MIT Insite! Intro.

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If you’re not entirely sure what Biological Engineering consists of, click below for more information from your expert Insite bloggers Brenda and Macdaleine.

Biological Engineering is a major that encompasses both the life sciences and engineering. It applies engineering principles to biological systems such as; the human body, plants or animals. At MIT this is a fairly new major and because of that there are still some bugs being worked out.A degree in biological engineering leaves you with many options for further study. You can attend medical school which is a common practice among undergrads. But your degree does not restrict you to this future. Lots of people go into consulting, study law or computer science or do research in an area that piques their interest. It is up to you. You degree is more than just a piece of paper. It’s about the relationships and bonds while learning valuable knowledge. It is those connections that will determine your future.

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Thanks to everyone who attempted these questions. We know some people found them
difficult but they were supposed to be. We wanted you thinking, do
research and find out new information all while becoming interested in biological
engineering. We decided that it’s about time we posted the answers to the
questions so check them out and see if you were on the right track.

1. The answer is a eukaryotic cell. The hint was that only eukaryotes have a
membrane bound nucleus while prokaryotes do not contain a nucleus. Instead,
their DNA is found in a region called a nucleoid.

2. The mitochondria is the main structure in the cell responsible for cellular
respiration which is the process that creates energy for the cell to use. The
rest of the question was asked to get you guys to think about the many
processes that occur to get ATP (the energy for a cell) and come up with an
idea on how you think it might not function properly.

3. The disease is actually Huntington’s. The symptoms are very similar to some
other conditions but they all add up to Huntington’s.

4. For this question, we’re not quite sure how to post the picture of a Punnett
square and we’re not sure that we gave you enough information to actually
complete this problem (we didn’t give you the genotypes of both the parents).
The idea was to get you thinking about Punnett squares and to have you try to
learn how to do them if you haven’t learned already.

Again, thanks for checking out our blog and check back often to see new posts!

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