Projektbeschreibung
Neue Technologie zur Früherkennung von entzündlichen Darmerkrankungen und Darmkrebs
15 bis 40 % der europäischen Bevölkerung sind von Erkrankungen des Magen-Darm-Trakts betroffen. Allein Darmkrebs tritt jährlich hunderttausendfach auf und gilt als die häufigste Krebsart bei Männern und zweithäufigste bei Frauen, wobei die verstärkte Früherkennung das für Primärversorgung zuständige Gesundheitssystem belastet. Das EU-finanzierte Projekt AUTOCAPSULE plant die Entwicklung einer Technologie zur Früherkennung von entzündlichen Darmerkrankungen und Darmkrebs sowie zur patientennahen Überwachung der Wirksamkeit der Behandlung. Herzstück der Technologie ist eine autonome Kapsel, die zur Überwachung eines bestimmten Bereichs für mehrere Wochen in den Magen-Darm-Trakt implantiert werden kann. Dabei erfolgen magnetische Manipulationen mit einem externen Roboterarm. Die Kapsel wird auf multimodale Weise Daten erfassen: per Mikro-Ultraschallbildgebung, Weißlichtbildgebung sowie pH- und Entzündungsüberwachung.
Ziel
AUTOCAPSULE aims at demonstrating the viability of a technology for early diagnosis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and bowel cancer and for monitoring of treatment effectiveness at primary or secondary point of care. The technology vision is based on an untethered autonomous capsule that is both implantable in the gastro-intestinal (GI) tract for several weeks in order to monitor a specific area, and that can explore the GI tract for endoscopy in a point of care, through magnetic manipulation with an external robotic arm and limited expertise of the operator . The capsule is capable of multimodal sensing, including micro ultrasound imaging, white light imaging, ph monitoring and inflammation monitoring.
The GI system is highly complex, subject to frequent external stimulus through eating and digestion, and carries an extremely high burden of disease: 15 – 40% of the European population report functional GI conditions. However, the range of conditions encompassed is too diverse a target for immediate action and we will therefore focus on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colorectal cancer. Even for those diseases alone, the affected European populations are large, with colorectal cancer being the most common cancer in men (30% of all new cancers) and second most common in women (25% of all new cancers) with a total of about 350,000 cases in the EU in 2012. Moreover, the burden on healthcare systems is rising worldwide, with increased screening cited as the primary reason.
In the course of the AUTOCAPSULE project two parallel tracks will be followed to demonstrate the technology vision, each focusing on a subset of the vision capsule features. One focuses on the development and demonstration of an untethered autonomous robotic capsule, capable of micro ultrasound imaging and white light imaging. The other focuses on the development and demonstration of an implantable capsule, capable of operating with sub-mW wireless power supply and of being parked in the GI tract for several weeks. AUTOCAPSULE will demonstrate capsules with partial complementary implementations of the technology vision and will show a path towards the fabrication and industrial development of the full vision capsule.
Wissenschaftliches Gebiet
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicinegastroenterologyinflammatory bowel disease
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringroboticsautonomous robots
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineoncologycolorectal cancer
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesacousticsultrasound
Schlüsselbegriffe
Programm/Programme
Aufforderung zur Vorschlagseinreichung
Andere Projekte für diesen Aufruf anzeigenUnterauftrag
H2020-EIC-FETPROACT-2019
Finanzierungsplan
RIA - Research and Innovation actionKoordinator
56126 Pisa
Italien