MIT Department of Biological Engineering

Name: MIT Department of Biological Engineering
Address: 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, US
Telephone: +16174522464
Price range: Not applicable

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Creating Biological Technologies, from Discovery to Design

The Department of Biological Engineering was founded in 1998 as a new MIT academic unit, with the mission of defining and establishing a new discipline fusing molecular life sciences with engineering. The goal of this biological engineering discipline is to advance 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, in design of novel materials, devices, and processes, and in enhancing environmental health. Our departmental epigram is 'Creating Biological Technologies, from Discovery to Design', designating our intertwined emphases on advances in basic bioscience and in applied biotechnology. The innovative educational programs created by BE reflect this emphasis on integrating molecular and cellular biosciences with a quantitative, systems-oriented engineering analysis and synthesis approach, offering opportunities at the undergraduate level for the SB in Biological Engineering and at the graduate level for the PhD in either Applied Biosciences or Bioengineering. BE also partners with the departments of Biology and Electrical Engineering & Computer Science to jointly offer a PhD in Computational & Systems Biology, and with the departments of Biology and Civil & Environmental Engineering to jointly offer a PhD in Microbiology. Research opportunities for BE undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral associates abound across an exciting landscape of interdisciplinary laboratories, centers, and initiatives, including the Center for Biomedical Engineering, the Center for Environmental Health Sciences, the Center for Emergent Behavior of Integrative Cellular Systems, the Center for Gynepathology Research, the Synthetic Biology Center, and the Division of Comparative Medicine. Graduate students in the BE PhD programs can participate in the NIGMS Biotechnology Training Program, the NIEHS Toxicology Training Program, and the NIBIB Biomechanics Training Program. More than one-third of the MIT BE faculty hold membership in one or more of the major US academies, including 6 in the National Academy of Engineering, 5 in the National Academy of Science, 7 in the Institute of Medicine, and 6 in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. BE is one of four bioengineering programs (along with UCSD, Berkeley/UCSF, and Caltech) assigned #1 rankings in the current National Research Council report, and ranks #1 among bioengineering departments in citations per publication in a recent Academic Analytics study. Numerous biotechnology companies have been generated by BE faculty and students, in the Cambridge/Boston area and further nationwide.

11/02/2026

BE Seminar this Thursday with Arjun Raj, University of Pennsylvania “Systems of Cells and Systems of Science” https://ow.ly/root5103agm

10/30/2026

Who's up at BATS?
Sergio Quispe Sanchez (White Lab): “Leveraging Cell-Type-Specific Phosphoproteomics to Study Tumor Signaling During T Cell Attack”
Isabella Goodchild (Collins): “Active Learning Enables Efficient Exploration of Natural Protein Space”
https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

10/26/2026

BE Seminar this Thurs 10/29 with Derfogail Delcassian, University of California-Berkeley “Talking to T Cells: Engineered Micro- and Nano- Therapeutics to Direct T Cell Fate Across Auto-Immunity and Oncology” https://ow.ly/TgmW51018Vu

10/26/2026

The Neurotech 2026 symposium on 11/20 presents six talks by neurotechnology pioneers whose cutting-edge innovations are changing the face of neurobiological research from molecules to cognition. Learn more and register: https://neurotech.mit.edu/

10/23/2026

Who's up at BATS?
Duy An Le (Bathe Lab): “Leveraging Spatial Transcriptomics Tools to Study Nanoparticle Libraries in the Brain”
Andrew Ding (Sun): “Universal Single-Cell Transcriptomic Aging Clocks”
https://ow.ly/SzPG5100gyN

10/16/2026

Local area BE alumni, you are welcome to network with students and postdocs at our poster forum and alumni reception from 4:00–5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 20, at no charge. This event follows the BE & ChemE Career Expo. Our poster presenters are eager to hear insights from your career journey and to share their interests and talents. RSVP now at https://ow.ly/AWMH50ZYyUg

ALUMNI: Please RSVP below to help inform attendance for our poster session at the BE & ChemE Career Expo. This event is open to MIT alumni, industry guests, and all ChemE community members. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to support and inspire the next generation of engineers at our candidate ...

10/16/2026

Who's up at BATS?
Elif Kulaksizoglu (Birnbaum Lab): “Engineering Pooled Lentiviruses to Study Antigen-Specific T Cell Responses at Scale”
Emme Pogue (Birnbaum): “Mapping Functional Footprints of HIV Reactive TCR Clonotypes”
https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

10/09/2026

Who's up at BATS?
Litsa Kapsalis (Langer & Jaklenec Labs): “Intraosseous Photothermal Therapy and Local Drug Depots for Breast Cancer Bone Metastases”
Julia Zhong (Lauffenburger Lab): “Investigating B Cell-Intrinsic Control of Antibody Glycosylation”
https://be.mit.edu/our-community/seminars/

10/06/2026

Congratulations to Prof Jessica Stark on receiving the 2026 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award from the NIH Common Fund’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program. The NIH Director’s Awards support exceptionally creative scientists pursuing transformative research.

NIH Director's New Innovator Award - Funded Research

10/02/2026

Who's up at BATS?
Mikolaj Godzik (BLAINEY): “Identifying of Regulators of Cancer Plasticity Using High-Content Optical Pooled Screens”
Jing “Vicky” Liu (HANSEN): “Scalable Mapping of TF-IDR Interactions to Drug the Undruggable TFs” https://ow.ly/8Y1n50ZTV34

Address

77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA
02139

Telephone

+16174522464

Website

http://be.mit.edu/

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