̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - bioengineering

��Biohybrid�� device could restore function in paralysed limbs

sc604 — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 17:55:29 +0000

Researchers have developed a new type of neural implant that could restore limb function to amputees and others who have lost the use of their arms or legs.

New method developed for ��up-sizing�� mini organs used in medical research

sc604 — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 17:16:20 +0000

̽��ֱ��researchers, from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, used their method to culture and grow a ��mini-airway��, the first time that a tube-shaped organoid has been developed without the need for any external support.

Using a mould made of a specialised polymer, the researchers were able to guide the size and shape of the mini-airway, grown from adult mouse stem cells, and then remove it from the mould when it reached the point where it could support itself.

Whereas the organoids currently used in medical research are at the microscopic scale, the method developed by the Cambridge team could make it possible to grow life-sized versions of organs. Their results are reported in the journal Advanced Science.

Organoids are tiny, three-dimensional cell assemblies that mimic the cell arrangement of fully-grown organs. They can be a useful way to study human biology and how it can go wrong in various diseases, and possibly how to develop personalised or regenerative treatments. However, assembling them into larger organ structures remains a challenge.

Other research teams have experimented with 3D printing techniques to develop larger mini-organs, but these often require an external support structure.

��Mini-organs are very small and highly fragile,�� said Dr Yan Yan Shery Huang from Cambridge��s Department of Engineering, who co-led the research. ��In order to scale them up, which would increase their usefulness in medical research, we need to find the right conditions to help the cells self-organise.��

Huang and her colleagues have proposed a new organoid engineering approach called Multi-Organoid Patterning and Fusion (MOrPF) to grow a miniature version of a mouse airway using stem cells. Using this technique, the scientists achieved faster assembly of organoids into airway tubes with uninterrupted passageways. ̽��ֱ��mini-airways grown using the MOrPF technique showed potential for scaling up to match living organ structures in size and shape, and retained their shape even in the absence of an external support.

̽��ֱ��MOrPF technique involves several steps. First, a polymer mould �C like a miniature version of a cake or jelly mould �C is used to shape a cluster of many small organoids. ̽��ֱ��cluster is released from the mould after one day, and then grown for a further two weeks. ̽��ֱ��cluster becomes one single tubular structure, covered by an outer layer of airway cells. ̽��ֱ��moulding process is just long enough for the outer layer of the cells to form an envelope around the entire cluster. During the two weeks of further growth, the inner walls gradually disappear, leading to a hollow tubular structure.

��Gradual maturation of the cells is really important,�� said Dr Joo-Hyeon Lee from Cambridge��s Wellcome �C MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, who co-led the research. �� ̽��ֱ��cells need to be well-organised before we can release them so that the structures don��t collapse.��

̽��ֱ��organoid cluster can be thought of like soap bubbles, initially packed together to form to the shape of the mould. In order to fuse into a single gigantic bubble from the cluster of compressed bubbles, the inner walls need to be broken down. In the MOrPF process, the fused organoid clusters are released from the mould to grow in floating, scaffold-free conditions, so that the cells forming the inner walls of the fused cluster can be taken out of the cluster. ̽��ֱ��mould can be made into different sizes or shapes, so that the researchers can pre-determine the shape of the finished mini-organ.

�� ̽��ֱ��interesting thing is, if you think about the soap bubbles, the resulting big bubble is always spherical, but the special mechanical properties of the cell membrane of organoids make the resulting fused shape preserve the shape of the mould,�� said co-author Professor Eugene Terentjev from Cambridge��s Cavendish Laboratory.

̽��ֱ��team say their method closely approximated the natural process of organ tube formation in some animal species. They are hopeful that their technique will help create biomimetic organs to facilitate medical research.

̽��ֱ��researchers first plan to use their method to build a three-dimensional ��organ on a chip��, which enables real-time continuous monitoring of cells, and could be used to develop new treatments for disease while reducing the number of animals used in research. Eventually, the technique could also be used with stem cells taken from a patient, in order to develop personalised treatments in future.

̽��ֱ��research was supported in part by the European Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society.

Reference:
Ye Liu et al. ��Bio-assembling Macro-Scale, Lumenized Airway Tubes of Defined Shape via Multi-Organoid Patterning and Fusion.�� Advanced Science (2021). DOI: 10.1002/advs.202003332

A team of engineers and scientists has developed a method of ��up-sizing�� organoids: miniature collections of cells which mimic the behaviour of various organs and are promising tools for the study of human biology and disease.?

We need to find the right conditions to help the cells in mini-organs self-organise

Yan Yan Shery Huang

Catherine Dabrowska

3D projection of a multi-organoid aggregate

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Beyond the pandemic: prepare and plan a biosecure future

fpjl2 — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 12:44:19 +0000

COVID-19 has exposed a lack of preparedness for biological hazards �C both in the UK and globally. Luke Kemp from the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk discusses findings from a series of ��horizon scans�� he led to help identify future biosecurity risks.

3D-printed ��invisible�� fibres can sense breath, sound, and biological cells

sc604 — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 18:00:00 +0000

Researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge used 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, techniques to make electronic fibres, each 100 times thinner than a human hair, creating sensors beyond the capabilities of conventional film-based devices.

̽��ֱ��fibre printing technique, reported in the journal Science Advances, can be used to make non-contact, wearable, portable respiratory sensors. These printed sensors are high-sensitivity, low-cost and can be attached to a mobile phone to collect breath pattern information, sound and images at the same time.

First author Andy Wang, a PhD student from Cambridge��s Department of Engineering, used the fibre sensor to test the amount of breath moisture leaked through his face covering, for respiratory conditions such as normal breathing, rapid breathing, and simulated coughing. ̽��ֱ��fibre sensors significantly outperformed comparable commercial sensors, especially in monitoring rapid breathing, which replicates shortness of breath.

While the fibre sensor has not been designed to detect viral particles, since scientific evidence increasingly points to the fact that viral particles such as coronavirus can be transmitted through respiratory droplets and aerosols, measuring the amount and direction of breath moisture that leaks through different types of face coverings could act an indicator in the protection ��weak�� points. ?

̽��ֱ��team found that most leakage from fabric or surgical masks comes from the front, especially during coughing, while most leakage from N95 masks comes from the top and sides with tight fittings. Nonetheless, both types of face masks, when worn properly, help to weaken the flow of exhaled breath.

��Sensors made from small conducting fibres are especially useful for volumetric sensing of fluid and gas in 3D, compared to conventional thin-film techniques, but so far, it has been challenging to print and incorporate them into devices, and to manufacture them at scale,�� said Dr Yan Yan Shery Huang from Cambridge��s Department of Engineering, who led the research.

Huang and her colleagues 3D printed the composite fibres, which are made from silver and/or semiconducting polymers. This fibre printing technique creates a core-shell fibre structure, with a high-purity conducting fibre core wrapped by a thin protective polymer sheath, similar to the structure of common electrical wires, but at a scale of a few micrometres in diameter.

In addition to the respiratory sensors, the printing technique can also be used to make biocompatible fibres of a similar dimension to biological cells, which enables them to guide cell movements and ��feel�� this dynamic process as electrical signals. Also, the fibres are so tiny that they are invisible to the naked eye, so when they are used to connect small electronic elements in 3D, it would seem that the electronics are ��floating�� in mid-air.

��Our fibre sensors are lightweight, cheap, small and easy to use, so they could potentially be turned into home-test devices to allow the general public to perform self-administered tests to get information about their environments,�� said Huang.

̽��ֱ��team looks to develop this fibre-printing technique for a number of multi-functional sensors, which could potentially detect more breath species for mobile health monitoring, or for bio-machine interface applications.

Reference:
Wenyu Wang et al. ��Inflight fiber printing toward array and 3D optoelectronic and sensing architectures.�� Science Advances (2020). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aba0931

From capturing your breath to guiding biological cell movements, 3D printing of tiny, transparent conducting fibres could be used to make devices which can ��smell, hear and touch�� C making it particularly useful for health monitoring, Internet of Things and biosensing applications.

Our fibre sensors are lightweight, cheap, small and easy to use, so they could potentially be turned into home-test devices to allow the general public to perform self-administered tests to get information about their environments

Yan Yan Shery Huang

Andy Wang

Fibre sensor attached to a face covering detects human breath with high sensitivity and responsiveness

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Women in STEM: Dr Anna-Maria Pappa

sc604 — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 06:00:00 +0000

I strongly believe that through diversity comes creativity, comes progress.?I qualified as an engineer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Aristotle ̽��ֱ�� of Thessaloniki, Greece, and went on to earn a Master��s Degree in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology from the same university. My PhD is in Bioelectronics from ?cole des Mines de Saint-?tienne in France, and a key moment for me was when I left home to study abroad. Leaving my comfort zone for something unknown was very difficult in the beginning, but proved to be an invaluable experience. I met people from all over the world with different cultures and mind-sets, stretched my mind and expanded my horizons.

I find it very difficult to be around like-minded people; I always look for those with different views.?I��m working on a drug discovery platform using bioelectronics, and my work sets out to improve and accelerate drug discovery by providing novel technological solutions for drug screening and disease management. My research focuses on the application of a new class of electronic materials and devices that could replace the in-vitro drug screening assays currently used in medical diagnoses with electronic arrays similar to the electronic chips found in mobile phones.? These could quickly assess the health of our cells, outside of our bodies.?

As an engineer, creating solutions to important yet unresolved issues for healthcare is what truly motivates me.?I hope my research will lead to a product that will impact healthcare. ̽��ֱ��convergence of new technologies with life sciences will revolutionise both diagnosis and therapy. I imagine a healthcare system where the standard one-size-fits-all approach shifts to a more personalised and tailored model.

My most interesting project is one that is working to tackle the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance from a technological standpoint. We are developing biomimetic bacterial membranes on top of our devices and screening newly synthesised antibiotics. Investigating drug-bacterial membrane interactions allows us to directly test the efficacy of known drugs on bacterial resistant strains, as well as allowing us to better understand the action of novel drugs on the membrane properties, and ultimately aid the design and synthesis of target-specific antibiotics.?

I joined Cambridge as a postdoctoral researcher in 2017.?My daily routine involves some lab work in the?Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, a lot of reading and writing, and some project management. I spend time in the Maxwell Centre too, where I participate in an entrepreneurship program called?Impulse, exploring all the aspects of technology transfer.

Being part of a ̽��ֱ�� where some of the world's most brilliant scientists studied and worked is invaluable.?Cambridge combines a historic and traditional atmosphere with cutting edge technological and scientific research in an open, multicultural society. ̽��ֱ��state-of-the-art facilities, and the openness in innovation and collaborations, along with great science, provide a unique combination that can only lead to excellence.? I also travel frequently for conferences, as well as visiting other laboratories across Europe, the United States and Saudi Arabia. When you work in a multidisciplinary field it is essential to establish and keep good collaborations; since this is the only way to achieve the desirable outcome.

To be successful in a postdoctoral role requires management, teaching, networking, proposal writing and travelling.? ̽��ֱ��amount of time you get to spend in the lab drops significantly compared to the PhD research period. This is in part due to the fact that you are more experienced, thus more efficient, and since you are more independent in research you need to be on top of things.

I think it��s absolutely vital, in every opportunity, for all of us to honour and promote girls and women in science.?In October 2017 I was delighted to be awarded a?L'Or��al-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowship, an award that honours the contributions of women in science. For me, the award not only represents a scientific distinction but also gives me the unique opportunity, as an ambassador of science, to inspire and motivate young girls to follow the career they desire. Unfortunately, women still struggle when it comes to joining male-dominated fields, and even to establish themselves later at senior roles. We still face stereotypes and social restrictions, even if it is not as obvious today as it was in the past. This is in part due to the fact that still, the key senior roles are predominantly male-occupied, and so there is a lack of female role models as well as female mentality. This makes it harder for women to believe in themselves and achieve their goals.

A question I always ask during my outreach activities at schools is ��do look like a scientist?��?? ̽��ֱ��answer I get most times is ��no��! I think this misperception of how professionals in STEMM look, or about what they actually do on a daily basis is what discourages girls early on to follow STEMM careers. This needs to change. On top of that, my advice to women would be to be open, never underestimate themselves and never be put off by stereotypes especially in male-dominated industries. There are excellent examples of highly successful women �C leaders in their fields - who managed to excel despite the difficulties. Importantly, many of them successfully combined career and family.?

Dr Anna-Maria Pappa is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology and holds the?Oppenheimer Research Fellowship and?Maudslay-Butler Research Fellowship from Pembroke College. Her research is focused on the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance.?

Anna-Maria Pappa

Yes

Report highlights opportunities and risks associated with synthetic biology and bioengineering

cjb250 — Tue, 21 Nov 2017 11:50:43 +0000

Rapid developments in the field of synthetic biology and its associated tools and methods, including more widely available gene editing techniques, have substantially increased our capabilities for bioengineering �C the application of principles and techniques from engineering to biological systems, often with the goal of addressing 'real-world' problems.

In a feature article published in the open access journal eLife, an international team of experts led by Dr Bonnie Wintle and Dr Christian R. Boehm from the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, capture perspectives of industry, innovators, scholars, and the security community in the UK and US on what they view as the major emerging issues in the field.

Dr Wintle says: �� ̽��ֱ��growth of the bio-based economy offers the promise of addressing global environmental and societal challenges, but as our paper shows, it can also present new kinds of challenges and risks. ̽��ֱ��sector needs to proceed with caution to ensure we can reap the benefits safely and securely.��

̽��ֱ��report is intended as a summary and launching point for policy makers across a range of sectors to further explore those issues that may be relevant to them.

Among the issues highlighted by the report as being most relevant over the next five years are:

Artificial photosynthesis and carbon capture for producing biofuels

If technical hurdles can be overcome, such developments might contribute to the future adoption of carbon capture systems, and provide sustainable sources of commodity chemicals and fuel. ?

Enhanced photosynthesis for agricultural productivity

Synthetic biology may hold the key to increasing yields on currently farmed land �C and hence helping address food security �C by enhancing photosynthesis and reducing pre-harvest losses, as well as reducing post-harvest and post-consumer waste.

Synthetic gene drives

Gene drives promote the inheritance of preferred genetic traits throughout a species, for example to prevent malaria-transmitting mosquitoes from breeding. However, this technology raises questions about whether it may alter ecosystems, potentially even creating niches where a new disease-carrying species or new disease organism may take hold.

Human genome editing

Genome engineering technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9 offer the possibility to improve human lifespans and health. However, their implementation poses major ethical dilemmas. It is feasible that individuals or states with the financial and?technological means may elect to provide strategic advantages to future generations.

Defence agency research in biological engineering

̽��ֱ��areas of synthetic biology in which some defence agencies invest raise the risk of ��dual-use��. For example, one programme intends to use insects to disseminate engineered plant viruses that confer traits to the target plants they feed on, with the aim of protecting crops from potential plant pathogens �C but such technologies could plausibly also be used by others to harm targets.

In the next five to ten years, the authors identified areas of interest including:

Regenerative medicine: 3D printing body parts and tissue engineering

While this technology will undoubtedly ease suffering caused by traumatic injuries and a myriad of illnesses, reversing the decay associated with age is still fraught with ethical, social and economic concerns. Healthcare systems would rapidly become overburdened by the cost of replenishing body parts of citizens as they age and could lead new socioeconomic classes, as only those who can pay for such care themselves can extend their healthy years.

Microbiome-based therapies

̽��ֱ��human microbiome is implicated in a large number of human disorders, from Parkinson��s to colon cancer, as well as metabolic conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Synthetic biology approaches could greatly accelerate the development of more effective microbiota-based therapeutics. However, there is a risk that DNA from genetically engineered microbes may spread to other microbiota in the human microbiome or into the wider environment.

Intersection of information security and bio-automation

Advancements in automation technology combined with faster and more reliable engineering techniques have resulted in the emergence of robotic 'cloud labs' where digital information is transformed into DNA then expressed in some target organisms. This opens the possibility of new kinds of information security threats, which could include tampering with digital DNA sequences leading to the production of harmful organisms, and sabotaging vaccine and drug production through attacks on critical DNA sequence databases or equipment.

Over the longer term, issues identified include:

New makers disrupt pharmaceutical markets

Community bio-labs and entrepreneurial startups are customizing and sharing methods and tools for biological experiments and engineering. Combined with open business models and open source technologies, this could herald opportunities for manufacturing therapies tailored to regional diseases that multinational pharmaceutical companies might not find profitable. But this raises concerns around the potential disruption of existing manufacturing markets and raw material supply chains as well as fears about inadequate regulation, less rigorous product quality control and misuse.

Platform technologies to address emerging disease pandemics

Emerging infectious diseases��such as recent Ebola and Zika virus disease outbreaks��and potential biological weapons attacks require scalable, flexible diagnosis and treatment. New technologies could enable the rapid identification and development of vaccine candidates, and plant-based antibody production systems.

Shifting ownership models in biotechnology

̽��ֱ��rise of off-patent, generic tools and the lowering of technical barriers for engineering biology has the potential to help those in low-resource settings, benefit from developing a sustainable bioeconomy based on local needs and priorities, particularly where new advances are made open for others to build on.

Dr Jenny Molloy comments: ��One theme that emerged repeatedly was that of inequality of access to the technology and its benefits. ̽��ֱ��rise of open source, off-patent tools could enable widespread sharing of knowledge within the biological engineering field and increase access to benefits for those in developing countries.��

Professor Johnathan Napier from Rothamsted Research adds: �� ̽��ֱ��challenges embodied in the Sustainable Development Goals will require all manner of ideas and innovations to deliver significant outcomes. In agriculture, we are on the cusp of new paradigms for how and what we grow, and where. Demonstrating the fairness and usefulness of such approaches is crucial to ensure public acceptance and also to delivering impact in a meaningful way.��

Dr Christian R. Boehm concludes: ��As these technologies emerge and develop, we must ensure public trust and acceptance. People may be willing to accept some of the benefits, such as the shift in ownership away from big business and towards more open science, and the ability to address problems that disproportionately affect the developing world, such as food security and disease. But proceeding without the appropriate safety precautions and societal consensus��whatever the public health benefits��could damage the field for many years to come.��

̽��ֱ��research was made possible by the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, the Synthetic Biology Strategic Research Initiative (both at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge), and the Future of Humanity Institute ( ̽��ֱ�� of Oxford). It was based on a workshop co-funded by the?Templeton World Charity Foundation and the European Research Council under the European Union��s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.?

Reference
Wintle, BC, Boehm, CR et al. A transatlantic perspective on 20 emerging issues in biological engineering. eLife; 14 Nov 2017; DOI: 10.7554/eLife.30247

Human genome editing, 3D-printed replacement organs and artificial photosynthesis �C the field of bioengineering offers great promise for tackling the major challenges that face our society. But as a new article out today highlights, these developments provide both opportunities and risks in the short and long term.

Susanne Nilsson

Reaching for the Sky

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Synthetic organs, nanobots and DNA ��scissors��: the future of medicine

lw355 — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 08:00:43 +0000

In a new film to coincide with the recent launch of the Cambridge Academy of Therapeutic Sciences, researchers discuss some of the most exciting developments in medical research and set out their vision for the next 50 years.

Professor Jeremy Baumberg from the NanoPhotonics Centre discusses a future in which diagnoses do not have to rely on asking a patient how they are feeling, but rather are carried out by nanomachines that patrol our bodies, looking for and repairing problems. Professor Michelle Oyen from the Department of Engineering talks about using artificial scaffolds to create ��off-the-shelf�� replacement organs that could help solve the shortage of donated organs. Dr Sanjay Sinha from the Wellcome Trust-MRC Stem Cell Institute sees us using stem cell ��patches�� to repair damaged hearts and return their function back to normal.

Dr Alasdair Russell from the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute describes how recent breakthroughs in the use of CRISPR-Cas9 �C a DNA editing tool �C will enable us to snip out and replace defective regions of the genome, curing diseases in individual patients; and lawyer Dr Kathy Liddell, from the Cambridge Centre for Law, Medicine and Life Sciences, highlights how research around law and ethics will help to make gene editing safe.

Professor Gillian Griffiths, Director of the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, envisages us weaponising ��killer T cells�� C important immune system warriors �C to hunt down and destroy even the most evasive of cancer cells.

All of these developments will help transform the field of medicine, says Professor Chris Lowe, Director of the Cambridge Academy of Therapeutic Sciences, who sees this as an exciting time for medicine. New developments have the potential to transform healthcare ��right the way from how you handle the patient to actually delivering the final therapeutic product - and that��s the exciting thing��.

Read more about?research?on future therapeutics in?Research Horizons?magazine.?

Nanobots that patrol our bodies, killer immune cells hunting and destroying cancer cells, biological scissors that cut out defective genes: these are just some of technologies that Cambridge researchers are developing which are set to revolutionise medicine in the future.

̽��ֱ��Future of Medicine

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Bioengineering, embryos and eggshells

cg605 — Wed, 17 May 2017 08:21:18 +0000

In 1999, Dr Michelle Oyen was a bioengineering student, working on a PhD project to measure the stiffness of bone, when the phone rang. It was Dr Steven Calvin, an obstetrician at the local hospital. ��I��m trying to understand some issues around miscarriage and premature birth,�� he said. ��Is there someone there who has a machine that can stretch things, and make measurements of how strong something is?��

Calvin had a specific question: he was performing a procedure aimed at keeping a prematurely opening cervix closed by putting stitches around it. If a cervix opens too soon, it can result in premature birth. During the procedure, antiseptic is painted around the area, including the amniotic sac. He wanted to know if this substance changed the properties of the sac, making it more likely to rupture.

Oyen, now Reader in Bioengineering in Cambridge��s Mechanics and Materials Division and the Biomechanics research group, was fascinated by the idea of applying engineering thinking to this problem. ��I was carrying out my experiments in a housekeeping cupboard in the hospital,�� she remembers. ��I had a rig for strength-testing the amniotic sac. I��d get a call from Dr Calvin that a woman in labour was happy for us to use the sample, I��d grab my rig and set it up in a cupboard down the hall from the delivery room.��

Their first investigation into this question resulted in a paper published in the Journal of Material Science: Materials in Medicine, and sparked what Oyen calls her life��s work: finding out why pregnancies go wrong. ��Three per cent of the time, the amniotic sac breaks for no reason that we know,�� she says. ��That can cause miscarriage, or stillbirth if it��s before viability. Even after that, babies born between 25 and 30 weeks are very premature and so their outcomes are very poor. Even babies born after 30 weeks are still not fully ��cooked��: you have to get to 37 weeks before we consider you to have made it to the end line. These problems happen in the developed world, even when we have so much technology around us. In the developing world, there��s a whole other set of issues. So when you talk about problems in pregnancy, you��re talking about a big chunk of humanity.��

There��s a long and honourable history of collaborations between engineering and medical science, from designing cutting-edge prosthetics to creating technology for robot-assisted surgery. Yet, says Oyen, looking at pregnancy in this way is an area that��s 20 or 30 years behind, say, orthopaedics. ��Most of the time, pregnancy kind of works and doctors know how to manage something that goes wrong �C but they don��t always understand why it��s happening. It��s something that we fundamentally don��t know about. And that really excites me.��

What makes pregnancy problems so ripe for exploration by engineers? ̽��ֱ��tools, says Oyen �C namely, computers. ��You can��t do experiments on pregnant women,�� she points out. ��It is completely unethical. But with computers, we can make a virtual model of the placenta. There��s potential for huge progress there.�� One of her team��s recent projects, which gave rise to a paper published in the journal Placenta, is based around images of real placentas taken using a confocal microscope at a very high resolution. These images are then turned into 3D computational models. Oyen and her team can then model how the blood flows through the capillaries of the placenta, bringing oxygen from the mother to the baby. This will aid understanding of why the placenta sometimes malfunctions and fails to bring enough oxygen to the baby, meaning its growth is restricted.

That��s studying the placenta at full term: but its beginnings are also a rich area for research. When a fertilised egg implants into the uterus wall, specialised cells called trophoblasts must migrate in to help form the placenta, a biological process similar to how cancer cells metastasize. In collaboration with the Cambridge Centre for Trophoblast Research, which this year celebrates its tenth anniversary, Oyen��s team is studying how trophoblasts move, a unique cross-departmental group of pregnancy researchers. �� ̽��ֱ��collaboration with others from the Centre has just been amazing,�� says Oyen. ��That��s the thing about Cambridge. You don��t find such a wealth of expertise anywhere else.��

Pregnancy problems are one of the Oyen Lab��s four main strands of research, the others being more traditional areas of bioengineering, including the creation of synthetic materials using inspiration from the natural world �C studying materials such as eggshell and bone to find an equally strong and light material, for example. As any cook knows, Oyen says, an eggshell is actually pretty robust. If you want to break it, you need to hit it hard against your glass bowl. Yet it starts off as a squishy, watery membrane filled with yolk.

Given the right conditions �C usually a chicken with average body temperature �C it becomes a full egg with a hard shell in about 18 hours. This is a material that is 97per cent ceramic but forms naturally in close to ambient conditions, and therefore is not energy-intensive �C unlike concrete, which always involves high temperatures to process. These materials could have medical applications, such as replacing the metal and plastic currently used for new hip and knee joints, or they could even be scaled up to create anything from furniture to buildings: the lab��s current project on eggshell-inspired materials is funded by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

��Materials inspired by bone and eggshell are really good structural materials: why limit them to medicine?�� Oyen says. ��We can make bone-like material now, but only in lab quantities. It would take a big company to scale it up. Natural materials are really interesting. We build things out of steel and concrete now, but before we started getting the idea to do that, we built things with whatever was around us �C wood or stone. People don��t really appreciate what impact this could have on global warming: in 2007, the creation of steel and concrete was responsible for more CO2 emissions than the aviation industry worldwide. We demonise airlines without realising that building a skyscraper also makes a big contribution.��

Looking at the scope of her work, it��s hardly surprising that a glimpse at Oyen��s office bookshelf reveals a dizzying array of interests, from clouds to Russian dictionaries to Cary Grant �C not to mention the electronic piano keyboard that stands next to it. ��Yes, I have broad interests, which I think is normal for someone in such an interdisciplinary field,�� she says. ��A lot of my work is synthesising and bringing people together. Most of my students are co-supervised, most of my work is collaborative. I spend very little time sitting in a room, typing on a computer. I get people together. I talk to engineers and medics, I get biologists talking to engineers. I��m the traffic cop in the middle, translating from engineering language to biomedical language.��

Her chosen path is partly personal, she says �C Oyen has juvenile arthritis, which began in her teens. Her father worked in an engineering company and had her solving problems from the start. ��My motivation is completely selfish,�� she says with a grin. ��My first degree was in Materials Science and Engineering, and while I was doing that, I twigged that there were medically related engineering applications. I was doing very traditional metallurgy. I had nothing to do with medicine. But when I was having a particularly bad bout with my joints, I started getting interested. I started coming across some of the very traditional approaches to solving medical problems, like total joint replacement, which goes back to the 1950s. You replace living tissue, which is 75 per cent water, with metal and plastic. That��s a very 1950s solution and yet we haven��t come up with anything better.��

There is a word in bioengineering �C bioinspiration �C which, within the context of the discipline, means a method of solving engineering problems using natural approaches. A bioengineer will systematically study how nature has solved problems and then try to map that method on to a current problem. Perhaps it��s not too much of a stretch to say that a kind of bioinspiration is at the root of everything Oyen does: taking both nature��s design flaws and extraordinary abilities �C to regrow, renew and create life �C as a starting point for making things work better, from carrying a child to creating a city.

��There is so much potential in all our work, but in the pregnancy work, I feel like it��s really just getting started,�� she says. ��High risk, high reward �C and the reward is better outcomes for mothers and babies. It��s what engineering is all about: problem-solving. It��s creative. After all, the root of the word engineer is not engine, but ingenuity.��

Dr Oyen is a?Fellow at?Homerton?College.

Article by Lucy Jolin.?This article first appeared in CAM - the Cambridge Alumni Magazine, edition 80.?Find out more about Dr Oyen's work.

Homerton Fellow?Dr Michelle Oyen?explains why she has dedicated her working life to investigating why pregnancies go wrong.

I spend very little time sitting in a room, typing on a computer. I get people together. I talk to engineers and medics, I get biologists talking to engineers. I��m the traffic cop in the middle

Dr Michelle Oyen

Anna Huix

Michelle Oyen

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