A Techwise Conversation with Nina Tandon, EE and tissue engineer
BY STEVEN CHERRY // WED, JANUARY 30, 2013
Testing newly developed drugs is utterly necessary, but it’s not without its problems. For one thing, it’s expensive. For another, it’s not very accurate—it usually starts with mice, and they’re not like people in the ways we need them to be. It continues with humans, and often even human subjects are not like the people needing the drug, in the ways we need them to be. And we’re putting those people at risk. And did I mention how expensive it is?
Oh yea, lots of impressive people working on this thing. Her early education seems to have been crucial in it's development, and leads me to wonder how much more inter-disciplinary practices will need to be implemented on the frontier of this type of work. It seems to me that once the research and development has been completed it will be people like her who help "cross the chasm" and really begin to change the world.Ryan_m_b said:*Implies limited input from biologists, that few are working on it, that the whole process of drug testing will be changed rather than an alteration to the pre-animal and animal-stages etc.
Tissue engineer, MBA and Senior TED Fellow Nina Tandon is growing artificial hearts and bones. To do that, she needs new ways of caring for artificially grown cells—techniques she’s developed by the simple but powerful method of copying their natural environments.
Nina studies electrical signaling in the context of tissue engineering, with the goal of creating “spare parts” for human implantation and/or disease models. She is an electrical and biomedical engineer at Columbia University’s Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, and adjunct professor of Electrical Engineering at the Cooper Union, teaching a “Bioelectricity” class. She’s published in Nature and Lab on a Chip, and Fast Company named her one of their 100 most creative people in business.
After receiving a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Cooper Union, Nina spent her early career in telecom (Avaya Labs) and transitioned into biomedical engineering via her Fulbright scholarship in Italy, where she worked on an electronic nose used to “smell” lung cancer. Nina’s studied electrical stimulation for cardiac tissue engineering at MIT and Columbia, has consulted at McKinsey and Company, and now continues her research on electrical stimulation for broader tissue-engineering applications.
"Engineers Are Reinventing Drug Testing" is a scientific article that discusses the innovative methods engineers are using to improve drug testing. This includes techniques such as microfluidics, wearable technology, and organ-on-a-chip models.
Drug testing is important because it helps ensure the safety and effectiveness of medications. It also helps prevent the use of illegal drugs and the potential harm they can cause to individuals and society.
Engineering is being used in drug testing to create new and improved methods for detecting and analyzing drugs. This includes developing new devices and technologies that can accurately and efficiently test for drug use.
The benefits of using engineering in drug testing include faster and more accurate results, as well as the ability to test for a wider range of substances. It also allows for non-invasive testing methods and the potential for personalized medicine.
Some challenges faced by engineers in reinventing drug testing include the complexity of the human body and how it responds to different substances, as well as the need for highly sensitive and specific testing methods. There may also be regulatory and ethical considerations to take into account.