Vocal fold tissue engineering and sensors for physiological monitoring

拟议的研究计划旨在开发新的组织工程方法和听诊器，以提高对嗓音、呼吸和心血管疾病的诊断和治疗，这些疾病普遍存在，影响很大一部分人口，但需要付出高昂的社会经济成本。这些生理问题主要是由相对较软的组织和器官，即声带、肺和心脏的功能障碍引起的。这些软组织是高度各向异性的，因为它们含有胶原等纤维蛋白。声音、呼吸和血流的动力学导致表面弯曲或瑞利波、剪切波或压缩声波，这些波高度受阻，并通过空气-组织或血液-组织界面以及身体的骨骼组件散射。

The proposed research program aims at the development of novel tissue engineering methods and stethoscopes that may lead to improved diagnosis and treatment of voice, respiratory, and cardiovascular disorders, which are pervasive and affect a large fraction of the population, at high socioeconomic costs. These physiological problems are mainly caused by the malfunction of relatively soft tissues and organs, namely vocal folds, lungs and heart. These soft tissues are highly anisotropic, as they contain fibrillary proteins such as collagen. The dynamics of voice, respiration and blood flow result in surface bending or Rayleigh waves, shear waves, or compressional acoustic waves that are highly damped and scattered through air-tissue or blood-tissue interfaces as well as through the skeletal components of the body.