THE DEVELOPMENT OF ARTIFICIAL SKIN

I arrived on the Stanford University campus in September of 1958.  The first two years there all engineering students pretty much took the same courses.  According to this historic view of the Stanford Chemical Engineering Department, in 1960, Professor David Mason got a Ford Foundation grant to begin the program.  Those below have served as department chair:

Mason was chairman of the department when in our junior year he rushed into one of our ChE classes and proudly announced that we had gained accreditation.  First, I did not know that I was in the very first class, and second, I always thought we were already accredited.  Same for the rest of my classmates.  Informally, there were 75 or so of us who had selected chemical engineering as their major in our freshman year.  When I graduated in 1962, there were only 8 of us.  Ten years later, Stanford ranked #1 in all the chemical engineering departments of the country.  For the record, U.S. News and World Report still has Stanford (and CalTech) at #2, with MIT as #1.  And 65 years ago I almost went to CalTech instead of Stanford.

In that top photo-list towards the bottom right is now 53-year old Zhenan Bao, who was featured in the March issue of Stanford.  She was born in Nanjing, China and got her PhD at the University of Chicago.  She first joined Lucent Technologies at Bell Labs, where she was involved in a field that is leading to electronic paper.  Joined Stanford in 2004.  From research in organic subconductors and carbon nanotubes, she developed the background for electronic skin.  Bao has since co-founded two companies, Nano and PyrAmes Health in Silicon Valley.  She is married with two children.

In this Stanford article:

• She is leading a team that in time will have for sale a smart bandage that painlessly falls away from the skin with the application of a little heat.
• Maybe more importantly, though, this bandage tracks recovery and infection resulting in 25% faster healing and less scarring.

• 
  This is just one of a range of re-imagined medical devices, including:
• Heart sensors that adhere like a postage stamp to the beating organ to locate atrial fibrillation.
• Wireless sensors to monitor tumor growth.
• Implantable sensors tucked into the brain and gut to measure dopamine and serotonin levels.  
• Stick-on sensors to measure skin conductivity, heart rate variance and cortisol levels for anxiety and stress.  This application will deal with depression.

• 
  Her work with other colleagues will someday lead to:
• Conductive polymers to treat epilepsy.
• Electronic skin.
• A tattoo on the skin that will provide your information now carried in a wallet.
• Artificial intelligence for a spray on skin so you can  type information without a keyboard.

How many of you have kept up with this esoteric development of artificial skin?  To close, as mentioned yesterday, 15 Craigside featured a special Independence day lunch  I first warmed up the food in some butter.  Then watched that CNN 6-hour July 4th marathon with this July 4th feast.

Earlier in the week, pork tonkatsu with ahi sashimi.  Note the sea asparagus and sea grapes.  Then artichoke with miso soup while watching Jeopardy.  No rice for weight maintenance.

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