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Welcome to the Institute of Biological Engineering

The Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE) was established to encourage inquiry and interest in biological engineering.

The 21st century presents global challenges in the environment, resources, energy, health, and sustainability. The Institute of Biological Engineering supports the community of scientists and engineers that are addressing these problems through biological systems analysis and design. We do this through enhancing and promoting biological engineering in the broadest manner through research, education, and professional development.

The emerging discipline of biological engineering lies at the interfaces of biological sciences, engineering sciences, mathematics and computational sciences. It applies biological systems to enhance of the quality and diversity of life.

IBE 2012 Annual Conference

March 1-3, 2012
The Westin Indianapolis
Indianapolis, Indiana

Register Today! - Click here
Conference Agenda

IBE Announces Election Results for 2012 Council Print PDF

IBE is pleased to announce the results of the 2012 Council Elections:

President-Elect
Czarena Crofcheck, University of Kentucky

Treasurer
Melanie Correll, University of Florida

Councilors-at-Large
Karmella Haynes, Arizona State University
J. Christopher Anderson, UC Berkeley
Liju Yang, North Carolina Central University
Alyssa Henning, Ginko BioWorks

Undergraduate Councilor
Max Song, Brown University

Graduate councilor
Jessica Calkins, University of Georgia

These newly elected officers and councilors will join those currently serving terms:

President
Ron Sims, Utah State University

Immediate Past President
Bill Batchelor, Auburn University

Secretary
Sabrina Jedlicka, Lehigh University

Councilors-at-Large
Eric McLamore, University of Florida
Mark Haidekker, University of Georgia
Lisa Wilken, Texas A&M University
Praveen Kolar, North Carolina State University
Soonjo Kwon, Utah State University

The term of the 2012 IBE Council is January 1 – December 31, 2012.

What Is Life, Really?

By Arthur T. Johnson, PhD, PE, Fellow, IEEE

An interesting convergence is taking shape these days. On one side, we have the successful biotechnological efforts to insert a completely synthetic genome into a living cell to produce a living, respiring, and reproducing new life form, an organism that has never existed before and did not evolve in the natural way. By anyone’s definition of life, these scientists have created new life. The reason, the scientists give, is to transform common bacterial cells, such as E. coli, into efficient biofuel factories capable of producing in a bioreactor all the fuel we could want or use.

>> Read More

IBE Partners with iGEM to Host the 2011 Americas Regional Jamboree

IBE is pleased to announce a partnership with the international Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition to host the 2011 iGEM Americas Jamboree October 8-10 in Indianapolis, Indiana. This year, iGEM is hosting regional jamborees. Winners of the regional jamborees will advance to the iGEM World Championship Jamboree at MIT. We are expecting over 50 undergraduate teams from North and South America for the Americas Regional Jamboree. Teams will compete for prizes and medals, and the top 20 teams will be invited to compete in the iGEM World Championship Jamboree later that fall. IBE will also be helping iGEM establish an iGEM Regional Council and Regional Judging Team – volunteers with expertise in synthetic biology should send an email expressing their interest to Tom Richard, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . We hope every IBE chapter and school will compete in iGEM this year – it is a fantastic summer educational experience for all who participate.

Additional details about iGEM 2011 are available at: http://2011.igem.org/Main_Page

IBE 2010, Cambridge Presentations Available

At IBE 2010 in Cambridge, MA, preeminent scholars presented their thoughts on how we can address some of the NAE grand challenges in engineering.  Did you miss the presentations?  Never fear, the presentations are now available on through
MIT Tech TV.

Bruce Logan provided a keynote talk on microbial fuel cell technologies for renewable energy production showing how energy can be harvested from wastewater.  Ben Stuart showed how biomass feedstocks can be used for biological recycling of CO2.  Ruben Juanes presented many of the challenges of geological CO2 sequestration at the gigatonne scale.  Chuck Gerba (Dr. Germ) described the need to control water related diseases while Menachem Elimelech showed the promise of desalination as a means to meet our growing water demand.  To wrap up the presentations, these engineers and scientists participated in a panel discussion.

Take a look at the videos and share with your colleagues.