Biochemical

General Information About our Research Group

Biochemical Engineering (BCE) is a branch of chemical engineering that mainly deals with the design, optimization, and development of processes that involve biological organisms or molecules. Additionally, this area has grown to encompass all aspects pertaining to this work, from nanoscale modifications to surface molecules and receptors to modeling mixing profiles and stresses in 5000 liter reactors. With the increase in computational power and understanding of biological pathways, biochemical engineering have been able to make tremendous advances in the area of modeling of biological systems. The work done in this department involves two specific areas of biochemical engineering: biomaterials and cell system modeling.

Biomaterials research investigates creating materials that have either characteristics similar to natural biological products (biomimetic) or have desired interactions with biological systems. Quite often, these areas overlap. This is evident in previous work performed in the areas of therapeutics and biosensors.

Cell system modeling looks at the ability to mathematically model a cellular or population behavior. More specifically, the work looks at the area of kinetics/dynamics of biological systems, including population model balances.

Professors Involved

Dr. Michael Benton
Genomics, bioengineering, metabolic engineering, biosensors

Dr. James E. Henry
Biomaterials

Dr. Martin A. Hjortsø
Bioreactor kinetics/dynamics and applied mathematics

Current Projects

• The role of the DNA damage response in cancer prevention
  
  
• Biosensors for the enhanced detection of carcinogens
  
  
• Cell cycle regulation in eukaryotes
  
  
• Evaluation of protein-based tissue scaffolds
  
  
• Development of an implantable glucose sensor
  
  
• Evaluation of the feasibility of tertiary FRET sensor designs
  
  
• The effect of mono- and polysaccharide structure on Aß toxicity
  
  
• Model development for budding yeast populations

This page was last updated on November 19, 2007