Project Summary The objective of this proposal is to create a novel ciliary stent integrated with wirelessly actuated artificial cilia for treating cilia dysfunction in various diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Significance: This work is motivated by the prevalence of Central Airway Obstruction (CAO) due to various lung diseases especially COPD where 53% of the patients developing airway collapse and resulting in excessive mucus accumulation even with an implanted airway stents. Our objective in this proposal is to create a novel airway stent that provides the radical support in airway collapse, does not have the issue of tissue in-growth, and provide the function of transporting mucus with artificial cilia. This approach is clinically innovative because it will potentially overcome the limitation of existing airway stents by reducing the frequency of bronchoscope operations and blind suction of conventional silicone airway stents, and reducing the risk of open-surgery due to tissue ingrowth of conventional metal airway stents. Innovation: Technical innovation comes from 1) a novel artificial cilia blanket design and fabrication which can transport mucus efficient by mimicking the non-reciprocal motion and metachronal coordination of biological cilia, and 2) a novel magnetic actuation and control system which can wirelessly actuate the artificial cilia safely with minimal invasion. Magnetically actuated cilia have been reported for transporting liquids in microfluidics but has not been designed and integrated on airway stents for treatment of COPD. Approach: This proposal proposes to create our airway stents with artificial cilia through three specific aims. Aim 1 involves the design of the magnetically actuated artificial cilia, the integration of the artificial cilia on existing meshed airway stents, and the magnetic actuation systems. Aim 2 focuses on validation experiments including experiments of the airway stents with artificial cilia in phantoms, ex vivo tissues, and porcine lungs to evaluate the mucus pumping performance and overall system functionality. These Aims will be carried out by a multidisciplinary team of investigators combining expertise in lung surgery, mechanical design and control of airway stents, and design and control of the stent delivery and remove tools using a flexible bronchoscope. The goal of this R21 project will be the demonstration of accurate spatial deployment, efficient mucus transporting, and an-trauma removal of the stent to enhance the treatment of COPD. We hypothesize this R21 project will bring a potentially curative treatment for COPD 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 cilia impairment due to multiple diseases in multiple organs in the human body. Further research will be initiated on translating the stent mechanism for various lung diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis and lung cancer. In the long term, this proposed technology will have a giant potential to clinical trials for patients with cilia dysfunction in general.

Project Narrative Our proposed implantable airway stents with integrated artificial cilia, overcome the limitation of existing airway stents such as tissue ingrowth or cilia impairment, and can allow minimally invasive removal of excessive mucus in the airway. It thus addresses the current limitation of existing airway stents in terms of excessive accumulation of mucus in patients with Central Airway Obstruction due to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and other lung diseases. The proposed work thus could lead to novel implantable medical devices which can save lives and improve the quality of our life, with an eventual goal to shed light on new therapies for pulmonary diseases and other diseases related to cilia dysfunction.