April 30, 2012 | UW Bioengineering

Crowd-sourcing helps Herbert Sauro develop new system for learning about biological processes

Can students better learn some of the basic concepts of biology by working with an electrical circuit designed to mimic a biological system? BIOE professor Herbert Sauro hopes that such a system could help students learn about processes like gene regulation by being able to control different ‘genes’ and monitor their activity and interactions through LED readouts.

After coming up with the design of the system, Sauro turned to a web community called Microryza that uses crowd-sourced fundraising to support innovative scientific projects. Sauro raised more than $1100 from donors on Microryza, and that will help him and undergraduate student Bennett Ng build a prototype of the circuit, as well as pay for pre-printed circuit boards and educational materials for colleges and high schools to build and use their own copies of the system.

April 10, 2012 | UW Bioengineering

UW BIOE Professor Dr. Joan Sanders featured in the Seattle Times

Dr. Joan Sanders was one of hundreds of researchers across Washington state to benefit from federal economic stimulus funding. The stimulus ultimately supported innovative reseach and development of projects such as Dr. Sander's diagnostic tool to help improve the fit of prosthetic legs.