Areas of Emphasis

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Areas of Emphasis: Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnologies

Chair

Kyungjae (KJ) Myung, NIH

Theme Program Brochures

Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnologies


Theme Description

Traditionally, clinical treatments of patients have been determined by their clinical symptoms, family history, and data from laboratory testing. Based on these inputs, medicines or treatments were given to patients without considering detail differences between patients. Recent advances in medical genetics including human genome project and its following genome-wide association studies of single nucleotide polymorphisms that account for individual genetic variability started to uncover that individual differences at genetic level should be considered for diseases treatment. The concept of personalized medicine was proposed based on these advances in bio-medical science.

In the first session regarding personalized medicine will cover how different disciplines can help personalized medicine. The most promising direction currently for personalized medicine comes from stem cell research because stem cells coming from patients could be most unique method to treat patients with its identical genetically matched biological materials. Most recent advances in stem cell research in different areas will be covered in addition to general concept of personalized medicine.

The next session in the bio-medical theme session will review where we have been and what we are trying to address in the coming years in bio(medical) engineering field, followed by several recent advances in biomedical engineering field for treatment of patients and for development of new research tools. Bio(medical) engineering covers many disciplines in bio(medical) and engineering fields, striving to solve many problems in life sciences through the use of engineering principles and tools. As a result, development of useful endproduct(s) in bio-medical industry can be made to advance treatment of patients. For example, recent advances in (bio)materials (including engineered nanomaterials) point to strong promises of better treatment/management of patients. Bio(medical) engineering field is in essence interdisciplinary, covering a wide swath of basic biology, chemistry, physics, life sciences and various engineering fields. The lectures in this session are designed to demonstrate the innate interdisciplinary nature of bio(medical) engineering.

The last session will cover the conventional wisdom of basic science in bio-medical sciences. Recent advances in many technical improvements should be assessed first in model organisms for bio-medical studies before employing them to human trail. Current efforts of bio-medical basic research as well as pre-clinical research using model organisms will be discussed with several examples studied by invited speakers.

The bio-medical theme session will be greatly benefited to persons who are interested in future bio-medical industries where personalized medicine will become major concern. Scientists and engineers who want to learn how they can approach this innovative new concept with practical means will have chance to learn and communicate with specialists in this field.

3 sessions (Personalized medicine; Dr. Kwangsoo Kim will organize it, Model organisms for human diseases; KJ Myung will organize it, and Bioengineering; Kwang-Jin Kim will organize)

Sessions

Bloengineering

Moderator: Kwang-Jin Kim (USC)

Research questions:

  1. What are new and major advances made in patient treatment using devices and therapeutics based on bio(medical) engineering disciplines/principles?
  2. What challenges are we facing for developing new bioengineering research tools useful in future biomedicine/technology?
  3. What interdisciplinary efforts are required to push forward new aspects/facets of bio(medical) engineering, including nanoscience/naobiotechnology and miniaturization of medical devices installable/implantable into humans for betterment of health?

Personalized Medicine

Moderator: Kwangsoo Kim (Harvard Medical School)

Research questions:

  1. What are the benefit by personalized medicine?
  2. What advances will be created by stem cell research for personalized medicine?
  3. Can stem cell therapy for personalized medicine overcome problems in other treatment such as gene therapy?

Model organisms for human diseases

Moderator: KJ Myung (NIH)

Research questions:

  1. What types of model organisms used for studying human diseases?
  2. What are benefits by studying model organisms?
  3. What will be trends in future for model organisms?