Engineering Imaging and Supercomputer Prediction of Biofluid Flows. The potential of the information gained from the lung imaging for improving the diagnosis and monitoring of adult respiratory diseases, such as emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis and asthma, is enormous. Abnormalities in the structure and function of the kidney circulation are likely key factors causing hypertension, so a detailed understanding of the kidney circulation is required before we can cure or prevent hypertension. The rese ....Engineering Imaging and Supercomputer Prediction of Biofluid Flows. The potential of the information gained from the lung imaging for improving the diagnosis and monitoring of adult respiratory diseases, such as emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis and asthma, is enormous. Abnormalities in the structure and function of the kidney circulation are likely key factors causing hypertension, so a detailed understanding of the kidney circulation is required before we can cure or prevent hypertension. The research underpinning cardiovascular and renal flows will assist in the understanding of hypertension, a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which accounts for approximately 40% of all deaths in Australia and particularly high for dialysis patients. Read moreRead less
Hybrid Sensor-based Physiological Control of an Implantable Rotary Blood Pump. With over 11 million people needing heart transplants worldwide and only 3000 donor hearts, an effective alternative therapy is needed. The Ventracor Ltd. rotary blood pump is one possible approach whereby a fully implantable mechanical device assists the failing heart. The innovative steps in this research proposal will be a means to robustly and safely control the speed of the pump to meet the metabolic needs of the ....Hybrid Sensor-based Physiological Control of an Implantable Rotary Blood Pump. With over 11 million people needing heart transplants worldwide and only 3000 donor hearts, an effective alternative therapy is needed. The Ventracor Ltd. rotary blood pump is one possible approach whereby a fully implantable mechanical device assists the failing heart. The innovative steps in this research proposal will be a means to robustly and safely control the speed of the pump to meet the metabolic needs of the body. Apart from the obvious health benefits for patients, this will provide the company with a huge market advantage that will also help to bolster the Australian medical device industry.Read moreRead less
Tissue Engineering of Human Heart Valve Grown In Vitro. Tissue engineering (TE) of heart valves is a new approach to cultivate a functional heart valve from human autologous cells. This innovative study aims to develop the technology to transplant cells onto a 3D biocompatible valve scaffold that is capable of mimicking native valve. The work proposed is a ground breaking study that will encompass development of a new biomaterial, manufacture of scaffolds using the Fused Deposition Modelling ra ....Tissue Engineering of Human Heart Valve Grown In Vitro. Tissue engineering (TE) of heart valves is a new approach to cultivate a functional heart valve from human autologous cells. This innovative study aims to develop the technology to transplant cells onto a 3D biocompatible valve scaffold that is capable of mimicking native valve. The work proposed is a ground breaking study that will encompass development of a new biomaterial, manufacture of scaffolds using the Fused Deposition Modelling rapid prototyping process, hemodynamic optimisation and in vitro cell culture. This will advance our knowledge in cellular and scaffold technologies and may ultimately lead to the development of a TE heart valve.Read moreRead less
Determination of Conductivity Values for Anisotropic Tissue. Well established mathematical models governing the electrical potential in biological tissue can be combined with measurements of the electric potential on the surface of the tissue to provide insight into subsurface tissue damage. However, before such observations can be convincingly accepted, reliable values for the tissue conductivity must be obtained. The aim of this project is to develop mathematical techniques to calculate the co ....Determination of Conductivity Values for Anisotropic Tissue. Well established mathematical models governing the electrical potential in biological tissue can be combined with measurements of the electric potential on the surface of the tissue to provide insight into subsurface tissue damage. However, before such observations can be convincingly accepted, reliable values for the tissue conductivity must be obtained. The aim of this project is to develop mathematical techniques to calculate the conductivity values so that one can apply the equations to solve problems of potential distribution and proceed to accurately simulate electrical potential distributions in damaged tissue. More accurate and reliable conductivity values will allow a better understanding of the way electric current moves through the heart which, in turn, will result in more efficient defibrillators and better diagnosis of abnormal function.Read moreRead less
Functional drug-releasing polymer nano-composites for preventing medical device infection and encrustation. By developing new methodologies for producing functional biomaterials, this research will benefit Australia by continuing our high profile in this research field and by producing economic benefits arising from development and export of materials technologies to the major user groups in USA and Europe. With our demonstrated linkages with Australian based biomaterials developers at CSIRO an ....Functional drug-releasing polymer nano-composites for preventing medical device infection and encrustation. By developing new methodologies for producing functional biomaterials, this research will benefit Australia by continuing our high profile in this research field and by producing economic benefits arising from development and export of materials technologies to the major user groups in USA and Europe. With our demonstrated linkages with Australian based biomaterials developers at CSIRO and University of Queensland, as well as with companies involved in the commercialisation of polyurethane based medical devices (Aortech P/L), this group is well placed to continue the research at a more applied level once the early basic stage is complete.Read moreRead less
Non-invasive control of an implantable rotary blood pump used as a left ventricular assist device. The Holy Grail for developers of rotary blood pumps used as left ventricular assist devices is to control the pump to meet the body's metabolic demand and to do this without the need for implanting additional sensors. The controller must also detect and avoid dangerous states associated with over and under pumping.
In this research we will derive and implement a pump control algorithm that will ....Non-invasive control of an implantable rotary blood pump used as a left ventricular assist device. The Holy Grail for developers of rotary blood pumps used as left ventricular assist devices is to control the pump to meet the body's metabolic demand and to do this without the need for implanting additional sensors. The controller must also detect and avoid dangerous states associated with over and under pumping.
In this research we will derive and implement a pump control algorithm that will allow non-invasive prediction of pump flow, automatic detection of pumping states and adjustments for the metabolic demand of the body. The algorithms will be tested on the bench and in animal and human studies.Read moreRead less
Rapid Development of Biocompatible Stent Grafts for Aortic Aneurysms. Weakening of the aorta may cause an aneurysm. The present technique of its treatment involves replacing the weakened portion of the aorta with a synthetic graft. Failure of this treatment often occurs due to non-compatibility of the stent graft with natural aorta. One possible reason for this is a mismatch between elastic natural aorta and the non-elastic artificial graft. The core component of our project is the selection and ....Rapid Development of Biocompatible Stent Grafts for Aortic Aneurysms. Weakening of the aorta may cause an aneurysm. The present technique of its treatment involves replacing the weakened portion of the aorta with a synthetic graft. Failure of this treatment often occurs due to non-compatibility of the stent graft with natural aorta. One possible reason for this is a mismatch between elastic natural aorta and the non-elastic artificial graft. The core component of our project is the selection and development of a suitable biomaterial and optimization of the stent design based on hemodynamics flow analysis and its fabrication with the Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) process.Read moreRead less
Noval design of a Bi-Ventricular Assist Device (BVAD) Centrifugal Heart Pump as an Implantable Total Artificial Heart. In Australia, 40%(50,797) of all deaths each year are related to heart disease and accounted for 12% (A$4Billion) of total recurrent health expenditure. This innovative research aims at developing a single biventricular assist device (BVAD) driven by a magnetically suspended double-sided centrifugal pump impeller. Current techniques require two implantable devices, thus preventi ....Noval design of a Bi-Ventricular Assist Device (BVAD) Centrifugal Heart Pump as an Implantable Total Artificial Heart. In Australia, 40%(50,797) of all deaths each year are related to heart disease and accounted for 12% (A$4Billion) of total recurrent health expenditure. This innovative research aims at developing a single biventricular assist device (BVAD) driven by a magnetically suspended double-sided centrifugal pump impeller. Current techniques require two implantable devices, thus preventing smaller patients from access to BVAD technology. The expected outcomes will be a significantly small and compact device and provide an alternative to open-heart transplantation, thus helping to alleviate the demand on donor hearts, as well as the strain on the Australian Heath Care System caused by cardiovascular disease.Read moreRead less
Fluid dynamics and mechanical stress of tissue heart valves. Major problems with thrombo-embolic complications and leaflet failure and calcification still exist with bioprosthetic valves. Valves fabricated from polyether urethanes are efficient and can offer more resistance to calcification. No complete study on the haemodynamics and structure interactions is found in literature. Moreover, todate the effect of aortic wall motion on the blood flow has never been examined. A complete holistic ap ....Fluid dynamics and mechanical stress of tissue heart valves. Major problems with thrombo-embolic complications and leaflet failure and calcification still exist with bioprosthetic valves. Valves fabricated from polyether urethanes are efficient and can offer more resistance to calcification. No complete study on the haemodynamics and structure interactions is found in literature. Moreover, todate the effect of aortic wall motion on the blood flow has never been examined. A complete holistic approach to simulataneuosly simulating the fluid dynamics, the valve motion and the stress in a synthetic Polyether urethane valve is proposed. Cell adhesion study will also be carried out. The findings may yield to new insights into valve research.Read moreRead less
Hermetic bonding of biomedical polymers for cardiac-assist devices. The use of a polymeric ventricular assist device will bring a much better quality of life to patients with end-stage heart failure. The project will address the remaining challenge, the creation of a hermetic polymer seal, enabling the development of a small, light and highly efficient heart pump. The project has the potential to improve the lives of many Australians as our demographic profile shifts towards older people. Patie ....Hermetic bonding of biomedical polymers for cardiac-assist devices. The use of a polymeric ventricular assist device will bring a much better quality of life to patients with end-stage heart failure. The project will address the remaining challenge, the creation of a hermetic polymer seal, enabling the development of a small, light and highly efficient heart pump. The project has the potential to improve the lives of many Australians as our demographic profile shifts towards older people. Patients with advanced heart failure will live longer, with a higher quality of life. It will assist heart failure sufferers to remain productive members of our community, because many people who use the device will be fit to return to work.Read moreRead less