The aim is to research and develop innovative diagnostic, therapeutic and real-time monitoring biomedical devices and technologies.

The main research initiatives in Bioengineering can be split into three key areas:

• Assistive technologies for stem cell medicine
• Medical diagnostics and biosensing
• Synthetic biology and industrial biotechnology

Within assistive technologies for stem cell medicine, research focuses on engineering approaches to assist in the provision of stem cells (SCs) for regenerative medicine and cell therapy. Examples of this area include 3D stem cell printing technologies for organ regeneration and tackling the challenges of ex vivo expansion of artificial blood from human stem cells.

IMPACT - Implantable Microsystems for Personalised Anti-Cancer Therapy

IMPACT is a 5-year, £5.2M research project, funded by an EPSRC Programme Grant, to develop new approaches to cancer treatment, using implanted, smart sensors on silicon, fabricated in the University's Scottish Microelectronics Centre. IMPACT will use miniaturised, wireless sensor chips the size of a grass seed to monitor the minute-to-minute status of an individual tumour. This will allow RT to be targeted in space and time to damage cancer cells as much as possible. The team consists of engineers, chemists, veterinary clinicians, social scientists and human cancer specialists, led by Prof Alan Murray.