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- March 28, 2006
Award signals cutting-edge research
Scientist lauded for biomedical developments
Uses engineering to screen for arthritis, cancer
by Nicholas Keung
Immigration/Diversity Reporter
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Years
ago, when Sridhar Krishnan accompanied a relative to an emergency ward
in India, he was amazed at how electrical signals in the human body
could be used in diagnosis.
That sowed the seeds of a biomedical engineering career and his
selection for this year's New Pioneers Science and Technology Award.
"I realized there's a much bigger role that engineering could play in
improving our health care," says Krishnan who, as a boy, loved to take
things apart and put them back together — though not always
successfully.
After completing a bachelor's degree in electronics and communications
engineering in Chennai, Krishnan entered a graduate program at the
University of Calgary in 1994. Two years later, while still a graduate
student, he developed an engineering-based early-detection method for
arthritis, which ultimately led to a U.S. patent.
Now 33, Krishnan is the chair of Ryerson University's electrical and
computer engineering department, which he joined in 1999.
"What is interesting about biomedical engineering is the
interdisciplinary aspect to it," he explains. "You need the basic
knowledge in human physiology to be able to communicate with health
professionals, in order to understand their problems and needs."
Biomedical engineering isn't a new field. Back in the 1950s, for
example, engineers were improving the lives of thousands of people by
creating devices such as pacemakers. But Krishnan has helped pioneer the
use of "time-frequency domain analysis" — a technique used to examine
biomedical and multimedia signals in the field.
The technique is applied in such diverse areas as screening cancer cells
and knee joints, monitoring hypertension and stress, and designing
devices to help the hearing-impaired.
"Our body sends signals. When you move your knee, there's friction and
you could hear a click. There can be good clicks and bad clicks,"
Krishnan explains, offering one example.
"Our body temperature changes when something is wrong, and we can get a
lot of information from the records of the frequency and the changes of
these conditions."
Despite his passion for research, Krishnan says it's important for
academics to stay connected with the world outside the ivory tower. He
volunteers as a mentor to Tamil youth.
At Ryerson, the prolific scientist, who has published 80 articles on his
research, founded the Signal Analysis Research group, which works with
clinicians and industries on medical imaging and signal research.
"As academics," he says, "it's our responsibility to disseminate
knowledge, and we need to engage our next generation to give back to the
society."
