Engineering Biological and Biomedical Systems (EBBS)

The Engineering Biological and Biomedical Systems (EBBS) program expands our understanding of biological and physiological systems, and it helps improve human health. For U.S. leadership in biotechnology, the engineering of biology is required at every scale. Engineering is needed for sensing biomarkers to making proteins to restoring functions of the body. In EBBS, fundamental mechanistic insights are combined with experimental and computational techniques. This approach helps develop platforms, devices, organisms, tissues, and processes that bring new understanding and control of biological functions.

EBBS supports studies of mechanisms that drive the behavior of microbial populations and cells, and of therapeutic cells and tissues. This includes discovering the underlying engineering principles that are needed to capture the responses of biological systems and bioreactors. It also includes the creation of novel biosensing platforms and new optical imaging and modulation strategies. Research that enables the design of biological systems to sense and respond to novel stimuli is welcome. Similarly, projects leading to insight into tissue changes or injury, and to systems that…