Bioscience 3 is Open for Business
Bioscience 3 opened its doors in spring 2021 and will house the growing research and technology innovation efforts taking place in the CU School of Medicine Center for Bioengineering. Faculty in the Center for Bioengineering have secured over $33 million in grant funding, started twelve companies and helped establish the bioengineering programs at CU Denver | Anschutz Medical Campus as one of the top choices in Colorado for undergraduate and graduate students studying biomedical engineering. To learn more about our funding in 2020 click here and for more about Bioscience 3 click here.
The first of its kind in Colorado, the Department of Bioengineering is a dual-campus program shared between CU Denver and CU Anschutz Medical Campus, which allows for hands-on research opportunities in health sciences. This unique engineering program on a medical campus enables students to gain relationships with clinicians and bring engineering concepts to medical research and medical device design in a clinical research setting. The Department of Bioengineering celebrated many significant milestones as it passed its 10-year anniversary in Fall 2020.
Over the last decade, the program has grown from a small cohort of ten graduate students to a robust department that has trained several hundred students through the bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD programs and into successful bioengineering careers.
The department was founded in 2010 by Distinguished Professor and Department Chair Robin Shandas, who envisioned a biomedical engineering program at the world-class CU Anschutz Medical Campus as a hub for medical technology innovation. A large number of exceptional faculty joined and helped grow the department over the last ten years. Beginning as an integrated program within the CU School of Medicine, the Department of Bioengineering has secured space in Bioscience 2 devoted to teaching and academics.
Alumni have gone on to careers in various fields – many work in industry, including Medtronic, Stryker, Terumo BCT, Biosense Webster, Point Designs LLC, and more, in jobs ranging from R&D to Quality Assurance to Medical Sales. Others have pursued graduate degrees, engineering faculty positions, or applied to medical school and other health professional training programs. Students in our graduate program have shown great success in securing grant funding for their research, including eight PhD students with independent grant funding in FY2019-2020 alone. Notably, one of the original PhD students in the 2010 cohort, Arjun Fontaine, PhD, was just awarded an NIH R21 award to examine Optogenetic Vagus Nerve Stimulation in patients with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and will be promoted to Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Bioengineering.
As this first decade comes to an end for the department, we look forward to the next ten years and beyond. The department will continue to provide unparalleled opportunities for learning and expanding biomedical innovation. You can read more about the 10-year anniversary here.
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