Medical Microsystems and Enabling Technologies for Precision Medicine

精准医疗的医疗微系统和支持技术

• 批准号: RGPIN-2022-04924
• 负责人: Takahata, Kenichi
• 金额: $ 4.01万
• 依托单位: University of British Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=752284
• 关键词: Medical; Microsystems; Enabling; Technologies; Precision

Advances in micro/nanotechnology are rapidly evolving medical device technologies. This trend is facilitating the advent of precision medicine, an approach to personalized healthcare tailored to genetic and other characteristics of individual patients. Microsystems with embedded sensors and actuators, or micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), offer a promising path to this emerging field, with their unique ability for accurate assessment and targeted treatment of local lesions through minimally invasive forms. When placed inside the body, MEMS, essentially planar silicon chips with delicate on-chip structures, however suffer a variety of issues in critical aspects including mechanical robustness, effective interaction with three-dimensional tissue and nerves, remote powering and control, and biocompatibility. Breakthrough approaches are needed to tackle these challenges effectively. This research is aimed to exert the full potential of MEMS for their clinical applications in intelligent implants and surgical devices that will push the advancement of precision medicine. To this end, we will seek novel routes to constructing transducers and packaged systems in highly miniaturized, implantable, and robust forms via leverage of nontraditional functional materials together with micro/nano-scale fabrication technology. A focus will be placed on stimuli-responsive materials to enable autonomous "smart" actuation and sensing in the micro and nano domains. This route, if successful, leads to a kill-three-birds-with-one-stone solution, achieving active/perceptive functions with the responsive feature, ultimate downsizing with their extremely simple design architectures, and high robustness/reliability led by the same design nature, all at once to bring medical MEMS into reality. One of the short-term objectives of this research is to study and demonstrate novel micro/nano transducers functionalized by stimuli-responsive and nano-scale materials for their in-vivo and wireless operations. We will then assess and verify the practicality of these transducers by applying them to the development of revolutionary microsystems including drug-delivery implants and smart catheters that will advance precision therapy and diagnosis of localized disease such as cardiovascular disease and cancers. Alternative micro/nanofabrication processes that will serve as a key enabling technology for these devices will also be investigated in this research. In the longer term, we expect our research to offer groundbreaking technologies and products of medical microsystems that will enable more effective healthcare in Canada and worldwide, and thereby shape the future of minimally invasive precision medicine. We also envision that the new findings and developments from this research will pioneer new applications in other areas beyond the particular scope in medical areas, broadly contributing to further advances in microsystems, nanotechnology, and applied physics.

微/纳米技术的进步正在迅速发展医疗器械技术。这一趋势正在促进精准医疗的出现，这是一种针对个体患者的遗传和其他特征量身定制的个性化医疗保健方法。具有嵌入式传感器和致动器的微系统或微机电系统（MEMS）为这一新兴领域提供了一条有前途的道路，其独特的能力是通过微创形式对局部病变进行准确评估和靶向治疗。然而，当被放置在体内时，MEMS（基本上是具有精细片上结构的平面硅芯片）在关键方面遭受各种问题，包括机械鲁棒性、与三维组织和神经的有效相互作用、远程供电和控制以及生物相容性。需要采取突破性办法来有效应对这些挑战。本研究旨在充分发挥MEMS在智能植入物和手术设备中的临床应用潜力，推动精准医学的发展。为此，我们将寻求新的途径，通过利用非传统的功能材料与微/纳米级制造技术，以高度小型化，可植入和坚固的形式构建换能器和封装系统。重点将放在刺激响应材料上，以实现微米和纳米领域的自主“智能”驱动和传感。如果成功，这条路线将带来一石三鸟的解决方案，通过响应特性实现主动/感知功能，通过极其简单的设计架构实现最终的小型化，并通过相同的设计性质实现高鲁棒性/可靠性，所有这些都将医疗MEMS带入现实。本研究的短期目标之一是研究和展示由刺激响应和纳米级材料功能化的新型微/纳米换能器，用于其体内和无线操作。然后，我们将评估和验证这些传感器的实用性，将其应用于革命性微系统的开发，包括药物输送植入物和智能导管，这些微系统将推进心血管疾病和癌症等局部疾病的精确治疗和诊断。替代微/纳米纤维工艺，将作为这些设备的关键使能技术也将在本研究中进行调查。从长远来看，我们希望我们的研究能够提供开创性的医疗微系统技术和产品，从而在加拿大和全球范围内实现更有效的医疗保健，从而塑造微创精准医疗的未来。我们还设想，这项研究的新发现和发展将在医疗领域的特定范围之外的其他领域开拓新的应用，广泛地促进微系统，纳米技术和应用物理学的进一步发展。