U of A opens $4.3-million wing for Biomedical Engineering Department

FAYETTEVILLE--The University of Arkansas (U of A) Department of Biomedical Engineering launched in 2012 offering undergraduate and PhD degrees has already attracted 200 students in the cutting edge program designed to allow graduates to enter medical school, and also a wide range of other jobs in demand in the field.

“The quick ramp up in the numbers of students is indicative of an acute pent up demand for the program in the state,” said Ashok Saxena, PhD, head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. “These degree programs are the only ones of their kind in Arkansas and until now, students who wanted a degree in biomedical engineering were forced to leave the state. Further, there is a growing healthcare industry in the state that will benefit from these new programs.”

A small biomedical engineering program was embedded in the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department in the College of Engineering, and was involved in biomedical engineering education and research for at least ten years prior to 2012. When the department was announced, several students in the biomedical stream of biological engineering transferred to the new program.

“We were thus able to have graduates in the spring of 2013 and more in the spring of 2014,” Saxena said. “At the same time, Arkansas students who were planning to go outside the state for studying biomedical engineering decided to stay within the state by joining our program and that contributed to its very rapid growth.”

In addition to being a good undergraduate degree for students who plan on attending medical school, the department is also preparing students to work as professionals to manage and plan the introduction of new technology in hospitals and clinics, provide user training on specialized equipment, and design, operate and maintain sophisticated medical equipment.

“This range of expertise will be invaluable to manufacturers of medical equipment, and also to hospitals and clinics that want to continuously upgrade technology for direct patient care,” Saxena said. “The graduates will not only understand the medical terminology needed to communicate with doctors and nurses, but will also be able to assist them in adopting new medical technology to enhance patient care.”

In late August, the College of Engineering dedicated the biomedical engineering wing that had undergone $4.3 million in renovations. Located on the first floor of John A. White Jr. Engineering Hall, it contains office space for the faculty and staff, and two new teaching laboratories.

“We’ve been saying for the past few years that we intend to capitalize better on our core research strengths, and the formation of this department is one way we are making good on that effort,” said University of Arkansas Chancellor G. David Gearhart. “The completion of this renovation is another exciting step forward for this department. I anticipate big things and big ideas out of this department and the faculty.”

Saxena said the programs are particularly important in view of the fact that over the past two decades, engineering has established a good niche for itself in the medical field through technology development and innovation.

“It is now regarded as an integral part of a good quality healthcare system,” Saxena said. “Applications of engineering in medicine include advances in drug delivery and drug design, non-invasive bio-imaging, prosthetic devices to replace human organs, early diagnosis of killer diseases such as cancer and heart problems, treatment of traumatic injuries, sensors for continuous monitoring of health conditions, and robot-assisted surgeries; the list goes on and on.”

There is a need for researchers in biomedical engineering in research hospitals and in the biomedical device industry, and there are needs for implementing the latest technologies in all hospitals. “One can thus argue that biomedical researchers and professionals are needed in Arkansas in all aspects of the medical profession much like doctors and nurses,” Saxena said.

The department is interested in partnering with the medical community to (a) provide their students with an opportunity for hands-on experience as interns so they can become better engineers, and (b) seek collaboration for clinical studies. Faculty works with clinicians to assist them in clinical trials or to engage them in clinical trials as part of faculty research projects.

Faculty members include Tim Muldoon, MD, PhD, Jeff Wolchok, PhD and David Zaharoff, PhD, who have each earned federal grants from the National Institutes of Health. Wolchok and Kartik Balachandran have jointly received National Science Foundation funding for research related to brain injuries.

Muldoon is working on a non-invasive method of looking at cells in the body. Combined with contrast agents, substances that help medical professionals differentiate between types of tissues, this imaging technology could make it easier to diagnose, treat and monitor diseases like cancer. Muldoon plans to further develop these technologies with the goal of making them available to hospitals and medical clinics.

Balachandran studies the way mechanical forces affect cells and organs. Using photolithography and nanoengineering techniques, Balachandran creates materials that mimic the properties of human tissues and tests the response of this material to different stresses and forces.

Zaharoff focuses on delivery systems for cancer vaccines and immunotherapies. He is developing a way to train the immune system to recognize and eliminate cancer. He has demonstrated in animal trials that encapsulating protein antigens in a biomaterial called chitosan enhances the body’s immune response and generates a better vaccine. .

Xianghong Qian, PhD, is doing research focusing on understanding important biochemical processes at the molecular level using both computational and experimental tools.

Narasimhan Rajaram, PhD, has three areas of research interest: Diagnosis, optical spectroscopy and imaging for early cancer screening; discovery, quantitative tumor biology and prognosis, functional optical imaging of biomarkers of radiation resistance and recurrence.

Michelle Kim, PhD, is focused on teaching undergraduate courses and on guiding undergraduate research projects.

The department’s major areas of research areas are:

Novel cancer treatments and immunotherapy

Bioimaging for early screening/detection and progression of cancer and for investigating ischemia/reperfusion events

Biomaterials and regenerative medicine such as regeneration of skeletal muscles

Cell and tissue mechanics for progression of cardiovascular diseases and prognosis

Understanding biochemical processes.