Research Topics

Research at the Beckman Institute is organized into four broad themes. In the spirit of interdisciplinary research, many areas of study often cross these loosely defined themes. For example, researchers from the Biological Intelligence and the Human-Computer Intelligent Interaction research theme are working together in areas such as linguistics, with translational outcomes like automatic speech recognition software. Faculty in the Molecular and Electronic Nanostructures and Integrative Imaging research themes are collaborating in areas such as bioengineering, with applications like biosensors for disease detection. The research topics below provide insight into some of the cross-disciplinary projects that are happening at the Beckman Institute in advanced computational methods, bioengineering, bioimaging, cancer research, cognitive and brain health, electronics, linguistics and language learning, and self-healing materials.

    • Advanced Computational Methods

      Creating advancements in computer science and developing computational methods for a wide range of applications have been fundamental to the work taking place at the Beckman Institute since it opened more than 20 years ago. Research here is improving the human-computer interface through advances in areas such as search engines and face and voice recognition software, fueling discoveries by providing researchers with spectacularly simulated views of molecular scale biological processes, and taking medical and scientific imaging technologies into a future of higher resolution and faster results.

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    • Bioengineering Research

      Biological engineering, or bioengineering, applies engineering principles in areas of biology, especially in the medical field, but also for industrial and scientific research purposes. At the Beckman Institute, bioengineering research lines may include man-made systems inspired by biology, or use biological components in engineered technologies, or result in biological or medical applications. It is an exciting area that is transforming the worlds of medicine, industry, and science with applications like biosensors for detecting toxins and technologies that can probe and manipulate at the molecular scale.

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    • Bioimaging Research

      Biological imaging methods like ultrasound and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) have been important tools in medicine for decades, but in recent years these and other, newer, imaging modalities have increasingly become an integral part of research in a wide variety of scientific disciplines. These imaging tools are providing never-before-seen views of the biological world, both for scientific research and for medical purposes such as diagnosis and therapy.

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    • Cancer Research

      The medical and scientific worlds have known for many years that in order to truly understand and treat cancer, the fight has to be taken to the cellular and even molecular levels of tissue. The margins between healthy tissue and cancerous tumors have to first be visualized at the smallest scales possible, and then treated in the most effective and least harmful ways.

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    • Cognitive and Brain Health

      The factors involved in cognition and brain health are many. Beckman Institute researchers have demonstrated the links between cognitive and brain health and lifestyle choices such as exercise and social and intellectual engagement, through the use of a variety of imaging techniques, and shown the ability of the brain to generate new neurons and connections. Several have focused on cognition and health in older adults, a rapidly-growing segment of the population, while others study topics such as the many modern distractions that test the limits of our cognitive abilities.

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    • Electronics Research

      Exploring the interface between basic science and applications involving electronics has been an integral part of research at the Beckman Institute since it opened in 1989. That work in an area that has become an essential ingredient of modern life continues to be as cutting edge in the 21st Century. From the discovery of a method that uses deuterium for reducing hot electron damage in integrated circuit transistors in the mid-1990s to recent breakthroughs like electronics with stretchable or self-healing properties, research aimed at advancing current electronics technology or finding alternatives to silicon such as carbon nanotubes is a major focus of the Beckman Institute.

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    • Linguistics and Language Learning

      The areas of linguistics and language learning cut across many disciplines at the Beckman Institute and can encompass fields such as language processing, psycholinguistics (the study of language and psychology), speech and hearing science, neuroscience, engineering, and kinesiology. Beckman researchers studying language investigate topics such as the role phonemes play in becoming fluent, develop new theories of how language is learned, create computational models of speech, and build databases of recorded speech for a number of applications.

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    • Self-Healing Materials Research

      Efforts to create autonomic, or self-healing, materials have become a fast-growing line of research, in large part due to advancements made by Beckman Institute researchers. In 2001, Beckman faculty members Nancy Sottos, Jeff Moore, and ScottWhite published a paper in Nature magazine detailing their breakthrough work that demonstrated for the first time self-healing in an engineered materials system. The paper drew worldwide attention in newspapers, journals, and websites and earned a front page story in the Washington Post.

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