Directions in Engineering Research An Assessment of Opportunities and Needs (1987) / Chapter Skim
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2. Bioengineering Systems Research in the United States: An Overview
2. Bioengineering Systems Research in the United States: An Overview
Pages 77-114
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From page 77... ...
It includes the fields of biomedical and biochemical engineering. (The latter encompasses the engineering aspects of biotechnology, including 77
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From page 78... ...
The overall market for biomedical engineering devices and systems is estimated to be $11 billion for 1987. Because most engineering-intensive segments of that market have been growing at annual rates ranging from 10 to 25 percent, the potential size of the market by the end of the century is on the same order as that for biochemical engineering.
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From page 79... ...
government for biomedical research, NTH emphasizes projects that focus on fundamental biological or medical science. Although it is estimated that about one-fifth of NTH's extramural grants include bioengineering studies, usually as a minor component of larger projects, those studies account for only about 3 percent of the extramural research budget.
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From page 80... ...
Eight areas involve biomedical engineering research. These are systems physiology and modeling, human rehabilitation and neural prostheses, biomechanics, biomaterials, biosensors, metabolic imaging, minimally invasive diagnostic procedures, and artificial organs.
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From page 81... ...
However, many of the body's organs besides the heart are potential candidates for replacement or assistance by engineered devices. Multidisciplinary efforts combining biochemical and biomedical engineering should eventually lead to synthetic systems able to replace a range of human organs and all the functions a single organ performs.
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3. NIH should give careful attention to the need for largescale, focused research in biomedical engineering.
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5. Those who rank and award grant proposals within NIH and NSF should consider funding research projects that have a great potential for significant results, but also a high risk of failure.
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From page 84... ...
The latter terms are used, where appropriate, when referring to those specific areas. In the three areas listed previously as being within the scope of bioengineering research, the second refers to biomedical engineering and the *
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From page 85... ...
All of these topics apply to the diagnosis and treatment of disease, as well as to rehabilitation, prostheses, artificial organs, aging, and trauma-related injuries. Biochemical engineering includes the engineering aspects of biotechnology.
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From page 86... ...
For example, the first artificial heart valve required engineering research. The development of heart valves designed to last a lifetime must be based solidly on the principles of fluid mechanics, physiology, and biomaterials research.
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From page 87... ...
Apart from their obvious benefit to mankind, the application of these concepts through bioengineering also presents significant economic opportunities for the United States. Biochemical engineering could create an estunated $4~$100 billion worth of biologically derived products annually by the year 2000 (National Academy of Sciences, 1984~.
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From page 88... ...
stresses that biomedical and biochemical engineering research are both of vital importance for the health, well-being, and economic fortunes of the nation. BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING Biomedical research leading to new technology offers the promise of vastly improved health care delivery, possibly even at lower cost per patient (for example, through the automation and centralization of some aspects of health care)
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From page 89... ...
A "mere" subcomponent such as the human brain cannot be rivaled by the largest currently imaginable supercomputer. Neither has even a small system, such as a single red blood cell, ever been fully understood in terms of its physical, chemical, and material properties or behavior.
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NEURAL PROSTHESES FOR HUMAN REHABILITATION Some 12 percent of the U.S. population suffers to some degree from physical disabilities.
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Farther off are attempts to regain a semblance of vision by electrical stimulation of the occipital cortex. Neural prostheses even offer hope of restoring functional movement and bladder control to those who have suffered a stroke or spinal cord injury.
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From page 92... ...
The recent discovery that the use of alcohol significantly decreases the strength of nerve fibers is an example of such research results. In the future, biomechanics research could reduce the incidence of heart diseases, atherosclerosis, and stroke—the leading killers of humans through an improved understanding of the interaction of blood flow and blood vessel walls.
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From page 93... ...
Sirn~larly, research is needed to develop noninvasive or minimally invasive sensors that would permit diagnostic and therapeutic monitoring of a patient at home (for
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Such research could lead to better control of therapeutic devices, closed-Ioop pharmaceutical administration, artificial organs, and prosthetics. METABOLIC IMAGING Metabolic imaging involves the use of positron emission too mography (PET)
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MINIMALLY INVASIVE MEDICAL P RO CEDURES Minimally invasive medical procedures either replace or preclude the need for major surgery. One example is the treatment of coronary arteries whose interior walls have become covered by plaque.
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In the future, multidisciplinary efforts combining biochemical and biomedical engineering should eventually lead to synthetic systems capable of replacing a natural, multifunction organ in human beings. BIOCHEMICAL ENGINEERING Biological processes and organisms have been used commercially for centuries, but the degree of sophistication and the range of new uses and products have increased significantly in recent years.
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From page 97... ...
Bioreactor research will require joining such sciences as molecular and cellular biology, microbiology, and cell physiology with basic engineering skills, chemical kinetics, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, heat and mass transport, and precise bioprocess control a rare combination today in either industrial or academic laboratories. An important parallel direction for bioreactor research is the development of methods for using free or immobilized enzymes, combinations of enzymes, or nongrowing whole cells as catalysts for biosynthesis.
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98 DIRECTIONS IN ENGINEERING RESEARCH cell recycle, tubular, and other reactor types in which to carry out biosynthesis. The challenge is to translate the existing knowIedge base for chemical reactors into biosystems in which strict asepsis, complicated biological regulation processes, enzyme and cell fragility, cofactor regeneration of enzyme activity, and maintenance of cell energy all add to the problem.
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From page 99... ...
Issues Determining the Health of the Field Bioengineering is a diverse field, and many elements of it are very new. Enormous social benefits are anticipated as a result of new knowledge, new procedures, anti new products derived from research in both biochemical and biomedical engineering.
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From page 100... ...
Federal policies toward bioengineering and federal funding for it have a profound effect on its directions and rate of development. Industry involvement, both in the health care field with biomedical engineering and in the newly emerging biotechnology field, also affects the health of bioengineering.
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From page 101... ...
NSF also provides funds for biomedical and biochemical engineering research through various other engineering divisions, as well as through its Industry-University Cooperative Research Project. Together, these funds make up nearly another $1 million, making NSF's total annual support for bioengineering research more than $12 million.
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From page 102... ...
. NIH's support for biochemical engineering per se is roughly equal to that for biomedical engineering.
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CHANGING EMPHASIS IN FUNDING Because of the increased competition for limited research resources, government agencies involved in supporting bioengineering research have tended to shift from a philosophy in which research grants are seen as instruments for investment to one in which grants are considered a means to procure a product. The losers in such a shift are the imaginative but speculative ideas.
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INDUSTRY INVOLVEMENT BIOTECHNOLOGY The worldwide market for biologically derived products could be as high as $100 billion annually by the year 2000* (or about 15 percent of the estimated total annual market for chemicals)
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BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING Most of the research in biomedical engineering to date has been carried out within the academic research community through government funding, private philanthropy, and limited industrial cosponsorship. In recent years, as the commercial potential of a line of research has become clear, industrial research in some cases has brought the basic work beyond the proof-of-concept stage to product development.
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From page 106... ...
structure of government-supported research and development efforts in biochemical engineering. West Germany, Japan, and Great Britain each have three government institutes that support biotechnology exclusively.
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colleges and universities has increased by about 50 percent during the last 10 years, the number relative to all engineering graduate students has remained about the same.* Over the past decade, biomedical engineering students have averaged less than 2 percent of all engineering students enrolled in both master's programs and doctoral programs.
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From page 108... ...
Moreover, biochemical engineering students need to have better exposure to the biological sciences to Improve their ability to manipulate and control cellular biosynthesis. They must also be taught the techniques and methods of the life sciences for solving critical, large-scale bioprocess problems.
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Thus, the Pane} on Bioengineering Systems Research recommends that: The coordination of research programs in bioengineering throughout the federal government be improved and that the coordination include the relevant work of the NIH, NSF, NBS, and other agencies interested or involved in bioengineering research. To ensure its effectiveness, it is essential that this interagency cm ordinating effort receive the full recognition and support of upper management in each of the participating agencies.
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recommends that: . NTH should give careful attention to the need for largescale, focused research in biomedical engineering.
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An IEEE Opinion on Research Needs for Biomedical Engineering Systems.
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From page 112... ...
Committee on Trauma Research of the Commission on Life Sciences of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1985.
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From page 113... ...
Responses on aspects of bioengineering systems research were received from individuab representing 47 different organizations, which are listed in Table A-1: 28 universities (including 6 represented by recipients of NSF Presidential Young Investigator Awards) , 12 professional organizations, and 7 federal agencies or laboratories.
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From page 114... ...
U.S. National Committee for Biomechanics AGENCIES AND LABORATORIES Air Force Office of Scientific Research Army Research Office NASA Goddard Space Flight Center NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA Langley Research Center Naval Research Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory
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