In 2023, Brown’s Institute of Biology, Engineering, and Medicine (I-BEAM) grew from the Center for Biomedical Engineering. From the beginning, I-BEAM has been dedicated to “creating a connected community across clinics, basic sciences, and engineering—to drive exceptional research by bridging those disciplines,” said the Institute’s Interim Director Prof. David Borton. This year, I-BEAM is strengthening its commitment to working across disciplines on critical areas of translational research.

Researchers across Brown seek to tackle issues impacting patients every day: biomedical engineers (BMEs) seek to improve antibiotic delivery, neuroengineers and neuroscientists aim to tackle severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, and BrainGate researchers work to give ALS patients their voices back. Working across disciplines can be a challenge. Borton said, “We’re all busy, and we often focus on challenges within our local domain of knowledge – the Institute believes that bridging domains will bring new solutions into greater clarity.”

“The Institute’s role is to provide structure for bigger problems to be solved,” Borton added. While the Institute grew out of the Center for Biomedical Engineering, “I-BEAM is not just BME, I-BEAM is a cross-disciplinary collaboration between the Division of Biology and Medicine, the School of Engineering, and all of our exceptional partner hospitals,” he says. 

Collaboratives, I-BEAM Grand Rounds, & Clinicians on Campus: Plans for Collaboration 

Borton has exciting plans to facilitate collaboration this year. One of his central initiatives is to start I-BEAM “Collaboratives,” where groups of faculty from across departments can build momentum, focusing on the “bigger picture, more challenging problems out there facing humanity,” Borton said. Faculty can propose ideas for Collaboratives and, if approved, they’ll receive financial and administrative support to pursue their vision. 

Borton hopes Collaboratives will lead to deeper collaboration between hospital and campus faculty. That’s a primary goal for I-BEAM next year, and it’s why Borton is also introducing I-BEAM Grand Rounds to campus. “Grand Rounds” are familiar to clinicians: clinical departments in hospitals often get together to present cases they couldn’t solve and discuss how they can improve patient care moving forward.

That kind of brainstorming session inspired many faculty within I-BEAM and motivated them to bring clinicians to the Engineering Research Center at Brown to discuss their obstacles with basic scientists and engineers. The first I-BEAM Grand Rounds will be this fall and Borton is sure “it’s really going to be fun.”

The I-BEAM Grand Rounds will “get engineers and basic scientists thinking about these daily challenges that are in the clinic,” Borton said. As a part of that mission, Borton is also setting up an exchange program of sorts where clinicians and faculty members can spend time experiencing each other’s day-to-day work. Through the program, clinicians can embed themselves in a lab on campus for a few weeks or faculty can spend a few weeks in the clinic witnessing the real problems impacting patients. 

The programming will take administrative support and financial backing. Borton believes the effort is well worth this investment. “It will further enhance the connections between the clinic and the main campus, bidirectionally,” he said. “That’s really important.”

Supporting Academic Excellence: “We always have had incredible students”

Across disciplines, I-BEAM aims to support postdoctoral students and junior faculty in their early careers in academia. In collaboration with Yale University, Columbia University, and Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Brown is working to increase the number of science, technology, and mathematics faculty from historically underrepresented groups. 

Through the National Science Foundation’s Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NSF AGEP) program, I-BEAM helps manage the Alliance for Relevant and Inclusive Sponsorship of Engineering Researchers (ARISE) with Yale, Columbia, and JHU. ARISE will continue this year, and Borton hopes it will help I-BEAM continue the important work of supporting educational leadership. 

 The Institute maintains its strong BME  Graduate Program under the leadership of BME Master’s Program Director, Dr. Marissa Gray; former BME Director of Graduate Studies, Dr. Kareen Coulombe; and current BME Co-Directors of Graduate Studies, Dr. Vikas Srivastava and Dr. Michelle Dawson. “We always have had incredible students,” Borton said. “It’s really just an incredible pleasure to be working with all the graduate students in biomedical engineering.”

Throughout his career at Brown, Borton has worked with dozens of undergraduate and graduate students at Brown. Now, as I-BEAM’s Interim Director, he plans to bring all that I-BEAM has to offer to those students — including them in his efforts to support cross-disciplinary collaboration and academic excellence.

To learn more about Brown’s BME Graduate Program, stay tuned for another article from I-BEAM focusing on the BME Master’s and Ph.D. Programs.