Recognizing nature's potential in the development of new technologies, DARPA has announced the establishment of the Biological Technologies Office (BTO), a new division that aims to "merge biology, engineering, and computer science to harness the power of natural systems for national security."

The BTO will build on work carried out by DARPA's Defense Sciences Office (DSO) and Microsystems Technology Office (MTO), with a number of programs from these offices to be transferred to the BTO.

"Before BTO, DARPA had a handful of biologists, neuroscientists, engineers, and the like, interested in synthesizing their work but distributed across different offices," said Geoff Ling, who has been named as the first director of the BTO. "Now we’re under one roof, so to speak, and looking to attract a new community of scholars, who will bring a host of new ideas at the intersection of traditional and emerging disciplines."