Coby Larsen and his wife, Jessica, packed up their three-week-old son, Spencer, and their belongings and headed east from Arizona to Cleveland in the summer of 2001, towing a U-Haul.

"We thought of it as a pioneering experience," he said with a laugh.

But their trek made Larsen a trailblazer for another reason, too. He was coming to Cleveland to be the first student in Case Western Reserve University's Physician-Engineer Training Program (PETP), new in the 2001-2002 academic year.

The PETP is pioneering itself; it's the first combined M.D., Ph.D. program with a research focus on applied biomedical engineering.

Unlike other medical degree and doctorate programs, this unique program focuses on the creation of new devices or platform technologies for diagnosis and treatment, rather than on basic biomedical science. The program aims to graduate students who can solve medical problems with engineering applications. Students can focus on such things as development of artificial or tissue-engineered organs, implantable prosthetics, medical instrumentation and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology and related nanotechnology for clinical applications.

The engineering and medicine combination appealed to Larsen, an Arizona native who majored in chemical engineering as an undergraduate student at Brigham Young University and had dreamed of being a doctor for years.

"Originally, before going into college, I wanted to be a doctor. That was my goal," he said, adding that the field of medicine was attractive because "it was a noble profession to me, where I could make a difference."

Further, the PETP "helps bridge the developing technology that engineering provides and helps the clinic to make a difference in patient care and treatment," he said.

While completing his undergraduate education, through a summer internship at Motorola's division of life sciences, Larsen gained experience in biomedical engineering research and development. He also met Roger Marchant, director of the PETP, when Marchant visited Motorola to make a presentation; it was then that Larsen learned about medical degree and doctorate. opportunities at CWRU.

Larsen is still exploring future career options. What he wants to do "depends on what day you ask me," he said.

"The reason I like this program is that it leaves a lot of options open after I'm finished with it," he added. "A couple of the possibilities that I've looked at are an academic medicine setting where I'm able to do my research and then in addition be in the clinic at times and maybe do some teaching. That has a lot of appeal to me right now.

"Additionally, there's working with a biotech company, implementing or developing medical technology devices, things like that," he continued. "The industry route is also interesting to me because that's where my research has been thus far, with big companies."

Although Larsen started with the Class of 2005, the doctorate portion of the program may add three years to his time in school. PETP students, who have their tuition and fees paid and also receive a stipend, complete two years of medical school, then complete their graduate work before re-matriculating into medical school for their final two years in the medical degree program.

The medical school's class schedule in the first two years, in which students have free time in the afternoons, makes it possible to take graduate courses during medical school, too.

For more information about the PETP, visit http://bme.cwru.edu/petp; write PETP Admissions, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Wickenden Building, 10900 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7207; call (216) 368-4094; or e-mail PETP Coordinator Angelica Bracanovic at axb127@po.cwru.edu.