Blood Clots, Polymers and Strokes
Biomedical engineers design and test procedures, devices and medicines that break down blood clots within blood vessels that could lead to strokes.Copyright (left) 2010 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, (right) 2008 Neilbarman, Wikipedia {PD} https://newsline.llnl.gov/_rev02/articles/2010/mar/03.12.10-dvt_print.php http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Merci_L5.jpg
Students are introduced to the circulatory system with an emphasis on the blood clotting process, including coagulation and the formation and degradation of polymers through their underlying atomic properties. They learn about the medical emergency of strokes—the loss of brain function commonly due to blood clots— including various causes and the different effects depending on the brain location. Students investigate blood clot removal devices designed by biomedical engineers with the hands-on and design based associated activity.
Biomedical engineers apply their understanding of the science of the human body to the medical sciences to create practical solutions to biological problems. Biomedical engineering is a highly interdisciplinary field with diverse applications—from clearing out blood vessels to designing medicines to creating artificial organs. Biomedical engineers create new technologies to improve patient treatment. They develop and test both physical and chemical methods to treat blood clots that could lead to strokes.
After this lesson, students should be able to:
- Explain what a polymer is and provide examples
- Explain how different regions of the brain control different human body functions.
- Describe different causes and effects of strokes, as well as technologies created by biomedical engineers to treat and help prevent the occurrence of strokes.
- Communicate scientific information about why the molecular-level structure of polymers is important in the functioning biomedical engineering designs.