WHITAKER FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES $14 MILLION GRANT
TO SUPPORT RESEARCH AND EDUCATION IN PENN BIOENGINEERING
PHILADELPHIA - The Whitaker
Foundation has announced a $14 million Leadership-Development Award
to the University of Pennsylvania's Department
of Bioengineering, a leader in bioengineering education since granting
the nation's first Ph.D. in the discipline 40 years ago.
The Whitaker funds will be matched by university support of $42.8 million,
for a total $56.8 million initiative in bioengineering.
"The university's strong belief in and commitment to the important
role of engineering and technology on its campus is reflected in this
extraordinarily generous investment in this initiative," said Eduardo
D. Glandt, dean of Penn's School
of Engineering and Applied Science.
The multi-year Whitaker grant will make possible new facilities for Penn
Bioengineering, the recruitment of seven new faculty members and additional
funds for graduate student support.
"We are pleased and honored to be the recipients of this award acknowledging
Penn's strength in biomedical engineering education and research,"
said Daniel
A. Hammer, professor and chair of bioengineering at Penn and principal
investigator on the award. "This is an extraordinary time for biomedical
engineering in the U.S., and Penn, with its strengths in engineering and
medicine, is well-poised to take advantage of new medical discoveries
and new advances in human health."
A major objective of the grant is to use insights and techniques of modern
molecular medicine and cell biology to prevent and treat diseases, Hammer
said, through technologies such as genomics, proteomics and cell and tissue
engineering.
"Engineering will play an increasing role in the development and
application of these concepts from fundamental biology to clinical treatment,"
Hammer said.
The Whitaker award is earmarked for further development of four of the
department's existing clinical research and teaching strengths: orthopedic
bioengineering, cardiovascular bioengineering, injury bioengineering and
neuroengineering.
Penn's bioengineering department, one of the nation's first, was established
in 1973, with the first Penn undergraduate receiving a bachelors in bioengineering
two years later. Among its peers,
Penn Bioengineering is recognized for the quality of its teaching, particularly
at the undergraduate level. The latest Whitaker award caps a steady evolution
of the department's teaching and research programs, including two Whitaker
Foundation Special Opportunity Awards and the development of laboratory,
clinical preceptorial and design courses.
The formation of the interdisciplinary Institute for Medicine and Engineering
in 1996 by Penn's schools of Engineering and Applied Science and Medicine
has catalyzed new research and educational programs. Facilitated by the
Institute, bioengineering students enjoy hands-on training, gaining direct
knowledge of physicians' work through clinical rotations with doctors
in Penn's top-ranked School of Medicine.
A cornerstone of Penn's Agenda for Excellence, the bioengineering department
will gain a new building, with modern research and educational facilities,
from the Whitaker award. The grant will also allow the department, now
14 faculty members strong, to grow in size by more than 50 percent.
Based in Arlington, Va., The Whitaker Foundation's mission is to promote
better human health through advancements in medicine and rehabilitation.
The Foundation administers a series of competitive grant programs supporting
research and education in biomedical engineering at academic institutions
in the United States and Canada.
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