Any biological or biotechnology engineers here?

[sonambulo]

Hi thanks for reading.

I was wondering if there are any biotechnology engineers here who would be willing to fill me in on what the day to day aspects of the job are? What exactly is your position (title) and what kind of stuff do you do?

 

[Circlenaut]

Well I'm no "bio engineer" but at this 25ish people company I interned in before the "process" was divided into 3 parts. First we had a microbiology lab where our target organism was transformed. Then it was passed to a tissue culturing lab that was in charge of making it grow and be contamination free. Finally the protein purification lab was in charge of isolating the target enzyme/protein. I worked in the protein lab, doing western plots to confirm the presence, quantity and quality of the protein and then column purification to extract the protein.

Also Biological Engineering really does not "exist". We can't go into a system and modify it the exact way that we want to with predictable results. It's really a lot of trial and error and educated guesses about what works best.

 

[Safeway]

Biomedical engineering + Medical school = "Medical Doctor" + $$$$$

 

[sonambulo]

Originally posted by: Pippy
Well I'm no "bio engineer" but at this 25ish people company I interned in before the "process" was divided into 3 parts. First we had a microbiology lab where our target organism was transformed. Then it was passed to a tissue culturing lab that was in charge of making it grow and be contamination free. Finally the protein purification lab was in charge of isolating the target enzyme/protein. I worked in the protein lab, doing western plots to confirm the presence, quantity and quality of the protein and then column purification to extract the protein.

Also Biological Engineering really does not "exist". We can't go into a system and modify it the exact way that we want to with predictable results. It's really a lot of trial and error and educated guesses about what works best.

Very interesting; thank you for the info. You say interned as in past tense. Mind if I ask what you're doing now?

 

[Circlenaut]

Originally posted by: sonambulo

Originally posted by: Pippy
Well I'm no "bio engineer" but at this 25ish people company I interned in before the "process" was divided into 3 parts. First we had a microbiology lab where our target organism was transformed. Then it was passed to a tissue culturing lab that was in charge of making it grow and be contamination free. Finally the protein purification lab was in charge of isolating the target enzyme/protein. I worked in the protein lab, doing western plots to confirm the presence, quantity and quality of the protein and then column purification to extract the protein.

Also Biological Engineering really does not "exist". We can't go into a system and modify it the exact way that we want to with predictable results. It's really a lot of trial and error and educated guesses about what works best.

Very interesting; thank you for the info. You say interned as in past tense. Mind if I ask what you're doing now?

Not at all. I'm interning for the University of Florida doing plant tissue culturing. It's very tedious work and boring because I'll never know the results of my work while still working here. It takes a long time to transform plant cells. The people are great, school's awesome but you just don't know if you like something or not until you try.

 

[yhelothar]

My roommate is working on research at a bioengineering lab at my UC Riverside.
It's pretty interesting work.
He's currently doing research on finding a way to destroy cancer cells without destroying any other cells, which is the biggest problem of cancer treatment today.
Currently, the treatment of cancer is with a substance that stops mitosis, called fluro-dUMP, that stops the cancer cells from dividing.
But the problem with that is that it stops mitosis in all other parts of the body, so patients going through this treatment will usually have a host of other problems, as white blood cells, hair, and nails go through regular mitosis.

However, scientists are currently researching substances that can bind onto the fluro-dUMP that would result in a higher affinity to certain types of receptors, such as the receptors that are overexpressed in cancer cells. This would allow scientists to create a new treatment that would only target cancer cells.

 

[sonambulo]

Originally posted by: Pippy
Not at all. I'm interning for the University of Florida doing plant tissue culturing. It's very tedious work and boring because I'll never know the results of my work while still working here. It takes a long time to transform plant cells. The people are great, school's awesome but you just don't know if you like something or not until you try.

Ahhhh yes. I am well aware of the tedium but I do believe I can deal with it.

Pippy, thanks again for the information!

 

[Circlenaut]

Originally posted by: sonambulo

Originally posted by: Pippy
Not at all. I'm interning for the University of Florida doing plant tissue culturing. It's very tedious work and boring because I'll never know the results of my work while still working here. It takes a long time to transform plant cells. The people are great, school's awesome but you just don't know if you like something or not until you try.

Ahhhh yes. I am well aware of the tedium but I do believe I can deal with it.

Pippy, thanks again for the information!

Yeah no problem man.

 

[Chriscross3234]

I'm working on getting my undergrad degree in Biomedical Engineering and will hopefully move on and get my master's degree in the same field. Being a transfer student has put a setback on actually starting internships and/or undergrad research due to the fact that I need to catch up on my classes (taking 9 hours this summer + a job, taking 18 hours this fall). NCSU offers several branches for BME students and I'm going to be pursuing the specialized field of Biomaterials/Tissue Engineering. Sorta related to biotechnology/biological engineering, is anyone else studying this particular field that can offer what their internships or jobs have been like and if you enjoy the work?

The stuff that Astroidea's roomate is doing is the kind of work/research I want to be a part of, sounds like some cool stuff!