BBCE Research
In the Department of Biomedical, Biological and Chemical Engineering, our faculty and students work side by side every day on cutting-edge research with vital, real-world applications. Undergraduates have the opportunity to get involved with research as early as their freshman year. Our graduate students have developed skills through research projects that lead to careers in academia, start-up companies, and leading organizations including Amazon, Google, PepsiCo, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Below are just a few projects our outstanding faculty and students are currently working on.
Biomedical Engineering
- Soft materials and wearable/implantable bioelectronics and biosensors (Zhang)
- Skin-interfaced bioelectronics and biosensors
- Brain-interfaced microsystem
- Soft materials-complex colloidal systems
- Biological Optics (Yao)
- Optical Polarization Tractography
- Pupillary Light Reflex
- Biophotonics and biosensing (Grant, Yao, Gu and Tan):
- Medical imaging (CT, tissue optics, OCT, photoacoustics, ultrasound).
- Biosensing and Bioimaging (FRET, molecular rotor, optical resonator, single-molecule sensing, delayed fluorescence).
- Membrane transport and signaling (Gillis, Lee, Gu and Ding):
- Cell electrophysiology and sensing (ion channels, Ca sensing, exocytosis, bioMEMS, neuronal-glial interaction, 2-p microscopy).
- Cell mechanics (properties of astrocytes, AFM).
Bioprocess Engineering
- Biomass-based products and food engineering (Hsieh, Jacoby and Tan):
- Biofoams and biofuels.
- Food process development.
Bioenvironmental Engineering
- Sustainability science (Hall)
- Sustainable Cities
- Integrating stakeholder knowledge in water resources planning
- Developing meaningful models of social-ecological systems
- Water quality (Thompson, ASM and ARS faculty):
- Nonpoint source modeling.
- Waste management and waste water treatment.
- Partnership with USDA Agricultural Research Service:
Chemical Engineering
- Materials for adsorption, transport, separations, catalysis, and other energy-related applications (Hammond)
- Plasma-facing materials
- Nuclear materials
- Zeolites and similar porous and catalytic materials