Major for Cellular/Tissue Engineering & Nano-Medicine?

College Majors Science Majors
1

I’m interested in nano-medicine: targeted drug delivery systems, develop treatments beyond chemotherapy, etc.

I’m also interested in cellular & tissue engineering. I would like to be able to synthesize a replica of a patient’s tendon, muscle, or ligament that they’ve torn or lost due to injury. I also like the idea of engineering stem cells into vectors that could transport CRISPR-modified genes into different cells and nuclei, hopefully replacing a mutated gene and fix genetic disorders.

What major would be best for these two fields? Right now I’m looking at BME, Chemical Engineering, and/or Materials Engineering.

2

If you’re asking about undergraduate degrees, molecular/cellular biology and biochemistry majors could/would include courses describing the gene-delivery systems you mention. What you should be looking into are the laboratories and PIs doing this type of work so that you can get involved in the research as an undergrad whatever major you choose. BME could be an excellent choice, also.

Look deeply at the curricula. There will likely be flexibility in all the majors I mentioned and you can decide how to tailor it for you.

3

BME especially in places where there is a med school so you can do research. Make sure there’s room for cross registration.

4

Something like the Cellular and Biomolecular Engineering track in Purdue’s Biological Engineering program might be a good place to look, possibly combined with classes from MechE/BME. USNews has a list of top Agricultural/Biological Engineering programs that might provide ideas.

For schools without that specialization, Biomedical Engineering is a decent place to start investigating.

5

Biomedical engineering represents too diffuse of a major for these interests, in my opinion.

On the undergraduate level, the depth inherent to a biochemistry / molecular biology major may suit you.

6

Not materials engineering. That deals more with metals and alloys, IME.

7

Do a deeper dive into this and see if it matches your interest. The person that runs this is world renown and a very nice person. Reach out to ask questions at any of these schools…

8

Not sure I agree that BME isn’t a place to look.

Is Biomedical Engineering Right For Me

…novel drug delivery systems, and tissue engineered skin…

9

Biomedical engineering as a field tends to be convergent. That is, specialists in various areas of science, engineering and technology may be more important to the field than those who pursued biomedical engineering as an undergraduate major. For the OP to reach their particular goals, they will need to become a world-level expert on the forms and interactions of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. This may be approached on the undergraduate level through a foundational major such as biochemistry / molecular biology.