UC San Diego’s New Bioengineering Labs Open Doors for Student Innovation

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• Liezel Labios- [email protected]

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• Bioengineering Instructional Lab
• Hands-on Learning

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When students in the University of California San Diego's Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering step into their newly renovated instructional labs this fall, they'll find themselves in cutting-edge spaces designed not just for hands-on learning, but with the specific needs of bioengineering in mind.

For bioengineering students, the facilities are more than just new rooms with state-of-the-art features for instructional labs and senior design projects - they are a place to belong. "We're all really excited that this year there will be a new dedicated space for bioengineering students," said Kate Reimold, a rising senior majoring in Bioengineering: Biotechnology and the president of UC San Diego's chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). "This is now a space where we can feel as though it is made for us. And it's in the bioengineering building. It will be our home."

That sense of pride and ownership is part of what the department hoped to create when it began upgrading its teaching spaces in 2024. Now complete, The Bioengineering Instructional Lab - a 3,100 square-foot facility located on the lower level of Powell-Focht Bioengineering Hall - more than doubles the capacity of previous instructional labs and is expected to train more than 400 students annually. This lab is meant to be a student-centered space that directly enriches the undergraduate experience.

"The lab experiments of today look nothing like those of 20 years ago. Our students sequence DNA and RNA, perform CRISPR screens, create instruments to measure electrical activity in cells and so much more. This modern facility enables that training, and as our field advances, so too will this lab space - we built it recognizing the need to prepare for tomorrow's experiments today. That approach ensures that our graduates will meet the challenges of our local biotech and medtech sectors," said Adam Engler, professor and chair of the Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering, who holds the Kenneth Bowles Endowed Chair at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. "Thank you to everyone who made this big project possible - especially our alumni and friends who have stepped up with inspiring generosity."

Enhanced Hands-on Learning Spaces

The Bioengineering Instructional Lab consists of two complementary facilities that bring together different aspects of hands-on bioengineering education under one roof.

The Instructional Biotech Core Laboratory will serve as the home base for core undergraduate lab courses such as BENG 160 (Chemical & Molecular Bioengineering Techniques) and BENG 162 (Biotechnology Laboratory), as well as the graduate-level course BENG 277/BIOM 287 (Tissue Engineering Laboratory). This space will also host summer courses for high school students through UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies and the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS). Designed with flexibility and future-proofing in mind, The Instructional Biotech Core Laboratory features modular spaces, including 20 movable and reconfigurable benches for biological experiments. It also houses dedicated rooms for cell and tissue culture, cold storage, and labware and supplies.

Next door, The BioElectronics and Innovation Laboratory will provide a workshop-style space for building and testing bioengineering senior capstone design projects. Equipped with 3D printers, electronics assembly and testing stations, soldering areas and power tools, the space provides everything needed to envision, prototype and refine bioengineering devices.

Together, the two labs form a seamless pipeline where students can design a medical device in one space, test it with living cells in the culture room, and validate it in vivo. This integrated workflow is the first of its kind in the UC system, Engler noted. "Nowhere else in the UC system can a student accomplish this all in one place, on one floor."

Made for Bioengineering

Undergraduate students are particularly excited to have a makerspace tailored to the unique needs of bioengineering. Members of the Biomedical Engineering Society, for example, will now have access to facilities that better support their technical projects involving sensitive tissue cultures and living materials.

"Until now, bioengineering students have relied on campus makerspaces that felt more geared toward other engineering majors," said Reimold. "Those spaces have plenty of great resources and are open to everyone, but there's a special sense of home in having a space built specifically for bioengineering. This new lab removes so many barriers and opens up new doors for us."

Faculty share the enthusiasm. Larger facilities and smaller group sizes mean students will gain more hands-on time with instruments and techniques. The department can also expand access to existing lab courses and create new ones. By enriching student learning, the new facilities will also prepare graduates with the practical skills needed to meet the demands of tomorrow's biotechnology and life sciences workforce.

"I am grateful and thrilled that we'll have increased design prototyping and testing capabilities that span bioelectronics, tissue culture, 3D printing and more," said Alyssa Taylor, teaching professor in the Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering, who teaches bioinstrumentation and coordinates the senior design program. "This will enable the interdisciplinary student projects that create solutions for life and health - developing skills they can carry into internships, research lab experiences, graduate education and careers."

Honoring and Continuing a Legacy

Campus leaders echoed this excitement. At the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new space, Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla and Executive Vice Chancellor Elizabeth H. Simmons expressed that the scale, flexibility and capabilities of the labs will fundamentally change the way UC San Diego educates its bioengineering students.

The new facilities also serve as a tribute to the bioengineering department's namesakes - Shu Chien and Gene Lay - internationally renowned pioneers in bioengineering and long-time advocates of education and research. Both Chien and Lay joined the UC San Diego community members at the event celebrating the opening of the new space.

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