The University of Texas at Austin

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Dr. John G. Ekerdt
Associate Dean for Research
512-471-2125

Marie King
Administrative Associate
512-471-2125

Joey S. Walker
Senior Grants and Contracts Specialist
512-471-5450

Engineering Human Health Care

Strain of medical diseaseWith the crisis in health care, it is clear that new, cost-effective, efficacious technologies are needed to diagnose disease and provide therapeutic benefits to patients with chronic and acute conditions.

Cockrell School of Engineering faculty are collaborating with life scientists and medical scientists at the intersection of biology, medicine and engineering technology. The programs in cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurological and eye disease leverage the expertise within the Cockrell School and provide paths for future leadership in advanced diagnostic and imaging methods, advanced biosensor technologies, novel biomaterials and drug delivery devices, advanced modeling methods, biocontrol systems, methods of understanding molecular and cellular processes and informatics.

Cancer research is extremely important in Texas given the $3 billion state cancer initiative. Additionally, UT has invested heavily in neuroscience over the past decade. Examples of anticipated future impacts include: improved nanotechnology for chemotherapeutic cancer treatment; advanced artificial organs medical devices, stents with advanced materials and assistant devices for patients with cardiac diseases; and protein and cellular therapies for central nervous system diseases.

Another area for innovations to reduce health care costs and scale delivery is information technology and communications for integrating patient diagnosis, treatment and management through bioinformatics using personal information devices and enterprise level systems.

Research Presentations

Engineering the next generation of cancer care will enable safe and highly effective cancer prevention, screening, diagnostic and treatment modalities via short term and disruptive technologies. Faculty Lead: Krishnendu Roy

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Integration of information will facilitate better efficiencies, accuracy, safety and privacy and will enable dissemination of the right information to the right person at the right time. Faculty lead: Joydeep Ghosh

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Research Spotlight

Building bridges is nothing unusual for engineers. But for Dr. Christine Schmidt, professor of biomedical engineering, the bridges in question connect human nerves.

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