Description du projet
Une nouvelle technologie pour le diagnostic précoce de la maladie inflammatoire de l’intestin et du cancer des intestins
Entre 15 et 40 % de la population européenne souffre d’une pathologie de l’appareil gastro‑intestinal (GI). Le cancer colorectal, qui est le cancer le plus fréquent chez les hommes et le deuxième cancer le plus fréquent chez les femmes, représente à lui seul des centaines de milliers de cas chaque année. Son dépistage accru est cité comme le principal fardeau du système de soins de santé. Le projet AUTOCAPSULE, financé par l’UE, vise à développer une technologie pour le diagnostic précoce des maladies inflammatoires de l’intestin et du cancer des intestins, et pour la surveillance de l’efficacité du traitement sur le lieu d’intervention. Cette technologie repose sur une capsule autonome pouvant être implantée dans le tractus gastro‑intestinal pendant plusieurs semaines afin de surveiller une zone spécifique, soumise à une manipulation magnétique avec un bras robotique externe. La capsule sera à même de procéder à une détection multimodale, dont l’imagerie par micro‑ultrasons, l’imagerie en lumière blanche et la surveillance du pH et de l’inflammation.
Objectif
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.
Champ scientifique
- 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
Mots‑clés
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinateur
56126 Pisa
Italie