• Question: what is bio-medical science?

    Asked by kpalmer to Dean, Jess, Luisa on 25 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Dean Whittaker

      Dean Whittaker answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      Biomedical science is all about looking at life processes (how do things that are alive work etc.) and about looking at methods to diagnose, treat and analyse disease. It’s mostly biology but needs a very small understanding of physics (how MRI scanners, x-rays etc. work) and bio-chemistry (how do chemicals interact with biological material) and lots of other stuff. It’s interesting and of course you get to help people by researching things to make them better or diagnose ilnesses. It’s a bit different to Pharmacology – which is looking at drugs and how they interact with the body.

      At least that’s my understanding, I could be wrong!

    • Photo: Luisa Ostertag

      Luisa Ostertag answered on 25 Jun 2010:

      Science that uses biology (microbiology, biotechnology, molecular biology) to find cures for diseases. The first step towards a cure is always that you have to do many tests in labs before you gon on and do tests on animals or humans. The lab work provides the first clue to what could be a promising cure for a disease and also goes on to test this on cell cultures. It is also neccessary to understand the mechanisms behind the disease – that will then also help to find a cure because if you know how something works you’ll have a better idea how you can ‘break’ it.

    • Photo: Jessica Housden

      Jessica Housden answered on 25 Jun 2010:

      I had a friend study this at uni – it was essentially studying medicine but looking more at the research and how to develop new treatments for people (so going more into the science area) than how to do the day-to-day treating like doctors.

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