Membranes in Biomedical Engineering: Assisting Clinical Engineers

Dear Colleagues,

Since Dow Chemical began manufacturing hollow-fiber dialyzers (Capillary Kidney, Stewart Kidney) in 1968, which was the result of collaboration between medicine and engineering, blood purification technology in biomedical engineering has made great progress. In particular, the progress of blood purification membranes is notable, and industrial chemistry such as polymer synthesis and hollow-fiber membrane production technology has evolved into a major medical device industry. Furthermore, membrane evaluation methods such as microscopic observation technology have been developed, and membrane permeation theory based on theoretical and quantitative approaches have evolved. The tortuous pore diffusion model, which is one of them, associates higher-order structural factors with mass transfer characteristics, and it is useful for estimating the permeation characteristics of solutes, analyzing mass transfer phenomena and designing blood purification membranes. On the other hand, the membrane device must be designed appropriately in order to maximize the performance of the membrane. The design of the membrane device also determines the performance and safety of the device. These approaches have advanced membrane science and contributed to blood purification technology (biomedical engineering). Membrane science is also significant in terms of contributing to biomedical engineering.

At present, various membranes for biomedical engineering such as artificial lung, plasma exchange therapy, hemofiltration membrane, and hemoadsorption membrane are contributing to medical treatment around the world. Most recently, with the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, extracorporeal membrane oxygenators (ECMOs), which treat patients with COVID-19 infection, have been attracting attention as the “last stronghold”. In Japan, licensed clinical engineers are actively operating ventilators and extracorporeal devices such as ECMOs or blood purification devices. Membrane science and biomedical engineering are indispensable in medicine around the world and must be further advanced in the future.

In this Special Issue on “Membranes in Biomedical Engineering” of the journal Membranes, researchers are invited to contribute original research papers, as well as review articles or short communications, related to the preparation and characterization of membranes, transport phenomena, antithrombotic material, fouling, biocompatibility, module and reactor design, process design, and industrial perspectives.

The topics include but are not limited to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), gas separation membrane, artificial organs (artificial kidney, dialyzer, artificial liver, artificial pancreas), bioartificial organs (bioartificial kidney, bioartificial liver, bioartificial pancreas, cell culture, scaffold), blood purification membranes, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine in biomedical engineering.

We thank Japanese Society for Artificial Organs (Journal of Artificial Organs) for promoting our Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Kiyotaka Sakai
Prof. Dr. Makoto Fukuda
Dr. Hiroyuki Sugaya
Guest Editors

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