Engineering approaches in biomedicine

Engineering approaches in biomedicine

August 8, 2022 11:30am Online

Nanotechnology is the science of the small. One nanometre is about 80,000 times less than the diameter of a human hair: the human eye can resolve 20,000nm. Recent developments in technology have allowed us to work at the nanoscale. In this discussion, discover the innovative progress in healthcare and the potential health benefits.

PARKINSON’S DISEASE

Parkinson’s disease is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative disorder with no known cure. We will provide an overview of our work in Parkinson’s using speech towards facilitating early diagnosis, telemonitoring of symptom severity progression, rehabilitation, and identifying subtypes which could inform personalized treatment regimes. We will also touch on our latest findings in the Parkinson’s Voice Initiative, the largest speech-Parkinson’s database in the world, where we collected data from more than 19,000 people across 7 countries.

STROKE MANAGEMENT

The second talk will describe radio frequency sensing and how it has been used to design affordable, wearable and portable healthcare systems to diagnose several critical conditions. The discussion will use an example of a head imaging device to identify different stroke conditions.

CATARACTS

Millions of people undergo cataract surgery annually. Edinburgh Biosciences, based in Scotland, is on a mission to revolutionise the diagnosis and treatment of cataracts. Prof Des Smith, FRSE, Chair of Edinburgh Biosciences, found invasive laser surgery unnecessary. They developed blue UV LEDs with nanotechnology that paved the way for gentle photo-bleaching of cataractous material as an alternative to surgery.

Book Now