ABSTRACT
As early as 1992, the possible contributions of engineering to the study of molecular processes in biology were being noted by the NIH [1]. At a conference entitled, “Research Opportunities in Biomolecular Engineering: The Interface Between Chemical Engineering and Biology,” the term “biomolecular engineering” was defined as research and development at the interface of chemical engineering and biology with an emphasis at the molecular level [2]. However, due to the growth of biomedical and biochemical engineering and specific disciplines within those fields (e.g., metabolic, cell, and tissue engineering), a narrower definition is in order and will be applied here. In this chapter, biomolecular engineering will be defined as the use of experimental and theoretical information to identify controlling parameters that define the function of a biomolecule and then manipulation of the parameters through chemical and physical means to optimize the function of those biomolecules in the process of interest.
