Gregory Poore
PhD Graduate Student, 4th YearY. C. “Bert” Fung Interdisciplinary Award
This award recognizes the superior scholarship of UCSD Bioengineering graduate students
Greg was nominated by Professor Rob Knight and was selected for this prestigious award particularly because he has assembled and led a team of international collaborators to define the cancer microbiome (bacteria, viruses, and fungi that live in tumors) and use it to guide diagnosis. He succeeded where many others had failed through a combination of technical advances from his engineering training and clinical insight from his medical training, and his company, Micronoma, is bringing cancer microbiome diagnostics to the large number of patients who can benefit.
Dr. Yuan-Cheng "Bert" Fung
Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering1919-2019Distinguished Professor Yuan-Cheng “Bert” Fung, was known as the father of biomechanics
Professor Yuan-Cheng “Bert” Fung, was known as “the father of biomechanics” and one of the founders of the discipline of bioengineering. Professor Fung was the first to realize that physics and mechanics apply to living tissues just as they do to manmade structures, giving rise to the field of biomechanics.
Later, Fung was the first to coin the term “tissue engineering.” Professor Fung received a National Medal of Science in 2000, the first bioengineer to earn the distinction. He also was the fourth individual in history elected into all three branches of the National Academies—Science, Engineering and Institute of Medicine.