Biomedical engineering will usher in new economic growth for the region and the nation, but we have to be ready to jump into the driver's seat.

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Already, the world is racing headlong into the biotech century. And not even the researchers leading the way know where it all might lead. But at Carnegie Mellon's 107th commencement in May, 35 freshly minted biomedical engineers marched confidently into the marketplace ready to weave their own skillful threads into the great tapestry of human history.

These new graduates will embrace projects that examine a broad range of challenges, including generating new tissues and organs from cultured cells, developing new sensors for early detection of cancer, ensuring the safety of hospital water systems, diagnosing disease from cellular and medical images, designing new failure-resistant vascular grafts and developing new artificial hearts for children.

The microchip changed information technology, and similarly, biomedical engineers are poised to ride a new wave of scientific knowledge in the headlong rush to the future. And the ride is getting crowded. In the past three years, sophomore through senior undergraduate enrollment in Carnegie Mellon's biomedical engineering department climbed from 32 students to more than 160 in 2004. That enrollment jump also bodes well for employers anxious to hire bright young minds comfortable with melding engineering, life sciences and entrepreneurial skill sets.

But it's not just the university that is looking at advancing biotechnology. As part of a $2 billion strategy, Pennsylvania launched three Life Sciences Greenhouses, and one is based right here in Pittsburgh. In the past two years, a sharp increase in company start-ups is evidence that the region's fledgling biomedical industry is starting to take off. In fact, 34 new companies have started since the end of 2001, an average of more than 10 a year. Before that, biomedical start-ups had been forming at a rate of about two or three annually, according to the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse.

We also believe that this new biotech century will bring important developments beyond health care in areas such as pollution cleanup and electronics. The lure of genes as the basis of computation is that the twisting helixes are jam-packed with information -- millions of times more than on the densest microchip. Chips can do only one thing at a time compared with a DNA computer, which can theoretically do millions of things at once. But DNA has a long way to go before it can even hope to challenge silicon.

Some of our researchers are working to place a network of sensors in our drinking water to help guard against bioterrorism attacks. We also are developing new biologically based solutions to pollution cleanups.

Our graduating class of biomedical engineers is riding this new wave of scientific knowledge, and our entire region is poised to reap the economic benefits. Pittsburgh was the epicenter of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, and we are again at the pinnacle of scientific knowledge with the rebirth of the Steel City as a biomedical knowledge center.