Symposium Marks 10 Years of Caltech-City of Hope Partnership

Ten years ago, Caltech and City of Hope forged a partnership that combined what each institute was best at—engineering and medicine, respectively—with the goal of developing new biomedical technologies.

This October, researchers came together to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Caltech-City of Hope Biomedical Research Initiative and highlight recent noteworthy projects funded by the initiative.

This year's featured projects were:

• Assessing cardiovascular health and testing for the presence of metabolic disease using a handheld device developed by Mory Gharib (PhD '83), the Hans W. Liepmann Professor of Aeronautics and Bioinspired Engineering. The research is being conducted by Joanne Mortimer, a professor and researcher at City of Hope, and Danny Petrasek, a visiting associate and lecturer in medical engineering at Caltech.

• A system for tracking the location of tumors during surgery using implantable magnetic beacons and a sensor array placed near the area being operated on. The system is being developed by Yu-Chong Tai, Caltech's Anna L. Rosen Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering, Andrew and Peggy Cherng Medical Engineering Leadership Chair, and executive officer for medical engineering; and Yuman Fong, a professor and surgeon at City of Hope.

In all, the initiative has funded 53 collaborations between researchers at Caltech and City of Hope. They include research into early detection of breast cancer, a treatment for HIV, and research into the effects gut microbes have on the immune system, among many others. It involves researchers from the divisions of Engineering and Applied Science, Biology and Biological Engineering, and Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.