[officialchicken]

A lot and not enough. My guess/hope is 40% of south Florida startups? 80% of Minneapolis St. Paul startups? 33% of San Diego startups? Look around those locations and Boston.

I used to do surgical AR. The immediate-now-future is nanodevices, rDNA pharma / gene therapy, and more exotic chemistry. Hardware and software only play a supporting role and smaller role in the final clinically approved therapy. No matter your background all require organic, molecular and various biochemistry or medical skills - probably not as much mechanical engineering as you hope now that CRISPR is here.

[ak93]

But what about more hardware oriented bio support system. BIO+ MECHNICAL/ MECHATRONICS Like prosthesis, bionics arms, artificial limbs etc? The one you mentioned is more on bio and chemistry side which I don't have a long term focus and interest.

[officialchicken]

I would guess that the ability to grow new limbs and organs in a e.g. a petri dish is the end goal and where a lot of current development efforts are. My feelings are really influenced by a couple of ME's I've worked with with decades experience between them - they want to move towards software or biochem, the writing is on the wall. The only way you can do implements or tools is when you work with the creator of new medical procedures and they need something that doesn't exist - and willing to wait 5-10 years for it to pass FDA approval.

The DoD and VA are doing a lot of amazing work with biomech and limbs, if that's you're interest.