The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering has established a new Center for Biomedical Engineering Technology Acceleration, dedicated to applying engineering principles to biomedical discovery and therapeutics. We talk to the Center’s Director Manu Platt about their plans and the focus on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.
Congratulations on being appointed as the Director of the new Center for Biomedical Engineering Technology Acceleration(BETA). What are the aims and objectives of this new National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center?
Thank you very much! As I understand them, the aims and objectives of this new trans-NIH Center are to build a team of intramural investigators to work together to solve a range of medicine’s most pressing problems, and also to serve as a biotechnology resource and catalyst for NIH research discoveries. The Center will incorporate a focused engineering approach to accelerate the development, validation and dissemination of cutting-edge technologies. Areas of emphasis will include biomedical imaging, biosensing, engineered and synthetic biology, nanomaterials and biomaterials, artificial intelligence, modelling, computation and informatics. One goal of the Center that I think will be quite unique, will be its ability to rapidly assemble expert teams for technology development to address urgent national and global health needs.
A fundamental objective of the Center is to expand diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility, building on the inherent interdisciplinary nature of bioengineering. Could you tell us about the plans of how to diversify scientific workforces and to make our field more inclusive?
Diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility have been part of my professional life since the beginning, and I was at a great place at Georgia Tech and Emory’s Coulter Biomedical Engineering department in Atlanta, with support from the faculty and senior institutional leadership, to implement exciting programs from high school to graduate school level. I see this new position with the NIH as an opportunity to have broader impact with this platform of recognized leadership and federal resources. The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) has been leading in funding opportunities, training programs and other innovations to bring new scientists and engineers from all backgrounds and experiences into the field. Bioengineering by its very nature has teams with diverse academic expertise, so it may be an easier ask to build teams with diverse backgrounds and life experiences.
I came to engineering from the more biological side, and many students from historically underrepresented groups may not yet be aware of all the career possibilities; they know about clinical medicine, but biomedical engineering may not be on their radar. This is a great pool of talent that can be tapped. However, the number of African Americans in medical school is still at the same level as in 1979, so if we begin to inspire interest in biomedical engineering, but they still seek to become practitioners, then we would have trained engineering-minded, problem-driven physicians who will be able to advance medicine in novel ways while working with engineers. The diversity of their backgrounds would also enhance the creativity and broader applicability of the solutions. This includes the insights of other underrepresented groups and people with disabilities. From my experience, and published studies on best practices, mutually respectful research teams successfully achieve these goals, and creating inclusive training and research spaces retains talent and provides opportunities for success and advancement. Representation also matters.
How can bioengineers at different career stages participate in the new Center?
We are still sculpting out the programs and access points for the Center, but we initially envisioned using established NIH programs, such as summer undergraduate student internships and the high-quality NIH Post-Baccalaureate Program to bring bioengineers into the Center. These will be a key recruitment tool to bring earlier-stage engineers in to work with BETA Center investigators and affiliates. I also see part of my role as the Director to visit and recruit postdoctoral and independent investigators across engineering, clinical and basic science disciplines, who are seeking out collaborative, translational work to solve important problems that impact human health. There is exciting potential for research excellence in NIH’s Intramural Research Program that many may not be aware of. To help increase awareness, there will be partnership opportunities, workshops and meetings to forge bridges with the engineering community to collaborate with the BETA Center in training, research and translational opportunities.
What, in your opinion, are the most urgent global health care needs that should be tackled by the Center?
This is a big question. I would say that individual investigators will help define this because we learn from others in a team. But selfishly, I truly think there is powerful impact to be made in the area of sickle cell disease. Globally, 300,000 babies are born each year with sickle cell disease, and it is the most common monogenic inherited disease in the United States. Its global imprint is large, affecting productivity and quality of life. Imaging, modelling, technology development and so many other aspects of the BETA Center can be brought to bear on this global problem. I think a broader sense of global health care that can be tackled by the Center is generating low-cost technology and biomedical solutions either for therapy or for early diagnosis. In my own experiences, what I have seen in my work in low- and middle-income regions, there has always been the effort and willingness among the research team and health-care providers to help their patients, but the cost of technologies for diagnosis and therapies has been prohibitive in making the strongest impact possible. I learned from my early engineering classes that one of our professional goals is to make things better, faster and cheaper, and this impact on global health could be huge for fields from infectious diseases to chronic illnesses, such as cancer and sickle cell disease.
Are you planning to include industry partners and/or organizations involved in the translation of bioengineering research?
Yes, I think this is important, especially in the translation and acceleration of technologies. The best discoveries are not impactful if they do not get to the people for whom they were developed to help. This takes the identification of the fundamental question by basic scientists, assessment of impact and safety on human health, which involves clinicians, and large-scale manufacturing of a biologic, small molecule or device, requiring inclusion of industry partners and regulatory agencies. RADx Tech was a great model of that implementation.
What would you like to achieve as the Director of the new Center?
I am excited about being able to bring together engineers from across the NIH! When I heard from the Search Committee of this need, I was honestly quite surprised. Engineering and technology development have yielded innovative and successful advances in biomedicine in so many different disciplines. There is so much potential for innovation owing to the nature and flexibility of the Intramural Program, the quality of investigators, and access to patients and clinical trials at NIH’s Clinical Center.
Also, I have seen the potential of a program such as RADx Tech to accelerate development, testing, manufacturing and distribution of COVID-19 tests nationwide at a massive scale. Admittedly, it is a bit daunting to have to come behind the success of RADx Tech to convene teams that could be ready to respond to another global challenge, but solving difficult challenges and wicked problems are among the most rewarding things we can do career-wise, and as human beings.
Diversifying and supporting investigators across the NIH would also be an important achievement. For years, these long-standing structures have erected fences and gates, whether visible or invisible, intentional or unintentional, that have limited innovation in biomedicine. We can pull individuals from so many backgrounds and regions, with different cultural insights, challenging upbringings and grit, who, when brought together and valued, can perform truly disruptive research and advance our approaches to health, disease and treatment, across the globe. I think we are all seeing that we have to care about global health, especially when considering infectious diseases. These bugs do not care about what country we live in or our economic status, just that we are humans, and that we have the receptors and the cell types that they can attach to and survive. We are in this together.
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Center for Biomedical Engineering Technology Acceleration: https://www.nibib.nih.gov/labs-at-nibib/center-for-biomedical-engineering-technology-acceleration-beta
National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering: https://www.nibib.nih.gov/
NIH post-baccalaureate program: https://www.training.nih.gov/programs/postbac_irta
NIH’s Clinical Center: https://clinicalcenter.nih.gov/
NIH’s Intramural Research Program: https://irp.nih.gov/
RADx Tech: https://www.nibib.nih.gov/covid-19/radx-tech-program
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Horejs, C. Manu Platt talks about the new NIH Center for Biomedical Engineering Technology Acceleration. Nat Rev Bioeng 1, 232–233 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-023-00053-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44222-023-00053-5