I’m currently a junior in high school and I’ve really wanted to do internal medicine for a while but I stumbled across biomedical engineering which I found even MORE interesting. I really found tissue engineering and regenerative medicine to be so cool but…does this mean I have to go to engineering school? If I wanted to work in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, would this still be a part of biomedical engineering? Would that be what I major in? Are there any good schools for this in Florida?
Thank you! Sorry that I’m so clueless
Also, would it be easy to find a job?
Can someone please help???
The lines have blurred a bit since I graduated. What you’re looking for used to be (and still is at some schools) the domain of molecular biology. In some programs though it is in BME. The link below might be helpful.
@eyemgh Any idea what type of program it would be with University of Florida?
Google will take you a LONG way in life. Give it a chance. I just searched Tissue Engineering University of Florida and uncovered a wealth of information. Try it.
I’m not being snarky either. You’re going to be faced with many harder questions than this in school and in your career. Nearly everything you’ll need will be catalogued somewhere online.
You will likely need an advanced degree no matter which route you take.
You’ll find a lot of info at UF’s BME website:
“Tissue Engineering” is very much an interdisciplinary field, and if you look into the research being done at UF, you’ll see the different fields/majors of the students and faculty, including BME.
The research in the BME Department is currently focused along the following themes/areas:
Neural Engineering
Imaging Diagnostics and Therapeutics
Biomaterials & Regenerative Medicine
Biomedical Data Science
When you major in the field, you have to pick one of four specialization tracks, with Biomaterials being one such track.
UF has very few limited enrollment programs. With BME, the expectation is that after earning your BS, you’ll continue on to grad school, med school, law school, etc, so they are more selective than the other engineering majors, where a BS is an acceptable terminal degree.
@eyemgh I’ve looked online and at their website but I’m confused because there’s information about it from the health department but also the biomedical engineering department.
@Gator88NE wait so I major in pre BME undergrad and get a bachelors then I go into medical school and that’s where I focus on regenerative medicine and tissue engineering?
That’s because there are multiple routes. Spend some time reading about each one, including looking at the curriculum maps, and see which one seems to suit you best. If you want to focus on the basic science of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering medical school is NOT the route you want to take. What you need is not part of a general medical school education. Medical school focuses heavily on clinical applications of science, because that’s what nearly all physicians do. What @Gator88NE is saying is that a BS in BME from Florida is not expected to be a terminal degree no matter what you want to do career wise, not that you specifically should go to medical school.
@eyemgh What do you mean by “basic science of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering”? I’ve always wanted to go to medical school which is why I wanted to continue there not just end it.
@PhilM1 - I have no personal knowledge or experience. I just want to tell you what I have heard -so you can look into it.
My D went to a school with a BME major (GA Tech). She said the kids called it "Business Major Eventually " because everyone switched to something else. It was hard and from what I understood difficult to get a job in without a masters.
If you want to go to med school there are much easier ways to get there. You will need As and I understand they are harder to get in BME.
Again -take this info with a grain of salt- maybe it is something you can look into.
I wonder if there is someone at Florida you can email and ask your questions.
Good luck
There aren’t broad scale applications for tissue engineering…yet. For example, you can’t simply grow a new heart or a new kidney. Basic research though is being done all the time to unlock those opportunities.
If you’re having to ask this question, you need to spend more time learning about the history of the field, which is pretty new (early '90s ish), about what can currently be accomplished (not a ton) and what’s promising on the horizon, before you commit to studying it.
Good luck.
“Basic” as in what you can learn as an undergraduate student. You’ll need to continue your education to really delve into the subject.
At UF you will be able to do undergraduate research in the field, and take classes (it’s one of the 4 tracks in BME).
We’re getting ahead of ourselves. First, pick a major and a school. Once you’re a junior in college, you can start thinking about what to do after you’ve earned your BS (grad school, med school, whatever).
Actually, I believe @eyemgh was referring to “basic” as in “basic research” or “bench research,” i.e., research that doesn’t necessarily have an application (but eventually might) but rather, simply seeks to gain knowledge for knowledge’s sake. Basic research (or “basic science”) seeks to to understand how or why things work. Clinical and translational research aims to apply the findings of basic research. Tissue engineering isn’t in this clinical/translational phase, yet. It’s still the domain of basic research.
@PhilM1 It’s good that you’re asking these questions, but you also need to go a few steps further by examining what you want to do and what you actually need to do to get there. For example, “I’ve always wanted to go to medical school” is not a good reason to go to medical school. If your goal is to work on tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, then you’ll almost certainly need a PhD. An MD is not really going to help you (maybe an MD/PhD, but MD/PhD combined programs, also known as MSTPs, are meant for translational research, and tissue engineering isn’t quite at that stage yet).
@AuraObscura, that’s indeed what I meant. Thanks for clarifying.
Let’s step back a bit. @PhilM1, expand on what you meant when you typed this: “I really found tissue engineering and regenerative medicine to be so cool…” What do you see someone with that background doing?
@eyemgh I see someone with that background in a lab making tissues or regenerating stem cells. I can also see a doctor using regenerative medicine to treat patients.
@AuraObscura When I said I’ve always wanted to go to med school that’s because I’ve wanted to do something related to internal medicine
If you want to be a physician and to use those techniques, major in anything, fulfill the prerequisites, get good grades and MCAT scores and get into medical school. When tissue engineering techniques become mainstream (htey are not right now), you’ll learn them and use them.
If on the other hand, you want to develop them, choose a route that will get you into the PhD program you are interested in and do basic research.