Regents OK Biomed Unit for UCSD : Science: Biomedical Engineering Institute will bring together researchers from various departments of the school.

The University of California regents voted Friday to create a separate research unit at UC San Diego devoted to biomedical engineering--an action that experts say shows that the field has come of age in San Diego.

The Biomedical Engineering Institute is being designed to foster research among faculty from diverse fields, such as engineering, medicine, biology and chemistry.

“This will bring more cohesion to biomedical engineering at UCSD,” said Shu Chien, professor of bioengineering and medicine who helped organize the unit. “It is a mechanism by which we can get people together to discuss research of common interests and new approaches to bioengineering.”

At first, 40 faculty members will be associated with the institute--a number that UCSD officials say will probably grow. These 40 faculty members now conduct more than 100 research projects sponsored by governmental agencies, private foundations and industry. The research centers on three main areas: cardiopulmonary bioengineering, neuro-musculo-skeletal bioengineering and cellular-molecular bioengineering.

Along these broad parameters, faculty members are searching for better diagnostic tools, treatments and preventive therapies for a variety of diseases and conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, pulmonary diseases and sports injuries. The institute will enable professors to meet and hold seminars, as well as collaborate on research.

A nominating committee will screen candidates for director of the institute. It was not known Friday how much, if any, money will be allocated to the institute.

Richard Attiyeh, UC San Diego’s dean of graduate studies and research, said the institute also will help garner publicity. While biomedical engineers at UCSD are well-known to their peers, they have not caught the public’s eye.

“We have a lot of strengths on campus in biomedical engineering that are in different units in the School of Medicine, in the School of Engineering, Department of Biology. This is a vehicle for bringing all those people together,” Attiyeh said. “Because of the dispersed nature of these strengths, it’s not always visible to the world that we have an incredible collection of outstanding people. This is a way of bringing visibility to us.”

Still others said they hope the institute will give birth to new technologies.

“It’s exciting that more fundamental research will be going on in a new area that’s related to UCSD’s strengths in engineering and biotech,” said Bryna Kranzler, associate director of CONNECT, a university-private sector partnership formed to stimulate the growth of high-tech business. “Hopefully, we’ll see a spinoff of commercial technology from this endeavor.”

The institute’s creation caps what has been one of the most successful years in bioengineering at UC San Diego. Other highlights this year include:

* Y.C. Fung, professor emeritus of bioengineering who has been dubbed the “father of biomechanics,” was selected to the National Academy of Sciences.

* The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute awarded the bioengineering faculty a five-year, $5.6-million research grant that would help improve the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.

* The Bioengineering Group received a $1.6-million grant to train graduate and postdoctoral students.

* David Gough, professor of bioengineering, was awarded a patent for a surgically implanted glucose sensor for diabetic patients.