• Question: Why did you decide to work on a human body , but not on new technologies?

    Asked by vlad to Claire, Alex on 17 Jun 2014.
    • Photo: Claire Brockett

      Claire Brockett answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Hi vlad
      I find the human body fascinating! As engineers we do a good job in replacing the bits that don’t work or get injured, but in terms of performance – the natural human body is way more advanced! Medical engineering does have the potential to make a huge difference to patients around the world, so I find it quite inspiring.
      I am working on new technologies – developing new joint replacements or tissue substitutes are huge advances, but they might use materials that we’re already familiar with. As we’re working on the human body, and with treatments that might affect patients, we have to be very careful that we won’t cause any harm, which means that sometimes our ‘new’ technologies don’t look so different from things that already exist.

    • Photo: Alex Lyness

      Alex Lyness answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      Hey vlad,

      There is so much more we still need to know about the human body and for that we need to develop new technologies which is what me and Claire are doing.

      The best possible form of treatments or medicine we could possibly come up with would be ones made from our own cells, that help restore or regenerative things to exactly how (and in some cases better) than they were before!

      To create regenerative medicines we need biologists and chemical engineers to understand how the cell biology works. You also need mechanical and manufacturing engineers too to understand cell function and how they are best grown. It is a joint effort and where all these disciplines meet is where we currently are… at the cutting edge of research and development of new technologies and treatments!

      It’s a very exciting place to be 😀

Comments