research.facilities

Buildings

BME faculty and students work and learn in the University's Engineering Buildings, including The Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences (FCIEMAS), a $97 million 322,000 square-foot facility that opened in August 2004, Hudson Hall, the Teer Engineering Library Building and the Levine Science Research Center (LSRC).

In 2004, faculty moved into both wings of the FCIEMAS, resulting in a considerable increase of office, teaching and laboratory space for the Department. The layout of the research space was guided by the faculty and is designed to enhance collaboration by allowing easy interaction between research groups. Other highlights in the new building include a large conference center, a vivarium, and a partnership space with the School of Medicine to foster translational biomedical engineering.

Laboratories

BME faculty and students currently have access to a number of highly specialized labs that reflect the breadth of research activities in the department. Examples include:

• The Tissue Properties and Orthopaedic Laboratory, which contains equipment for studies of tissue properties, trauma mechanics, and orthopaedic implants;
• The Optics and Biosensors Laboratory, used for the study of polymer optical waveguides and their interaction with adsorbed proteins, and the development of biosensors;
• The Ultrasonic Laboratories, which contain electronic test equipment, ultrasound transducer measurement equipment, an ultrasound transducer fabrication facility, clinical phased-array scanners, and a SGI Onyx Reality Engine;
• The Center for In vivo Microscopy, which houses magnetic resonance microscopes, small-animal care facilities computers, darkrooms, and electronics and mechanical shops;
• The Cardiac Stimulation and Simulation Laboratory and the Experimental Electrophysiology Laboratory, which have manipulators, electrode systems, and stimulators used in whole-animal and cellular-level electrophysiological studies;
• The Cellular and Molecular Imaging Laboratory, which contains an atomic force microscope, fluorescence, total internal reflection fluorescence, and video microscopes and associated computers, cell culture facilities, and a Fourier transform infrared/attenuated total reflectance spectrometer.
• The Virtual Imaging Laboratory, which features eight graphics workstations and advanced audiovisual facilities for classroom instruction. The Virtual Imaging Laboratory Web site has simulation software for ultrasound, magnetic resonance, and nuclear medicine imaging systems.

BME faculty and students also have access to the 360-node IBM-SP and 64-node SGI Origin 2000 supercomputers at the North Carolina Supercomputing Center in the nearby Research Triangle Park.