A Revolutionary Theranostics Approach for Robotized Colonoscopy

Bruno Siciliano, Ordinario di Automatica e Robotica presso il Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica e delle Tecnologie dell’Informazione dell'Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, terrà un seminario dal titolo "A Revolutionary Theranostics Approach for Robotized Colonoscopy".

Il Professore Siciliano ha ricevuto l'Engelberger Award for Education nel 2022 e il prestigioso IEEE RAS Pioneer Award nel 2024. È anche Professore Onorario presso l'Università di Óbuda, Óbudai Egyetem situata a Budapest, dove detiene la Cattedra Kálmán. Il suo libro di testo Robotics: Modelling, Planning and Control è adottato in moltissime università in tutto il mondo.

Biosketch

Bruno Siciliano is professor of robotics and control at the University of Naples Federico II. He is also Honorary Professor at the University of Óbuda where he holds the Kálmán Chair. His research interests include manipulation and control, human–robot cooperation, and service robotics. Fellow of the scientific societies IEEE, ASME, IFAC, AAIA, AIIA, NAAI, he received numerous international prizes and awards, including the recent 2024 IEEE Robotics and Automation Pioneer Award. He was President of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society from 2008 to 2009. He has delivered more than 150 keynotes and has published 27 books and more than 400 papers. His book “Robotics” is among the most adopted academic texts worldwide, while his edited volume “Springer Handbook of Robotics” received the highest recognition for scientific publishing: the 2008 PROSE Award for Excellence in Physical Sciences & Mathematics. His team has received more than 25 million Euro funding in the last 15 years from competitive European research projects, including two ERC grants.

Abstract

This talk will present the underlying concepts of EndoTheranostics, a novel ERC Synergy Grant project aiming at revolutionizing the diagnosis and therapy (theranostics) of colorectal cancer (CRC), impacting the quality of life of millions of individuals. CRC represents a significant proportion of malignant diseases. Interventions are often carried out during the latter stages of development, leading to low patient survival rates and poor quality of life. In 2022 a European Commission report stated that “colonoscopy-based screening has higher sensitivity than testing for blood in stool, but it is less acceptable to participants”. At the same time, effective methods to treat polyps in the colon are limited. Current approaches are often associated with unsafe oncological margins and high complication rates, requiring life-changing surgery. EndoTheranostics will usher in a new era for screening colonoscopy, advancing the frontiers of medical imaging and robotics. A tip-growing or eversion robot with a sleeve-like structure will be created to extend deep into hollow spaces while perceiving the environment through multimodal imaging and sensing. It will also act as a conduit to transfer miniaturized instruments to the remote site within the colon for theranostics. With these capabilities, the system will be able to offer: (i) painless colon cleansing in preparation for endoscopy, (ii) real-time polyp detection and tissue characterization through AI-assisted multimodal imaging, (iii) effective removal of polyps by conveying a “miniature mobile operating chamber” equipped with microsurgical tools to the target through the lumen of the eversion robot.

Ospita Franco Salvatore