News
Chemical and Biological Engineering PhD Student Bruce Kirkpatrick was honored with the 2025 Outstanding Dissertation Award. His hydrogel research supports technologies that enable 3D cell culture for tissue engineering and disease modeling, as well as acellular biomaterials for applications like controlled release of drugs or vaccines.
Three Chemical and Biological Engineering professors, Jason A. Burdick, Michael D. McGehee and Michael F. Toney were featured among highly cited researchers in 2025.
In the study recently published in the journal Nature, researchers developed a polymer coating that is nearly impermeable to gases, which could help prevent corrosion in solar panels and slow the aging of packaged food and medicines.
A new CU Boulder study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reveals how electric fields control nanoparticle movement through porous materials, enabling independent control of speed and direction. This finding could advance nanorobot technologies for applications like tumor detection, drug delivery and environmental cleanup of toxic chemicals.
The win came at the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ international Chem-E-Car competition in Boston, where CU Boulder’s poster stood out among 56 teams.
Arianna McCarty, a chemical and biological engineering senior, has distinguished herself through a remarkable combination of academic and research excellence, earning the Astronaut, Boettcher and Goldwater scholarships. Her research spans computational genomics, the respiratory microbiome and tissue engineering aimed at improving heart health.
Assistant Professor Ankur Gupta, the study’s lead researcher, and his team have developed a way to simulate natural animal patterns, including their imperfections. The findings could lead to new materials that turn to camouflage on demand.
Professor Michael Shirts' graduate student, Anika Friedman, was awarded the American Chemicals Society's Chemical Computing Group Excellence Award for Graduate Students. The award was presented at the CS Fall 2025 in Washington, DC.
A CU Boulder research team co-led by Distinguished Professor Christopher Bowman has received up to $5.8 million from ARPA-H to develop new treatments that temporarily suspend the immune response after severe burns or tissue injuries, aiming to reduce pain, speed healing and prevent long-term damage. The approach could also benefit patients with limited access to immediate medical care.
SPUR student Joshua Smith joined researchers in the Shields Lab to develop microrobots that actively deliver drugs to the lungs—an innovative approach that could transform treatment for acute respiratory distress syndrome.