Integrating Nanostructures with Biological StructuresInvestigators: M. Stroscio, ECE and BioE; M. Dutta, ECE

Prime Grant Support: ARO, NSF, AFOSR, SRC, DARPA, DHS

Problem Statement and Motivation

Technical Approach Key Achievements and Future Goals

• Coupling manmade nanostructures with biological structures to monitor and control biological processes.

• For underlying concepts see Biological Nanostructures and Applications of Nanostructures in Biology: Electrical, Mechanical, & Optical Properties, edited by Michael A. Stroscio and Mitra Dutta (Kluwer, New York, 2004).

• Synthesis of nanostructures

• Binding nanostructures to manmade structures

• Modeling electrical, optical and mechanical

properties of nanostructures

• Experimental characterization of intergated manmade

nanostructure-biological structures

• Numerous manmade nanostructures have been functionalized with biomolecules

• Nanostructure-biomolecule complexes have been used to study a variety of biological structures including cells

• Interactions between nanostructures with biomolecules and with biological environments have been modeled for a wide variety of systems

• Ultimate goal is controlling biological systems at the nanoscale

Carcinogenic Potential of Wireless Communication RadiationInvestigators: James C. Lin, PhD, Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Bioengineering

Prime Grant Support: Magnetic Health Science Foundation

Problem Statement and Motivation

Technical Approach Key Achievements and Future Goals

• Wide Spread Use of Cell Phone Technology

• Concerns about Health and Safety

• Plectin is A High Molecular Weight Protein

• Plectin Immunoreactivity Follows Brain Injury

• Mutation of Plectin Identified With Signs of Neurodegenerative Disorder

• Irradiate Young Adult Rats (300 g) in Plexiglass Holder

• Produce Power Deposition Patterns in Rat Brains Comparable to Those in Humans

• Brains Were Removed and Incubated

• Floating Sections Were Used for Immunocytochemistry

• Use Monoclonal Antibody - plectin - Labeling

• Examination by Light Microscopy

• Immunolabeling of Irradiated Rat Brain Showed Increased Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (IFAP)

• GFAP Plays An Important Role in Glial Reactions After Lesions

• Preliminary Results Indicate There is No Difference in Expression Pattern of Plectin Among the Brains Tested at Peak SAR levels of 0, 1.6 and 16 W/kg in the brain.

• Additional Experiments to Establish Statistical Validity

Immunolabeling of Irradiated Rat Brain Using Monoclonal Antibody, Pletin.

Teaching Sensorimotor Skills with HapticsInvestigators: Miloš Žefran, ECE; Matteo Corno, ECE; Maxim Kolesnikov, ECE

Prime Grant Support: NSF; UIC College of Dentistry

Problem Statement and Motivation

Technical Approach Key Achievements and Future Goals

• New surgical procedures are introduced at a high rate. Each requires costly training.

• Haptic simulators provide a cost-effective alternative to traditional training: no need to travel, 24/7 availability, easy to create additional units as needed.

• Existing paradigm for haptics is not suitable for teaching sensorimotor skills. Lack of good models and of realistic haptic rendering are main obstacles to creating useful simulators.

• Position and force information are simultaneously displayed to facilitate motor skill acquisition. The user is modeled as a three-input, single-output system.

• The model of the human enables stability analysis through the Lyapunov second method; traditional passivity techniques can not be used. Time delays are critical for stability and are explicitly modeled.

• The Euclidean group SE(3) used to develop haptic rendering algorithms that properly account for translations and rotations. Kinetic energy provides an intrinsic way to define the penetration which is in turn used to compute the reaction force.

• Developed a new paradigm for teaching of sensorimotor skills with haptics.

• Proposed a new model for a user responding to haptic and visual stimuli. The model experimentally verified.

• Stability analysis of the system performed. Stability boundaries explicitly identified.

• Implemented a new method for haptic rendering.

• Future work: applications in medical training, rehabili-tation; faster implementation of the haptic rendering; implementation on cheap haptic displays; extensions of the new paradigm for collaborative haptics.

Cardiac Sound Separation and AnalysisInvestigators: Roland Priemer, ECE; Vivek Nigam , ECE

Prime Grant Support: Prakash Agarwal Foundation

Systolic Murmur Classification

Motivation

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the world.

One percent of all newborns have some sort of heart

dysfunction. The stethoscope is the most widely used frontline

instrument to detect heart dysfunction.

Using the stethoscope requires extensive training .

Interpretation of the phonocardiogram can be subjective .

The phonocardiogram is a mixture of sounds with complexity

that makes it difficult to analyze for diagnosis of heart

dysfunctions .

Problems

Extract discrete heart sounds from the phonocardiogram and develop algorithms for real-time analysis. Non-invasive, easy to use and inexpensive apparatus. Automated support of diagnosis of the separated sounds to classify dysfunctions.

Goals

Phonocardiogram DissectionApply blind source separation algorithms to isolate major delayed components of the heart sound.

Utilize dynamics of the heart to detect and isolate major heart sounds.

Extract clinically relevant features from isolated heart sounds to perform clinical diagnosis.

Simplicity based detection of heart sounds. Top: Mitral stenosis murmur. Bottom: Simplicity of mitral stenosis murmur Simplicity based classification of

systolic murmurs.

Primary auscultation sites.

Heart sound with a VSD murmur.

Motivation, Problems and Goals

Ejection

Regurgitant

Ejection

Ejection or Regurgitant

Ejection or Regurgitant

Normal

Background Noise

Aortic Component

Pulmonary Component

Mitral Component

Tricuspid Component

Murmur

S3

S4

Statistically Independent

Mitral Component

Aortic Component

Murmur

Background NoiseTricuspid Component

Pulmonary Component

Hole