Engineering the biomedical future

The new head of a collaborative university biomedical engineering department hopes to transform it into a world leader in education and research.
Renowned biotechnology expert Larry McIntire became the chairman of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University in July. In the next five to 10 years, McIntire hopes to transform the institution into the world's leader in biomedical engineering education and research. Whether he's successful could play a significant role in the future of medicine and patient care.
To understand why McIntire chose to come to Atlanta, you must understand where the future of medicine is headed. Modern medicine will be completely driven by technology, McIntire said. In particular, developments in medical imaging will play a critical role in diagnosing illness and computer- assisted surgeries will play an increasingly important part in providing effective treatment.
"In the medical world, we like to use the phrase 'from the bench (science) to the bedside (patient),' " McIntire said. "There has to be a bridge between science and patients, and technology is that bridge."
Unique partnership
In 1997, the Emory School of Medicine joined with the Georgia Tech College of Engineering to form the Georgia Tech/Emory Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME). There are only a handful of other institutions around the country that have formed such partnerships, McIntire said. There is a similar collaboration between Harvard and MIT, but the venture between Emory and Georgia Tech is noteworthy because it is one of the few formed between a public and private institution.
More important than the anomaly of the collaboration is that Emory and Georgia Tech are committed to raising funds to increase the size and scope of the program. This is what lured McIntire from his position in Houston.
Prior to coming to Atlanta, McIntire served as the chairman of Rice University's Department of Bioengineering as well as Rice's Institute for Biosciences and Bioengineering. The Rice program consisted of 12 full-time faculty members, with plans to increase that number to 15 in the coming years, McIntire said. The Georgia Tech and Emory program already has 21 staff members, with plans to grow to 35 in the next three to five years.
"The size of your staff plays an important role in the areas you can cover," McIntire said. "At Rice, our focus was largely on cell studies and engineering. In Atlanta, that will be one of five areas we will focus on. You need critical mass to expand your areas of interest."
Don Giddens, the former BME chairman, now serves as dean of the Georgia Tech College of Engineering. Two of the program's main research areas will be cardiovascular research and brain imaging, Giddens said. BME is currently developing a tissue engineered vascular graft that could be used to help bypass surgery patients whose own arteries are unavailable for use.
Improved diagnostics
"In the field of imaging, we are working to be able to identify areas in the brain that would allow us to diagnose neurological problems before they become problems," Giddens said. "If we can find the trouble spots earlier, we can treat cancer, Alzheimer's and seizures at a much earlier stage."
In addition to his own research, McIntire is charged with recruiting faculty members and increasing communication between the two institutions.
Part of that goal will be accomplished by bringing faculty at both institutions geographically closer. The department of Biomedical Engineering at Emory and Georgia Tech recently moved into the new U.A. Whitaker Building for Biomedical Engineering on the Georgia Tech campus. The building is in a quadrangle that includes the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience and the new Environmental Science and Technology Building. There are plans for a fourth building, which will be called the Molecular and Materials Science and Engineering Building. The schools have raised $10.8 million of the $60 million the new building is expected to cost, said Georgia Tech information specialist Larry Bowie.
McIntire plans to organize a number of faculty retreats and to bring in influential speakers to encourage staff at the two institutions to interact more frequently.
"I think there is a great deal of overlap taking place that people don't even know about," McIntire said. "A big part of my job is to find ways to increase communication."
McIntire is the perfect man for the job, Giddens said.
"Larry's what we refer to in the business as a hard-core engineer," Giddens said. "He has a tremendous background in all of the sciences. But because of his work at Rice, he also knows how to run a medical school from an administrative standpoint."
McIntire is excited about the opportunities that lie ahead. From hiring new staff to conducting research to graduating the first undergraduate class, he seems to be enjoying his stay in Atlanta so far.
"I'm probably one of the few people who don't think Atlanta summers are very hot," said McIntire, who moved here with his wife, also a scientist. "We have a chance to make this partnership something very special."
Sonny Lufrano is a contributing writer for Atlanta Business Chronicle. Reach him at atlantatechbiz@bizjournals.com.