Bioengineering

1. Special topics in BE
What is Bioengineering ?
Lecturer: Jasmin Sutkovic
24.02.2021

2. Content
• Definitions of Bioengineering
• Short history
• Engineering in modern medicine
• What is biomedical engineering?
• Biomedical engineering in the future
• GMO
• Bioengineering Bioinformatics-

3. What is Bioengineering ?
• Bioengineering is the “biological or medical
application of engineering principles or engineering
equipment – also called biomedical engineering
• Relatively new field that solves biological problems
that have persisted throughout history.
• Bioengineering practices are not
only prosthetics and hospital equipment, but
engineering that includes engineering at the
molecular and cellular level – with applications in
energy and the environment as well as healthcare.

5. Bioengineering is…
• Application of engineering principles to biology
and medicine
• Pictured here: Artificial Knee

6. What is Bioengineering?
Bioengineering
Materials
Science
Computation
Engineering
Medicine
Chemistry
Biology

8. Short history
• Just consider and think about the technological
development that has shaped your live in the
past 20-30 years ?
• Now think about your parent, how these
technologies made their life better ? Or worse ?

9. Some achievements by now
•Pregnancy tests from home
•Vaccines (mRNA vaccines, attenuated, etc…)
•Inexpensive contact lens
•Artificial hips
•Ultrasound imaging
•Pumps for insulin
…and so
on…………………………………………………………
…….

10. Life expectancy increased

11. How this happened ?
• People are living longer because they are not
dying in situations that were in the past fatal,
suck as child birth and bacterial infections.
• Bioengineering has contributed to this change
by producing methods (diagnostics and drugs)
that decreased the death rates in the past 200
years.

12. Cont…..
• For example: Car crashes , people get severe
injuries and in order to be quickly treated they
must be correctly diagnosed.
• This is possible due to Ultra sound imaging and
quick treatment can be provided… eventually
patient survive..

14. Engineering in modern medicine
• Life on earth has improved due to the
technological changes that started in the 20th
century.
• TV, computer, mobile phones, airplanes,
ATMs..influences our life fully…
• These developments may have good but as well
very bad effects on our life's…
• For example , mobile phones..? Why and How ?

16. Historical Preview…
• 1953 DNA discovered
• 1970 first synthetic gene
• 1975 DNA recombination method
• 1977 first sequencing method
• 1982 first genetic animal
• 1990 THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT
• 1995 PCR invented
• 2000 first HUMAN genome sequenced
• 2008 bacterial genome synthesized
• 2014-228000 human genomes sequenced
• 2015 – edited human embryos..
• 2016 gene therapy
• 2017- gene editig
• Next ??????

17. Engineering connection to biology
• What is biomedical engineering??
• Biomedical engineers seek to understand human
physiology and to build devices to improve or repair
it…
• Our working definition of biomedical engineering can
start in an obvious place.
• According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
• engineering noun:
– a) the application of science and mathematics by which the
properties of matter and the sources of energy in nature are
made useful to people;
– b) the design and manufacture of complex products.

18. • The work of engineers is often hidden from view of the
general public, occurring in laboratories, office buildings,
construction sites, pilot plants, and testing facilities.
• This is true for biomedical engineering as well as civil
engineering and other engineering disciplines.
• Although the work might be hidden, the end result is
often visible and important

20. Biomedical engineering –past and future
• As we know our life expectancy has increased
dramatically during the last 100 years.
• In London, in 1665, 93% of deaths were the result of
infectious disease, whereas in the United States, only
4% of deaths were the result of infectious disease in
1997.
• Engineers contributed significantly to this effort by
developing sanitation methods for cities, large-scale
processes for manufacture of vaccines and
antibiotics, and delivery methods for drugs.

21. Biomedical engineers have developed a number of life-enhancing
and life-saving technologies. These include:
• Prosthetics, such as dentures and artificial limb replacements.
• Surgical devices and systems, such as robotic and laser
surgery.
• Systems to monitor vital signs and blood chemistry.
• Implanted devices, such as insulin pumps, pacemakers and
artificial organs.
• Imaging methods, such as ultrasound, X-rays, particle beams
and magnetic resonance.
• Diagnostics, such as lab-on-a-chip and expert systems.
• Therapeutic equipment and devices, such as kidney dialysis
and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS).
• Radiation therapy using particle beams and X-rays.
• Physical therapy devices, such as exercise equipment
and wearable tech.

22. Some Specialty Areas
• Lab on a chip
• Tissue scaffolds
• Artificial limbs
• Imaging
• Appearance

23. Future….
• Nano-machines (enzymes as controlled robots )
• Efficient fuel cells…alternative energy source
• Sequencing off everything living on earth…
• Technologies based on biosciences
• Microbiome enhancement…
• Personal drugs….
• ..
• Human cloning ????

24. Genetically Modified Organism
• The term GMO stands for Genetically Modified
Organism.
• Taken literally, this becomes meaningless, since
all organisms are in some sense genetically
modified – by natural evolution and in
agriculture by human selection.
• In current usage, GMO is applied to organisms
modified by recombinant DNA technology

26. DNA Ligase

27. Transgenic Plants
• Technologies have been developed to
permanently insert new genes into the DNA of
plants.
– Use of Agrobacterium which has the ability to insert
its DNA into plant cells
– Use of a “DNA gun” which blasts tiny particles coated
with DNA into plant cells
• Allows researchers to insert any gene into a plant
without requiring plant breeding, adding the
ability for the plant to make a new protein (or
RNA) molecule.

29. Gene Knock-out
• Sometimes the desired change is to block the
function of a gene that is in the plant – to stop
the production of a harmful product, or stop a
natural process
– Slow the ripening of tomatoes
– Block the browning of apples
– Remove harmful acrylamides from potatoes
• There are several ways to knock-out a gene with
DNA technologies
– Edit out the gene from the DNA
– Insert a blocking gene

30. CRISPR is a powefull technology that allows
more precise gene knock out and replacement.

31. GMO Plant
• A specific plant variety that has
had a new gene inserted (or a
gene deleted) by genetic engineering methods
• May produces a new protein, not usually found
in that plant
• May have some other bits of DNA, and possibly
extra proteins from the engineering process
(parts of the cloning vector and the selectable
marker)

32. Are GMO Plants Safe?
• How to define “Safe” ???
• In the US we have food safety definitions which are
established and enforced by the FDA, EPA and the
Dept. of Agriculture.
• Europe has its own European Food Safety
Authority
• These definitions work reasonably well – none of us
in this room has been killed yet by USDA approved
foods.
– However there are many known food safety issues
with ‘ordinary’ foods such as bacteria, mold, natural
toxins, allergies (many food recalls and restaurant
scandals: Jack-In-The-Box, Chipotle, etc.)

33. What are the Risks?
• Toxicity or allergy from the inserted protein(s)
• Toxicity or allergy from the other bits of DNA
that are added in the engineering process (the
vector and the selectable marker)
• Mutations that may occur during the
engineering and tissue culture process

34. How are GMO Plants Tested?
• GMO crops and foods are regulated under laws created
for invasive plants, chemical pesticides, and food
additives.
• Nearly all testing of GMO crops is done by seed and
biotech companies themselves, and evaluated by the
EPA and FDA.
• Very little testing of GMO food safety has been
published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
• Scientific oversight of US Government regulation has
been provided by the US National Academy of Sciences:
Committee on Identifying and Assessing Unintended
Effects of Genetically Engineered Foods on Human
Health

35. Labeling of GMO products
• Label ? Reliable or not ?
• The right of being informed! To chose!

37. Bioinformatics

38. Definition:
Application of computational and analysis
tools to the capture and interpretation of
biological data

40. Bioinformatics is used in following fields:
• Microbial genome applications
• Molecular medicine
• Personalized medicine
• Preventive medicine
• Gene therapy
• Drug development
• Antibiotic resistance
• ………………

41. CORONA pandemics……!!????

42. ETHICS in GENETICS and BIOENG
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4
524833/
• https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclop
edias-almanacs-transcripts-and-
maps/bioengineering-
ethics#:~:text=Like%20all%20of%20ethics%2C%
20bioengineering,professional%20conscience%2
0and%20behavioral%20guidance.

43. Thanks for your attention