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WSU research cuts need for medical testing on humans and animals [Standard-Examiner, Ogden, Utah](Standard-Examiner (Ogden, UT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 21--OGDEN -- Testing new medical devices can be a difficult, and sometimes painful, process. A Weber State University student may have helped cut down on the amount of testing needed to be done on human volunteers or animal subjects. Tina Van Riper was presented with the Women Tech Council's 2014 Academic Excellence Award, in September, for her work in creating computer simulations to test medical devices in the lower gastrointestinal region. "Not every undergraduate student would have been able to successfully complete what she did," said Brian Rague, chairman of WSU's computer science department. Van Riper, of Ogden, worked on the project for about a year-and-a-half. Her faculty advisers were Rague and Yong Zhang, assistant professor of computer science. "We had an outside, third party company that wanted to see if we could simulate a medical device, as it sits inside of the human body, and see how that device was affected by the organ that it was inside -- by the muscles and ligaments," said Van Riper. The Chicago-based ostomy company designs catheters, and wanted to find out if there were other ways to test prototype devices than on animals or humans. "They went to a clinic, and they got test subjects that volunteered to have these prototypes inserted into them, and they took MRI images," said Van Riper. "From those images I created 3-D objects on the computer screen, and just imported those into an engineering program so I could input different parameters to create simulations of what was going on with the organs." Her description makes the work sound more simple than it really was. Rague said Van Riper had to understand the concepts of both the static and dynamic properties of the lower GI tract. "She didn't have that sort of medical background," he said, adding "She was able to quickly grasp the software and understand its uses -- and these are fairly complicated tools to use in this environment." Rague said some of the difficult problems involved in the project had been addressed, somewhat, at the University of Utah. "But she took it several steps further in this project, and provided an end result that was highly professional and very satisfactory for our client," he said. Van Riper said she ran simulations on a few very different prototypes of medical devices, in what WSU's computer science department calls "in silico" testing. "Since this is just a start, I was basically just looking at fluid flow to see the difference in fluid flow between these devices," she said. Other researchers could expand on Van Riper's work, because her results have been published. She says computer simulations, using three-dimensional programming, could be created for the heart, brain or other body parts. Van Riper has five more classes to complete before graduating from Weber State, but isn't planning to continue pursuing projects that combine computer science and microbiology. "When I first started, I was interested in both," she said, explaining that she originally wanted to go into the field of cancer research. "As a student I noticed I was far more interested in computer science than microbiology." Now she's looking at software development. "Since I have that biomedical background, maybe I could make programs for places like Huntsman," she said. Contact reporter Becky Wright at 801-625-4274 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @ReporterBWright. ___ (c)2014 the Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah) Visit the Standard-Examiner (Ogden, Utah) at www.standard.net Distributed by MCT Information Services |