美国留学：耶鲁大学将成立生物设计研究所

耶鲁大学最近对外宣称成立生物设计研究所,这将充分利用生物学家,工程师和其他学科的研究人员的专业知识,探讨生物和物质如何在纳米级系统运作,发挥作用。

james e. rothman,生物医学科学研究所的教授,同时也是医学院细胞生物学系的主席,被任命为位于西校区新学院的主任。t. kyle vanderlick,耶鲁大学工程和应用科学学院院长,将担任副主任。

按照工程设计系统的第一原理,到更小尺度,rothman说, 生物学家是逆向的工程师,追求并推导出自然的设计,在生物学家的思维中,存在逆向的意见交集,相互丰富彼此的内容。

该研究所将设在西校区b - 24,将新雇用多达10位研究科学家。rothman和vanderlick还将聘请现有跨学科的耶鲁大学教师在研究所进行研究。

这项工作将是多样化的,并且工作的重点是rothman呼吁创造的自然机器。例如,科学家建立纳米机器,可以在活细胞内发挥功能,生产新材料,从而协助组织工程,甚至创造dna机器人来进行编程的任务。

新学院的建立体现了西校区成立之初的使命---汇集来自不同背景的科学家,以解决科学的基础问题, 西校区规划和计划发展副校长scott strobe说,研究所将使耶鲁成为几个重要领域的世界领导者,包括发现研究细胞的纳米机器,合成生物学,活性物质和动态光学显微镜在纳米尺度的生物激励设计等。

西校区将至少拥有5个的跨学科研究机构和3个科学技术的核心研究设施。西校区于2007年被并购,校园拥有160万的科研,办公和仓库空间,这些空间为扩大学校的科学,医学和工程学研究及其他学术活动提供了可能的机会。

该生物设计研究所被高度誉为作为在校园展开跨学科研究工作的标志和极好的例子。

由于工程在医学和生命科学的普及,我们希望在大部分的研究所发挥最关键的作用,vanderlick说。毫无疑问,多学科的孵化器式研究机构所带来的工作环境类型,可以促使工程业的蓬勃发展。

编辑信息来源：耶鲁大学官网

the university has announced the creation of the biodesign institute, which will leverage the expertise of biologists, engineers and researchers in other disciplines to explore how living and material systems operate at the nanoscale.
james e. rothman, the fergus f wallace professor of biomedical sciences and chair of the department of cell biology at the school of medicine, has been named director of the new institute, to be located at west campus. t. kyle vanderlick, dean of the yale school of engineering and applied science, will serve as deputy director.

"engineers design systems from first principles, and do so on ever-smaller scales," says rothman. "biologists are reverse engineers, and seek to deduce the design that nature provides. there is a profound intersection between these oppositely-oriented views that enriches both."

the institute, to be housed in the b-24 building at west campus, will be home initially to laboratories of up to 10 newly hired research scientists. a faculty advisory committee will be appointed to help oversee the institute, which is expected to open in early 2012. rothman and vanderlick are also recruiting existing yale faculty across a wide array of disciplines to conduct research at the institute.

the work will be diverse and focus on the creation of what rothman calls "natural machines." for instance, scientists there will help build nano-machines that can function inside living cells, produce new materials that can assist in tissue engineering, or even create dna "robots to carry out programmed tasks.

"the new institute embodies the mission of west campus — to bring together scientists from diverse backgrounds to tackle fundamental issues in science," said scott strobel, vice president for west campus planning and program development. "the institute will position yale to be a world leader in several exciting areas, including the discovery and analysis of cellular nano-machines, synthetic biology, bio-inspired design of active materials and dynamic optical microscopy on the nanoscale."

west campus will host at least five cross-disciplinary institutes and three scientific technology core facilities. acquired in 2007, the campus boasts 1.6 million square feet of research, office and warehouse space that provides opportunities to enhance the universitys science, medicine and engineering research and other academic programs.

the biodesign institute is hailed as an example of cross-disciplinary research efforts that are the hallmark of the campus and its institutes.

"given the pervasiveness of engineering in medicine and the life sciences, we expect to play a critical role in most, if not all, of the institutes," vanderlick says. "without question, the multidisciplinary incubators the institutes provide are the type of working environment in which engineers flourish."