Interaction Mechanics of a Stiff Hollow Tube Penetrating a Soft Nonlinear Material

最近，医学界对开发下一代手术针以减少经皮介入手术期间的组织损伤的兴趣越来越大。可以在自然界中找到应对这一挑战的创新解决方案。蜜蜂、蚊子和黄蜂等昆虫具有复杂的毒刺结构和毒刺机制，这有助于它们有效地将毒刺引导到特定目标。该奖项支持基础研究，以研究这些插入机制，并获得插入力学知识，作为设计生物启发手术针的基础。采用自然启发的插入机制的创新针刺装置将增强各种现有经皮手术的有效性并改善患者的舒适度，因此有益于广泛的医学诊断和治疗，包括与癌症相关的那些。此外，具有改进的可控性的生物启发针还可以帮助开发用于活检、药物输送、脑外科手术和许多其他经皮手术的新医疗程序。通过研究工作，该项目还旨在通过指导和开发新的教育材料来教育下一代科学家和工程师。此外，该项目将加强代表性不足的群体和妇女参与STEM教育和培训，并在科学博览会，开放日活动和暑期课程等各种公共论坛上向包括普通公众和高中生在内的广泛受众传播从研究活动中获得的最新知识。缺乏对生物启发针-组织相互作用的基于力学的理解一直是阻碍有效设计和开发变革性外科针刺技术的主要障碍。该项目将通过扩展我们对人工组件（生物启发针）和生物系统（软组织）之间机械相互作用的理解，解决将生物启发设计应用于先进针刺技术的挑战。这一目标的实现将有助于通过实验研究了解生物启发针的插入和拔出力学，研究制造条件对针组件机械性能的影响，并使用分析和模拟方法预测插入行为。这项工作的成果将提供有关生物启发针在相关条件下的机械行为的新知识，并有助于开发可靠的预测针插入模型，用于先进的手术。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Recently there has been a substantial and growing interest in the medical community to develop next-generation surgical needles to reduce tissue damage during percutaneous interventional procedures. Innovative solutions to the challenge may be found in nature. Insects such as honeybees, mosquitos, and wasps have sophisticated stinger structures and stinging mechanisms, which help them to effectively steer their stingers to specific targets. This award supports fundamental research to study these insertion mechanisms and to obtain knowledge on insertion mechanics as a basis for designing bioinspired surgical needles. Innovative needling devices employing nature-inspired insertion mechanisms will enhance the effectiveness of various existing percutaneous procedures and improve the patients' comfort, and therefore benefit a wide range of medical diagnoses and treatments including those related to cancers. In addition, bioinspired needles with improved controllability can also help develop new medical procedures for biopsy, drug delivery, brain surgery, and many other percutaneous procedures. Through the course of the research work, this project also aims to educate the next generation of scientists and engineers by mentorship and development of new educational materials. Moreover, this project will enhance the engagement of underrepresented groups and women in STEM education and training, and disseminate the state-of-the-art knowledge obtained from research activities to a broad range of audience including the general public and high school students in a variety of public forums such as science fairs, open house events, and summer programs. Lack of mechanics-based understanding of bioinspired needle-tissue interactions has been a major obstacle preventing effective design and development of transformative surgery needling technologies. This project will address the challenges in applying bioinspired designs to advanced needling technologies by extending our understanding of mechanical interactions between artificial components (bioinspired needles) and biological systems (soft tissues). Achievement of this goal will be facilitated by understanding the insertion and extraction mechanics of bioinspired needles through experimental studies, studying the effect of manufacturing conditions on the mechanical properties of the needle components, and predicting the insertion behavior using analytical and simulation methods. The outcome of this work will provide novel knowledge on mechanical behavior of bioinspired needle under relevant conditions, and assist development of reliable predictive needle-insertion models for advanced surgeries.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.