Dr. Inês Figueiredo Pereira is an Assistant Professor in the Microsystems group at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Netherlands. She is credited with two different minimally invasive smart glaucoma implants.
Dr. Inês Figueiredo Pereira
Her expertise encompasses biomaterials, micro and nanotechnology, microfabrication, sensors and actuators, soft microvalves, stimuli-responsive materials, and microfluidics. Her research is dedicated to the advancement of wearable and implantable medical devices for healthcare applications, with a specific focus on enhancing diagnostics, disease prevention, and improving treatment outcomes.
As part of her research, she performed numerical simulation studies to assess the feasibility of using a glaucoma implant with an adjustable hydrodynamic resistance to regulate IOP in glaucoma patients. The model determines the ideal hydrodynamic resistance that a glaucoma implant must have to overcome the two most common postoperative complications–bleb scarring and hypotony.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0273672
“Results from the simulations provided valuable insights that allowed for the development of a magnetically actuated glaucoma implant that can be non-invasively and repeatedly adjusted to different IOP conditions even after implantation,” notes Figueiredo Pereira.
Smart glaucoma implant
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41378-023-00561-9
Adjustment is achieved by integrating a magnetic microvalve in the implant, which can open or close fluidic channels, and thus change the hydrodynamic resistance of the implant when needed, and all by using a simple external magnet. “With this valving system, the IOP can be tuned according to a patient’s needs,” says Dr. Figueiredo Pereira.
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| Working of the smart glaucoma implant |
She also developed a new biodegradable and minimally invasive glaucoma implant, which is approximately the same size as the world’s smallest medical device known to be implanted in the human body, which is the iStent Inject W from the company Glaukos. “The implant from Glaukos is a permanent and metallic implant, whereas ours is inspired by their implant but it is based on a polymer material (polycarbonate-bisamide or PC-BA) making it biodegradable’, remarks the researcher.
Biodegradable implant
“We anticipate that our implant will slowly degrade and then be absorbed by the body over time, leaving behind a natural pathway for fluid drainage,” says Figueiredo Pereira. “This biodegradable glaucoma implant provides a promising new approach for restoring outflow in a more natural way.”
PUBLICATIONS:
https://www.tue.nl/en/research/researchers/ines-figueiredo-pereira
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