The consortium.
The HybridHeart consortium consists of 6 partners from 4 different European countries, including 4 academic groups and 2 R&D intensive SMEs.
3 Countries
in Europe
7 Partners
at several location
AMC
The Academic Medical Center (AMC) is one of the foremost research institutions in the Netherlands, as well as one of the largest hospitals. Over 7000 people work at the AMC to provide integrated patient care, fundamental and clinical scientific research, and education. The AMC complex houses the university hospital and the faculty of medicine of University of Amsterdam as well as the Emma Children’s Hospital, the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, the medical department of the Royal Tropical Institute and the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development. A number of biotech companies (some of which are AMC spin-offs) are also located on the premises. The concentration of expertise makes the AMC a breeding ground for fruitful scientific collaboration. Some 1500 members of staff are either fully or partly employed in medical research, which is regularly subjected to scrutiny by a panel of international scientists.
AMOLF
AMOLF is one of the research laboratories of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), and caries out fundamental research into complex material systems. AMOLF’s mission is to initiate and perform leading fundamental research on novel strategically important complex molecular and materials systems, in partnership with Dutch academia and industry. AMOLF aims to enable new and highly promising lines of research to blossom quickly and discover and develop new talent. The institute’s structure is therefore geared towards the development of young ambitious group leaders. AMOLF scientists continuously investigate the fundamental relationship between architecture and interactions of complex matter and material systems, and their purpose and functions. Within AMOLF there are currently 19 research groups that all focus on a specific research topic (including optics, photovoltaics, biophysics and designer matter) with their own team of technicians, PhD students and postdocs.
In particular, the soft Robotic Matter group aims to uncover principles that help understand how non-linearity and feedback can result in the emergence of complex – but useful – behaviour in soft actuated systems. To this end, the Soft Robotic Matter group explores active and sensing elements to implement feedback capabilities and computation in soft mechanical metamaterials, and uses a combination of computational, experimental and analytical tools. The group uniquely combines concepts from soft robotics mechanical metamaterials, providing new and exciting opportunities in the design of new materials and soft robotics with highly non-linear behaviour. This experience and the current direction of the research group fit perfectly with the tasks of designing, analysing and fabricating the artificial soft robotic heart. Within the Hybrid Heart project, AMOLF will be responsible for design and development of the soft robotics elastomeric matrix, the sensors and actuators, to ensure that the Hybrid Heart provides a durable solution, which is capable of natural motion and feedback.
Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
The Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA) is a public university with a special status admitting excellent students at graduate, doctoral and post-doctoral level in the sectors of engineering, medicine, agriculture, economics, law and political science. The mission of SSSA is to perform excellent research through a number of highly qualified research institutes.
The BioRobotics Institute of SSSA conducts theoretical and experimental research in biorobotics, which is characterized by a high degree of interdisciplinary. For this reason, it has a strong tendency toward integrating heterogeneous bodies of knowledge, of both scientific and humanistic nature, in order to study the theoretical and practical problems associated with the development of advanced robotic systems. Over the course of its history, has built and consolidated a vast wealth of knowledge and expertise in the fields of Service Robotics, Humanoid Robotics, Neurorobotics, Bionics, Neural Interfaces, Assistive Robotics, Robotics for Neurorehabilitation, Gerontechnologies, Biomimetic Robotics, Soft Robotics and Marine Robotics, as well as microfabrication technologies and for microrobotics applied in the medical field. Several robotic platforms have been developed in the framework of national and international projects, as for example humanoid robots, biomimetic robots, robotic and prosthetic hands, robotic systems for rehabilitation and for personal assistance of disable and elderly people. At present, the Biorobotics Institute includes over 190 people, among which 6 Full Professors, 3 Associate Professors, 8 Assistant Professors, more than 40 Post-Doc researchers, more than 90 PhD students, 6 technical and 8 administrative assistants, 15 other research assistants, a variable number of master students around 10, and a variable number of visiting researchers.
The peculiarity of the BioRobotics Institute is the capability to perform excellent research according to the standards of the scientific communities of robotics and biomedical engineering (i.e. publications) and at the same time fostering the application and the exploitation of the research results, to the benefit of the local area and of European citizens at large.
Role in the project: Specifically, SSSA will develop the artificial muscles of the hybrid heart. In particular, SSSA will benefit from the extensive previous experience gained in soft robotics to develop flexible fluidic actuators to.
evos GmbH
Founded in 2021, evos GmbH is an engineering company with the business focus on the health care market. Localized in the region of Aachen with its Excellence University of technology and medical care, evos has strong reputation in providing services for developing and manufacturing medical devices. With an experienced team of various expertise, they can provide a broad range of support to meet the requirements for medical devices under the rule of the Medical Device Regulation (MDR). Mechanical and Electronic Engineers can help to develop the design of medical devices as well as dedicated test methods and test stand to verify the functionality of products. This includes 3D CAD design using Inventor (Autodesk), electronic components and devices, and individual sensors including data acquisition. The testing department offers a broad range of device testing procedures including precise dimensional measurements (tactile, optical, combination of both) and tensile testing. In the field of process engineering, evos provides services for the development, optimisation, and validation of manufacturing processes using statistical methods for IQ, OQ and PQ. For validation of software (Computer System Validation, CSV) evos established pragmatic procedures to assess the validation requirements for manufacturing medical devices. With regards to Quality Management and Regulatory Affaires our specialists are well trained in providing Technical Documentation and regulatory strategies throughout the development cycled of medical products. Although evos is not yet certified according to ISO 13485, they already established written procedures (SOPs) for all our relevant activities.
Xeltis BV
Xeltis BV is a clinical-stage company developing medical devices enabling cardiovascular restoration. Xeltis’ technology platform, RestoreX, comprises the first-ever bioabsorbable heart valves and blood vessels, designed to enable Endogenous Tissue Restoration (ETR): the natural restoration of the complex body part they replace upon implantation. Xeltis’ role within the project will be to develop, produce, and provide materials, heart valves and/or blood vessels made from our proprietary bioabsorbable polymers.
Technical University Eindhoven
The Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is a worldwide leading international university, specialized in engineering science & technology, that contributes to progress in technical sciences through excellent teaching and research, the development of technological innovations, and as a result to the growth of welfare and well- being. Integrated multidisciplinary research and teaching activities strongly focus on Health, Energy, and Mobility. TU/e has over 8,000 students (5,000 BSc, 3,000 MSc) and over 3,000 staff (of which 34% female and 33% international) and 700 PhDs. TU/e was one of the first universities in Europe to have a complete undergraduate and graduate program in Biomedical Engineering. The Department of Biomedical Engineering offers Bachelor’s and Master’s programs in Biomedical Engineering and Medical Engineering and a joint Master’s program in Regenerative Medicine and Technology together with Utrecht University.
The Soft Tissue Biomechanics and Tissue Engineering (STBE) research group of the Department of Biomedical Engineering has a long-standing tradition in the mechanical characterization and in vitro and in vivo engineering of soft tissues (muscle, skin, vessels, valves, myocardium), and in recent years has dedicated a significant portion of its research to the development of cellular microenvironments (i.e. cellular niches) for optimal cell function. Fundamental research aims to investigate the mutual interactions between extracellular matrix (composition, organization) and cells, as well as the influence of synthetic environments (scaffold mechano-chemo-physical properties) and physiological environments (hemodynamics, cyclic contractions, electrical signals) on cell behavior and function. Research themes include soft tissue mechanobiology, cellular engineering, cell and tissue homeostasis, molecular signaling, computational modeling of soft tissue mechanics and remodeling, scaffold design and manufacturing technologies, micro-tissue platforms for high-throughput analysis, and molecular imaging of tissue differentiation and maturation. During the most recent national research assessment (VSNU) the group was ranked as ‘Excellent’.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 767195