Chairman's Overview
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Peter R. Cavanagh, Ph.D.Virginia Lois Kennedy Chairman
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Thank you for visiting Cleveland Clinic Foundation’s Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME) website. As you browse the pages on the site, I hope that you will get a sense of the excitement that we feel being part of a vibrant department where science, education, and technology transfer go hand-in-hand. The Department of Biomedical Engineering is committed to investigation, innovation, and the translation of scientific discoveries into practical applications that enhance patient care. By providing a forum in which engineers, basic scientists and physicians can interact, the department plays a key role in the Lerner Research Institute and in the Foundation as a whole, advancing the mission to promote excellence in research, education, and patient care. Our role in the larger scientific and medical communities is exemplified by the significant research funding the Department receives from the National Institutes of Health and other agencies and by our presence in the peer reviewed literature.
The discipline of biomedical engineering seeks to apply engineering principles to solve biomedical problems. At CCF, this goal is evident through active research programs in biological microelectromechanical systems (BioMEMS), the design and utilization of micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and cardiac assist devices (including a total artificial heart and left ventricular assist systems), and the development of software to identify potentially lethal atherosclerotic plaque. Other studies, which quantify images of the brain in multiple sclerosis, record and model the brain's electrical activity, measure bone loss during space flight, study people with foot disease caused by diabetes, sort cells using quadrupole magnets, and build mathematical models of athletes with cruciate ligament damage, also represent traditional areas of the discipline. Tissue engineering of heart valves and modeling of fluid flow in bone further emphasize the engineering base.
However, the distinguishing characteristics of our Department are its breadth and its links with both fundamental biology and clinical medicine. BME researchers study the use of stem cells and electrical stimulation for bone healing, identify molecular mechanisms responsible for skeletal development and growth plate pathology, perform fundamental studies of connective tissue biology and matrix metalloproteases, study why vascular grafts are rejected, and probe the molecular biology of healing wounds in epidermis, knee meniscus, and bone. Inventions by department members have been licensed to major medical companies and are in clinical use or trials worldwide. The focus of interest in the department extends over ten orders of magnitude—from structures of a few angstroms to more than a meter in length, from several DNA base pairs to the entire human being. Most BME researchers have set their sights on at least one disease process that will be better understood through their scientific efforts and clinical activities or collaborations. In addition to serving the research community, the department's superb workshops, engineering staff, and facilities serve as a magnet for clinicians who wish to develop new engineering approaches to treatment. BME's Medical Device Innovations group comprises engineers who work with staff from many academic and clinical departments to advance medical devices from the conceptual stage to the medical marketplace. More than 18 patent disclosures were filed by department members in 2002.
BME is organized into eight areas of intellectual focus. Several staff members contribute to more than one area. The Orthopaedic Research Center, a joint enterprise between BME and the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, is also based in the department. Before visiting each of these areas (by clicking on the left navigation bars) a brief overview of each area and other informative topics about the department, can be found at the following links: