Bioengineering
Bioengineering has received considerable attention on the international level in recent years as one of the new thrusts of the chemical engineering profession. It has, however, been an area of active research in the Department of Chemical Engineering for well over three decades. Bioengineering research in our department focuses on applying sound engineering principles to understand fundamental biomolecular, cellular, and metabolic processes and to develop innovative solutions to practical problems in biotechnology and in the biochemical, pharmaceutical, and life science industries. As such, much of the research is highly interdisciplinary, involving collaborations with molecular biologists, bioorganic chemists, biochemists, geneticists, and microbiologists.
Our biomolecular and biological engineering emphasis covers a wide range of subjects including biomaterials, drug delivery systems, engineering of novel enzyme catalysts, the design and engineering of antibodies for both stability and functionality, the design of high throughput technologies for the rapid discovery of antibodies for protein function analysis (proteomics), understanding of protein folding in vivo; development of controlled drug delivery technologies; characterization of drug and protein transport in biohydrogels for biosensors, bioseparations, and controlled release; design and engineering of novel materials processes for enhancing the bioavailability of water insoluble drugs; interfacing of biology and materials; biomanipulation of nanoscale structures; molecular and mesoscopic modeling of protein-protein and protein surface interactions; multiscale simulation techniques for folding events and self-assembly of biomolecules; tissue engineering scaffolds; patterning for bionanotechnology applications; molecular imprinting techniques for biomedical recognition; gene therapy; bioinformatics; solute transport in specific cell lines; cell-tissue interactions; cellular and metabolic engineering; biofuels production; and bioreactor engineering. Our contributions have been in several areas of drug delivery, biomaterials, mass transfer, kinetics and reaction engineering, biopolymers and biomedical engineering.
Our research has been published in major scientific journals, including Science, Nature, Nature Biotechnology, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Other articles have been featured as lead articles in major scientific journals and have addressed major directions in the field. Several successful bioengineering books have been authored by ChE engineering professors including Methods in Molecular Biology (Humana Press, 2003), Molecular and Cellular Foundations of Biomaterials (Academic Press, 2004) and Hydrogels in Medicine and Pharmacy (CRC Press, 1987)
Cross-disciplinary research across Departments and Colleges has led to major new interactions with Pharmacy, Chemistry, Biology, College of Natural Sciences, and local Medical Schools. As part of this effort, two of our colleagues have established and are co-PIs of a NSF Program on Cellular and Molecular Imaging for Diagnostics and Therapeutics, a new program where students learn to appreciate and integrate engineering and physiological aspects involved in imaging and its use in diagnostics and therapeutics.
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