Institute for Medical Engineering and Science

Institute for Medical Engineering and Science

Established	2012
Location	Cambridge , Massachusetts , United States 42°21′42″N71°05′12″W / 42.3616667°N 71.0866667°W / 42.3616667; -71.0866667
Affiliations	MIT
Website	imes.mit.edu

The Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) is an interdisciplinary research institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Established in 2012, IMES serves as a hub for MIT's research and education efforts at the intersection of engineering, science, and clinical medicine.

Mission and structure

IMES was founded to accelerate the translation of scientific discoveries into clinical applications. The institute serves as the MIT home for the Harvard–MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology (HST), one of the oldest and largest biomedical engineering and physician-scientist training programs in the United States.

The institute operates as an interdisciplinary unit within the MIT School of Engineering, in collaboration with the MIT School of Science and the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. By integrating engineers and scientists with clinicians from Harvard-affiliated hospitals, IMES aims to address major systemic challenges in human health.

Research pillars

Research at IMES is organized around several core themes that utilize engineering principles to solve biological problems:

• Vascular biology and regenerative medicine – Focuses on how blood vessels function and how tissues can be repaired or replaced following injury or disease.
• Infectious disease and microbiome – Investigates the relationship between pathogens, commensal bacteria, and the human immune system to develop new diagnostics and therapies.
• Medical data science and AI – Utilizes machine learning and large-scale clinical datasets to improve diagnostic accuracy and personalize patient care.
• Precision medicine – Develops tools and technologies tailored to the genetic and molecular profile of individual patients.

Core facilities and programs

IMES hosts several major initiatives and centers that facilitate collaborative research:

• Harvard–MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology (HST) – A collaborative program that integrates MIT’s expertise in engineering and physical sciences with the clinical resources of Harvard Medical School and its teaching hospitals.
• Clinical Research Center (CRC) – Provides the infrastructure necessary for investigators to conduct clinical trials and human subject research within the MIT campus.
• MIT-Portage – A program focused on accelerating the commercialization of medical technologies and helping researchers navigate the transition from lab to clinic.

Leadership

The institute is led by a director who oversees its strategic vision and academic programs. Elazer Edelman, a cardiologist and biomedical engineer, has served as the director of IMES, succeeding founding director Arup Chakraborty. The faculty at IMES includes many members who are also affiliated with other MIT departments, such as Biological Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Physics.

See also

• Broad Institute
• Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research
• Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research

External links

• Official website