Public Funding for Medical Device Consultants Limited

"Blocked blood vessels are a primary factor in heart disease. We are planning to develop a new technique for manufacturing artificial blood vessels below 6mm in size. Smaller blood vessels are the ones most likely to become blocked so a solution for providing artificial grafts has the potential to save and extend the length of many lives. Making small artificial grafts has been problematic in the past because they tend to get clogged quite quickly, just like the ones they are replacing. However, we have found by computer-modelling of the blood flow, that changes to the internal profile of the blood vessel can encourage the blood to scour the surface and prevent any build up of material. We have managed successfully to make some small grafts with suitable internal profiles, but not reliably. Their shapes have not been consistent so we can not progress to the next stage of testing them in real blood flows. This project focuses on developing a semi-automatic means of making the artificial vessels consistently so that trials can take place. The challenges lie in the design and precision manufacture of the mandrel around which organic fibres are spun to create the structure of the graft. We intend to use a design company who has experience in precision metal 3D printing to create the mandrel so that we can set up a prototype batch production unit to develop the technique. We are also partnered by a medical device company who will help us get the innovation to market if it is successful."