Future Operations Room for Innovative Diagnostics in Mannheim

The project group for automation solutions in medicine and biotechnology is developing, for example, navigated robot-assisted placement of a needle, which is demonstrated here on a model of a human body. (Source: Fraunhofer IPA)

The Founding and Competence Center for Medical Technology CUBEX41 was officially opened on March 11, 2015, on the campus of the University Medical Center Mannheim. Covering approximately 1,800 square meters, it hosts startups and SMEs as well as the project group for Automation in Medicine and Biotechnology of the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology and Automation IPA. The center houses several laboratories as well as an experimental intervention room as a technology platform.

Medical technology is one of the world's largest growth industries. With Cubex41, the city of Mannheim continues to prepare for this economic sector. The new founding and competence center for medical technology aims to provide companies, clinics, research institutions, and startups with optimal conditions for networking. It is supported with around 1.1 million euros from the state of Baden-Württemberg and the EU. The center is operated by "mg:mannheimer gründungszentren gmbh".

Across two floors, it offers a space of 1,800 square meters – enough room for 24 startups benefiting from proximity to Fraunhofer – because the project group for Automation in Medicine and Biotechnology of Fraunhofer IPA operates laboratories here for bioprocess technology, micromechatronic systems, optical bio-measurement technology, control systems, as well as an experimental intervention room closely linked to the laboratories, equipped with state-of-the-art imaging as a technology development platform. This fully equipped experimental OR, with endoscopy towers, operating tables, and the high-tech imaging X-ray system Artis zeego from Siemens, provides companies the opportunity to test new systems and verify ideas in a clinical environment. The transfer of developments into clinical application is simplified. If needed, specialists from IPA support and accompany companies in planning and evaluating experiments. "We use the space for our research but also collaborate on projects with industry clients. No patients are treated in the intervention room. Instead, we test medical technology developments and advance them – especially assistance systems, process controls, laboratory automats, measurement probes, and innovative instruments to, for example, automatically locate and treat tumors quickly and precisely using imaging techniques," says Prof. Jan Stallkamp, head of the IPA project group.

For experiments, researchers have access to replicas of bodies – experts call them phantoms. One of the current research projects of the group is the development of a networked and automated intervention room with the Artis zeego for imaging, as well as an additional lightweight robot for diagnostic and therapeutic processes, along with adapted instrument systems. The robot automatically controls a puncture site to, for example, insert a biopsy needle for tissue sampling.

Close integration of research, clinics, and medical technology companies

The opening ceremony speeches included Ministerial Director Guido Rebstock from the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Finance and Economics, and Frank Treppe, Director of the Department of Corporate Strategy and International Affairs at the Fraunhofer Society. Treppe described the convergence of companies, medical professionals, researchers, and experts on the campus of the University Medical Center Mannheim as unique. The proximity of these fields allows for efficient exchange – the best prerequisite for developing new medical technologies. The project group of Fraunhofer IPA already works closely with various stakeholders, such as in the federally funded project "Mannheim Molecular Intervention Environment" (short M²OLIE). Here, dialogue is maintained with the universities of Heidelberg and Mannheim, the German Cancer Research Center, as well as industry partners like Siemens Healthcare, Kuka Laboratories, MAQUET, and Carl Zeiss Meditec. "Essential for us is the closeness to medicine. The exchange of information happens seamlessly, and even very complex tasks can be tackled step by step," confirms Stallkamp. "We are the contact point for doctors. Conversely, we can implement our technologies in dialogue with clinics. The intervention room, as part of M²OLIE, provides an ideal platform for this."

The vision: cancer treatments at the molecular level

The goal of the M²OLIE project is to no longer treat cancer diseases at the organ and tissue level but to focus on cellular and molecular levels in the future. A medical intervention environment for tomorrow's cancer therapy is to be created in a future operating room, targeting the molecular processes within body cells. This requires new diagnostic methods and therapeutic approaches. Professor Stallkamp and his colleagues bring their expertise in automation solutions, assistance and instrument systems, complex measurement techniques, and the development of devices for highly sensitive biomolecular detection, as well as for biopsy sampling and cell analysis, into the project. M²OLIE will be supported annually for 15 years with two million euros in funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.