Department of Bioengineering An Overview

1
Department of BioengineeringAn Overview

• Arunan Nadarajah, Ph.D.
• Professor and Chair
• University of Toledo

2
What is Bioengineering?

• The application of physical, life, chemical, and
  mathematical sciences and engineering principles
  to define and solve problems in biology,
  medicine, health and bioprocessing
• Biology is the key science of the 21st century

3
Department Profile

• Approval May 1997 recruitment Fall 1997
• ABET Accredited BSBE program, MSBE, Ph.D.
• 10 full time faculty members 1 Endowed
  Professor
• Faculty from MIME, MCO, Biology, Chemistry
• 164 undergraduate 33 graduate students
• Incoming HS GPA 3.93 ACT score 27.9
• 80 graduate with honors Retention rate gt 85
• Over 40 are women, national engineering average
  is 20
• Mandatory co-op
• BS/MD program with MCO Minor in Law, Business
• Student placement industry, medical schools,
  graduate programs
• NSF fellowship, Full scholarship for medical
  school recipients, etc.

4
Laboratories (Teaching and Research)
Bio-processing Lab

• State-of-the-art labs
• Administration support (3-4 million Dollars)
• Whitaker Special Opportunity Award (800K) for
  curriculum development, labs and two new faculty
• Other Lab Equipment Grants

Bioinstrumentation Lab
5
Tissue Engineering
Skin lesion (Melanoma) detection Non-invasive
Bioartificial Nucleus

• Investigators Relue, Cameron, Fournier, Goel,
  MCO Staff, NJIT, MatTek Corp., Surgeon from
  Nebraska
• Funding Whitaker, NSF, Skin Cancer Foundation,
  Industry and Private Donations
• Patent One Pending (Bioartificial Nucleus)
• Pending NSF, Industry

6
Nanotechnology Labs

• Investigators Vik Kapoor
• Funding NASA

7
Neurophysiology Bio-informatics (Data Mining)
Electrophysiologic properties of DCN cartwheel
cells

• Neural network models of Brain
• Function e.g., Parkinsons disease

Investigators Molitor, Johnson, Biology,
Pharmacy, MCO, NIH Funding Whitaker Special
Opportunity Award, NIH, NASA, Foundations Pending
Whitaker, NIH, others agencies
8
Optics and Ultrasound
Glucose Detection Skin lesion detection using
optics
3D Imaging Image Processing
Investigators Cameron, Lu, MCO staff,
Louisiana Tech Univ. Funding Whitaker Special
Opportunity Award, TAF, Skin Cancer
Foundation, NIH Pending Whitaker Foundation,
NIH, NSF, Other agencies
9
Orthopedic BiomechanicsSpine Research Center (UT
MCO)
Spine Biomechanics Chiropractic Manipulation?
Golfing for the Elderly
Skeletal Fragility
Investigators Goel, Akkus, Cameron, Kapoor,
Hefzy (MIME) , HHS, Phys. Astronomy, MCO,
NAMSA, WSU, CCF, CWRU, Henry Ford Mount Sinai
Hospitals, WVU, Japan, Ohio National Industry
Funding Industry, MTF, Whitaker, Technology
Action Fund, NSF Pending/Planned DOD, NIH, NSF
10
Points of Pride

• Exceptional quality students curriculum in line
  with areas of import at national level
• MCO and other depts. faculty help with clinical
  biology/biochemistry perspectives
• of UG working in labs going up
• Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Trans. Assoc Editorships
  of several journals
• Hosted Bioinformatics Conference in 2001
• Mandatory Co-ops for UGs
• Several research areas in the dept. in
  collaboration with MCO, other depts., and
  institutions

11
Future

• of UG (200) and G students (50)
• Strengthen co-op and placement programs
• Service at the university national level
• To host conferences, including the American
  Society of Biomech Conf. (Sep 25-27, 03)
• Short courses for Industry, other BME
  programs/scientists (e.g., Bio-processing)
• Increase external funding
• More interaction with industry (Ohio, National)
• Pfizer for Bio-processing lab, and research
• NAMSA (Local Company) to share our capabilities
  with its industrial clients

12
Goal - Strengthen ties with MCO, other depts on
Campus, and institutions Key to our success

• Examples
• Mechano-Biology Research Proposal -
• presented to UT Research Council
• Spine Research Center with MCO
• Individual faculty interactions
• Class-room instructions
• BS/MD Program with MCO
• Minor in Law and Business