With so many special fields becoming important, many students ask me the question: what is the difference between biomedical engineering and biotechnology, and which should I consider for a career?

Here is the answer I gave one such student.

Biomedical engineering is an interdisciplinary subject in which engineering and technology is applied to medicine, surgery and healthcare of humans and other higher forms of life. It mainly involves bio-instrumentation, biomaterials, imaging, and biomedical devices. Biotechnology is the application of biological organisms & their products to manufacture useful materials. Biotechnology is also an interdisciplinary science that involves biology of smaller organisms and technology. Both biomedical engineering as well as biotechnology overlap to some extent, but are different as given above. Both are upcoming, sunrise fields that have bright future. Basically, if a student has interest in medicine and higher life-forms, then Biomedical Engineering may be a better choice, whereas if the student is more interested in biology and lower life-forms (like micro-organisms and cellular function), then biotechnology may be more suited. You can check out some more details at the following website: http://www.che.iitb.ac.in/faculty/jb/career