Download The purpose of this course is to give a student a view of the process

Introduction
The objective of the Bioengineering and Environmental Health course is to show how basic
science and engineering tools are used in a coordinated way to solve public health problems.
These problems range from those of environmental pollution from industrial sources to the
configuration of a biotechnology-based company. This is a highly interdisciplinary course where
the students work in groups to tackle specific issues. As a result, the students are not only
exposed to diverse concepts in biology, chemistry and engineering but also learn to communicate
and work in an interdisciplinary team.
This course is very popular at MIT, and each year we try to identify a pharmaceutical product
that is of current interest in the field. Past drug products include human growth hormone,
erythropoeitin, tissue plasminogen activator, leptin, taxol, viagra and beta-interferon. At MIT,
approximately 30% of the students taking the course are freshmen, and they use the course to
help them decide on their major area of study for the upperclass years. Students taking the
course later in their career typically use it to give them a view of what life is like beyond MIT,
usually in industry.
This year we decided to teach the course in Thailand for several reasons. First, there is a long
and scientifically distinguished history of collaboration between MIT and the Thais. In the early
1960s, the MITHAI program was established in which chemists, epidemiologists and medical
scientists converged to determine if a toxin structurally identified by Gerald Wogan and George
Buchi at MIT, aflatoxin B1, were the etiologic agent in liver cancer then endemic in Asia. That
work not only was a milestone in the development of the modern field of toxicology, but it also
trained a generation of scientists, both Thai and American, who have continued a commitment to
the study of problems affecting developing countries. One student involved in that program,
Professor Mathuros Ruchirawat, has maintained close contact with MIT over the years and acted
with her colleagues to secure funding for a postgraduate program that will, once again, train
Thais and other southeast Asians in toxicology. She asked two of us, John Essigmann and Ram
Sasisekharan, to participate in the inaugural offering of this course.
In the 40 years since the aflatoxin study began, the problems affecting the Thais and their
neighbors have changed. One major problem is that of AIDS, so we decided to have the course
this year focus on HIV as a disease target and HIV protease inhibitors as the primary drug target
to be manufactured in Thailand. The course began with introductory lectures by Professors
Essigmann and Sasisekharan, Research Engineer Dr. Ganesh Venkataraman and Instructor Dr.
Maria Kartalou. Following a general outline on the course objectives, two diseases- AIDS and
Diabetes were introduced to the class. Introductory lectures on history of biotechnology,
principles of drug discovery, development, regulatory affairs and intellectual property were
delivered.
A virtual company focusing on AIDS with four divisions was set up by the students. The four
divisions are Clinical and Regulatory Affairs, Marketing, Production and Ethics. The students
were divided into these four groups. The Clinical Group described the biological basis of the
target disease and identified clinical options that could cut into our market. The Marketing
Group attempted to determine how many people have the target diseases. They also determined
how much of the respective drugs to produce. The Group was sensitive to the realities of health
care delivery costs in the developing world. The Production Group used engineering
methodology to design an industrial plant in Thailand to produce the amount of drug requested
by the Marketing group. The Ethics Group probed ethical and social issues that exist
surrounding the use of the drug. The students in each of the groups picked specific topics to
work on in the context of the overall objective. The students were from Chulabhorn Research
Institute, AIT, and Mahidol University.
In order to facilitate good communication not only between the students but also the faculty at
MIT, a dedicated web site for the course was developed. This website served as the central
communication mode between the different student groups and also with the MIT faculty. A
password protected site was developed for the student to post reports, queries, information or
anything if interest for the class. This remote interaction was in addition to the weekly classes
that the students attended, where they presented their findings through formal presentations. The
slides and the discussions to the presentations were made available to the MIT faculty through
the web site for their active participation during the course. In addition, the students submitted
electronically progress reports and the instructors commented on their work and suggested
alternative ways of approaching their topic.
The report starts with information on how this course was taught with extensive use of a website
to facilitate distance learning. The report contains a package of introductory information on HIV
and the protease inhibitor, and then progresses to the students’ report. At the final presentation
Monday evening (July 24th, 2000), two to three students from each of the four groups will
summarize the results of their group.