Biomedical Acoustics

What is Biomedical Acoustics?

Biomedical acoustics is the study of how the properties of sound affect the human body. Biomedical engineers leverage acoustical properties in many ways to develop new technologies and improve medical care, ranging from advanced ultrasound techniques to new forms of hearing aids.

Areas of Focus

There are three main areas of biomedical acoustics research at the ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ:

  • The mechanical interaction between ultrasound energy and biological tissues, including therapeutic applications of ultrasound.
  • Ultrasound imaging, including the development of novel strategies for using ultrasound to characterize the mechanical properties of healthy and diseased tissue.
  • Studies of hearing, including:
    • Cellular and molecular studies of the process of sensory reception in the inner ear.
    • The development of drug delivery devices for the inner ear.
    • Studies of the physiological responses of auditory neurons at several levels of the central nervous system in young and aged animals.
    • Behavioral studies of hearing related to sound localization and the processing of complex sounds.
Researchers looking at images and data of cochlear tissue, acquired using optical coherence tomography.

Harnessing Sound Energy

Biomedical Acoustics at Rochester

Work in biomedical acoustics at Rochester takes several different shapes, from understanding the inner workings of the ear’s cochlea to using ultrasound waves to pattern cells to form new blood vessels.

One highly interdisciplinary group conducting biomedical acoustics research is the Hearing & Balance Research Collective, which aims to discover better drug-delivery methods and improve mechanistic and functional understandings of the hearing, balance, and brain connection. Led by Laurel Carney, the Marylou Ingram Professor in Biomedical Engineering, this group of about 20 faculty members and labs from across the Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, School of Arts and Sciences, and ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ Medical Center.