A Community of Bioengineers

Opportunities, resources and a network of active members of the engineering, biosciences, medical and business communities are all here at Stanford University.

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Also, connect with others in Bioengineering by going to our events page and seeing how you might participate. The School of Medicine Seminar calendar is also a great resource for events in the larger medical community.

Bio-XBioX Logo

In May of 1998 a group of Stanford faculty organized a grass roots effort to initiate a bold enterprise, known as Bio-X, to facilitate interdisciplinary research and teaching in the areas of bioengineering, biomedicine and biosciences.

The program now operates across the Schools of Humanities and Sciences, Engineering, Medicine, Earth Sciences and the School of Law. In September of 1998 Provost Rice and Vice Provost Kruger created a Planning Committee consisting of faculty from the three Schools. This group developed the Bio-X Program and the concepts of a radical new building, now The James H. Clark Center.

Ideas and methods embodied in engineering, computer science, physics, chemistry, and other fields are being brought to bear upon important challenges in bioscience. In turn, bioscience creates new opportunities in other fields. Significant discoveries and creative inventions are accelerated through formation of new collaborative teams.
Students and faculty are broadening and enriching their training in science and technology to more fully integrate fields, departments, and schools at Stanford. Educational events for Bio-X participants and for the public are planned to motivate thoughtful discussions of social and ethical issues connected with scientific advances.
We aim to make Stanford the most exciting place in the world for combining a broad range of scientific and engineering disciplines in biosciences research and for training the next generation of leaders.

Bio-X and the Bioengineering department form two important branches of Stanford's initiatives in the Biosciences. Bio-X focuses on and facilitates interdisciplinary relationships and research. The Bioengineering department provides a structured academic environment by which students may be trained and faculty may teach. Working together, the two programs provide a robust set of resources to the Stanford community of bioscientists and engineers.

BiotechBay DrawingSilicon Valley and “Biotech Bay”

The Northern California region is the home of an extraordinary collection of biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical technology companies. Within a 50-mile radius of Stanford, there are over 500 life sciences companies, ranging from start-ups with a handful of employees to some of the major corporate giants in this sector. Sand Hill Road, which borders the Stanford campus, is the “capital of venture capital” in the U.S., with a large number of firms that specialize in biotech and med tech investments. Stanford draws heavily on the teaching and mentorship expertise available in this community, not only from leaders in science and business, but also from experts in patent law, FDA regulation, Medicare reimbursement and many other areas of technology translation in the life sciences.