Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Two sessions / week, 3 hours per session: 1^st hour recitation format, 2^nd and 3^rd hours lecture/seminar format

Prerequisites

Officially:

• 7.06 Cell Biology
• 20.309 Biological Engineering II: Instrumentation and Measurement

In a more general sense, this course is a capstone in the biological engineering degree program, synthesizing and applying the knowledge gained in many prior classes, especially the sequence 20.310J, 20.320, and 20.330J.

Course Goals

The goal of this class is to guide students, working in small project teams, in the design of novel technologies for analysis of complex biological systems. The class emphasizes making practical decisions within a research project – a triage of what can be done given constraints, in particular balancing time vs. doing the desired science while keeping cost in mind.

The topic focus of this class will vary from year to year. This version looks at inflammation underlying many diseases, specifically its role in cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Underpinnings:

• Rigorous Design – Be creative, think out of the box, develop and protect intellectual property
• Societal Need (Market) – Pick challenging opportunities for which an unmet need exists and is quantifiable; balance commercial success with altruism
• Practical Pre-clinical and Clinical Analysis – How does your device/drug/product work, how will you test it?
• Manufacturing – How will you make it? Can it be made at reasonable cost?

This is a CI-M (Communications Intensive in the Major) subject. The communications portion focuses on professional skills like project management, communications in teams, peer review, and writing grant proposals.

Coursework and Grading

Following the two-dimensional matrix organization structure commonly found in consulting companies, each student will be placed in one Disease Group team (e.g. cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular) and one Business Speciality Group (e.g. clinical description of disease, mathematical modeling, in vitro studies).

Coursework grades are mostly based on team project work. There is one exam at mid-term, based on the six papers used for the initial technical paper presentations.

Calendar