Interview conducted by Skyla BailyNov 28 2022
At MEDICA 2022, NewsMedical spoke with Heike and Thorsten Walles, co-founders of MD2B LifeScience, which provides realistic thorax models for surgical and implant training. These 3D-printed models could revolutionize however grooming is approached, with replaceable ribs that replicate the behaviour of actual quality bones.
Please could you present yourselves and your nonrecreational backgrounds?
Heike Walles (HW): My sanction is Heike Walles. I'm a biologist and I’ve worked for 25 years successful the tract of insubstantial engineering. I person a batch of acquisition successful however you tin harvester materials with cells to make tissue-specific models.
Thorsten Walles (TW): My sanction is Thorsten Walles. I americium a surgeon specialized successful thoracic surgery, and I'm the prof for thoracic country astatine the University of Magdeburg wherever I bid young doctors. I'm besides progressive successful grooming programs with our National Society for Thoracic Surgery.
MD2B LifeScience is simply a spin-out from Magdeburg University that is creating 3D-printed thorax models for aesculapian grooming and surgical planning. What inspired you to prosecute a thoracic modeling solution?
TW: It started with 1 robotic surgery. When we usage robotics the surgical procedures are precise standardized, but I wanted to bash a non-standardized attack for a uncommon tumor and had the occupation of however I could rearrange the robotic mounting for my patient. At that point, I wished that determination would beryllium immoderate benignant of grooming instrumentality to conscionable play astir a small spot with however to program the surgery, but unfortunately, determination wasn't. So I did the country without training, and everything went fine, but that launched the thought wherever everything started.
Image Credit: MD2B LifeScience
I asked the Engineering Department astatine our University whether it would beryllium imaginable to make immoderate 3D thorax models, and the engineers told maine that they could bash it.
What was the improvement process similar for your thorax models, and however person they evolved since your archetypal ideas?
TW: It turned retired that technically determination were immoderate challenges that the engineers had to solve, which they did, and past the thought continued truthful we decided to make a exemplary for grooming young doctors and adjacent professionals similar maine for analyzable surgeries.
We introduced our thought successful September 2021 to a nationalist aesculapian congress, and past different doctors had further ideas. Then, immoderate concern representatives remarked, ‘well you person the thorax and you person the bones of the chest; this is utile for our implants’. They realized that they could usage the models for grooming connected applying implants oregon modifying implants. And truthful the thought kept growing.
Image Credit: Magdeburg University Hospital
HW: Currently, for overmuch surgical training, animals are used. If you are coming from the tract of insubstantial engineering, you are experienced successful creating alternatives to carnal models that person the aforesaid functions. In our caller development, we truthful instrumentality this goal. First, we person a realistic transcript of the quality rib cage that the surgeons tin bid with, and secondly, we tin insert bioartificial quality tissues, for illustration lung tumors.
For image-guided interventions, academia and manufacture are processing electrodes and different devices for thoracic operations. Many of these devices indispensable beryllium usable successful the discourse of MRTs. Therefore we modified our materials truthful that you tin usage it nether MRT.
With further ideas coming from our shareholders and our technological partners, we proceed to make our merchandise and our company. At MEDICA our improvement already appealed to assorted representatives from academia and industry.
What are the materials utilized successful the thorax models?
HW: We are truly focusing connected the worldly truthful that the exemplary ribs person the physiological behaviour of quality ribs. That is wherefore the manufacture tin optimize their implants with it, due to the fact that they interruption and enactment precisely similar quality bones. For grooming purposes it is overmuch cheaper to enactment with 1 modular model, but if idiosyncratic is funny successful a patient-specific individualized thoracic exemplary it is imaginable to make 1 from CT data.
Image Credit: Magdeburg University Hospital
We person filed patents for the materials. The bony structures are generated from modified polymers. The bioartificial quality tissues are based connected collagen compounds.
Why is determination a circumstantial request for amended models of the thorax specifically?
TW: In minimally invasive thoracic country operations, the diligent is lying connected their side. The anesthesiologist who's taking attraction of the diligent volition artifact the precocious lung truthful that it volition deflate and collapse. As a result, a cavity forms betwixt the thorax partition and the collapsed lung. The surgeon goes wrong this abstraction with his instruments and does immoderate helium has to bash to execute the operation. Sometimes, helium has to flip the lung from the backmost to the beforehand to scope the posterior broadside oregon the different mode around.
Image Credit: Magdeburg University Hospital
The situation is to bash these operative maneuvers successful the restricted abstraction of the thoracic cavity. There are antithetic grooming models to signifier minimal invasive operations of the pelvis and abdomen; compared to the existent concern successful the thorax these models let a ample magnitude of state for performing the operations.
HW: We screen our grooming models with a brushed insubstantial furniture that we person developed truthful that you can't spot inside. Trainee doctors truly person to larn however to entree the rib cage and bid to consciousness the ribs. In bid to make realistic operating conditions, carnal organs tin beryllium placed successful our grooming model, for example. The organs tin besides beryllium perfused and ventilated.
What is the payment of 3D printing the ribs?
HW: Our additive accumulation attack enables the anatomically close imitation of the anatomical operation of ribs by mapping the 2 cortical parts and the marrow cavity for the archetypal time. In addition, a rib is not a harmoniously curved bony with an oval cross-section but changes its signifier respective times successful the anatomical course.
Several healthcare companies that proviso implants for rib re-fixation person tested our preliminary models and started to usage them for grooming doctors and aesculapian users connected however to use their implants.
After surgical oregon implant training, if a rib is broken, we tin speech it easily, and it tin beryllium breached again successful different presumption if necessary.
How bash these models assistance to trim the request for animals successful surgical training?
TW: The nonstop anatomical practice of the quality thoracic skeleton provides a much realistic grooming situation than galore established carnal models. Fresh oregon commercially disposable carnal organs tin beryllium utilized for a realistic depiction of the visceral surgical steps, but in immoderate case, this model reduces the request for laboratory animals. No peculiar premises are required for the usage of our grooming models; successful this way, a grooming basal tin beryllium made from immoderate bureau oregon seminar enactment station.
Image Credit: Magdeburg University Hospital
We started to usage our exemplary besides for pupil grooming due to the fact that each young doc has to larn the insertion of a thorax tube. Compared to the effort of having to get an carnal carcass from the slaughterhouse, our exemplary is overmuch easier to signifier and handle.
Why is it important for your models to amusement up successful MRIs and CTs?
TW: This diagnostic is not indispensable for surgeons, but we person successful caput that we could usage our exemplary for grooming interventional radiologists. For example, minimally invasive interventions connected the chest, specified arsenic percutaneous nodule biopsy oregon radiofrequency ablations, tin beryllium trained for.
How important are commercialized shows similar MEDICA to beforehand caller innovations specified arsenic your own?
HW: For america arsenic a tiny and young spin-off, it was truly precise important. We wanted to find retired whether our improvement appeals to the idiosyncratic groups, and to bash that I deliberation it's precise important to person ventures similar this.
Image Credit: MD2B LifeScience
TW: We are inactive astatine the opening of improvement and we tin spell successful antithetic directions. Being a tiny start-up we person to determine what makes much consciousness and what's the adjacent step. At MEDICA we get feedback from professionals, imaginable aboriginal customers, oregon different academics. MEDICA helps america to make a consciousness of what the marketplace wants.
HW: It is truly fantastic to observe that your thought is relevant.
Are determination immoderate wide contiguous adjacent steps you volition beryllium taking to amended upon your existent models?
HW: We volition absorption connected finalizing the brushed insubstantial coverage. Next, we volition person to instrumentality models for the visceral organs successful the thorax.
TW: Is it the thorax and the rib cage itself that's absorbing for astir people? Or bash we person to enactment successful much effort to travel up with an thought for the interior organs similar the bosom and lungs? Is it capable to instrumentality organs from slaughtered animals oregon bash radical request artificial organs made from silicon, plastics, etc? There are already products successful the market, but we person the thought of depicting the haptics of organs to springiness the idiosyncratic a realistic acquisition during their grooming and interventions. So the question is: How adjacent tin we get with the artificial technologies that we person astatine manus close now?
About Heike Walles & Thorsten Walles
Heike Walles, Ph.D. Born successful 1962 successful Germany. 1982 - 1988 Studied Biology astatine the Justus-Liebig-University Gießen,Germany. 1989 – 1994 PhD thesis astatine the Ludwig-Maximilians University successful Munich1999 – 2003 Post-Doc and Junior-Professor astatine Leibniz-Research-Laboratories for Biotechnology and Artificial Organs (LEBAO), Hannover Medical School, Hannover. 2004 – 2012 Head of Department Cellsystems, Fraunhofer-Institute Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology (IGB), Stuttgart. 2009 – 2018 Full-Professor for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Julius-Maximilians-University, Würzburg. 2014-2018 Head of Fraunhofer Translational Center for Regenerative Therapies successful Oncology and Musculoskeletal Diseases, Würzburg. Since 2018 Head of Core-Facility Tissue-Engineering, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany. 2011 Co-founder of the TissUse GmbH (Berlin). 2022 Co-founder of MD2B LifeSciences GmbH (Magdeburg).
Thorsten Walles, MD FETCS. Born successful 1972 successful Germany. 1993-2000 Studied medicine astatine the Hanover Medical School. 1997-1998 Research enactment astatine the Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, USA). 2000-2009 Clinical grooming successful cardiac, thoracic and vascular country arsenic good wide surgery. 2009 specializer successful thoracic surgery. Since 2017 prof for Thoracic Surgery and main of the Thoracic Surgery Service astatine the University Hospital Magdeburg. Focus: oncological surgery, minimally invasive thoracic country including robot-assisted surgery, pediatric thoracic surgery, thoracic traumatology. 2011 Co-founder of the TissUse Gmbh (Berlin). 2022 Co-founder of MD2B LifeSciences GmbH (Magdeburg).
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