Interdisciplinary research in medical textiles

1. Interdisciplinary research in medical textiles Lecture presentation by: Professor Dr. FaheemUddin, C. Text., FTI Professor and Chairman Textile Engineering, BUITEMS, Quetta. Presented at Faculty of Life Sciences, BUITEMS, Quetta.

2. Interdisciplinary research in medical textiles • Contents • Aims of presentation • What is interdisciplinary research • Why interdisciplinary research • Medical textiles • Market in medical textiles • Pakistan and medical textiles • Doable in medical textiles • Height in medical textiles • Closing comments • Your feedback/ comments/ enquiries

3. Aims of presentation • Realization of medical textiles discipline as an interdisciplinary subject of study. • Introducing medical textiles and developing motivation in the medical textile study. • Identifying potential areas for the local postgraduate studies in medical textiles.

4. What is interdisciplinary research- I! • Interdisciplinary research (IDR) is research by teams or individuals that integrates information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, and/or theories from two or more disciplines or bodies of specialized knowledge to advance fundamental understanding or to solve problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single discipline or area of research practice. • Ref: National Academy of Sciences, USA.

5. Major requirements in interdisciplinary research • Sustained and intense communication, measureable performance of leadership, appropriate reward and incentive mechanisms (including career and financial rewards), adequate time, seed funding for initial exploration, and willingness. Other key conditions include: • Common problems must be solved by leadership • An environment that encourages faculty/researcher collaboration establishing a team philosophy frequent meetings among team members • Closer association of funding organization • Co-location of researchers • Shared instrumentation • Enhancing chance meetings between researchers, such as onsite cafeterias • Professional recognition of successful practitioners of IDR. • Source- http://www.pkal.org/documents/VisionOfInterdisciplinaryResearch.cfm

6. Interdisciplinary research teams on ground

10. What is interdisciplinary research- II • Scientific revolutions of 17th-century- Europe, Geniuses— Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke, Edmond Halley, Robert Boyle etc. • They led to basic discoveries that bear their names- and also on every kind of interdisciplinary challenge • Many of the known research achievement are products of interdisciplinary research: discovery of the structure of DNA, magnetic resonance, imaging, laser eye surgery, radar, human genome sequencing, and manned space flight.

11. Why interdisciplinary research- I • The society, materials and environment that we are surrounded demand collective response. The results, findings and products of interdisciplinary research bring significant impact in shorter time. • Today, interdisciplinary centers, institutes, programs, and other structural mechanisms are on and adjacent to university campuses; • These research units often outnumber traditional departments. Despite frequent tensions over budgets, space, and intellectual turf, many of these centers and institutes are vibrant research and training environments.

12. Why interdisciplinary research- II • Interdisciplinary research provide: • Enhanced outcomes for environment, society and industry. • Reduced research expenditure in achieving useable products. • Bringing significant value to innovation in the progress of environment, society and industry. • Today most stable and progressive countries in world are INNOVATIVE. What about INDIA!

13. Introducing medical textiles-I • Fibers and textile used in curing, medical treatment support, health enhancer, and as medicine and ligament. • Prothesis- An external or synthetic device used as replacement to body part. Artificial knees and hips. • One in ten American has an implanted medical device. • Examples- Surgeons wear, wound dressings, masks, bandages, artificial ligaments, sutures, artificial liver/kidney/lungs, nappies, sanitary towels, vascular grafts/heart valves, artificial joints/bones, eye contact lenses and artificial cornea etc. (http://www.prlog.org/10007609-introduction-to-medical-textile.html)

14. Introducing medical textiles-II • Indian literature written 2500 years back had mentioned medical purpose use of fibrous fibers- horse hair, cotton, leather strips, animal sinew (tough fibrous tissue connecting muscle to bone), fibrous tree bark. • Wound closure, sanitary naps, and replacement surgery (vascular grafts, artificial ligaments). • Softness, flexibility, strength, bio- receptivity, biocompatibility, porosity, non- toxicity. • Can you see these properties in any other material!!!

15. Wound closure

16. The Medical Journal of Australia/Wyeth Award for clinical research work on medical sheepskins • During a six-month study at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, the CSIRO team, headed by Dr Ken Montgomery, compared the susceptibility to the condition of 218 patients allocated a sheepskin mattress overlay, with a 223-patient reference group.  • The ‘randomised controlled trial’ (RCT), involved:CSIRO, Deakin and Melbourne universities, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Fremantle and St Vincent’s hospitals.A mattress overlay made of Sheepskin can reduce the incidence of pressure ulcers by 58 per cent. This represents a significant cost saving to the Australian medical system and patients.

17. Mattress overlay sheepskinSheepskin has 6000 fibers per square cm providing a natural cushion to human body and pressure build up.

18. Regenerative medicine • Regenerative medicine helps natural healing processes to damaged tissue that would not ordinarily regrow. • Regenerative therapies were demonstrated (in trials or the laboratory) to heal broken bones, bad burns, blindness, deafness, heart damage, nerve damage, and a range of other conditions. Work continues to bring these advances to patients. • Aging damages every part of body, however - including the stem cells required for regenerative therapies. Extended healthy longevity, by repairing some of the damage caused by aging, organ by organ! • http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2003/11/stem-cells-regenerative-medicine-and-tissue-engineering.php

19. Carbon nanotube yarns in regenerative medicine (wound healing) • It illustrates how we are seeding fibroblast cells onto carbon nanotube yarns and observing their attachment, growth, morphology and biocompatibility. • As cells proliferate over the yarn surface, a biological synthetic composite is created with numerous potential applications in regenerative medicine. CSIRO • A fibroblast cell- a type of cell that synthesizes the extracellular matrix and collagen, the structural framework (stroma) for animal tissues, and play a critical role in wound healing.

20. Carbon nanotube yarns (fibroblast cell onto)

21. Insecticidal mosquito net-fighting malaria • The polypropylene granules and the insecticide are mixed and briefly heated so that the two solid components start to liquify and melt together,” Dr. Maren Heinemann, Bayer. • Subseqent to several additional processing steps, the fine plastic filaments can be woven into tear-resistant, close-meshed and soft bed nets. • The weave contains uniformly distributed deltamethrin that gradually migrates from the active ingredient in the fibres to its surface. • “Few seconds of contact is enough to neutralize the Anopheles mosquitoes,” Bayer. • Visit for picture- http://www.innovationintextiles.com/articles/870.php

22. Insecticidal mosquito net

23. Modeling India in medical textiles- South India Textile Research Association (SITRA)http://www.sitrameditech.org.in/news.php?id=137

24. Medical Textiles in healing: The Unsung heroes Worldwide Medical Textiles- Volume and Values 1995 – 2010 Source: David Rigby Associates

25. Pakistan and Medical Textiles • The Stake holders • Universities • Research funding organizations • Industrial development organizations • Health care sector • Textile departments and institutes • Medical and health departments and institutes • Medicine and health care product manufacturing and supplying business companies.

26. Doable- start up in medical textiles

27. Doable in medical textiles

28. The End • Comments and Feedback. • Contact details: • Prof. Dr. FaheemUddin, C. Text., FTI • Professor and Chairman Textile Engineering Department, FOE, BUITEMS, Quetta. • Emails. Faheem.Uddin@buitms.edu.pk • dfudfuca@yahoo.ca , scienceamerica@gmail.com