The Biological Revolution: Too Important to be Left to the Biologists, Too Important to be Left to t

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The Biological RevolutionToo Important to be
Left to the Biologists, Too Important to be Left
to the Bioengineers

• Robert M. Nerem

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The Biological Revolution

• Started early in the 20th Century with the advent
  of cell culture
• Revolutionized in the 1950s with the discovery
  that DNA is a double helix
• Accelerated in the 1970s with the introduction of
  recombinant DNA technology
• In the last few years the genome, soon the
  proteome, and then on to the physiome

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The Biotech Century

• biology will define scientific progress in
  the 21st century.
• Business Week, March 10, 1997

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Biology

• Too important to be left to the biologists
• U.S. News and World Report, March 1994

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Engineering Solutions for the 21st Century

• Advances in molecular and cell biology will not
  only define scientific progress, it also will
  revolutionize how we engineer products in the
  21st century

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Engineering and the Biology-Based Industries of
the 21st Century

• We will see an enormous expansion in
  biology-based industries
• Although the nature of these industries cannot be
  predicted, they are arising out of the biological
  revolution
• These biology-based industries will need
  engineers
• Tissue engineering is an example of such a
  biology-based industry

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Tissue Engineering

• Biological substitutes/therapies to repair,
  replace, or enhance tissue function
• An emerging biology-based industry that will
  produce the next generation of medical implants
• At the interface of the biological revolution and
  the traditional medical implant industry
• An industry where the engineering will be
  revolutionized by advances in biology

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Ive thought a lot about this Charlie, and I
believe that when Historians look back at the
twentieth century the greatest scientific
achievement will not be space travel or
computers but will be in the fields of tissue
engineering and genetic medicine Dr Michael
Guillen, ABC Science Correspondent 29 September
1999
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Some Tissue Engineering Applications

• Severe Burns
• Skin ulcers
• Facial reconstruction
• Cartilage
• Tendons
• Ligaments
• Bone

• Blood Vessels
• Heart Valves
• Myocardial Patches
• Heart
• Bioartificial Pancreas
• Kidney
• Liver

• Neural Repair

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Critical Issues

• Addressing issues of cell sourcing
• Controlling cell function
• Developing interactive biomaterials
• Engineering 3D constructs/healing responses
• Scaling up manufacturing processes
• Preserving manufactured products
• Controlling in vivo biological responses
• Engineering immune acceptance
• Assessing post-implantation viability

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21st Century Industries

• Tissue engineering is only one example
• There will be many others, including ones that
  today we cannot even foresee
• In many cases the result of the intersection of
  biotechnology, information technology, and
  nanotechnology

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The Biological Revolution Demands an Engineering
Revolution

• Biology then not amenable to engineering
  analysis and synthesis/design approach
• Biology now not only amenable to, but will
  require engineering analysis and the
  synthesis/design approach
• Biology in molecular/genomics mode now central to
  the science base of engineering

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Biomedical Engineering

• Jobs for bioengineers increasing
• New departments are being formed
• A new institute has been established at NIH

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NIHs Newest Institute NIBIB

• National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and
  Bioengineering
• Established in 2001
• Current budget 300 million
• Funds research and training programs

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Some Areas of Interest at NIBIB

• Biomaterials
• Biomechanics
• Biosensors
• Medical imaging
• Molecular imaging
• Nanotechnology
• Telemedicine
• Tissue engineering

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NIBIB A Work in Progress

• The goal is to profoundly impact human health
• NIBIB will have as part of its programs
  technology development
• Its program is based on the integration of the
  physical sciences and engineering with the life
  sciences

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NIBIB A Work in Progress

• Currently has the smallest budget at NIH
• Has the potential of making engineering an equal
  citizen on the NIH campus
• How should it position itself within NIH?
• What if any, should the scientific priorities be?

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The Submission of Proposals to NIH

• Even though NIH appears to have a big budget, the
  funding of proposals is highly competitive
• NIBIB is receiving a higher percentage of
  proposals from first-timers than other
  institutes
• Faculty need to know how to write an NIH
  proposal, and at Georgia Tech we offer workshops
  on how to write such a proposal

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Biomedical Engineering Departments

• A total of 66 departments at last count
• Whether called biomedical engineering or
  bioengineering, the focus for the most part is on
  the medical field
• These are establishing unique academic programs
• Some of the best and brightest students are being
  attracted

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Biomedical Engineering Departments (Continued)

• 15 years ago there was little correlation between
  a list of the top 10 engineering schools and a
  list of the top 10 biomedical engineering
  programs
• The leaders in biomedical engineering education
  were for the most part smaller engineering
  schools at universities with leading medical
  schools
• This is in the process of changing, in part due
  to the influence of the Whitaker Foundation

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Biomedical Engineering Transitioning Into
Bioengineering

• It is not a medically-based engineering that is
  emerging as a new discipline, however, it is a
  biology-based engineering, i.e. bioengineering
• 25-50 years from now there will be as many
  applications outside of the medical field as
  within it
• In time these new departments with a biomedical
  focus will morph into much more broadly
  oriented biology-based engineering departments

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Bioengineering A Biology-Based Engineering

• A multi-disciplinary activity
• Emerging as a separate discipline
• Biology the central science
• A field requiring the use of advanced engineering
  and biology tools
• An integration of biology and engineering
• This integration needs to occur across the
  biological scales

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Bioengineering Too Important To Be Left To The
Bioengineers

• The biotech century needs the involvement of all
  of engineering
• Every engineering department should have faculty
  involved in bio-related research
• These research activities need to be expanded
• Innovative educational programs also will need to
  be established

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Bioengineering A Laboratory for Engineering
Education

• As a new discipline, bioengineering faculty are
  still seeking the best way to educate students
• Issues include the integration of engineering
  with biology and how to bring out the creativity
  in students
• In this a variety of educational modes are being
  explored including problem-based learning

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Biology A Core Undergraduate Subject

• The 21st century is the biotech century
• Biology is important to a 21st century education
• A biology course must join physics and chemistry
  as core science subjects
• Such a biology course should focus on molecular
  and cell biology and genetics

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Transitioning to a Biosociety for the 21st Century

• Biology is emerging as an information science
• Advances in biology will define scientific
  progress
• There will be new biology-based industries
• Engineering approaches will be revolutionized
• This requires a revolution in engineering
  education
• It is a revolution that has only begun, one in
  which all of engineering needs to participate