Overview

The skills of chemical engineers are uniquely suited to developing next-generation solutions to persistent health challenges. UW ChemE boasts strong cross-disciplinary work with medical researchers in the design of smarter therapeutics, targeted drug delivery systems, and better diagnostics. Our faculty also conduct research in systems and synthetic biology, as well as metabolic, biomolecular, and protein engineering.

Image: A Euclidean distance transform of a confocal microscopy image of microglia cells taken in a rat organotypic brain slice model. The colors are scaled to represent the distance away from a cell surface. Created by Chad Curtis for the 2019 Science & Engineering as Art Competition

Research Topics

• Regenerative medicine
• Neuromedicine
• Nanomedicine
• Metabolic engineering
• Synthetic biology
• Systems biology
• Biomolecular engineering
• Protein engineering
• Environmental engineering
• Bioconversions & biofuels
• Medical diagnostics
• Sensing technologies

Campus Opportunities

Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine
ISCRM's mission is to turn fundamental discoveries in stem cell science into therapies for patients

Center for Dialysis Innovation
CDI develops and tests novel treatment technologies in order to improve the health and well-being of people receiving dialysis therapy

Institute for Protein Design
The institute develops and applies methods for designing a whole new world of synthetic proteins to address today's complex challenges

Center for Synthetic Biology
The center's mission is to provide a collaborative and interdisciplinary environment for research, education, innovation, safety and responsibility in synthetic biology at the UW and in the Seattle area

Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge
The Hollomon Health Innovation Challenge is an entrepreneurship competition run by the UW Foster School of Business that gives students the opportunity to come up with meaningful solutions to big problems the world faces today related to health

Learn More

Careers in nanomedicine and drug delivery
By Elizabeth Nance