Biological engineering, also called bioengineering, applies the principles of biology together with the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible products and processes, working across scales from molecular biology and biochemistry up through cells and tissues to whole organisms and even ecosystems. Biological engineers aim to mimic biological systems or to modify and control them using conventional engineering method, drawing together biomechanics, bioinformatics, thermodynamics, polymer science and tissue engineering into one working discipline. The field is broader than biomedical engineering, which the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology scopes specifically to healthcare applications: biological engineering's own major branches, tissue engineering, pharmaceutical and bioprocess engineering, environmental health engineering, biotechnology, biomimetics and systems biology among them, extend well past medicine into agriculture, environmental treatment and industrial production. That breadth is what separates biological engineering from a single applied specialty: it is the general engineering discipline built on biology, of which medical application is only one branch among several.
Facts
Core ConcernThe application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically viable products and processes that support health care. 1 Core PrincipleThe field advances the fundamental understanding of how biological systems operate and develops effective biology-based technologies for applications across a wide range of societal needs, including breakthroughs in diagnosis, treatment and disease prevention. 1 FAQs
Is biological engineering the same field as biomedical engineering?
No, though the two share methods. Biological engineering, also called bioengineering, applies engineering principles to biological systems broadly, including agriculture, environmental remediation, food production and industrial biotechnology as well as medicine. Biomedical engineering narrows that same toolkit specifically to human health, designing medical devices, diagnostic equipment, prosthetics and therapies. Every biomedical engineer works within biological engineering's broader scope, but not every biological engineer works in medicine.
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Associated With
Open Questions
Source Recombinant DNA (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Biological Engineering (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia Foundationlead section, opening definition
Biological engineering or bioengineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically viable products that support health care.
History section, bioengineering definition attributed to one source
One source defined bioengineering as advancing the "fundamental understanding of how biological systems operate and to develop effective biology-based technologies for applications across a wide spectrum of societal needs including breakthroughs in diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease."
History section, Heinz Wolff coinage paragraph
Biological engineering or "bioengineering" was coined by British scientist and broadcaster Heinz Wolff in 1954 at the National Institute for Medical Research.
View the Source Open Questions (1 open question)
Berg, Lobban, or Cohen and Boyer: who deserves primary credit for recombinant DNA?
Peter Lobban first proposed the idea of recombinant DNA as a Stanford graduate student, Paul Berg's laboratory produced the first recombinant DNA molecule around 1971-72 and Berg later won a Nobel Prize partly for this work, yet the 1974 United States patent on recombinant DNA technology names only Stanley Cohen and Herbert Boyer as inventors, for a related but distinct gene-cloning technique published in 1973.
What would resolve this A settled historical or legal consensus on whether patent inventorship (Cohen and Boyer's cloning technique) or first scientific priority (Lobban's proposal and Berg's molecule) is the correct measure of who invented recombinant DNA would resolve the dispute.
History of biotechnology and biological engineeringRecombinant DNA (Wikipedia)
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