About BE

Combining quantitative, physical, and integrative principles with advances in mechanistic molecular and cellular bioscience, biological engineering increases understanding of how biological systems function as both physical and chemical mechanisms; how they respond when perturbed by factors such as medical therapeutics, environmental agents, and genetic variation; and how to manipulate and construct them toward beneficial use. Through this understanding, new technologies can be created to improve human health in a variety of medical applications, and biology-based paradigms can be generated to address many of the diverse challenges facing society across a broad spectrum, including energy, the environment, nutrition, and manufacturing.

The department’s premise is that the science of biology is as important to the development of technology and society in the 21st century as physics and chemistry were in the 20th century, and that an increasing ability to measure, model, and manipulate properties of biological systems at the molecular, cellular, and multicellular levels will continue to shape this development. A new generation of engineers and scientists is learning to address problems through their ability to measure, model, and rationally manipulate the technological and environmental factors affecting biological systems. They are applying not only engineering principles to the analytical understanding of how biological systems operate, especially when impacted by genetic, chemical, physical, infectious, or other interventions; but also a synthetic design perspective to creating biology-based technologies for medical diagnostics, therapeutics, and prosthetics, as well as for applications in diverse industries beyond human health care.

Research areas in which BE faculty are recognized as pioneering leaders include: