Biological Engineering

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Biological Engineering or bioengineering (including biological systems engineering) is the application of engineering principles to address challenges in the fields of biology and medicine. Biological engineering applies principles to the full spectrum of living systems, including molecular biology, biochemistry, microbiology, pharmacology, protein chemistry, cytology, immunology, neurobiology and neuroscience. As a study, it encompasses biomedical engineering and it is related to biotechnology. It deals with disciplines of product design, sustainability and analysis to improve and focus utilization of biological systems.

The word bioengineering was coined by British scientist and broadcaster Heinz Wolff in 1954. The term bioengineering is also used to describe the use of vegetation in civil engineering construction. The term bioengineering may also be applied to environmental modifications such as surface soil protection, slope stabilisation, watercourse and shoreline protection, windbreaks, vegetation barriers including noise barriers and visual screens, and the ecological enhancement of an area.

Biological Engineering employs knowledge and expertise from a number of pure and applied sciences, such as mass and heat transfer, kinetics, biocatalysts, biomechanics, bioinformatics, separation and purification processes, bioreactor design, surface science, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and polymer science. It is used in the design of medical devices, diagnostic equipment, biocompatible materials, and other important medical needs that improve the living standards of societies.

Biological Engineers or bioengineers are engineers who use the principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible products. In general, biological engineers attempt to either mimic biological systems in order to create products or modify and control biological systems so that they can replace, augment, or sustain chemical and mechanical processes. Bioengineers can apply their expertise to other applications of engineering and biotechnology, including genetic modification of plants and microorganisms, bioprocess engineering, and biocatalysis.

Because other engineering disciplines also address living organisms (e.g., prosthetics in mechanical engineering), the term biological engineering can be applied more broadly to include agricultural engineering and biotechnology. In fact, many old agricultural engineering departments in universities over the world has rebranded themselves as agricultural and biological engineering or agricultural and biosystems engineering. Biological engineering is also called bioengineering by some colleges and Biomedical engineering is called Bioengineering by others, and is a rapidly developing field with fluid categorization. The Main Fields of Bioengineering may be categorised as:

For more information about Biological Engineering, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with biological engineering

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Major improvements made in engineering heart repair patches from stem cells

Major improvements made in engineering heart repair patches from stem cells (w/ Video)

Medicine & Health / Research

created Oct 07, 2009 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

University of Washington (UW) researchers have succeeded in engineering human tissue patches free of some problems that have stymied stem-cell repair for damaged hearts.


Precise blending makes marketable product from ethanol co-product

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Sep 18, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- A Purdue University researcher has found a way to predict the nutrient content in distillers dried grains with solubles, making the ethanol byproduct more marketable as a feedstock.


Purdue-developed tool can get most pollution control for the money

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jun 15, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

There may be thousands of things large and small that can be done to better control pollution on even the smallest waterways, and a new tool developed at Purdue University may help sort out how to choose the best ones.


Web-based program designs more efficient farm terrace layouts

Technology / Engineering

created May 21, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

From the time of the Babylonians to the Incas, terracing has been used to prevent water from eroding steep and hilly croplands. Designing terrace layouts can be time consuming and labor intensive. Now, University of Missouri ...


Engineering tissues and organs

Engineering tissues and organs

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Mar 05, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- As a high school sophomore, Asad Moten read a news story about engineering new organs for patients waiting for a transplant, and decided to start his own tissue-engineering project.


Mathematical models reveal how organisms transcend the sum of their genes

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Feb 06, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (7) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Molecular and cellular biologists have made tremendous scientific advances by dissecting apart the functions of individual genes, proteins, and pathways. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison ...


New method monitors critical bacteria in wastewater treatment

New method monitors critical bacteria in wastewater treatment

Biology /

created Feb 04, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have developed a new technique using sensors to constantly monitor the health of bacteria critical to wastewater treatment facilities and have verified a theory that copper is ...


Do-it-yourself biology: Learning to build a better microbe

Biology /

created Jan 13, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Building a cell from scratch is a lot more complicated than building a computer. But that's just what synthetic biologists, including many at MIT, are trying to figure out how to do.


Dane Wittrup

Cancer-fighting antibodies

Chemistry /

created Dec 22, 2008 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- MIT engineers have found that antibodies do not need a particular sugar attachment long believed to be essential to their function, a discovery that could make producing therapeutic antibodies ...


Researchers offer glimpse of rare mutant cells

Researchers offer glimpse of rare mutant cells

Biology /

created Jul 21, 2008 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (6) | comments 0

MIT biological engineers have developed a new imaging system that allows them to see cells that have undergone a specific mutation.