Engineering Replacement Body Parts

Learning Outcomes

Disciplinary Specific Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Compare and contrast the current hearing assistance devices with the new technology currently in development and under trial, and debate the social obstacles to encouraging cochlear implant use
• Explain how surgeons use prostheses and biomedical implants and analyse and describe contextually their relative strengths and weaknesses
• List and compare biomaterials and tissue engineered constructs, and differentiate between those in research and development and those in clinical use
• Define the various types of stem cells and their potential in medicine, explain and analyse how research is developing into clinical applications
• Debate and argue the case for the use of stem cells in medicine
• Evaluate current devices for biosensing in humans, and give examples of measurement which can be made accurately and those that cannot
• Analyse, discuss and debate the ethical repercussions of new technologies used in society both currently and in the near (10-20 years) future

The syllabus will contain elements related to the science and ethics of replacing organs or tissues that are lost due to disease. Each of the 10 weeks will comprise an interactive 1 hour lecture and a 2 hour facilitated session (the final two weeks will be for private study). Each week will be organised under a different theme.

These will include:

• Stem cells
• Tissue Engineering
• Biomedical Prostheses
• Biosensors
• Ethics and Law of stem cells and medical devices
• Motion and Mechanics
• Bioengineering hearing

You will learn:

• how new stem cell technologies - embryonic and adult - are being developed to cure disease (STEM).
• how cells and materials are being combined together to create replacement tissues and organs (TISSENG).
• how engineered, 'intelligent' materials are being developed to reproduce or replace body function (PROSTHESES).
• how electronic devices are interfacing with our nervous systems to help us sense and respond to our environment (BIONICS).
• how such developments in technology will impact on the law and the ethics of our societies (ETHICS).

Week 1: What does it take to engineering a human being?

• A synopsis of the module, team building activities and an introduction to the ‘tools’ of the module.

Week 2: Stem cells: From monstrous tumours to a cure for all ills

• An introduction to the use of stem cells in medicine.

Week 3: Tissue engineering: Building with cells and materials

• How engineers use new materials, and incorporate cells to ‘build’ new tissues and organs.

Week 4: Hybrids and clones: the ethics of stem cell science

• An introduction to the ethics of stem cell science and new prosthetics.

Week 5: From Gran to Iron Man: prostheses today and in the future

• In introduction to the prostheses that are used today medically, and how researchers are developing new prosthesis that may not only help mitigate disease and injury, but might make

humans better at achieving tasks. The use and potential misuse of such technologies will be discussed.

Week 6: Plenary lecture by a device manufacturer and an overview from a surgeon.

Week 7: Motion and mechanics: rehabilitation in the ill and injured

• How rehabilitation is being used in the clinic to help people get better. How technologies such as motion capture help athletes avoid or recover from injury.

Week 8: Bioengineering better hearing: Cochlear implants and the nervous system

• An introduction to devices that transmit sound information to our brains, and a discussion of how this impacts the life of deaf or partially deaf people.

Week 9: Biosensing health

• A week exploring engineering technologies that are enabling people to understand how healthy they are by tracking.

Week 10: For good or for evil: The legal and moral framework of bioengineering in society.

As described above, weeks will generally consist of a one hour plenary lecture, facilitated small group work with trigger material, laboratory visits, hands on practical classes and an away day.

The 1 hour lecturer will be given by a prominent academic with an enthusiasm for conveying their research to students, who may not have a specialist knowledge of the field. The 2 hour facilitated session will include a diverse range of activities, including summative assessment and group work with the lecturer(s) or postgraduate and postdoctoral staff from each grouping taking part. Trigger material will be provided to encourage debate and resources such as laboratory materials (tissue engineering scaffolds and other materials, cell culture containers, prostheses etc) as well as texts may be provided to allow the students to do their own facilitated research.

The module will include lab visits, with facilitated sessions on Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, Motion Capture and Biomedical Prostheses. One tutorial will take the form of a mock trial, illustrating the ethic concepts involved with, for instance, the use of stem cells. Finally, one of these tutorials will be filled by a visit of a medical device company to the university.

All plenary lectures on the course use Panopto. This technology enables lecture capture and will allow students to review a lecture at a later time by accessing it on the University intranet (via Blackboard). Panopto is managed by the iSolutions at the university and is available on many university machines by installation of some simple software. The technology is very simple to use (please see https://www.southampton.ac.uk/isolutions/computing/elearn/panopto/ for detailed information). However, its use requires that all lecturers are happy to be captured.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.