Tissue Engineered Textiles: ‘Can the integration of textile craft with tissue-engineering techniques lead to the development of a new materiality for future design applications?’

As early as the nineteenth century scientists were considering the idea that we would be able to manufacture with living materials. What was once seen as a radical notion is now being made a reality in laboratories around the world and is drawing ever greater interest from designers as they realise what the potential offered by biotechnology could mean for future products, as well as regenerative medicine. This thesis presents an insight into how the integration of textile craft and tissue engineering techniques can lead to the development of a new materiality for future applications in both design and science. This PhD investigates one biotechnology in particular, tissue-engineering, and its impact on how and what we may design in the future. Tissue-engineering is a field that combines multiple disciplines including biology, engineering and material science. The aim of the field is to repair the body, by either improving or replacing parts. As a discipline, tissue-engineering is involved in trying to replicate and engineer structures found within the body, as a result those who design scaffolds need to have an understanding of form and architecture. Through experiments carried out in collaboration with the Tissue Engineering & Biophotonics laboratory at Kings College London, the research has produced scaffolds that demonstrate how cells can use textiles as cues to orientate themselves, how to direct that orientation and how to selectively control growth. The original contribution to knowledge in this research is the untapped possibilities within the realm of the bespoke, customised scaffolds. The PhD has explored the creation of hand-crafted, living, complex, dynamic architectures and utilising traditional textile techniques to produce a final collection of tissue engineered textile scaffolds. Alongside this, it presents new knowledge through the creation of a Materials Archive that provides a resource for future designers working within this emerging discipline

Manual / Issue 5 / Unfinished

Manual, a journal about art and its making. Unfinished.The fifth issue. Loose threads unknotted. Ideas unrealized. Outlines left bare. Function unperformed. Patterns uncut. Luster removed with time and wear. We rarely examine unfinished things. The unfinished is easily overlooked in favor of the fully rendered and complete, but consider those sketchy lines, those fraying ends: the unfinished has potency. The unfinished offers evidence of process, reveals traces of technique, trembles with latent possibility. The essays, images, and projects presented in the fifth issue of Manual attend to the fluid potential of objects that are in some way incomplete. Softcover, 68 pages. Published 2015 by the RISD Museum. Manual 5 (Unfinished) contributors include Jen Bervin, Jean Blackburn, Gina Borromeo, Laurie Brewer, A. Will Brown, Bolaji Campbell, Dennis Congdon, Jeremy Deller, Jan Howard, Kate Irvin, Maureen C. O’Brien, Emily J. Peters, Siebren Versteeg, Elizabeth A. Williams, and C. D. Wright.https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/risdmuseum_journals/1004/thumbnail.jp

Development and Design of a Near-Field High-Energy Gamma Camera for Use with Neutron Stimulated Emission Computed Tomography

A new gamma imaging method, Neutron Stimulated Emission Computed Tomography (NSECT), is being developed to non-invasively and non-destructively measure and image elemental concentrations in vivo. In NSECT a beam of fast neutrons (3 - 5 MeV) bombards a target, inelastically scattering with target nuclei and exciting them. Decay from this excited state produces characteristic gamma emissions. Collecting the resulting gamma energy spectrum allows identification of elements present in the target. As these gamma rays range in energy from 0.3 - 1.5 MeV, outside the useable energy range for existing gamma cameras (0.1 - .511 MeV), a new gamma imaging method must be developed. The purpose of this dissertation is to design and develop a near-field (less then 0.5 m) high-energy (0.3 - 1.5 MeV) gamma camera to facilitate planar NSECT imaging. Modifying a design implemented in space-based imaging (focus of infinity), a prototype camera was built. Experimental testing showed that the far-field space-based assumptions were inapplicable in the near-field. A new mathematical model was developed to describe the modulation behavior in the near-field. Additionally, a Monte Carlo simulation of the camera and imaging environment was developed. These two tools were used to facilitate optimization of the camera parameters. Simulated data was then used to reconstruct images for both small animal and human fields of view. Limitations of the camera design were identified and quantified. Image analysis demonstrated that the camera has the potential to identify regions of interest in a human field of view.Dissertatio

Quality of life and near vision impairment due to functional presbyopia among rural Chinese adults.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the impact of near-vision impairment on visual functioning and quality of life in a rural adult population in Shenyang, northern China. METHODS: A population-based, cross-sectional study was conducted among persons aged 40+ years, during which functional presbyopia (correctable presenting near vision < 20/50 [N8] at 40 cm) was assessed. Near-vision-related quality of life and spectacle usage questionnaires were administered by trained interviewers to determine the degree of self-rated difficulty with near tasks. RESULTS: A total of 1008 respondents (91.5% of 1102 eligible persons) were examined, and 776 (78%) of completed the questionnaires (mean age, 57.0 ± 10.2 years; 63.3% women). Near-vision spectacle wearers obtained their spectacles primarily from markets (74.5%) and optical shops (21.7%), and only 1.14% from eye clinics. Among 538 (69.3%) persons with functional presbyopia, self-rated overall (distance and near) vision was worse (P < 0.001) and difficulty with activities of daily living greater (P < 0.001) than among nonpresbyopes. Odds of reporting any difficulty with daily tasks remained higher (OR = 2.32; P < 0.001) for presbyopes after adjustment for age, sex, education and distance vision. Compared to persons without presbyopia, presbyopic persons were more likely to report diminished accomplishment due to vision (P = 0.01, adjusted for age, sex, education, and distance vision.) CONCLUSIONS: Difficulties with activities of daily living and resulting social impediments are common due to presbyopia in this setting. Most spectacle wearers with presbyopia in rural China obtain near correction from sources that do not provide comprehensive vision care

Tissue Engineered Textiles: Craft's place in the laboratory

This chapter situates the relevance of textile craft practice to develop new knowledge in a tissue engineering laboratory setting. Written as an interview between design researcher Amy Congdon and scientist Lucy Di Silvio to analyse and reflect on a design-science collaboration established as part of a PhD research project. The chapter highlights the iterative process of bio-informed textile craft practice and the legacy of hybrid research where textile protocols meet tissue engineering tools

Quanticare: We Already Live in the Future: 7th Annual Imagine Science Film Festival

Quanticare is a project developed in partnership between Amy Congdon, who acted as project facilitator and designers Ann-Kristin Abel and Jenny Lee, and the 2012 NRP-UEA iGEM team, with the aim of exploring the ethical implications of Synthetic Biology. The collaboration allowed the students to think about the wider context of their lab work and allowed the designers to explore what potential new materials and techniques they could be using in the future. The resulting film explores the potential future uses of the science the iGEM team have been working with, namely that of Nitric Oxide sensing. The team worked throughout the summer on developing a new method of quantitative computing using bacterial sensors, which has implications for cancer detection and treatment. The film presents a future with highly sensitive disease monitoring and personalised healthcare provided by the imagined company ‘Quanticare’. The intention of the project was to explore the implications of this technology by presenting viewers with a way in which it may impact on their lives

Quanticare

Quanticare is a project developed in partnership between Amy Congdon, who acted as project facilitator and designers Ann-Kristin Abel and Jenny Lee, and the 2012 NRP-UEA iGEM team, with the aim of exploring the ethical implications of Synthetic Biology. The collaboration allowed the students to think about the wider context of their lab work and allowed the designers to explore what potential new materials and techniques they could be using in the future. The resulting film explores the potential future uses of the science the iGEM team have been working with, namely that of Nitric Oxide sensing. The team worked throughout the summer on developing a new method of quantitative computing using bacterial sensors, which has implications for cancer detection and treatment. The film presents a future with highly sensitive disease monitoring and personalised healthcare provided by the imagined company ‘Quanticare’. The intention of the project was to explore the implications of this technology by presenting viewers with a way in which it may impact on their lives