Skip to content | Change text size
Biological Engineering
 

What is biological engineering?

A dynamic fusion of disciplines

Biological engineering (also called “bioengineering”) represents an exciting, broad-based discipline that ties together the engineering, medical and biological sciences, with a little help from physics, chemistry, mathematics and computer science.  The key objective is to benefit human-kind, animal and plant life - in other words, “engineering for life”.

Biological engineering encompasses traditional engineering disciplines, as well the more well established cross-disciplinary areas such as:

  • Biomedical engineering (clinical & medical technology, medical imaging, tissue engineering)
  • Biochemical engineering (pharmaceutical design, delivery and process)
  • Biomimetics and bio-inspired engineering (engineering design based on organic structure and function)
  • Environmental engineering and sustainability (bioremediation, eco-friendly energy production)
  • Food engineering

An exciting time - science fiction becomes science fact

The most important trend in biological engineering is the dynamic range of scales at which biotechnology is now able to integrate with biological processes. An explosion in micro-nano scale technology is allowing the manufacture nanoparticles for drug delivery into cells, miniaturized implantable microsensors for medical diagnostics, and microengineered robots for on-board tissue repairs. 

At the same time, improvements in the efficiency of large scale technologies is enhancing biotechnology, from efficient bioreactor for cells, tissues and whole organs, to state-of-the-art infrastructure like the Australian Synchrotron and quantum computing is changing the way biomolecules, cells, tissues, organs and whole organ systems can be imaged and quantitated simultaneously.

Importantly and most productively, the “whole” of interdisciplinary engineering approaches like biological engineering is “greater than the sum of its parts”. Tissue engineering is a good example, which relies on expertise in chemical engineering, materials engineering and biological sciences to create smart prosthetics and functional biomaterials for tissue regeneration.