Grand Challenges at the Interface of Engineering and Medicine

• Published in: IEEE open journal of engineering in medicine and biology 2024-01, Vol.5, p.1-13
• Main Authors: Subramaniam, Shankar, Akay, Metin, Anastasio, Mark A., Bailey, Vasudev, Boas, David, Bonato, Paolo, Chilkoti, Ashutosh, Cochran, Jennifer R., Colvin, Vicki, Desai, Tejal A., Duncan, James S., Epstein, Frederick H., Fraley, Stephanie, Giachelli, Cecilia, Grande-Allen, K. Jane, Green, Jordan, Guo, X. Edward, Hilton, Isaac B., Humphrey, Jay D., Johnson, Chris R, Karniadakis, George, King, Michael R., Kirsch, Robert F., Kumar, Sanjay, Laurencin, Cato T., Li, Song, Lieber, Richard L., Lovell, Nigel, Mali, Prashant, Margulies, Susan S., Meaney, David F., Ogle, Brenda, Palsson, Bernhard, A. Peppas, Nicholas, Perreault, Eric J., Rabbitt, Rick, Setton, Lori A., Shea, Lonnie D., Shroff, Sanjeev G., Shung, Kirk, Tolias, Andreas S., van der Meulen, Marjolein C.H., Varghese, Shyni, Vunjak-Novakovic, Gordana, White, John A., Winslow, Raimond, Zhang, Jianyi, Zhang, Kun, Zukoski, Charles, Miller, Michael I.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: artificial intelligence; Avatars; Bioengineering; biomanufacturing; biomaterials; Biomedical engineering; bioreactors; bone; brain; brain-computer interfaces; cell therapy; Collaboration; Conferences; Cross cutting; Digital twins; disease resistance; Diseases; drug testing; Engineering; gene therapy; Genome-engineering; Genomes; Health care facilities; heart; human function augmentation; Immune system; immuno-engineering; Interdisciplinary aspects; Interrogation; lung; machine learning; Medical electronics; Medical services; models of disease; neuroimaging; neuromodulation; New technology; organ regeneration; organs-on-chip; patient on a chip; Physiology; precision medicine; stem cells; synthetic biology; tissue engineering; Training
• ISSN: 2644-1276; 2644-1276
• DOI: 10.1109/OJEMB.2024.3351717

Over the past two decades Biomedical Engineering has emerged as a major discipline that bridges societal needs of human health care with the development of novel technologies. Every medical institution is now equipped at varying degrees of sophistication with the ability to monitor human health in both non-invasive and invasive modes. The multiple scales at which human physiology can be interrogated provide a profound perspective on health and disease. We are at the nexus of creating "avatars" (herein defined as an extension of "digital twins") of human patho/physiology to serve as paradigms for interrogation and potential intervention. Motivated by the emergence of these new capabilities, the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, the Departments of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and Bioengineering at University of California at San Diego sponsored an interdisciplinary workshop to define the grand challenges that face biomedical engineering and the mechanisms to address these challenges. The Workshop identified five grand challenges with cross-cutting themes and provided a roadmap for new technologies, identified new training needs, and defined the types of interdisciplinary teams needed for addressing these challenges. The themes presented in this paper include: 1) accumedicine through creation of avatars of cells, tissues, organs and whole human; 2) development of smart and responsive devices for human function augmentation; 3) exocortical technologies to understand brain function and treat neuropathologies; 4) the development of approaches to harness the human immune system for health and wellness; and 5) new strategies to engineer genomes and cells.