At the interface of engineering and medicine, bioengineering is an inherently interdisciplinary field with societal impact. This student is viewing a microscope image of human airway smooth muscle cells stained with fluorescent calcium dye as part research to improve treatment for asthma.
Innovation is furthered with an interdisciplinary collaborative lab environment and state-of-the-art facilities such as the Microscope Hub in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex where this student is looking at cancer culture.
With a 3000 square foot makerspace including 18 tables and state-of-the-art equipment, undergraduate students have the space, capabilities, and environment to work and innovate together on capstone, research, and teaching projects.
Assistant Professor Mona Minkara sits works on cell configuration with her research assistant. Dr. Minkara is a blind faculty member and she uses these cells to feel and recognize cell types.
As part of the weekly lab for Bioengineering Measurement, Experimentation and Statistics course, students learn cell and tissue culture, biomechanics, computational, and other areas within bioengineering.
Spotlight Stories
ASME 2023 Y.C. Fung Early Career Award
BioE Assistant Professor Jessica Oakes was selected as the 2023 Y.C. Fung Early Career Award Medalist for outstanding work in respiratory mechanics that has significantly advanced the understanding of asthma, smoking, and inhalable drug delivery, and for strong advocacy in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
$7.5M DOD MURI Grant for Synthetic Biology
University Distinguished Professor Eduardo Sontag and collaborators received a $7.5M DOD MURI grant to impact synthetic biology by changing the way one describes, characterizes, and designs genetic modules, through tools that will enable the systematic and scalable design of increasingly complex biomolecular decision-making systems.
Engineering In Action
World-Renown Co-op Program
Ella Strzegowski (Bioengineering E’23) embarked on a co-op at Moderna in the fall of 2021, just as the company was applying for its biologics license and COVID-19’s Omicron variant was tearing through the population. Her experience placed her at the epicenter of covid-related research even as the virus—and the world’s response to it—changed by the day.
PhD Research for Impact
Lauren Cole (PhD in Bioengineering) has dedicated her Northeastern research to understanding the medicinal properties of certain plants, especially in the production of chemotherapy drugs. Shedding light on how plants can be engineered to produce these beneficial molecules, she’s shared her research in published journal articles and an award-winning conference presentation.
World-Renown Experiential Learning
Originally from Nigeria, OluwaFemi Koledoye (MS in Bioengineering) pursued a cell and tissue concentration at Northeastern—hoping to return home with the training to bring change to healthcare in West Africa. His hands-on experience of the biopharmaceutical industry, including a co-op, gave him the tools to realize his ambitions.
World-Renowned Cooperative Education
Kritika Singh, BS, Bioengineering, is on her first co-op at Massachusetts General Hospital in the Center for Systems Biology and she is also working on a malaria project to express a difficult to express protein. Her ambition is to be a physician scientist and says co-op will definitely help her achieve that.
World-Renowned Cooperative Education
Aanie Phillips, BS, Bioengineering, says co-op puts into perspective what you learn in the classroom providing an immersive learning experience. She did two co-ops, a clinical one at a doctor’s office, and the other as a mechanical and operations engineer at Virtudent, a teledentistry startup. Aaanie is off to medical school with a full scholarship from her top-choice school.
