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Development and Assessment of a Novel Systems Bioengineering Course Integrating Modeling and Experimentation

Abstract

Advances in the biomedical sciences are becoming increasingly dependent upon the application of rigorous engineering principles to the study of biological systems. Most existing bioengineering curricula lack integrative courses that combine systems modeling approaches with biological “wet-lab” experimentation. We have thus developed an undergraduate senior elective course entitled “Systems Bioengineering Modeling and Experimentation” in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Virginia. The goal of this integrative course is to enhance undergraduate preparedness for industry and graduate study in the emerging field of Systems Biology by teaching systems concepts and methods in the context of experimental techniques. The course covers modeling and experimental approaches spanning multiple scales in biology, including subcellular dynamics, cellular networks, and multicellular patterning. Modern experimental approaches include live-cell imaging, gene microarrays, and in vitro angiogenesis assays. Since the field of Systems Biology is still rapidly evolving and currently ill defined, the particular educational benefits gained from the integrative pedagogical approach we have taken have not been established previously. To determine the efficacy of this course for achieving depth of knowledge and cognitive skills in the systems approach to biomedical engineering, we administered a summative assessment instrument to all senior undergraduates in the year the course was offered, both who were in enrolled in the course and who were not, with time points before and after the course was offered. In this paper, we describe the course structure and preliminary assessment from the first offering of this course. We also review the educational benefits and challenges associated with teaching systems biology concepts: e.g. complexity and simplification strategies, integration of biological information across spatial and temporal scales, resolving literature discrepancies in the context of a model, and parameter estimation and model validation. Initial assessment results indicate that this course provides a successful model for introducing undergraduates both to state-of-the-art techniques and to the central systems biology paradigm of iterative cycling between models and experiments.

Introduction

The field of biomedical engineering (BME), which is still a young field relative to the more “traditional” engineering disciplines, has been responsible for many high-impact biomedical advances (both clinically and in basic research) over the past 50-60 years1. However, over the last decade the field of BME has been significantly transformed by far-reaching new scientific and technological developments. The human genome has been sequenced2,3, the field of bioinformatics has generated powerful data annotation and database management tools4, diagnostic and imaging approaches are evolving at a rapid pace due to advances in molecular nanotechnology5, and computational power and capabilities are increasing exponentially every year. But the faster the pace of biomedical discovery, the more an integrated “systems approach” is needed to provide an accurate and useful context for those discoveries. It is now clear that taking such a “systems approach”—viewing not just the parts, but also the interactions

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Allen, T., & Saucerman, J., & Papin, J., & Peirce-Cottler, S. (2009, June), Development And Assessment Of A Novel Systems Bioengineering Course Integrating Modeling And Experimentation Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--5659