Alexandra Berr

Knowledge of anatomy (structure) and physiology (function) are critical to understanding how an organism maintains homeostasis. Systems must work in concert to ensure proper health of an individual. Students will learn about the respiratory, cardiac, endocrine, digestive, musculoskeletal, nervous, and reproductive systems. This course will cover how structure leads to function, along with the diseases that occur following anatomical/physiological dysregulation. Emphasis will be placed on contextualizing information as it relates to medical applications. Conference work will consist of a literature review on a student-selected disease process and its related physiology.

This course is designed to introduce students to the ways in which scientists use engineering tools to interrogate basic biology. Students with knowledge of basic biology will gain a deeper understanding of disease processes through current research in the biomedical engineering field. The course is designed around primary research in the field: The first class of the week will be a lecture covering background information, and the second class will consist of a peer-led discussion of a current research article. Students will aim to answer the following guiding questions: What is the main finding of this research? How does this work advance the field? What future experiments would you propose related to this research? We will cover topics including biomechanics, medical imaging, tissue engineering, drug delivery, immunoengineering, and cancer applications of bioengineering.