Biomedical Engineering

Biomedical engineering covers the fields of signal and image computing for diagnostic and therapeutic applications at the cell and organ level.

The field of biomedical engineering at the Universität zu Lübeck emerged through several disciplines – from projects in medicine, informatics, medical engineering and the medical laser centre and its resulting Institute for Biomedical Optics.

This process led to immediate partnerships with the Lübeck University of Applied Sciences, the Research Centre Borstel and with companies like Dräger AG. Recently, this circle of partners was expanded by including the Fraunhofer Research Institute for Marine Biotechnology (EMB).

The outcome has become a successful, albeit thematically heterogeneous, field of research. Presently, the research covers anaesthesiology, imaging, signal and image computing, biosignal processing, neuroprosthetics, biophotonics & laser medicine, robotics & navigation and cellular engineering.

Medical Imaging
is a field of engineering that researches which interactions between energy and tissues can be captured to help identify the signals released in space by cells or organs, for characterising the form and/or function of an organ. Imaging is a lateral field that helps advance the development of equipment technology through cross-applications of biochemistry, physiology, physics, mathematics, informatics, mensuration, and courses in surgery.

Signal and image computing
methods facilitate extraction of information in physically measured and captured signals and images, and prepare it for observation or for automatic evaluation and interpretation. This is an interdisciplinary field that integrates mathematics, informatics and all segments of medicine. Through medical imaging and processing, it is nowadays feasible to visualise changes in organs in 3D, which is of major relevance for diagnostic planning of therapies, and image-driven intervention, including the use of robotics. Automated tracking of single cells for therapeutic and industrial cell cultures is a technology that will markedly gain significance in the future. Molecular imaging, a rapidly advancing field in this segment, has helped develop imaging technology to visualise molecular biology processes – enabling even more precise diagnostics and molecular biology therapies for local application, using real-time image computing.