Research Areas
Distributed Diagnosis and Home Healthcare
How can we increase access to quality health care for everyone, including people in remote or impoverished regions? D2H2 offers a solution by combining two powerful new technologies. First, through a technique called microfabrication, scientists can create a "lab on a chip," giving patients the ability to run their own medical tests at home by placing a drop of blood or saliva on the device. Second, new computing, Internet, and wireless technologies enable patients to transmit test results to their physicians and allow physicians to respond quickly. Used together, microfabrication and "e-medicine" create a medical system for the 21st century, moving point-of-care from hospitals to the patient's bedside-anywhere in the world.
Engineered Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering
These labs work on making artificial materials to replace diseased or damaged living tissue in small structures such as blood vessels or heart valves, and in larger structures such as ears, noses or whole organs. One lab is working on wound coverings that discourage the growth of hard, rubbery scar tissue in favor of healthy new skin. Yet another lab is developing a "smart material", an artificial tissue that responds to changing conditions of the body and directs how living tissue heals. Animal research is often a part of work in this research area.
Molecular Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
Molecular bioengineers investigate and manipulate molecules, units much smaller than cells. "Nanotechnology" refers to science at the nano-scale (1000 times smaller than the width of a human hair). Scientists in these labs are using smart nano-materials to enhance delivery of specific drugs that target specific diseased cells or organs. One example is a cancer drug that will affect only the tumor. Other uses of these smart nano-sized materials include affinity separations to recover, and diagnostic assays to assay specific molecules in a complex mixture. In another use, one or a series of chemical or biochemical reactions are affected using nano-scale concentrations of reactants and products. These nano-processes may be carried out in microchannels of microfluidic devices or on the surfaces of micro-patterned biochips. These developments represent a synergistic coupling of the better-developed micron-sized world with the newer and less developed nano-sized world.
Medical Imaging and Image-Guided Therapy
Labs in this area investigate non-invasive ways to look or operate inside the human body. Some labs are developing faster and more accurate 3-D ultrasound machines that give better pictures and more information. Others use ultrasound as a therapeutic (healing) tool. By focusing high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) waves in a specific spot, physicians can essentially "cook" or kill a tumor, or cauterize a wound, without damaging the intervening healthy tissue. This treats the patient in a non-invasive and relatively painless manner. Animal research is involved in the therapeutic ultrasound labs.
Computational and Integrative Bioengineering
Mathematical analysis is a basic tool for all scientists. In computational bioengineering, the combination of mathematics, computer programming and modeling helps us accurately predict how things will work in the human body. For example, it is safer to analyze the effect of a new drug in a computer model than to experiment with drugs in real human beings. Some computational labs study body/drug interactions, while others show how the heart beats, blood flows, or lungs breathe - all on the computer.