UK Engineer Applies Feedback Control to Cancer and VALI
Dr Declan Bates is the co-recipient of two grants totaling over ₤1M being awarded to further studies into cancer and ventilator-associated lung injury (VALI), also known as ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI).
What makes theses grants unusual is Dr Bates isn’t an oncologist or physician — he’s an engineer.
Dr Bates, a senior lecturer in the Department of Engineering at the University of Leicester, will be using a principle known as feedback control theory to come up with models for the biochemical pathways responsible for regulating human cells – pathways which play a key role in cancer suppression and development.
He is also applying the theory to construct more realistic patient models intended to reduce the number of ventilator injuries reported each year.
Many patients, especially those who require treatment in Intensive Care Units, will have their breathing assisted by a ventilator at some point in their lives. According to Dr Bates, almost 3 percent of those patients will suffer some sort of lung damage from the ventilator because the machine’s operating systems are based on computer models of “idealized” patients.
Dr Bates will work with biologists and control engineers to complete the new models. When asked about his multidisciplinary projects, he said,
“These may seem worlds apart – especially for an engineer, but they’re united by a common factor – feedback control theory – which of course is a science in its own right.”
Dr Declan Bates
Department of Engineering, University of Leicester (UK)
Scientists from the University of Nottingham and the University of Aberdeen will also participate in the projects.
Source: University of Leicester News
Related Links: Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA); Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC); Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
Related Podcast: Modes of Mechanical Ventilation from Surgery ICU Rounds Podcasts
Technorati Tags: intubation; respiratory care; polyamines
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