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Biological Engineering: How MIT is
Defining the Educational Frontier

Linda Griffith and Douglas Lauffenburger

Biology is now a foundational science for engineering. As with other scientific revolutions, the molecular and genomics revolutions in biology require engineering analysis, design, and synthesis in order that breakthrough discoveries can be translated effectively into products and create new industries – as well as to foster further developments in the basic science. Each established engineering discipline addresses a certain range of problems within biology that fall within the scope of tools and approaches of that discipline, but more than the linear sum of each of these contributions is needed to fully exploit the potential of biology.

The fusion of engineering with modern biology requires development of a new biology-based engineering discipline, termed "Biological Engineering," which brings to bear on biology the appropriate tools and perspectives from chemical, civil, computer, electrical, materials, mechanical, and nuclear engineering in an integrated way. Biological Engineering is not envisioned as replacing these individual efforts, but rather complementing and taking its place alongside them.

It has been clear that creation of a new discipline could not be accomplished without a formal academic structure that provided faculty FTEs for curriculum development. Thus, the Biological Engineering (BE) Division was created in 1998 to foster development of teaching and research programs that fuse engineering with biology. BE currently offers the PhD degree in Biological Engineering and is comprised of 32 faculty members – 11 with primary affiliation, 11 with dual affiliation, and 10 with joint affiliation (corresponding to 16.5 FTEs). Roughly half the faculty members were educated in science disciplines (approximately 1/3 in bio/medical sciences) and five have appointments in the Biology Department.

About two years ago, the BE Undergraduate Program Committee began a serious effort to craft an undergraduate curriculum that would capture the intellectual essence of the BE PhD program in a 4-year SB Major degree, building somewhat on certain subjects that had recently been developed by BE for the BME minor, including "Laboratory Fundamentals in Biological Engineering" (BE.109) and "Molecular, Cell, and Tissue Biomechanics" (BE.310/2.797J) – but mainly starting from scratch to develop a set of about 10 new core subjects which fuse engineering with biology in a substantial manner. Two additional new core subjects, the sophomore-level subject "Statistical Thermodynamics of Biomolecular Systems" (BE.011/2.772J) and the upper-level subject "Foundations of Computational & Systems Biology" (BE.490/7.91J) have been taught so far, with the remaining core subjects under development this current academic year. Thus, the proposed BE major differs substantially from 10B in the scope of new course development.

The October 1997 charter for formation of the BE (at that time, BEH) Division stated that BE should develop "new educational programs" at the undergraduate level with an eye toward "success in bridging the connection to biology across Engineering Departments to allow new education and research that would be difficult or impossible in existing departments." And the BE Division Review Report from this past spring 2003, chaired by current Faculty Chair Rafael Bras, concluded that "the Division should proceed with the development of the undergraduate major in Biological Engineering." This Report emphasized that "the intellectual underpinnings and objectives articulated by BE and ChE are different and can co-exist and offer complementary tracks to MIT students." There is, in fact, very little intellectual overlap between the Course 10 subjects required for the proposed 10B Major and the BE subjects required in the envisioned BE Major, and none of the Course 10 subjects required for 10B will be required in the proposed BE SB.

At the same time, although the integrated core of the BE SB Major is intellectually distinct from other departmental majors, many of the individual proposed subjects can (and do) serve a dual role in the BE core and in a departmental curriculum. It is not a coincidence that three of the four BE core subjects mentioned above are co-listed and co-taught with other departments. For example, Mechanical Engineering is co-teaching or co-developing three of the BE core subjects as components of the 2A option for Mechanical Engineering students who want to emphasize bioengineering. What we envision ultimately is a continuum of degree offerings ranging from the traditional Biology SB (no engineering content) to a traditional Engineering SB (no biology content beyond GIRs) with a range of options in between: Biology SB coupled with a BE or BME Minor; Biological Engineering SB; Engineering SB with an option or emphasis on bioengineering (e.g., 2A or 10B); various other departmental curricula that now include biological applications more prominently in the core (e.g., the new DMSE and EECS curricula). We expect that the biology application content in the various SoE departmental curricula will surely continue to grow and rightfully so. Over 100 SoE faculty (~1/3) conduct at least some research in bioengineering and recent hiring trends in several departments have emphasized bioengineering.

If the popularity of a BE SB degree follows trends in popularity of BME majors introduced recently at comparable schools, we may grow to encounter large student enrollments. To address this possible concern, we are hoping to facilitate distribution of freshmen throughout the many "Bio" options within the SoE by providing intensive advising in the freshman year. Two years ago, SoE Dean Tom Magnanti supported development of a freshman subject "Introduction to Bioengineering" (BE.010). In addition to providing a basic technical perspective on bioengineering, BE.010 showcases the educational activities in several SoE departments so that students get a good sense of the spectrum of opportunities available. We are also cognizant that even modest enrollments (~50) may strain resources in other academic units, particularly Biology, which will offer classes required by the BE Major. We introduced our "Laboratory Fundamentals in Biological Engineering" (BE.109) subject a few years ago in part to help relieve enrollment pressure on 7.02; many BME Minor students were opting to take 7.02, which has a limited enrollment due to space constraints. Like 7.02, BE.109 fulfills GIR and premed requirements, but has content more geared toward engineering and serves as a more appropriate course for the BE SB. We have been in discussion with the Biology Department for about a year regarding possible teaching synergies and are exploring a plan that might offer new opportunities for students while simultaneously relieving at least some prospective enrollment pressures.

One question which may be raised concerns the expected career paths for BE SB students. Our experience with the BE PhD program indicates that our colleagues in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries view the graduates of BE programs as pursuing important new kinds of career paths that did not previously exist for engineers from other disciplines, including chemical engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. As one prominent example new opportunity, these industries are excited about having biological engineers predominantly working alongside biological scientists in drug discovery and development areas, for example, rather than mainly in production and manufacturing. Biological Engineering holds the promise to change these industries and push them into an increasingly productive future.

The challenges inherent in creating a formal new curriculum for a biology-based engineering discipline within the context of existing undergraduate programs means that we are still at least a year away from having all the key subjects in place and feeling comfortable in being ready to open our doors to undergraduate students. Our intention to move ahead with planning for the BE SB Major was endorsed in principle by Engineering Council last spring, and we have begun discussions with CUP and CoC about bringing forward a formal proposal toward Institute approval during the 2004-05 academic year. We will be discussing the curriculum in many MIT forums in the next few months, and invite input, questions, and perspectives from our colleagues across campus.
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