POCDx Member Profiles

Frankie is an NDSEG fellow and a bioengineering PhD student working with Dr. Luke Lee. His research focuses on optical and electrochemical sensor integration in microfluidic lab-on-a-chip devices for medical diagnostics and quantitative biology. Frankie obtained bachelor's degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering from North Carolina State University where he developed embedded computer systems and analog instrumentation for medical implants and robotics. He founded a robotics student organization and led a team of students to design and build an autonomous underwater robot which competed at international events. He also worked on next-generation memory technologies in an organic electronics lab at NCSU where he first became interested in microsystems and chemical sensors.

Tanner is an NDSEG fellow and Ph.D. Candidate working for Dr. Luke Lee. This is his fifth year as a graduate student in bioengineering and his seventh year working directly with microdevices. His research has been focused on developing biosensors for monitoring various biologically-relevant interactions, such as changes in protein shape, DNA hybridization and packing, and antigen-antibody binding. Prior to graduate school, Tanner worked with a small team at a large pharmaceutical company to develop a high throughput screening system for enzyme kinetics studies using a microfluidic format. Tanner’s main project involves an impedimetric point-of-care microdevice aimed at bringing simple microdevices to practical use in real world applications. Recently, Tanner spent a month in Ecuador investigating the feasibility of using this device to diagnose dengue fever in remote regions with little resources. Tanner is functioning as the lead organizer, and will be involved in all aspects of the Idea Lab.

Rick is a second-year bioengineering PhD student. Rick received a B.S. in chemical engineering from MIT. He has worked in a variety of fields at several institutions, including the National Cancer Institute (developing novel leukemia therapies for direct clinical application), the Whitehead Institute (using new genetics tools to model recent instances of positive genetic selection, with applications to HIV research), and the MIT Biomaterials Lab (engineering nanoparticles for potential biological applications). He worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for a year on two projects: creating biological screening panels in the interest of national defense and developing a device for detection and characterization of emerging viral diseases for application in the developing world. He also held an internship at the Booz Allen Hamilton technology consulting firm where he worked on a project developing networks and tools to monitor the emergence and spread of global health risks. He is a certified EMT and has worked as a medical volunteer for impoverished communities in the Dominican Republic. He is fluent in Spanish and has traveled through most of the developing world in Latin America.

Octavian was born in Brasov, Romania on October 10th 1980. He received his B.S. in computer engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada in 2004 and is currently pursuing his PhD in electrical engineering from UC Berkeley, where he working on a fully integrated point-of-care immuno-diagnostic device based on CMOS technology. He has held internships at DEC, Compaq, Quake Technologies, GE, Nokia and Qualcomm, throughout which he has developed control systems for nuclear reactors, software for network management, high speed digital blocks for 10Gb/s and 40Gb/s Ethernet, baseband PLLs for digital timing and RF front-ends for cellular communication. Octavian was a Vodafone Fellow from 2004-2006 and has several US patents with several more pending. Outside of IC design and biotechnology research, his interests include Austrian economics and philosophy.

David is a third-year undergraduate in bioengineering at UC Berkeley. He has previously worked at the Mt. Zion UCSF Medical Center developing a low-flow water feedback control system for intraurethral catheter-based applicators. His current research has been focused on quantum nanoplasmonics, specifically the fabrication of novel Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) substrates. In addition to being very committed to research, David is also Committee Co-Chair for Tau Beta Pi' s Engineering 98, a DeCal for 1st year engineers, as well as Secretary for the Bioengineering Honor Society. He is also Vice President for the UC Berkeley chapter of Engineering World Health (EWH), an undergraduate organization focused on improving healthcare in underdeveloped nations by designing, building, and repairing biomedical equipment. Within EWH, David has worked extensively on overseeing device build sessions, planning hospital tours, and inviting guest speakers.

Hinesh Patel is a second-year undergraduate in bioengineering. He has
recently worked as a lab assistant for Ilka Bischofs-Pfiefer, a Post-Doc
in Adam Arkin’s lab focusing on computational biology. He has also been
involved with the Dorjhana Foundation, a non-profit organization that
provides free health care to remote regions of Nepal. Within the Dorjhana
Foundation, Hinesh has specifically focused on grant research, and on
obtaining useful medical equipment. Hinesh has also been involved with
Engineering World Health at Berkeley and has recently been appointed the
Idea Lab Chair EWH.