Engineering the future of medicine
9 June 2010
In June 2009, the Trust and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) announced funding for four new Centres of Excellence in Medical Engineering in the UK.
The four centres, at Imperial College London, King's College London, the University of Leeds and the University of Oxford, will receive a combined total of £41 million over the next five years. Each provides a unique environment for mathematics, physical science, engineering and medical research to collaborate, encouraging exploratory research and its translation into new healthcare products. Watch a video introducing the four centres.
At the Medical Engineering Solutions in Osteoarthritis Centre of Excellence at Imperial College London, Professor Ross Ethier and colleagues are looking at the most common cause of chronic pain in the UK. Their research includes sensor systems and lab-on-a-chip technologies for early detection and monitoring of osteaoarthritis, as well as tailored artificial knee implants and improved rehabilitation strategies. Watch a video of Professor Ethier discussing the work being conducted to treat osteoarthritis.
Researchers at the Centre of Excellence in Personalised Healthcare at the University of Oxford are developing ways to measure precisely an individual's response their condition or treatment, so that healthcare can be tuned to the patient's own characteristics. The work of Professor Lionel Tarassenko and colleagues includes personalised fetal and neonatal monitoring using functional MRI imaging, monitoring of vital signs in the home using wireless sensors and mobile phones, and ways to release cancer drugs at exactly the right place and time in the body. Watch a video of Professor Tarassenko discussing personalised healthcare.
'50 active years after 50' is the theme of the WELMEC Centre of Excellence in Medical Engineering at the University of Leeds. Professor John Fisher and colleagues aim to make the last 50 years of our (increasingly longer) lives as comfortable as the first 50. They are working on longer-lasting joint replacements for the hip, knee and spine, bioregenerative scaffolds to repair heart valves and blood vessels, stem cell therapies, and biosensors and medical imaging for improved disease diagnosis and treatment. Watch a video Professor Fisher of discussing the work of the Centre making the last 50 years of our lives as comfortable as the first 50.
Professor Reza Razavi and colleagues at the King's College London Medical Engineering Centre are concentrating on new imaging technologies to aid diagnosis and treatment. Their work includes improving keyhole robotic surgery in the heart using MRI and improved automated guidance, computer simulations of coronary artery disease, combined MRI and PET scanning to better characterise atherosclerosis, and improved imaging agents and tissue engineering to diagnose and treat cancer. They are also developing new tools to improve the diagnosis of psychiatric illness, such as depression, as well as predict the effects of treatments. Watch a video of Professor Razavi discussing new imaging technologies aiding diagnosis and treatment.
Find out more about the Wellcome Trust-ESPRC Medical Engineering Initiative
Image: Ted Bianco, Director of Technology Transfer at the Wellcome Trust, testing out the Leeds centre's bike. Credit: Wellcome Images
