The Graduate Program in Bioengineering

The Graduate Program in Bioengineering offers research and education opportunities leading to the Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. Our objective is to marry the principles and applications embedded within engineering with the sciences of biology, medicine, and health. It is our belief that developments at the interface of biology and engineering will advance the efficacy of health care by developing new paradigms for the diagnosis of disease, and the development and delivery of new therapeutics. Our bioengineering students will gain the knowledge base and skill sets to quantitatively measure, and rationally manipulate cells, tissues, and integrated systems. Bioengineers must bring problem solving skills and design methodologies to the study of biology in an effort to translate the biological sciences into medical practice in an analogous manner to the transformation of chemistry into industrial practice that occurred in the 20th century.

Our program provides a basic understanding of bioengineering at the molecular and cellular level, focusing on:

• biomolecular and cellular rate processes
• cellular and tissue biomechanics
• electrophysiology of the cell
• cellular and physiological transport phenomena

In addition, we stress the application of this fundamental understanding to the development of:

• medical diagnostics systems
• bio-devices
• vaccines

Facilities and Special Resources

The Program has access to well-equipped bioengineering research laboratories and associated departmental facilities of its faculty. In addition, there are core facilities (Bioprocessing Scale-up Facility, DNA sequencing, DNA microarray, GC/MS, Microscopy [TEM, SEM]) available for bioengineering research. Animal facilities are also available.