SPEAKER PROFILE |
 Prof. Dr. André Bernard NTB Interstaatliche Hochschule für Technik Buchs Switzerland |
Microfluidic device to model microvascular obstructions in heart attack patients
Abstract
Worldwide, coronary artery disease (CAD) is the single most frequent cause of death (>7M p.a., 13.2% of all deaths). A major unmet medical need is the peri-procedural diagnosis and treatment of microvascular obstructions (MVO), which occurs in 40%-60% of STEMI patients treated with a stent.
We present a microfluidic approach that is representative for an in vitro model of the coronary circulation. The proposed fluidic system consists of a fractional model of an artery coronary branch with distributed flow resistance values spanning 4 orders of magnitude. Such a model allows measuring the flow distribution on a microvascular level during drug infusion. Additionally, lumped tunable hydraulic resistors and capacitors have been developed, enabling to simulate coronary diseases such as arthrosclerosis or MVO. The fluidic system has the potential to qualify diagnosis and therapy methods and instrumentation at highest "organ reproducibility". Moreover, it can render animal trials obsolete.
We present a microfluidic approach that is representative for an in vitro model of the coronary circulation. The proposed fluidic system consists of a fractional model of an artery coronary branch with distributed flow resistance values spanning 4 orders of magnitude. Such a model allows measuring the flow distribution on a microvascular level during drug infusion. Additionally, lumped tunable hydraulic resistors and capacitors have been developed, enabling to simulate coronary diseases such as arthrosclerosis or MVO. The fluidic system has the potential to qualify diagnosis and therapy methods and instrumentation at highest "organ reproducibility". Moreover, it can render animal trials obsolete.
Bio
André Bernard is the head of the institute for micro- and nanotechnology of the University of Applied Sciences NTB in Buchs since 2005. He studied biochemistry and immunology and received his PhD from the University of Zürich. He then performed postdoctoral studies at IBM Research Zurich and founded a MedTech start-up in Tübingen (D) where he served as CEO. His main interests are in MEMS and microtechnology particularly for life science applications, in surface and interfacial science, in additive manufacturing and… in good food :-)