Invited Paper BM+BI+BO+NC-TuA10
MEMS for Implantable Medical Applications

Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 4:40 pm, Room 309

The application of MEMS technology to biomedical problems (bioMEMS) has attracted great attention over the last decade. This awareness in the potential of bioMEMS has resulted in a flurry of research activities, which, in turn, have culminated in some commercialization successes such as microarrays and lab-on-chip in vitro diagnostics. Furthermore, the feasibility of a variety of implantable bioMEMS devices for drug delivery, physiological monitoring, and tissue engineering, has been demonstrated within a research context. Unfortunately, their translation into the clinical environment has been largely limited due to technical, cultural, and economic challenges. The talk will present the state of clinical bioMEMS today, and provide examples of on-going research projects addressing unmet clinical needs, such as development of microtextured scaffolds for bone regeneration, nanoporous membranes for ultrafiltration, wireless pressure sensors for in vivo biomechanics, and microtransducers for intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging.