The disciplines of Biosciences and Bioengineering infuse our daily lives to an unprecedented degree today. Whether it is the food we eat, the medicines we take, the devices that are used in order to diagnose and treat ailments, or our very understanding of how our own bodies and minds work, Biosciences and Bioengineering give us both insights as well as techniques to ensure greater well-being, for both animal and plant life.

Stemming from our pursuit of knowledge and technology development in the biological and medical sciences, the two sub-domains represented specifically in academic programs in our department are Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering. We offer an MSc in the former, an MTech in the latter, and PhD in both.

The study of the biological and medical sciences spans multiple scales of size, all the way from atoms to the biosphere, and it is important to ask questions at all these size scales. Imbalances in ecosystems, communities, and populations will be detrimental to all living systems, especially human beings. Due to this immediate impact on our lives, many bioscience or bioengineering departments around the world study the living world at the larger size scales. Many other departments, including the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering @ IIT Bombay, study biology and animal physiology at the organ, tissue, and cellular levels, allowing us to impact human life by working at the interface of biology and engineering.

Several human-made systems are engineering marvels. Even the most complex of human-made systems, however, comes with a parts list and design manual. Living systems, in contrast, lack parts lists or design manuals. The challenge is to reverse engineer living systems and understand the design principles. Via such processes, not just do we employ engineering techniques to advance biological knowledge and healthcare, we also gain inspiration from biological and medical sciences to develop better engineering systems.

Owing to their complexity, living systems can be viewed as “black boxes”. As such, one can study biological and medical sciences for the intellectual challenge they offer. Due to the inherent applicability of biosciences and bioengineering to our lives, one can also develop applications to benefit human health and welfare, provide food security, offer solutions for sustainable living, and the like.