Professor Eric Abel

Eric Abel is Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Dundee University. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineering, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM), Senior Member of the IEEE, a Chartered Engineer and a Chartered Scientist. He has served as a Council member for IPEM. His research interests are in the application of biomechanics, mechatronics and smart materials to the design of surgical devices and implants. He is a leading researcher in the field of hearing implant design, particularly in active middle ear implants for senorineural hearing loss, which affects about 14% of the UK population. Since 2000, he has received awards of over £0.5m from Scottish Enterprise to take the results of his research in the field of ear, nose and throat surgery to the proof of concept stage with a view to commercialisation. In 2005, he founded a Dundee based university spinout company, Sentient Medical Ltd., to develop a new concept in middle ear implant technology, which by the mid-2008 will have reached the end of its technical development programme and will then move to a phase that will lead to clinical trials. He is the Technical Director of the company.

Professor Abel is a member of the UK Department of Health's Working Group for Research on the Decontamination of Surgical Instruments, which is concerned with introducing new technologies to improve the cleanliness of reusable surgical instruments. In parallel with this work he is developing single use instruments incorporating smart materials and structures. His group has undertaken studies to improve our understanding the two-way memory effect and ways of improving its performance for practical use. Applications include their use in access systems for colon surgery and throat biopsy.

• 2000-2005: Head of Division of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics, University of Dundee
• 1998-2000: Reader, Department of Applied Physics, Electronics and Mechanical Engineering, University of Dundee
• 1985-1997: Head of School of Biomedical Engineering, University of Dundee
• 1981-1985: Research Fellow, School of Biomedical Engineering, University of Dundee
• 1980-1981: Research Fellow, Institute of Sound and Vibration, University of Southampton
• 1977-1980: Biomedical Engineer, Department of Medical Oncology, Charing Cross Hospital, London

• Middle ear implants
• Ossicular replacement prosthesis technology
• Minimally invasive surgical instrumentation
• Smart and advanced materials in surgical instrumentation
• Signal and image processing in biomedical instrumentation

• Luo H, Abel EW. A comparison of methods for the training of NiTi two-way shape memory alloy. Smart Mater. Struct. 16; 2007: 2543-2549.
• Borsenko KB, Reavy HJ, Zhao Q and Abel EW. Adhesion of protein residues to substituted (111) diamond surfaces: an insight from density functional theory and classical molecular dynamics simulations. J. Biomedical Materials Research Part A (In press)
• Luo H, Abel EW. The Influence of Loading during Cold Shape Formation on the Amount of Shape Recovery in NiTi Shape Memory Alloy. Smart Structures and Materials 2006;15: 1235-1242
• Abel EW, Meng H, Forster A, Holder D. Singularity Characteristics of EMG IP Signals. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 2006; 53: 219-225
• Zhao Q, Liu Y, Abel EW Surface free energy of electroless Ni-P based composite coatings. Applied Surface Science 2005;240:441-451
• Abel EW, Mao C, Lord RM, Mills R. Finite-Element Modelling the Reconstruction of the Ossicular Chain with an Anatomically Shaped Incus Prosthesis. In "Middle Ear Mechanics in Research and Otology", Ed Gyo K & Wada H, World Scientific Publishing, New Jersey, USA, 2004. ISBN 981-238-603-3
• Abel EW, Luo H, Slade AP, Pridham. Issues concerning the measurement of transformation temperatures of NiTi alloys.Smart Mater. Struct. 2004; 13: 1110-1117.
• Q. Zhao, Y. Liu, EW Abel. Effect of Cu Content in Electroless Ni-Cu-P-PTFE Composite Coatings on their Anti-Corrosion Properties. Materials Chemistry and Physics 2004;87:332-335.
• Mills RP, Szymanski M, Abel EW. Delayed Facial Palsy Following Laser Stapedectomy: In Vitro Study of Facial Nerve Temperature. Clinical Otolaryngology and Allied Sciences Clin Otolaryngol. 2003 Jun;28(3):211-4.
• Mills RP, Szymanski M, Abel EW. Transmission of Heat to the Vestibule During Revision Stapes Surgery Using a KTP Laser: An In Vitro Study. J Laryngol Otol. 2003 May;117(5):349-52.
• Sun J, Abel EW, Bancroft A, Belch JJF. A Study of Whole Blood Platelet and White Cell Aggregation using a Laser Flow Aggregometer. Platelets 2002 14:103-108
• Abel EW, Arikidis NA, Forster A. Inter-scale Wavelet Maximum - A Fine to Coarse Algorithm for Wavelet Analysis of the EMG Interference Pattern. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering , 2002; 49:337-344
• Wang Z, Abel EW, Mills RP, Liu Y. Performance Assessment of a Multi-layer Piezoelectric Crystal Actuator for Use in Implantable Hearing Aid. Mechatronics 2002;12:3-17
• Lord RM, Abel EW, Mills RP. Effects of Draining Cochlear Fluids on Stapes Displacement in Human Middle Ear Models. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2001;110: 3132-3139.
• Abel EW, Gross S . A Finite Element Analysis of Hollow Stemmed Hip Prostheses as a Means of Reducing Stress Shielding of the Femur. Journal of Biomechanics 2001; 34:995-1003
• Mills R P, Abel E W & Lord R M. In Vivo Evaluation of a Malleus Head to Stapes Head "Incus Replica" prosthesis. J Laryngol and Otol 2001; 115:97-100
• Mills RP, Wang Z, Abel EW. In Vitro Study of a Multilayer Piezoelectric Crystal Attic Hearing Implant. J Laryngol and Otol 2001; 115:359-362.

Professor Eric Abel

Division of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics

University of Dundee

Nethergate

Dundee

DD1 4HN