From genetic engineering to biomedical device development, biotechnology
is one of the fastest growing areas of research in both industry
and academia. It's also one of the most interdisciplinary, spawning
an unprecedented number of collaborations among researchers from
seemingly disparate fields.
In this issue, we feature more than a dozen current biotechnology
research projects from across it's science and engineering
departments. Although you may not think of it as a hub
of biotechnology, the scientific and technological expertise
of our faculty and students plays a leading role in
much of the University's biological and biomedical research,
and our alumni have founded more than 50 biomedical
and biotechnology companies, including Medtronic, Cardiac
Pacemakers, and others.
Over the past several years, it has formed partnerships with the
Medical School, the Graduate School, the College of Biological Sciences
(CBS), and the College of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental
Sciences (COAFES) that have generated new intercollegiate research
centers devoted to biotechnology. The unique interdisciplinary environment
of these centers - like the Biological Process Technology Institute
(bpti), the Center for Interdisciplinary Applications in Magnetic
Resonance, and the Center for Metals in Biocatalysis - helps drive
innovative research.
Of course, IT is also home to two longstanding intercollegiate
units that focus on biotechnology. The Department of Biosystems
and Agricultural Engineering, which is part of both IT and COAFES,
meshes engineering and biology to find new ways to improve food
products and the environment. The Biomedical Engineering Institute
(BMEI), a joint department in IT and the Medical School, applies
the principles of engineering to human health problems. BMEI recently
achieved departmental status and completed a successful $12 million
endowment campaign. You can read more about it on page 21.
President Yudof's digital technology and molecular and cellular
biology initiatives will provide further opportunities for interdisciplinary
research. Part of the money allocated for digital technology faculty
will fund new positions in computational biology and genetics, which
the University hopes to fill with leaders in the field. Moreover,
Yudof's initiatives call for state-of-the-art facilities with the
resources necessary to support continuing biotechnology research.
Thanks to a generous $242 million allocation from the Minnesota
legislature, those initiatives - and many others - will soon become
a reality.
Although the breadth and depth of it's current contributions to
biotechnology are remarkable, I am confident that the future holds
even more breathtaking innovations and discoveries. I am committed
to building even stronger relations between IT and the bioscience
components of other colleges.
For example, IT is working with several other colleges
to develop a strategy for making the University a leader
in genomic engineering. In a few years, the entire genome
of many varieties of plants and animals—including
humans—will be mapped out. In fact, the entire genome
of a plant called arabadopsis has already been
determined, and the genome of corn is understood well enough
to enable plant geneticists to introduce genetically modified
strains that are resistant to herbicides. Similar genomic
modification for disease resistance in humans seems imminently
possible.
Dealing with the informational content of genomes—in
particular, DNA sequences—will require new techniques
for storing, mining, and visualizing extraordinarily large
databases, including new computer hardware and software.
(Professor Vipin Kumar and an intercollegiate research team
are already exploring these techniques. You can read more
about their work on page 28.)
Researchers must also develop physical and mathematical models
to understand how the behavior of cells and organisms is related
to genetic structure. Once functional genomics is understood, geneticists
will have unlimited opportunities to engineer new plants and specialty
biochemicals as well as new ways to control diseases and genetic
defects in animals.
The revolution of the 21st century will be driven by biology, assisted
by information technology. Our college intends to be a major player
in that revolution.
