Bioengineering & Regenerative Medicine

A $1.4 million Bioengineering Research Partnership grant, the first NIH-funded research project in the Department of Chemical Engineering, has enabled several faculty to initiate bioengineering related projects within the past three years. The multidisciplinary partnership, led by USC’s Department of Chemical Engineering, includes MUSC (orthopaedic surgery) and Clemson University (bioengineering). USC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology, in particular the departments of Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering, have identified biomedical engineering as a a target area for future growth. Further, the College of Engineering and Information Technology and the School of Medicine have initiated a collaborative R&D seed grant program.

USC has a strong history of research on the analysis of ECM components and their receptors. In September 2003, the S.C. Education Lottery funded Centers of Excellence approved a proposal to establish three endowed chairs in Regenerative Medicine. An endowment of $6 million, to be matched with $6 million from other sources, funds this threeway collaboration among USC, MUSC, and Clemson to understand the process of organ repair using adult stem cells.