Education and research innovations in mechanical engineering are increasingly occurring at the interfaces of our disciplines. This issue of MechE Connects focuses on the exciting advances being made in bioengineering – the interface between mechanical engineering and biology.

As is often the case, the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering is leading the way. This time, it’s in the area of undergraduate education, with the newly revamped flexible degree program 2-A.

Not many people have watched as a single tumor cell sneaks its way through a blood vessel wall and out the other side. But Roger Kamm, the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering, and his doctoral student Ioannis Zervantonakis are two of the few who have.

The core technology of Firefly BioWorks, started by MechE alum Davide Marini (PhD ’03) and Daniel Pregibon (PhD, ChemE), allows for rapid production of individually encoded hydrogel microparticles that can be easily bio-functionalized by embedding DNA, antibodies or other biologically relevant molecules within their matrix.

We are pleased to announce the promotions of Professor Daniel Frey, Professor Nicolas Hadjiconstantinou, Professor Pierre Lermusiaux, Professor Tonio Buonassisi, Professor Franz Hover, Professor Rohit Karnik, and Professor Kripa Varanasi.

Professor Ian W. Hunter sat down with us recently to discuss one of his newest inventions, a miniature (“micro”) mass spectrometer, which he developed with Dr. Brian Hemond, a former PhD student from his BioInstrumentation Lab.