endoscopes are critical for surgical and other medical applications where the optical probe allows for real-time, non-invasive detection of the interior of an organ inside the human body with high resolution and biochemical information,” said Lee, who’s a member of UCI’s Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic as well as the Eddleman Quantum Institute. “However, existing optical fiber endoscopes are bulky and have limited imaging capability.”

With the new funding, Lee’s lab will work to develop a new kind of optical fiber based on nanotechnology that will enable compact imaging devices that are a few hundred micrometers in diameter – similar in size to a human hair – which will allow for expanded applications in medical settings.

The NSF award goes to proposals that show a high promise of developing technologies that will make their way to market. “Our team will also undergo an NSF National I-Corps Teams training – a seven-week entrepreneurial training program that facilitates the transformation of an invention into market impact,” said Lee.

Lee added: “I’d like to thank Dean James Bullock and Professor Reginald Penner of the School of Physical Sciences for promoting entrepreneurship and commercialization for scientists, and for organizing different industry-related events. Through industry events like Shark Tank, I got to know different Industry Advisory Committee members and investors, such as Michael Colaco and Shiv Grewal from Auctus Global Capital who are now serving as industry mentors for our project.”

Read more on the UCI School of Physical Sciences website.