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A team led by Tom Soh, a Project Leader for The Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies has fashioned a small electronic device that can continuously track the level of medicines in an animal's bloodstream. If it works in people, the device could revolutionize how medicines such as anticancer compounds and antibiotics are monitored and administered for life-threatening conditions.

ICB-funded research by Daniel E. Morse and co-workers was featured on the cover of the September 25, 2013 issue of Advanced Functional Materials.  They reported a biologically inspired, kinetically controlled, catalytic approach to synthesizing a new family of nanocrystalline platinum-based catalysts. A novel composite of multiwalled carbon nanotubes and carbon black serves as the matrix for the in situ nucleation and growth of the Pt nanocrystals, providing access to new combinations of porosity, mesoscale morphology, conductivity, and electrochemical activity for hydrogen oxidation.

Seung Soo Oh is one of the recipients of the Baxter Young Investigator Award for his ICB funded research on aptamer polymer hybrids for smart drug delivery in collaboration with Professor H. Tom Soh and Professor Craig Hawker at UCSB. The award includes a $2,000 cash prize. Baxter International Inc. is a global healthcare company specializing in medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and biotechnology. To promote innovative research, Baxter sponsors an annual award program for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

Angela Belcher, ICB faculty member and ICB's-MIT coordinator since the Institute's inception has been awarded the prestigious 2013 $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize. She is being recognized for her work in designing novel, hybrid organic-inorganic materials that have been used to create environmentally-friendly batteries, clean transportation fuel, solar cells, among other inventions with both commercial and social value. The Lemelson-MIT Prize honors an outstanding mid-career inventor dedicated to improving our world through technological invention and innovation.

ICB project leader and UCSB professor Bradley F. Chmelka is appointed Honorary Doctor at Chalmers University for his research achievements within materials chemistry. He has made important contributions to the development and use of methods based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) for characterization of both structure and properties of inorganic materials. Within this field he is a world-leading scientist.

UCSB Chemical Engineering Assistant Professor Michelle O'Malley has received a 2013 Early Career Award by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science for her project "Engineering Anaerobic Gut Fungi for Lignocellulose Breakdown". The award, funded at $750,000 over five years, will go toward O'Malley's ongoing research on biofuels.

Daniel E. Morse, Founding Director of the Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies, was inducted as Fellow of the Materials Research Society for his contributions to understanding the molecular mechanisms of biomineralization; development of novel bioinspired routes to kinetically controlled, low-temperature synthesis of nanostructured inorganic materials.

Assistant Professor Katie Byl received the NSF Early Career Award and $400,000, for her project, "Robust Bipedal Locomotion in Real-World Environments," which aspires to develop tools for analyzing and optimizing quasi-periodic biped gaits for high-dimensional models of both humans and humanoid devices.

Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering Professor Linda Petzold has been selected to receive the 2013 Prize in Computational Science and Engineering from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

Caltech Professor Frances Arnold was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation for her pioneering work on directed evolution. The White House made the announcement on December 21, 2012.