Intro
This field has many applications, including x-rays, PET scans, heart-lung machines, EKG/ECGs, cell cultures, tissue engineering.
What is biomedical engineering?
Why are cells considered alive?
They metabolize, grow/reproduce, move, work, and die.
What substance makes cell culture media red and serves as a Ph indicator?
A type of cell that has the ability to continuously divide (self-renew) and develop (differentiate) into various other kind(s) of cells/tissue.
What are stem cells?
The cell membrane bursts and releases internal components. This event is always caused by cell injury.
What is necrosis?
This application of biomedical engineering/biomaterials used to be made of PMMA (plexiglass) but is now made of silicone hydrogel.
What are contact lenses?
This signaling type is short and fast. It involves a high signal concentration and local coordination.
It is used by neurons.
What is paracrine signaling?
When was aseptic technique introduced by Alexis Carrel?
1912
What are the four levels of potency?
1. Totipotent: fertilized egg/zygote
2. Pluripotent: embryonic stem cell
3. Multipotent: hematopoietic, mesenchymal, neural stem cell
4. Unipotent: highly specific (satellite cell)
1. Separate the extra and intracellular environments
2. Transport substances
3. Recieve signals
Name some applications of biomedical engineering.
- Physiological (re)modeling
These cell types enjoy attaching themselves to a scaffold (ex. fibers, solid surfaces, etc.).
What are mammalian cells?
(Also, what are fibroblast and epithelial-like cells?)
Describe the process of primary cell culture
1. Select and harvest
2. Prepare aseptic environment
3. Prepare cell media
4. Culture and check
5. Split and repeat
The tendency to revert back to a somatic cell (the "memory" that cells remember what they used to be)
What is the epigenetic barrier?
Describe the general signal transduction pathway.
1. Binding of ligand-receptor
2. Transduction (chemical signal to biochemical)
3. Amplification/Relay of signal
4. Celluluar response
A multidisciplinary/complex field that applies engineering principles with design concepts of biology and medicine.
What is biomedical engineering?
Describe the structures of the two main types of lipids.
Triglyceride: 3 fatty acid chains, 1 glycerol molecule. Hydrophobic and an energy reservoir.
Phospholipid: 2 fatty acid chains (hydrophobic), 1 phosphate w/ polar group (hydrophilic)
List the key dates associated with cell culture.
- 1907: Ross Granville, first successful in-vitro culture with hanging drop technique (frog embryo nerves)
- 1911/1912: Alexis Carrel & Montrose Burrows coin "tissue culture," establish the 1st cell line, and use diluted plasma as cell culture media
- 1920s: Salt solution used for cell culture
- 1940s: Antibiotics first used for cell culture (penicillin)
- 1960s: CO2 incubators are widely available
- Present: use of cell culture media and bioreactors
1. 1956: first successful bone marrow transplant for blood cancer
2. 1981: first identification of embryonic stem cells in mice
3. 1996/7: Dolly the Sheep, first cloned mammal
4. 1998: First isolation of human embryonic stem cells
5. 2001: Bush limited federal funding of hESC research
6. 2006: Cell reprogramming (iPSCs discovered)
7. 2009: Obama lifts Bush-era restrictions
- Biomedical imaging (MRI/PET scans)
- Biomechanics (work with sports, injury, tissues, and cell biomechanics, i.e. movement/alignment and effect on disease)
- Bioinstrumentation (work with devices like pacemakeers and deep brain stimulation)
What is the ultimate purpose of biomedical engineering?
To maintain, restore, or improve the quality of life of individuals.
What are the lifespands for:
- Neutrophils / RBC
- Skin cell
- Muscle cells
- Fat cell
- Neuron
- Neutrophils (5 hours) / RBC (120 days/4 months)
- Skin cell (28 days/4 weeks)
- Muscle cells (15-20 years)
- Fat cell (10 years)
- Neuron (lifetime)
Describe how cell culture can be used to make human insulin using recombinant DNA
1. Extract the human insulin gene, remove plasmid from bacteria
2. Insert insulin into the plasmid (using a restriction enzyme)
3. Return the recombinant plasmid to bacteria
4. Incubate/culture bacteria to produce insulin
5. Harvest, purify, and manufacture the insulin
List the challenges associated with embryonic stem cell research.
1. How to mimic natural maturation in the lab?
2. Potential tumor formation
3. Host rejection
4. Ethical concerns
List the cons associated with iPSC technology.
1. Differentiated iPSC cells have the same genetic defect(s) as the host
2. 1 of the 4 pluripotency genes used can potentially cause cancer
3. Viruses may insert genes in random places