CAREER: Heat Penetration Depth and Direction Control with Closed-Loop Device for Precision Ablation

该项目解决了癌症治疗中的一个关键挑战：提高热消融技术的精度，以有效地靶向肿瘤，同时保留周围的健康组织。到2030年，估计将出现超过2600万例新的癌症病例，其中1000多万例可以通过热消融治疗。然而，目前的技术往往由于不受控制的热量传播而损害健康组织，或者由于无法消除所有癌细胞而有肿瘤复发的风险。该项目致力于推进肿瘤精确消融（TPA），这是一种精确控制组织中热量从其来源分离后分散的技术。这种方法对于形状不对称的肿瘤尤其重要。该项目的愿景是通过开发更安全、更有效的消融方法，推动科学技术变革癌症治疗。这些进展对于治疗脑肿瘤和其他以组织消融为主要治疗策略的疾病尤其重要，这些疾病包括肝、肺、肾和骨肿瘤、癫痫灶、运动障碍中的运动回路和大脑血管异常。这个项目的组成部分是一个教育计划，旨在让STEM中代表性不足的群体的学生参与进来。该计划包括开发与电气工程、生物医学工程和肿瘤学等专业交叉的跨学科课程。它为本科生和研究生提供研究机会，特别是通过垂直整合项目这样的项目。此外，它还为研究生提供指导机会，以帮助他们的职业发展。将组织外联活动，与教师和学生分享资源、工具和知识，扩大项目的影响。该项目旨在开发一种新型消融导管，这是该领域的首创，解决热消融过程中调节热渗透和方向的特定科学挑战。核心科学进展包括三个主要领域：(1)通过交替加热和冷却的新方法来限制热渗透，在肿瘤边界产生零温度梯度，旨在防止对邻近健康组织的损伤；(2)通过探索超声物理与热传播之间的相互作用来引导热量，并对这种干扰进行建模，使用低功率超声波精确引导非对称形状肿瘤内的热量；(3)采用创新的超宽带（UWB）传感器进行实时监测，持续跟踪烧蚀过程，从而实现准确、即时的烧蚀穿透深度闭环控制。拟议的研究计划包括三个阶段的评价和评估，包括体外试验和携带肿瘤的小动物体内实验。该项目在开发TPA导管方面的创新方法，集成了一个热产生-吸收模块，用于应用交替加热和冷冻过程，超声波阵列用于将热量引导到所需方向，以及用于消融深度检测的超宽带传感器，这标志着我们对组织热流的理解取得了飞跃。这种创新的方法预计将极大地影响微电子、传热和肿瘤治疗领域，为精准医学的研究和发展开辟新的途径。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project addresses a critical challenge in cancer treatment: enhancing the precision of thermal ablation technology to effectively target tumors while preserving surrounding healthy tissues. By 2030, it is estimated that over 26 million new cancer cases will arise, with more than 10 million potentially treatable through thermal ablation. Current techniques, however, often compromise healthy tissues due to uncontrolled heat spread, or they risk tumor recurrence by failing to eliminate all cancer cells. This project is dedicated to advancing Tumor Precision Ablation (TPA), a technique designed to precisely control the dispersion of heat in tissues once it is separated from its source. This approach is especially crucial for asymmetrically shaped tumors. The project's vision is to advance science and technology to transform cancer treatment by developing safer and more effective ablation methods. These advancements are particularly vital for treating brain tumors and other diseases where tissue ablation is a key therapeutic strategy, including liver, lung, kidney, and bone tumors, epilepsy foci, motor circuits in movement disorders, and vascular abnormalities in the brain. Integral to this project is an educational plan designed to involve students from underrepresented groups in STEM. This plan includes developing interdisciplinary courses that intersect with majors such as electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, and oncology. It offers research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, particularly through programs like Vertically Integrated Projects. Furthermore, it provides mentorship opportunities for graduate students to aid their career development. Outreach activities will be organized for sharing resources, tools, and knowledge with teachers and students, amplifying the project's impact. This project aims to develop a novel ablation catheter, a first in its field, tackling specific scientific challenges in modulating heat penetration and direction during thermal ablation procedures. The core scientific advancements encompass three main areas: (1) Limiting Heat Penetration through a new method that alternates heating and cooling to create a zero-temperature gradient at the tumor boundary, aiming to prevent damage to adjacent healthy tissues; (2) Directing Heat by exploring the interaction between the physics of ultrasound and heat propagations, and modeling this interference, using low-power ultrasound waves to precisely direct heat within tumors of asymmetrical shapes; (3) Real-time Monitoring employing innovative ultra-wideband (UWB) sensors for continuous tracking of the ablation progress, thus enabling accurate and immediate closed-loop control of ablation penetration depth. The proposed research plan comprises three phases of evaluation and assessment, including in vitro tests and in vivo experiments with tumor-bearing small animals. The project's innovative approach in developing this TPA catheter, integrating a heat producer-absorber module for applying an alternate heating and freezing process, ultrasound arrays to direct the heat in the desired direction, and UWB sensors for ablation depth detection, signifies a leap forward in our understanding of heat flux in tissues. This innovative approach is anticipated to greatly influence the fields of microelectronics, heat transfer, and tumor treatment, opening new avenues in precision medicine research and development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.