Session 2C: Inaugural Lectures by Fellows/Associates

Bench To Bedside: Crossing The Barrier

Biomaterials science and biomedical engineering have sustained as one among frontier and growing areas of research and innovation within the engineering science community in the world; considering the number of scientific discoveries and their societal impact. A key challenge for innovation is the manufacturing of affordable biomedical devices without compromising on quality. Against the backdrop of ever-increasing unmet clinical needs, significant efforts have been invested to innovate new bioengineering approaches for medical applications or to develop patient-customized implantable biomedical devices in an accelerated manner, to accomplish the bedside–bench–bedside translation cycle. Against the above perspective, this talk will describe a few case studies illustrating the most recent research findings from our group to illustrate how to take labscale research to biomedical device development through collaborative efforts of Academia and National laboratories with intensive-interactive inputs from Clinicians and Industries. In particular, new manufacturing strategies for patient-specific femoral heads/acetabular sockets as well as dental implants will be discussed together with our attempts to commercialize those product prototypes in collaboration with Indian industries. While briefly presenting our recent research at IIT Kanpur and IISc, Bangalore, the speaker will present a number of examples to highlight the process of taking research from the lab bench to the patient’s bedside. To this end, the clinical outcome of the multicentric trials on customized cranioplasts will be particularly highlighted with post-operative results. Towards the end of the presentation, speaker will discuss a set of policy-related recommendations for the accelerated growth of biomaterials science in the next decade and beyond, and to establish India as a global market leader for a new generation of bioimplants.