What Is Biomedical Engineering? By Professor Saltzman

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

What Is Biomedical Engineering? By Professor Saltzman

Professor Saltzman introduces the concepts and applications of biomedical engineering, providing an overview of the course syllabus, reading materials for lecture and labs and grading logistics. Various pictures are shown to highlight the current application of biomedical engineering technologies in daily life (eg. chest x-ray, PET scan, operating room, gene chip, transport). Next, living standards and medical technologies of the past and present are compared to point out the impact of biomedical engineering as well as areas for improvement in the field. Finally, Professor Saltzman draws references from the poem “London Bridge” to illustrate some societal issues in making materials and devices in biomedical engineering.
00:00 – Chapter 1. Introduction
02:36 – Chapter 2. Biomedical Engineering in Everyday Life
18:43 – Chapter 3. A Brief History of Engineering
22:58 – Chapter 4. Biomedical Engineering in Disease Control
31:09 – Chapter 5. Course Overview and Logistics
39:23 – Chapter 6. Conclusion
 

Another Lecture About DNA Second or third to This One

Here IS A Transript Of The Lecture…

0:11Professor Mark Saltzman: This is a course,0:14a version of which I’ve taught almost every year for the last0:17twenty years and it evolves a little bit every year.0:21I think I get a little bit better at it,0:23so hopefully you’ll get some advantage from that experience.0:27But the idea is to try to present to you what’s exciting0:30about Biomedical Engineering, the ways that one can take0:34science and mathematics and apply that to improve human0:38health. I’m not working alone here,0:40but we have three teaching fellows who are affiliated with0:43the course, two of which are here today.0:45Yen Cu is back there, Yen raise your hand higher so0:50everyone can see. Yen worked on the course last0:53year and she’s the senior of the teaching fellows that are0:56working on the course this year. Serge Kobsa is in the back and1:01he’ll be the second teaching fellow.1:04I should mention that Yen is a PhD student in Biomedical1:08Engineering and Serge is an M.D./PhD student who’s getting1:11his PhD in Biomedical Engineering.1:14The third teaching fellow couldn’t make it today,1:18his name is Michael Look and I’ll introduce him to you when1:23he’s available. This is the goal for my1:27first lecture today, to try to answer these1:32questions. You might have already noticed1:35that I’m using the classes V2 server so the syllabus is there,1:40I’m going to go over the syllabus a little bit later,1:42but the syllabus is available online.1:43The first reading is available online and I’ll talk more about1:47the readings when I get to that portion of the lecture here.1:51I’m going to post PowerPoints for all the lectures,1:54hopefully at least the day before the lecture takes place,1:58so I posted this last night. Some students find that they2:01benefit from printing out the PowerPoints and they can just2:05take their notes along with the slides as I go and that’s one2:09way to do it, but feel free to do it whatever2:12way works for you, but those should be available.2:15The questions I want to try to answer today are what is2:18Biomedical Engineering? So why would you be interested2:21in spending a semester learning about this subject?2:24I’ll talk about who will benefit from the course and a2:29little bit about sort of the detailed subject matter that2:34we’ll cover in the course of this semester.2:38To answer the question what is Biomedical Engineering,2:41we’re going to spend time on that today and we’ll spend time2:45on Thursday, and I want to approach it from2:48a couple of different angles. One is by just showing you2:51a series of pictures which you might recognize and talk about2:55why this is an example of Biomedical Engineering.2:58This is one picture that probably you all know what it is3:02when you see it, it’s a familiar looking image.3:05It’s something that probably we all have some personal3:08experience with, right?3:10This is a chest x-ray that would be taken in your doctor’s3:13office, for example, or a radiologist’s office.3:16And it is a good example of Biomedical Engineering and that3:20it takes a physical principle, that is how do x-rays interact3:24with the tissues of your body, and it uses that physics,3:28that physical principle to develop a picture of what’s3:32inside your body, so to look inside and see3:34things that you couldn’t see without this device.3:38And you’ll recognize some of the parts of the image,3:40you can see the ribcage here, the bones, you can see the3:44heart is this large bright object down here.3:47If your – have good eyesight from the distance that you’re at3:52you can see the vessels leading out of the heart and into the3:56lungs, and the lungs are these darker3:59spaces within the ribcage. Physicians over the years4:03of having this instrument have learned how to be very4:06sophisticated about looking at these pictures and diagnosing4:09when something is wrong inside the chest,4:12for example. So this is an example of4:15Biomedical Engineering, one that is well integrated4:17into our society to the point that we’ve probably all got a4:21picture like this somewhere in our past,4:24and where we understand the physical principles that allow4:29us to use it. We’ve gotten,4:32over the last two decades in particular, very sophisticated4:35about taking pictures inside the body allowing doctors to look4:39inside the body and predict things about our internal4:42physiology that they couldn’t predict just by looking at us or4:46putting their hands on us. This image on the top here is4:50another example of an imaging technique, this is a Positron4:54Emission Tomograph, or PET image,4:57and it’s taken by using radionuclides and injecting them5:01into you, so radioactive chemicals that5:04interact with tissues in your body in a specific way and you5:07can where those radioactive chemicals go.5:09It allows us to look not just at the anatomy of what’s going5:13on inside your body like an x-ray does,5:15but to look at the chemistry, the biochemistry of what’s5:19happening inside a particular organ or tissue in your body.5:24In this case, these are pictures of the brain5:27and this has been an exceptionally important5:30technique in understanding how molecules like neurotransmitters5:34affect disease and how they change in certain disease states5:39in people, and we’ll talk about this as5:42another example of Biomedical Engineering, this advanced5:46method is for imaging inside the body.5:49Well this third picture you can’t probably see too much5:52about but you probably recognize what it is, right?5:55Where was this picture taken? What kind of a space was it6:00taken in?6:016:04Student: [inaudible]Professor6:05Mark Saltzman: Somebody said OR or6:06operating room and that’s right, this is a picture in an6:08operating room, and operating rooms if you went6:10into any operating room around the country you would see lots6:14of examples of instruments that are used to help surgeons,6:17anesthesiologists to keep the patient alive and healthy during6:22the course of a surgery. This particular one down6:26here, this portion here is a heart/lung machine and this is a6:29machine that can take over the function of a patient’s heart6:33and lungs during the period when they’re undergoing open heart6:36surgery, for example.6:39If they’re having a coronary artery bypass or they’re having6:42a heart transplant, then there’s some period at6:45which their normal heart – their heart is stopped and this6:49machine assumes the functions of their heart.6:52And this is, I think, an obvious example of6:55Biomedical Engineering, building a machine that can6:57replace the function of one of your organs even temporarily,7:00for example, during an operation.7:05This is another familiar picture, I purposely picked one7:08that looked sort of old fashioned compared to the usual7:10way you see this, which might be on the nightly7:13news. You see a bleep going across7:14the screen to indicate that they’ve got their finger on the7:17pulse of what’s happening, or you see it in TV shows like7:20ER. You see these images on7:21computer screens all the time; it’s an example of an EKG or7:26ECG, an electrocardiograph. It’s a machine that also looks7:30inside your body, but looks inside in a different7:33kind of way. Rather than by forming an image7:36or a picture you put electrodes on the surface of the body and7:40measure the electrical potential as a function of position on the7:45body. It turns out the electrical7:47potential or electricity that you can measure on the surface7:50of the body reflects things that are happening deeper inside like7:54the beating of your heart. If you put the electrodes in7:57the right position and you measure in the right way you can8:01detect the electrical activity of the heart and record it on a8:04strip recorder like this one shown here,8:07or display it on a computer. So this is another example of8:11Biomedical Engineering where you can look at the function of a8:15heart in a living person and a physician who is experienced at8:20looking at these, and a machine that works well,8:23with those two things you can diagnose a lot of things that8:27are happening inside of a heart and we’ll talk about that about8:31halfway through the course. This picture might be less8:35familiar to you but you probably all know that we have developed8:40over the last 100 years or so the ability to take cells out of8:44a person, or cells out of an animal,8:47and keep those isolated cells alive in culture for extended8:50periods of time: this technology is called cell8:53culture technology. We’re going to spend quite of8:56bit of time talking about it during the third week of the8:59course. By taking cells from the skin,9:01for example, or cells from your blood or9:04cells from the bone marrow and keeping them alive in culture,9:08we’ve been able to study how human cells work and learn a lot9:12about the functioning of human organism.9:15We’ve also learned how to not only keep cells alive,9:19but in certain cases make them replicate outside the body,9:23so maybe you could take a few skin cells and keep them in9:27culture in the right way and replicate them so that you get9:31many millions of skin cells after several weeks or so.9:35Now one of the new technologies that’s evolving,9:39that we’re going to talk about in the last half of the course,9:45is taking cells that have been propagated in this way outside9:49the body and encouraging them to form new tissues.9:53This is one example of that: this is actually artificial9:57skin. It’s in this Petri dish.9:59Here is a thin membrane, it’s a polymer scaffold,10:03and on that polymer scaffold scientists have placed some skin10:07cells and they’ve allowed it to grow.10:09And if you maintained it in the right way, this polymer scaffold10:13together with the skin cells will grow into skin.10:15And you can use this tissue engineered skin to treat a10:20patient who’s had severe burns, for example,10:23or a diabetic who’s developed ulcers that won’t heal.10:26So this is an example of a technology that’s just emerging10:30now, it’s certainly going to impact you in your lifetime and10:34we’ll talk about how it works and what the current10:37state-of-the-art is there. This device held here is10:43really made of mainly plastic and a little bit of metal.10:50It’s a fully implantable artificial heart,10:54and it was introduced about seven or eight years ago now.10:59It was implanted into the first patient, a gentleman in11:03Kentucky, and he stayed alive for a period of time with this11:07device replacing his heart. Development of an artificial11:12heart, again another example of Biomedical Engineering,11:15is something that people have been trying to accomplish for11:19decades now, and this is the closest that we’ve come and11:23there are many advantages of this particular artificial11:26heart. And it’s important innovation11:28in several different ways and we’re going to talk about this11:32whole science of building artificial organs,11:34devices that are made out of totally synthetic components to11:39replace the function of your natural organs,11:43and the artificial heart is a good example of that.11:48This picture on the bottom here is really just a series of11:53colored dots. Some are yellow,11:56some are red, and some are green – does11:58anybody know what this is? Have you seen pictures like12:02this? It’s an example of a technology12:05called a gene chip that allows you to, on each one of these12:09spots there is DNA for example, that’s specific for a12:14particular gene in your genome, in the human genome for12:19example. By incubating a small sample of12:22fluid from a patient on a gene chip like this,12:26where every one of these dots represents a different gene,12:30you can see by looking at the pattern of colors on this chip12:34which genes are being expressed and which genes are not being12:38expressed in that particular individual.12:41So it lets you do a profile of not just the genes that you12:45possess, for example, but what genes are actually12:48being used to make proteins in the cells that surround the12:52fluid where this was collected. So this has been a remarkable12:57innovation. It’s another example of12:59Biomedical Engineering technology that allows us to13:02look at what’s happening inside an individual,13:05a patient, in a totally different way than we were13:08before. By looking to see not just what13:11genes you carry but what genes are being used at particular13:14times in your life. This is mainly a research tool13:18now, but there’s lots of reasons to believe that this is going to13:22change the way that physicians practice medicine by allowing13:26them to diagnose or predict what’s going to happen to you in13:30ways that they can’t currently. And so we’ll talk about13:34technologies like this, where they’re at,13:37what the scientific basis of it is, and how they might be13:41useful. This is an airplane,13:44what does that have to do with Biomedical Engineering?13:47Well you could stretch it and say that an example of13:50engineering to improve human health is getting them from one13:54place to another, but that would be more of a13:58stretch than I’m going to make. But it turns out that14:01technologies like airplanes, which were developed in the14:04last century, have become integral parts of14:06medicine. For example,14:08you all know that the only treatment for some diseases is14:12to get an organ transplant: a kidney transplant,14:16or a liver transplant is the only life extending intervention14:21that can be done for some kinds of diseases.14:24Transplants require donors, and the donor organ is usually14:30not at the same physical location that the recipient is,14:36and so jets like this one have become very important in14:40connecting donors to recipients. A team of surgeons is working14:44to harvest an organ at one site while another team of surgeons14:48is working to prepare the recipient at another site,14:51and the organ is flown there. Now why does that happen?14:54Because you have to get the organ from one place to another14:57fast, right? The organ has to get from one14:59place to another very rapidly and this is the fastest way to15:02do it. Well what if we could develop15:04ways using engineering techniques to extend the life of15:07an organ, so it didn’t have to get it where it went so quickly?15:11Then that would open up lots of more possibilities for organ15:15transplantation than are known now.15:17What if we could figure out ways to avoid organ15:20transplantation entirely? What if we could just take a15:23few cells from that donor organ, ship them to the site,15:26grow a new organ at the site and then implant it there?15:29These are examples of Biomedical Engineering of the15:32future that expand on what we currently use,15:35which involves to no small extent, technology like this.15:43I would guess that probably 30% to 50% of you do this everyday,15:47you put a piece of plastic, a synthetic piece of plastic15:51into your eye to improve your vision.15:54Contact lens technology has changed dramatically from the15:58time that I was born to the time that you were born,16:01and the contact lenses you use today are much different than16:04the ones that would have been used 30 years ago.16:06This is Biomedical Engineering as well.16:08Engineers who are developing new materials,16:10materials that can be, if you think about it,16:12there’s not very many things that you would want to put in16:15your eye and that you would feel comfortable putting into your16:18eye, so this is a very safe,16:19a very inert material. What gives it those properties?16:23What makes it so safe that it can be put in one of the most16:26sensitive places in your body, in contact with your eye?16:29Why do you have confidence putting it in contact with one16:32of the most important organs of your body?16:35Because you trust biomedical engineers to have done a good16:39job in designing these things and we’ll talk about how16:42biomaterials are designed and tested,16:45and what makes a material, the properties of a material16:48that you could use as a contact lens,16:50what are the properties that it needs to have.16:5317:02This is an example of an artificial hip.17:07We’ve learned a lot about the mechanics of how humans work as17:11organisms over the last 100 years or so,17:14how we work as sort of physical objects that have to obey the17:16laws of physics that you know about.17:18We live in a gravitational field and that it affects our17:22day to day life, and if you have hip pain or a17:24hip that’s diseased in some way, and you can’t stand up against17:28that gravitational field in the same way, that severely limits17:32what you can do in the world. So biomedical engineers have17:36been working for many years on how to design replacement parts17:40for joints like the hip: the artificial hip is the most17:43well developed of those. We’ll talk about this in some17:47detail. You can imagine that there are17:49many requirements that a device like this has to meet in order17:53for it to be a good artificial hip and we’ll talk about those17:57and how the design of these has changed over the years and what18:01we can expect in the future. Lastly, up here,18:04is a picture of a much smaller device, this is actually an18:09artificial heart valve that is made of plastics and metal and18:13can replace the valve inside your heart.18:16Valvular disease is not uncommon in the world;18:21we’ll talk about that a little bit.18:23We’ll talk about how your normal valves function inside18:26your heart and how your heart couldn’t work in the way that it18:29did if it didn’t have valves that were doing a very complex18:32operation many, many times a day.18:35And then we’ll talk about how you can build something to18:40replace a complicated small part in the body like that.18:44Well let’s take a step back for a minute;18:47that’s one way of looking at Biomedical Engineering,18:49by looking at sort of the things that you know about that18:52have been the result of the work of biomedical engineers and talk18:55more generally. But what is engineering?18:58What do engineers do? What makes engineering19:01different than other fields of study?19:03What makes it unique so that we have a school of engineering at19:07Yale that’s separate from science and the humanities?19:1019:14Any thoughts? Student:19:19It’s more hands-onProfessor Mark19:20Saltzman: It’s much more hands-on.19:22You’re actually in there doing things.19:26Many of the things I showed you were things that were built from19:32parts, that’s a good description.19:36What makes it different from science?19:38Science can be hands-on, you might be down at the lake19:41picking up algae and studying them or something,19:45that would be hands-on. But what’s different – what19:49would make you an engineer? Student:19:52[inaudible]Professor Mark Saltzman:19:55You design. Scientists observe and try to19:57describe and engineers try to design.20:00They take those descriptions and the scientist that is known20:02and they try to design new things,20:04and so if you look at a dictionary it has words like20:07this, that you’re designing things or another way to say20:10that is that you’re trying to apply science,20:12you’re looking at applications. We’re trying to take scientific20:16information and make something new.20:18The other thing about it is that you could make lots of20:21things that are new but generally you think of engineers20:23as making things that are not just new but they’re useful,20:26that they do something that needs to be done,20:29and that they do something that improves life,20:33the quality of life of people. So here is a brief and very20:40biased history of engineering. It’s short.20:45Engineering became a discipline in about the middle of the20:501800s. Lots of universities started20:52teaching engineering as a discipline including Yale.20:55In 1852, around that time, this might have been the first20:58course that was offered in engineering in the country:21:02it was taught at Yale in civil engineering in 1852,21:06and even Yale students don’t know this;21:09what a long, distinguished history of21:10engineering that their own institution has.21:13In fact, the first PhD degree in engineering was awarded to a21:17fellow named J. Willard Gibbs at Yale in 186321:19for a thesis he did on how gears work or something,21:22I forget exactly what the details are, but have you heard21:26of Gibbs? Is it a name that rings a bell?21:29Where did you hear about Gibbs from?21:33Student: [inaudible]Professor21:34Mark Saltzman: Sorry?Student:21:34[inaudible]Professor Mark Saltzman:21:35G, Gibbs free energy,21:37that annoying concept that you had to try to master in21:40chemistry at some point, but Gibbs is really the father21:44of modern physical chemistry and was one of the most famous21:49scientists of the nineteenth century and got the first PhD in21:55engineering here at Yale. Then from these beginnings,22:00engineers transformed life in the twentieth century:22:03a lot of things started in the twentieth century and became22:07common place. Things like electricity,22:09having electricity delivered to your home, so you had to have22:12ways to generate electricity and to carry it from point to point22:15and it was engineers that did that.22:16Built bridges and roads and automobiles, so we can get from22:20one place to another relatively quickly because of that.22:24Because there are airplanes that were also developed by22:27engineers in that century. We designed a lot of new22:30materials that could be used to build things that couldn’t have22:34been done otherwise. Things like steel and polymers,22:38or plastics, and ceramics,22:39and of course computers which has progressed remarkably due to22:44the work of engineers in your lifetime,22:47until now you can carry around a cell phone,22:50which would have been unthinkable even 30 years ago.22:55Engineers in the twentieth century have transformed our22:58society. One of the other things23:00that happened during the twentieth century is that human23:02life expectancy increased dramatically,23:04people started living a lot longer.23:06What I plot on this graph here is as a function time,23:10years, dates, life expectancy as a function23:14of time. What you’ll see here is that23:18about – for the period before sort of 1700 or so,23:24human life expectancy was less than 40 years of age,23:27so that means a person that was born in that year could expect23:31to live on average about 40 years: that was the expected23:34life span. The expected life spans23:37increased dramatically in the last couple of hundred years23:41until now, for people that were born when23:43you were born you can expect to live to be 80 years old,23:47a doubling in life span, fairly dramatic.23:50So what’s responsible for that?23:52Why are people living longer than they did just a few hundred23:56years ago? Well there’s a clue here on the23:59slide. I indicated a couple of points24:01here where if we looked in the 1665 in London you could ask the24:05question – another way to ask the question why are people24:08living so long is to ask the question,24:10why do people die? In 1665,93% of the people that24:14died in that year died of infectious diseases.24:18In contrast, if you look at a U.S.24:20city, ten years ago in 1997 for example, then people still died24:26but they didn’t die predominantly from infectious24:30diseases. They died from other things:24:33only 4% died from infectious diseases.24:35So one of the reasons there is a huge increase in life span24:38is because people aren’t dying of things that they would have24:41in prior years. Why the change in infectious24:46diseases? Why did I focus on that one?24:49What makes it so much better to be alive now in terms of your24:53likelihood to die of an infectious disease than it did24:58in London in 1665? Student:25:00[inaudible]Professor Mark Saltzman:25:01Yes, but what specifically?25:0225:02Student: [inaudible]Professor25:06Mark Saltzman: Drugs like antibiotics,25:09Penicillin, Erythromycin, again something else you25:12probably all had experience with and you think well that’s not25:15Biomedical Engineering that’s science,25:17that’s somebody discovering a molecule that kills25:20microorganisms. So it’s the work of biomedical26:03engineers, really, to take these innovations in26:06science like drugs and make them useful,26:09make them so that everybody can take advantage of it.26:13You also mentioned vaccines and we’re going to talk a lot in26:15the middle part of the course about vaccines and the26:18engineering of immunity. How do you engineer what26:20happens in our immune system in order to protect us from26:23diseases? That’s another example of an26:26area where biomedical engineers have made tremendous26:30contributions. So just to go a little bit26:33further with that point, if you looked at the causes of26:36death in London in 1665 here’s a list that I got from a source26:40that was written at that time, and I don’t even understand26:45what some of these things are, but the ones in green are26:49infectious diseases, they’re infectious causes of26:52disease. Spotted fever in purples for26:55example, which we call measles, was a significant cause of27:00death as was the plague, which we don’t have anymore,27:06thank goodness. But people died typically of27:10either infectious diseases or they died during childbirth,27:13or they might have died at old age which would have been 50 or27:19so at that time. In contrast today,27:21because we have antibiotics and we have vaccines,27:24people don’t die of infectious diseases as often.27:27They live much longer lives and they live to die of something27:31else and the leading causes of death currently haven’t changed27:36very much since 1997 when this data was published:27:39they die of heart disease and cancer primarily.27:43Those are the number one and two causes of death.27:45We’re going to talk a lot about how one can use the technology27:50that we have now to treat these kinds of diseases like cancer27:54and heart disease. But why do you think these are27:57the number one and two now? How come these have risen above28:02infectious diseases over the last several hundred years?28:0728:11Why is cancer one of the leading killers in the U.S.28:15now but wasn’t even on the charts in 1665?28:1828:25Student: [inaudible]Professor28:28Mark Saltzman: So it could be that -28:29what’s your name? Student:28:31JustinProfessor Mark Saltzman: So Justin said it28:32could be new things that are around and you’re exposed to28:34stuff we weren’t exposed to before and that’s true.28:35Our environment has changed, the world has become28:38industrialized. We’re exposed to things that28:41might cause cancer where weren’t exposed to them before and so28:46that might be a reason. Student:28:48they might not know what it was?Professor Mark28:51Saltzman: In 1665, they weren’t diagnosing cancer.28:53It was easy to tell if somebody had an infectious disease but28:56you might not have known that they had cancer at that time and28:59they just died. We didn’t have the same methods29:02of diagnosis that we do now, so maybe it was just not29:06diagnosed then. Student:29:08[inaudible]Professor Mark Saltzman:29:09People are living longer and so now they have more29:11opportunity to get cancer, right?29:13The longer you live the more opportunity you have to acquire29:17a disease like cancer, which often is an accumulation29:22of defects that occur over a long period of time.29:27So we’re going to talk about cancer.29:30For example, how cancer diagnosis has29:31improved, what are some of the causes of cancer in the29:34environment around us and how can we protect ourselves from29:37it, and we’ll talk about treatments29:39for it as well. Cardiovascular disease,29:42why is cardiovascular disease on the top?29:46Student: [inaudible]Professor29:48Mark Saltzman: Obesity or generally our29:49diets are different than they were in 1665.29:51We eat different kinds of things and many people think29:55that that’s what has contributed to much more heart disease.29:59But it could also be that it wasn’t as easily diagnosed then.30:02So people were dying of old age and that was really heart30:04disease that was killing them they just didn’t know,30:07so it’s multi-factorial and we’ll talk about that.30:14I just wanted to show you this last graph,30:16or this last set of statistics to go from causes of death in30:20the U.S. to causes of death in the30:22world, to illustrate that what happens in the world around us30:26in the U.S. isn’t necessarily the same as30:28what happens in other places around the world.30:30In other places, infectious disease is a much30:33bigger part of their life and a much greater risk of death from30:37infectious diseases and parasitic diseases if you live30:40in places other than the U.S. or Western Europe, for example.30:44So the problem of infectious disease prevention and treatment30:49isn’t solved yet, you know this,30:51right? So there’s plenty of room to30:54still innovate in that way, to develop new methods that30:57could protect against diseases like AIDS or diseases like31:01malaria that we don’t have problems with here but they do31:05in many parts of the world, and so we’ll talk about that.31:09I mentioned the book for the course and the book is a31:14book that I’ve written. It’s not published yet and so31:18I’m going to put chapters from the book that are in fairly31:22final form, and I think you’ll find them31:24easy to read, but you don’t have to buy it.31:26It’s going to be posted on the Internet and I’ll post chapters31:29sort of in advance of the reading assignments.31:32If you looked on the classes server you saw Chapter 1,31:35and Chapter 1 describes some of the sort or organization of31:38Biomedical Engineering into sub-disciplines,31:41which I’ve listed here. So we’re going to talk31:44about thinking about the body as a system, as a system that can31:48be understood the same way a motor could be understood or a31:52computer that could be understood.31:55That study is Systems Physiology and that’s an31:58important subdivision of Biomedical Engineering.32:01We’ll talk about instrumentation a little bit and32:06I’ve mentioned this, things like the EKG machine and32:11the heart/lung machine are instruments that are designed to32:17either keep patients alive or to allow you to monitor their32:23function over time. We’ll talk about imaging which32:28I mentioned, biomechanics or the study of humans as mechanical32:32objects. We’ll talk about a field which32:34is growing now called biomolecular engineering and32:37that is the design of biomaterials or new materials32:40that can be implanted in the body,32:43it’s new ways of drug delivery. It’s this whole field of tissue32:47engineering that I mentioned earlier.32:49We’ll talk about artificial organs and we’ll talk about32:52systems biology or thinking about how to acquire information32:55for things like gene chips and use that information to32:59understand what’s happening in a complex organism like you.33:02Now, I’ve highlighted three of these in blue here,33:05imaging, mechanics, and biomolecular engineering33:08because if you go on to study Biomedical Engineering here at33:11Yale anyway, these are the things that you33:14might pick to emphasize on. These are the things that we do33:18best and where we have advanced course work available in these33:21three categories and so I’m going to emphasize these three33:24but we’ll talk about all of these subjects as we go through33:27the course. The syllabus is posted online.33:31I’ve just copied it here so you could take a look at it.33:33Week 1 we’re trying to talk about this question,33:36what is Biomedical Engineering. There are some chapters here33:40for readings: Chapters 1,2,33:42and 4. I’ve only posted Chapter 1,33:44which basically reviews the things I’ve talked about today.33:47Chapters 2 and 4 are really reviews of things that you33:50probably already know something about, so they’re reviews of33:54basic chemistry. So chemical concepts that are33:58important for us to all understand as we move forward34:02and review of proteins and biochemistry,34:06basically. So I’m going to post those34:08online and we’re not going to talk about them directly in the34:12lectures but they’re there as a resource,34:14so if you read about something like pH and you’ve forgotten34:17what pH is, you can go back to Chapter 2 which is posted and34:20you can read about pH and I try to take you through sort of what34:23you need to know in order to understand the rest of the34:26course material. And if you’ve forgotten about34:29proteins and what their structure is like,34:31you can go to Chapter 4 and read sort of a brief review of34:34protein biochemistry. In the section this week,34:37I’ll talk about the section meetings in just a moment,34:41but there’s no required section meeting this week.34:45During the section times I’ll be available if you feel like34:48you want to read Chapters 2 and 4 and then come and ask34:50questions, sort of a tutorial on these34:53topics of chemistry and biochemistry,34:55then I’ll be available to talk about that during that time.34:58We’ll start with Week 2 talking about Genetic Engineering;35:01what’s DNA, how can it be manipulated, how is our ability35:05to manipulate DNA led to things like gene therapy which can now35:09be in people. And we’ll talk about that and35:12that’s what Chapter 3 is about. We’ll talk about cell culture35:15engineering during Week 4, how do you maintain cells in35:17culture, what are the limits of this.35:19How can you use cultured cells to do things,35:22and how do engineers build new things out of cultured cells is35:25going to be a subject we talk about throughout the rest of the35:28course and the chapter is listed here.35:30So I think that’s enough, you can follow along with the35:33syllabus and see sort of what the topics are each week,35:36what the reading assignment is to do before the lecture in35:39order to get the most out of the lecture.35:41Now, each week we have a section meeting,35:44required section, they’re all – all the sections35:46meet on Thursday afternoon and the idea of the section is to35:50amplify on some subject we’ve talked about during the week.35:54We do this in the undergraduate Biomedical Engineering35:57laboratory in the Malone Building so that we can do36:00demonstrations and sort of hands on projects to really get a36:03little bit deeper into the subject that we’re considering.36:07So in the first week we run a section called from strawberries36:10to gene therapy where we talk about DNA,36:13extract DNA, you can play with the DNA of an36:16organism and we can think about how to use DNA for other36:20purposes. In Week 3 you’ll actually36:22do some cell culture in the laboratory and look at cultured36:25cells and learn how to manipulate,36:27do some manipulations on cells and culture, and so on36:30throughout the weeks. We have a one hour section36:33that’s designed to give you some more detailed experience,36:36some hands on experience with some of the topics we’re talking36:40about. There are no lab reports that36:42are due. There sometimes will be36:44homework assignments which sort of build on what we’ve done36:48during the section but it’s not a lab in that sense that it’s a36:51long experience in the afternoon or that requires any detailed36:55reports. But it is required and I think36:57an important part of the course. There’s a mid-term exam halfway37:01through and a final exam at the end, and there’s a term paper37:05which is due near the end of the course.37:08So this just – just saying a little bit more about the37:11sections, there’s three sections,37:13we have online discussion section sign up,37:16has anybody tried to do that yet?37:19Just so they know that it’s available?37:20So it was supposed to be available from day one,37:22you can sign up for a section that fits your schedule and this37:25is sort of the list of things that we’ll go through in the37:28section meetings. Grading – 30% of the grade37:31is for the mid-term, 30% for the final,37:35and the final is not cumulative,37:38the final covers only things for the last half of the course,37:41so it’s really just like a – covers half the course but it’s37:44given during the final exam period.37:46There’s a term paper which I’ll talk more about as the weeks go37:50on that’s also worth 30% of the grade.37:52You’ll have weekly – approximately weekly homework37:55assignments that account for 10% of your grade,37:58but they have an impact beyond the 10% because if you can do38:01the homework and you understand the homework,38:03you’re going to have no problem with the exams.38:05I encourage you to spend more time than the weighting would38:10suggest. So how do you get an “A” in38:13the course? It’s very simple.38:16You do the reading before class, you come to class,38:20and you do the homework. And I guarantee you if you do38:24those three things throughout the course that you’ll do well38:27in the course and I’ve said this almost every time I’ve given the38:30course and nobody has ever told me that I’m wrong.38:33And so do these three things, if you don’t get an “A” than38:37you can come back and talk to me about it later.38:40The assignment for the next class is to do Problem 2 of38:43Chapter 1, which I’ve repeated right here,38:46and that’s to think beyond what I’ve talked about in terms of38:49what is Biomedical Engineering. To think a little bit more38:53about Biomedical Engineering products that you’ve encountered38:56in your life, or that you have some38:58experience with, and then to think beyond what39:01information I’ve given you in the chapter or in this lecture39:05to say what products of biomedical engineering do you39:08expect to become routine in the next 50 years.39:12So spend ten or 15 minutes thinking about this and write it39:16down and bring your responses to class in the next period and39:21we’ll talk about that. So at the end of this first39:26lecture where I’ve gone some way in trying to tell you what39:30Biomedical Engineering is about, I thought I would try to relate39:35it in a different sort of way. And you’ve heard this poem,39:40London Bridge is Falling Down, everybody’s heard this poem?39:44You played the game; I don’t know if there’s a39:47videogame now, if people play games like this39:49where London Bridge is Falling Down.39:51This is a picture of London Bridge, it’s an interesting39:54bridge which is important in the history of London.39:56Bridges have really changed our society and allowed us to get40:00from one place to another in ways that we couldn’t have40:04gotten to easily before. One of the interesting things40:07about London Bridge is that it’s now no longer in London,40:10it’s in Arizona, you can see a palm tree here.40:12When they reconstructed London Bridge they moved the old London40:15Bridge to Arizona; some guy bought it.40:19That must be an interesting story, but I just have it here,40:22and I think the poem tells you something about engineering if40:26you go through it – and the problems of engineering.In40:30bridge building we’re well advanced in understanding what40:34are the problems with building bridges and how do we overcome40:38them? For example,40:40one thing that could happen is that you build it up with wood40:43and clay, you pick the wrong material for40:46a bridge, and it will not stand up to the forces of nature.40:50It will wash away and so you got to pick the right materials40:53in order to build a bridge. So you pick a better material40:56like iron and steel, that makes a better bridge,40:59we know that now because we have experience with bridges,41:02but still your bridge might fail.41:04It might fail for a different reason.41:06It might bend and bow, that is it’s not the forces of41:09nature like the movement of the river that’s knocking the bridge41:13down, but it’s just the failure of41:15these materials over time, that they don’t last as long as41:18they might. So you build it with a material41:21like silver and gold, and then you encounter the41:24problems of society that your bridge might get stolen because41:28somebody thinks they have a better use for silver and gold41:31than your bridge. I would say that in41:34Biomedical Engineering, largely, we’re still at the41:37stage where we’re trying to understand how things work and41:40how they fail, and what materials are the41:42right ones. We’re maybe where civil41:44engineering and bridge building was 100 years ago.41:48And that makes it for me a very exciting time to study this41:51because the problems aren’t solved in the way that bridge41:55building is largely a solved problem now.41:57Problems like the artificial heart are still unsolved,42:00there’s still room for innovation,42:03still room to learn from what hasn’t worked before,42:05to learn from science, and to design something better.42:08So one of my purposes of this course is to get you,42:11whether you study Biomedical Engineering after this or not,42:14excited about the subject so that you start thinking about42:18how you could innovate in this area where lots of problems are42:23still left to solve, so I’ll see you on Thursday42:27hopefully.