UI Department of Bioengineering

09/03/2026

Bioengineering Ph.D. student Elizabeth Daniels, working in the lab of professor Susan Leggett, has received a research grant from the ISPB. She is the first student from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to do so. “Receiving this grant is an exciting milestone in my development as an independent researcher,” said Daniels. “It gives me the opportunity to take greater ownership of a research question I’m passionate about and continue building expertise in bioengineering and vision research.” Daniels’ work focuses on age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a major cause of vision loss among the elderly. Learn more: https://bioengineering.illinois.edu/news/amd

09/02/2026

The bioeconomy is an economic model that converts renewable biological resources into life essentials. While the idea is simple — turning atmospheric carbon into a microbe-friendly food source and recovering leftover nutrients to repeat the cycle indefinitely — the ex*****on is much more challenging. But for Illinois faculty, like bioengineering professor Ting Lu, the enormous benefits are worth the stakes: these minimal-resource technologies aim to bolster energy security and supply chain resilience, promote resource circularity, and address global challenges like climate change and food insecurity. “Biotechnology gives us an ability to manufacture in a different way,” said Lu. “We’re harnessing a living factory — a factory of programmable living organisms that takes up raw materials, processes them, and translates them into something valuable." Learn more: https://grainger.illinois.edu/news/stories/bioeconomy

09/01/2026

We had a great time welcoming our new undergraduate students to campus last week. Looking forward to a great fall semester!

08/31/2026

Please join us in Everitt Lab, room 2310 at this Wednesday at 12pm for Bioengineering's Seminar Series! This Wednesday’s speaker is professor Wenzhen Yuan, Associate Professor in the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and Director of the RoboTouch Lab. Professor Yuan will present “Making Sense of the Physical World with High Resolution Tactile Sensing,” discussing the development of GelSight and how high resolution tactile sensing can help robots better perceive physical properties, understand objects through contact, and perform complex manipulation tasks.

08/28/2026

In the United States, obesity is a major contributor to health problems and death. Heart disease, cancer, stroke, and respiratory diseases—four leading causes of death—are all exacerbated by obesity. Bioengineering postdoc and first author Natalia Gonzalez Medina, with her principal investigator bioengineering professor Andrew Smith, wanted to find a better treatment that could be more effectively targeted to specific sites in the body. Their new treatment, outlined in a paper published in ACS Nano, potentially provides a superior way to lose weight by using nanoparticles to deliver an anti-inflammatory drug, called dexamethasone, directly into fatty tissue. Learn more: https://bioengineering.illinois.edu/news/a-new-approach-to-weight-loss

08/26/2026

In its fourth year, the research seed grant program at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology will fund one research project beginning in 2026. The selected research team, led by bioengineering professor Aleksei Aksimentiev, information sciences professor Haohan Wang, and molecular and integrative physiology professor Nien-Pei Tsai, will create a Center for Orchestrated Agentic Biology. It will develop an AI framework to model molecular pathways involved in brain aging. The seed funding will build the computational and experimental foundation for this effort, exploring how nerve cells function as they age. Learn more: https://bioengineering.illinois.edu/news/beckman-2026-seed-grant

08/24/2026

08/21/2026

Weeks of Welcome is off to an amazing start! Greetings to our newest Illini!

08/20/2026

🎉 Congratulations to Illinois BIOE PhD student Elizabeth Daniels, a recipient of an Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness (ISPB) Eye Research Grant!

Elizabeth received special grant funding designated for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) research to support her doctoral work. Her research focuses on developing biomimetic models to better understand how mechanical cues contribute to retinal pigment epithelium dysfunction associated with AMD.

A student in the Susan Leggett Lab, Elizabeth is also the first student from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to receive this grant. 🧡 💙

Congratulations, Elizabeth, on this outstanding achievement and recognition of your research! 👏

08/18/2026

The Cancer Center at Illinois' (CCIL) “Get to Know a Cancer Scholar” series provides readers a connection with the amazing trainees who comprise the CCIL’s cohort of student-researchers. This installment features bioengineering undergraduate Darian Tabrizi. "I wanted to get involved in impactful research as soon as possible going into college," said Darian. "I knew the Cancer Scholars Program would give me a headstart in familiarizing myself with the technical jargon surrounding cancer research, which would help me build a strong foundation for my undergraduate research career." Learn more: https://bioengineering.illinois.edu/news/Darian-Tabrizi