Seminars and Events
Featured Seminar
“Applied Biomedical Signal Processing and Intelligent eHealth (ABSPIeH)”
Date: 7th of August 2018, 11:00
Room: C304, Tait Building
Speaker: Dr Leandro Pecchia - Associate Professor, School of Engineering, University of Warwick
Dr Leandro Pecchia graduated in Biomedical Engineering in 2005 and received the PhD in Health Economy and Management of Healthcare Services in 2009 from the University “Federico II” of Naples. Since 2013, he is Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at The University of Warwick, UK, where he directs the Applied Biomedical Signal Processing and Intelligent eHealth Lab (ABSPIE). He has authored or co-authored about 100 peer-reviewed papers on journals, books and conferences in the fields of Health Technology Assessment (HTA), machine learning and biomedical signal processing applied to healthy ageing, chronic diseases, falls prediction in the elderly. Dr Pecchia is the Chair of the IFMBE Healthcare Technology Assessment Division, Chair of the Public Affair Working Group of the European Alliance of Medical and Biological Engineering and Science and member of the IUPESM Committee on Education and Training.
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Past Seminars
“Respiratory Muscle Research at King’s – It’s not all about the lungs”
Date: 4th July 2018, 11:00
Room: C320, Tait Building
Speaker: Dr Gerrard Rafferty - Reader in Human & Translational Physiology, King’s College London
Dr Gerrard Rafferty, Reader in Human & Translational Physiology at King’s College London (KCL) in the Centre for Human and Applied Physiological Sciences in the School of Basic & Medical Biosciences in the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine. He is a well-established researcher in the area of respiratory and peripheral muscle physiology across the life course in health and disease and has published widely in this area. Working at the interface between basic and clinical physiology, his research has been translational, involving the development and further refinement of measurement techniques to allow understanding of basic physiological processes and the effect of disease pathology and treatment interventions.
"Vascular Optics: Opportunities in Microvascular Imaging and Photoplethysmography"
Date: 4th of September, 2017
Room: C313, Tait Building
Speaker: Dr John Allen - Northern Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering. Freeman Hospital Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Dr John Allen is Lead Clinical Scientist / Senior Research Scientist for Microvascular Diagnostics in Northern Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering, at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital. He is also an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Cellular Medicine at Newcastle University. Dr Allen has over 25 years' experience in vascular optics and associated clinical measurement, research and device development - publishing and presenting widely in each of these areas. John is an Accredited Senior Imaging Scientist and Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.
Abstract
The Newcastle Microvascular Diagnostics Service (MDS) provides a comprehensive array of optical and thermal technologies for assessing micro-circulatory blood flow and function. The clinical test portfolio covers four main areas: connective tissue disease and Raynaud's phenomenon, specialist limb studies (i.e. amputation level, muscle compartment perfusion and venous physiology), neurovascular assessment, and burn wound depth assessment. A brief overview of the history and development of the MDS, tests performed, R&D undertaken, clinical management, and future service directions will be summarized.
Photoplethysmography (PPG)
PPG is a low-cost optical technique that can detect blood volume changes in the microvascular bed. The PPG comprises a pulsatile ('AC') physiological waveform attributed to cardiac synchronous changes in the blood volume with each heart-beat, and is superimposed on a slowly varying ('DC') baseline with various lower frequency components attributed to respiration, sympathetic nervous system activity and thermoregulation. PPG technology can provide valuable information about the cardiovascular system, and is used in a wide range of commercially available medical devices for measuring oxygen saturation, blood pressure and cardiac output, assessing autonomic function and detecting peripheral vascular diseases. This talk highlights the recent resurgence of interest in the technique, driven by the demand for low-cost portable / wearable devices for the primary care and community based clinical settings, low-cost / miniature semiconductor components, and the advancement of signal processing / pulse wave analysis techniques.
“Innovative Medical Technology”
Date:June 12 2017 - 15:00
Room: Room C318 Tait Building
Speaker: Professor Dingchang Zheng – Faculty of Medical Sciences- Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, UK
Prof Dingchang Zheng, Prof of Medical Technology Innovation, received his B.Eng. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Zhejiang University, China, in 2002, and the Ph.D. degree in Medical Physics from Newcastle University, UK, in 2006. He is the program leader of the BSc and MSc in Medical Technology at Anglia Ruskin University, and was a research group leader at Newcastle University. Prof Zheng is a research expert in cardiovascular engineering, working across multidisciplinary areas with electronic engineers, medical physicists, computer scientists, clinical consultants, industrial partners, guideline makers, and allied professionals at different stages along the pathway of cardiovascular device development and commercialization. He has earned his reputation in research and development of novel cardiovascular technologies and devices with scientific and socioeconomic impacts to address unmet clinical needs, particularly in novel blood pressure and arterial stiffness measurement techniques, and recent developments on monitoring devices and systems using cardiovascular parameters for early detection of pre-term labor, pregnancy induced hypertension, pneumonia, and sleep apnoea.
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Innovative Medical Technology to Assess the Health of the Peripheral Artery Arteries are naturally compliant, but become stiff and less able to respond to different clinical and physiological changes. Poor compliance is an independent predictor of cardiovascular morbidity. A method for assessing the normal flexibility of arteries would therefore be of great value. Current non-invasive techniques, including ultrasound measurement, analysis of arterial pulse characteristics and measurement of pulse wave velocity, measure the compliance indirectly. However, as suggested by the UK national and international guideline bodies, there is currently no acceptable, reliable compliance technique for routine clinical use. This indicates an urgent need to develop alternatives. This talk will introduce a novel and award-winning technique developed at Prof Zheng’s group to measure accurately arterial elasticity (distensibility) with applied external cuff pressures around the arm. Next, its clinical effectiveness from various clinical validation studies will also be discussed.
“Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators Today”
Date: Monday 5th December - 14.00
Room: Room C305 Tait Building
Speaker: Dr Stephen O’Connor Ph.D., Hon. FRCP –Global Bio Enterprises Limited, Milton Keynes, UK.
Stephen O’Connor graduated in Physics at King’s College London and continued with post-graduate studies, obtaining M.Sc. and Ph.D. qualifications, at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, University of London. He is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Physicist, as well as being a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine. He became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London in 2005, the highest honour that they can bestow on a non-medically qualified person. He has worked within biomedical engineering for 38 years and with implantable medical devices for 26 years. Areas of endeavour include instrumentation, physiological measurement and implantable devices. More specific areas of interest include pulmonary function and drug delivery systems, cardiovascular prostheses as well as implantable devices for use in cardiology and Neurology. He consults with a number of start-up companies in his areas of interest. He is a Visiting Professor at City, University of London.
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“The bio-inspired artificial pancreas for treatment of diabetes”
Date: 8 June 2016 at 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Room: Northampton Suite A
Speaker: Dr Pantelis Georgiou – Imperial College London
Pantelis Georgiou currently holds the position of Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London within the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He is the head of the Bio-inspired Metabolic Technology Laboratory in the Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology; a multi-disciplinary group that invents, develops and demonstrates advanced micro-devices to meet global challenges in biomedical science and healthcare. His research includes ultra-low power micro-electronics, bio-inspired circuits and systems, lab-on-chip technology and application of micro-electronic technology to create novel medical devices. One of his key research focuses is on new technologies for treatment of Diabetes such as the artificial pancreas but also develops novel lab-on-chip technology with application in genomics and diagnostics in antimicrobial resistance (AMR), in addition to wearable technologies for rehabilitation of chronic conditions. Dr. Georgiou graduated with a 1st Class Honours MEng Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 2004 and Ph.D. degree in 2008 both from Imperial College London. He then joined the Institute of Biomedical Engineering as Research Associate until 2010, when he was appointed Head of the Bio-inspired Metabolic Technology Laboratory. In 2011, he joined the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, where he currently holds an academic faculty position. He conducted pioneering work on the silicon beta cell and is now leading the project forward to the development of the first bio-inspired artificial pancreas for treatment of Type I diabetes. In addition to this, he made significant contributions to the development of integrated chemical-sensing systems in CMOS. He has pioneered the development of the Ion-sensitive Field effect Transistor, an integrated pH sensor which is currently being used in next generation DNA sequencing machines, demonstrating for the first time it’s use in low-power weak-inversion, and it’s capability in a multimodal sensing array for Lab-on-chip applications. Dr Georgiou is a senior member of the IEEE and IET and serves on the BioCAS and Sensory Systems technical committees of the IEEE CAS Society. He is also the CAS representative on the IEEE sensors council. In 2013 he was awarded the IET Mike Sergeant Achievement Medal for his outstanding contributions to engineering and development of the artificial pancreas.
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“Low Cost, Point of Decision Molecular Sensing”
Date: May 11, 2016 at 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Room: Northampton Suite A
Speaker: Dr Tony Cass – Imperial College London
After graduating with degrees in Chemistry from the Universities of York and Oxford Tony moved to Imperial College London where he is Professor of Chemical Biology in the Department of Chemistry and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal Society of Biology as well as a member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology and the American Chemical Society. Tony’s research has been recognised by a Royal Society Mullard Medal and a Royal Society of Chemistry Chemical Landmark Award, he is also co-founder of Bionano Consulting.
Abstract
Making the sensors low cost and easy to use then enables them to be widely adopted and opens the opportunity to ‘crowd source’ analytical data in a way that is not feasible with laboratory based instruments. Prof. Cass will discuss three of his group’s current projects in continuous glucose sensing, in influenza detection and measurement of arsenic in drinking water that illustrate some of these ideas.
“Neural Interfaces & Microsystems: from State-of-the-Art to the Next Generation”
Date: 6 April 2016 4:00pm - 5:00pm
Room: C320
Speaker: Dr Timothy Constandinou – Imperial College London
Dr Timothy Constandinou is a Senior Lecturer and EPSRC Research Fellow at Imperial College London and also Deputy Director of the Centre for Bio-inspired Technology. Dr Constandinou received BEng and PhD degrees in Electronic Engineering from Imperial College London in 2001 and 2005, respectively. He leads the Next Generation Neural Interfaces research group at Imperial; a multidisciplinary team of approx. 15 full time researchers. The group utilizes integrated circuit and microsystem technologies to create advanced neural interfaces that enable new scientific and prosthetic applications. The ultimate goal is to develop devices that interface with neural pathways for restoring lost function in sensory, cognitive and motor impaired patients. He is currently associate editor of IEEE Trans. Biomedical Circuits & Systems (TBioCAS), is chair-elect of the IEEE Sensory Systems Technical Committee, and member of IEEE BioCAS Technical Committee. He is currently chair of the IET Awards & Prizes committee and also serves on the IET Knowledge Services Board.
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“Research in Biofluid Mechanics: some examples”
Date: 17 February 2016 13:00pm - 14:00pm
Room: AG04
Speaker: Professor Christoph Bruecker –City, University of London
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RCBE Journal Club
In order to keep the ideas flowing and the conversation ongoing, the members of the centre get together every two weeks to discuss a peer-reviewed paper from any discipline, mostly related to the work done within the centre.