BioMET History

BioMET was originally the Medical Biotechnology Center (MBC) at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI). In 2009, the Board of Regents of the University System of Maryland decided to disaggregate UMBI, sending each of the four Centers to different campuses within the University System. Thus, the MBC became an organized research center (ORC) at the University of Maryland Baltimore, with a new name and a mandate to foster collaborative research in biomedical engineering, bioengineering and related fields within the University System, but particularly with the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the University of Maryland College Park. In 2012, BioMET was made an ORC within the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM). While all BioMET faculty members are in UMSOM, their departmental affiliations are spread between the Departments of Physiology, Anatomy and Neurobiology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

The MBC had been founded in 1986. In its 23 year history, it had moved from borrowed space on the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus to its own building called the UMBI Medical Research Facility.  In 2013-4, BioMET moved into renovated facilities in two locations:  111 S. Penn St. and 20 N. Pine St. (Pharmacy Hall).

The newsletter, Inside MBC, traces much of the history of the last decade of the MBC. It continues with BioMET Now.