UC San Diego Bioengineer Inducted Into 2025 Class of the AIMBE College of Fellows

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Bioengineering professor Daniela Valdez-Jasso at the University of California San Diego was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). Valdez-Jasso is among the 171 new AIMBE Fellows who were recognized at a ceremony during the AIMBE Annual Event on March 31.

Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to medical and biological engineers, comprised of the top two percent of engineers in these fields. Fellows are honored for their outstanding contributions to engineering and medicine research, practice or education, as well as for pioneering new and developing fields of technology that significantly advance the fields of medical and biological engineering.

Valdez-Jasso, an associate professor in the Shu Chien-Gene Lay Department of Bioengineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, was recognized for her pioneering research elucidating the roles that biomechanical forces play in the progression of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)—a disease characterized by high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs. PAH often remains undiagnosed until it has already inflicted irreversible damage on the lungs, as well as on the right side of the heart. Currently, its only “cure” is a lung transplant.

To catch PAH in its earliest stages, Valdez-Jasso integrates soft-tissue biomechanics, mathematical modeling and in vivo experiments to examine the intricate ways in which PAH progresses, from microscopic changes in tissue structure to large-scale remodeling of the heart’s ventricles. Her team has uncovered how mechanical stress and changes in extracellular matrix stiffness regulate vascular and cardiac fibrosis, which are key contributors to PAH pathology. By studying the mechanics of the right ventricle and the structural properties of pulmonary arteries, they have identified key adaptations that occur during the early stages of PAH. By offering new perspectives on how biomechanical stimuli influence PAH progression, her work paves the way for earlier diagnosis and developing new therapeutic strategies.