Chemical engineering research biological interactions

While the mechanical performance of artificial materials in the human body can be predicted with some rehabihty, forecasting their biological performance is difficnlt. The problem of interactions at surfaces has already been mentioned. Research frontiers also include developing ways to simulate in vivo processes in vitro and extending the power and apphcability of such simulations to allow for better prediction of the performance of biomedical materials and devices in the patient. Fundamental information on the correlation between the in vivo and in vitro responses is limited. Chemical engineers might also make contribntions to the problem of noninvasive monitoring of implanted materials. 

A new large pit was constructed at the Agronomy-Agricultural Engineering Research Center with two thicknesses of 6-mil black polyethylene plastic film as a liner. More intensive research was conducted in 56 plastic mlniplts to evaluate chemical interactions, degradation, and biological activity (2). 

Given that interfacial solvation affects chemical transport/ surface reactivity and electron transfer/ and macromolecular self-assembly/ predictive models of solvent-solute interactions near surfaces will afford researchers deeper insights into a host of phenomena in biology, physics, and engineering. Research in this area should aid efforts to develop a general, experimentally tested, and quantitative understanding of solution-phase surface chemistry. 

Michael E. Paulaitis is Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Ohio Eminent Scholar at Ohio State University. He is also Director of the Institute of Multiscale Modeling of Biological Interactions at Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on molecular thermodynamics of hydration, protein solution thermodynamics, and molecular simulations of biological macromolecules. 

These simple and mostly intuitive arguments apply mainly to chemical and biological reaction engineering systems. For other systems such as fluid flow systems, the sources and causes of bifurcation and chaos can be quite different. It is well established that the transition from laminar flow to turbulent flow is a transition from nonchaotic to chaotic behavior. The synergetic interaction between hydrodynamically induced bifurcation and chaos and that resulting from chemical and biological reaction/diffusion is not well studied and calls for an extensive multidisciplinary research effort. 

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