Overview:

This module aims to impart knowledge of the latest applications in the wide area of biomedical engineering such as drug delivery, cardiovascular engineering, biophysics, dental materials, and orthopaedic engineering. The lectures are delivered by UCL lecturers and other visiting experts. The module will include contributions from the UCL Institute of Orthopaedics, UCL School of Pharmacy, Eastman Dental Institute, UK industry, foreign & UK university visiting speakers, UCL visiting and honorary professors and research & academic staff from the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Examples of components delivered under the theme of this module include:

Drug Delivery & Targeting: This series of lectures includes the general principle and state-of-the-art of drug delivery and targeting and is delivered by the UCL School of Pharmacy. Several new methods useful for drug delivery capsule preparation, scaffold deposition, multilayer coating and microbubbling have been developed in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UCL. A summary of these new developments is described in other lectures. Statistical analysis will be an additional feature of this module.

Cardiovascular Engineering: This part of the module looks at the heart as a complex and efficient electrically-controlled mechanical pump. We investigate its function from a mechanical point of view and consider the implications of various heart diseases. We then review ways in which engineers have attempted to restore the performance of weakened or failing hearts. Students investigate these issues using a computer-based model of the cardiovascular system. Topics covered include: Cardiovascular mechanics, Modelling heart diseases and their consequences, Cardiac assist devices and pacemakers.

Biophysics: These lectures endeavour to cover the current status quo and on-going developmental studies carried out with a molecular biology approach, which has exploited the physical sciences. The course introduces, in particular and in detail, all the associated fundamentals of florescent activated cell sorting (FACScan) with particular emphasis on flow cytometry, thus covering all the closely linked science and technology connected with both hydrodynamics (fluid focusing) and lasers to those novel approaches for de-clustering/agglomerating cellular clumps through advances in fluid dynamics.

The module not only introduces research and developmental aspects of florescent activated cell sorting, but proceeds to demonstrate medical relevance for a wide range of cellular/tissue malignancies in a clinical setting.

Where possible laboratory demonstrations will accompany key modern developments in biomedical engineering applications.