BMBF Project Research Campus STIMULATE

The Research Campus STIMULATE researches and develops image-guided minimally invasive therapies for the treatment of common oncological, neuro- and cardiovascular diseases, pursuing a disease-oriented and holistic approach in which the entire clinical workflow (planning, imaging, patient access, navigation, required instruments, therapy monitoring and control) is considered. The new customised therapy concepts are to be integrated into disease-specific ‘solutions’, which are characterised by the following features:

  • patient-friendly
  • precise and therapeutically highly effective
  • curative, low-radiation/radiation-free, patient-specific
  • cost efficient

The BMBF project focuses exclusively on the field of oncology and aims to design image-guided therapies in such a way that they can be introduced into broad clinical routine. Research is being conducted in four lead and cross-cutting topics focussing on three key medical technology challenges in cancer of the liver, kidney, spine and lung:

  • curative therapy: A0 ablation (removal of the entire tumour with safety margin)
  • local and systemic monitoring: monitoring and prognosis of A0 ablation by integrating the cross-sectional topic of immunoprofiling
  • development of dedicated interventional imaging systems

In the current second funding phase, only the oncological questions are being funded proportionately from the BMBF's ‘Research Campus - Public-Private Partnership for Innovation’ programme.

The areas of neuro- and cardiovascular diseases are being realised with the Research Campus partners' own funds and are transferring key results from the first funding phase into clinical application:

  • One-stop-shop strategy for stroke treatment
  • rupture prediction of cerebral aneurysms as the main cause of haemorrhagic stroke
  • completely radiation-free diagnosis of valvular heart disease combined with a patient-specific heart valve model as a basis for planning and treatment

A total of 18 research partners are involved in the project, which runs from 1 October 2020 to 30 September 2025; the FKZ are 13GW0473A/B/C/D/E/F/G/H/I/J/K.

 

Further information on funding phase 1 of the project, which ran from 01.01.2015-31.12.2019, can be found here.

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