Computer Engineeringelectronics Engineering Civil Engineering |
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Virtual surgery, in general is a Virtual Reality Technique of simulating surgery procedure, which help Surgeons improve surgery plans and practice surgery process on 3D models.The virtual surgery is based on the patient specific model, so when the real surgery takes place, the surgeon is already familiar with all the specific operations that are to be employed. |
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Radiation therapy (in the USA), radiation oncology, or radiotherapy (in the UK, Canada and Australia), sometimes abbreviated to XRT, is the medical use of ionizing radiation, generally as part of cancer treatment to control malignant cells.Radiation therapy is commonly applied to the cancerous tumor because of its ability to control cell growth. Ionizing radiation works by damaging the DNA of exposed tissue, furthermore, it is believed that cancerous cells may be more susceptible to death by this process as many have turned off their DNA repair machinery during the process of becoming cancerous. To spare normal tissues (such as skin or organs which radiation must pass through in order to treat the tumor), shaped radiation beams are aimed from several angles of exposure to intersect at the tumor, providing a much larger absorbed dose there than in the surrounding, healthy tissue. Besides the tumour itself, the radiation fields may also include the draining lymph nodes if they are clinically or radiologically volved with tumor, or if there is thought to be a risk of subclinical malignant spread. It is necessary to include a margin of normal tissue around the tumor to allow for uncertainties in daily set-up and internal tumor motion. These uncertainties can be caused by internal movement (for example, respiration and bladder filling) and movement of external skin marks relative to the tumor position.Radiation oncology is the medical specialty concerned with prescribing radiation, and is distinct from radiology, the use of radiation in medical imaging and diagnosis). Radiation may be prescribed by a radiation oncologist with intent to cure ("curative") or for adjuvant therapy. It may also be used as palliative treatment (where cure is not possible and the aim is for local disease control or symptomatic relief) or as therapeutic treatment (where the therapy has survival benefit and it can be curative). It is also common to combine radiation therapy with surgery, chemothe |
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Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is an emerging treatment used to eradicate premalignant and early-stage cancer and reduce the tumour size in end-stage cancers. Its mechanism of action involves three key components- a photosensitizer, light (wavelength appropriate for the photosensitzer), and tissue oxygen. The combination of these three components leads to the destruction of tumor cells. It is an approved treatment for wet macular degeneration, and is also being investigated for treatment of psoriasis. Treatment of internal organs may be achieved through the use of endoscopes and fiber optic catheters to deliver light, and intravenously-administered photosensitizers. A great deal of research and clinical study is now underway to determine optimal combinations of photosensitizers, light sources, and treatment parameters for a wide variety of different cancers. It is currently being tested as a treatment for severe acne. |
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Nanosensors are any biological, chemical, or surgical sensory points used to convey information about nanoparticles to the macroscopic world. Their use mainly include various medicinal purposes and as gateways to building other nanoproducts, such as computer chips that work at the nanoscale and nanorobots. Presently, there are several ways proposed to make nanosensors, including top-down lithography, bottom-up assembly, and molecular self-assembly. |
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Nanomedicine is the medical application of nanotechnology. Nanomedicine ranges from the medical applications of nanomaterials, to nanoelectronic biosensors, and even possible future applications of molecular nanotechnology. Current problems for nanomedicine involve understanding the issues related to toxicity and environmental impact of nanoscale materials. Nanomedicine research is receiving funding from the US National Institute of Health. Of note is the funding in 2005 of a five-year plan to set up four nanomedicine centers. In April 2006, the journal Nature Materials estimated that 130 nanotech-based drugs and delivery systems were being developed worldwide. |
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Nanobiopharmaceutics is an inter-disciplinary field involving delivery of biopharmaceutical products through nanobiotechnology applications like nanoparticles, liposomes. It involves knowledge from nanobiotechnology, biotechnology and biopharmaceutics. |
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Nanobiomechanics (also bionanomechanics) is an merging field in nanoscience and biomechanics that combines the powerful tools of nanomechanics to explore fundamental science of biomaterials and biomechanics. Since the introduction by its founder Prof. Y. C. Fung, the field of biomechanics has established as one of the branches of mechanics and bioscience. For many years, biomechanics was focused on tissue level. Through advancements in nanoscience, the scale of the forces that could be measured and also the scale of observation of biomaterials was reduced to "nano" and "pico" level. Consequenctly it became possible to measure examine the mechanical properties of biological materials at nanoscale. Most of the biological materials have different hierarchical level, and the smallest ones usually fall in the nanoscale. For example bone has up to seven level of hierarchy, and the smallest level, i.e., single collagen fibril and hydroxylapatite minerals have dimensions well below 100 nm. Therefore, being able to probe properties at this small scales provide a great opportunity for a better understanding of the fundamental properties of these materials. For example measurements has shown that there exits nanomechanical heterogeneity even within a single collagen fibrils as small as 100 nm. One of the other most relevant topics in this field is measurement of tiny forces on living cells to recognize changes caused by different diseases. For example, it has been shown that red blood cells infected by malaria are 10 times stiffer than normal cells. Likewise, it has been shown that cancer cells are 70 percent softer than normal cells. Early signs of aging cartilage and Osteoarthritis has been shown by looking at the changes in the tissue at the nanoscale. |
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Medical imaging is the technique and process used to create images of the human body (or parts and function thereof) for clinical purposes (medical procedures seeking to reveal, diagnose or examine disease) or medical science (including the study of normal anatomy and physiology). Although imaging of removed organs and tissues can be performed for medical reasons, such procedures are not usually referred to as medical imaging, but rather are a part of pathology.As a discipline and in its widest sense, it is part of biological imaging and incorporates radiology (in the wider sense), nuclear medicine, investigative radiological sciences, endoscopy, (medical) thermography, medical photography and microscopy (e.g. for human pathological investigations).Measurement and recording techniques which are not primarily designed to produce images, such as electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), electrocardiography (EKG) and others, but which produce data susceptible to be represented as maps (i.e. containing positional information), can be seen as forms of medical imaging.Up until 2010, 5 billion medical imaging studies had been conducted worldwide. Radiation exposure from medical imaging in 2006 made up about 50% of total ionizing radiation exposure in the United States. |
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Medical Biophysics refers to the domain of study that uses physics to describe or effect biological process for the purpose of medical application. Like many areas of study that have emerged in recent times, it relies heavily on broad interdisciplinary knowledge between the so-called traditional fields such as physics ( i.e. medical physics, radiation physics or imaging physics) and advanced biology fields such as biochemistry, biophysics, physiology, neuroscience etc.Some important areas of research in medical biophysics which have evolved from medical physics and diagnostic imaging include medical imaging (e.g. MRI, computed tomography, and PET), oncology and cancer diagnosis using radiolabelling and molecular imaging, and vasculature and circulatory system function.Some important areas of research in medical biophysics which have evolved from biology and biophysics include using targeted nanomedicine not only for medical imaging but to also deliver energy to disease for treatment. The field of Interdisciplinary Medical Dosimetry (IMD) combines the fields of radiation biology and radiation physics with biochemistry and biophysics to define the proper way of comparing and properly prescribing the deposition of energy into biological tissue and molecular and cellular damage from diverse sources (i.e x-rays, electrons, protons, hyperthermia, ultrasound, oxidative stress etc) for medical applications and is an example of a newly emergent subfield of medical biophysics. |
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Magnetobiology is the study of biological effects of mainly weak static and low-frequency magnetic fields, which do not cause heating of tissues. Magnetobiological effects have unique features that obviously distinguish them from thermal effects; often they are observed for alternating magnetic fields just in separate frequency and amplitude intervals. Also, they are dependent of simultaneously present static magnetic or electric fields and their polarization.Magnetobiology is a subset of bioelectromagnetics. Bioelectromagnetism and biomagnetism are the study of the production of electromagnetic and magnetic fields by biological organisms. The sensing of magnetic fields by organisms is known as magnetoreception.Biological effects of weak low frequency magnetic fields, less than about 0.1 mT (1 G) and 100 Hz correspondingly, constitutes a physics problem. The effects look paradoxical, for the energy quantum of these electromagnetic fields is by many orders of value less than the energy scale of an elementary chemical act. On the other hand, the field intensity is not enough to cause any appreciable heating of biological tissues or irritate nerves by the induced electric currents.A bright example of magnetobiological effects is the magnetic navigation by migrant animals. It is established that some animals are able to detect small variations of the geomagnetic field on the order of tens of nanoteslas to find their seasonal habitats. |
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The Human Biocomputer coined by John C. Lilly, refers literally to the "hardware" of the human anatomy. This would include the brain, internal organs, and other human organ systems such as cardiovascular, digestive, endocrine, immune, integumentary, lymphatic, muscular, nervous, reproductive, respiratory, skeletal, and urinary systems. The biocomputer has stored program properties, and self-metaprogramming properties, with limits determinable and to be determined. |
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Electromagnetic radiation can be classified into ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation, based on whether it is capable of ionizing atoms and breaking chemical bonds. Ultraviolet and higher frequencies, such as X-rays or gamma rays are ionizing. These pose their own special hazards: see radiation and radiation poisoning.Non-ionizing radiation, discussed here, is associated with two major potential hazards: electrical and biological. Additionally, induced electric current caused by radiation can generate sparks and create a fire or explosive hazard. |
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DNA computing is a form of computing which uses DNA, biochemistry and molecular biology, instead of the traditional silicon-based computer technologies. DNA computing, or, more generally, biomolecular computing, is a fast developing interdisciplinary area. Research and development in this area concerns theory, experiments and applications of DNA computing. |
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A computational gene is a molecular automaton consisting of a structural part and a functional part; and its design is such that it might work in a cellular environment. The structural part is a naturally occurring gene, which is used as a skeleton to encode the input and the transitions of the automaton (Fig. 1A). The conserved features of a structural gene (e.g., DNA polymerase binding site, start and stop codons, and splicing sites) serve as constants of the computational gene, while the coding regions, the number of exons and introns, the position of start and stop codon, and the automata theoretical variables (symbols, states, and transitions) are the design parameters of the computational gene. The constants and the design parameters are linked by several logical and biochemical constraints (e.g., encoded automata theoretic variables must not be recognized as splicing junctions). The input of the automaton are molecular markers given by single stranded DNA (ssDNA) molecules. These markers are signalling aberrant (e.g., carcinogenic) molecular phenotype and turn on the self-assembly of the functional gene. If the input is accepted, the output encodes a double stranded DNA (dsDNA) molecule, a functional gene which should be successfully integrated into the cellular transcription and translation machinery producing a wild type protein or an anti-drug (Fig. 1B). Otherwise, a rejected input will assemble into a partially dsDNA molecule which cannot be translated. |
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Bionanotechnology and nanobiotechnology are terms that refer to the intersection of nanotechnology and biology . Given that the subject is one that has only emerged very recently, bionanotechnology and nanobiotechnology serve as blanket terms for various related technologies. These two terms are often used interchangeably. When a distinction is intended, though, it is based on whether the focus is on applying biological ideas or on studying biology with nanotechnology. Bionanotechnology generally refers to the study of how the goals of nanotechnology can be guided by studying how biological "machines" work and adapting these biological motifs into improving existing nanotechnologies or creating new ones . Nanobiotechnology, on the other hand, refers to the ways that nanotechnology is used to create devices to study biological systems . In other words, bionanotechnology is essentially miniaturized biotechnology, whereas nanobiotechnology is a specific application of nanotechnology. For example, DNA nanotechnology or cellular engineering would be classified as bionanotechnology because they involve working with biomolecules on the nanoscale. Conversely, many new medical technologies involving nanoparticles as delivery systems or as sensors would be examples of nanobiotechnology since they involve using nanotechnology to advance the goals of biology. As with nanotechnology and biotechnology, bionanotechnology has many potential ethical issues associated with it. To read more, see Implications of nanotechnology and the main article on biotechnology. The definitions enumerated above will be utilized whenever a distinction between nanobio and bionano is made in this article. However, given the overlapping usage of the terms in modern parlance, individual technologies may need to be evaluated to determine which term is more fitting. As such, they are best discussed in parallel. |
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Biocomputers use systems of biologically derived molecules, such as DNA and proteins, to perform computational calculations involving storing, retrieving, and processing data. The development of biocomputers has been made possible by the expanding new science of nanobiotechnology. The term nanobiotechnology can be defined in multiple ways; in a more general sense, nanobiotechnology can be defined as any type of technology that uses both nano-scale materials, i.e. materials having characteristic dimensions of 1-100 nanometers, as well as biologically based materials (34).4 A more restrictive definition views nanobiotechnology more specifically as the design and engineering of proteins that can then be assembled into larger, functional structures (116-117) (9). |
