O The project, which includes three other European partners, aims to “reduce mortality caused by cardiovascular diseases”, which is estimated to be 16.8 million people per year worldwide, said today, in a statement, the institute.
Although the use of vascular prostheses to restore blood flow to clogged arteries has “improved the prognosis” of these diseases, these devices “often fail without warning”, causing “catastrophic effects” for the patient.
In this sense, the researchers will try to develop intelligent vascular medical devices “capable of sending alerts before failures occur, allowing early medical intervention and preventing a new cardiovascular event”.
“We want to develop the next generation of vascular medical devices, introducing the concept of intelligent vascular prostheses capable of generating energy and self-monitoring their performance”, clarifies, quoted in the statement, the researcher leading the project, Inês Gonçalves.
If the performance of these new vascular prostheses decreases, “alerts are sent to the health system”, allowing “an early medical intervention, anticipating the failure of the prosthesis, due to the formation of a clot, and avoiding a new cardiovascular event”, such as a heart attack. myocardium, clarifies Inês Gonçalves.
To arrive at this “pioneering” technology, the researchers will develop “new biocompatible triboelectric nanogenerators, which convert the body’s mechanical energy into electrical energy”, clarifies, also mentioned in the statement, researcher Andreia Pereira.
“A miniaturized and ultra-low consumption energy management unit and ‘wireless’ system will also be developed, which will be coupled to the vascular prosthesis, allowing it to store the generated energy and collect and transmit the data to an external device, such as a ‘smartphone'” , he adds.
The performance of the intelligent vascular prosthesis will later be validated in an animal model in collaboration with researchers from the Medical University of Vienna (Austria), one of the project partners, together with the University of Navarra (Spain) and the Institute of Materials Physics of the University of Porto (IFIMUP).
The project, which will be developed over the next three years, received funding of around three million euros from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Pathfinder Challenge, under the Horizon Europe programme.
In addition to researchers, the project also has a set of clinical consultants who will help develop a device that responds to the needs of both patients and doctors.
As part of the project, the i3S team will receive more than 1.1 million euros from the total amount financed and intends to hire four young researchers.
“We will thus have another major international project in the group to support the development and transfer of a technology from fundamental science to a product that could benefit society”, adds Inês Gonçalves.
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