Welcome to the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME)

The Institute's mandate is to catayse internationally-leading research in the field of biomedical engineering. The Institute comprises outstanding facilities utilised by leading researchers appointed to cognate departments within Imperial College London.

The vision of a multi-disciplinary research institute building on Imperial's strengths - engineering, natural sciences and medicine - was made possible in 2004 by a charitable donation of £10m. Additional funding from College's Science Research Investment Fund provided refurbished space for laboratories and state of the art facilities.

The Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME) draws together scientists, medics and engineers to apply their extensive expertise to create revolutionary progress in medical diagnosis and treatment. The Technology Networks provide a mechanism for multidisciplinary interaction through knowledge transfer, whilst creating an environment for collaboration.

Our Research Themes

Institute Management

Professor Ross Ethier , is head of the Department of Bioengineering and Director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering.

Professor Chris Toumazou FREng FRS, founding Director of the Institute, is Chief Scientist of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. Professors Ethier and Toumazou are working together to promote the mission and profile of the Institute within and outside the College.

Artificial pancreas to be tested in clinical trials

The bio-inspired artificial pancreas developed at the Centre for Bio-inspired Technology within the Institute of Biomedical Engineering has been approved for a pilot clinical trial on humans at St.Marys Hospital, starting in March 2011. The study will involve 20 subjects with type 1 diabetes aged 18–75 and the trial will assess the safety and efficacy of the device. The technology will be applied to participants in a variety of scenarios, starting with a fasting test and progressing to overnight control, meal-time control and, finally, an ambulatory test leading towards true bio-inspired control of diabetes.

Winning Poster

At the 2011 Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) research festival, the winning poster, as voted by participants, was submitted by Mr Peter Pesl of the Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology.  The poster, ‘Mobile-Based Architecture of a Decision Support System for Optimal Insulin Dosing’, described Mr Pesl’s research on the development and clinical validation of a smartphone-based decision support system for the management of type1diabetes.

The event included a series of 20 speaker presentations, each providing an overview of the BRC-funded areas of study within their respective BRC research theme and a poster exhibition showcasing the ongoing research that is being conducted by BRC-funded researchers. The aim of this initiative was to provide an overview of the translational research programmes supported by the Imperial BRC and the pioneering work that is fostered within the BRC’s clinical research facilities.

 
Top Paper

A paper, originating from research in the Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology, came top of the Journal of Neural Engineering's Highlights of 2010 collection.  This collection of articles represents a selection of the best work published in the Journal during the previous year. The articles were selected for their presentation of outstanding new research, receipt of the highest praise from international referees and the highest number of downloads last year.

Grossman N, Poher V, Nikolic K, et al, ‘Multi-site optical excitation using ChR2 and
micro-LED array’, Journal of Neural Engineering, Vol:7, ISSN:1741-2552, 2010.

Academic partnership between Imperial College London and universities in Taiwan

Whilst on a visit to China and Taiwan in April 2011, the Rector of Imperial, Sir Keith O’Nions, signed an academic partnership with a consortium of universities in Taiwan. Every year for three years, five Taiwanese students will study at Imperial for their PhDs and ten academics will undertake research visits. The collaboration will also support joint research projects and research visits to Taiwan by Imperial academics, building on Imperial’s strong existing links with the country.  The Director of the Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology, Professor Toumazou and the Centre’s main sponsor, Professor Winston Wong, who had both been involved in developing this collaboration, were present at the signing.

The initiative, fully funded by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education, will focus on research activities in the fields of bio-inspired science and technology, humanities and social sciences, drawing particularly on the expertise of Imperial College Business School and the Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology. 

The Memorandum of Understanding is with the Top University Strategic Alliance in Taiwan, represented by National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, and is only the third signed by the Alliance with an overseas partner, following similar agreements with the University of Berkeley, California, and the University of Chicago.

Diabetes Lab opened by BBC broadcaster Justin Webb

A new laboratory targeting the development of an artificial pancreas for people with type 1 diabetes has been opened at the IBME. The Metabolic Technology Lab was officially opened on 25th March 2010 by BBC broadcaster and journalist Justin Webb, presenter of the ‘Today’ programme on BBC Radio 4. The lab is located within the Winston Wong Centre for Bioinspired Technology, part of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering.

Scientists working in the lab are developing technology to help people with a range of metabolic and chronic diseases. The opening of the lab also represents a significant step towards the development of a ground-breaking innovation: the world's first bio-inspired artificial pancreas. The new facility provides researchers with a dedicated space in which to carry out their work. The team are developing a microchip device that takes glucose readings from a monitor and continuously infuses insulin into the body so that people with Type 1 diabetes can do away with regular insulin injections.

In 2009, Justin Webb produced a radio documentary (“Diabetes – The Silent Killer”) which explored his family’s experience of Type 1 diabetes following his young son Sam’s diagnosis.

For more information and for a video of researchers talking about the development of the bio-inspired silicon pancreas, please click here.

IBME hosts UK/Japan Brain-Machine Interface delegation

In 2010, the Institute of Biomedical Engineering hosted a visit by an overseas delegation from the 2nd UK/Japan Workshop in Brain-Machine Interfaces. The delegation visited the IBME in February as part of the two-day UK leg of the workshop, hosted by Newcastle University.

The annual workshop, which is free and open to all interested pre- and post-doctoral researchers, is part of a UK government-led initiative to boost scientific collaboration between the UK and Japan. During the half-day visit to Imperial College London, the Japanese delegation met with three groups, the Advanced Neural Interfaces group (located within the IBME’s ‘Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology’), and two groups in the Department of Bioengineering (led by Dr Holger Krapp and Dr Etienne Burdet). The visit included a networking session for delegates.

Topics covered at the two-day workshop included invasive and non-invasive Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMIs), peripheral nerve interfaces, BMI-based rehabilitation and sensory neuroprostheses.

For more details on the 2nd UK/Japan Workshop in Brain-Machine Interfaces, please visit: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ion/news/events/eventitem.htm?id=nd-uk-japan-workshop-on-the-brain-machine-interface

BioCeramic Therapeutics Wins ACES Academic Enterprise Award

The Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Departments of Materials spin-out BioCeramic Therapeutics and its principal founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Professor Molly Stevens of Imperial College London, have won the prestigious ACES Academic Enterprise Award in the Life Sciences category. The award was presented to the biomaterials company at a ceremony in Paris, France on December 10th 2009.

For more details please visit our News page

Funding for Centre of Bio-Inspired Technology

In December 2009, the then Rector of Imperial College, Sir Roy Anderson and Professor Winston Wong signed an Agreement to mark a donation of £2m from Dr Wo ng to form a new Centre for Bio-inspired Technology.

The Centre, managed by Professor Chris Toumazou, funds a research team of Research Associates, Research Fellows and PhD students. Funds are also used to strengthen the collaboration between Taiwanese Universities, hospitals and the semiconductor Industry in Taiwan and Imperial college in the field of Bio-inspired Technology. Additionally, Prof Toumazou will continue his c ollaboration with medical researchers and clinicians and scientists and engineers from a range of disciplines. The aim is to move new technologies from the laboratory into commercialisation to ensure that the outcomes contribu te to improvements in healthcare, especially for independent livi ng and lifestyle.

Professor Toumazou said ‘I am honoured that Winston has chosen to fund my research by endowing this Centre. I have long believed that we can learn such a lot from biology and by mimicking living systems we can create and innovate advanced technologies.’

For more details please visit the Imperial College News Page

IBME Director Professor Chris Toumazou Honoured With 2009 World Technology Award

IBME Director and Chief Scientist Professor Chris Toumazou FRS has been honoured with the 2009 World Technology Award for Health and Medicine.

The award ceremony was held at the TIME Conference Center, Time and Life Building, in New York, at the culmination of the two-day World Technology Summit.

For more details please visit our our News Page

Multi-disciplinary research at Imperial College

Imperial College is renowned as a centre of world class scientific research. One of the key elements in its research strategy is to bring together the scientists, engineers, medical researchers and clinicians in multi-disciplinary centres such as the Institute of Biomedical Engineering.

Imperial is dedicated to harnessing its intellectual and technological resources to improve the health and welfare of people worldwide. By applying technology to advance the treatment and management of chronic disease the Institute of Biomedical Engineering is actively pursuing this aim. Th e Institute is an exciting development for Imperial, it is a working model of the potential for collaborative research to achieve successful outcomes.

Sir Richard Sykes FRS
Rector 2001-2008

The Institute of Biomedical Engineering is the winner of the 2009 Times Higher Education award fo r outstanding contribution to Innovation and Technology