NIH/NIBIB Introduces New Center for Biomedical Engineering Technology Acceleration

In Late January 2023, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) launched a new center designed to accelerate biomedical discovery and therapeutics, in part by pulling together expert, multidisciplinary teams from throughout the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to quickly respond when national or global health crises strike. The inaugural director of this Center for BME Technology Acceleration, or BETA Center, is biomedical engineer Manu Platt, Ph.D., (Figure 1) who is also taking on the role of NIBIB associate director for scientific diversity, equity, and inclusion. Platt previously held appointments as professor, Wallace H. Coulter distinguished faculty fellow, and diversity director of the Center on Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems and Cellular Manufacturing and Technologies at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University.