Recent Developments in Biotransport

Abstract

In the past ten years, one has seen rapid advancements in heat and mass transport applications in biology and medicine. The research activities have been shifted from fundamental development of better theoretical models accurately describing the thermal effect of local vasculature geometry and blood perfusion rate in the 1980s and 1990s to emphases on biotransport research with clear clinical applications and on how to utilize theoretical simulation and imaging techniques for better designing treatment protocols in those applications. This review will first describe briefly technical advancements in bioheat and mass transfer in the past several decades and then focus on two important applications in bioheat and mass transport covering different temperature ranges: hypothermia in brain injury and hyperthermia in tissue thermal damage. The contributions of nanotechnology, imaging tools, and multiscale modeling to the advancements will be discussed in the review.