Where do we find gears? Better yet, where don’t we find gears? Chances are any machine with a moving part will probably have a gear.
Engineers have always been at the forefront of medical advancement and have often invented technologies that improve quality of life. This is particularly true in regenerative medicine, where new therapies are developed to help restore function to tissues and organs. In this blog post, we will explore some of the current regenerative medicine therapies and discuss how they are improving patient care. We will also discuss some of the challenges associated with regenerative medicine and look at ways these can be overcome. Finally, we will provide an overview of some of the upcoming advances in this field that promise to improve patient outcomes even further.
The National Nanotechnology Initiative defines nanotechnology as the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension of a size from 1 to 100 nanometers (1 nanometer is one billionth of a meter). The prefix, “nano” is from a Greek word meaning “dwarf.” The nanometer, which is the diameter of a helium atom, is the unit of measure to express dimensions on an atomic scale. It is also used to express the wavelength of electromagnetic radiation near the visible end of the light spectrum. Because the definition is based on size, the applications can include surface science, organic chemistry, molecular biology, semiconductor physics, energy storage, microfabrication, and microengineering, among others. Currently, scientists are interested in exploring the potential of nanotechnology to create new materials and devices in nanomedicine and biomaterials, nanoelectronics, energy production, and consumer products. Here, we explore some of the strides science is making in these fields.
Tomorrow’s engineers and today’s innovators are pursuing specialized education and career options that were never available, until now. The future is here. Technology that was once considered science fiction is reality—uniting engineering and medicine in cross-disciplinary collaborations is revolutionizing the field of prosthetics.