Facilities include workstations, computers, array processors, supercomputer access, advanced ultrasonic scanner and image display facilities. This campus-wide research facility sponsors collaborative activities among the Department of Chemistry, the College of Engineering, and the School of Medicine. This laboratory has facilities for instrument development, animal testing and clinical studies. Through close interaction between bioengineers, anesthesiologists and critical care physicians, numerous microprocessor feedback control systems and monitoring devices are being developed for anesthesia delivery and intensive care. Artificial Heart Research Laboratory Engineering facilities include mock circulation and durability test equipment, computer aided device design, performance simulation, and device documentation.
Manufacturing is provided by a complete machine shop, prosthetics laboratory, and electronics shop.
The laboratory is dedicated to the design, synthesis, analysis, and characterization of biorecognizable synthetic macromolecules and polymer networks. The laboratory contains equipment for polymer synthesis and characterization techniques, including fast protein liquid chromatography, high pressure liquid chromatography, multiangle laser light scattering for direct determination of absolute molecular weights, electrophoresis, automatic titration, membrane and tissue diffusion, freeze-drying, and UV spectroscopy. In addition to a detailed analysis of biomedical polymers by physicochemical methods, a number of biochemical and biological assays are being used to evaluate the relationship between the structure of biomedical polymers and their biological properties in vitro and in vivo. Also included are a sophisticated optical microscope and a computer system for quantitative digital storage and analysis of both optical and SEM histologist images. Recent improvements are additional labs and office space, 1024-channel systems for continuous bioelectric signal acquisition, a complete confocal optics system for cellular and tissue physiology, and a computer lab consisting of multiprocessor Unix workstations and large scale data storage capacity.