As the field of bioengineering continues to evolve rapidly, staying informed about promising technologies is essential for effectively applying new advancements to medical research and healthcare. This study used a novel, exploratory search method to generate a large number of results relevant to bioengineering. These terms were then first screened, cleaned, then grouped into clusters and visualised using VOSviewer, and finally those identified in VOSviewer as being particularly high frequency or new were further analysed by searching for applications in bibliographic databases and clinicaltrials.gov.
The three most frequently-occurring and four newest keywords were identified, with the rationale that the most common keywords represent a strong signal and thus high research interest, and the newest represent potential novel game-changing tech.
The three most frequent were “hydrogel”, “scaffold” and “nanofabrication”, with applications including creating hypoxia-tolerant human heart tissue for transplantation; bioengineering a full-scale external ear using a 3D-printed scaffold; and a silk nanofibril/gelatin methacrylate-alginate as a candidate for stroma tissue engineering of the human cornea.
The four newest technologies were: “microfluidic”, “fucoidan”, “electrodeposition” and “transistor”. Applications of these included using microfluidic devices to grow neurons; creating a bioink with high mechanical performance and multiple bio functionalities; developing personalized, dynamic titanium prostheses and organic synaptic transistors, which are key components in constructing artificial nerves. This horizon scan used a new method to identify technologies with the potential to provide new solutions to unmet needs for tissue and medical devices challenges. The potential impacts on healthcare include reduced waiting times for heart transplants, reduced risk of implant infection and improved efficiency of cancer therapy through tissue oxygenation.
Download PDF
