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September 25, 2003

Media Contacts:
For Sangeeta Bhatia:
Denine Hagen, UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering, 858-534-2920
For TR100 and Technology Review:
Kristen Collins, Technology Review, 617-475-8010

UCSD’s SANGEETA BHATIA NAMED ONE OF THE WORLD’S TOP YOUNG INNOVATORS BY MIT’s TECHNOLOGY REVIEW MAGAZINE

Sangeeta Bhatia, associate professor of bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Jacobs School of Engineering has been named to MIT Technology Review’s 2003 TR100 — a list of the world’s 100 Top Innovators under age 35. Bhatia is being recognized for her groundbreaking research in nanotechnology, medicine and tissue engineering.

Quantum dots programmed to emit red or green light were injected into mice and delivered to three different tissues. The qdot’s destination was determined by its peptide coating which coded for either normal lung tissue, the blood vessels feeding tumors, or the lymphatic vessels draining the tumor tissue.

Most recently, Bhatia collaborated with Burnham Institute’s Erkki Ruoslahti to demonstrate the feasibility of targeting quantum dot “nanomachines” to tumors in live animals. The team is now developing the nanomachines to deliver a payload of cancer-fighting drugs directly to tumors.

Hydrogels containing living cells can be patterned into 3-D structures by photocrosslinking each layer through a mask. These figures show two (a, b) and three (d, e) layered hydrogel patterns. The hydrogels in b, d, e all contain live cells. Using this technique, complex tissue-like structures can be created by including various cell types in different 3-D configurations

In the area of tissue engineering, Bhatia recently created a technique to assemble different cell types together in a live, multi-layered structure. The work, which involves photopatterning on hydrogels, paves the way for engineering functional complex tissues such as liver and cartilage tissue.

Using microfabrication tools, Bhatia is creating three-dimensional silicon arrays with wells for single cells. A) cross section of silicon pore array B) Fluorescent beads in the array wells

Another development in Bhatia’s lab has implications for drug discovery, stem cell biology and functional genomics. Combining micropatterning techniques, novel materials such as porous silicon, and unconventional physical forces to manipulate cells, Bhatia has developed a repertoire of tools to allow the investigation of cellular responses to environmental stimuli.

Bhatia received the award September 24th at The Emerging Technologies Conference at MIT www.etc2003.com.

Links: Sangeeta Bhatia’s Microscale Tissue Engineering Laboratory: http://mtel.ucsd.edu/