emPOWER: in-body artificial muscles for physical augmentation, function restoration, patient empowerment and future healthcare

Muscles help us move, enable us to interact with objects and the environment, and regulate critical internal functions. Unfortunately, they are susceptible to damage due to disease, ageing and trauma and are a central factor in diverse serious healthcare conditions including sarcopenia (age-related loss of muscle mass and function, where decline in muscle mass between 40 and 80 years ranges from 30% to 50%), stroke, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, soft-tissue cancers, venous ulceration, diabetes, degenerative myopathy and incontinence (between 3 and 6 million people in the UK, and 24% of older people, suffer from urinary incontinence).

The emPOWER Transformative Healthcare Technologies 2050 programme will overcome the limitations of current wearable assistive technologies and regenerative medicine by deploying engineered robotic artificial muscular assistance inside the body, exactly where it is needed, to: 1. restore strength and control in mobility and manipulation in older people who have lost muscle strength and precision; and 2. restore controllable muscular capabilities for sufferers of trauma, stroke, incontinence and degenerative diseases. This will have significant knock-on effects on whole-body and mind health through increased confidence, independence and quality of life, massively reducing the healthcare burden and facilitating the return of sufferers to productive and fulfilling lives.

The emPOWER project has a 5 year goal of producing a demonstrator medical device within an animal model, showing form, function and surgical planning of implantable muscle technology. Following from this, the project is aiming for a 2050 goal of producing scaleable implantable artificial muscle to be used throughout the body, that may be implanted via minimally invasive surgical techniques in conjunction with interventional radiology, providing short-term rehabilitation, long-term assistance or complete functional restoration as needed. Multiple spinout technologies and intellectual property are expected to be generated over the 5 year funding period, novel contributions have been provided to the field of soft robotic actuators through the funding, and publications are planned in the area of medical devices for female stress urinary incontinence.

Our research methodology is novel in that a large, multidisciplinary team of both specialists and generalists has been assembled, based on the insight that creative, high impact contributions often come from an intersection between neighbouring fields. The emPOWER team comprises specialists and generalists in varied areas as metamaterials, flexible electronics, product design, mechanical engineering, physics, soft robotics, regenerative medicine, bio-interfacing, smart structures, synthetic biology, polymer chemistry, self-assembly, bio-printing and tissue analysis, neuro-rehabilitation, cardiovascular disease, head and neck surgery, urology, geriatrics and musculoskeletal medicine. With key industrial and social care partners including Olympus Surgical Technologies Europe, Zimmer Biomet, Renishaw, Aspect Biosystems Ltd, Cellink LLC, and Bristol City Council, we will deliver the foundational technologies and first-stage proof-of-concept of the emPOWER artificial muscles within the five years of this transformative project, leading to major healthcare, economic and social impact to 2050 and beyond.

This project falls within the EPSRC Healthcare Technologies research area.