Delp, Yock to lead cutting-edge Bioengineering Department

BY RUTHANN RICHTER

Two faculty members whose work crosses the boundaries of biomedicine and engineering have been named as leaders of the new Department of Bioengineering, Jim Plummer and Philip Pizzo, deans of engineering and medicine, respectively, said in a joint announcement Jan. 23.

Scott L. Delp, an associate professor of mechanical engineering whose research focuses on computational bioengineering, will chair the new interdisciplinary department. Paul Yock, a cardiologist who is known for his work in medical devices, will serve as co-chair.

The Department of Bioengineering is the first department at Stanford to be jointly managed by two schools. It will leverage recent advances in quantitative biology and apply basic engineering science to living systems at multiple scales, from the sub-cellular to the whole human.The department will begin accepting graduate students in the fall of 2004.

With a wealth of collective talent all based in one spot, Stanford has all the makings of a world-class bioengineering department, Delp said.

"We have an extremely strong school of engineering, fantastic basic science departments and a top-notch medical school with clinical and basic science departments, all located on one campus. The institutional barriers for collaboration across these boundaries are basically nonexistent," he said. "These conditions are almost unique in the world. What we're missing now is a cohesive curriculum that brings these disciplines together. One of the main goals of the department is to establish an integrated curriculum that will produce a new generation of scientists and engineers who are cross-trained in these fundamental areas."

Delp is chair of the Division of Biomechanical Engineering and is co-director, with Russ Altman, of Stanford's Center for Biomedical Computation, a three-year-old group that uses advanced mathematical and computational methods to study problems in biology and medicine. Delp has a special interest in neuromuscular biomechanics and has developed computer simulations of human movement that have widespread applications. For instance, he has been collaborating with physicians at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in helping devise and assess treatments for children with cerebral palsy.

Delp obtained his doctorate at Stanford and spent eight years on the faculty at Northwestern University, where he worked in the bioengineering department -- an experience that he said will be particularly helpful in building the new department at Stanford.

Yock, the Martha Meier Weiland Professor of Medicine and, by courtesy, of mechanical engineering, is a cardiologist with a history of inter-school and inter-department collaborations. He founded the Stanford Program in Biodesign, a group of 190 faculty from various departments who promote the development of new health technologies through research and education.

He has invented several widely used medical devices, including a style of catheter used in balloon angioplasties and an intravascular ultrasound imaging system that became the basis for the company Cardiovascular Imaging Systems (now a division of Boston Scientific).

"There is a real synergy between life sciences and engineering, and that has become especially clear in the last five years with a number of major scientific breakthroughs," Yock said. Genomics and proteomics, molecular and functional imaging, and minimally invasive surgical techniques including robotics are just a few examples of developments that meet at the intersection of medicine and engineering, he said.

Yock said he views the new department as an opportunity to strengthen existing collaborations on campus and create a structure that will attract students who are enthusiastic about combining biology-based research with engineering technology and clinical applications.

Delp said the department eventually will have a core faculty of 20 to 25 people, many of whom will be recruited from outside Stanford. Some faculty on campus will contribute to the department's efforts though they will remain within their own department structures or in some cases obtain joint appointments.

The department eventually will offer master's, doctoral and bachelor's degrees, although it will be several years before the undergraduate program is established, Delp said. The department office will be located in the Clark Center for Biomedical Engineering and Sciences, which is expected to open this summer.