Founded in 2018, School of Biomedical Engineering and Informatics of Nanjing Medical University (BMEI-NMU) has five subordinating departments: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Bioinformatics, Department of Medical Informatics, Department of Intelligent Computing and Mathematics,  Department of Medicine and Biophysics. The history of the School of Biomedical Engineering and Informatics can be traced back to the 1980s, in which a program training talents in combination of medicine with engineering was established. In 2005, biomedical engineering was approved as a first-level discipline to confer the master’s degree. In 2006, the Department of Biomedical Engineering was established and began to enroll undergraduate students. In 2007, the first batch of postgraduates were enrolled.  In 2016, an interdisciplinary doctoral program of clinical medicine and engineering was established and began to recruit doctoral candidates. In 2021, biology and medicine was approved as a program to culture professional masters, and biomedical engineering was evaluated as a key provincial discipline in the 13th Five-Year Plan, and a type B key provincial discipline in the 14th Five-Year Plan in Jiangsu Province. 

For the School of Biomedical Engineering and Informatics, discipline construction has always been a top priority. Strengthening the qualities and professional abilities of both the teaching staff and the students is our consistent concern. Since the School is characterized by the combination of medicine, natural sciences and engineering, as well as the coordination of teaching, research and production, we have formulated the strategy of developing the School with an open mind, strengthening the School with research edges, cultivating talents with expertise and constructing a School with unique features. The School orients to culture talents in four areas, including medical biomaterials and integration of diagnosis and treatment, advanced medical devices and equipment, medical omics technology, intelligent medical engineering.Currently, our teaching staff consists of 70 full-time teachers, most in their prime years, with their majors covering medicine, engineering, biology, mathematics, informatics, computer science and physics. Besides, dozens of professors from affiliated hospitals or large enterprises have also been recruited to teach in our School.

Ever since its establishment, the School has hosted 35 state-level research projects. In the past two years, more than 30% of our projects applied have been approved annually. Our research outcomes have been published in famous journals, such as  Nature, Cell, Nature Electronics, Nature Medicine, Cancer Discovery, etc. Around 10 patents have been offered by the government annually.

Based on deep integration of medicine, engineering and other sciences, together with the research strength in biomedical information technology, the School aims to serve clinical medicine, develop new technology in health promotion and train professionals with solid expertise and innovative spirit. The School has three undergraduate programs: biomedical engineering, bioinformatics and intelligent bioengineering. Of them, biomedical engineering and bioinformatics are national first-class undergraduate program construction sites. Biomedical engineering has also been listed as a program of Jiangsu Outstanding Engineers Training Plan 2.0. Currently, the School keeps a body of more than 500 students. The School has laid emphasis on cultivating the students’ creativity, as shown by their gaining more than 40 provincial innovation and entrepreneurship projects annually. Most graduates are employed by hospitals, colleges and universities, governmental institutions or high-tech enterprises of biomedical technologies and informatics. Most graduates have found employment that suits their professional training.

The School promotes innovation and development in an open manner. Now it communicates and cooperates with multi-leveled institutions from different countries in a broad spectrum of areas. These institutions include Duke University, MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Wayne State University, and University of Dundee. The international cooperation avails biomedical professionals of international perspectives and competitiveness.

The School adheres to integrating production, has established  Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Theranostics Technology and Instruments，Ministry of Education，Jiangsu Province Engineering Research Center of Smart Wearable and Rehabilitation Devices，Joint Laboratory of International Cooperation in Health Information and Rehabilitation Engineering，Jiangsu Engineering Research Center for Big Data Application and Smart Health Service for Chronic Diseases，SEU-NMU Interdisciplinary Innovation Institute and Jiangsu Translational Medicine Research Institute，which has abundant hardware and software conditions. Strategic cooperation is also being conducted between the School and leading enterprises such as Huawei Technologies, Lenovo Group, MINDRAY Medical International, Digital China Health and Founder Group.

Under the guidance of the School motto “engineering, sincerity, productivity and morality”, the newly-founded School of Biomedical Engineering and Informatics is striding with concerted efforts and enterprising spirit toward a better tomorrow!