BU Opens Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering
On September 14, 2017, Boston University opened the doors to the Rajen Kilachand Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering (CILSE), featuring state-of-the-art labs, floor-to-ceiling windows, and spectacular views of Boston University’s campus, Boston, and the Charles River. CILSE brings together Charles River Campus and Medical Campus scientists and engineers and is home to the Center for Systems Neuroscience (CSN), Biological Design Center (BDC), Center for Research in Sensory Communication & Emerging Neural Technology (CRESCENT), and Cognitive Neuroimaging Center, with its $2.5 million Siemens 3 Tesla MRI machine.
Hariri Institute Steering Committee member, ENG professor of biomedical engineering Barbara Shinn-Cunningham leads CRESCENT and is excited for the opportunities afforded by the new CILSE facility. She notes,
“Because of the flow of the building, we bump into each other all the time. People are starting to really know what their labmates are doing, in detail. The unity is weaving a social fabric that supports interactions. Not only are we closer physically, we have these beautiful spaces that lead us out of our little cubbyholes and get us talking.”
Doug Densmore, former Hariri Junior Faculty Fellow, current Institute Steering Committee member and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, will have space and power on the fourth and fifth floors for the robotics central to his DAMP (Design, Automation, Manufacturing, Prototyping) lab. The lab will use software to develop novel biological systems and eventually create new medicines, energy sources, biosensors, and other materials. The only other academic lab similar to DAMP in the United States is the Illinois Biological Foundry for Advanced Biomanufacturing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says Densmore.
Many of the Institute’s affiliates from both the Charles River and Medical campuses will engage in research through CILSE, bringing computational approaches to developments in the fields of human health, environment, and energy.