Amy E. Herr
Biological Faculty Engineer
Divisions
Biological Systems and Engineering
- Process Engineering & Analytics
Secondary Affiliation:
Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging
Biography
Amy E. Herr is the Lester John & Lynne Dewar Lloyd Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley and a Chan Zuckerberg (CZ) Biohub Investigator. Prof. Herr joined UC Berkeley as Assistant Professor of Bioengineering in 2007, was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2012, and promoted to Full Professor in 2015. Prior to joining UC Berkeley, she was a staff member in the Biosystems Research Group at Sandia National Laboratories (Livermore, CA; 2002-2007). She earned her PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford with Profs. Tom Kenny & Juan Santiago as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, an MS in Mechanical Engineering also from Stanford, and a BS in Engineering & Applied Science from Caltech.
Professor Herr is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), a Board Member of the Chemical & Biological Microsystems Society (CBMS) which oversees the microTAS conferences, is a standing member of the NIH Nanotechnology Study Section, and is an Advisory Board Member for the UCSF Rosenman Institute and the journals Analytical Chemistry and ACS Sensors. She has served as a Co-Director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Single Cell Analysis summer course (2015 & 2016), both Chair (2009) and Vice-chair (2007) of the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on the Physics & Chemistry of Microfluidics. She is faculty advisor to the UC Berkeley chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and the Graduate Women in Engineering (GWE).Professor Herr’s research has been recognized by: the 2016 Mid-career Achievement Award from the American Electrophoresis Society, the 2015 Georges Guiochon Faculty Fellow from HPLC, the 2012 Young Innovator Award from Analytical Chemistry/CBMS, the 2012 Ellen Weaver Award from the Association for Women in Science (AWIS, for mentoring), a 2011 NSF CAREER award, a 2010 NIH New Innovator Award, a 2010 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in chemistry, a 2010 New Investigator Award in Analytical Chemistry from Eli Lilly & Co., a 2009 Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Young Faculty Award, a 2009 Hellman Family Faculty Fund Award from UC Berkeley, a 2008 Regents’ Junior Faculty Fellowship from the University of California. Professor Herr has also been recognized by the 2012 Outstanding Instructor Award in Bioengineering (Bioengineering Honor Society student vote) and a 2007 Outstanding Mentor Award from Sandia National Laboratories.
Research Interests
Scale-dependent Phenomena Underpinning Technology Development
Large-scale study of protein structure, function, and expression (proteomics) is instrumental to molecular biomarker discovery. Due to the constantly changing nature of protein expression and state, these profiles are notoriously difficult to study. High-resolution analytical assays such as two-dimensional electrophoresis and mass spectrometry have proven essential to proteomics; nevertheless, these information-rich methods can be slow and labor intensive. With these considerations in mind, our group is developing techniques, implemented via microfluidic technologies, as a means to achieve a rapid, yet still quantitative, assessment of protein expression & state variations in complex samples.
Biomarker Validation
In spite of significant advances in proteomic technology, few new protein biomarkers have emerged from the proteomic discovery pool, progressed though the scrutiny of validation studies, and become incorporated in diagnostic tools. The long-term goal of our work is development of flexible instruments for the rapid validation of putative disease-specific biomarkers in promising diagnostic fluids. An urgent need exists for robust bioanalytical capability that delivers high-throughput validation of putative biomarkers, thus allowing subsequent incorporation of validated markers into diagnostics. To achieve this aim, our group employs nascent microfluidic technologies to seamlessly integrate complex sample preparation, sample handling, and quantitative bioanalytical assays into tools amenable to automation.
Clinical & Point-of-Care Diagnostics
Appropriate, effective biomolecular analysis mechanisms are identified for diagnostic development based upon the physicochemical characteristics of putative, disease-specific biomarkers. Most disease states are complex — diagnosis & monitoring require more than simple binary detection of a small set of proteins. To compound the difficulty in assessing disease state, analytical grade quantitation and specificity are difficult to achieve as part of a disease diagnostic, especially diagnostics employed in near-patient environments. Consequently, our group is exploring the use of electrophoretic microfluidic formats, as such formats have been demonstrated to allow rapid, analytical-grade quantitation of small sample volumes through enhanced resolving power and high-efficiency operation.
Recent Publications
Related News
Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network Names Herr Chief Technology Officer
Amy Herr, faculty engineer in the Biological and Systems Engineering Division, has been appointed as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the newly established Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network. As CTO, Herr will help lead the Network’s efforts to advance technologies to observe, measure, and analyze human biology in action.
Congratulations to 2021 Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigators
The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator Program recently awarded $21 million to 21 University of California, Berkeley researchers. Of this group, four are faculty scientists in the Biosciences Area.
Amy Herr to Head UC Berkeley’s Bakar BioEnginuity Hub
UC Berkeley has announced a new campus initiative, the Bakar BioEnginuity Hub (BBH), that aims to launch the world-changing startups of today, while cultivating the innovative leaders of tomorrow. Opening this fall, BBH will focus on people working at the convergence of the life sciences with the physical, engineering, and data sciences. Amy Herr, a faculty engineer in the Biological Systems and Engineering (BSE) Division and UC Berkeley professor of bioengineering, has been named executive director of BBH.
