Biological engineering

Biological engineering, biotechnological engineering or bioengineering (including biological systems engineering) is the application of engineering principles to address challenges in the life sciences which includes fields of biology, ecology, and medicine. Biological engineering is a science based discipline founded upon the biological sciences in the same way that chemical engineering, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering are based upon chemistry, electricity and magnetism, and statics, respectively.

Biological Engineering can be differentiated from its roots of pure biology or classical engineering in the following way. Biological studies often follow a reductionist approach in viewing a system on its smallest possible scale which naturally leads toward tools such as functional genomics. Engineering approaches, using classical design perspectives, are constructionist, building new devices, approaches, and technologies from component concepts. Biological engineering utilizes both of these methods in concert relying on reductionist approaches to define the fundamental units which are then commingled to generate something new. Although engineered biological systems have been used to manipulate information, construct materials, process chemicals, produce energy, provide food, and help maintain or enhance human health and our environment, our ability to quickly and reliably engineer biological systems that behave as expected remains less well developed than our mastery over mechanical and electrical systems.

The differentiation between Biological Engineering and overlap with Biomedical Engineering can be unclear, as many universities now use the terms "bioengineering" and "biomedical engineering" interchangeably. Some contend that Biological Engineering (like biotechnology) has a broader base which spans molecular methods (tends to emphasize the using of biological substances - applying engineering principles to molecular biology, biochemistry, microbiology, pharmacology, protein chemistry, cytology, immunology, neurobiology and neuroscience, cellular and tissue based methods (including devices and sensors), whole organisms (plants, animals), and up increasing length scales to ecosystems. Neither biological engineering nor biomedical engineering is wholly contained within the other, as there are non-biological products for medical needs and biological products for non-medical needs.