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Engineering the cutting edge of biotechnology

Engineers drive the technological advancements in biotechnology. They design, build and apply tools that help researchers answer biological questions. And they collaborate with doctors, biologists, veterinarians, wildlife ecologists, geneticists, chemists, surgeons, plant pathologists, geologists and others. "When engineers can learn to speak the language of biology," says Electrical and Computer Engineering Associate Professor Daniel van der Weide, "they can begin to answer biologists' well posed questions by applying the tools of technology."

The possibilities are endless. Engineers can design machines that detect and zap cancer cells without harming surrounding tissue, or build thumbnail-sized laboratories for culturing bovine embryos. Studying individual brain cells, they may find causes and cures for such diseases as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. They can create biocompatible artificial tissue and organs, learn how urban runoff affects wetland ecology, extend food freshness, and extract genetic information from viruses to understand how the world's simplest organisms grow.

UW-Madison engineers are doing these things and more. This exhibit showcases the ways in which some them are developing biotechnological solutions to natural-world problems. View it "virtually" here, or check it out on campus in the new exhibit space on the east wall of 1610 Engineering Hall.

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Copyright 2000 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
Date last modified: 04-Dec-2001
Date created: 22-Dec-2000
Content By: perspective@engr.wisc.edu
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