Research Centre for Biomedical Engineering
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Biomedical Engineering

Resources & Facilities

The new Biomedical Engineering Research laboratories are part of a multi-million pound investment that took place at City, University of London over the last few years. They form a highly specialized research facility that is aimed at the development of cutting edge bio-sensing, diagnostic and rehabilitation devices.

Sensor and instrumentation fabrication laboratory

This laboratory contains state of the art facilities that allow the design and fabrication of optical, fibre optic and electrochemical sensors, such as clean bench facilities, advanced 3D printing, and CNC manufacturing. Also available are engineering design tools, including Cadence, and prototyping devices, such as solder ovens and pick-and-place equipment, for small-scale mass production of analogue and digital circuits. The lab also provides the latest analogue and digital test equipment used for the technical evaluation of the developed sensors and instrumentation. They include 4-channel high accuracy and bandwidth mixed-signal oscilloscopes with touch displays; advanced fully programmable 30MHz, 2-channel arbitrary waveform generators; analogue signal generators that allow for the generation of up to 3GHz signals; a 5Hz-3GHz network analyser; a 4 channel FFT dynamic signal analyser for the analysis of mHz bio-signals; an isolated isolation amplifier for Electrical Stimulation experiments; and a 68-channel logic analyser; and a precision impedance analyser. A state of the art environmental chamber is also available for testing the sensors under different environmental conditions (temperature and humidity).

Optical spectroscopy and wet laboratory

The optical spectroscopy and wet laboratory houses a range of analytical instrumentation for conducting in vitro spectroscopic research, in vitro rheological research and vascular mechanics studies. The available spectrometers (UV-VIS, FIR, NIR, and FLAME PHOTOMETER) are amongst the best in the community, and cover a broad range of wavelengths that extend from UV to far IR at high resolutions. Accessories for many of these instruments are also available, to allow in vivo work to be performed on human volunteers, or for dealing with substances that are difficult to sample. The chemical section of this laboratory includes necessary equipment for preparation of chemical solutions, and dealing with biological samples, and is also equipped with a centrifuge, a controlled stress rheometer, and conductivity/pH meters. This area also hosts a hub for experimental fluid dynamics and mechanics. A pulsatile pump setup with a model of an arterial network is designed to mimic the human circulation for controlled cardiovascular and haemodynamic investigations.

The dark room

The dark room provides the environment for experimental work involving free optics and lasers, used for the development and evaluation of optical and fibreoptic sensors.  The dark room offers optical benches, lasers and all associate optical accessories and components including optical tooling in order to support this activity.

Physiological measurement laboratory

The Physiological Measurement laboratory is a temperature-controlled clinical area for conducting physiological studies in volunteer subjects. It is equipped with state of the art commercial patient monitoring equipment such as ECG, continuous blood pressure, pulse oximetry, and near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), as well as experimental devices and sensors developed in the research centre.  There are multi-channel data acquisition systems and facilities for blood sampling, sample handling and analysis equipment, namely blood gas analysis and haemoximetry. The laboratory also contains an adjustable bed for prone and Trelendenberg (head up/down) positions. The physiological measurement laboratory provides an ideal quiet and discreet environment for detailed study of physiological phenomena and validation of experimental sensors and instrumentation under different environmental conditions and physiological challenges. There are plans to extend the range and utility of this laboratory to include exercise and hypoxia challenge conditions.

Electrical impedance laboratory

The Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy laboratory contains state of the art equipment for the design, fabrication and testing of electrodes, fluidics, electronics and microelectronics of impedimetry-related systems. Software includes Cadence IC and Cadence PCB for custom ASIC micro-sensor and auto-adaptive front-end circuit design; and COMSOL for FEM simulations used in the design of electrodes and multi-electrode arrays. Instrumentation includes an industry standard LCR meter that provides speed and versatility for a wide range of fluidic measurements and a high bandwidth precision impedance analyzer for analysis of electrode performance and tissue analysis. The instruments are used in conjunction with custom-fabricated fluidic channels and electrodes as well as sophisticated analogue and digital electronics for the analysis of bio-fluids and tissue and the development of hybrid diagnostic devices in conjunction with other sensing modalities.

Signal and image processing laboratory

The computation laboratory contains powerful computational facilities and workstations for advanced signal analysis, signal processing and image processing. The group analyses data sets (signals, images, videos, three-dimensional volumes and three-dimensional volumes in time) off-line by developing bespoke algorithms tailored to the data using software platforms, mainly in Matlab and LabVIEW. Software licences are available to researchers covering many areas of biomedical research, from Magnetic Resonance Images in the analysis of cartilage thickness to pre-clinical experiments of Cancer, Inflammation and Radiation.