Welcome to
Biomedical Engineering

The Center for Emerging Imaging Technologies (CEIT) serves as a hub for the development and application of advanced biomedical imaging technologies.

CEIT brings together UT Austin engineers and scientists with clinical scientists and physicians at various medical centers within Texas. CEIT builds on strengths in optical imaging, biomedical optics, ultrasound and image processing to create novel imaging approaches for understanding basic biological processes and clinical applications for disease treatment and diagnosis. 

CEIT fosters collaborative imaging research at the interface of the chemical, physical, mathematical, engineering and life sciences. CEIT focuses on the following research areas for diagnosis and treatment of disease: 

Novel Imaging Techniques: Researchers are developing new techniques for imaging biological structure and function with unprecedented resolution and sensitivity. To better understand fundamental biology and clinically driven problems, researchers are developing approaches based on optics, ultrasound and MRI. 

Instrumentation and Devices: Researchers are developing new devices based on microfluidics, nanoelectronics and biomedical microelectromechanical systems (bio-MEMS). 

Imaging Contrast Agents: Researchers are developing new probes based on plasmonic particles, fluorescent contrast agents for molecular imaging and genetically encoded fluorescent probes. 

Image Processing, Modeling and Informatics: Researchers are leading clinical studies with partners at local medical centers and industry collaborators. 

Center for Emerging Imaging Technologies

The goal of the Willerson Center for Cardiovascular Modeling and Simulation (WCCMS) is to develop computational biomechanical models for understanding heart valve and heart disease progression for developing clinical interventions, including prosthetic devices. 

The center develops and uses a range of unique in vivo and in vitro data for elucidating mechanisms that underlie the observed pathologies. The modeling focus is the detailed incorporation of this data to provide a high level of physical and physiological realism and validation, working at the continuum-cellular, fibrous-tissue and whole-organ levels. 

The WCCMS ultimately seeks to provide cardiovascular scientists and clinicians with advanced simulations for the rational development of treatments for structural heart and heart valve diseases. Such simulations can ultimately lead to reduction in development time, lowering of morbidity and mortality, reduced re-operative rates and lessened post-operative recovery time. 

The development and use of these tools in the context of patient-specific models will ultimately also allow clinicians to craft therapies that are optimized for the cardiovascular system of individuals, with a resulting increase in success and decrease in risk-adverse side effects. 

Types of Research

• Advanced modeling and simulation technologies for cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons
• Valve function modeling
• Computational platforms to evaluate and predict effects of myocardial infarction on cardiac function impairment
• Modeling and simulation of engineered valvular and pulmonary artery tissues for surgical replacement

Willerson Center for Cardiovascular Modeling and Simulation

The Center for Computational Oncology's vision is to develop biophysical models of tumor initiation, growth, invasion and metastasis to establish a sound theoretical framework for describing the hallmarks of cancer and to use this knowledge to discover fundamental cancer biology and develop tumor-forecasting methods to optimize treatment and outcomes for the individual patient. 

The last half decade has seen an explosion in literature on mathematical and computational models of invasion of growth of tumors in living tissue. Particularly intriguing is the progress toward patient-specific treatments made possible by new predictive computer simulations. 

The reasons for this new potential in tumor growth models include: 

An increasing consensus in the medical science community on the principal mechanisms leading to various cancer types. 

New families of models based on a better understanding of the role of genetics in encoding proteins that form phenotypes and molecular alterations at the gene, cell and tissue level. These models could greatly increase our understanding of the origins and growth of cancer and new therapies to combat it. These advances have led to a flurry of new multiscale computational models that depict events at many spatial and temporal scales, from sub-cellular to cellular to tissue and organ levels. 

The gradual emergence of predictive medical sciences, which addresses in depth the actual validity and, equivalently, the predictability of various models in the presence of uncertainties. This vital discipline has come to the forefront because the indispensable data needed to calibrate and validate tumor growth models have only recently become available. 

The enormous advances in high-performance computing have brought into play an arsenal of new tools with great potential for developing realistic high-fidelity simulations of cancer cell behavior. 

The Center for Computational Oncology is involved in active research in many of the foundations of modeling tumor growth and in accessing and employing relevant in vitro and in vivo data to calibrate and validate predictive models. 

Center for Computational Oncology

The Institute for Biomaterials, Drug Delivery and Regenerative Medicine provides a focal point for impactful activities in research, education and service in biomaterials, drug delivery and regenerative medicine—key areas to transforming health care.

Focus Areas

Cancer: The physics of cancer, biological modeling of the growth and treatment of tumors, theranostics and nanotechnology of chemotherapeutic drug administration

Cardiovascular diseases: Advanced artificial organs, medical devices, stents, and assist devices

Diabetes: Improved feedback-controlled devices, advanced therapeutics, including sensors and release systems and pumps

Neurological diseases: Diagnostics and imaging, regenerative medicine fo the nervous system

Infectious and autoimmune diseases: Novel noninvasive early detection and diagnostics using nanotechnology

Institute for Biomaterials, Drug Delivery and Regenerative Medicine