New Podcast The Lab Beat Features Cutting-edge UCI Engineering Labs
Oct. 27, 2025 - The UC Irvine Samueli School of Engineering has launched a new podcast called The Lab Beat. Award-winning audio journalist Natalie Tso visits cutting-edge labs and speaks with professors and researchers about their discoveries, innovations and inspirations. Each episode is a two-to-five-minute sound snapshot of the lab, featuring highlights from the interviews and sounds of high-tech lab machinery.
The first episode features Quinton Smith, who Popular Science named “one of the top ten scientists on the cusp of changing the world” in 2023. His 3D approach to stem cell engineering enables him to create mini models of the liver and blood vessels in his lab to test drugs in a much more effective and affordable way than animal models. Smith is an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at UCI.
In the second episode, UCI professor of materials science and engineering David Kisailus describes how his team has found a way to turn urine into medical-grade material — calcium phosphate — that can be used for bone and teeth implants, paving a way for more affordable implants and even cleaner water.
Tune into the third episode to learn about the 100 Year Starship Project and Ronke Olabisi, UCI associate professor of biomedical engineering, who is working on ways to help humans be healthier in space and on Earth. Her lab specializes in tissue engineering and has made strides helping wounds to heal without scar and directing bone growth to fight osteoporosis, which can help meet health challenges that space travelers encounter.
In episode four, one of the world’s top metallurgists Diran Apelian shares about how he found a way to recycle EV batteries, leading to the co-founding of the billion-dollar company Ascend Elements, named one of Time’s America’s Top Ten Green Tech Companies of 2024. In this episode, you'll hear the sounds of the latest technology his UCI lab is using to upcycle scrap metal for use in cars, jets and aerospace. Apelian is a UCI Distinguished Professor of materials science and engineering.
Stay tuned for future episodes of The Lab Beat as Tso visits more leading edge labs at the UCI Samueli School of Engineering.
