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by Ed Stiles
From an engineering point of view, the human body is just another system. It needs maintenance, analysis when problems arise and, sometimes, spare parts.
So it's not surprising that engineering and medicine are converging in UA's new biomedical engineering program, where researchers apply engineering concepts to medical problems.
In one project, for instance, UA's biomedical engineers are creating tissue with an instrument that was originally designed to build tiny electronic circuits.
The machine has been redesigned to print cells. Currently, it is being used to generate blood vessels, the first step toward making complete tissue. Eventually, it will take a blueprint for a specific kind of tissue - say a kidney, eye or lymph node - and build the tissue cell by cell.
The research is based on the same kind of Computer Aided Design (CAD) technology that engineers use to "grow" mechanical parts. They feed in two-dimensional images of the part to the machine, which grows and stacks them three-dimensionally.
Researchers hope to eventually take skeletal muscle cells from the leg and coax them into becoming a specific type of cell, such as a heart muscle cell. "Right now, we are looking at trying to create beating heart muscle," said Stuart K. Williams, director of the UA biomedical engineering program. "Later we'll move on to creating more complex tissue."
A group of electrical engineering undergrads modified the instrument as part of their senior design project. They built an environmental chamber around the machine and added a computer to control airflow and humidity. The chamber provides a sterile environment with controlled humidity.
"They did a great job," Williams said. "It shows how undergraduates can broaden their educations by combining engineering and life sciences."
This research eventually could lead to production of spare parts, such as muscle patches to repair damaged hearts, cartilage to rebuild joints, or tissue for repairing eyes, kidneys or other organs.
A Biological Architecture Tool (BAT) prints tissue that is subsequently re-implanted in patients. BAT uses visual information, like an angiogram, and prints the appropriate cells into a biological structure. (Photo: FOTOSMITH)
A new Tucson-based biotech startup company called "CellzDirect" was recently incorporated and will provide a local source of tissue and cells for this project, Williams said. "Eventually we will take cells from a patient, grow new tissue based on these cells, and deliver the Ôspare part' that the patient needs."
In another project, UA biomedical engineers have developed coatings that allow researchers to attach DNA to microscope slides in an orderly fashion. This is important to gene-sequencing work, such as analysis of the human genome.
"We have developed coatings that are very inexpensive, but hold the DNA in place in a nice, circular pattern," Williams said. The engineers built a machine that prints 20,000 genes on each slide. Meanwhile, students in optics are working on a device that analyzes the light patterns from these slides.
A Laser Doppler Perfusion System uses optical imaging to evaluate tissue structure both to diagnose normal and abormal tissues and for therpeutics.(Photo: FOTOSMITH) |
A massive amount of data can be gathered from the DNA slides and analyzing it requires heavy-duty number crunching Ð something that engineers are very good at. In fact, biomedical engineers are collaborating on mathematical analysis with biologists and physicians in many areas of medical research that involve complex mathematical problems.
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Engineering professor Stuart Williams and graduate student Cindy Smith operate BAT, a device used to create new human tissue for implantation. |
In yet another project, UA biomedical engineers have developed self-sterilizing devices. One such device is a bag in which a sterilizing chemical is activated when the bag is opened and exposed to light. The chemical is odorless and the bags could be used in combat, where medics need to sterilize equipment in field camps.
Three business students are working on a business plan for a new company based on this technology. "We plan on using their plan as a structure to launch the company," Williams said. "So it's not being done as a fun project for a grade. This is real-life stuff, and something the students really want to be involved in.
"If anything, we have too many projects at this point that we're excited about, and we just have to focus on what fits best with our areas of strength," Williams said.
The biomedical engineering program has five full-time faculty members and is searching for a sixth. Another 50-plus faculty from other departments are involved in graduate student education in this interdisciplinary program. Contributing researchers also hail from Arizona State University, the University of Utah, the Oregon Medical Laser Center, the University of Hawaii, Duke University and other institutions.
"We get more and more calls from companies in the biotech sector in Phoenix and Tucson that are interested in moving into biotechnology and engineering," Williams said.
All of this is particularly impressive given that UA biomedical engineering program was only approved in 1997. In fact, Williams was the only person in the program until 1998 when the first two faculty members were hired. The program now has 22 students, but is expected to grow to about 35 in the next few years.
"We get a huge number of applications each year, but we focus on students whose areas of interest match our faculty interests," Williams said. "Our strength areas are bio-imaging and regenerative medicine Ð that is, using materials to develop new tissues and understand tissue dynamics."
The program originally started with support from a Whitaker Foundation Grant that provided matching funds from the UA to hire faculty, develop courses, provide instrumentation and fund other expenses necessary to launch the program. The UA biomedical engineering program now has become self-sustaining and continues to grow.
Biomedical engineering at the UA provides educational opportunities for students interested in either a master's or doctorate. The first class of doctoral students will graduate in May 2004. Those with doctorates will be prepared for both academic and industry positions. Undergraduates interested in biomedical engineering are offered that option as part of their studies toward their engineering degree in some departments.
"We prepare our students to be independent thinkers," Williams said. "So if they want to go into academics, that's great. But they also can go to the industrial side. We expose them to entrepreneurial concepts so they understand not only the technical side of engineering, but the entrepreneurial side as well."
Although the program was first funded in 1997, Williams noted that a couple of years were spent in administrative work before the first research projects started and the first students were recruited.
"We're three years into the research program now, and we have more and more students and faculty who are coming on board," he said. "Many engineering faculty are getting interested in these problems and now the important thing is communication, said Williams. He also stresses the importance of "getting people who are interested in the same problems and who have complementary expertise in contact with one another and working together."
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