BioMedical: July 2008

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

TOP UNIVERSITY FOR MS

1.	Johns Hopkins University (Whiting) (MD)	4.7
2.	Georgia Institute of Technology	4.6
	University of California–San Diego (Jacobs)	4.6
4.	University of Washington	4.5
5.	Duke University (NC)	4.3
6.	Boston University	4.2
	University of Pennsylvania	4.2
8.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	4.1
9.	Rice University (Brown) (TX)	4.0
10.	Case Western Reserve University (OH)	3.9
	University of Michigan–Ann Arbor	3.9
12.	Northwestern University (McCormick) (IL)	3.8
	Stanford University (CA)	3.8
	University of California–Berkeley ^†	3.8
	Washington University in St. Louis (Sever)	3.8
16.	University of Pittsburgh	3.6
	University of Virginia	3.6
18.	University of Texas–Austin	3.5
19.	Columbia University (Fu Foundation) (NY)	3.4
	University of Utah	3.4
21.	Vanderbilt University (TN)	3.3
22.	California Institute of Technology	3.2
	University of Wisconsin–Madison	3.2
24.	Carnegie Mellon University (PA)	3.1
	Cornell University (NY)	3.1
	Purdue University–West Lafayette (IN)	3.1
	University of California–Davis	3.1
	University of Minnesota–Twin Cities	3.1
29.	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY)	3.0
30.	Arizona State University (Fulton)	2.9
	Pennsylvania State University–University Park	2.9
	Texas A&M University–College Station (Look)	2.9
	University of Southern California (Viterbi)	2.9
34.	CUNY–City College (Grove)	2.8
	North Carolina State University	2.8
	University of Iowa	2.8
37.	Drexel University (PA)	2.7
	Harvard University (MA)	2.7
	Marquette University (WI)	2.7
	Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey–New Brunswick	2.7
	SUNY–Stony Brook	2.7
	University of Alabama–Birmingham	2.7
	University of California–Irvine (Samueli)	2.7
	University of Rochester (NY)	2.7
	Yale University (CT)	2.7
46.	Brown University (RI)	2.6
	Clemson University (SC)	2.6
	University of California–Los Angeles (Samueli)	2.6
49.	University of Arizona	2.5

Friday, July 18, 2008

Electricity Allows Paralysis Victims To Walk Again

Electricity Allows Paralysis Victims To Walk Again
4/24/2008

Have you ever watched a paraplegic stand up and walk around? Visit University of Alberta in Edmonton, and you just might see the unbelievable in action.

It's the groundbreaking work of Dr Richard Stein, a spinal cord researcher who has developed a device that delivers an electrical impulse to leg muscles, stimulating them to move. This tiny jolt of current would normally travel down the spinal column – but for people with damaged spines, the Bio-8 Stimulator delivers the impulse directly into the muscle, triggered by the shift in someone's balance associated with walking.

Dr. Stein has spent 45 years working with his colleagues to find ways of tackling spinal paralysis, and on April 2nd 2008, he was awarded the Barbara Turnbull Award For Spinal Cord Research for his efforts. The $50,000 prize money will go towards further research, focusing not just on better muscular control methods, but also on ways to trigger activity in the damaged spinal cord itself.

One of Dr. Stein's patients, 47-year-old Edgar Jackson, has one paralyzed leg, and has credited the doctor's innovative work with giving him "a new life."

"Dr. Stein has given me the greatest opportunity," he told The Edmonton Sun. "I'll be able to walk my two daughters down the aisle one day."

Monday, July 14, 2008

Bionic Eye Implant Can Help the Blind See Again

Millions of people are losing their vision – but some of them may be about to get a second shot at sight, thanks to a new bionic eye implant.

The implant consists of a computer chip surgically implanted near the retina, the eye's light-gathering area, with an ultra-thin wire running from the chip to the optic nerve. After the implant installation, the user wears specially-designed sunglasses fitted with a compact camera and a transmitting device – not so stylish, perhaps, but very helpful. Images are transmitted to the bionic eye implant, then sent on to the brain via the wire in the user's optic nerve.

The implant won't give anyone 20-20 vision, but at the very least, it will allow the severely vision-impaired to get a general sense of their surroundings. Once again, they'll be able to recognize familiar faces and even facial expressions, allowing them to interact more fully in social situations. Though the implant cannot help those who've been blind since birth, it should be effective for millions who've lost sight over time.

"What level of achievement that would actually be is hard to know; but the idea is of not having to use the white cane - to walk around, find the sidewalk, avoiding a telephone pol," said John Wyatt, co-director of the Boston Retinal Implant Project. "Being able to navigate safely in an unfamiliar environment, that's the big topic."

The bionic eye implant is scheduled to undergo testing this summer in animal subjects and, if successful, will move on to human trials. All going well, millions of people will finally have the chance to see their loved ones' faces again with the bionic eye implant – and a pair of clunky glasses seems a small price to pay for that privilege.

NEW GENERATION BIOMEDICAL INSTRUMENTS

The purpose of micro controlled medical devices is to monitor and analyse biological signals and also to present this information in an usable form to physician

A potable, micro controller controlled ECG monitor that recognizes and stores only arrhythmia patterns is being developed. In theory, after strapping on the unit in the morning , a patient can go about all his daily activities. At the end of the day, he plugs his monitor into modem and feeds the data to a hospital computer which will print out hard copy for examination .Recognizing arrhythmia is one of the tasks of microprocessor.

A clock enables recording of the time intervals between arrhythmias and compress data for storage.

RD IN NANOCOPTORS

Microscopic helicopter could carry out medical tasks inside the body, have been built and tested successfully. The devices are no bigger than a virus particle. They consist of metal propellers and a biological component attached to a metal post. The biological component converts the body's biochemical fuel, ATP , into energy. This is based to turn the propellers at a rate of 8 rotations per second.This is an important step to producing miniature machines capable of functioning inside living cells.

SCOTTISH CAPSULE

The first radio telemetry capsules were designed and used for the study of gastrointestinal physiological parameters like temperature, pressure etc.For monitoring gastrointestinal tract without transferring the images , Scottish capsule is an example. For transferring the images wirelessly the Israeli capsule M2A and Japanese capsule Norika are available.

Optical and electromagnetic tracking systems in medicine

An optical tracking systems uses infrared light to determine the position of markers in a known measurement volume. Markers can be both active, i.e the markers are infrared emitting diodes that can be detected by the position sensor. The accuracy is less than one millimeter RMS and range is 1 to 10m

LAB ON A CHIP

Lab on a chip technology allows chemical and biological processes to be performed on a small glass plate with fluid channels known as microfludic capillaries. The chips are made with the same micro fabrication used to print circuits on computer chips. Chemicals and fluid samples can be diluted, mixed and controlled using channels embedded in the chip.

By controlling the chip with a computer , activity of the cell can be controlled. The computer sends electrical impulses to the cell chip triggering the cells membrane pores to open and activating the cell.

Introduction

Biomedical engineering (BME) is the application of engineering principles and techniques to the medical field. It combines the design and problem solving skills of engineering with medical and biological sciences to help improve patient health care and the quality of life of individuals.

As a relatively new discipline, much of the work in biomedical engineering consists of research and development, covering an array of fields: bioinformatics, medical imaging, image processing, physiological signal processing, biomechanics, biomaterials and bioengineering, systems analysis, 3-D modeling, etc. Examples of concrete applications of biomedical engineering are the development and manufacture of biocompatible prostheses, medical devices, diagnostic devices and imaging equipment such as MRIs and EEGs, and pharmaceutical drugs.

Generally students find difficult to do projects in this field since it's a novice field and developing field

Major projects in graduation in this field are given below:

Corelation analysis of EEG and MRI imaging techniques

Peritoneal Dialysis

Transfemoral and trans tibial artificial limb design

Blue tooth solution for 12 lead wireless holter monitor

Infant monitoring system using CO2 sensor

Artificial upper limb-A new prototype of the prosthesis

Endoscope Cleaner

Cochlear Implant

An artificial intelligent algorithm for tumor detecting in screening mammogram

Endocardial edge detection by fuzzy inference system

Functional interaction of drugs heroin and nutrient beta carotin in albino rats

MRI image compression & transfer

Embedded algometry for trigger point and fibromyalgia pain syndrome

Rehabilitating peripheral diabetic neuropathy by acupressure and electrical stimulation

Glaucoma detection from fundus image

Overcoming Challenges Faced In Radio-Frequency Ablation Of Hepatic Tumors

Remote programmable sinus rhythm pacemaker

Voice controlled mobile robot with interactive feedback

Urinary bladder stimulator with feedback control

PC based instrumentation for open heart surgery

Image analysis of wear in total hip replacement

Bio telemetric measurement of heart beat and temperature

EMG as physiological input for computer cursor control

Mother fetus ECG separation

3D segmentation and interpolation of MR brain images

Design & implementation of artifacts resistant power efficient finger plethysmographic system

Spinal orthosis-Milwaukee braces

Advanced microarrayer system for making DNA micro arrays

Stress management with EMG & Electrodermal Bio feedback

Mechanical design of body powered prosthesis for upper limb amputees

Diagnosis of frontal lobe epilepsy using EEG/MRI

Continuous and safe pacemaking by Acupuncture meridians

Correlation of signal potentials at the LGN

Novel protein drug delivery system

A novel technique for finger print feature extraction using fixed size template

Digitsl multichannel skin temperature monitoring device

DICOM image compression using support vector machine (SVM) & internet transmission + WAP transmission

Implementation of GMP in an existing Pharma device industry

Hip-knee-ankle- foot orthosis

The use of DPOAE & reflectance for diagnosis of hearing loss and tinnitus

Development of expert diagnostic systems for cancer detection by analysis of mammography images incorporated with DIP&Neural network approach

Development of expert diagnostic systems for cancer detection by analysis of ECG for diseased condition

Cryonics

Research projects

thermal sensor to measure low urinary flow rates.

Analyzing Bear Bones to Find Treatments for Osteoporosis

Alternative Medicine

Cancer

Cardiovascular Function

Computational Image Processing

MEG/EEG

Electrical Impedance Tomography

BioMedical