Unipi Team Leader: Prof. Giuseppe Iannaccone, Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione
Conditions of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract are reported in 15–40 % of the European population. Colorectal cancer alone accounts for hundreds of thousands of cases each year, being the most common cancer in men and the second most common in women, with increased screening cited as the primary healthcare system burden. The EU-funded AUTOCAPSULE project aims to develop a technology for the early diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease and bowel cancer and the monitoring of treatment effectiveness at the point of care. The technology is based on an autonomous capsule that can be implanted in the GI tract for several weeks to monitor a specific area, subjected to magnetic manipulation with an external robotic arm. The capsule will be capable of multimodal sensing, including micro-ultrasound imaging, white light imaging and pH and inflammation monitoring.
Objective
AUTOCAPSULE aims at demonstrating the viability of a technology for early diagnosis of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and bowel cancer and for monitoring of treatment effectiveness at primary or secondary point of care. The technology vision is based on an untethered autonomous capsule that is both implantable in the gastro-intestinal (GI) tract for several weeks in order to monitor a specific area, and that can explore the GI tract for endoscopy in a point of care, through magnetic manipulation with an external robotic arm and limited expertise of the operator . The capsule is capable of multimodal sensing, including micro ultrasound imaging, white light imaging, ph monitoring and inflammation monitoring.
The GI system is highly complex, subject to frequent external stimulus through eating and digestion, and carries an extremely high burden of disease: 15 – 40% of the European population report functional GI conditions. However, the range of conditions encompassed is too diverse a target for immediate action and we will therefore focus on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colorectal cancer. Even for those diseases alone, the affected European populations are large, with colorectal cancer being the most common cancer in men (30% of all new cancers) and second most common in women (25% of all new cancers) with a total of about 350,000 cases in the EU in 2012. Moreover, the burden on healthcare systems is rising worldwide, with increased screening cited as the primary reason.
In the course of the AUTOCAPSULE project two parallel tracks will be followed to demonstrate the technology vision, each focusing on a subset of the vision capsule features. One focuses on the development and demonstration of an untethered autonomous robotic capsule, capable of micro ultrasound imaging and white light imaging. The other focuses on the development and demonstration of an implantable capsule, capable of operating with sub-mW wireless power supply and of being parked in the GI tract for several weeks. AUTOCAPSULE will demonstrate capsules with partial complementary implementations of the technology vision and will show a path towards the fabrication and industrial development of the full vision capsule.
Coordinator
Università di Pisa, Italy
Participants
- UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS, United Kingdom
- UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW, United Kingdom
- INTERUNIVERSITAIR MICRO-ELECTRONICA CENTRUM, Belgium
- QUANTAVIS SRL, Italy
Start date 1 November 2020
End date 31 October 2024
Project cost € 3 992 860
Project funding € 3 992 860
Unipi quota € 922 500
Call title H2020-EIC-FETPROACT-2019
Funding Scheme RIA - Research and Innovation action
Unipi role Coordinator