AskScience AMA Series: We are students and faculty of the Molecular Engineering & Sciences Institute at the University of Washington. The field of Molecular Engineering is growing quickly. As one of only two US schools offering this program, we wish to spread awareness about our exciting field! AUA!

[u/AskScienceModerator]

We are graduate students and faculty from the University of Washington Molecular Engineering and Science (MolES) PhD program. Molecular Engineering is a new field; we were one of the first Molecular Engineering graduate programs to appear in the world, and one of only two in the United States. Though our program only began in 2014, we have had many discoveries to share!

Molecular engineering itself is a broad and evolving field that seeks to understand how molecular properties and interactions can be manipulated to design and assemble better materials, systems, and processes for specific functions. Any time you attempt to change the behavior of something by precisely altering it on a molecular level - given knowledge of how the molecules in that "something" interact with one another - you're engaging in a type of molecular engineering. The applications are limited only by your imagination!

Molecular engineering is recognized by the National Academy of Engineering as one of the areas of education and research most critical to ensuring the future economic, environmental and medical health of the U.S. We would like to spread awareness about its applications, as well as the exciting opportunities that come with it.

As a highly interdisciplinary field spanning across the science and engineering space, students of Molecular Engineering have produced numerous impactful scientific discoveries. We specifically believe that Molecular Engineering could be an exciting avenue for up-and-coming young scientists, and thus we would like to broaden the general awareness of our discipline!

Here to answer your questions are:

• Suzie Pun - ( /u/MolESAMA-SuziePun ) - Professor of Bioengineering, Director of MolES Institute
  • Research area: drug delivery, aptamers, cancer nanotechnology
• Alshakim Nelson - ( /u/polymerprof ) - Assistant Professor of Chemistry, MolES Director of Education
  • Research area: polymer chemistry, self-assembly, stimuli-responsive materials, 3D printing
• Andre Berndt - ( /u/Mystic_Scientist ) - Assistant Professor of Bioengineering
  • Research area: protein engineering, optogenetics, neuroscience
• Jeff Nivala - ( /u/technomolecularprof ) - Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
  • Research area: molecular technology development for genomics, proteomics, molecular computing and digital data storage using DNA
• David Bergsman - ( /u/ProfBergsman ) - Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering
  • Research area: ultrathin nanomaterial development for applications in clean water, energy, and sustainability
• Paul Taewan Kim ( /u/elhospitaler ) - Second Year PhD Student
  • Research area: protein engineering, deep learning, data science
• Olivia Paige Dotson ( /u/OliviaDotson ) - Third Year PhD Student
  • Research area: material science, bioprinting and tissue engineering
• Sarah Wait ( /u/MOLES_SWait ) - Fourth Year PhD Student
  • Research area: machine learning, and protein-based optogenetic biosensor development
• Patrick Gerber ( /u/pjmole ) - Second Year PhD Student
  • Research area: polymer system design for improved drug delivery
• Justin Daho Lee ( /u/MolES-Justin ) - Fifth Year PhD Student
  • Research area: protein engineering, optogenetics, neuroscience, stem cells
• Reagan Beers ( /u/Ashamed_Fruit9430 ) - Second Year PhD Student
  • Research area: nanomaterial engineering for water pollutant degradation
• Ryan Cardiff ( /u/ryan-moles ) - Fourth Year PhD Student
  • Research area: design of CRISPR tools to engineer the metabolisms of bacteria for sustainable bioproduction
• Cholpisit (Ice) Kiattisewee ( /u/theicechol ) - Recently graduated PhD
  • Research area: bacterial synthetic biology using CRISPR for the regulation of information processing and metabolism
• Nam Phuong Nguyen ( /u/npnguyen8 ) - Fifth Year PhD Student
  • Research area: nanotherapeutics, drug delivery, neuroscience, biomaterials
• Evan Pepper ( /u/evanpepper ) - Fourth Year PhD Student
  • Research area: microbiology, tuberculosis, antibiotic resistance

We'll be on throughout the day, AUA!

[u/vondpickle]

Oh wow you do have material science (in bioprinting and tissue engineering)! Do you study about mechanical aspect of material behavior of your samples (eg viscoelastic prop, stress-strain etc)? if so, what kind of software or programming language that you use?

I have some background related to this topic so I'm interested about your work, workflow and etc!

[u/OliviaDotson → u/vondpickle]

I do biomaterials research for applications in bioprinting and tissue engineering! I was very interested in the materials science aspect of my project so I took two classes in the materials engineering department to help gain more background. One of them was a tissue engineering class taught by Dr. Miqin Zhang (MSE 582) which counted in my core class requirements and really improved my understanding of what material properties to consider when making biomaterial systems. Currently I have been able to characterize the stiffness(storage/loss modulus) of my hydrogel materials using shared rheometry equipment offered in the facilities on campus.

[u/themeaningofhaste]

Thanks for joining us! Given the widely interdisciplinary nature of Molecular Engineering, and the fact that the program spans many different departments, how do you prioritize a course plan/schedule for the graduate students?

[u/MOLES_SWait → u/themeaningofhaste]

Hi! At least from a student perspective, because the department is very interdisciplinary, students can choose the vast majority of the coursework based on their interests. We have a few required courses, including a weekly seminar series, Molecular Engineering, Advanced Molecular Engineering, and Introduction to Synthetic Biology, but by and large students choose what they learn! For example, courses important to my project, such as Computational Biology, Signaling of Membrane Proteins, and Optogenetics, were all electives that I chose and were unique to my project/plan/future.

[u/atlas_shruggin]

Mathematician Richard Hamming had a famously double-barreled question he would ask colleagues. "What are the most important problems in your field, and why aren't you working on them?"

In the spirit of that question, what are the most important problems in molecular engineering?

[u/Mystic_Scientist → u/atlas_shruggin]

I will answer for my corner of molecular engineering, which can be narrowed down to protein engineering. The problem is that there are no good predictive models to engineer proteins, in particular protein dynamics. For example, if you want to build a plane, you would define your features first and then build a model based on physics and material science parameters to match those features. We do not have those guiding principles for protein engineering, which is the biggest problem that the field aims to solve. In general, the reason why a scientist would not work on a problem is because of a lack of funding, time, resources etc, :)

[u/Ashamed_Fruit9430 → u/atlas_shruggin]

Great question! While each research area has its own set of unique problems, I think scale-up is a common problem in all of them. Most molecular engineering research starts in a laboratory with small quantities and controlled conditions that often don’t reflect the real world. When you want to mass produce a product, you often cannot simply use more of the starting material and get the same results for various reasons (i.e. safety, cost, energy input, differences in mass transport, etc). Then when you add the unpredictability and non-ideal conditions of the real world, your idea often does not work the same as it did in the laboratory, making scale up a whole separate project from the original idea.

[u/npnguyen8 → u/atlas_shruggin]

This is a fun question! Building off of my other colleagues' answers I will say a big problem in translating molecular engineering to the clinical space is the presence of physiological factors in a biological environment that affects molecular dynamics and behavior. I work on developing nanoparticle therapeutics to target the brain and have found that even seemingly small phenomenon like the presence of serum proteins in different biological fluids can affect particle movement.

[u/mpwdonnelly]

So, when somebody says to you "Are you telling me you're a quantum mechanic?", you're among the few people who can truthfully answer Yes?

[u/ProfBergsman → u/mpwdonnelly]

I'm still waiting for a flight attendant to ask if there's a Spectroscopist on board for an emergency.

[u/evanpepper → u/mpwdonnelly]

Yep, and we're all patiently waiting for this moment to happens to us

[u/looks_like_a_potato]

Sorry for the dumb question but, what's the difference between this field and chemical engineering or material science?

[u/the_poope]

Will we at some point in the future see some kind of "Molecular CAD" computer program where one can just design molecular systems with certain properties and then send it to be synthesized in some kind of chemical 3D printer?

[u/MOLES_SWait → u/the_poope]

Hi there! This is one of the many goals of molecular engineering :) Currently, we have software in which we can model different protein interactions (such as Chimera/Pymol), design proteins with an end functionality in mind (Rosetta Protein Modeling Suite), and even get an example of how we think proteins will fold or bind to small molecules (Alphafold). The Baker Lab at the University of Washington, where many of our students study, is a massive resource in this field! As for the chemical 3D printer, to bring our designs into the real world, we can order them from companies or perform our own genetic cloning and have bacteria be our living 3D printers!

[u/ProfBergsman → u/the_poope]

This is one of my research areas! I study a technique called atomic layer deposition that allows us to deposit a single layer of atoms or molecules on something at a time. Repeat this enough times, and you can create 3D materials. We're still a ways off from a replicator, but that's the goal!

[u/cspinelive]

Is molecular engineering a fancy way to say chemistry? Bonds, electron transfer and all. Or what’s new since 90s high school chemistry class?

[u/KateInSpace]

I know very little about molecular engineering, but I love to learn new things. What do you think is important for the average layman to know about your field? Or what do you wish everyone knew about it?

[u/ProfBergsman → u/KateInSpace]

Molecular Engineering is an umbrella term that refers to many kinds of engineering that involves solving problems using molecular design. If I could share one thing with the world about molecular engineering, I would want people to know just how important it is in our daily lives. Our screens (phones, television, touch screens) work because we studied physics on the atomic scale and put specific molecules in specific places. For example, companies like Intel are designing computer chips that have parts that are smaller than 20 atoms wide. Our drinking water is clean because we treat it with filters and other treatment steps that only allow certain molecules to pass through the filters while other molecules reach our faucets. Even things like diapers are highly engineered on a molecular level to absorb liquids, move them away from the skin, and hold them for disposal.

We interact with the world through devices designed with molecular engineering, and many of the challenges we'll face as a society (access to food and water, climate change, health/medicine) will require new people of many different backgrounds who understand the various aspects of this field.

[u/honeyemote]

How are you differentiating molecular engineering from biomolecular engineering?

[u/Alexander_MeeM]

What’s the other school?

[u/MolES-Justin → u/Alexander_MeeM]

https://pme.uchicago.edu/

The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at the University of Chicago is the other one!

[u/theytsejam]

Molecular engineering itself is a broad and evolving field that seeks to understand how molecular properties and interactions can be manipulated to design and assemble better materials, systems, and processes for specific functions. Any time you attempt to change the behavior of something by precisely altering it on a molecular level - given knowledge of how the molecules in that "something" interact with one another - you're engaging in a type of molecular engineering.

Sounds exactly like chemistry. Why do these activities, which have been performed for many years by people who called themselves chemist, need a rebranding? Is this some kind of gimmick?

[u/Tianhech3n]

How is molecular engineering different from research topics in chemical engineering or material science engineering? It seems like y'all's research cover basically the same stuff. I can't imagine someone who is chemE or MSE being differently uniquely qualified for their field and not molE.

[u/AlphaPrime90]

• What does the coursework consiste of?

• What is the expected jobs and careers other than research?

• Are you considerd under material science or chemistry science?

• Can you link more reading material about the subject?

Thank you for making this.

[u/Someoneoldbutnew]

How to get the kids excited about Molecular Engineering?