The Future of Medicine
A modern approach to increasing organ availability uses bioengineering to build artificial organs. Bioengineering is the application of engineering principles to biology and medicine. Typically, biologists focus on understanding how processes occur or are regulated. In contrast, engineers use existing knowledge and components to build new devices or structures. Bioengineering also allows for the production of complex drugs that are difficult or impossible to synthesize in an organic chemistry lab.
Another example of bioengineering is xeno-transplantation, which is the transplantation of an animal organ to a human host. However, there are many immunological, physiological, and ethical concerns about increased risks of infectious diseases jumping species barriers. An active current research project focuses on using CRISPR CAS9 technology to engineer the genomes of pigs to overcome some of these problems.
Another area that shows promise is tissue engineering. This term describes efforts to grow entirely new organs or structures in the lab for re-implantation back into patients. If these structures are grown from the patient's own cells, then immunological rejection will not be a problem. Examples of tissue engineering include artificial ears for plastic surgery or artificial pancreases for treatment of type 1 diabetes.
More traditional engineering projects are also likely to impact medical care in the future. These include things as simple as electronic medical records systems that allow effective sharing of accurate patient information with providers. New prosthetics, advanced artificial limbs, cochlear implants to treat some forms of deafness, and retinal implants to treat some forms of blindness are all being worked on. New diagnostic tools are continuously under development. These include swallowable cameras, tools that allow continuous remote sensing of patients, and big data projects such as the Precision Medicine Initiative, which will allow researchers to see subtle patterns of diseases that are otherwise not apparent when studying smaller test groups.
Picture Source: tryengineering.org
