Esophageal stents integrating wireless soft actuators for restoring peristalsis

The objective of this proposal is to create a novel esophageal stent integrated with wirelessly actuated undulating sheets for restoring peristalsis in esophageal cancer. Significance: This work is motivated by the prevalence of esophageal dysmotility due to various esophagus diseases especially esophageal cancer in the elderly population with patients typically aged between 65 and 74, and over 30% of cases diagnosed in the United States. Our objective in this proposal is to create a novel esophagus stent that provides the radical support in esophageal cancer and other diseases such as Achalasia, and provide the function of transporting liquid and solid with magnetically actuated soft robotic pump. This approach is clinically innovative because it will potentially overcome the limitation of existing esophagus stents by reducing the frequency of endoscope operations in conventional esophageal stents while reducing the risk of food blockage. Innovation: Technical innovation comes from 1) a novel magnetic undulating sheet based robotic pump design and fabrication which can transport liquid and solid efficient by mimicking the peristaltic motion in biological systems, and 2) a novel magnetic actuation and control system which can wirelessly actuate the magnetic soft robotic pump safely with minimal invasion. Magnetically actuated pump has not yet been designed and integrated on esophagus stents for treatment of esophageal dysmotility in various esophageal diseases. Approach: This proposal proposes to create our esophageal stents with magnetic undulating sheets through two specific aims. Aim 1 involves the optimization of the design and integration of the magnetically actuated magnetic undulating sheets on the esophageal stent for efficient pumping liquid and solids and safe bonding, as well as the validation of the stent for anti-aspiration in phantom models. Aim 2 focuses on the validation experiments including experiments of the esophagus stents with a magnetic undulating pump in in vivo ovine esophagus to evaluate the liquid and solid pumping performance, the stent delivery, long-term durability, and overall system functionality. These Aims will be carried out by a multidisciplinary team of investigators combining expertise in esophageal surgery, mechanical design and control of esophageal stents, and design and control of the stent delivery and remove tools using a flexible endoscope. The goal of this R21 project will be the demonstration of accurate spatial deployment and efficient liquid and solid transporting to enhance the treatment of esophageal dysmotility. We hypothesize this R21 project will bring a potentially curative treatment for esophageal dysmotility to many more patients. Broad impact includes paving the way for an innovative medical device with minimal invasion, long-term, and out-of-hospital treatment of lumen dysmotility due to multiple diseases in multiple organs in the aging population. Project Number: 1R21AG095751-01A1 | Fiscal Year: 2026 | NIH Institute/Center: National Institute on Aging (NIA) | Principal Investigator: Xiaoguang Dong | Institution: VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY, Nashville, TN | Award Amount: $423,142 | Activity Code: R21 | Study Section: Instrumentation and Systems Development Study Section[ISD] View on NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11374209