Ellen Roche

Ellen Roche is an Irish biomedical engineer and Assistant Professor at MIT in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Institute of Medical Engineering and Science.[1] She has contributed to heart failure prevention with her inventions, the Harvard Ventricular Assist Device (HarVAD),[2] a soft-robotic sleeve device[3] that goes around the heart, squeezing and twisting it to maintain the heart’s functionality,[4] and Therepi,[5] a reservoir that attaches directly to damaged heart tissue.

This article is about the biomedical engineer. For the Brazilian model, see Ellen Rocche.

Early life and education

Originally from Salthill,[6] County Galway, Ellen Roche was 'torn between studying engineering and medicine' after leaving secondary school, so she enrolled in a biomedical engineering programme at National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG).[7] In her third year in college, Roche enrolled in a graduate export orientation programme at Mednova Ltd, and after spending six months at Mednova’s office in Galway, she transferred to Abbott Vascular in Redwood City, California, due to its acquisition of Mednova,[8] where she worked for almost four years.[9] Then she worked in Medtronic, Galway, as a research and development engineer.[10] She worked on the development of a replacement aortic valve which was used in humans during her time at Medtronic.[11][12] In 2004, Roche graduated from NUI Galway with a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering.

She went on to complete a Masters in Bioengineering from Trinity College Dublin in 2010. In August 2011, Roche was one of two Irish recipients of the Fulbright International Science and Technology PhD Award, which awarded her funding to undertake a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Harvard Medical School.[13] There she met David Mooney, a Professor of Bioengineering, and Conor Walsh, a Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Under the guidance of Mooney in the Mooney Lab and Walsh in the Harvard Biodesign Lab,[14][15] she performed research on the design, modeling, experimentation, and pre-clinical evaluation of a soft-robotic device that helps patients with heart failure.[16][17]

Roche returned to NUIG as a post-doctoral research fellow under Peter McHugh, where she used computational methods (finite element analysis) to analyze drug release kinetics from implantable devices.[18]

Career

Roche is currently the W.M Keck Foundation Career Development Professor at the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she directs the Therapeutic Technology Design and Development Lab.[19]

Medical devices

HarVAD

The Harvard Biodesign members Roche, Walsh, and Mooney collaborated to create a soft robotic sleeve that mechanically assists the heart in pumping, named the Harvard Ventricular Assist Device (HarVAD). The sleeve is made of silicon with an overall thickness of 16 mm,[20] and is layered with actuators that form rings around the sleeve and a helical spiral from top to bottom. These mechanical rings are tubes that inflate and contract when filled with pressurized air.[21] This enables the sleeve to mechanically twist and compress, synchronizing with a beating heart, augmenting cardiovascular functions weakened by heart failure using a biomimetic approach rather than fully taking over its function.[22][23] The sleeve does not directly contact blood,[24] which reduces the risk of clotting and eliminates the need for a patient to take potentially dangerous blood thinner medications.[25]

TissueSil

Roche and her team developed a robotic myocardium – the muscular outer tissue of the heart – and wrapped it around a pig's inner heart like "bubble wrap" using a tissue silicone adhesive they designed called TissueSil.[26] With further tissue engineering, Roche believes there could be biorobotic hybrid hearts used as artificial hearts which could combat the global competitive heart transplant lists.[27]

Therepi

Roche also developed a device named 'Therepi' that attaches directly to a damaged heart and acts as a reservoir for drugs or cells that can be refilled multiple times from a port under the skin.[28] Therepi allows for drugs to be delivered by administering localized, non-invasive therapies as many times as required.[29] The device's reservoir can be implanted on the heart in a single surgical procedure, minimizing the amount of surgeries required.[30][31][32]

Double-sided medical tape

In 2019, Roche was a named author on the invention of a dry double-sided tape that can be used for the adhesion of wet tissue and devices.[33] The tape can be used in surgery to bind wet surfaces within seconds to heal wounds or implant medical devices.[34] In tests on rats and pigs, the tape was used to bind lungs and intestines back together within 5 seconds.[35]

Speaker

In 2017 Roche spoke at Inspirefest[36] on the topic of soft robotics, particularly her work on a soft robotic sleeve that could help failing hearts to keep pumping.[37] In 2018, Roche gave the Keynote Speech at Impact,[38] a technology conference in Krakow, where she discussed soft robotics.[39]

Honors and awards
  • Wellcome Trust Seed Award in Science, 2016–2017[40]
  • American Heart Association Pre-Doctoral Award, 2014–2015[41]
  • Fulbright International Science and Technology Award, 2011–2014[42]
  • First Place Award, 3-in-5 Competition, Design of Medical Devices, 2013[43]
  • First Place Award, International Student Design Showcase, Design of Medical Devices, 2013[44]
  • Overall Winner, Mimics Engineering on Anatomy for Cardiovascular Applications, 2013[45]
  • Ryan Hanley Prize for best final year project, NUIGalway, 2004[46]
  • Medtronic Prize for best final year project, NUIGalway, 2004[47]

References
  1. "School of Engineering first quarter 2019 awards | MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering". meche.mit.edu. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  2. Shaw, Jonathan (18 January 2017). "A Robotic Fix for Heart Failure". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  3. Payne, Christopher J.; Wamala, Isaac; Abah, Colette; Thalhofer, Thomas; Saeed, Mossab; Bautista-Salinas, Daniel; Horvath, Markus A.; Vasilyev, Nikolay V.; Roche, Ellen T.; Pigula, Frank A.; Walsh, Conor J. (30 May 2017). "An Implantable Extracardiac Soft Robotic Device for the Failing Heart: Mechanical Coupling and Synchronization". Soft Robotics. 4 (3): 241–250. doi:10.1089/soro.2016.0076. ISSN 2169-5172. PMID 29182083.
  4. "Heart Sleeve Helps Heart Pump Blood: Interview with Harvard's Ellen Roche |". Medgadget. 24 March 2017. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  5. Whyte, William; Roche, Ellen T.; Varela, Claudia E.; Mendez, Keegan; Islam, Shahrin; O’Neill, Hugh; Weafer, Fiona; Shirazi, Reyhaneh Neghabat; Weaver, James C.; Vasilyev, Nikolay V.; McHugh, Peter E. (June 2018). "Sustained release of targeted cardiac therapy with a replenishable implanted epicardial reservoir". Nature Biomedical Engineering. 2 (6): 416–428. doi:10.1038/s41551-018-0247-5. ISSN 2157-846X. PMID 31011199. S2CID 47020849.
  6. Ahlstrom, Dick. "Galway bioengineer designs pump to help beat heart failure". The Irish Times. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  7. O'Riordan, David (15 January 2019). "How Galway's Ellen Roche blends medicine and mechanical engineering". Engineers Journal. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  8. "Abbott Laboratories Signs Agreement With MedNova and Rubicon Medical for Vascular Products". www.chemeurope.com. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  9. "Profiles of Women Engineering Graduates - NUI Galway". www.nuigalway.ie. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  10. O'Riordan, David (15 January 2019). "How Galway's Ellen Roche blends medicine and mechanical engineering". Engineers Journal. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  11. Medtronic. "Transcatheter Aortic Heart Valve". www.medtronic.com. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  12. "Blending medicine and mechanical engineering". MIT News. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  13. "Ellen Roche". Fulbright. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  14. "Ellen Roche". mooneylab.seas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  15. "Startup promises minimally invasive heart repair | Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences". www.seas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  16. "MIT School of Engineering | » Ellen Roche". Mit Engineering. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  17. "Ellen Roche - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
  18. http://imes.mit.edu/people/faculty/ellen-roche/
  19. "Prof. Ellen Roche PhD". ISCOMS. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  20. Roche, Ellen T.; Horvath, Markus A.; Wamala, Isaac; Alazmani, Ali; Song, Sang-Eun; Whyte, William; Machaidze, Zurab; Payne, Christopher J.; Weaver, James C.; Fishbein, Gregory; Kuebler, Joseph (18 January 2017). "Soft robotic sleeve supports heart function". Science Translational Medicine. 9 (373): eaaf3925. doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf3925. hdl:10379/13677. ISSN 1946-6234. PMID 28100834. S2CID 22531089.
  21. "Full Page Reload". IEEE Spectrum: Technology, Engineering, and Science News. Retrieved 10 March 2020.
  22. "Soft robot helps the heart beat | Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences". www.seas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  23. Roche, Ellen T.; Horvath, Markus A.; Wamala, Isaac; Alazmani, Ali; Song, Sang-Eun; Whyte, William; Machaidze, Zurab; Payne, Christopher J.; Weaver, James C.; Fishbein, Gregory; Kuebler, Joseph (18 January 2017). "Soft robotic sleeve supports heart function". Science Translational Medicine. 9 (373): eaaf3925. doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf3925. hdl:10379/13677. ISSN 1946-6234. PMID 28100834. S2CID 22531089.
  24. Roche, Ellen T.; Horvath, Markus A.; Alazmani, Ali; Galloway, Kevin C.; Vasilyev, Nikolay V.; Mooney, David J.; Pigula, Frank A.; Walsh, Conor J. (19 January 2016). "Design and Fabrication of a Soft Robotic Direct Cardiac Compression Device". Volume 5A: 39th Mechanisms and Robotics Conference. American Society of Mechanical Engineers Digital Collection. doi:10.1115/DETC2015-47355. ISBN 978-0-7918-5712-0.
  25. "Soft robot helps the heart beat – BIOENGINEER.ORG". Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  26. "Engineers design bionic 'heart' that beats like the real thing". Breaking News. 29 January 2020. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  27. "Engineers design bionic "heart" for testing prosthetic valves, other cardiac devices". MIT News. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  28. O'Riordan, David (15 January 2019). "How Galway's Ellen Roche blends medicine and mechanical engineering". Engineers Journal. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  29. Horvath, Markus A.; Wamala, Isaac; Rytkin, Eric; Doyle, Elizabeth; Payne, Christopher J.; Thalhofer, Thomas; Berra, Ignacio; Solovyeva, Anna; Saeed, Mossab; Hendren, Sara; Roche, Ellen T. (1 September 2017). "An Intracardiac Soft Robotic Device for Augmentation of Blood Ejection from the Failing Right Ventricle". Annals of Biomedical Engineering. 45 (9): 2222–2233. doi:10.1007/s10439-017-1855-z. ISSN 1573-9686. PMC 5937685. PMID 28512702.
  30. Wamala, Isaac; Roche, Ellen T.; Pigula, Frank A. (3 October 2017). "The use of soft robotics in cardiovascular therapy". Expert Review of Cardiovascular Therapy. 15 (10): 767–774. doi:10.1080/14779072.2017.1366313. ISSN 1477-9072. PMID 28817983. S2CID 4048616.
  31. "'Therepi' device attaches to heart". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  32. "'Therepi' device delivers drugs straight to the heart". Physics World. 13 June 2018. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  33. Yuk, Hyunwoo; Varela, Claudia E.; Nabzdyk, Christoph S.; Mao, Xinyu; Padera, Robert F.; Roche, Ellen T.; Zhao, Xuanhe (November 2019). "Dry double-sided tape for adhesion of wet tissues and devices". Nature. 575 (7781): 169–174. doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1710-5. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 31666696. S2CID 204942898.
  34. "Double-sided tape for tissues could replace surgical sutures". techxplore.com. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
  35. "Double-sided tape for tissues could replace surgical sutures". MIT News. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
  36. "InspireFest". Dublin.ie. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  37. "Dr Ellen Roche: Soft robotics | Inspirefest 2017". Youtube. 23 August 2017.
  38. "Impact'18 in Krakow - The future of the digital economy!". Impact'18. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  39. "Keynote Speech: Ellen Roche from MIT at Impact'18 in Kraków!". Youtube. 20 June 2018.
  40. O'Riordan, David (9 June 2016). "NUI Galway researcher awarded £100,000 in funding for heart research". Engineers Journal. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  41. "Awards". biodesign.seas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  42. "January 31st, 2011: CALL FOR FULBRIGHT INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AWARD APPLICANTS FOR 2012-2013". Fulbright. 31 January 2011. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  43. "Awards". biodesign.seas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  44. "Awards". biodesign.seas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  45. "Materialise Announces the Winners of the Mimics Innovation Awards". biomedical.materialise.com. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  46. "2004 - NUI Galway". www.nuigalway.ie. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
  47. "2004 - NUI Galway". www.nuigalway.ie. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
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