MEDIUM: Monitoring and Engineering Decompression Illness during Undersea Missions
Abstract
The proposed DURIP project will build the platform for personalized testing, monitoring and engineering divers innate ability to prevent decompression illness, called as MEDIUM. Decompression illness is the one of the most prevalent medical condition experienced by the divers during underwater diving missions. Current diagnosis is highly non-specific and relies on symptoms such as joint pains, paralysis, fatigue, memory loss, and shortness of breath.Decompression usually results in a blocked blood vessel caused by air or gas bubbles and subsequently triggers the divers immunological response. Its a highly individualized condition with patients experiencing different levels of severity and can potentially lead to shock and patients mortality. The challenges include stratifying a highly individualized condition with heterogeneity in divers biological response to the presence of bubbles and strategizing thepersonalized therapeutic drugs. The MEDIUM platform will be instrumental in performing experiments to solve the above challenges. Further, the proposed equipment will have a major impact in the resource development of PIs laboratory, and the School of Engineering at Rutgers University. Successful acquisition of the equipment will allow PI to take next steps towards experimental studies in enabling rapid and accurate diagnostics and therapeutics of decompression sickness in divers during underwater missions.In addition, this DURIP research equipment will provide many educational opportunities for comprehensive training and learning for undergraduate and graduate students, research staff and faculty at Rutgers University. Furthermore, due to the interdisciplinary nature of the projects and equipment; students and faculty from across disciplines will be able to use these instruments intheir education and research activities. The MEDIUM platform will greatly expand the learning outcomes for the students and provide them with the resources that they can integrate in their own research. This will help the students appreciate the challenges and develop critical thinking in experimental design. Finally, the DURIP grant will be instrumental in continuation of the PIs efforts in the training, mentorship, and educational activities for under-represented students at bothgraduate and under-graduate education levels.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- May 08, 2020
- Source ID
- N000142012542
Entities
People
- Umer Hassan
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Rutgers University
- United States Navy