U of M and collaborators receive $26M for new NSF engineering research center

August 5, 2020 — The National Science Foundation awarded the University of Minnesota Institute for Engineering in Medicine and Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Engineering in Medicine and Surgery $26 million over five years to create the Engineering Research Center (ERC) for Advanced Technologies for the Preservation of Biological Systems (ATP-Bio). 

ATP-Bio, which is the first ERC to be co-led by the U of M and Massachusetts General Hospital, aims to develop and deploy breakthrough bioengineering technology to preserve a wide range of biological systems: cells, tissues, organs and whole organisms. The administrative home will be at the U of M, with co-leadership from Massachusetts General Hospital and collaboration with core institutions of University of California Riverside, and University of California Berkeley.

“Through this center, we will strive to revolutionize transplantation and other cellular and biological therapies, as well as accelerate and shrink the cost of drug discovery and other vital medical research,” said John Bischof, director of ATP-Bio, director of the Institute for Engineering in Medicine and a professor of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering in the College of Science and Engineering at the U of M.