Welcome to
Biomedical Engineering

Deji Akinwande is a professor and holds the The Cockrell Family Regents Chair in Engineering #8 at The University of Texas at Austin Chandra Family Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

He received the PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2009, where he conducted research on the material science, device physics, and circuit applications of carbon nanotubes and graphene. His Master’s research in Applied Physics at Case Western Reserve University pioneered the design and development of near-field microwave probe tips for nondestructive imaging and studies of materials.

His research focuses on 2D materials and nanotechnology, pioneering device innovations from lab towards applications.

Prof. Akinwande was elevated to IEEE Fellow in 2021, and he was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2017. He has been honored with the 2018 Fulbright Specialist Award, 2017 Bessel-Humboldt Research Award, the U.S Presidential PECASE award by President Obama, the inaugural Gordon Moore Inventor Fellow award, the inaugural IEEE Nano Geim and Novoselov Graphene Prize, the IEEE “Early Career Award” in Nanotechnology, the NSF CAREER award, several DoD Young Investigator awards, the 3M Nontenured Faculty Award, and was a past recipient of fellowships from the Kilby/TI, Ford Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and Stanford DARE Initiative. 

His recent results on silicene have been featured by nature news, Time and Forbes magazines and was selected among the top 2015 science stories by Discover magazine. He invented 2D memory, also known as atomristors. His work on flexible 2D electronics was highlighted among the "best of 2012" by the nanotechweb news portal and has been featured on MIT's technology review and other technical media outlets. He is a distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Electron Device Society, an Editor for Nature NPJ 2D Materials and Applications, and on the editorial boards for Science, ACS Nano, and Nano letters journals. He is the co-Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on 2D electronics, and was a past Chair of the 2018/2019 Device Research Conference (DRC), and the Committee Chair of Nano-devices for 2018 IEEE IEDM Conference. He co-authored a textbook on carbon nanotubes and graphene device physics by Cambridge University Press, 2011, and was recently a finalist for the Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award, the highest teaching award from the University of Texas System. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Immunoengineering, Biomaterials, Nanomedicine, Drug Discovery & Delivery, Cell & Tissue Engineering, Biomaterials

RESEARCH FOCUS

Research in the Yin lab focuses on employing a biomaterials-centric approach to elucidate the key mechanism for potentiating or diversifying the immune responses, and in parallel, to precisely modulate the immune system and create new immunotherapies against cancer and infectious diseases. The lab will leverage cutting-edge technologies in synthetic chemistry, materials science, nanotechnology, systems immunology, and organoid models to advance developments in cancer immunotherapy and anti-viral vaccines. Our ultimate goal is to translate these new technologies and therapies for clinical applications.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

RELATED WEBSITES:

Laboratory of Biomaterials for Immunoengineering

Lief Ericsson Fenno, M.D., Ph.D., is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Dell Medical School and an assistant professor of neuroscience in the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin. 

Fenno received his bachelor’s degree in neurobiology from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience and M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine. He completed the Adult Psychiatry Residency at Stanford Hospital and clinics, and he is board-certified in adult psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. Additionally, he completed postdoctoral training in bioengineering at Stanford University.

His clinical specialty is the medical management of addiction, with a focus on the use of medication-assisted treatment, including buprenorphine and methadone, for the treatment of opioid use disorder.

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Leveraging his strengths in neuroscience research and bioengineering, his scientific goal is to design, construct, validate and apply novel molecular and viral tools to understand the brain in health and disease for the benefit of diverse patient populations. His specific research interests include the development and application of novel molecular tools that enable precision manipulation of targeted neuron populations in awake, behaving subjects.

Fenno directs a laboratory focused on expanding the use of novel molecular and viral approaches, with the objective of precisely establishing links between neuron circuitry and behavior.

Laboratory Website

Selected Publications

Selected Publications

RESEARCH FOCUS:
Translational neuroscience research in the field of neurotrauma.

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Dr. Noble is working to develop targeted therapeutics that will improve recovery after traumatic spinal cord and pediatric brain injuries. Her research relies on cellular, molecular and behavioral tools to identify key mechanisms underlying early cell injury that impair recovery processes in preclinical models of neurotrauma. This multifaceted approach has led to the discovery of new pharmacologic and stem-cell based therapeutics that ameliorate several key features of spinal cord injury; namely, bladder and locomotor dysfunction and central neuropathic pain.

More recent research includes a novel model of concussion to the gyrencephalic adolescent brain where the early immune response may render the brain more vulnerable to repeat insults. In addition, she is addressing the cross-talk between the injured pediatric brain and the microbiome which may give rise to long-term changes in social behaviors.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Research Focus

Novel MRI methods. Novel blood flow and oximetry methods in cardiovascular disease, anemic disorders and cancer. 

Research Interests

Adam Bush develops, validates, and applies novel MRI methods to explore human pathophysiology and make imaging safer, particularly for children. His lab combines engineering, physiology, and medicine to pursue novel blood flow and oximetry methods in disease. 

Lab website:

 https://sites.utexas.edu/tcilab/

Selected Publications