Bioengineering for better health
The sixth event in our Speaker's Science Forum series for 2024 was held on 7 Here-turi-kōkā August at Parliament. Dr Kelly Burrowes described how bioengineering can be used to understand how vaping effects our lungs. Dr Jan Powell showcased new “organ-on-a-chip” technology as a viable alternative to animal testing.
Dr Kelly Burrowes and Dr Jan Powell outside Parliament
How safe is vaping? A bioengineering approach to solving the vaping puzzle
Associate Professor Kelly Burrowes, University of Auckland | Waipapa Taumata Rau
Dr Kelly Burrowes is an Associate Professor at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute, University of Auckland. She spoke about her research using bioengineering and computer modeling to understand lung health in relation to smoking and vaping.
‘Bioengineering, also known as biomedical engineering, is a multidisciplinary field that applies principles of engineering, biology, and medicine to develop solutions for healthcare and medical challenges. It involves the use of engineering principles and techniques to solve problems in biology and medicine, ranging from designing medical devices and instruments to creating advanced personalised therapies and diagnostic tools.
The Auckland Bioengineering Institute (ABI) at the University of Auckland | Waipapa Taumata Rau is renowned internationally for its pioneering work in bioengineering, especially the development of personalised computational models of the body that are closely linked with wearable and implantable devices. ABI’s research spans a wide range of areas including biomechanics, bioinstrumentation, biomedical imaging, medical device development, computational physiology, and physics-informed AI.
Research projects range from studying how the mitochondria in cardiac cells behave in diabetic patients, to developing novel implantable pressure sensors for chronic disease and first-in-human trials. ABI leads nationwide medtech initiatives and has a strong track record in commercialisation of research as a vehicle for clinical translation and social, health, and economic good. While ABI’s research areas are diverse, a key element of all projects is that they address important health-related challenges using multi-disciplinary teams that include engineers, clinicians, and health consumers.
We are applying a bioengineering approach to understand how the lungs respond to vaping, with the hope of preventing a potential vaping-related health crisis. Smoking caused one of the greatest public health crises of the twentieth century. It remains the single biggest preventable risk factor for disease; one in ten of all deaths worldwide can be attributed to tobacco use. Electronic cigarettes, e-cigarettes, or vapes were introduced as a revolutionary tool to undo the unprecedented harm of conventional cigarettes. Smoking rates in New Zealand are at an all-time low, but we now have one of the highest vaping rates in the world. Of particular concern are the high rates of youth and young adult vaping with 15% of 15-17 year-olds and 25% of 18-24 year olds vaping daily. Many have never been – and were unlikely to ever be – smokers, with the proportion of never-smokers as high as 76% in the 15-17 year-old bracket. Māori are over-represented in vaping prevalence rates, with a school survey showing 25% of 15-year-old Māori females vape daily. So, how safe are e-cigarettes and are they really less harmful than traditional cigarettes? The answer is, we don’t know yet.
Our bioengineering approach has included developing a ‘vaping robot’ to capture aerosol for chemical analysis – to determine what is being inhaled - and to expose lung cells to e-cigarette aerosol. We have applied our realistic computer models of the lungs to simulate where the vape aerosol goes and how much deposits in the lungs. We have applied imaging techniques and other methods to measure lung function to study the effects of vaping on airflow, blood flow, and overall lung function.
What do we know about vaping? E-cigarettes use high temperatures to "aerosolise" a liquid that the user inhales. This aerosol has been found to contain toxicants, with our research finding many flavouring chemicals and heavy metals. Our work has also shown that these chemicals are transported and deposited throughout the airway tree, right to the gas exchange surface. Our imaging study did not show any acute changes in lung function after vaping, but our young vaping cohort showed increased airways resistance, especially in the small airways.
The long-term health effects of vaping are unclear; however, there is mounting evidence that regular vaping disrupts the normal healthy functioning of the body. For example, studies have found that vaping causes inflammation and recent findings have shown some overlap between vaping and asthma, suggesting that vaping could lead to asthma-like symptoms and airway changes. Our research has shown increases in small airways resistance in young vaping participants, which may show early airways changes due to vaping. Our research will continue to look for early markers of harm due to vaping – including measuring chemicals in exhaled breath and sputum, using imaging and image analysis techniques to analyse the lungs, and studying the lymphatic vessels in the lungs.’
Dr Jan Powell and Dr Kelly Burrowes answer MP questions with Dr Parmjeet Parmar MP
Mice and men - moving past animal models in clinical trials
Dr Jan Powell, Institute of Environmental Science and Research
Dr Jan Powell is a Science Leader in ESR’s Environment group. She leads the Advanced Cell Systems programme, which uses innovative “organ-on-a-chip” technology to emulate human organ systems.
Dr Powell explained how an organ-on-a-chip works. Each chip is about the size of a postage stamp and has two channels in it that are seeded with human cells from the organ of interest. For instance, a “lung chip” has two cells types: on one side are the cells that contact air and on the other are the ones that interact like blood vessels. The chips can also be stretched to simulate the movement of breathing.
Organ chips can reduce animal testing in many applications. Not only is this the more ethical approach, but the chips are also more affordable and give more accurate results because they use human cells. Some of the applications ESR has planned include:
- Gut-chips to study food poisoning and water-borne diseases;
- Liver-chips to test pharmaceuticals and recreational drugs for toxicity;
- Lung-chips to study harm from vaping, in collaboration with Dr Kelly Burrowes’ research team.
MPs were delighted to examine a collection of different organ-chips supplied by Dr Powell.
Organ-on-a-chip