Biomedical Engineering
Biomedical Engineering
at The University of Michigan
U-M BME is becoming one of the premier biomedical engineering departments in the country.
Our faculty lead a wide range of programs in biofluid mechanics, microfluidics, biologic micro and nanotechnology, BioMEMS, biomaterials, biomolecular machines, tissue engineering,
biomedical optics,
biotechnology, biomechanics,
and biomedical imaging.
U-M BME is one of the
largest BME graduate
program in the U.S. and has
awarded more graduate
degrees than any other BME
department in the country.
The BME program at the
University of Michigan also
offers an undergraduate
program for students in the College of Engineering.
The Biomedical Engineering (BME) Department occupies three state-of-the-art research and educational facilities on the University of Michigan’s North Campus: the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Biomedical Engineering Building, the Carl A. Gerstacker Building, and the Bonisteel Interdisciplinary Research Building housing the fMRI Center. The generous support of The Ann and Robert H. Lurie Foundation, The Whitaker Foundation and The Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation has allowed U-M BME to grow enormously, with new faculty, facilities, students, and degree programs.
The BME Department continues to foster collaborations among College of Engineering faculty and researchers throughout the University. As a Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Translational Research Partner, the department is able to strategically enhance our ability to promote, develop and realize the potential of clinical research. Commercialization of new BME technologies is enhanced by access to the resources of the U of M’s top ranked business school and its worldclass entrepreneurship institute.
In addition to our two North Campus buildings devoted to bioengineering research and education, we have access to extensive core facilities in both the College of Engineering and the Medical School. Shared resources include: fully equipped tissue culture facilities; small animal facilities with holding and procedure areas; access to multiple microscopy systems, such as confocal and TIRF instruments; as well as medical imaging systems, such as real-time ultrasound and optical scanners and a 3T whole body MRI scanner. The Michigan Nanofabrication Facility, one of the best university facilities in the country for the design and manufacture of microelectronic circuits, is used extensively for implantable biosensor transducers and bioMEMS devices. A new addition
to the clean room, more than doubling current space, is already underway. Our Functional MRI Center combines cognitive neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, and biomedical engineering research. Our Center for Neural Communication Technology (CNCT) develops neural probe technologies for interfaces to the central nervous systems.
The College of Engineering, in conjunction with university administration, has made significant commitments to develop the BME Department into a premier research and educational department that helps define the rapidly evolving discipline of bioengineering. Our long-term programmatic themes are molecular engineered biosystems, biomedical micro and nanosystems, as well as cellular and molecular biomechanics.
S P O T L I G H T
Understanding how cancer spreads: Nanotech single-cell monitoring technique could give insights
Published on Dec 14, 2011
Written by Nicole Casal Moore
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—A technique that lets researchers monitor single cancer cells in real time as they float in liquid could help doctors study the breakaway tumor cells that cause metastasis. Metastasis is the process of the disease spreading through the body.
The approach, developed at the University of Michigan, could also pave the way for new types of targeted therapies that go beyond
personalized medicine, researchers say.
Remy Elbez, a doctoral student in applied physics, takes a sample of a solution that contains magnetized cervical cancer cells. He will place several drops of the solution in a special magnetic field. Then, after placing the whole apparatus under a microscope, he can watch the cells spin on a screen and determine their shape and status from their rotation rates. This new technique could help doctors understand the process of cancer metastasis. Photo by Nicole Casal Mo ore”We’re looking toward individualized treatment, not just to the person, but to the cell,” said Remy Elbez, a
doctoral student in applied physics. He is a co-author of a paper on the work published Dec. 13 in PLoS ONE.
In recent years, researchers have come to understand that not all cells in a cancerous tumor share the same genetic code. This means some are more difficult to kill than others. And techniques that enable single-cell study are in demand. Approaches that process
many cells at once ar en’t as useful for researchers who want to look, for example, at a small number of cells that a particular cancer drug left alive.
One particularly dangerous type of cancer cell that scientists want to know more about is the circulating tumor cell. These cells have separated from the original tumor and set off
in the bloodstream to invade distant tissues. Scientists know that they’re different from the cells that stay put. They don’t divide rapidly, for example. At the same time, they’re difficult to study for several reasons. They’re hard to find because they only make up less than one in a trillion blood cells. And they operate in motion, so tamping them down to a Petri dish doesn’t reveal their true nature. More . . .
N E W S
BME Prof. Sherman Fan and Yuze Sun featured for “hot paper”
A paper by U-M BME professor Xudong (Sherman) Fan and his Ph.D student Yuze Sun titled “Distinguishing DNA via analog-to-digital like conversion using optofluidic lasers” was accepted for publication by Angewandte Chemie International Edition. In addition, the paper was selected as one of the publications “hot papers” to appear in an upcoming edition. Hot Papers are chosen by the editors for their importance in a rapidly evolving field of high current interest.
Angewandte Chemie International Edition, with its excellent Impact Factor of 12.730 (2010) strengthens its leading position among the general chemistry journals. It is one of the prime chemistry journals in the world, with the highest Impact Factor among chemistry-specific journals that publish original research.
More BME News . . .
Breakthrough: Researchers find wide gap in immune responses of people who did or didn’t
get the flu after exposure
by Laura Bailey, NS
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—Why do some folks who take every precaution still get the flu, while others never even get the sniffles?
It comes down to a person’s immune system response to the flu virus, says Alfred Hero, professor at the University of Michigan College of Engineering. In one of the first known studies of its kind, Hero and colleagues from Duke University Medical Center and the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy, used genomics to begin to unravel what in our complex genomic data accounts for why some get sick while others don’t. The study find ings will appear in PLoS Genetics Aug. 25.
More BME News . . .
Q U I C K L I N K S
●Prospective Graduate Students
●Student Career Resources
●Events
●Core Faculty
●BME at a Glance
●Directions & Map
●Alumni
●Giving
●Coulter Translational
●Research Partnership
Message from the Chair
BME has experienced significant change and growth during the past five years.
Some of the changes are obvious - there are new buildings, new grants, new collaborations, and numerous new faces - with eight core faculty hires strategically enriching our departmental expertise.
But there are other less visible and equally dramatic changes to the way we work and teach that are positioning us to help remake Southeast Michigan's economy by way of its growing biotechnology corridor.
The most profound change is a reorientation of the way
we work, thanks in large part to our Coulter Translational
Research grant. By creating both incentives and also the
intellectual infrastructure that encourage researchers to
translate their technologies, the Coulter program has
focused our thinking more directly on this goal. This is
true not only for those participating in Coulter-funded
research but also for those watching the process work.
We're thinking about translation earlier and in a more
deliberate and structured way than we have in the past. As
a result, we're far more comfortable with the steps,
resources, and collaborators required to get our
advancements to market - where they can begin to impact
patients. For example, one Coulter-funded group, HistoSonics, just received $11 million in venture capital to commercialize its noninvasive, image-guided system for tissue ablation. It promises to treat enlarged prostates more safely and precisely than current technologies and to reach a potential market of more than 400,000 patients a year. Much of this was made possible by the expertise and resources the Coulter framework brought together.
We've worked hard, however, to ensure that translation isn't confined but is a departmental theme that permeates our teaching. We've developed a design program, with a sequence of increasingly comprehensive courses. These courses teach students to develop engineering solutions for clinical problems while addressing issues such as patentability, market analysis, regulatory matters, and financing. Course-driven connections with U-M clinical, business and entrepreneurship experts have seasoned and challenged students, resulting in design awards, provisional patents, and potential business start-ups.
The Labor Department recently predicted that biomedical engineering will, on a percentage basis, add jobs faster than any other sector in the years ahead. We plan to meet that demand with a steady supply of well-prepared engineers, ready to bring innovations to market and, in the process, enhance not only patient health but also Southeast Michigan's future.
Douglas C. Noll, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Ann and Robert H. Lurie Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Professor of Radiology
Co-Director, Functional MRI Laboratory
What is BME?
Mission Statement:
BME provides leadership in education, training and cutting-edge research by translating science and engineering to solve important challenges in medicine and life sciences to the benefit of humanity.
Have an aptitude for math and science and an interest in the medical field?
Biomedical engineering (BME) aims to improve human health by applying engineering principles and methods to medical problems. Biomedical engineers might find themselves developing:
sensors that identify cancer
biomarkers in blood;
a device that mimics the
blood-brain barrier for use in
drug testing;
neural probes to treat
Parkinson's with deep-brain
stimulation;
computer models that suggest
how complex proteins are
assembled;
waveforms to image the body
with MRI;
ultrasound therapies to treat tumors non-invasively;
injectible stem-cell cultures to regenerate damaged tissue.
In fact, these are all projects undertaken by faculty and students in this department. Biomedical engineers require a solid foundation in the biological sciences as well as a firm grasp of engineering principles and techniques. A strong BME program introduces students not only to these disciplines but also to laboratory research and instrumentation, the design process, teamwork, technical communication, entrepreneurship, and legal and regulatory issues. It is important for students to have access to interconnected engineering, medical, and business resources.
BME at a Glance
Education
●U-M BME is one of the largest BME graduate programs in the U.S. and has awarded more
graduate degrees than any other BME department in the country.
●U-M is one of the only universities in the country with top-ranked engineering, medical, and
business schools on the same campus.
●U-M BME is ranked #10 in undergraduate education by US News and World Report 2011.
●U-M BME is ranked #12 in graduate education by US News and World Report 2010.
●U-M BME is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET,
https://www.wendangku.net/doc/9b18200155.html,, one of only 71 BME Departments to achieve ABET accreditation.
●U-M BME has six graduate concentrations: bioelectrics, biomaterials, biomechanics,
biotechnology, biomedical imaging, and ergonomics and rehabilitation engineering.
●U-M BME has combined an undergraduate/graduate program in one of three concentrations:
biochemical, bioelectrics, biomechanics.
Research
●state-of-the art research facilities for our faculty and students with access to a variety of
biomedical labs throughout the U-M College of Engineering and the Medical School.
●We are the home o U-M BME’s Lurie Biomedical Engineering building and the Carl
Gerstacker building include f the NIH-funded Center for Neural Communication.
●The Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, along with the College of Engineering and the Medical
School, has enabled the creation of a $20 million endowment to enhance and support research directed at technologies promising progression towards commercial development and clinical practice.
●Every core faculty member is involved in translational research with distinguished medical
clinicians on a variety of projects.
●We are consistently ranked in the top ten for NIH research funding.
●U-M BME has the sixth-highest total research expenditures of all BME departments.
●U-M BME has the third-highest research expenditures per faculty member of all BME
departments.
Personnel
●200 students in the BS program.
●200 students in the graduate program.
●15 tenured or tenure-track faculty members with primary appointments in BME.
●68 tenured or tenure-track faculty members with secondary appointments in BME
● 4 non-teaching full-time research faculty
● 6 non-teaching research staff
●16 administrative staff
Location & Facilities
The Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Michigan occupies two North Campus buidings, The Lurie Biomedical Engineering Building and the Carl A. Gerstacker Building. The department also has access to many more facilities throughout the medical and
north campuses .
Carl A. Gerstacker Building
2200 Bonisteel, Blvd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2099
Lurie Biomedical Engineering Building
1101 Beal Ave.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2110
To get a more comprehensive view of our primary and secondary research facilities visit our research facilities area.
B M E R E S E A R
C H L A B S
?Biomechanics
?Biofluid Mechanics Research Laboratory
?Biomaterials and Biomechanics of Hard Tissues Lab
?Biomechanics Research Laboratory
?Biosciences Division of the University of Michigan Transportation
Research Institute
?Biotransport Research Laboratory
?Cellular and Molecular Biomechanics Lab
?Center for Ergonomics
?Human Biomechanics and Control Lab
?Human Neuromechanics Lab
?Muscle Mechanics Laboratory
?Soft Tissue Mechanics Laboratory
?Biomedical Computation and Modeling
?Bioinformatics Laboratory
?Biomedical Optics Laser Laboratory
?Computational Protein Biophysics Laboratory
?Image Computing Laboratory
?Laboratory for Optimization and Computation in Orthopaedic Surgery
?Multiscale Computational Nanoscience Laboratory
?Biomedical Imaging and Optics
?Biomedical Optics Laser Laboratory
?CUOS Medical Group
?Digital Image Processing Lab
?Functional MRI Research Facility
?Image Computing Laboratory
?Microscopy & Image Analysis Lab
?Therapeutic Ultrasound Group
?Ultrasound Group
?Bio-Micro/Nanotechnology and Molecular Engineering
?Biomembrane Lab
?Biotransport Research Laboratory
?Computational Protein Biophysics Laboratory
?Micro/Nano/ Molecular Biotechnology Lab
?Solid-State Electronics Laboratory (SSEL)
?Neural Engineering
?Center for Neural Communication Technology (CNCT)
?Direct Brain Interface Project
?Human Neuromechanics Lab
?Neural Engineering Laboratory
?Tissue Engineering and Biomaterials
?Biomaterials and Biomechanics of Hard Tissues Lab
?Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering
?Biotransport Research Laboratory
?Cell Signaling in Engineered Tissues (CSET) Laboratory
?Cell-Matrix Interactions and Tissue Engineering (CMITE) Laboratory
?Micro/Nano/ Molecular Biotechnology Lab
?The Cellular Engineering & Nano-Therapeutics Laboratory (CENT
LAB)
?Heterogeneous Multiscale Materials Laboratory
?Scaffold Tissue Engineering Group
A C A D E M I C
P R O G R A M S
The University of Michigan Biomedical Engineering department offers:
?an undergraduate program with biochemical, bioelectric, or
biomechanical concentrations;
? a five-year sequential graduate/undergraduate study program
leading to a master's of science in engineering (MSE); and
?graduate programs leading to an MSE or PhD degree.
R E S E A R C H
Our departmental research goals embrace the "biggest clinical need" mentality. We are fostering synergies with other U-M units to address the major health concerns of our time such as diabetes, cancer, cardio-vascular and neurological disease, and global challenges like malaria. To this end, we are enriching our existing expertise with an increased presence in six key areas: neuroengineering; molecular and nanoscale engineering; tissue engineering; computational and systems physiology and engineering; molecular and functional imaging and image-guided therapy; and diagnostics and therapeutics for personalized medicine.
Please explore specific faculty labs and research areas for additional detail on the projects our faculty are undertaking.
I N D U S T R Y&
B U S I N E S S
Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan works closely with industry and business to help improve products and techniques and build relationships with future BME graduates who will be leading
the biomedical engineering field in the years to come.
Partnerships and programs like the Wallace H. Coulter Translational Research Partnership offer faculty and students an opportunity to positively impact the health care industry. Examples of desirable outcomes from this partnership include inventions, patents, improved diagnosis and treatment of disease,
commercial partnerships, start-up companies and follow-on funding targeted toward these same outcomes.
BME at Michigan also sponsors a Design Program. The classes are designed to allow students to work closely, on sponsored projects, with companies to develop fresh ideas and new solutions to difficult challenges. Students learn valuable lessons about the real world of industry and business, and build strong networks with professionals that work in the biomedical engineering field.
Faculty members at BME also take many of their research ideas to industry by participating in and founding start-ups based on ideas researched at the University of Michigan.
U-M BME students participate in internship and co-op experiences in the medical device, pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Companies are also welcome to partner with the program and interact with BME students through information sessions, BMES Society events, department networking events, and through sponsorship of design projects.
Industry Involvement:
BME is pleased to invite all who are interested to visit Ann Arbor, meet our students, tour our labs and discuss opportunities for partnering with us to develop the next generation of biomedical engineers. Your participation is a key part of our department's future direction and growth, and we welcome your assistance in a variety of ways: with our undergraduate and graduate design teams, as mentors to our students, as information session or seminar speakers, and as partners in developing and expanding our facilities.
Additional Opportunities
BME Student Resume Books
The Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of
Michigan (U-M BME) has assembled two electronic resume
books (BS and MS candidates; and PhD and Post-doc
candidates) to help employers connect to our graduating
students who are interested in full-time employment. Please
email Lisa Waples, lisa@https://www.wendangku.net/doc/9b18200155.html,
to obtain one or both of the books.
Corporate Information Sessions
One-time sessions providing focused information on your
company to biomedical engineering students.
Contact Boyang Zhao, BMES President at zhaob@https://www.wendangku.net/doc/9b18200155.html,
Job postings for BME students
Opportunities for internship/co-op and full-time opportunities
are advertised to students through the BME department.
Contact Lisa Waples,
lisa@https://www.wendangku.net/doc/9b18200155.html,
On-Campus Recruiting
The Engineering Career Resource Center provides services for
on-campus recruiting.
Visit https://www.wendangku.net/doc/9b18200155.html,/ to schedule a visit
G I V I N G
U-M's Department of Biomedical Engineering has remained at the forefront of the field thanks in no small part to the resources available to our students, faculty, and programming. Please support U-M BME as we boldly pursue our mission to benefit humanity through innovation in biomedical engineering.
Among the areas that will benefit immediately from your support are our endowed fellowships for promising graduate student translational research and our innovative design program.
There are also numerous ways to support students by sharing your time, insights, and internship opportunities. The design program regularly seeks industry partners to guest lecture and consult with students. In addition, we are always eager to have alumni and friends share their experiences with students, whether through informal talks or structured internships. Please e-mail biomede@https://www.wendangku.net/doc/9b18200155.html, to share your life experience with tomorrow's leaders.
If you have equipment or materials to donate that you think might be of value to our design program please email: aileenhs@https://www.wendangku.net/doc/9b18200155.html,.
C O N T A C T I N F O R M A T I O N
There are a number of ways to contact the Biomedical Engineering department at the University of Michigan. We welcome any and all questions, comments, and suggestions.
E-mail:
biomede@https://www.wendangku.net/doc/9b18200155.html,
Telephone:
(734) 764-9588
Fax:
(734) 936-1905
Write:
University of Michigan Biomedical Engineering
1107 Carl A. Gerstacker Building
2200 Bonisteel, Blvd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2099