Protecting premature infants
Premature birth is a major problem, affecting more than 1 in 10 babies globally. Currently, infants born between 28 and 37 weeks are housed within neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) which support their cardiorespiratory function and development to full term. This solution, however, yields severe health complications for infants born extremely premature, i.e. <28 weeks, as their organs lack maturity to undergo the complex physiologic transition to extra-uterine life.
The exposure to air is a harsh physiologic adaptation for extremely premature infants, and leads to numerous complication including breathing, cardiac, neurological and metabolic problems, with negative long-term outcome. Despite advances in medicine, for extremly premature infants NICUs are not an adequate substitute for the protective environment of the maternal womb.
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almost 3 million for the research on artificial womb
The project received a Future and Emerging Technologies grant of the European program Horizon 2020 of almost 3 million euros. In this project the researchers plan to finish a proof-of-principle in 5 years.
Researchers
Eindhoven University of Technology
Prof. Dr. Frans van de Vosse, professor Cardiovascular Biomechanics (group leader)
Prof. Dr.ir. Loe Feijs, professor Industrial Design (co-leader)
Prof. Dr. Guid Oei, head of perinatal department M谩xima Medical center (co-leader)
A strong emphasis is put on clinical and technology-oriented research in a multicentre consortium (e/MTIC Eindhoven, MedTech Innovation Center)
Uniklinik RWTH Aachen, RWTH Aachen University
PD Dr.-Ing. Jutta Arens, Dr. med. Mark Schoberer
LifeTec Group
Marco Stijnen, Bart Smeets
Politecnico di Milano
Prof. Alessandro Torricelli, Prof. Davide Contini, Dr. Rebecca Re
Nemo Healthcare
Rik Vullings, Chris Peters