Smart medical devices
These devices include the bladder controller and the visual brain implant, which have had a significant impact on the field of medical implants. The visual implant partially restores vision using implants connected to the cortex to monitor and stimulate visual reception, a camera, and an external processor, these components being connected by a wireless link. The bladder controller represents a unique solution to help patients suffering from urinary dysfunction (retention and evacuation). A license has been granted to the company Victhom for its commercialization. These two inventions have been cited as major technical contributions by various scientific authorities, and the visual implant was selected as one of the 10 discoveries of the year by the journal Québec science and has attracted the attention of the public and scientists by making headlines in recent years. This work involving multidisciplinary teams has made it possible to find solutions to neurological dysfunctions and spinal cord injuries.
Nanorobotics to fight cancerous tumors
Robotics dedicated to medical interventions requires the design of innovative platforms at the molecular level. To bridge the gap between the nanometric and human scales, complex and unique instrumentation platforms are being developed in a highly multidisciplinary framework by teams of researchers with expertise in medicine, microbiology, physics, chemistry, materials science, nanotechnology, micromechanics, microelectronics, and computer and software engineering, to name a few. It has been demonstrated that it is possible to control a 1.5-millimeter ball inside a living being, and conclusive tests have been conducted in the carotid artery of an animal. This discovery will allow nanorobots to deliver drugs to very precise locations in the body to target, among other things, cancer-causing tumors.
