The University of North Texas in Denton has opened a $12.6 million biomedical engineering building where glass-walled, open concept labs and classrooms create a transparent and collaborative environment for cutting-edge research and learning.
The 26,250-square-foot building is on the university's Discovery Park campus and provides faculty and students with modern classrooms, research labs, facilities for microscopy, cell culture and optics as well as teaching labs and a senior design lab.
The university says biomedical engineering is one of its fastest growing programs, increasing more than five-fold since its first class in 2014.
The new labs have high-tech instruments such as a bio 3D printer that prints cells mimicking human tissue and a virtual dissection table that enables students to delve inside the human body without a scalpel.
Inside research labs, faculty investigate exoskeleton technology that may someday help people with limited mobility; develop nanotechnology and optics to diagnose cancer; and biopolymers and flexible bioelectronics that may help doctors deliver medications and manage illnesses.
Officials believe the new facilities will help North Texas recruit new faculty and students to the biomedical engineering program. Four new full-time faculty are joining the department this fall, bringing with them a range of expertise from neuroelectronics to electrophysiology.
The biomedical engineering program offers diverse educational tracks and unique degree plans. Ttudents have opportunities to specialize in audiology, public health, music performance health, business, management, computer science and biology.
