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ASSEMBLY
AND CREATIVITY
An Interview
with Three Founders of Caltech's Newest Option
Spring
2002
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INTRODUCTION
Nature
hath no goal though she hath law—or so observed
the seventeenth-century poet John Donne. While we can only speculate
about the former, we are certain about the latter, and researchers
in the new Caltech interdisciplinary Option of Bioengineering aim
to analyze, understand, and adopt
the laws governing Nature's handiwork for the extreme benefit of
multiple areas of science and engineering. Centered in the Division
of Engineering and Applied Science, the graduate Bioengineering
Option will be a full collaboration with the Division of Biology
and the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering.
At
a variety of levels of order—from the molecular to the
cellular to the organismal—biology is becoming more accessible
to approaches that are commonly used in engineering, such as
mathematical modeling, systems theory, computation, and abstract
approaches to synthesis. Conversely, the accelerating pace of
discovery in biological sciences is suggesting new design principles
that may have important practical applications in man-made system
design. Thus, the research synergism created at the interface
of the enhanced understanding of complex biological systems
and the design and synthesis of complex biological systems offers
unprecedented opportunities to meet challenges in both biology
and engineering.
The
educational mission of the Option is to create a new generation
of bioengineers superbly trained in both engineering and biological
science, ready to realize the possibilities of reverse engineering
of biological systems and produce biological structures from man-made
materials. The faculty and students are drawn from diverse disciplines
such as biology, computational and neural systems, mechanical
engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, aeronautics,
chemistry, and chemical engineering.
Some
of the questions driving the research of this approach-integrating
group include
how can we engineer robust and controllable components (at levels
of molecules, gene networks, and organelles) that can be inserted
into organisms for clinical and research use; how can emerging
engineering technologies, such as robotics, MEMS, and nano-scale
systems technology, be used to improve our ability to carry out
biological research, as well as enhance medical clinical practice;
and how can biological discoveries be used to guide the development
of new engineering components and systems?
Caltech
has the distinct opportunity to redefine traditional "bioengineering,"
which typically concentrates on biomechanics, to include new areas
of molecular biophysics and neurobiology, both of which are ripe
for the application of engineering tools to analyze and synthesize
biologically based and inspired systems. To learn more about the
new Option, ENGenious interviewed Mory
Gharib, Professor of Aeronautics and Bioengineering, Steven
Quake, Associate Professor of Applied Physics, and Paul
Sternberg, Professor of Biology.
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