Zohora Iqbal
PhD student
My Education Path
My Education Path
• Undergraduate
– Las Positas/Chabot College (2.5 years)
– UC Berkeley (2.5 years)
• Working at start-up
– Ion Torrent (1 year)
• Graduate School
– UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco combined
graduate program (current)
Bioengineer
Engineering
Biology
technical
problemsolving
study of life
and medicine
BIOENGINEERING
amyris.com
Bioengineering Research at Berkeley
•
Bioinstrumentation
–
–
imaging: MRI  imaging near metal
implants
diagnostic tools: micro/nano scale
protein analysis
bioMEMS: microfabricated devices
–
artificial organs
–
•
•
Biomaterials and Nanotechnology
–
–
•
Stem cells
single cell studies to better understand
cellular systems
Computational Biology
–
–
•
biomimetics
surface coating for implants
Cell and Tissue Engineering
–
–
•
Microfluidics, drug delivery systems
dna and protein data analysis.
producing models of proteins or
biomolecules
Systems and Synthetic Biology
–
controlling microbes to produce desired
molecules such as insulin…fuels,
plastics..etc. medication..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i-_1QdY2Zc
Undergraduate Research Experiences
• Sandia National Lab in
Livermore
– microfluidics: single
cell macrophage studies
– picoliter reaction
chambers
• Virginia Tech: Davalos
Lab
– simulation of devices
for cancer cell
separation
• UC Berkeley: Herr Lab
– on-chip protein
separation based on
isoelectric point
Working at Ion
-array of wells
-each one holds a bead with thousands
of single stranded DNA
-nucleotide flows over it, and if one gets
incorporated, H+ released, and so by
measuring the pH
Why PhD?
• More opportunities
– especially in the bioE field…lot of work going on in
research
– easier to lead your own project:
Rotations
• Roy Lab
– lung project
• Maharbiz Lab
– Miniaturized Tesla turbine
• Herr Lab
– protein separation
• PICKED ROY LAB: Artificial Kidney
Kidney
Nephron
• cleans out toxins and
excess substances
from blood
• filtration based on size
driven by blood
pressure
• reabsorption of
necessary nutrients,
solutes and water via
active and passive
transport
End Stage Renal Disease
• ESRD: complete or near
complete loss of kidney
function, often due to
diabetes and/or
hypertension
• Current treatment:
– kidney transplant
– hemodialysis
• typically done ~3x/week
using external diffusion
driven dialysis system
– peritoneal dialysis
• patient’s own pertoneum in
diffusion driven filtration
ESRD Statistics
• Data from 2010
– more than ~170,000
new ESRD patients
added
– prevalence: ~0.6 million
– total kidney transplants:
17,778
– total Medicare ESRD
expenditure: $33 billion
– total ESRD expenditure:
$47.5 billion
Artificial Kidney
• 2 parts: filtration and
reabsorption
– filtration based on size
– reabsorption bioreactor
• use of silicon membrane
– why silicon?
• uniformity  high selectivity
• robustness
• ease of fabrication through
MEMS technology
• mass production
• high throughput given area
Silicon Membrane
• Pore Size:
– long slits
• pore length: 4.5 um
• pore height: 13 nm pore
• pore width: 40 um
Biofouling
-Cells and proteins attach to
surface limiting filtration
polySBMA surface coating
BrTMOS initiator
SBMA
Silicon
Key Points
• Be a team player
• Know how to avail the resources you have
• Learn how to learn: be willing to learn new
materials