A new website has been launched for a collaborative research project aiming to develop better tools, imaging techniques and therapies in future operations on unborn babies.
The GIFT-Surg (Guided Instrumentation for Fetal Therapy and Surgery) project, led by BRC-supported Professor Sebastien Ourselin with engineers at UCL and KU Leuven in Belgium, will develop novel imaging techniques that can be used before and during surgery to visualise blood circulation, enabling surgeons to better plan and perform operations on unborn babies with severe birth defects.
GIFT-Surg’s website www.gift-surg.ac.uk details information about the early prototypes under development, such as the proposed multi-arm instrument which will support minimally invasive surgical techniques; and the use of image computing to develop surgical planning systems.
Professor Sebastien Ourselin said: “We are delighted to launch this website and bring details of our research to a wider audience. Advances in prenatal treatment of congenital malformations will have a major impact on clinical practice, potentially targeting a third of all paediatric hospital admissions and providing greatly improved outcomes for the child.”
GIFT-Surg consists of a collaborative team of over 41 researchers from UCL, KU Leuven and both their associated hospitals. GIFT-Surg is the result of a £10 million award from the Wellcome Trust and the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council under the ‘Innovative Engineering for Health’ Initiative to revolutionise the field of foetal therapy and surgery.
Professor Ourselin was awarded BRC ‘High Impact Initiative’ funding in 2013 to develop state of the art open source software libraries for the development of medical imaging processing systems. ‘High Impact Initiative’ funding is awarded to initiatives able to demonstrate tangible benefits and clear plans for engaging with industry and leveraging other funding.
