UWEB History

UWEB is a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center founded in September, 1996, with Dr. Buddy D. Ratner as the Director.

The premise of the center was based on improving a critical component of the medical device industry: biomaterials that heal. Dr. Ratner and the other UWEB leaders focused their research at UWEB on making "heal-able" synthetic materials for medical applications. The body would recognize these materials rather than seal them off as "foreign." The physiologically normal healing of biomaterials could significantly improve the quality of life for millions.

UWEB provided funding the first year for more than 20 research projects focusing on everything from self-assembly to macrophage response to porous materials. The work at UWEB has always been highly interdisciplinary, involving scientists and researchers in engineering, microbiology, chemistry, chemical engineering, nanotechnology, biology, dermatology, dentistry, biomechanical engineering, and medicine.

To house such a diverse faculty was difficult. As a start, UWEB moved into a newly-remodeled facility in historic Bagley Hall (pictured above) on the University of Washington campus, with offices, a classroom, computer areas, a cold room, cell culture lab, and both general and testing labs.

The success of UWEB was guaranteed from its beginning. Students come, eager to become part of the highly reputable center. They are given hands-on research training, and leave as highly desirable employees for industrial companies as well as research institutions. The first industrial consortium meeting was held in November 1996 for more than 20 new member companies, and since that time industry has come to look to UWEB for important technology transfer.

The number of UWEB students, investigators, and staff has grown tremendously, and in March of 2006 UWEB made another move, this time to the new 265,000-square foot William H. Foege Building for Bioengineering and Genome Sciences, located at the corner of 15th and Pacific.