 |
  |
|
Project
Openings 
Research
Profiles
Supervisor
Index
Other
Research
|
|
The Biotechnology Process Engineering Center (BPEC) is an interdisciplinary research center under the Biological Engineering Division at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). BPEC was founded in 1985 as one of the first national Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and has evolved to a current core mission of fusing the practice of engineering with the science of biology to meet technological challenges in the biotechnology industry. The underlying premise of this mission is that 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 basic science.
The BPEC focuses on 2 specific problems in the areas of therapeutic gene and stem cell technologies: (a) gene delivery to stem cells that form blood, in order to correct inborn genetic problems; and (b) gene delivery to cells in liver to treat liver cancer. The results of BPEC research activities also provide a foundation for treating other degenerative diseases (like diabetes), the repair of injured tissues (e.g., spinal cord), and therapies for other types of cancers – and also to preventative DNA vaccines that can arrest the onset of disease altogether. BPEC research activities thus encompass problems important in the western world but -- like liver cancer – are also highly endemic in developing countries. The problems addressed provide a unifying thread among the diverse, active labs of the BPEC investigators, each of whom brings perspective from an array of other basic science and engineering projects funded by NIH, other NSF divisions, DOD, industry, and foundations.
The
Faculty
- Prof.
Linda
G. Griffth,
Director
- MIT Biological Engineering
Division; MIT Department
of Mechanical Engineering
- Prof.
Douglas
Lauffenburger,
Executive
Director
of Development
- MIT Biological
Engineering
Division;
MIT Department
of Chemical
Engineering;
MIT Department
of Biology;
Center for
Biomedical
Engineering;
Center for
Cancer Research
MIT Biological Engineering Division; MIT Department of Chemical Engineering; MIT Department of Biology; Center for Biomedical Engineering; Center for Cancer Research
Prof.
Harvey
F. Lodish, Executive
Director
of Research- MIT Department
of Biology;
MIT Biological
Engineering
Division;
Whitehead
Institute
- Prof.
Alexander
M. Klibanov
- MIT Department of Chemistry;
MIT Biological Engineering
Division
- Prof.
Robert
S. Langer
- MIT Department of Chemical
Engineering; MIT Biological
Engineering Division;
MIT/HMS Division of
Health Sciences & Technology
- Prof.
Leona
D. Samson
- Center for Environmental
Health Sciences; MIT
Biological Engineering
Division
- Prof. Forrest White
Assistant Professor of Biological Engineering
-
- Prof.
K. Dane
Wittrup
- MIT Department of Chemical
Engineering
-
|
| |
|
 |
|
|
|
