Animal Biomechanics: Application of the Biomedical Engineering to the Veterinary Sciences for the Animal Healthcare

About this Research Topic

Background

Biomedical engineering is being increasingly applied to human health. Computational models have been introduced with the aim of studying human diseases, improving medical devices and analyzing human motion. Nowadays, biomedical engineering is already used in clinics and engineers work together with clinicians in many aspects related to human medicine. Animal models have been widely used for validating computational models and analyzing in vivo biological phenomena. Although computational methods help human medicine, less interest has been given to the application of biomedical engineering to the veterinary sciences. Animal models are used without a clear veterinary application and obtained knowledge is generally used only in one direction i.e. for improving human health.

This Research Topic is oriented to the application of biomedical engineering to the veterinary sciences with aim of improving and helping animal health. All the knowledge that has been obtained with the application of engineering to human medicine has a direct application in many aspects of the veterinary field. Many problems can be tackled using computational modeling that is a non-invasive technique and could reduce animal use in experimental settings. Animal pathologies and diseases, drug delivery therapies, analysis of the animal motion, devices for animal medicine are only some examples of the fields that could benefit from biomedical engineering applications. The computational technique could in fact be used in the clinics as a diagnostic tool as it is nowadays performed with imaging techniques. This Research Topic will open a bridge between biomedical engineering and veterinary medicine that would be of great importance for animal medicine but also would have relevance for bidirectional improvements in animals and human health.

Original Research and Review contributions with a strong focus on topics below are particularly relevant to this Research Topic:

1. Animal respiration physiology, transport phenomena and drug delivery
2. Biomechanics of animal motion
3. Animal orthopedics
4. Animal virtual surgery
5. Experimental testing for obtaining biomechanics properties, tissue repair/regeneration and Bio-inspired material in veterinary sciences.
6. Predictive mathematical and numerical animal models

Keywords: Computational and Experimental Animal Modeling, Numerical Simulation in Animal Biomechanics, Non Invasive Technique, Image-based Modeling, Tissue Engineering and Regeneration

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