MicroWorkshop | Biomedical Device Design – July 29, 2020

Speakers

Annie Jenson ’12 | A New Approach to Early Sepsis Detection

Project Abstract

Sepsis is a leading cause of death in the hospital in the United States and contributes to more than $20B in annual U.S. healthcare spending. Early diagnosis can help physicians reduce the risk of life-threatening organ damage. At Cytovale, we are developing a microfluidic-based cell imaging system to quantify immune system activation and help predict a patient’s likelihood of developing sepsis.

Annie Jensen’s Bio

Annie Jensen ‘12 is the Director of Technology and Strategic Planning at Cytovale, a medical diagnostics company. As an engineer and product development manager, she is motivated by transforming ideas into commercial products with clear clinical utility.

Alice Zhang ’14 | Patient Centered Design in Comprehensive Diabetes Care

Project Abstract

This talk will discuss new technologies and using a patient centered design approach to provide comprehensive care for Type I diabetes.

Alice Zhang’s Bio

Alice graduated in 2014 from HMC with a degree in Engineering. She is currently a Sr. Mechanical Design Engineer working in R&D at Medtronic Diabetes located in Northridge, CA. A member of SWE since college, Alice also leads STEM outreach workshops through the Medtronic Women in Science and Engineering program.

Enabling High Throughput Single Cell Digital Biology through Berkeley Lights, Inc.’s Optofluidic Platforms

Project Abstract

Discovery of cellular therapies, biopharmaceuticals, and other cell-based products depends on precise, time-consuming, cell-by-cell manipulations. However, biologists need to move faster and more efficiently to meet today’s scientific demands. Our mission is to accelerate the use of cell-based products by providing researchers access to the Berkeley Lights Platform to find the best cells in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods. Through multidisciplinary research and development, Berkeley Lights offers digital biology solutions for a wide range of applications at an unparalleled depth and speed.

Guest Speakers and Bios

Caro de Freitas ’10

Caro de Freitas graduated from Mudd (class of 2010, engineering, research with Prof O’s corneal bioreactor team). After graduation, Caro worked as in-house engineer at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (University of Miami Health System), retrofitting femtosecond lasers for cataract surgery corner cases, building OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) systems to quantify accommodative response, monitor the onset of presbyopia in aging patients, and get a glimpse into better understanding blindness in infants. In 2015, she moved back to California to join the Applications team at Berkeley Lights Inc (BLI, Emeryville, CA) and lead the system integration efforts on all three products we sell; Beacon, Lightning and Culture Station. Today, she sits on the Marketing team in a Product role, helping define and deliver new hardware and software products to the market.

Jonathan Cloud Dragon Hubbard ’10

Cloud graduated from Mudd in 2010 having worked in Prof Lape’s polymer research lab. He has since worked at a Los Alamos National Lab repairing old vacuums, at Lape’s alma mater, the University of Minnesota, repairing 4-point probes, and in his parent’s garage repairing kilns. Cloud is now a Sr. Hardware Engineer, has been at Berkeley Lights since 2015 and has worked on 3 generations of the Beacon platform designing, building, testing, and manufacturing the hardware used in our instruments.

Jose Orozco ’17

Jose Orozco graduated from Mudd in 2017 (Prof Lape’s HP clinic team). Before joining BLI as a MEMS Process Engineer, Jose took 6 months after graduation to really understand what he wanted out of a company. His general engineering background allowed him to vacillate between a myriad of industries. Ultimately, his desire to work for a growing startup and to be at the forefront of new technology is what attracted him to BLI. At BLI, Jose has been involved in the qualification and scaling of the microfluidic chip designs used across all instruments sold at BLI. Specifically, Jose has worked on new design bring up, automation, supply chain management, and quality improvement efforts.

Vincent Pai ’12

Vincent Pai graduated from Mudd (Class of 2012, engineering, research with Prof O’s cornea and nasal stiffness teams) and worked as a lab technician at a startup microfluidics company affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, MA) to isolate rare circulating tumor cells from whole blood. In 2014, Vincent moved back to San Diego to pursue a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences at UCSD, but decided to leave the program with a Masters and joined the Applications team at Berkeley Lights, Inc. (BLI, Emeryville, CA) in 2016. After developing applications and core capabilities for BLI’s Opto-electropositioning (OEP) technology in antibody therapeutics, gene editing, and cell therapy, Vincent is now a program manager leading new product development for the Antibody Discovery applications.