Innovative technology developed by researchers at Indiana University Bloomington could improve the outcomes of patients undergoing common procedures for heart disease and other vascular conditions, including heart attacks, congenital heart defects, peripheral artery disease and blood clots.
The technology - microscopically thin fibers capable of sensing hydrostatic pressure in the veins - seeks to revolutionize how surgeons navigate the twists and turns that carry blood through the body during minimally invasive medical procedure that use catheters, such as inserting stents to restore blood flow to the heart.
The sensors are a product of the IU FAMES Lab - Fibers and Additive Manufacturing Enabled Systems , which is part of the IU Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering. They were developed under a "master research agreement" established in 2021 with Bloomington-based global medical device manufacturer Cook Medical.
Alexander Gumennik, FAMES Lab director and an associate professor of intelligent systems engineering at the IU Luddy School in Bloomington, said that Cook saw fiber sensors as a natural match for some of the company's products, such as catheters and endoscopes, since they're both "long and thin, flexible, and biocompatible."
"In meeting with Dr. Gumennik and his team, we recognized the versatility of the technology platform for clinical needs," said Sean Chambers, director of research and development at Cook Medical. "We also saw great potential in the skillset of his students and the training they were getting from his mentorship. The expertise and innovative approach that the FAMES Lab provided to this collaborative research project have been instrumental in advancing our understanding of the potential of fiber-based sensors in medicine."
The technology developed under the agreement addresses a fundamental challenge that surgeons face when using catheters: a lack of real-time sensory feedback as the device navigates sensitive tissues inside the human body.
"It's like trying to play guitar with only information from your eyes - no touch or sound," Gumennik said.
Modern catheters and endoscopes are essentially passive tools: thin tubes or wires with no feedback beyond what's available from external imaging technologies like X-rays or MRIs. By contrast, the FAMES Lab sensors can provide information from directly inside the body.
For example, a pinch and proximity sensor in a catheter can detect whether the device is approaching a turn in the vein - or pushing dangerously against a vein wall - signaling to the surgeon to slow down or adjust course in real time.
The ability to sense hydrostatic pressure - a sense unavailable to humans but common in animals such as fish - can also help medical professionals identify the site of a vein blockage, assisting in the proper placement of interventional devices like stents.
"The fiber offers a sixth sense inside the vein," Gumennik said. "It can predict and prevent tissue damage critical to patient safety and assist the surgeon in the insertion of the medical device."
FAMES Lab sensors can also detect several other inputs, such as changes in temperature or acidity. The revolutionary technology is significantly smaller than traditional sensors. The smallest sensor chips are still about the size of a grain of rice and hard as rock, whereas fiber sensors are elastic, flexible and as thin as hair, which is much safer for human tissue.
The innovation is powered by two core technologies developed at FAMES. The Very Large-Scale Integration for Fibers enables the embedding of micro- and nano-scale sensors and circuits directly into fiber. The Axial Viscosity Gradient Instability Model allows researchers to control how molten materials behave during fiber manufacturing, ensuring precise internal structuring.
"Think of it like a dripping faucet," Gumennik said. "We can predict and control how the molten core of the fiber breaks up and forms structures. This eliminates the need for trial and error and allows us to assemble functional devices from precursors embedded inside the fiber itself."
Located across two stories in the Multidisciplinary Engineering and Sciences Hall at IU Bloomington, the FAMES Lab was established after Gumennik joined IU in 2016. It was one of the first labs created after the Luddy School added intelligent systems engineering to its mission.
The centerpiece of the lab is a 27-foot tall, $1 million fiber draw tower - the source of the sensor production - surrounded by a 3,800-square-foot cleanroom. The state-of-the-art facility is uniquely designed to support industry sponsored research projects, Gumennik said.
Since joining the university, Gumennik has filed seven technology disclosures with the IU Innovation and Commercialization Office, resulting in four granted patents and three pending patents with applications to fiber-based circuit integration, hydrostatic sensors and bioprinting. He holds an additional four granted patents from his career prior to IU.
In addition to medical applications, the FAMES Lab's technology can also advance research in areas such as quantum computing, communication and sensing, and advanced biosynthetic tissue, Gumennik said.
For example, Merve Gokce, an IU Ph.D. student in Gumennik's lab who served as project manager and researcher on the lab's collaboration with Cook, is also working on embedding smart fibers into bioprinted material to create artificial vascularization.
The project, dubbed the "cyborg flesh" project in the lab, would create a biomaterial that can deliver nutrients and oxygen in the same manner as natural tissue. The work aims to create a "cardiac patch" that could repair or replace damaged heart tissue, she said.
Although the "smart catheter" technology developed under the Cook partnership has only been tested in simulated clinical environments, Gumennik said the project is seeking a specific product within the company to test its viability. This would be the first step toward animal and then human clinical trials of the technology.
"I really regard this project as the start of a long-term relationship," Gumennik said. "This master agreement with Cook is not just beneficial to our lab but also establishes a framework for future collaborations between Cook and other research labs in Bloomington."
