The partners of theInterreg 2 SeasCoBra project were delighted to welcome 57 participants online and in person at Poly'Tech Lille (Villeneuve d'Ascq Campus), including oncologists, medical physicists, medical imaging professionals, AI, medtech, and robotics professionals, to present the results of four years of collaborative development of theCoBra robot.
The event provided an opportunity to present and demonstrate to the public a robotic and automated solution capable of performing tumor biopsies or brachytherapy treatments with real-time MRI guidance within the imager itself. By combining the image quality of MRI with the precision of the robot, this technology will enable better targeting of tumor tissue and, thanks to real-time calculation of radioactive doses and catheter trajectories, improve the quality of medical treatment.
Following the presentations, a round table discussion provided an opportunity to discuss the challenges, difficulties, and prospects for the development of minimally invasive robotic solutions guided by MRI with international experts:
Alexander Schlaefer (Hamburg University of Technology, Germany), Prof. Tarun Podder (University Hospitals of Cleveland, Ohio, USA), Prof. Clare Mary C. Tempany, (Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA, USA); Klaus Düring (MaRVis Interventional GmbH, Germany), Polak Wojciech and Dr. Yoodhvir Nagar (Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, UK), Bart Gruyaert (HP-Robotics, France) and Kamal Youcef-Toumi (MIT, Boston, MA, USA)
The Cobra project, launched in 2018, brought together academic teams from the University of Lille (France), the University of Portsmouth (UK), Delft University of Technology (NL), clinical teams from the Oscar Lambret Center (France) and Portsmouth Hospital (UK), as well as the medical engineering company DEMCON (NL), Oncovet Clinical Research, the SATT Nord commercialization agency, and the EURASANTE health economic development agency.
The project was funded under theEuropean Regional Development ProgramINTERREG 2MERS.