Biochemistry is a pure science field, studying the chemistry of the molecules found in living cells. Biotech is about manipulating those chemicals (and also living cells) to produce a product; bio-engineering is the development of those processes on a commercial basis.
For example: a biochemist elucidated the structure and function of the insulin milecule; someone in biotech (not called a bio-technician) figured out how to get yeast or bacterial cells to produce human insulin (through genetic manipulation); a bio-engineer figured out how to grow those cells in vats and purify the insulin.
DMD as career is pretty good, but the bioengineering (also called biomedical engineering) is much more broad than biochemical processes. Bioengineers could be designing any sort of product (even ones that aren't chemicals per se), such as medical devices (e.g., stents) or imaging technologies (e.g., MRIs).
What's the difference for an undergrad? Biotech and biochem are most likely going to offer coursework that is similar to that of the chemistry and biology departments, while bioengineering will require significant engineering coursework. There could be significant differences.
Bioengineering or biomedical engineering is simply the application of engineering principles to people. As mentioned, this includes much more than just developing some biochemical or medical ideas on a commercial basis. Different biomedical engineering departments and programs have substantially different strengths and emphases. Frequently, biomedical engineering departments / programs have, in addition to their faculty with primary appointments in bioengineering, a significant number of adjunct or affiliated faculty members, either from the medical school or from other engineering departments.
Student should check each department website for the types of research performed by the faculty members within the department to determine the flavor. In smaller bioengineering departments, they typically attempt to be strong (with at least 2 or 3 professors) in a few areas rather than have one person in each of many areas. For example, there may be faculty members who have strengths in bio-materials (materials science), artificial organs (biochemical), image and signal processing (electrical engineering / computer science), bio-mechanics (mechanical engineering), biochemical engineering, etc. Only a few colleges with large departments will have strengths in all of these areas. Some colleges that have medical schools in very close proximity to the bioengineering department also facilitate research projects that involve the medical school.
An ug in bioengineering will take some coursework in mechanical, electrical, or chemical engineering, along with biochemistry, anatomy, etc. The material is not watered down. For example, bioengineering students often take mechanics or electrical circuits courses along with ME, EE, and other engineering majors. Even the courses offered separately within bioengineering departments appear to be quite comparable to those of the other departments. However, an undergrad degree in bioengineering cannot possibly cover all of the material of electrical engineering PLUS mechanical engineering PLUS chemical engineering PLUS biology. Hence, a ug in bioengineering is somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none.
The engineering to which an undergrad bio-engineer is exposed is all rigorous. But such a student has necessarily not been exposed to any one field at the depth of a mechanical or electrical engineer. If you are looking for an undergraduate degree that will allow you to get hired and do work as an engineer with only a 4-year degree, then this may not be the best option. In order to get a good job with an emphasis on ENGINEERING, a bio-engineer should obtain a master’s degree, which will allow concentration at depth in one type of engineering such as mechanics, electronics design, etc.
4-year degree is not the best preparation for a job with an emphasis on engineering. Since bio-engineers have been exposed at more than an introductory level to a number of engineering ideas, a bioengineering major is an EXCELLENT preparation for a job like a sales engineer, or even some business jobs such as analysis of investments, etc. Engineering is simply problem solving, and different engineering disciplines have slightly different approaches to problems. A bioengineering student has been exposed at a non-trivial level to a number of different ways of looking at problems.
Most ug bioengineering programs fall into one of three career paths: in bioengineering or other engineering; med institutes; or industry. Student may want to check with each department to see where their degree end up; this may give you more info on the flavor of that department.
Also, for whatever it is worth, in nearly every engineering colleges bioengineering has a dramatically larger percentage of females than does any other engineering discipline, especially at the graduate level (often close to 50/50 at undergrad level in bioengineering).
Biotechnology is different from bioengineering. Depending on how “Biotech” is used, bioengineering may be a subset or possibly even completely different. Biotech consists of subjects such as the following (got this list from a web-site):
- - bacteriology
- - biochemical engineering
- - bioinformatics
- - bio-processing
- - cell biology
- - computational & mathematical modeling
- - developmental and molecular genetics
- - DNA technologies
- - electrophoresis
- - embryology
- - immunology
- - microbiology
- - nucleic acid chemistry
- - protein engineering
- - virology
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