Letters to the Editor

Grand challenges for biological engineering

Jeong-Yeol Yoon and Mark R Riley

Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721-0038, USA

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Journal of Biological Engineering 2009, 3:16doi:10.1186/1754-1611-3-16

Published:	22 September 2009

Abstract

Biological engineering will play a significant role in solving many of the world's problems in medicine, agriculture, and the environment. Recently the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE) released a document "Grand Challenges in Engineering," covering broad realms of human concern from sustainability, health, vulnerability and the joy of living. Biological engineers, having tools and techniques at the interface between living and non-living entities, will play a prominent role in forging a better future. The 2010 Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE) conference in Cambridge, MA, USA will address, in part, the roles of biological engineering in solving the challenges presented by the NAE. This letter presents a brief outline of how biological engineers are working to solve these large scale and integrated problems of our society.