A scientific revolution is underway in medicine and health care. Each month brings announcements of discoveries and treatments that would have once been deemed miraculous. Many of these advances are the result of a relatively new discipline known as cellular and molecular biotechnology-a hybrid of engineering and medicine.

Recognizing its extraordinary importance, the College of Engineering has made this area of research a top priority and in 1996 created a separate Department of Biomedical Engineering (the program was first established at Michigan in 1962). In the brief span of time since then, this new unit has amassed an impressive record of achievement, driven by immensely productive faculty and scientists from a wide range of disciplines. Examples of current research include:

• Implantable microsystems that analyze biological functions and treat physical disorders with chemical and electrical stimuli
• Wearable devices that can be used to monitor pollution, evaluate global change, and study childhood asthma in urban areas
• A cochlear prosthesis that restores hearing in the profoundly deaf, with similar microsystem devices under development for treating epilepsy and Parkinson's Disease
• Synthetic "scaffolds" that enable the body to rebuild damaged tissue and bone more quickly
• Diagnostic, functional and molecular imaging systems
• Advanced bioprocess techniques for the pharmaceutical industry
• Devices that employ ultrafast optical pulses and high-intensive ultrasound to perform noninvasive surgery and localize drug activation