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Aims:

The module aims to teach students principles of living systems and how to apply them to solve challenges particularly within healthcare. By presenting different facets of state-of-the-art medicine, ranging from tissue engineering to cancer immunotherapy, the module seeks to develop a holistic, systems-based view in students so that they may recognise and exploit the complexity inherent in biological systems to design nature-inspired bioengineering solutions.Ìý

Synopsis:
This module introduces the application of the nature inspired solution methodologies to tackle medical challenges. In recognition of biological complexity, this module highlights the importance of adopting a holistic, systems-based perspective, which is different from the reductionistic paradigm that dominates modern biology. Drawing from cutting-edge research, specific topics ranging from cancer immunotherapy to biomaterials and tissue engineering are covered to demonstrate how problems can be solved in an interdisciplinary, nature-inspired manner.

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module, the students are able to:

1. Draw lessons from biology and nature to improve, intensify and innovate engineering solutions to biomedical problems.
2. Understand how systems thinking can complement reductionism in bioengineering applications.
3. Understand essential systems-based concepts, such as emergence and collective behaviour, in the context of biological systems and medicine.
4. Exploit concepts from other disciplines, such as mathematics and architecture, to extract engineering principles from biological systems.

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