Welcome
Division of Bioengineering and Environmental Systems (BES)
The
Bioengineering and Environmental Systems (BES) Division supports research
and education in the rapidly evolving fields of bioengineering and environmental
engineering. BES has two principal goals. The first goal is to
enable and facilitate the deployment of new technologies in BES's fields
in service to society for use in the biotechnology, medical, and environmental
arenas. The second goal is to advance bioengineering and environmental
engineering education, particularly through the development of innovative
programs by new faculty.
The
BES Division has three program clusters:
Biochemical Engineering & Biotechnology: Overview - Details
Biomedical Engineering: Overview - Details
Environmental Engineering: Overview - Details
The
BES Division supports research that:
a) Advances
the knowledge base of basic engineering and scientific principles of bioprocessing
at both at the molecular level (biomolecular engineering) and the manufacturing
scale (bioprocess engineering). Many proposals supported by BEB programs
are involved with the development of enabling technologies for production
of a wide range of biotechnology products and services by making use of enzymes,
mammalian, microbial, plant, and/or insect cells to produce useful biochemicals,
pharmaceuticals, cells, cellular components, or cell composites (tissues).
Major target products are predominantly high-value and high efficacy biotechnology
drugs, new secondary metabolites active against resistant pathogens, non-toxic
agricultural biochemicals, cells, cellular components, and tissues of economic
importance. Current areas of BEB program emphasis include proteome- and genome-enabling
technology, quantitative systems biotechnology, metabolic pathway engineering,
nanobiotechnology, bioinformatics (biotechnology related information technology),
ex vivo and stem cell culture engineering, tissue engineering, biochip technology,
high throughput analytical technology, and others.
b) Applies
engineering principles to the understanding of living systems, development
of new and improved devices, and products for human health care. Emphasis
is placed on engineering research that contributes to better and more efficient
health care delivery and aid to people with disabilities.
c) Improves
our ability to apply engineering principles to avoid and/or correct problems
that impair the usefulness of land, air and water. Current interest areas
include technologies for the avoidance of pollution; industrial ecology;
environmental remediation, especially with respect to understanding the fate
and transport of surface and groundwater pollutants; novel processes for
water and waste treatment, including gaseous, liquid and solid wastes.
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