Body Building

When:

11 May 2011

09:00 Hour - 17:30 Hour

Event organizer:Life Science, Health & Medical Technologies

Description

Every year, S.V.Paradoks, the study association of Technical Medicine and Biomedical Engineering, organises a symposium where a number of current topics at the interface of medicine and engineering are highlighted.
This year, too, an enthusiastic committee of six students has been formed to take care of the entire organisation, in order to organise a successful and smoothly running symposium on 11 May 2011.
This year's theme is: Body Building - new technologies for human improvement.

Willem Kollf was born about a hundred years ago. He stood at the base of an invention that has meant a lot for the development of artificial organs. Professor Kolff (who died in 2009) invented the artificial kidney in 1943, the forerunner of today's dialysis machine. Although he mainly lives on as the inventor of the artificial kidney, he worked on many other artificial organs throughout his life. In 1957, for instance, he also developed the world's first artificial heart.

This step towards artificial organs became an inspiration to many. Human-improving techniques are in full development, with 3D organ printers even set to appear on the market. As a variant of Kolff's artificial kidney, a portable artificial kidney has recently been developed, in which dialysis is performed using nanoparticles. These and many other developments towards artificial organs are typical examples in the field of interest of the Technical Medicine and Biomedical Engineer. The Biomedical Engineer seeks to solve medical problems with technical solutions. The Technical Medicine Engineer will apply the techniques in a clinical setting; he will be closer to the patient.
Day chairman of this symposium will be Prof Dr Clemens van Blitterswijk, director of MIRA, the Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technical Medicine.

The theme of the symposium will be the artificial organ. However, the day will be divided into two categories, namely 'improving the sick human' and 'improving the healthy human'

So the first part will be mainly about clinical knowledge of what concerns artificial organs. Mr Herman Broers, co-founder and director of the Willem Kolff Foundation will start with a short introduction on the life of Professor Kolff.
After that, Mr Frank Simonis, founder and developer of Nanodialysis B.V., will talk about the development of the wearable artificial kidney, with future plans aimed at an implantable version.
Prof Dr Ing. Ulrich Steinseifer of the Helmholtz Institute in Aachen is engaged in the development of the artificial heart and will come to talk about this.
Cell biologist Dr Sue Gibbs will also speak about growing skin for wound healing and Dr Eelco de Koning (internist/endocrinologist) will come to tell stories about the possibilities for transplantation of islets of Langerhans in the pancreas.

The second category will be about technological developments to improve the healthy human. Prof Dr Ing Anton Nijholt will come and talk about his studies on non-medical brain-computer interfaces and someone will come and talk about performance-enhancing techniques in the sports world. Finally, Professor of Philosophy of Man and Technology