Applied Potential

Bio-medical research has great applied potential in light of its integration with the existing infrastructure in Israel in the fields of engineering, computerization and electronics. Additionally, bio-medical infrastructural research can serve as a foundation for a pharmaceutical industry, which has always been attractive for drawing large financial investments. These types of investments are likely to change Israel into a huge "farm" for "growing" drugs, similar to Switzerland.

Beyond the direct financial benefit for increasing the competitive capability of the pharmaceutical industry that is concealed in bio-medical infrastructural research, one most take into account the essential contribution for improving the quality of life, for increasing the life expectancy and the financial well-being of man, and for easing the economic burden that weighs on the health services by reducing hospitalization expenses.

In recent years, the infrastructural program of The Ministry of Science and Technology has undergone adaptation and refreshing to a new point of view in the new world, especially in the developed countries, of investment of large budgets in interdisciplinary research.

Research Approaches

The interdisciplinary research is complex research which combines various research approaches, while mutually nurturing and merging forces of researchers from different scientific disciplines and diverse research groups to pool budgets, human resources for building research teams, apparatus and research methods. The goal of these research projects is to encourage updated technological scientific research trends and directions in a number of preferred fields. Investment of funds in interdisciplinary research will enable the possibility of leading to a significant scientific breakthrough and to the advancement of research fields having a national economic and social contribution.

As a result, the field of bio-medical research has been integrated into the framework of interdisciplinary research, while placing an emphasis, among other things, on the interdisciplinary approach when cooperation is required between researchers from various fields of exact sciences and/or engineering.

Two major fields of research are included in this framework

·             Bio-medical engineering

·             Innovative methods in the development of drugs

The field of bio-medical engineering is defined in the broad since as the application of principles, methods and engineering techniques for the purpose of understanding and solving problems in biology and medicine. These investigative techniques greatly contributed to the elucidation of the dynamic, the lungs and respiration, the nervous system and the brain, the sensory organs, the reproductive system, and the relations of muscles and skeleton. The areas of research and development are vast and diverse, and in addition to basic research projects, they also include applied research projects, such as designing medical apparatus, development of diagnostic and treatment techniques, development of artificial limbs and organs for improving the quality of life of the disabled and people with physical limitations. As a result, the nature of methods of diagnosis and therapy has changed completely, and the potential for additional contributions, especially in non-invasive methods, continually increases.

Bio-medical engineering has an applied nature that is expressed in electronic and mechanical systems which can be found today in every department in hospitals as well as in personal use at home. New materials fill a very important role in bio-medical applications. The crowning glory of medical engineering is artificial organs such as pacemakers, dialysis mechanics, electronics, control, miniaturization, materials and computers.

The future potential for expanding both basic as well as applied research is tremendous, especially in fields such as robotics, lasers, neural networks, biological flows, picture processing, mechanisms of attention and sight, and similar fields, The objective of all the means and efforts will be the development of technological infrastructures for building advanced apparatus for early diagnosis of diseases and precise and reliable medical follow-up in all the physiological systems, such as the brain and nervous system, the heart and lung system, and the skeletal system.