Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
With the neural function, resilience, and incredible mechanical strength and endurance of
the human heart, complete replacement prosthetics have been only marginally successful.
Left ventricular assist devices (LVAD), however, have seen success as a replacement
for the “workhorse” region of the heart and are a popular temporary option for those
waiting on a full heart transplant. Future directions for heart failure solutions will most
likely involve more tissue and cellular level treatments, as opposed to macromechanical
systems. These technological innovations have vastly altered surgical organization and
utilization, even further enhancing the radical evolution hospitals have undergone from
the low-tech institutions of just 100 years ago to the modern advanced medical centers
of tomorrow.
In recent years, technology has struck medicine like a thunderbolt. The Human Genome
Project was perhaps the most prominent scientific and technological effort of the 1990s. Some
of the engineering products vital to the effort included automatic sequencers, robotic liquid
handling devices, and software for databasing and sequence assembly (See Figure 1.7). As
a result, a major transition occurred, moving biomedical engineering to focus on the cellular
and molecular level rather than solely on the organ system level. With the success of the
“genome project,” completed in 2003 after a 13-year venture, new vistas have been opened.
Stem cell research highlights this chemical and molecular level focus and has been on the
Test Drugs on Human Cells in Culture
Understand how to prevent
and treat birth defects
Study Cell
Differentiation
Test drugs
before conducting
clinical trials
Toxicity
Testing
?
Mesoderm
Endoderm
Ectoderm
Blood
Cells
Liver
Cells
Neuron
Generate Tissues and/or Cells for Transplantation
FIGURE 1.7
Stem cell
research—potential applications made possible.
http://stemcells.nih.gov/info/media/
promise.htm.
