The Department of
Biomedical Engineering

Graduate Studies in Biomedical Engineering
The Doctoral Program
Master of Science (MS) in Biomedical Engineering
Affiliations
Research Interests of the Faculty
Research Interests of Affiliated Faculty

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Chairman ad interim John A. White

Associate Chairman for Graduate Affairs Joyce Wong

Associate Chairman for Undergraduate Affairs Herbert Voigt

Department Director Matt Barber

Graduate Studies in Biomedical Engineering

Biomedical engineering is one of the most exciting areas of modern technological research. By combining life sciences and engineering it addresses critical problems in medicine and physiology. Quantitative engineering methods are used to obtain a clearer understanding of normal and abnormal functions of the human body. Boston University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering was established in the College of Engineering in 1966.

In 2002 the department was granted a $14 million Leadership Award by the Whitaker Foundation, one of only three institutions ever so honored. The department currently enjoys flourishing and vibrant undergraduate and graduate programs offering the BS, MS, and PhD, and participates in BS/MD and MD/PhD programs with the School of Medicine. The department presents a unique state-of-the-art integrated approach from molecular and cellular levels up through neural and whole-system function. Research by faculty and students takes place in departmental and selected adjunct laboratories and in five affiliated centers.

In January 2006, the Biomedical Engineering Department was awarded The Translational Research Partnership Program. This award, from the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation, enables the Biomedical Engineering Department to create a translational research program in biomedical engineering. This partnership will reinforce the University’s already strong commitment to translational research and expand a substantial infrastructure devoted to moving that research from Boston University laboratories into clinical practice. The program mobilizes multiple healthcare resources predominant in Boston through a carefully structured process of proposal development and mentoring, administered by an oversight committee drawn from the leadership of each of the involved agencies, as well as from industry and venture capital communities. It actively engages BME faculty in part through a staff of “site miners” dedicated to identifying promising opportunities in translational biomedical engineering at Boston University. We expect the Coulter Foundation Translational Research Program at Boston University to be a national model for integrating technology development and commercialization into the fundamental work of biomedical engineering departments. The main focus of this program is to:

• Create a process which helps all members of the BME faculty identify opportunities for translational research and supports their capacity to pursue them.
• Create a process by which several highly promising translational research projects are regularly moved past well-defined milestones towards a real impact on clinical medicine and human health.

The Center for Advanced Biotechnology brings computation to bear on unraveling genomic organization and structure. The Center for Biomolecular Engineering Research is aimed at understanding biomolecular structure, promoting the computer-aided design of new molecular architectures (for drugs and vaccines), and providing the computation infrastructure for the nation’s biotechnology effort. The Hearing Research Center was formed to encourage and support the highest-quality research in hearing science and its applications. It combines theoretical and experimental studies of auditory processing to understand hearing in both normal and impaired auditory systems. The Center for BioDynamics brings techniques from dynamical systems theory and its applications to solve problems in biology and engineering. The NeuroMuscular Research Center conducts research aimed at developing treatments for various neuromuscular disorders from lower back pain to paralysis.

Faculty members also conduct research in sensory systems and in cardiorespiratory systems. The former includes research on vision and the application of artificial intelligence to cognitive problems in patients with brain lesions. The latter includes research in respiratory mechanics, pulmonary gas transport, and heart rate variability and control. Prospective students should refer to the list of faculty interests that follows. As a result of the Leadership Award, the department has created a new Center for Nano and Micro Biosystems, for support of research in cell and tissue engineering. The department expects to grow in the research areas of protein and genomic engineering and in biophotonics, and will soon complete a Biomedical Computational Center. The centers and laboratories all have a solid funding base from government agencies, foundations, and/or corporate sponsors, such as the Department of Energy, Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Whitaker Foundation. The department has expanded into additional space in the new Life Science and Engineering Building, which includes new state-of-the-art instructional labs.

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The Doctoral Program

Applicants to the doctoral program are encouraged to contact faculty members in the department and discuss research plans. For contact information, see http://bme.bu.edu. The PhD Programs in Engineering at Boston University pamphlet, available from the Graduate Programs Office, 48 Cummington Street, explains the requirements for the PhD program in some detail. All requirements for the engineering PhDs meet the minimum criteria set forth for the PhD program at the front of this bulletin. These and additional requirements pertaining to all engineering PhD students are outlined below.


For admission with financial aid consideration, domestic applications must be submitted by January 15 and international applications by December 15 for the fall semester. All applications must be submitted by October 1 for the spring semester. Most students admitted to the PhD program are offered financial aid in the form of various fellowships, which include tuition, health insurance, and the GSU fee. Applications for admission may be obtained from the College of Engineering Graduate Programs Office, 48 Cummington Street, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215; 617-353-9760, e-mail: enggrad@bu.edu; CCollege of Engineering Graduate Programs. An electronic application is available on the Web at College of Engineering Admissions Application.

Postbachelor’s PhD students must enroll for a minimum of 64 credits. Eight of the 16 courses (32 credits) must be structured (non-research courses), seven of which must be at the graduate level. Specific requirements include:

• ENG BE 505 Molecular Bioengineering I
• ENG BE 706 Quantitative Physiology for Engineers
• at least two courses from the graduate BME core curriculum
• each student must complete a minimum of 16 research credits of BE 900

Post-master’s PhD students must enroll for a minimum of 32 credits and must take 24 credits of approved structured courses, including those listed above. Up to 16 credits of this structured coursework may be waived if equivalence is demonstrated. Students must also take at least eight credits of unstructured BE 900 Research.

The determination of equivalent graduate courses will be subject to the review of the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Committee.

Advisor All degree-seeking students are assigned an academic advisor who is a full-time academic faculty member in the department. The Associate Chairman for Graduate Studies assigns an academic advisor for each student.

Qualifying Examinations The biomedical engineering qualifying exam, which is taken at the end of the first academic year, relates to the core curriculum. Students must also take an exam in applied mathematics, administered by the College of Engineering.

Oral Prospectus Defense Within five semesters of matriculation, the student is required to present an oral thesis proposal to the prospective dissertation committee and have the written dissertation prospectus approved. The committee evaluates the potential of the proposed research and the student’s academic preparation to engage in dissertation research.

See General Requirements in the Doctoral Programs in Engineering section of this site.

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Dissertation A PhD candidate is expected to prepare and carry out an independent and original research project in partial fulfillment of the dissertation requirement. The dissertation committee with a minimum of four members must include three College of Engineering faculty, including two Biomedical Engineering academic faculty members, and one faculty member of an academic department other than the one in which the student is enrolled. Frequently, scholars from other Colleges within the University, as well as outside the University serve on dissertation committees. A Special Faculty Appointment form is available from the Department Office for this purpose.

MD/PhD Combined Degree Program The combined degree program is conducted under the joint auspices of the School of Medicine and the College of Engineering and is designed for and open to highly qualified individuals who are strongly motivated for an education and a career in both medicine and research. The purpose of the program is to provide students with the opportunity to obtain advanced education and research training in biomedical engineering while providing exposure to and training in clinical medicine. The program requires six to seven years of study and leads to both the MD and PhD degrees. The applicant must meet the requirements for admission to both the School of Medicine as a candidate for the MD degree and the College as a candidate for the PhD degree. The minimum entrance requirements and the prerequisite courses for the School of Medicine are the same as those for the Division of Medical and Dental Sciences. Applicants for the MD/PhD degree program are required to submit the results of the Medical College Admission Test and those of the Graduate Record Examination.

Master of Science (MS) in Biomedical Engineering

The program of study leading to the MS in Biomedical Engineering is tailored to individual student interests and provides considerable flexibility. Each study program must be approved by the student’s academic advisor, as well as by the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Committee. Elements of the study program common for all students are course requirements, a research project, a thesis, and a thesis defense.

The study program must satisfy both the requirements of the College of Engineering and additional requirements of the department.

• two Biomedical Engineering elective courses
• a graduate-level physiology or biology course (4 cr)
• a mathematics elective (4 cr)
• three approved course electives (only one may be below the 500 level) (12 cr)
• ENG BE 790 Biomedical Engineering Seminar Series (0 cr)
• ENG BE 900 Research (8 cr)

The mathematics elective can be satisfied either by taking a mathematics course, or by passing the PhD Mathematics Qualifying Examination. In the latter case, an additional course elective must be taken.

A program of study identifying the seven structured courses must be submitted prior to submission of the MS thesis proposal and must be approved by the student’s faculty advisor and the BME Graduate Committee.

Graduate students who do not satisfy the prerequisites for the courses above are expected to make up any and all deficiencies.

Grades The department permits only 4 credits of C to be applied toward its degree. A grade point index of at least 3.0 (B) must be maintained.

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Research Project Requirement Each student is required to undertake a suitable research project supervised by a member of the department or by someone deemed acceptable by the Graduate Program Committee. Graduate students are expected to register for ENG BE 900 Research each semester they work on their project. However, only 8 credits may be applied to the 36 required for the degree.

It is the student’s responsibility to schedule a formal meeting with his/her Thesis Committee members at least once for discussion and approval of the brief proposal document. Along with the proposal document, the student must present the Master’s Proposal and Thesis Committee Approval form to his/her thesis committee. If the proposal is approved, the members of the thesis committee must sign the form thereby indicating their willingness to participate on the committee. The student submits the signed approval form and the proposal document to the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Committee. It is expected that the student’s thesis committee will meet regularly with the student throughout the remainder of his/her thesis research. The functions of the defense committee are as follows:

1. to provide advice as the project evolves
2. to review preliminary drafts of the thesis
3. to conduct the thesis defense
4. to communicate the results to the chairman of the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Committee

Thesis Requirement The results of the research project must be communicated to the scientific and engineering community in a formal thesis. Editorial guidelines for the thesis are found in A Guide for the Writers of Dissertations and Theses, available in the department office, the College’s Graduate Programs Office, and Mugar Library.

Thesis Defense The final academic requirement for the MS degree is the successful defense of the thesis before the defense committee. The format of the defense is not rigid and is usually decided upon by the individual committee. The defense committee, however, must be unanimous in passing the student. The defense committee chairman informs the graduate programs committee of the results of the defense by completing a thesis defense checklist. The University requires that two copies of each thesis or dissertation be submitted to Mugar Memorial Library. Once the final thesis is approved by the thesis committee, the student must submit to the department the two copies for Mugar Library, plus one copy for the department, one copy for each member of the thesis committee, and at least one personal copy to be bound. The department and library copies must all have original signatures of committee members and be submitted according to established deadlines.

Students should be able to complete the MS program within two calendar years.

Deadlines The graduate student is responsible for meeting the various deadlines for submission of the program planning sheet, the thesis proposal, and the final thesis document. See the Graduate Program Deadlines section of this site.

Neurobiology Studies in Conjunction with the Department of Biology The Department of Biomedical Engineering, in conjunction with the Department of Biology, offers studies in neurobiology. Faculty from both departments teach and perform theoretical and experimental research in physiology (chemical, auditory, and visual senses, electrophysiology, reproduction, neuroendocrinology); cell biology (structure and function of single neurons and populations of neurons, synaptogenesis, receptors); anatomy (histology and ultrastructure neurotransmitter and neuropeptide localization); and behavior (social behavior, chemical communication, population regulation, and field behavior).

Degrees are offered by the individual departments and students must satisfy departmental degree requirements. For further information, contact the Associate Chairman for Graduate Studies in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Affiliations

The Department of Biomedical Engineering’s affiliates include a number of medical institutions in addition to our own Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center. These affiliations include Massachusetts General Hospital, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Beth Israel Hospital, New England Medical Center, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Most of our affiliations have been made at the individual faculty level and through graduate students receiving training in the context of project work with faculty members at both institutions. In some cases we have MDs working in our laboratories on the Charles River Campus. We also have faculty and graduate students working in laboratories at hospitals. Our graduate students take medical school courses as electives in their graduate programs, as well as courses taught jointly by faculty from our department and from the School of Medicine.

Other medically oriented affiliations are taking place with faculty colleagues in Boston University Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and College of Arts and Sciences. These include research collaboration involving students in physical therapy, communication disorders, audiology, health sciences (neuroanatomy and exercise physiology), physics, and biomechanics.

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Research Interests of the Faculty

I. Bigio, PhD: medical applications of optics, lasers, and spectroscopy; biomedical optics and biophotonics; nonlinear optics, quantum electronics, and laser physics.

C. R. Cantor, PhD: human genome analysis, molecular genetics; new biophysical tools and methodologies; genetic engineering. (on leave)

H. S. Colburn, PhD: hearing research, particularly binaural interaction; virtual acoustic environments.

J. J. Collins, DPhil: nonlinear dynamics in biology and medicine; gene regulatory networks; sensory prosthetics; human balance control; rehabilitation engineering.

E. Damiano, PhD: integrated cellular and extracellular biomechanics; biofluid dynamics; microcirculation; vestibular biomechanics; closed loop blood-glucose regulation.

C. DeLisi, PhD: analysis of DNA function; protein structure; optimization algorithms; neural net applications to molecular biology; drug and vaccine design, membrane biophysics.

C. J. De Luca, PhD: neuromuscular signals and controls; rehabilitation engineering.

M. Dembo, PhD: statistical mechanics in biological systems, cellular information processing and signal transduction; thermodynamics and mechanics of cell adhesion; biophysics of cell deformation; active motility.

T. Einhorn, PhD: hip and knee replacement and reconstructive surgery, treatment of metabolic disease, orthopaedic trauma surgery, the biology of skeletal repair and regeneration.

S. R. Eisenberg, ScD: electrically mediated phenomena in tissues and biopolymers.

S. Erramilli, PhD: high resolution infrared microscopy for studying biological systems.

E. A. Evans, PhD: nano-microscale mechanics; ultrasensitive force probes and extreme resolution optical techniques; material properties of cellular structure; role of structural forces in cell biochemistry.

M. Frank-Kamenetskii, PhD: DNA structures; DNA topology; DNA functioning; new drugs interacting with DNA.

T. S. Gardner, PhD: development of tools for identifying and controlling the genetic circuitry underlying the behavior of living organisms.

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B. Goldberg, PhD: experimental condensed-matter physics and polymer physics.

M. W. Grinstaff, PhD: biomaterials, tissue engineering, drug delivery, macromolecular chemistry and engineering self-assembly, nanodevices.

S. Grossberg, PhD: neural models of adaptive behavior.

J. A. Hamilton, PhD: novel approaches to biomedical problems by integrating physical-chemical and physiological/biochemical approaches complemented with molecular modeling, molecular biology and other cell biology methods.

A. E. Hubbard, PhD: auditory physiology; experiments and modeling; neurocomputing; VLSI on biomedical applications, biosensors.

A. C. Jackson, PhD: respiratory physiology; respiratory mechanics.

W. C. Karl, PhD: multiresolution statistical signal and image processing; geometric estimation.

S. Kasif, PhD: bioinformatics, computational genomics algorithm design, artificial intelligence, high performance systems.

C. Klapperich, PhD: design of materials for bio devices and tissue scaffolds.

K. R. Lutchen, PhD: structure-function relations in mechanics and ventilation; linear and non-linear systems identification; optimal design; minimally invasive diagnostics.

A. Meller, PhD: nonpore force spectroscopy of RNA folding kinetics, DNA switches and transcription initiation kinetics, RNA helicases activity, mapping transcription factors interaction with DNA, ultra fast DNA sequencing, novel optical methods for single molecule detection.

J. C. Mertz, PhD: development of new microscopy techniques for biological imaging; applications of two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) microscopy for deep imaging in brain tissue and visualization of endogenous fluorescence for clinical applications; applications of second-harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy for cell membrane potential imaging and the photocontrol of chromophore orientation dynamics in membranes; investigation of interferometric contrast mechanisms based on optical coherence tomography (OCT) or nonlinear detection.

E. F. Morgan, PhD: mechanical behavior of biological materials, mechanical stimulation of tissue differentiation, micromechanics of multiscale media, damage mechanics.

D. C. Mountain, Jr., PhD: auditory information processing, sensory biophysics, computer simulation; biomedical electronics; and biomedical signal processing.

S. H. Nawab, PhD: digital signal processing; knowledge-based signal processing; auditory scene analysis; signal processing for low-power and communications applications.

M. A. Nugent, PhD: response of tissues to injury and disease, design and use of polymer-based controlled drug delivery systems, tissue engineering, and the development of computational models of dynamic biological processes.

C. L. Passaglia, PhD: describe the receptive field properties of retinal ganglion cells; develop models that accurately simulate retinal information processing and encoding; characterize the effects of retinal disease on ganglion cell physiology and morphology.

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T. Porter, PhD: development of targeted ultrasound contrast agents for image enhancement (molecular imaging), perfusion imaging, and image-guided drug delivery; ultrasound-enhanced transport of drugs and genes across cell membranes; ultrasound-enhanced drug activity (i.e., chemotherapy, thrombolytics); tissue response to acousto-mechanical forces (apoptosis, wound healing, gene expression, etc.); ultrasound and polymers.

D. Segre, PhD: evolutionary dynamics of biological networks, in particular the interplay between response to genetic and environmental perturbations, genomic-level functional organization, and optimal adaptation.

K. Sen, PhD: auditory neurophysiology, birdsong, neural coding, natural sounds, computational neuroscience.

B. Shinn-Cunningham, PhD: binaural hearing, localization, modeling of psychoacoustic phenomena, studying auditory perception, particularly perception of spatial sound and learning and adaptation.

C. L. Smith, PhD: development of novel methods for mapping and sequencing of large and small genomes; molecular comparisons of closely related genomes; the genetic basis of complex traits.

T. F. Smith, PhD: syntactic and semantic structure of the genetic information in biomolecular sequences, structures and their evolution.

D. Stamenović, PhD: respiratory mechanics; rheology of soft tissues; mechanics of foamlike structures and cell mechanics.

M. Steffen, MD, PhD: developing the tools of systems biology for mammalian cells; technique of mass spectrometry aiming at identifying protein interactions; cancer biology; bioinformatics revolving around pathway and network identification.

B. Suki, PhD: mechanical properties of living tissues; the ensemble behavior of complex biological systems; non-linearities in biological systems.

T. Szabo, PhD: medical imaging, diagnostic ultrasound, tissue characterization, transduction, biomedical signal processing, wave propagation, nonlinear acoustics.

M. C. Teich, PhD: wavelet analysis of fractal biological signals; neural coding; auditory and visual psychophysics; quantum optics.

J. Tien, PhD: application of microlithography to biology; complexity and morphogenesis; dynamics of cell signaling; living hybrid interfaces; self-assembled and self-organizing structures.

J. Tsien, PhD: molecular and neural mechanisms underlying normal and abnormal memory processes using an integrated approach that combines genomics, proteomics, mouse genetics, neurophysiological, computational, and behavioral techniques.

S. Ünlü, PhD: near-field optical microscopy and spectroscopy of semiconductor and materials and devices design, processing, characterization, and simulation of semiconductor optoelectronic devices.

L. M. Vaina, PhD, ScD: computational visual neuroscience; biological and computational learning; functional and structural neuroimaging.

S. Vajda, PhD: scientific computing; computational chemistry; combinatorial optimization; molecular biology; protein and peptide structure determination.

H. F. Voigt, PhD: auditory neurophysiology; neural circuitry, neural modeling.

M. Wachowiak, PhD: olfactory coding and synaptic processing, imaging, neurophysiology.

Z. Weng, PhD: bioinformatics; DNA and protein sequence analysis.

J. A. White, PhD: non-linear membrane conductances in neurons; modulation of ion channels; dynamics of neuronal networks.

J. Y. Wong, PhD: biomaterials, tailoring cell-material interfaces for drug delivery and tissue engineering applications; direct measurement of biological interactions.

Research Interests of Affiliated Faculty

J. Bienkowska, PhD: collaborative research with Dr. Temple Smith in the BioMolecular Engineering Research Center.

S. Burns, PhD: medical instrumentation; intelligent instrumentation systems; real-time microprocessor-based instrumentation; quantitative exercise instrumentation.

D. A. Cotter, PhD: hospital information systems; medical instrumentation and diagnostics; pattern recognition; research and development management.

A. Cowey, PhD: collaborative research with Prof. Lucia Vaina in the Brain and Vision Research Lab.

T. Desai, PhD: therapeutic applications of micro- and nanotechnology for drug delivery and tissue engineering; bioMEMS-based biohybrid devises for cell encapsulation, templates for cell and tissue regeneration.

A. Goldberger, MD: nonlinear dynamics of cardiac physiology; fractal mechanisms in molecular biology and general physiology; surface electrophysiology; electrocardiography.

H. Jara, PhD: biomedical imaging; atomic, molecular, and laser physics.

X. Jiang, PhD: group leader, Serono Reproductive Biology Institution; Collaborative research with Prof. Zhiping Weng on computational modeling of molecular structure and interactions.

P. O’Bryan, PhD: lectures on the human cardiovascular system for BE 706, Quantitative Physiology for Engineers.

A. Rosenthal: Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President, Boston Scientific Corp. Lectures for BE 467, Design, Development, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship in Biomedical Engineering.

S. Smirnakis, PhD: Clinical Fellow in Neurointensive Care and Stroke Neruology at Mass General Hospital; collaborative research with Professor Lucia Vaina in the Brain and Vision Research Lab.

J. V. White, PhD: bioinformatics; development of algorithms for modeling and extracting information from large complex data sets.

S. Witte, PhD: Imaging Scientist at Epix Medical, Inc.; Lectures for BE 706, Quantitative Physiology for Engineers.

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10 September 2007
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