Special report: Biomedical materials research in Japan

✍ Scribed by Anderson, James M.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 904 KB
• Volume: 16
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9304
• DOI: 10.1002/jbm.820160518

✦ Synopsis

Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science was created by the Japanese government to provide public support for scientific research and to promote international cooperation in science. During this visit, I had the opportunity to visit approximately 30 universities, research institutes, and medical schools and to discuss various aspects of biomedical materials research with Japanese scientists. My host during this visit was Dr. Eiichi Masuhara, professor at the Institute of Medical and Dental Engineering at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University. The following report is a summary of my observations on the state of research in biomedical materials, particularly biomedical polymers. This report is meant to further acquaint the readers of the Journal of Biomedical Ma-t~rials Research with the breadth and depth of research activities in the area of biomedical polymers. Obviously, this report does not include all activities in the area of biomedical materials and biomedical polymers as I was unable to visit every research group carrying on these activities in Japan. References have been included to provide further information to readers in selected areas, and they include recent articles by Japanese scientists that are written in English or have an English abstract.

SCHOOLS AND SCIENTISTS

The Institute for Medical and Dental Engineering of the Tokyo Medical and Dental University1 has nine divisions which are involved in biomaterials and bioengineering studies to varying degrees. The Division of Metallurgy is studying new biometals for surgical implants and carrying out studies on the computer simulation of alloys as medical and dental materials. The Division