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

职业：利用闭环装置控制热穿透深度和方向，实现精确烧蚀

• 批准号: 2338890
• 负责人: Seyedabdollah Mirbozorgi
• 金额: $ 54.96万
• 依托单位: University of Alabama at Birmingham
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-06-01 至 2029-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2338890&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Heat; Penetration; Depth; Direction

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.

该项目解决了癌症治疗中的一个关键挑战：增强热消融技术的精度，以有效地靶向肿瘤，同时保存周围的健康组织。到2030年，据估计，将会出现超过2600万个新的癌症病例，可通过热消融有超过1000万个潜在的治疗。然而，当前的技术通常由于不受控制的热量扩散而损害健康组织，或者由于无法消除所有癌细胞而冒着肿瘤复发的风险。该项目致力于推进肿瘤精度消融（TPA），该技术一旦将热量与组织分离，旨在精确控制热量的热量。这种方法对于不对称形状的肿瘤特别重要。该项目的愿景是通过开发更安全，更有效的消融方法来促进科学技术来改变癌症治疗。这些进步对于治疗脑肿瘤和其他疾病尤其重要，其中组织消融是关键的治疗策略，包括肝脏，肺，肾脏和骨肿瘤，癫痫病灶，运动障碍运动中的运动电路以及大脑中的血管异常。该项目不可或缺的是一项教育计划，旨在使来自代表性不足小组的学生参与STEM。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的跨学科课程。它为本科和研究生提供了研究机会，特别是通过诸如垂直整合项目之类的计划。此外，它为研究生提供了指导机会，以帮助他们的职业发展。外展活动将组织起来，以与教师和学生共享资源，工具和知识，从而扩大项目的影响。该项目旨在开发一种新颖的消融导管，这是其领域的首次，在热消融过程中调节热渗透和方向方面的特定科学挑战。核心科学进步涵盖了三个主要领域：（1）通过一种新方法限制热量渗透，该方法可以交替加热和冷却，以在肿瘤边界产生零温度的梯度，旨在防止对相邻健康组织的损害； （2）通过探索超声和热传播物理学之间的相互作用来指导热量，并使用低功率超声波进行对这种干扰进行建模，以精确直接直接直接直接在不对称形状的肿瘤中进行直接热量； （3）使用创新的超宽带（UWB）传感器的实时监视，以连续跟踪消融进度，从而实现准确，即时的闭环控制消融渗透深度。提出的研究计划包括评估和评估的三个阶段，包括体外测试以及对肿瘤小动物进行体内实验。该项目在开发TPA导管方面的创新方法，集成了热量生产者吸收器模块，用于应用替代加热和冷冻过程，超声阵列以将热量引导到所需的方向上，并以烧蚀深度的检测，这意味着我们对组织中的热量的跃升。预计这种创新的方法会极大地影响微电学，传热和肿瘤治疗的领域，在Precision Medicine研发领域开辟了新的途径。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子来评估的支持，并具有更广泛的影响。