Attendees
John Penhune, Xiaohua Huang, Christophe H. Schilling, Laurie Phillips, David Gough, Michael Whitt, Scott E. Anderson, Robert Sah, Michelle Mazzoni, William Butler, Luchy Roteliuk, Richard Lieber, Shu Chien, Tatyana Matusov, Stephen Flaim, Robert Seay, Douglas Sexton

Dr. Chien opened the meeting by introducing new members of the board. He welcomed Scott Anderson, Vice President of New Market Development at EnduraTEC, to the board. EnduraTEC is a new member of the Industrial Affiliate Program. Douglas Sexton, Life Sciences R&D Manager at Hewlett Packard was invited to the meeting to get acquainted with the program benefits and consider joining it.

Shu Chien announced that Bill Craig, the Industrial Advisory Board Chair, was not able to attend the meeting due to the change in dates of FDA review at his company. Shu Chien asked John Penhune, immediate past chair of the board, to chair the meeting.

Dr. Penhune welcomed the new members and praised Dr. Chien for his key role in the new building construction.

Approval of Minutes from 10/28/02 meeting
Approved as submitted.

Presentation "Single Molecule Analysis and Integrated Bioanalytical Systems for Genome Research"
Dr. Chien introduced Dr. Xiaohua Huang, a new Bioengineering faculty member. Dr. Huang received his B.S. in Chemistry from Zhongshan University in China and his Ph.D. in Biophysical Chemistry from Stanford University. Following graduate school, he did post-doctoral work with Prof. David C. Ward in the Departments of Genetics and Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics at Yale University. Prior to his appointment in UCSD Bioengineering, Dr. Huang was a post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School under the direction of Prof. George M. Church.

The talk presented by Professor Xiaohua Huang was titled "Single Molecule Analysis and Integrated Bioanalytical Systems for Genome Research".

Dr. Huang began by giving a brief review on the state-of-the-art high throughput technologies for genomics and systems biology research. Cited examples include DNA chip and automated DNA sequencing technologies which have enabled whole genome gene expression profiling and sequencing. The advent of these technologies has fundamentally changed the ways we carry out biology and biomedical research. However, he pointed out that these technologies still have great limitations. For examples, with the current DNA sequencing technologies, we still can not practically sequence any individual human beings and biological species as we desire, for comprehensive molecular diagnoses, for association, pharmacogenetic and comparative genomic studies, and to sequence any cancer cells to understand the genetic origin of tumorigeneses. Clearly there are great needs for the development of more advanced next-generation technologies with higher level of parallelization, miniaturization and integration. Dr. Huang said one major focus of his new lab was to employ physico-chemical, biochemical, and engineering principles to develop such enabling technologies.

Dr. Huang introduced a new technology he and his collaborators have developed called rolling circle amplification (RCA). In RCA, a primer is hybridized to a circular DNA template. Linear amplification of the template is then carried out by a DNA polymerase with strand-displacement capability. One unique feature of linear RCA is that the amplified long linear product remains attached to the original primer. This feature makes linear RCA an ideal reporter system for single molecule detection. As examples, Dr. Huang showed that single point mutations can be detected in single cell nuclei and on stretched DNA fibers. He also presented another variation of the RCA called hyper-branched RCA (HRCA), which is an even more powerful method for DNA amplification. In HRCA, in the presence of a second primer that can hybridize to the initial linear amplified product, a hyper-branched cascade strand-displacement mechanism takes place and geometric amplification of the original DNA molecules ensues. It was shown that HRCA is even more powerful than PCR for the amplification of circular DNA templates.

Dr. Huang pointed out that the major bottleneck for the current genome sequencing process is the labor-intensive multi-step clone-by-clone manipulations of numerous individual DNA molecules, analogous to the process used to manufacture computers by labor-intensive component-by-component assembly in the older days. He said what he was trying to accomplish was to develop the modern "integrated circuit" version of genome sequencing and analysis technology. So the focus of his talk was on how to develop an integrated lab-on-a-chip system for separation, cloning, and analyses of individual DNA molecules in massive parallel. He continued on to show that with RCA tens to hundreds of millions of single DNA molecules can be separated andcloned in parallel on the surface of a single microscope slide. These individual clones ranging from 1-10 um in diameter can serve as micro-reactors and sensors. Finally, Dr. Huang outlined his strategy to develop the next-generation integrated systems for whole genome sequencing and digital gene expression profiling based on his current work.

Dr. Huang was asked to provide the members with the web site address for his research. Tatyana promised to send the link to his web site together with the minutes.

Stephen Flaim asked if Dr. Huang explored the commercial application of his new technology. He recommended discussing such opportunities with the von Liebig Center. Christophe Schilling was interested in the potential cost of the new method. Douglas Sexton and Xiaohua Huang discussed other laboratories that conduct similar kinds of research.

Students Internships Update
Imani Tyus reported to the members on the program development. She had several students for placement and would share their resumes with interested companies. Her e-mail address is ityus@ioeng.ucsd.edu.

Update for the West Coast Regulatory Meeting
Shu Chien reported that Bill Craig, Bob Nerem and he had a telephone conference on the proposed West Coast Regulatory Meeting. Bob Nerem of Georgia Tech and Ken Keller of the Medical Technology Leadership Forum (MTLF) co-sponsored the meeting last year in Atlanta, and they would co-sponsor the next meeting in San Diego.

On behalf of Bill Craig, Shu Chien asked for the volunteers to work on the organizing committee. Laurie Phillips and Stephen Flaim agreed to serve on the committee. Shu Chien asked those who are interested to let Bill Craig know at his e-mail address.

System-Wide Bioengineering Symposium
Shu Chien announced that the 4th UC System-wide Bioengineering Symposium would take place on June 22 and 23, 2003. Shu Chien is chair of the symposium and Geert Schmid-Schönbein, Professor of Bioengineering at UCSD, is the Program Committee Chair. A steering committee has been formed with representatives from each of the UC campuses. Every year the symposium is held at a different campus to have the participation of all campuses to exchange research results and ideas. We plan to have industrial exhibits and job fair at the June 22-23 symposium in San Diego, and Shu Chien asked members of the Board to support and participate in these activities. It is expected 400 participants from the nine UC campuses will attend the symposium, which would give good exposure of the companies to all campuses. If the Systemwide Bioengineering Multicampus Research Unit (MRU) proposal is approved before the symposium, it will be launched at the symposium.

Shu Chien also invited members of the Board to participate in the annual Graduate Student Symposium, which was scheduled for March 8, 2003, from 9:00 am to 2:30 pm.

Tissue Engineering Symposium
Professor Robert Sah announced the California Tissue Engineering meeting to be held on September 26 & 27, 2003 at UCSD. Following is the mission statement for the meeting provided by Bob Sah:

"The purpose of California Tissue Engineering Meeting is to provide a forum for education and dissemination of research and development knowledge, for students and researchers in academics and industry, in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The meetings are open to all interested investigators, with a particular focus on students and young investigators within the State of California. The meetings will allow students and researchers to gain new knowledge across the broad tissue engineering field and the related research and development areas. They will provide a forum for young investigators to present and discuss their own work. They will provide an environment that will encourage exchange of information and collaboration between individuals, groups, and between academia and industry."

Dr. Tony Ratcliffe and Dr. Sangeeta Bhatia are among the speakers at the meeting. There were about 200 participants at the last year event. This year the organizers expect 300-400 attendees.

Report on the 2nd La Jolla Glucose Monitoring and Control Conference
Dr. David Gough reported that the 2nd La Jolla Conference on Glucose Monitoring and Control, which took place on February 13-15, 2003, was a tremendous success. In response to John Penhune's question, David Gough said that the glucose monitoring technology was now widely used in the medical field. The members expressed their interest in the conference proceedings. Tatyana was asked to send the conference web site link to the members. They will be able to find the program schedule and abstracts on the conference web site.

Other Business and Next Meeting Date
Shu Chien reported that the department recently hired two more faculty members - Dr. Wayne Giles (Cardiac Physiology and Bioengineering) from University of Calgary and Trey Ideker (Systems Biology) from MIT. In the nearest future, two more professors will join the department.

Dr. Chien repeated the important event dates:

• Jacobs School of Engineering Research Review -
  February 28, 2003
• Bioengineering Graduate Student Symposium -
  March 8, 2003
• Dedication of the Fung Auditorium in the Powell-Focht Building -
  April 4, 2003 (5:30 pm)
• UC System-wide Symposium - June 22-23, 2003
• Tissue Engineering Meeting - September 26 and 27, 2003
• West Coast Regulatory Meeting -
  November 2003, the date to be determined

The date for the next Industrial Advisory Board meeting will be determined from the survey form to be sent to Board members.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 am and Drs. David Gough and Bob Sah took the members for a tour of the new building.

Respectfully submitted: Tatyana Matusov