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Mechatronics in Medicine

The MIM Lab develops robotic and mechatronics surgical systems for a variety of procedures.

Head of Group

B415C Bessemer Building
South Kensington Campus

+44 (0)20 7594 7046

What we do

The Mechatronics in Medicine Laboratory develops robotic and mechatronics surgical systems for a variety of procedures including neuro, cardiovascular, orthopaedic surgeries, and colonoscopies. Examples include bio-inspired catheters that can navigate along complex paths within the brain (such as EDEN2020), soft robots to explore endoluminal anatomies (such as the colon), and virtual reality solutions to support surgeons during knee replacement surgeries.

Meet the team

Mr Ayhan Aktas
Casual - Student demonstrator - lower rate

Dr Daniel Bautista Salinas
Research Associate

Dr Kaiwen Chen
Research Associate

Mr Zejian Cui
Research Assistant

Mr Connor Daly
Research Postgraduate

Emeritus Professor Brian L Davies FREng
Emeritus Professor

Mr Zhaoyang Jacopo Hu
Research Postgraduate

Dr Hisham M Iqbal
Research Associate

Mr Alex Ranne
Research Postgraduate

Professor Ferdinando M Rodriguez y Baena
Co-Director of Hamlyn Centre, Professor of Medical Robotics

Dr Jialei Shi
Research Associate

Mr Spyridon Souipas
Casual - Other work

Ms Emilia Zari
Research Postgraduate

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Bernardini:2022:10.1038/s42003-022-04052-x,
author = {Bernardini, A and Trovatelli, M and Klosowski, M and Pederzani, M and Zani, D and Brizzola, S and Porter, A and Rodriguez, y Baena F and Dini, D},
doi = {10.1038/s42003-022-04052-x},
journal = {Communications Biology},
title = {Reconstruction of ovine axonal cytoarchitecture enables more accurate models of brain biomechanics},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-04052-x},
volume = {5},
year = {2022}
}

Download

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - There is an increased need and focus to understand how local brain microstructure affects the transport of drug molecules directly administered to the brain tissue, for example in convection-enhanced delivery procedures. This study reports a systematic attempt to characterize the cytoarchitecture of commissural, long association and projection fibres, namely the corpus callosum, the fornix and the corona radiata, with the specific aim to map different regions of the tissue and provide essential information for the development of accurate models of brain biomechanics. Ovine samples are imaged using scanning electron microscopy combined with focused ion beam milling to generate 3D volume reconstructions of the tissue at subcellular spatial resolution. Focus is placed on the characteristic cytological feature of the white matter: the axons and their alignment in the tissue. For each tract, a 3D reconstruction of relatively large volumes, including a significant number of axons, is performed and outer axonal ellipticity, outer axonal cross-sectional area and their relative perimeter are measured. The study of well-resolved microstructural features provides useful insight into the fibrous organization of the tissue, whose micromechanical behaviour is that of a composite material presenting elliptical tortuous tubular axonal structures embedded in the extra-cellular matrix. Drug flow can be captured through microstructurally-based models using 3D volumes, either reconstructed directly from images or generated in silico using parameters extracted from the database of images, leading to a workflow to enable physically-accurate simulations of drug delivery to the targeted tissue.
AU  - Bernardini,A
AU  - Trovatelli,M
AU  - Klosowski,M
AU  - Pederzani,M
AU  - Zani,D
AU  - Brizzola,S
AU  - Porter,A
AU  - Rodriguez,y Baena F
AU  - Dini,D
DO  - 10.1038/s42003-022-04052-x
PY  - 2022///
SN  - 2399-3642
TI  - Reconstruction of ovine axonal cytoarchitecture enables more accurate models of brain biomechanics
T2  - Communications Biology
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-04052-x
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/100296
VL  - 5
ER  -