Our MTM students receive unparalleled training in product design and development, identifying a clinical need, cost analysis, intellectual property, and regulatory affairs. We have an incredible team comprised of faculty at The Grove School of Engineering, Sophie Davis School for Biomedical Education, as well as faculty from some of the top schools in the country to aid the students in this process. The MTM program also has experts from the life science industry and the biotech sectors that teach the curriculum with the overall mission of providing the most cutting-edge training in this constantly changing field. The program is uniquely designed so students can earn their degree in one year (two academic semesters and one summer). 

Below are detailed descriptions of the courses offered through the MTM curriculum. In addition to the core courses, students are required to take 6 credits of elective courses in other disciplines.

To learn more about the BioDesign Capstone project, please click here.

BME I6100: Intellectual Property, Regulation, and Quality Assurance

This course covers the fundamentals of medical technology patents, focusing on the initial steps required to obtain a patent. This course studies fundamental intellectual property (IP) topics, such as copyright and related rights, trademarks, and patents. Fundamentals of Intellectual Property Strategy are described to build an effective medical device patent portfolio and address strategies, tactics, and methods for asserting the inventor’s rights. Regulation of pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices will cover applicable laws and regulations in the strategic planning, development, manufacture, and commercialization of healthcare products. These topics will be analyzed with a focus on safety, surveillance, business, and law surrounding the regulations in the healthcare industry. Students will be prepared to work within regulatory and quality assurance constraints necessary for developing medical products, drug manufacturing, and clinical investigations.

BME I6200: Cost Analysis and the Business of Translation

This course focuses on business fundamentals inherent to translational product development, including R&D, market analysis, and business model projections.  Selected devices are used as case studies to illustrate the areas of cost considerations in the translational process and the cost impact of new products and reimbursement strategies in the context of the health care market and business environments.

BME I6500: Capstone Design I - Identifying the Problem

The first course of a three-course sequence in which a year-long group project is undertaken to design and construct a biomedical engineering device or system. This first course emphasizes identifying a need for a biomedical device/system/drug. Students learn to perform a high-level assessment of the characteristics of the medical area in which a biomedical need should be identified. The course includes strategic focus, observation and problem identification, demand statement development, disease state fundamentals, and treatment options.

MEDS I8100: Biomedical Ethics and Responsible Conduct of Research

This course will emphasize the value of integrity and ethical treatment of biomedical and scientific research subjects. The topics include scientific misconduct, ownership of data and discoveries, conflicts of interest, documentation, ethics of animal research, ethical dimensions of identifying research priorities, informed consent, research on vulnerable populations, and unique ethical issues in public health research and conducting studies in developing countries. The course format will combine lecture/discussion, student presentations, case analysis, and the development of a final seminar paper.

MEDS I7100: Translational Challenges in Medicine

This course provides a broad overview of the nature of translational challenges in preventing and treating disease and disabilities. Topics include the normal and pathological behavior of organ systems, the distribution and impact of major diseases and disabilities, challenges encountered by clinicians and population health practitioners in their practices and/or community, and opportunities for advancing their fields with new discoveries and inventions. Using a graduate seminar format, the course will combine background reading, discussion, and student and faculty presentations.

+ 1 ELECTIVE from Electives Tab

BME I6300: Engineering, Entrepreneurship, and Business Leadership

This course compares the “Lean Start-up Method” that has come to dominate the high-tech and start-up worlds to traditional business planning approaches for launching new ventures. The Lean Start-up Method favors experimentation, customer feedback, and iterative design over conventional business approaches that rely on planning and big design upfront. Students learn how to use a combination of business-hypothesis-driven experimentation, feedback, and iterative product releases to speed product development cycles, understand the capital market and risk, and strategies for product launches. Students participate in comparison studies of start-up approaches versus traditional business planning models.

BME I6400: Translational Challenges in Diagnostics, Devices, and Therapeutics

This course covers a broad range of topics in developing and operating medical diagnostics, devices, and therapeutics and combines lectures, readings, case studies, and class discussions. Engineering and clinical faculty discuss the challenges they encounter in their practice and opportunities for advancing their fields through new inventions and discoveries. The focus is on existing and emerging biomedical technologies regarding their core physiology and engineering and their societal and economic costs. Students actively participate in organizing the lectures and discussing potential experimental solutions to these problems.

BME I6600: Capstone Design II - Conceptual innovation

The second course of a three-course sequence in which a year-long group project is undertaken to design and construct a biomedical engineering device or system. This second course focuses on developing a solution to the pharmaceutical, biotechnological, drug delivery, or medical device need identified in the BioDesign 1 course, taking advantage of the creative group process and the power of computer design and prototyping to evaluate innovative conceptual solutions. The content of this course includes Ideation and Brainstorming, Concept Screening, Prototyping, and Final Concept Selection.

MEDS I8200: Translational Research Design

This course is designed to provide students with a broad overview of issues related to engaging in and interpreting research in the interdisciplinary field of translational medicine. Topics of discussion will include key elements of pre-clinical research design and clinical trials, how hypotheses are developed, practical issues related to conducting research, and data analysis and interpretation of various experimental models. Students will develop a set of practical skills necessary to design reproducible research and to effectively evaluate basic science, epidemiologic, and clinical research data and reports. The course format will include lectures, class exercises, and assignments based on real research data. Students will be expected to complete a data analysis project and present their findings in a formal oral presentation and written report.

+ 1 ELECTIVE from Electives Tab

BME I6700: Capstone Design III - Translational Solutions

The third course of a three-course sequence in which a year-long group project is undertaken to design and construct a biomedical engineering device or system. This third course focuses on implementing the conceptual design solution defined in the BioDesign 2 course. The conceptual design and prototype is transformed into a product that can be marketed and used at the bedside to treat patients. The content of this course focuses on final product development, testing, and clinical validation methods as well as the preparation of documents for regulatory submission. Students will learn to develop a translational solution to a biomedical need within the constraints of a real-world problem, including quality and process management, reimbursement strategy, marketing, and stakeholder strategy, sales and distribution strategy, competitive advantage and business strategy, operating plan and financial model, business plan development, funding sources, and licensing and alternate pathways.

Biomedical Engineering Courses

  • BME I2000: Cell and Tissue Engineering
  • BME I2200: Cell and Tissue Transport
  • BME I3000: Neural Engineering and Applied Bioelectricity
  • BME I3110: Biofluid Mechanics
  • BME I4200: Organ Transport and Pharmacokinetics
  • BME I4300: Physiology for Engineers
  • BME I5000: Medical Imaging and Image Processing
  • BME I5100: Biomedical Signal Processing
  • BME I5600: Cell Mechanotransduction
  • BME I6000: Advanced Biomaterials
  • BME I7000: Lab Cell and Molecular Engineering
  • BME I7100: Cell and Tissue Mechanics
  • BME I7300: Cell and Tissue–Biomaterial Interactions
  • BME I7700: Microfluidic Devices in Biotechnology
  • BME I8000: Bone Physiology and Biomechanics
  • BME I9000: Skeletal Soft Tissue Physiology and Biomechanics
  • BME I9400: Special Topics in Machine Learning
  • BME I9800: Project

Chemical Engineering Courses

  • ChE I5700: Advanced Materials Engineering
  • ChE I8900: Nanotechnology
  • ChE I9000: Bioprocess Engineering: Mammalian Cell Biotechnology

Mechanical Engineering Courses

  • ME I4800: Accidental Injury Biomechanics

Biomedical Sciences Courses

  • BIO A2000: Virology
  • BIO A4250: Cancer Biology
  • BIO A4510: Movement and Muscle: The Neuroscience of Motor Control
  • BIO A4810: Introduction to Epigenetics
  • BIO A8300: Laboratory in Biotechnology
  • BIO B4540: Sensory Perception
  • BIO C0300: Molecular Biology
  • BIOL V1401: Cell Biology
  • BIO V1800: Immunology
  • BIO V2301: Neuroscience I
  • BIO V2302: Neuroscience II
  • BIO V5003: Developmental Biology
  • CHEM A8005: Biochemistry II
  • PHYS V3800: Biophysics

BME I9800: MTM Independent Research Project

The Master’s in Translational Medicine (MTM) Project is offered in place of a didactic elective. The project serves as an opportunity to gain practical experience in the process of turning a scientific idea into a clinical solution and should complement the MTM core curriculum. With the assistance of the MTM administration, the student is responsible to identify organizations that can host them in a project that requires 10 hours/week of effort for the duration of the semester. Specific project areas include, but are not limited to, intellectual property, clinical research, research and development, and quality assurance