High-tech help for surgeons
Picture the operating room of the future: Before a single incision is made, the surgeon uses a customized computer-generated model of the patient to help diagnose the condition needing treatment, to evaluate treatment options and to rehearse a personalized surgical plan.
   When the real operation begins, a computer combines this information with three-dimensional medical images and displays the surgical plan, overlaid on the patient. Robotic devices augment the surgeon's own hand-eye coordination to help carry out the procedure exactly as planned.
   With this electronic help, the surgery could be safer and more precise, yet less costly. And the patient would recover more quickly.
   To help realize this goal, the National Science Foundation this month began a $12.9-million five-year cooperative agreement with Hopkins to establish the Engineering Research Center in Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology. Full story...

Genetic science moves onto fast track
On a recent drive to work, School of Nursing dean Sue Donaldson noticed a bumper sticker with small lettering on the car in front of her. Donaldson admits she was a bit too close to the automobile, and she expected the sticker to read "If you're this close, you're tailgating!" So Donaldson was a little surprised when she read the words "You, out of the gene pool!"
   For Donaldson, it was less of an insult and more of an example of how much genetics was becoming a part of our culture.
   But this holder of a doctorate in physiology and biophysics with experience in gene cloning doesn't need bumper stickers to know that. Donaldson is well aware of the explosion of genetic science and understanding in the past several years. Full story...

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