News
TANMS Celebrated as a Graduating ERC at the 2022 NSF ERC Biennial Meeting
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TANMS Partners with UCLA Samueli to Provide Fee-for-Service
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Recognizing and Supporting Community College Transfer Students Through TANMS REM
Source: Pilar O'Cadiz, TANMS Education Director In honor of National Transfer Student Week, TANMS would like to recognize Joshua Rodriguez, community college participant in the Center's Research Experience and Mentoring (REM) Program and our 5th annual recipient of the Elijah S. Johnson Award for Engineering Inspiration, Integrity and Scholarly Promise.* Currently, Josh is enrolled as an undergraduate student at El Camino College and aims to transfer next year to UCLA to complete a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He came to TANMS through our partnership with the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) program at El Camino, where he has been an active member. The REM program includes community college students in a TANMS laboratory research experience alongside high school students. Josh served as an excellent near-peer mentor to his two high school student teammates, Cheyenne Arnold and Aurion Montaque, working in the biochemical engineering laboratory of Professor Dino DiCarlo. Under the mentorship of graduate student Hiromi Miwa, Josh and his teammates completed the research project, Development and Use of Single-Domain Multiferroic Array-Addressable Terfenol-D (SMArT) Micromagnets for Capture and Release of Single Cells. He will be presenting this research at the Emerging Researchers National Conference in Washington D.C. February 3-5, 2022. Josh is a natural leader with a keen ability to focus on the task ahead, which is not surprising given that he is a Veteran of the US Army serving overseas as a Sergeant in the Airborne Infantry. Reflecting on his TANMS experience Josh says, “I realize how vast the research opportunities are and how cooperative different disciplines can be;” and adds, “My involvement with the various grad students [in TANMS] has humanized my perception of postgraduate education.” Because of his TANMS involvement, Josh is now considering graduate school as a possibility in his future. TANMS is very proud of all our REM participants from the past four years, many of whom have transferred and continued on STEM pathways since 2018. After spending the 2021 summer in the Tolbert lab, Los Angeles Valley College student Ruben Bautista transferred to the Biochemistry program at Cal State Northridge this fall. Our 2020 REM participant and E. S. Robinson awardee, Ana Venerio, transferred from El Camino College to the UC San Diego Mathematics program. Another El Camino transfer student and REM alumni, Sepedah Ariana Naghibi, and E. S. Robinson awardee, recently completed her BS degree in Physics at UC Irvine and entered the Electrical Engineering Master's program at San Diego State University in fall 2021. *This award is given to a TANMS research participant in memory of Elijah S. Robinson (2000-2017) who exemplified TANMS’ values and vision in his collaborative spirit, resilience and persistence in pursuit of higher education and engineering career goals. |
TANMS Researchers Create Programmable Micromagnets for Single-Cell Sorting
Original Article: UCLA Bioengineering Newsroom A
team led by UCLA engineers was able to structure the exotic material Terfenol-D
and show it could be formed into arrays of digitally-switchable micro-magnets
to control the capture and release of individual cells, promising to enable
selection of cells by their function to enhance cell therapies. New advances in cell engineering for personalized therapies can benefit from selection of individual cells based on their complex behaviors or time-dependent functions (such as cell killing, secretion, or movement). Current cell sorting technologies mainly use cell surface markers as a surrogate for cell function, observing these markers instantaneously during sorting processes, instead of looking at cell function itself. To address this challenge, a UCLA-led interdisciplinary research team developed arrays of magnets to isolate magnetically-tagged cells, observe them, and then selectively release one based on a time-dependent behavior. Electromagnets at the scale of cells are two weak and consume too much power, so they instead looked to a new type of exotic magnetic material, Terfenol-D, that can maintain strong magnetic poles, but can be switched intermittently with an electric field. These types of materials are called multiferroic, and are the focus of the NSF Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic Systems (TANMS) located at UCLA and directed by Greg Carman, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. The study, published online in the journal Advanced Materials, was supervised by Dino Di Carlo, the Armond and Elena Hairapetian Professor of Engineering and Medicine, Greg Carman, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) and Rob Candler, Professor of Electrical Engineering (EE). Reem Khojah, a PhD student in the department of Bioengineering was the lead author. Co-first authors Zhuyun (Maggie) Xiao (EE) and Dr. Mohanchandra K. Panduranga (MAE) with additional collaborators included a team at UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The team first fabricated Terfenol-D microstructures at scales the size of a cell over the surface of a wafer. They found that the structures possessed a single magnetic domain over a larger area than found in previous magnetic materials, leading to higher magnetic field strengths. These Terfenol-D microstructures enabled controlled trapping of magnetic beads with sub-micrometer precision. Magnetically labeled cells were then captured by the large magnetic field gradients generated from the single-domain microstructures. The magnetic state on these microstructures was switched through applying voltage to another material adjacent to the Terfenol-D micro-magnets. The electric field caused that material to deform and therefore modulated the magnetic state of the Terfenol-D micro-magnets, releasing individual cells. The researchers showed the system was compatible with an assay used to characterize secreted molecules from T cells, a type of white blood cell that is critical in developing immunity to viruses and pathogens, and being leveraged for new cancer cell therapies. The proof of concept lays the ground work for large arrays of magnets to capture, observe, and selectively release cells with specific functions that may lead to improved performance as a therapy.Additional Reading: Programmable Micromagnets for Single-Cell Sorting, Advanced Light Source, May 19, 2021 |
Ana Venerio Named as 2021 Elijah S. Robinson Award Recipient
TANMS is proud to announce Ana Venerio as the 2021 recipient of
the TANMS Elijah S. Robinson Award for Inspiration, Integrity, and Scholarly
Promise in Engineering.* Ana Venerio participated in the TANMS Research and
Mentoring Program (REM), which pairs high school and community college students
in research teams to carry out a TANMS related research project. This past
year, the REM program was offered online this year due to the UCLA campus
closure and began in October 2020 through January 2021. Despite the virtual
program experience, Ana stood out as a natural leader and a dedicated
researcher and mentor to her high school research team partner, as well as a role
model to her REM cohort. Ana and her partner Evan Jones carried out their
research experience in the laboratory of Yuanxun
Ethan Wang, Professor Electrical Engineering,
undergraduate student Nancy Qian Gao's mentorship. They completed the project, Ferromagnetic
Resonance Enhanced Electrically Small Antennas, and presented together at the
national NSF 2021 Virtual REM Meeting, February 11-12, 2021.
Ana says that the TANMS Research and Mentoring program “gave me the confidence I needed to know I can conduct research. She recognizes the value of learning about diversity in STEM, reflecting that, “It was very eye-opening to see that the sciences field is not as diverse as I thought it would be. This information gave me more fuel to work hard to be part of the science community and represent Hispanic people. As a result of her REM experience, she is now interested in continuing to pursue “research on ferromagnetic materials and the different ways they can be used to improve different systems.” Although born in Fresno, California, Ana's family moved to Nicaragua when she was an infant. She returned to the United States as a teenager and quickly devoted herself to learning English and preparing for college. Upon enrolling at Camino College, Ana began working as a Math Coach to fellow students, an experience that led her to discover her gift for teaching. Ana's goal is to become a mathematics or physics professor. Ana Venerio is sure to achieve her objectives and make a positive impact where ever she ultimately lands. Congratulations Ana, the TANMS family wishes you all the best! *In memory of TANMS Elijah S. Robinson (2000-2017) |
TANMS Research Team Devises New Ferrobotic System
Announced in a recent publication by Science Robotics titled "A ferrobotic system for automated microfluidic logistics", TANMS research team led by Professor Dino Di Carlo in UCLA Department of Bioengineering in collaboration with the UCLA Interconnected and Integrated Bioelectronics Lab led by Professor Sam Emaminejad has successfully devised a robotic system that uses a network of individually addressable ferrobots, each performing designated micro-/nanofluid manipulation-based tasks in cooperation with other robots. This breakthrough provides a solution to resolving major bottlenecks encountered in fields such as medical diagnostics, -omics, drug development, and chemical/material synthesis. Congratulations to the team for their outstanding work! Publication Abstract Automated technologies that can perform massively parallelized and sequential fluidic operations at small length scales can resolve major bottlenecks encountered in various fields, including medical diagnostics, -omics, drug development, and chemical/material synthesis. Inspired by the transformational impact of automated guided vehicle systems on manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution industries, we devised a ferrobotic system that uses a network of individually addressable robots, each performing designated micro-/nanofluid manipulation-based tasks in cooperation with other robots toward a shared objective. The underlying robotic mechanism facilitating fluidic operations was realized by addressable electromagnetic actuation of miniature mobile magnets that exert localized magnetic body forces on aqueous droplets filled with biocompatible magnetic nanoparticles. The contactless and high-strength nature of the actuation mechanism inherently renders it rapid (~10 centimeters/second), repeatable (>10,000 cycles), and robust (>24 hours). The robustness and individual addressability of ferrobots provide a foundation for the deployment of a network of ferrobots to carry out cross-collaborative logistics efficiently. These traits, together with the reconfigurability of the system, were exploited to devise and integrate passive/active advanced functional components (e.g., droplet dispensing, generation, filtering, and merging), enabling versatile system-level functionalities. By applying this ferrobotic system within the framework of a microfluidic architecture, the ferrobots were tasked to work cross-collaboratively toward the quantification of active matrix metallopeptidases (a biomarker for cancer malignancy and inflammation) in human plasma, where various functionalities converged to achieve a fully automated assay.Source: Science Robotics 26 Feb 2020: Vol. 5, Issue 39, eaba4411 DOI: 10.1126/scirobotics.aba4411 |
TANMS Faculty Receives Lockheed Martin Excellence in Teaching Award
On February 22, 2020, UCLA Samueli School of Engineering hosted its annual UCLA Samueli Awards Dinner where the UCLA Engineering Family gather to celebrate the school's impact and honor accomplished alumni, faculty and students. This year, Professor Rob Candler, TANMS Faculty and 3D Thrust Lead, was recognized with the Lockheed Martin Excellence in Teaching Award. The Lockheed Martin Excellence in Teaching Award honors the achievements of a senior faculty member who have proven records of offering students the best possible engineering education through innovative and inspirational teaching methods, curriculum development and support of student academic efforts. TANMS is honored to have Professor Candler as part of our family and congratulates him on this well-deserved recognition. Photo credit: https://samueli.ucla.edu/2020-awards-dinner-awardees/ |
TANMS Recognizes the 2019 CLIMB Award Recipients
In Spring 2019, the Chen & Liang Inspiring Multiferroic Brilliance Awards (CLIMB) awards were established through the initiative and generous contributions of TANMS Alumni, Cai Chen and Cheng-Yen Liang to recognize the accomplishments and potentials of talented TANMS undergraduate and graduate students committed to making a positive impact in the world through engineering research, scientific and technological advancement, leadership and education. On the morning of January 29, in front researchers representing academia, industry, and government entities attending the TANMS Annual Research Strategy Meeting (ARSM), TANMS Education Director, Dr. Pilar O'Cadiz recognized the four 2019 CLIMB Award recipients: Kevin Fitzell, Sidhant Tiwari, Ka'Toria Edwards, and Christina Seeholzer. These four award recipients, two doctoral students, and two undergraduate students, were selected from the pool of applicants for their exceptional commitment and achievement in the following areas:
Congratulations again to Kevin, Sidhant, K'Toria, and Christina for their outstanding accomplishments. Applications for the 2020 CLIMB Awards are now being accepted. Awards will be announced in June 2020. For additional information, go to http://slc.tanms-erc.org/climb-award . ![]() |
TANMS Successfully Hosts the 6th Annual Research Strategy Meeting
On January 28-29, researchers representing academia, industry, and government agencies gathered for the 6th Annual Research Strategy Meeting (ARSM). This annual event has been generating growing interest in the potentials of multiferroic applications since its first meeting in 2014. The 2020 meeting with the theme focused on advancing low frequency antennas may be the most successful yet. As a result of this meeting, TANMS Center Director, Professor Greg Carman, organized a committee of leading experts in the field to propose a potential topic for the Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI). We look forward to hosting this successful event again next year! |