Imperial’s Department of Bioengineering celebrates new office, learning and research spaces <em>– News</em>
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Thursday 16 October 2008
By Colin Smith
World leading bioengineering education and research received a boost this month, with the official opening of new £8.4 million facilities at Imperial College London (16 October).
The opening of new facilities sees the Department of Bioengineering consolidated under one roof at the College’s South Kensington Campus, after years of being based in eight separate locations.
The range of new facilities include labs, open plan seating for 68 PhD academics, a café, common rooms, two lecture theatres, new rooms for symposia and conferences, as well as 29 academic and administrative offices that are providing modern and flexible spaces for learning and working.
The construction of new labs gives scientists the scope to carry out a range of activities including research to combat diseases such as atherosclerosis where arteries thicken and harden from fatty deposits.
Other labs are being used to investigate the human circulatory system to improve the effectiveness of vascular grafts, which are used to by-pass blocked arteries. Novel sensors will also be built and tested to detect infections in wounds that are healing after operations.
In addition, the Department boasts new labs to further studies in body motion, such as walking and running, to improve the performance of athletes. These labs are also being used to understand the forces which affect joints that can lead to diseases which cause them to inflame such as arthritis.
Professor Ross Ethier, Head of the Department of Bioengineering, says the new facilities and teaching spaces will provide much needed room for the Department to expand its undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD programmes, as well as fostering scientific creativity:
“Advances in scientific research are often made by serendipitous interactions in the hallway. Thanks to consolidation of this department in one location, our researchers and students are set to benefit from closer interactions that will facilitate collaborative research and hopefully the next big scientific breakthrough in bioengineering.”
New labs to combat diseases such as atherosclerosis
The facilities were opened by Professor Lord Rees, President of the Royal Society, who was joined by Imperial’s Rector, Sir Roy Anderson, to officially unveil a plaque. Remarking on the refurbished facilities, Sir Roy says:
“The Department of Bioengineering is at the forefront of research that is addressing issues of relevance to human health and wellbeing. What happens in these laboratories has a real effect on people’s lives and I am delighted that the Department now has the advanced facilities it needs and deserves to carry out world leading research.”
Research from the Department has already resulted in the creation of six new companies and the commercialisation of devices including eletro-surgical equipment that seals blood vessels during liver resection to reduce blood loss by 90 per cent and hospital stays by 50 per cent.
Other breakthroughs are improving the lives of those living with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), an illness that affects the air ways, with new equipment regulating oxygen flow in the respiratory system to improve breathing.
Research in Bioengineering is highly interdisciplinary and involves extensive collaborations with departments from all faculties in the College. Research themes focus on blood flow and arterial diseases, bone growth and stress, respiration, eyes diseases, medical technologies, and studies to understand the functioning of the brain.
The Department obtained the only 5* rating in bioengineering in the last Research and Assessment Exercise carried out by the UK Government in 2001.
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