Medical implant devices have been used widely for more than 50 years, and it is estimated that 8 - 10 % of Americans (20-25 million people) currently have such a device. Orthopaedic implants are medical devices made of biomaterials used to treat musculoskeletal disorders inside the human body with an intended lifespan spanning years. Although implant devices have produced great benefits, it must be recognized that implants sometimes must be removed or replaced. Bioengineers contribute to their continual state of development to increase their performance and extend their useful lifespan. This cross-disciplinary project applies fundamental concepts in bioengineering, materials science, and biological sciences to investigate orthopaedic implants after they have functioned in patients. Long-term data on the behavior of implant devices and host response are essential inputs to the development process, yet there are few systematic programs for the retrieval and analysis of implants in the USA. Independent and international data banks do exist however. The contributions to implant design provided by retrieval and analysis will benefit patients through improvements in implant performance. We can consider implants to be defined as having a minimum lifespan of 3 months, as penetrating living tissue, as having a physiologic interaction and as being retrievable. A number of barriers exist to the establishment of an implant retrieval program. Major impediments are the costs associated with such a program and fear of litigation affecting manufacturers, hospitals, physicians, and investigators. The long term goal of this Creative Inquiry project is to establish and develop a viable Clemson University Implant Retrieval Program and pursue hypothesis-driven research related to orthopaedic implants. The aim of this program is to provide a working repository for retrieved orthopaedic implants, and to develop the tools and techniques for the systematic evaluation of implant designs, materials, surfaces and function.
This project is aimed at developing new smart materials for biomedical applications with antibacterial and/or anti-inflammatory properties for tissue regeneration and healthcare products. The use of textile materials for medical and healthcare products ranges from simple gauze or bandage materials to scaffolds for tissue culturing and a large variety of prostheses for permanent body implants.
Developing countries face healthcare challenges every day, whether it is lack of supplies or a shortage of healthcare professionals. Medical devices and equipment that are considered standard in hospitals in the United States can be hard to find and very expensive in developing countries, such as Tanzania. Tanzania has recently made significant advances with the quality of their healthcare; however, there are still many hurdles that need to be overcome. The goal of this Creative Inquiry team is to design and develop medical instrumentation and monitors that are robust, user-friendly, and low-cost for developing countries. The students on this team will be expected to work on electronics and instrument design. These types of projects not only have the ability to improve the lives of young infants and families, but they can also impact the medical field in developing nations worldwide. In addition to doing design, students are expected to learn about Tanzania as a whole. Students will learn about Tanzanian culture, government and healthcare structure as well as some basic conversational Swahili.
Tissue engineering is an emerging field -- the fabrication of human tissues that can alleviate the shortage of tissue/organ donation. Our group works on the fabrication of brain-like training models and R&D (research and development) of novel devices to create composite materials with specialized properties for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.
Herniation and degeneration of the intervertebral discs (IVDs) in our spine can cause significant pain, disability and economic burden on a global scale. Current surgical strategies to repair and restore function to the IVDs have limitations. Regenerative medicine-based approaches for IVD repair and regeneration using stem cells and scaffolds hold significant promise; however, an ideal scaffold that mimics the complex micro-architecture, biochemistry and mechanical properties of the entire IVD has yet to be developed. Previously, our CI has created a composite scaffold derived from cow tail IVDs that have had all the cow cells removed. The scaffolds have demonstrated similar physio-chemical properties compared to human IVDs and they support stem cell viability in vitro. Thus, the continued focus of the CI is to develop approaches to efficiently repopulate the scaffold with stem cells and to assess tissue regeneration on the IVD scaffold.
The goal of this CI is to develop a method to organize hospital stockrooms using a color-coding scheme that can be used universally throughout various hospitals and stockrooms.
In recent years there has been a strong growth in the number of medical devices that use different types of radiation for treatment and imaging applications. There is also a growing interest in different fields ( e.g. medicine, biology, space research, electronics) to understand and utilize the effects of different forms of radiation. The effectiveness of radiation technology depends on the understanding of the interaction with the materials in question ranging from surfaces of solids to biological soft tissues. The present research project lies on the borderline of physics and biology. The elementary physical processes of the interaction are well known, but their expressions in biological samples depend on the complex response of the system and its environment. Students in this project will explore different techniques to generate, detect, and characterize electromagnetic radiation, their uses in specialized medical devices, and their applications in research.
This CI allows student teams to be mentored by leaders in device design, development, marketing, patenting and small business development to forward student-led technology and ideas. Initially, this CI will focus on mentoring technologies that are being generated by other CI groups, as well as from other Capstone Design programs, but other “independent” teams and technical areas will be sought after the CI structure is established. Teams can include undergraduates and graduates, and preference is given to groups that have already formed around a topic or technology of interest. Mentors and guest speakers from industry, patent law, marketing and start-up businesses will work with student teams to take technology beyond the university development level. The format will be very student driven, with small student teams presenting each week on some aspect of their technology development and business plans. These presentations will be the focal point for discussions, mentoring and advice.
Bioinstrumentation is an interdisciplinary subject of applying physical principles and mechanical, electronic and chemical engineering technologies to acquire, analysis and display information from cells, tissues, organs and entire organisms including the human body. This CI was created to allow students to design and build their own bioinstrumentation and/or wearable biomedical technology projects. (Instrumentation class/experience is a pre-requisite for this team)
Design targeted solutions with the ARCHER (Accessible Recreational Creations to Highlight Educational Reach) Design Works creative inquiry! Archery has been integrated into the physical education curriculum in K-12 schools across the state of South Carolina. However, students with disabilities can’t always participate fully. Through the ARCHER creative inquiry, Clemson students can design and develop engineering solutions to help these students experience the excitement that comes with hitting the bullseye. Clemson students will be paired with a K-12 student with a disability and will spend the semesters enrolled getting to know the K-12 student, learning about the PE archery program and current adaptive sports techniques, and designing and developing a prototype device to assist the K-12 student in archery competition. Students wishing to participate should expect to enroll for a minimum of two semesters. Future semesters will expand into other sports.
Developing countries face healthcare challenges every day, whether it is lack of supplies or a shortage of healthcare professionals. Medical devices and equipment that are considered standard in hospitals in the United States can be hard to find and very expensive in developing countries, such as Tanzania. In addition there is a shortage of trained biomedical engineers. Therefore, the goal of this Creative Inquiry team is to design and develop medical instrumentation and monitors that are robust, user-friendly, and low-cost for Tanzania in collaboration with engineering students and faculty at Arusha Technical College in Tanzania. The students on this team will be expected to work on electronics and instrument design. They are expected to do needs finding to find the issues facing biomedical engineers in rural SC and in Tanzania. The students will collaborate weekly with students from Arusha Technical College through message boards. In addition, the Clemson and ATC student teams will have joint videoconferenced update meetings once a month with faculty and staff from both institutions. In addition to doing design, Clemson students are expected to learn about Tanzania. Students will learn about Tanzanian culture, government and healthcare structure. In addition, students will learn some basic conversational Swahili.
In bioengineering, the opportunity to collaborate with clinicians in the design of biomedical devices is considered the highlight of any design experience, but usually these design experiences are limited to senior year, if at all. Clinicians are an essential contributor to the design process, in that they are both the users of biomedical devices, and often the first point of contact for problems that occur in their use. Typically, students explore design related issues, and recruit clinicians to support their work. In this new CI, clinical collaborators that have the support of their clinical innovation departments will work with students to create the next generation of biomedical devices. This CI will be open to all undergraduates, and projects will be multi-semester, to support the development of long-term innovations in healthcare.
Hippotherapy, also known as equine assisted therapy, is the use of a horse as a moving platform for rehabilitation treatment for a range of disabilities. Literature has shown positive improvements in patients with spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, and many other disabilities when partaking in hippotherapy. This information will be used to create saddles for effective use in hippotherapy. Adaptive saddles will be created to provide assistance to those of specific disabilities whom normally cannot ride without assistance or minimal intervention. The saddle will be suited with pressure sensor feedback in order to obtain rider patterns within the saddle. Further modifications to gather rider actions while mounted on the horse can also be explored.
Gene therapy has been proposed for inherited and acquired diseases yielding promising results in animal studies and human clinical trials. The advent of gene-editing tools, such as CRISPR/Cas9 nucleases have unleashed new possibilities for curing diseases at the genetic level. In this creative inquiry, we will investigate the application of genome editing tools for achieving precise gene modification in target cells for therapeutic applications.
Advances in nanotechnology have led to the development of nanoparticles that can deliver therapeutics into specific cells for the treatment of many cancers, including gliomas. Clinical translation of these therapies to patients has been limited due to inefficient efficacy in vivo. Image-guided drug delivery may help overcome barriers to translation providing quantitative analysis of biodistribution and pharmacokinetics through real-time visual monitoring of the therapeutic within the body,. Computed tomography (CT) is a desirable imaging method for brain disease diagnosis, as it can provide information on the location of bones, muscles, fat, and organs. However, CT can require long-term exposure to radiative contrast agents in order to obtain high quality image information. The high doses required are not currently approved by the FDA. Because of this, we are proposing the creation of a nanoparticle system capable of delivering FDA approved contrast agents directly to the site of interest, limiting toxicity associated with whole body exposure and off-targeting. Due to their small size, nanoparticles have the ability to load a high concentration of drug while simultaneously being targeted to specific areas of the brain, which would provide a dramatic improvement to current CT capabilities.
Human factors engineering focuses on understanding how people interact with technology and studying how user interface design affects the interactions people have with technology. U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines identify human factors engineering as essential for maximizing the likelihood that new medical devices will be safe and effective for the intended users, uses and use environments. Therefore, incorporating human factors engineering into medical device design and product development can be a key factor for meeting regulatory standards and launching a successful product. The long-term goal of this Creative Inquiry is to introduce the tools and techniques used in human factors engineering and to apply those skills to medical device design. Students enrolled in this CI will interact with industry professionals and student team members to use human factors and usability testing to inform medical design decisions with a focus on how devices are used in their clinical settings and during their reprocessing. Students will conduct the testing on commonly used medical devices and medical device prototypes and use hypothesis-driven research for improving upon medical device designs. Undergraduate students looking to join this team should expect to be involved for 2-4 semesters.
Infant cranial helmets are used when children, under the age of 1, are diagnosed with a cranial deformity. The helmets help to direct the growth of the infant’s head, in order to restore proper head shape. Students involved with the Head Start! project will work to improve the current helmet designs by using pressure mapping technology to identify proper pressure values within the helmet. All testing will be done on head molds, so no human subjects will be used.
Building a successful business around a new technology takes more than just a research discovery. Commercialization requires creating a customer base, determining value proposition and building a business model. Every new commercial product, besides being great, requires someone who buys it. Therefore, the road towards commercialization starts with customer interviews. Over the years successful entrepreneurs developed a uniformed approach to generate robust, repeatable, scalable business model. It is called business canvas. In this project the PIs, who are successful entrepreneurs themselves, will guide you through the process of generation and completion of business canvas.
Alexey Vertegel Bioengineering
Vladimir Reukov Bioengineering
Biophotonics is a multidisciplinary field, which combines biology, photonics, and electronics to further our understanding of cellular biological processes within functional and dysfunctional tissues using optical microscopic techniques. This CI was created to allow students to design and build an optical system which pushes the limits in optical microscopy resolution to observe cellular events that would be undetectable using current techniques.
Zhi Gao Bioengineering
Lucas Schmidt Bioengineering
Aging, smoking, diet, and genetic factors cause the build up of plaque in the arteries that provide nutrients to the heart, which is a major cause of heart attacks. To solve this problem, stents are commonly used to open the artery back up. In some cases, when a stent is inserted, it injures the walls of the blood vessel causing it to swell and block the blood vessel back up. In recent years, medicated stents have been used to deliver medication that reduces that swelling by reducing the growth and spreading of the cells that cause the problem. In doing that, they also stop the healing process of the injury site, which causes delayed effects like blood clots that block the artery. We designed a magnetic nanoparticle coated with heparin. Heparin is a drug that is naturally found in the body. It is known to stop the swelling in the wall of the blood vessel and accelerate the healing process. We have tested these nanoparticles on cells and mice to show that they are not toxic. We have started to test their effect on the cell growth and spreading to show that they are effective as a treatment option. We plan to deliver that nanoparticles to the stent using a magnetic field similar to the ones used in MRI imaging. This project would advance the treatment of blocked arteries without causing new problems. In doing so, we would eliminate the need for multiple surgeries to treat the complications. This helps save patients from complications associated with stent implantation and help patients live healthier lives.
Nardine Ghobrial Bioengineering
Delphine Dean Bioengineering
Nonketotic hyperglycinemia (NKH) is a rare, pediatric metabolic disease caused by mutations resulting in the deficiency of the enzyme complex that breaks down the amino acid glycine. The resulting abnormally high levels of glycine in the body leads to severe medical issues starting in infancy, including uncontrollable seizures and problems with breathing. There are currently no tools available to monitor levels of glycine in patients while at home, which is necessary for drug and diet-mediated regulation of glycine levels in the body and preventing seizures. The objective of this CI is to develop a low-cost, disposable, stand-alone point-of-care diagnostic and monitoring system to enable caregivers of NKH patients to monitor glycine levels at home, adjust the patient’s drug treatment schedule, and improve the patient’s quality of life as well as clinical outcomes.
Renee Cottle Bioengineering
Heart disease is the #1 cause of death in the world every year, and finding new therapies to treat heart disease is very slow and very expensive. Fortunately, researchers are able to grow small pieces of heart tissue in the lab to test new therapies as quickly, cheaply, and safely as possible. Unfortunately, these heart cells in a dish do not behave the same as heart cells in our body because they are no longer subjected to the same mechanical environment of a beating heart under pressure. In this creative inquiry, we are developing new culture chambers for growing heart cells in mechanically-realistic conditions in order to improve future therapy screens. Students will work in teams to (1) build miniature pump and pipe chambers, (2) grow heart-like tissues within these chambers, and (3) test the effects of different therapies on these functional tissues under disease-like conditions.
William Richardson Bioengineering
We aim to improve retention and matriculation of students of color into bioengineering by building their identity as engineers. Targeting incoming freshman, this CI will function as a diverse cohort of minority students enrolled in bioengineering. We will connect underrepresented upper classmen and grad students with the freshmen as they work together on a multidisciplinary engineering project. The potential being that underrepresented students can build a community of fellow bioengineers for support and fellowship that will aid in developing their identify as engineers early in their college careers. In the second year, students will design their own hypothesis based study based on their foundational year of research on the team. In addition, they will use their project to outreach to new general engineering students and K-12 students in our state.
Angela Alexander Bioengineering
Maria McCoy Bioengineering
Jordon Gilmore Bioengineering
Melinda Harman Bioengineering
Delphine Dean Bioengineering
Melissa McCullough Bioengineering
Advances in cancer research together with advances in biomaterials and nanotechnology, have enabled the development of micro- nano-scaled drug delivery systems for cancer treatment. The goals of delivery systems for cancer treatment are (1) delivering cancer therapeutics efficiently to the tumor site, (2) enhancing uptake of therapeutics by tumor cells, and (3) minimizing non-specific uptake of therapeutics by healthy cells. The design of effective delivery systems for cancer therapies will require optimization of micro- or nano-based delivery systems, cell-specific targeting, and mechanisms for effective drug release. Targeted delivery may be enhanced by both active and passive targeting mechanism. Targeting moieties that bind to overexpressed receptors on malignant cells can be conjugated to particles to increase cell-specific uptake, thus enhancing the efficacy of treatment. Additionally, environmentally responsive polymers can be used to achieve efficient and/or controlled release of therapeutics under physiologic conditions. The goal of this CI is to develop innovative drug delivery systems to advance cancer treatment.
Angela Alexander Bioengineering
Outreach programs are an often used tool to “fix the leaking pipeline” by promoting interest in STEM in K-12 students. However, these programs predominately target students who already have an exposure to and interest in STEM. The goal of this CI is to develop and deliver a sports science outreach program to increase the size of the pool, by exposing the 56.6% of youth who participate in sports to STEM in way that’s relatable their athletic interests. Initially, we plan to focus on three sports: football, volleyball, and soccer (men and women’s).
Tyler Harvey Bioengineering
Meredith Owen Bioengineering
Jordon Gilmore Bioengineering
Athlete Performance Science gives the opportunity to students to collect and analyze data from Olympic Weightlifting assessment performance outcomes. The goals of the Olympic Weightlifting program include diagnostic testing, performance profiling, athlete readiness, load monitoring, and data integration. In order to accomplish these goals, the team uses numerous testing instrumentations to collect performance data. The CI will utilize student knowledge of athletics to assist in data collection with force plates, load monitoring, sprint training, fatigue tracking, and other measures. Students will be given the opportunity to master athlete monitoring systems used by the Olympic Weightlifting team. All of these measurements will give some insights to how the athlete is performing on a strength and conditioning level. Following data collection, students will analyze the data into performance evaluations. Students will compare the data internal to the athlete over time or between weight room and practice performance. Students will have the potential to show how an athlete’s strength, quickness, speed, risk to injury changes across seasons or across years in the sport. All of these findings could provide deeper insight to our Clemson athletes’ abilities and has the potential to improve their player performance and reduce risk to injury.
Anne Marie Holter Bioengineering
Richard Farthing Campus Activities and Events
Ryan Metzger Weight Room
Thomas Evans Weight Room
John D DesJardins Bioengineering
This Creative Inquiry project is an interdisciplinary collaboration led by engineers, a computer scientist, and a social scientist. The team will work together to create training tools for therapists to improve session outcomes, especially using the Motivational Interviewing framework. The team will be assisted by clinical psychologists from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and Florida State University, who will provide content knowledge of the therapy setting. Engineering and computing students will develop instrumentation and data processing techniques that will allow the therapists to be physiologically monitored, adding important information to the session records, which can be improved for better patient outcomes.
Jordon Gilmore Bioengineering
Nina Hubig
Delphine Dean Bioengineering
Jerome McClendon School of Computing
The Digital Wellness Nurse (DWN) is an ongoing collaborative project aimed at developing an interactive, digital assistant for healthcare professionals engaging a diverse patient population. The project will feature the development of an artificially intelligent chat interface that collects patient data from multiple sources, including previous health data, wearable sensor data, and patient interviews. The combination of these data can be used to develop a patient wellness profile, which can be monitored overtime to assess progress toward a healthy lifestyle over time. The DWN will be designed to interact with electronic health record systems to access patient health and medication history. Students participating in this project will engage in human subjects research during the design and implementation of a DWN prototype. Research will include usability studies for an interactive patient software application, machine learning applications to develop autonomous patient interviewing and data management, and wearable sensor integration to enable continuous patient monitoring.
Jordon Gilmore Bioengineering
Jerome McClendon School of Computing
Nancy K Meehan School of Nursing
Caitlin Moore Clinical Ed/Pract&Med Surv Pro
The emergence of COVID-19 has created unpresident demand of medical device solutions that can rapidly address clinical and patient needs during this pandemic and beyond. In bioengineering, the opportunity to collaborate with clinicians in the design of biomedical devices is challenging, and with COVID, these opportunities are both more in demand and more challenging than ever. But they are critically needed. Clinicians continue to be an essential contributor to the design process, in that they are both the users of biomedical devices, and often the first point of contact for problems that occur in their use. Typically, students explore design related issues, and recruit clinicians to support their work. In this new CI, clinical collaborators that have critical COVID-related needs will work with students to create the next generation of biomedical devices during this pandemic and beyond. This CI will be open to all undergraduates, and projects will be multi-semester, to support the development of long-term innovations to address COVID challenges.
John D DesJardins Bioengineering
SPANISH. SCIENCE. DEBATE. This program aims to nurture the scientific creativity and practice your communication skills in Spanish of students in an intercultural virtual environment. Students from Clemson are team up with students from the Universidad de Guadalajara school system and work on solving a global engineering challenge as a team. Virtual meetings are scheduled to debate every team’s approach and progress to the challenge. By the end of the semester a video is created by each team, showcasing their solution.
Jorge Rodriguez Bioengineering
The objective of this CI is to design and develop medical devices that can be used for repairing the herniated intervertebral disc.
Jeremy Mercuri Bioengineering
Host a CECAS Bioengineering SEEK BIO-MED Career program for local high school students (Pickens Career and Technology Center, 9th graders specifically). A lecture and lab will be demonstrated for each module. Based on our statistical data research, we will poll 9th grade students to gain number of participants the beginning of Fall 2021 semester (August 2021). We will host a fall session and spring session. We will have a minimum of 2 graduate students and a minimum of 4 undergraduates assisting hosting BIO-Med program. Bioengineering graduate and undergraduate students will be available to promote, teach, and receive statistical data of research projects. Bioengineering students will receive elective credits for career day support and teaching.
Our CU goal for the Bio-Med career curriculum is to expose high school students to the curriculum of bioengineering with specialties in implant design, bio-electrical engineering, biomaterials, and engineering. Our supporting curriculum will allow students to perform live hands on experiments, meet one-on-one with BIOE students, and participate in Q and A sessions. Our BIOE goals will allow us to poll high school students, expand our dedicated growth and receive survey responses. An additional goal is to host two sessions of live Bio-Med curriculum, Fall semester and Spring semester. We will additionally prepare for a Bio-Med week for students in the summer.
Angela Alexander-Bryant Bioengineering
Chad McMahan Bioengineering
The COVID-19 pandemic sparked a demand for innovative and efficient testing for the general public. As a result, the REDDI Lab, Clemson's first CLIA certified laboratory, rose to the challenge to meet these demands. A year after the start of the outbreak, the REDDI Lab is now ready to continue education and development for novel testing of other diseases, which undergraduate students will be instrumental in. Students will learn about and be exposed to a variety of diagnostic testing methods, data analysis techniques, and research development practices within a clinical lab setting. Finally, students will participate in outreach opportunities to help educate the community about disease diagnostics.
Austin Smothers Bioengineering
Congyue Peng Genetics and Biochemistry
Delphine Dean Bioengineering