为拯救生命和恢复视力而创新

　　“仿生眼”已不再是科幻小说里虚构的东西。在新南威尔士大学(UNSW)，一个可行的视觉假体，它可以检测光线、黑暗和型样，-最早可在2012年植入人体。

　　虽然人工眼睛仍不能达到完全恢复视力，但是目前正在开发的98-沟通器件，有潜力通过眼睛后部的视网膜反馈信号，形成详细的图像视野。

　　新南威尔士大学研究小组是Bionic Vision Australia联盟的其中一个小组，这个联盟联系着世界一流科学家和临床医生，由澳大利亚政府最近以5,000万美元拨款支持，旨在开发先进的澳大利亚“仿生眼”。澳大利亚早期的“仿生耳”或人工耳蜗植入，已经使世界各地数十万人恢复了听力。

　　新南威尔士大学的仿生眼研究小组，是研究和教学项目的创新领域的一部分，旨在开发医药、工程和科学的新途径。随着人口老龄化——到2030年发达国家将有25％的人口超过65岁，相比一个世纪前这样的人数是2-3％——以打击对慢性疾病和残疾的社会排斥，其在先进医疗设备和新药物疗法方面的潜力是非同寻常的。　　

　　新南威尔士大学研究生院的生物医学工程是澳大利亚最大的学科，主导“仿生眼”项目。新南威尔士大学的其他项目包括：以防血管内支架崩溃而进行涂料的开发——这是治疗心脏病患者的一大进步——和对胰岛素适用的一个新给药系统，这将可以使世界各地千百万糖尿病患者不再需要进行每日注射。

　　研究纳米粒子的工程师和科学家们也正在开发重大疾病的特殊治疗方法。新型药物载体“纳米载体”可以以肿瘤为靶细胞却不影响周围健康的组织细胞，承诺可消除癌症治疗的破坏性副作用。新南威尔士大学开发的便携式生物传感器，最初用于检测水中的杀虫剂，现在用于医疗诊断的血液分析，有效地把在实验室的用途推广到病人身上。

　　澳大利亚政府最近的“Powering Ideas”政策，把澳洲大学的创新排在了议事日程的前列，目的是使新南威尔士大学的本地和国际学生加强学习经验和扩大研究机会，涉及范围是从本科生到博士后研究人员的课程。经济学家逐渐认识到，创新直接关系到生产力和竞争力的提高。

　　同时，通过来自亚洲地区最好的大学的研究员组成的新网络，新南威尔士大学正在扩大与亚洲的联系。新南威尔士大学医学院院长彼得史密斯教授说，亚洲的生活标准正在迅速上升，这意味着如营养不良的健康问题正在转变成与西方社会相类似的挑战，例如对于人口老龄化、癌症、新传染性疾病和肥胖症的抱怨。

　　“我们看到，我们地区在健康方面的共同问题日益扩大了。这是一个让我们携手对付这些挑战的极好机会。”史密斯教授说。

　　作为新南威尔士大学的扩展医疗项目的一部分，斥资1.0亿美元的洛伊癌症研究中心将于今年晚些时候开放。该设施可容纳高达400个来自新南威尔士大学与澳大利亚儿童癌症研究所(CCIA)的研究人员，将成为南半球最大的专业癌症研究中心之一。新南威尔士大学癌症研究中心的主任——菲利普霍格教授，正在开发一种国际上认可的染色剂，这种染色剂可以对已死亡或濒临死亡的癌细胞染色并可以显示癌症疗程是否在几天内发挥了作用。他最近还开发了一种名叫GSAO的新药物， 其作用是使癌细胞“饥饿”而致死。

　　尽管全球金融危机爆发，罗伊癌症研究中心是新南威尔士大学目前进行的主要斥资7.0亿美元的校舍重建计划中的一个项目。这是在新南威尔士大学60年历史上最重要的建设项目之一，将提供新的教学及科研方法、学生宿舍和学习设施。　　

　　Innovating to save lives and restore sight

　　A “bionic eye” is no longer the stuff of science fiction. At the University of New South Wales (UNSW) a viable vision prosthesis – which can detect light, darks and patterns -- will be ready for human implantation as early as 2012.

　　While the artificial eye still falls short of restoring full sight, the 98-channel device currently in development has the potential to create detailed patterned vision using signals fed through the retina, at the back of the eye.

　　The UNSW research team is part of the Bionic Vision Australia consortium which links world class scientists and clinicians, and is backed by the Australian Government’s recent $50 million commitment to the development of an advanced Australian “bionic eye”. Australia’s earlier “bionic ear”, or Cochlear implant, has restored hearing to hundreds of thousands of people around the world.

　　The UNSW bionic eye team is part of an innovative range of research and teaching programs which are forging new pathways for medicine, engineering and science. As populations age -- 25% of people in developed nations will be over 65 by 2030, compared to 2-3% a century ago – the potential for advanced medical devices and new drug therapies to combat the social exclusion of chronic disease and disability is extraordinary.

　　UNSW’s Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, which hosts the bionic eye project, is the largest in Australia. Other UNSW projects include the development of coatings to prevent failures in stents – a major advance in treating heart patients -- and a new inhalable drug delivery system suitable for insulin which promises to do away with daily injections for the tens of millions of diabetics around the world.

　　Engineers and scientists working with nano-particles are also developing extraordinary treatments for major diseases. New drug-loaded “nanocarriers” can target tumours without affecting surrounding healthy tissue, promising relief from the debilitating side-effects of cancer treatment. Portable UNSW biosensors, originally developed to detect pesticides in water, are now being used for blood analysis for medical diagnostics, effectively bringing the lab to the patient.

　　The Australian Government's recent "Powering Ideas" policy prioritises innovation in Australian universities, enhancing the learning experience and expanding research opportunities for UNSW local and international students, ranging from coursework undergraduates to post-doctoral researchers. Increasingly, economists are recognising that innovation is directly linked to gains in productivity and competitiveness.

　　At the same time, UNSW is expanding links to Asia through the appointment of a new network of research fellows from the region's best universities. UNSW Dean of Medicine, Professor Peter Smith, said the rapidly rising standard of living in Asia meant health issues such as malnutrition were being replaced by challenges familiar to Western societies, such as ageing populations, cancer, new infectious diseases and obesity related complaints.

　　“Increasingly, we are seeing shared problems in health developing in our region. This is a fantastic opportunity for us to collaborate to address these challenges,” Professor Smith said.

　　As part of UNSW's expanded medical program the new $100 million Lowy Cancer Research Centre is due to open later this year. The facility will house up to 400 researchers from UNSW and the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia (CCIA), to become one of the largest dedicated cancer research centres in the Southern Hemisphere. The Director of UNSW’s Cancer Research Centre, Professor Philip Hogg, is internationally recognised for developing a dye which fastens onto dead or dying cancer cells and reveals whether cancer treatments are working just days into the course. He has also recently developed a new drug, known as GSAO, which works by “starving” tumours to death.

　　The Lowy Cancer Research Centre is part of a major $700 million campus re-development currently underway at UNSW despite the global financial crisis. This is one of the most significant building programs in UNSW's 60 year history and will deliver new teaching, research and student accommodation and study facilities.