Seeking an opportunity to do something impactful in the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic, Julian Zulueta applied for an internship with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, through MIT's PKG Public Service Center. During the summer of 2020, he analyzed requisition data to better understand how different regions across the United States were affected by Covid-19, and what resources would be most effective on the ground. 'We would talk with hospitals and see what they were going through on the ground level,' says Zulueta, an MIT senior majoring in bioengineering. 'What were their cities looking like' How were health care workers responding' And how could we deploy epidemiologists or contact tracers to those different regions'' The experience gave him a multifaceted perspective on public health and sparked a passion for public service leadership. While he hopes to attend medical school and contribute to immunology and cancer research as a physician-scientist, Zulueta is also committed to advancing the human side of medicine....
Bioengineering is a discipline that applies engineering design and principles to biological systems. Some examples of this fusion are artificial organs or limbs, the genetic synthesis of new organisms, gene editing, the computerized simulation of surgery, medical imaging technology and tissue/organ regeneration.
Like any other technology, bioengineering has damaging potential, whether it be through misuse, weaponization or accidents. This risk can create significant threats with large potential consequences to public health, privacy or to environmental safety.
Approaches such as genomic synthesis have over recent years dropped precipitously in price. This has triggered a boom in bioengineering research and broadened its applications. Foreseeing the impacts of bioengineering technologies is urgently needed. This was the driving force behind a recent study led by the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge where they set to analyze emerging risks in this field....
