U.S. defense will be looking to nature for engineering cues.

DARPA, the research and development division of the Pentagon, has announced the new Biological Technologies Office, which will center on biotechnology research, CBS News reported.

BTO's mission will be to "harness the power of biological systems by applying the rigorous tools of engineering and related disciplines, and to design next-generation technologies that are inspired by insights gained from the life sciences," DARPA said in a press release.

Starting by taking on existing projects from the offices of Defense Sciences and Microsystems Technology, BTO will work to find new, practical ways to incorporate the intricacy of biological systems into our defense.

The center will seek to keep military personnel healthy and prepared both in the field and after their return home; to use biological systems in projects; and to apply complex biological systems at scale.

"Now DARPA is poised to give unprecedented prominence to a field of research that can no longer be considered peripheral to technology's evolving nature," the agency said in the press release. "Starting today, biology takes its place among the core sciences that represent the future of defense technology."

BTO will also collaborate with the Biochronicity program, where Duke University researchers have spent two years examining how passing time affects human physiology.

DARPA noted in the statement that biotech projects would likely raise both scientifically and socially interesting questions.

"Because BTO programs push the leading edge of science, they will sometimes be society's first encounter with the ethical, legal, or social dilemmas that can be raised by new biological technologies," it said.

The agency will continue to bring experts together on a regular basis to discuss these issues, said the press release.

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