Google inks 40-yr lease for huge office complex

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California - In the latest sign of its ambitious growth plans, Google Inc. has signed a 40-year lease to secure space for a huge office complex that will be built on a federal government research center near the Internet search leader's Silicon Valley headquarters.The 1.2 million-square-foot (110,000 square-meter) campus announced Wednesday fulfills a vision that Google first laid out with the NASA Ames Research Center in 2005. The NASA center is within a 10-minute drive of Google's headquarters in Mountain View.Google anticipates needing the additional space for the thousands of workers it expects to hire as tries to mine more profits from the Internet's advertising market and expand into other areas of technology and media.In the last four years, Google has added more than 17,000 employees to boost its payroll to 19,156 workers. The growth has prompted the company to lease or buy many of the smaller offices circling its headquarters, a 1-million-square-foot campus that Google purchased for $319 million in 2006.The NASA deal sets Google's initial rent for 42.2 acres (17.1 hectares) of land at $3.66 million per year. Google didn't estimate how much it would cost to build the new campus, which will begin construction in 2013 and will include some housing for employees. Google expects to start the final phase of the campus in 2022.After the 40-year lease expires, the agreement could be extended by as much as 50 more years.Google hopes the location of its new offices will make it easier to draw on the brain power of NASA's rocket scientists and give it another competitive advantage over its rivals.The close ties between Google and NASA caused a backlash last year when company co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin negotiated an unusual deal to take off, land and park their private jet at a government-managed airport near where the new offices will be built.Moffett Federal Airfield had been off-limits to most private planes, but Page and Brin got around that restriction by agreeing to pay NASA $1.3 million annually and making a commitment to fly the space agency's equipment on research missions. - AP

Source:GMANEWS.TV

Dollar climbs versus euro, yen on hints Fed done cutting rates

TOKYO - The dollar hit a three-week high against the euro and rose versus the yen Thursday in Asia, building on gains it made overnight on speculation the US Federal Reserve may raise interest rates later this year.The euro fell more than half a US cent to $1.5385 overnight — the lowest since it hit $1.5365 on May 12 — and was trading at $1.5404 midafternoon in Tokyo. The dollar climbed nearly a third of a yen to 105.52.Hawkish comments made over the past couple of days by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke — particularly his warnings about a weak dollar Tuesday and his description of domestic inflation expectations as "a significant concern" Wednesday — have bolstered sentiment that the US central bank is done cutting rates, analysts said."Sentiment (toward the dollar) appears to be changing following a series of Bernanke comments," said Koji Fukaya, senior currency analyst at Deutsche Securities. "With (recent US) economic indicators relatively good, it's gradually getting clearer that the Fed's monetary policy stance is to push rates higher rather than lower over time."Meanwhile, the New Zealand dollar tumbled to $0.7656, well below Wednesday's closing level of $0.7798. The kiwi dove after Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Alan Bollard dropped hints that a rate cut could come as early as September.The US dollar rose against other major Asian currencies, trading at 44.06 Philippine pesos, 1.3683 Singapore dollars and 1,023.0 South Korean won. - AP


Source:GMANEWS.TV

Biomedical engineering

Biomedical engineering (BME) is the application of engineering principles and techniques to the medical field. It combines the design and problem solving skills of engineering with medical and biological sciences to help improve patient health care and the quality of life of individuals.
As a relatively new discipline, much of the work in biomedical engineering consists of research and development, covering an array of fields: bioinformatics, medical imaging, image processing, physiological signal processing, biomechanics, biomaterials and bioengineering, systems analysis, 3-D modeling, etc. Examples of concrete applications of biomedical engineering are the development and manufacture of biocompatible prostheses, medical devices, diagnostic devices and imaging equipment such as MRIs and EEGs, and pharmaceutical drugs.

Image processing

Image processing is any form of signal processing for which the input is an image, such as photographs or frames of video; the output of image processing can be either an image or a set of characteristics or parameters related to the image. Most image-processing techniques involve treating the image as a two-dimensional signal and applying standard signal-processing techniques to it.
Image processing usually refers to digital image processing, but optical and analog image processing are also possible. This article is about general techniques that apply to all of them.

Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics and computational biology involve the use of techniques including applied mathematics, informatics, statistics, computer science, artificial intelligence, chemistry, and biochemistry to solve biological problems usually on the molecular level. The core principle of these techniques is using computing resources in order to solve problems on scales of magnitude far too great for human discernment. Research in computational biology often overlaps with systems biology. Major research efforts in the field include sequence alignment, gene finding, genome assembly, protein structure alignment, protein structure prediction, prediction of gene expression and protein-protein interactions, and the modeling of evolution.

3D modeling

In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical, wireframe representation of any three-dimensional object (either inanimate or living) via specialized software. The product is called a 3D model. It can be displayed as a two-dimensional image through a process called 3D rendering or used in a computer simulation of physical phenomena. The model can also be physically created using 3D Printing devices.
Models may be created automatically or manually. The manual modeling process of preparing geometric data for 3D computer graphics is similar to plastic arts such as sculpting

Bioengineering

Bioengineering (also encompases biomedical engineering and medical engineering) is an application of engineering principles and design to challenges in human health and medicine. Bioengineering is related to Biological Engineering, the latter including applications of engineering principles to the full spectrum of living systems, from microbes and plants to ecosystems. Bioengineering exploits new developments in molecular biology, biochemistry, microbiology, and neuroscience as well as sensing, electronics, and imaging, and applies them to the design of medical devices, diagnostic equipment, biocompatible materials, and other important medical needs. Bioengineering couples engineering expertise with knowledge in biological sciences such as genetics, molecular biology, protein chemistry, cytology, neurobiology, immunology, physiology, and pharmacology. Bioengineers work closely with, but are not limited to, medical doctors and other health professionals to develop technical solutions to current and emerging health concerns.
Bioengineering is not limited to the medical field. Bioengineers have the ability to exploit new opportunities and solve problems within the domain of complex systems. They have a great understanding of living systems as complex systems which can be applied to many fields including entrepreneurship.
Much as other engineering disciplines also address human health (e.g., prosthetics in mechanical engineering), bioengineers can apply their expertise to other applications of engineering and biotechnology, including genetic modification of plants and microorganisms, bioprocess engineering, and biocatalysis. However, the Main Fields of Bioengineering may be categorised as:
*Biomedical Engineering; Biomedical technology; Biomedical Diagnosis, Biomedical Therapy, Biomechanics, Biomaterials.
*Genetic Engineering; Cell Engineering, Tissue Culture Engineering.
The word was invented by British scientist and broadcaster Heinz Wolf in 1954.
"Bioengineering" is also the term used to describe the use of vegetation in civil engineering construction.
The term bioengineering covers a range of applications, including surface soil protection, slope stabilisation, watercourse and shoreline protection, windbreaks, vegetation barriers including noise barriers and visual screens, and the ecological enhancement of an area.
Vegetation can affect the stability of slopes by modifying the hydrological regime in the soil. The root systems of woody perennial species are considered one of the most beneficial types of vegetation for bioengineering, due to the ability of the strong woody root systems to penetrate the soil at depth, providing an anchoring system to the substrate, whilst binding the soil particles together, thus increasing the shear strength of the slope. Roots of vegetation also decrease the soil water content by water uptake through the root system. The higher the rate of evapotranspiration of the plant, the more water will be required, so larger plants with high rates of evapotranspiration are favoured from a bioengineering perspective.
Species often used in bioengineering applications include willow, poplar, grasses and native shrub species.

Prosthesis

In medicine, a prosthesis is an artificial extension that replaces a missing body part. It is part of the field of biomechatronics, the science of fusing mechanical devices with human muscle, skeleton, and nervous systems to assist or enhance motor control lost by trauma, disease, or defect. Prostheses are typically used to replace parts lost by injury (traumatic) or missing from birth (congenital) or to supplement defective body parts. In addition to the standard artificial limb for every-day use, many amputees have special limbs and devices to aid in the participation of sports and recreational activities.

Systems biology

Systems biology is a relatively new biological study field that focuses on the systematic study of complex interactions in biological systems, thus using a new perspective (integration instead of reduction) to study them. Particularly from year 2000 onwards, the term is used widely in the biosciences, and in a variety of contexts. Because the scientific method has been used primarily toward reductionism, one of the goals of systems biology is to discover new emergent properties that may arise from the systemic view used by this discipline in order to understand better the entirety of processes that happen in a biological system.

Transport phenomena

In physics, chemistry, biology and engineering, a transport phenomenon is any of various mechanisms by which particles or quantities move from one place to another. The laws which govern transport connect a flux with a "motive force". Three common examples of transport phenomena are diffusion, convection, and radiation.
There are three main categories of transport phenomena:
Heat transfer,
Mass transfer, and
Fluid dynamics (or momentum transfer)
An important principle in the study of transport phenomena is analogy between phenomena. For example, mass, energy, and momentum can all be transported by diffusion:
The spreading and dissipation of odors in air is an example of mass diffusion.
The conduction of heat in a solid material is an example of heat diffusion.
The drag (physics) experienced by a rain drop as it falls in the atmosphere is an example of momentum diffusion (the rain drop loses momentum to the surrounding air through viscous stresses and decelerates).
The transport of mass, energy, and momentum can also be affected by the presence of external sources:
An odor dissipates more slowly when the source of the odor remains present.
The rate of cooling of a solid that is conducting heat depends on whether a heat source is applied.
The gravitational force acting on a rain drop counteracts the drag imparted by the surrounding air.
All these effects are described by the generic scalar transport equation.
The same equations governing convection in heat transfer can be applied to convection in mass transfer. When studying complex transport phenomena problems one must use tools from continuum mechanics and tensor calculus and often problems can be expressed as partial differential equations.
In solid state physics, the motion and interaction of electrons, holes and phonons are studied under "transport phenomena

Neural engineering

Neural engineering is a discipline that uses engineering techniques to understand, repair, replace, enhance, or exploit the properties of neural systems. Neural engineers are uniquely qualified to solve design problems at the interface of living neural tissue and non-living constructs

This branch of bioengineering draws on the fields of computational neuroscience, experimental neuroscience, clinical neurology, electrical engineering and signal processing of living neural tissue, and encompasses elements from robotics, cybernetics, computer engineering, neural tissue engineering, materials science, and nanotechnology.
Prominent goals in the field include restoration and augmentation of human function via direct interactions between the nervous system and artificial devices.
Much current research is focused on understanding the coding and processing of information in the sensory and motor systems, quantifying how this processing is altered in the pathological state, and how it can be manipulated through interactions with artificial devices including brain-computer interfaces and neuroprosthetics.
Other research concentrates more on investigation by experimentation, including the use of neural implants connected with external technology.
The scope of the field is broad and includes specific areas such as brain-computer interface, neural interfacing, neurotechnology, neuroelectronics, neuromodulation, neuroprosthesics, neural control, neurorehabilitation, neurodiagnostics, neurotherapeutics, neuromechanical systems, neurorobotics, neuroinformatics, neuroimaging, neural circuitry (both artificial and biological), neuromorphic engineering, neural tissue regeneration, neural signal processing, theoretical neuroscience, computational neuroscience, systems neuroscience and translational neuroscience.

Biomechanics

'Biomechanics' is the application of mechanical principles on living organisms. This includes research and analysis of the mechanics of living organisms and the application of engineering principles to and from biological systems. This research and analysis can be carried forth on multiple levels, from the molecular, wherein biomaterials such as collagen and elastin are considered, all the way up to the tissue and organ level. Some simple applications of Newtonian mechanics can supply correct approximations on each level, but precise details demand the use of continuum mechanics.


Giovanni Alfonso Borelli wrote the first book on biomechanics, De Motu Animalium, or On the Movement of Animals. He not only saw animals' bodies as mechanical systems, but pursued questions such as the physiological difference between imagining performing an action and actually doing it. Some simple examples of biomechanics research include the investigation of the forces that act on limbs, the aerodynamics of bird and insect flight, the hydrodynamics of swimming in fish, the anchorage and mechanical support provided by tree roots, and locomotion in general across all forms of life, from individual cells to whole organisms. The biomechanics of human beings is a core part of kinesiology.
Applied mechanics, most notably thermodynamics and continuum mechanics, and mechanical engineering disciplines such as fluid mechanics and solid mechanics, play prominent roles in the study of biomechanics. By applying the laws and concepts of physics, biomechanical mechanisms and structures can be simulated and studied.
It has been shown that applied loads and deformations can affect the properties of living tissue. There is much research in the field of growth and remodeling as a response to applied loads. For example, the effects of elevated blood pressure on the mechanics of the arterial wall, the behavior of cardiomyocytes within a heart with a cardiac infarct, and bone growth in response to exercise, and the acclimative growth of plants in response to wind movement, have been widely regarded as instances in which living tissue is remodelled as a direct consequence of applied loads.
Relevant mathematical tools include linear algebra, differential equations, vector and tensor calculus, numerics and computational techniques such as the finite element method.
The study of biomaterials is of crucial importance to biomechanics. For example, the various tissues within the body, such as skin, bone, and arteries each possess unique material properties. The passive mechanical response of a particular tissue can be attributed to characteristics of the various proteins, such as elastin and collagen, living cells, ground substances such as proteoglycans, and the orientations of fibers within the tissue. For example, if human skin were largely composed of a protein other than collagen, many of its mechanical properties, such as its elastic modulus, would be different.
Chemistry, molecular biology, and cell biology have much to offer in the way of explaining the active and passive properties of living tissues. For example, in muscle contractions, the binding of myosin to actin is based on a biochemical reaction involving calcium ions and ATM.

Biocompatible material

In surgery, a biocompatible material (sometimes shortened to biomaterial) is a synthetic or natural material used to replace part of a living system or to function in intimate contact with living tissue. Biocompatible materials are intended to interface with biological systems to evaluate, treat, augment or replace any tissue, organ or function of the body. Biomaterials are usually non-viable, but may also be viable.
A biocompatible material is different from a biological material such as bone that is produced by a biological system. Artificial hips, vascular stents, artificial pacemakers, and catheters are all made from different biomaterials and comprise different medical devices.
Biomimetic materials are not made by living organisms but have compositions and properties similar to those made by living organisms. The calcium hydroxylapatite coating found on many artificial hips is used as a bone replacement that allows for easier attachment of the implant to the living bone.
Surface functionalization may provide a way to transform a bio-inert material into a biomimetic or even bioactive material by coupling of protein layers to the surface, or coating the surface with self-assembling peptide scaffolds to lend bioactivity and/or cell attachment 3-D matrix.
Different approaches to functionalization of biomaterials exist. Plasma processing has been successfully applied to chemically inert materials like polymers or silicon to graft various functional groups to the surface of the implant. Polyanhydrides are polymers successfully used as a drug delivery materials.

Disciplines in biomedical engineering

Biomedical engineering is widely considered an interdisciplinary field, resulting in a broad spectrum of disciplines that draw influence from various fields and sources. Due to the extreme diversity, it is not atypical for a biomedical engineer to focus on a particular aspect. There are many different taxonomic breakdowns of BME, one such listing defines the aspects of the field as such:

*Bioelectrical and neural engineering
*Biomedical imaging and biomedical optics
*Biomaterials
*Biomechanics and biotransport
*Biomedical devices and instrumentation
*Molecular, cellular and tissue engineering
*Systems and integrative engineering
In other cases, disciplines within BME are broken down based on the closest association to another, more established engineering field, which typically include:

Breast implants, an example of a biomedical engineering application of biocompatible materials to cosmetic surgery.

*Chemical engineering - often associated with biochemical, cellular, molecular and tissue engineering, biomaterials, and biotransport.
*Electrical engineering - often associated with bioelectrical and neural engineering, bioinstrumentation, biomedical imaging, and medical devices.
*Mechanical engineering - often associated with biomechanics, biotransport, medical devices, and modeling of biological systems.
*Optics and Optical engineering - biomedical optics, imaging and medical devices.

Clinical engineering

Clinical engineering is a specialty responsible for applying engineering technology for the improvement and delivery of health services. While some trace its roots back to the 1940s, the term "clinical engineering" was first used in 1969. Over the years, the field has changed from an initial focus on research activities to its current emphasis on equipment maintenance activities. Attempts have been made to broaden the scope of clinical engineering activities to encompass activities such as pre-purchase equipment evaluation, incident investigation, equipment management, productivity, cost effectiveness, information systems integration, and patient safety activities; however, all of these have met with limited success.

Clinical engineering is a branch of biomedical engineering for professionals responsible for the management of medical equipment in a hospital. The tasks of a clinical engineer are typically the acquisition and management of medical device inventory, supervising biomedical engineering technicians (BMETs), ensuring that safety and regulatory issues are taken into consideration and serving as a technological consultant for any issues in a hospital where medical devices are concerned. Clinical engineers work closely with the IT department and medical physicists.

Schematic representation of normal ECG trace showing sinus rhythm, an example of a biomedical engineering application of electronic engineering to electrophysiology and medical diagnosis.
A typical biomedical engineering department does the corrective and preventive maintenance on the medical devices used by the hospital, except for those covered by a warranty or maintenance agreement with an external company. All newly acquired equipment is also fully tested. That is, every line of software is executed, or every possible setting is exercised and verified. Most devices are intentionally simplified in some way to make the testing process less expensive, yet accurate. Many biomedical devices need to be sterilized. This creates a unique set of problems, since most sterilization techniques can cause damage to machinery and materials. Most medical devices are either inherently safe, or have added devices and systems so that they can sense their failure and shut down into an unusable, thus very safe state. A typical, basic requirement is that no single failure should cause the therapy to become unsafe at any point during its life-cycle. See safety engineering for a discussion of the procedures used to design safe systems.

Medical equipment

Medical equipment is designed to aid in the diagnosis, monitoring or treatment of medical conditions. These devices are usually designed with rigorous safety standards.
See also the main articles: implant, artificial limbs, corrective lenses, cochlear implants, dental implants, prosthetics (ocular, facial)
There are several basic types:
Diagnostic equipment includes medical imaging machines, used to aid in diagnosis. Examples are ultrasound and MRI machines, PET and CT scanners, and x-ray machines.
Therapeutic equipment includes infusion pumps, medical lasers and LASIK surgical machines.
Life support equipment is used maintain a patient's bodily function. These include medical ventilators, heart-lung machines, ECMO, and dialysis machines.
Medical monitors allow medical staff to measure a patient's medical state. Monitors may measure patient vital signs and other parameters including ECG, EEG, blood pressure, and dissolved gases in the blood.
Medical laboratory equipment automates or help analyze blood, urine and genes.
Diagnostic Medical Equipment may also be used in the home for certain purposes, e.g. for the control of diabetes mellitus
A Biomedical equipment technician or BMET is a vital component of the healthcare delivery system. Employed primarily by hospitals, BMETs are the people responsible for maintaining a facility's medical equipment.

Medical device

A medical device is an object which is useful for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. Examples of medical devices include medical thermometers, blood sugar meters, surgical sutures and X-ray machines.

A medical device is an instrument, apparatus, implement, machine, contrivance, implant, in vitro reagent, or other similar or related article, including a component part, or accessory which is: recognized in the official National Formulary, or the United States Pharmacopoeia, or any supplement to them,
intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, in man or other animals, or
intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals, and which does not achieve any of its primary intended purposes through chemical action within or on the body of man or other animals and which is not dependent upon being metabolized for the achievement of any of its primary intended purposes.

A medical device is intended for use in:
*the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or
*in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease,
*intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals, and which does not achieve any of its primary

intended purposes through chemical action and which is not dependent upon being metabolized for the achievement of any of its primary intended purposes.

A pump for continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion, an example of a biomedical engineering application of electrical engineering to medical equipment.

Some examples include pacemakers, infusion pumps, the heart-lung machine, dialysis machines, artificial organs, implants, artificial limbs, corrective lenses, cochlear implants, ocular prosthetics, facial prosthetics, somato prosthetics, and dental implants.
Stereolithography is a practical example on how medical modeling can be used to create physical objects. Beyond modeling organs and the human body, emerging engineering techniques are also currently used in the research and development of new devices for innovative therapies, treatments, patient monitoring, and early diagnosis of complex diseases.
Medical devices can be regulated and classified (in the US) as shown below:
1.Class I devices present minimal potential for harm to the user and are often simpler in design than Class II or Class III devices. Devices in this category include tongue depressors, bedpans, elastic bandages, examination gloves, and hand-held surgical instruments and other similar types of common equipment.
2.Class II devices are subject to special controls in addition to the general controls of Class I devices. Special controls may include special labeling requirements, mandatory performance standards, and postmarket surveillance. Devices in this class are typically non-invasive and include x-ray machines, PACS, powered wheelchairs, infusion pumps, and surgical drapes.
3.Class III devices require premarket approval, a scientific review to ensure the device's safety and effectiveness, in addition to the general controls of Class I. Examples include replacement heart valves, silicone gel-filled breast implants, implanted cerebellar stimulators, implantable pacemaker pulse generators and endosseous (intra-bone) implants.

Medical imaging

Medical imaging refers to the techniques and processes used to create images of the human body (or parts thereof) for clinical purposes (medical procedures seeking to reveal, diagnose or examine disease) or medical science (including the study of normal anatomy and function). As a discipline and in its widest sense, it is part of biological imaging and incorporates radiology (in the wider sense), radiological sciences, endoscopy, (medical) thermography, medical photography and microscopy (e.g. for human pathological investigations). Measurement and recording techniques which are not primarily designed to produce images, such as electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) and others, but which produce data susceptible to be represented as maps (i.e. containing positional information), can be seen as forms of medical imaging.
In the clinical context, medical imaging is generally equated to radiology or "clinical imaging" and the medical practitioner responsible for interpreting (and sometimes acquiring) the images is a radiologist. Diagnostic radiography designates the technical aspects of medical imaging and in particular the acquisition of medical images. The radiographer or radiologic technologist is usually responsible for acquiring medical images of diagnostic quality, although some radiological interventions are performed by radiologists.
As a field of scientific investigation, medical imaging constitutes a sub-discipline of biomedical engineering, medical physics or medicine depending on the context: Research and development in the area of instrumentation, image acquisition (e.g. radiography), modelling and quantification are usually the preserve of biomedical engineering, medical physics and computer science; Research into the application and interpretation of medical images is usually the preserve of radiology and the medical sub-discipline relevant to medical condition or area of medical science (neuroscience, cardiology, psychiatry, psychology, etc) under investigation. Many of the techniques developed for medical imaging also have scientific and industrial applications.
Medical imaging is often perceived to designate the set of techniques that noninvasively produce images of the internal aspect of the body. In this restricted sense, medical imaging can be seen as the solution of mathematical inverse problems. This means that cause (the properties of living tissue) is inferred from effect (the observed signal). In the case of ultrasonography the probe consists of ultrasonic pressure waves and echoes inside the tissue show the internal structure. In the case of projection radiography, the probe is X-ray radiation which is absorbed at different rates in different tissue types such as bone, muscle and fat.

Imaging technologies are often essential to medical diagnosis, and are typically the most complex equipment found in a hospital including:
Fluoroscopy
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Nuclear Medicine
Positron Emission Tomography (PET) PET scansPET-CT scans
Projection Radiography such as X-rays and CT scans
Tomography
Ultrasound
Electron Microscopy

Tissue engineering

Tissue engineering is the use of a combination of cells, engineering and materials methods, and suitable biochemical and physio-chemical factors to improve or replace biological functions. While most definitions of tissue engineering cover a broad range of applications, in practice the term is closely associated with applications that repair or replace portions of or whole tissues (i.e., bone, cartilage, blood vessels, bladder, etc...). Often, the tissues involved require certain mechanical and structural properties for proper function. The term has also been applied to efforts to perform specific biochemical functions using cells within an artificially-created support system (e.g. an artificial pancreas, or a bioartificial liver). The term regenerative medicine is often used synonymously with tissue engineering, although those involved in regenerative medicine place more emphasis on the use of stem cells to produce tissues.

Micromass cultures of C3H-10T1/2 cells at varied oxygen tensions stained with Alcian blue.

A commonly applied definition of tissue engineering, as stated by Langer and Vacanti, is "an interdisciplinary field that applies the principles of engineering and life sciences toward the development of biological substitutes that restore, maintain, or improve tissue function or a whole organ".".Tissue engineering has also been defined as "understanding the principles of tissue growth, and applying this to produce functional replacement tissue for clinical use."A further description goes on to say that an "underlying supposition of tissue engineering is that the employment of natural biology of the system will allow for greater success in developing therapeutic strategies aimed at the replacement, repair, maintenance, and/or enhancement of tissue function."Powerful developments in the multidisciplinary field of tissue engineering have yielded a novel set of tissue replacement parts and implementation strategies. Scientific advances in biomaterials, stem cells, growth and differentiation factors, and biomimetic environments have created unique opportunities to fabricate tissues in the laboratory from combinations of engineered extracellular matrices ("scaffolds"), cells, and biologically active molecules. Among the major challenges now facing tissue engineering is the need for more complex functionality, as well as both functional and biomechanical stability in laboratory-grown tissues destined for transplantation. The continued success of tissue engineering, and the eventual development of true human replacement parts, will grow from the convergence of engineering and basic research advances in tissue, matrix, growth factor, stem cell, and developmental biology, as well as materials science and bioinformatics

One of the goals of tissue engineering is to create artificial organs for patients that need organ transplants. Biomedical engineers are currently researching methods of creating such organs. In one case bladders have been grown in lab and transplanted successfully into patients.Bioartificial organs, which utilize both synthetic and biological components, are also a focus area in research, such as with hepatic assist devices that utilize liver cells within an artificial bioreactor construct.