what schools actually offer genetic engineering?

cellardweller
Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:19:15 +0000

There is a major difference between Biomedical Engineering and Genetic or Biological Engineering.

Biomedical engineering sometimes confusingly called bioengineering is the application of traditional engineering disciplines to medical problems without any necessary grounding in molecular life sciences.

Biological engineering on the other hand is the application of engineering principles in design, synthesis, and analysis at the genetic, molecular and cellular level to problems in many different areas including energy, the environment, drug development, agriculture, tissue engineering, nanoscale engineering of biomaterials, etc… It is also sometimes referred to as Synthetic Biology.

Very few schools have actual programs in biological engineering. MIT was the first university in the nation to establish a separate biological engineering discipline.

[MIT | Department of Biological Engineering](Home | MIT Department of Biological Engineering)

Berkeley also has new department of Bioengineering, largely based on the biological sciences.
[Bioengineering — UC Berkeley College of Engineering](http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/departments/bioengineering.html)

Cornell also has an established biological engineering program.
http://www.bee.cornell.edu/

Every year, MIT hosts The International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) which is the premier undergraduate Synthetic Biology competition. It grew from 5 teams in 2004 to over 112 teams in 2009 from all over the world. About half the teams are from US universities. The list provides you with a good starting point as to who is involved in this fast growing field.

[Teams Registered for iGEM 2009 - ung.igem.org](http://ung.igem.org/Team_Wikis)

You can also look up the Institute for Biological Engineering for information.
http://www.ibe.org/

They have a list of schools with Biological Engineering majors or concentrations.