Engineering for Health Interdisciplinary Center (E4H)

Our society is undergoing a revolution that will fundamentally redefine our approach to the biological sciences and to medicine. This revolution is enabled by the convergence of an array of technologies and medical and social practices that offer unprecedented opportunities for innovative approaches to medical practice and to life science research. The vision driving the Engineering for Health (E4H) Center of Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris) is that seizing these opportunities and realizing their full potential requires a highly interdisciplinary approach where quantitative and social scientists collaborate closely with the life science and medical communities.

Key figures

• 5 Engineering IP Paris schools
• 10 IP Paris departments
• 23 Laboratories
• 250 Research and support staff
• 5 Scientific and technological platforms
• 6 Specialized study tracks

Mission

The goal of the Engineering for Health (E4H) Interdisciplinary Research Center is to leverage IP Paris’ strengths in the physical, mathematical, and social sciences towards a highly quantitative and interdisciplinary approach to the life sciences and medicine. We wish to foster a dynamic environment where basic and translational research continuously feed off of one another to address major societal challenges in health and well-being.

How we accomplish our mission

• The E4H Center plays an integral role in fostering research, training, and innovation. IP Paris has significant strengths and world-class research activities in interdisciplinary life science research with more than 100 faculty members and their teams from all ten IP Paris academic departments pursuing a broad range of fundamental and applied studies. The existing research and training programs within the IP Paris community provide a unique opportunity for tackling key societal challenges and associated grand scientific questions through a highly interdisciplinary approach. By focusing on research aimed at understanding, imaging, modeling, predicting, and engineering living systems and by creating a strongly-knit community, the E4H Center serves to significantly amplify the global scientific impact of IP Paris research in this area.
• A critical mission of the E4H Center is the training and mentoring of young scientists. By virtue of its outstanding academic reputation and its highly selective admissions process, IP Paris attracts not only many of France’s top students and young scientists but also outstanding students and postdoctoral fellows from around the world. The E4H Center is affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Biology, Biomedical Engineering, and Mathematics for Living Systems PhD programs (graduate school and PhD Track) and thus provides state-of-the-art training in fields critical for life sciences and health.
• IP Paris is an ideal environment for innovation, technology transfer, and translational research with a fully staffed technology transfer office and a startup incubator and accelerator on campus. New fully equipped space and laboratories are available for students, startup companies, and industrial partners working on various bioengineering design and development projects. Ongoing collaborations with clinicians and partner institutes provide ample opportunities for translational research, most notably in personalized (patient-specific) therapies, medical device design and development, and connected health products.

Founding members