Grand Challenges at the Interface of Engineering and Medicine

Shankar Subramaniam; Metin Akay; Mark A Anastasio; Vasudev Bailey; David Boas; Paolo Bonato; Ashutosh Chilkoti; Jennifer R Cochran; Vicki Colvin; Tejal A Desai; James S Duncan; Frederick H Epstein; Stephanie Fraley; Cecilia Giachelli; K Jane Grande-Allen; Jordan Green; X Edward Guo; Isaac B Hilton; Jay D Humphrey; Chris R Johnson; George Karniadakis; Michael R King; Robert F Kirsch; Sanjay Kumar; Cato T Laurencin; Song Li; Richard L Lieber; Nigel Lovell; Prashant Mali; Susan S Margulies; David F Meaney; Brenda Ogle; Bernhard Palsson; Nicholas A Peppas; Eric J Perreault; Rick Rabbitt; Lori A Setton; Lonnie D Shea; Sanjeev G Shroff; Kirk Shung; Andreas S Tolias; Marjolein C H van der Meulen; Shyni Varghese; Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic; John A White; Raimond Winslow; Jianyi Zhang; Kun Zhang; Charles Zukoski; Michael I Miller

doi:10.1109/OJEMB.2024.3351717

Grand Challenges at the Interface of Engineering and Medicine

IEEE Open J Eng Med Biol. 2024 Feb 21:5:1-13. doi: 10.1109/OJEMB.2024.3351717. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Shankar Subramaniam¹, Metin Akay^{2

3

4

5}, Mark A Anastasio², Vasudev Bailey², David Boas⁶, Paolo Bonato², Ashutosh Chilkoti⁷, Jennifer R Cochran⁸, Vicki Colvin⁹, Tejal A Desai¹⁰, James S Duncan¹¹, Frederick H Epstein¹², Stephanie Fraley¹³, Cecilia Giachelli¹⁴, K Jane Grande-Allen¹⁵, Jordan Green¹⁶, X Edward Guo¹⁷, Isaac B Hilton^{18

19}, Jay D Humphrey²⁰, Chris R Johnson²¹, George Karniadakis²², Michael R King²³, Robert F Kirsch^{24

25}, Sanjay Kumar²⁶, Cato T Laurencin²⁷, Song Li²⁸, Richard L Lieber²⁹, Nigel Lovell³⁰, Prashant Mali³¹, Susan S Margulies³², David F Meaney³³, Brenda Ogle³⁴, Bernhard Palsson³⁵, Nicholas A Peppas³⁶, Eric J Perreault³⁷, Rick Rabbitt³⁸, Lori A Setton³⁹, Lonnie D Shea⁴⁰, Sanjeev G Shroff⁴¹, Kirk Shung⁴², Andreas S Tolias⁴³, Marjolein C H van der Meulen⁴⁴, Shyni Varghese⁴⁵, Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic⁴⁶, John A White⁴⁷, Raimond Winslow⁴⁸, Jianyi Zhang⁴⁹, Kun Zhang⁵⁰, Charles Zukoski⁵¹, Michael I Miller⁵²

Affiliations

¹ Joan and Irwin Jacobs Endowed Chair in Bioengineering and Systems Biology, Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering, Computer Science & Engineering, Cellular & Molecular Medicine, and NanoengineeringUniversity of California San Diego La Jolla CA 92093-0412 USA.
² Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical SchoolSpaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Charlestown MA 02129 USA.
³ Founding Chair of the Biomedical Engineering Department and John S. Dunn Professor of Biomedical EngineeringUniversity of Houston Houston TX 77204-5060 USA.
⁴ Donald Biggar Willett Professor in Engineering and Head of the Department of Bioengineering Urbana IL 61801 USA.
⁵ Senior PartnerArtis Ventures San Francisco CA 94111 USA.
⁶ Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Director of Neurophotonics CenterBoston University College of Engineering Boston MA 02215 USA.
⁷ Alan L. Kaganov Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Chair of the Department of Biomedical EngineeringDuke University Durham NC 27708 USA.
⁸ Senior Associate Vice Provost for Research and Addie and Al Macovski Professor of Bioengineering, Shriram CenterStanford University Schools of Medicine and Engineering Stanford CA 94305 USA.
⁹ Vernon K Krieble Professor of Chemistry and Professor of EngineeringBrown University Providence RI 02912 USA.
¹⁰ Sorensen Family Dean of Engineering and Professor of EngineeringBrown University Providence RI 02912 USA.
¹¹ Ebenezer K. Hunt Professor and Chair of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Radiology & Biomedical ImagingYale University New Haven CT 06520 USA.
¹² Mac Wade Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Radiology and Medical Imaging, Associate Dean for ResearchSchool of Engineering and Applied Science Charlottesville VA 22904 USA.
¹³ Associate Professor of BioengineeringUniversity of California San Diego La Jolla CA 92093-0412 USA.
¹⁴ Steven R. and Connie R. Rogel Endowed Professor for Cardiovascular Innovation in BioengineeringAssociate Vice Provost for Research Seattle WA 98195 USA.
¹⁵ Isabel C. Cameron Professor of Bioengineering, Department of BioengineeringRice University Houston TX 77005 USA.
¹⁶ Biomedical Engineering and Vice Chair for Research and TranslationDepartment of Biomedical Engineering Baltimore MD 21218 USA.
¹⁷ Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Department Chair New York NY 10027 USA.
¹⁸ Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and BioSciencesRice University Houston TX 77005 USA.
¹⁹ Department of BioengineeringBioscience Research Collaborative Houston TX 77030 USA.
²⁰ John C. Malone Professor of Biomedical EngineeringYale University New Haven CT 06511 USA.
²¹ Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Research Professor of BioengineeringUniversity of Utah Salt Lake City UT 84112-9205 USA.
²² The Charles Pitts Robinson and John Palmer Barstow Professor of Applied Mathematics and EngineeringBrown University Providence RI 02912 USA.
²³ J. Lawrence Wilson Professor of Engineering, Chair, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences5824 Stevenson Center Nashville TN 351631-1631 USA.
²⁴ Allen H. and Constance T. Ford Professor and Chair of Biomedical EngineeringCase Western Reserve University Cleveland OH 44106 USA.
²⁵ Department of Biomedical Engineering Cleveland OH 4410 USA.
²⁶ California Institute for Quantitative BiosciencesUC Berkeley Berkeley CA 94720 USA.
²⁷ University Professor and Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Endowed Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, CEO, The Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative EngineeringUconn Farmington CT 06030-3711 USA.
²⁸ Department of BioengineeringUCLA Samueli School of Engineering Los Angeles CA 90095 USA.
²⁹ Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President, Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, Professor of Physiology and Biomedical EngineeringNorthwestern University Evanston IL 60208 USA USA.
³⁰ Graduate School of Biomedical EngineeringUniversity of New South Wales Sydney NSW 2052 Australia.
³¹ Professor of BioengineeringUniversity of California San Diego La Jolla CA 92093-0412 USA.
³² Wallace H. Coulter Chair and Professor of Biomedical EngineeringGeorgia Institute of Technology and Emory University Atlanta GA 30332 USA.
³³ Professor and Senior Associate DeanPenn Engineering Philadelphia PA 19104-6391 USA.
³⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Director, Stem Cell InstituteUniversity of Minnesota-Twin Cities Minneapolis MN 55455 USA.
³⁵ Y.C. Fung Endowed Professor in Bioengineering, Professor of PediatricsUniversity of California San Diego La Jolla CA 92093-0412 USA.
³⁶ Cockrell Family Regents Chair in Engineering, Director, Institute of Biomaterials, Drug Delivery and Regenerative Medicine, Professor, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Pediatrics, Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care, Dell Medical School, and Division of Molecular Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery, College of PharmacyThe University of Texas at Austin Austin TX 78712-1801 USA.
³⁷ Vice President for Research, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Physical Medicine and RehabilitationNorthwestern University Evanston IL 60208 USA.
³⁸ Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Neuroscience Program Sal Lake City UT 84112 USA.
³⁹ Department Chair, Lucy & Stanley Lopata Distinguished Professor of Biomedical EngineeringWashington University in St. Louis, McKelvey School of Engineering St. Louis MO 63130 USA.
⁴⁰ Biomedical EngineeringUniversity of Michigan Ann Arbor MI 48109 USA.
⁴¹ Distinguished Professor of and Gerald E. McGinnis Chair in Bioengineering, Professor of Medicine, Swanson School of EngineeringUniversity of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh PA 15261 USA.
⁴² Professor Emeritus of Biomedical Engineering, Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical EngineeringUniversity of Southern California Los Angeles CA 90089 USA.
⁴³ Department of NeuroscienceBaylor College of Medicine Houston TX USA.
⁴⁴ Meinig School of Biomedical EngineeringCornell University Ithaca NY 14853 USA.
⁴⁵ Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science and OrthopaedicsDuke University Durham NC 27710 USA.
⁴⁶ University and Mikati Foundation Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medical SciencesColumbia University New York NY 10027 USA.
⁴⁷ Professor and Chair Department of Biomedical EngineeringBoston University Boston MA 02215 USA.
⁴⁸ Director of Life Science and Medical Research; Professor of BioengineeringNortheastern University Portland ME 04101 USA.
⁴⁹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, T. Michael and Gillian Goodrich Endowed Chair of Engineering Leadership, Professor of Medicine, of Engineering, School of Medicine, School of EngineeringUAB | The University of Alabama at Birmingham U.K.
⁵⁰ Chair/Professor of BioengineeringUniversity of California San Diego La Jolla CA 92093-0412 USA.
⁵¹ Shelly and Ofer Nemirovsky Provost's Chair and Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Biomedical Engineering, Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical EngineeringUniversity of Southern California Los Angeles CA 90089 USA.
⁵² Bessie Darling Massey Professor and Director, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Co-Director, Kavli Neuroscience Discovery InstituteJohns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Whiting School of Engineering Baltimore MD 21218 USA.

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Genome-engineering; artificial intelligence; biomanufacturing; biomaterials; bioreactors; bone; brain; brain-computer interfaces; cell therapy; digital twins; disease resistance; drug testing; gene therapy; heart; human function augmentation; immuno-engineering; lung; machine learning; models of disease; neuroimaging; neuromodulation; organ regeneration; organs-on-chip; patient on a chip; precision medicine; stem cells; synthetic biology; tissue engineering.

Grants and funding

This work was supported in part by IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, in part by BME Department at Johns Hopkins University, and in part by Bioengineering Department at UC San Diego.