The new $12.6 million, biomedical engineering building at the University of North Texas in Denton has opened, launching a new chapter in the university’s efforts to be a leader in cutting-edge research benefiting healthcare innovation.
Located at UNT’s Discovery Park campus, the building’s glassed-walled, open-concept labs and classrooms are intended to create a transparent and collaborative environment for research and learning, according to a statement.
A virtual dissection table allows students to delve inside the human body without a scalpel. [Photo: Courtesy UNT]
The facility offers students and faculty modern classrooms and research labs, as well as facilities for microscopy, cell culture, and optics. Teaching and senior design labs also are also offered in the building. The state-of-the-art facility has labs with hi-tech instruments such as a bio 3D printer with the ability to print cells mimicking human tissue, as well as a virtual dissection table enabling students to look inside the human body without the need for a scalpel.
Inside the new building, faculty members are looking into exoskeleton technology, which may eventually aid people with limited mobility; developing nanotechnology and optics to diagnose cancer; and working on biopolymers and flexible bioelectronics to possibly help doctors deliver medications and manage illnesses.
The facilities have enabled UNT to recruit new faculty and students to its growing biomedical engineering program, according to a statement. Four new full-time faculty with a range of expertise from neuroelectronics to electrophysiology are joining the department this fall.
“We are committed to continued growth and providing our students with a diverse, state-of-the-art education that allows them to find jobs not only in biomedical engineering, but in other industries as well,” Vijay Vaidyanathan, biomedical engineering founding chair, said in the statement. “This building is designed to inspire and encourage learning and new discovery through research and collaboration.