- Predoctoral researcher Carlos Aguilar from the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright scholarship to complete his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
- At MIT, Aguilar will work on a project to predict the mechanical properties of textile metamaterials developed within the iMPLANTS-CM project.
The medical field has shown a clear trend toward less invasive surgeries in recent decades.
The advantages of this approach are numerous: faster recovery, less postoperative pain, and lower risk of complications, among others, which have driven its growing adoption.
This trend is also highly evident in the area of implants, where there is an increasing shift toward more personalised solutions each year, reducing the invasiveness of surgical interventions and improving their integration into the human body.
However, to continue improving patient care, surgeons increasingly need new materials that are biocompatible, functional, and capable of adapting to each patient’s specific needs.
This is where Carlos Aguilar, a predoctoral researcher at IMDEA Materials and the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), comes in. Over the past three years, Aguilar, along with other researchers, has been working on developing textile metamaterials capable of undergoing significant deformations.
These investigations, carried out as part of the iMPLANTS-CM project led by Dr. Jon Molina from IMDEA Materials and Prof. Andrés Lantada from UPM, have resulted in promising materials that can be implanted via minimally invasive surgery.
“Throughout the past three years of work in iMPLANTS-CM, we have focused on using super-elastic materials based on nitinol alloys, printed using additive manufacturing, and aimed at cardiovascular implants,” Aguilar explained.
“What we’ve achieved is an optimisation of this process, enabling us to create highly complex structures and explore various design strategies.”
“During my Ph.D. thesis, we have developed a design methodology based on algorithms and computational design, which allows me to adapt structures, mainly tubular ones, to highly complex geometries without the need for cylindrical sections.”
“All the fibres are interwoven, which makes it possible to modify specific areas, such as adding holes or cutting zones, and the fibres self-assemble,” he added.
Nitinol is an alloy of nickel (Ni) and titanium (Ti), capable of shape morphing in response to temperature changes, making it relevant for applications like medical implants and adaptive devices.
Now, Aguilar will have the opportunity to take his research further than ever before, thanks to being selected as a Fulbright Scholar for 2025.
The Fulbright scholarship, promoted by the U.S. State Department, is one of the most prestigious and internationally recognised scholarships for university students. Its goal is to promote academic and cultural exchange between the U.S. and other countries.
Thanks to the scholarship, Aguilar will spend six months at MIT, ranked as the third-best university in the world by the Times Higher Education rankings in 2024.
“In iMPLANTS-CM, our main focus was to develop an algorithm to create personalized cardiovascular implants capable of adapting to patient-specific characteristics,” Aguilar explained.
“Now, the goal is to see if, in addition to adapting to the patient’s geometry, we can also modify their mechanical properties. For example, if a blood vessel has certain characteristics, we want the implant to adapt and have those same properties.”
Specifically, the project Aguilar will carry out at MIT will focus on applying inverse design algorithms based on artificial intelligence (AI).
“We will attempt to develop algorithms to predict the mechanical properties needed for personalised implants,” Aguilar said. “To do this, we can combine data obtained from mechanical tests gathered during the iMPLANTS-CM project with advanced AI tools.”
These implants have the potential to advance cardiovascular treatment by adapting both geometrically and mechanically to the needs of each patient.
The impact of this research could be significant. Aguilar highlighted that one of the most critical issues in current cardiovascular surgeries is the need to reimplant standardised valves that lose performance over time.
“During our work in iMPLANTS-CM, we observed a procedure where they implanted a new valve over an older valve that had already been implanted in a child,” said the researcher.
“In many such cases, it’s like a Russian nesting doll, placing one over another. In the end, being standardised, the performance of the implants isn’t good enough, and another implant needs to be introduced, requiring a second or even a third surgery.”
“So, by making implants where you have more control over their properties — implants that can evolve over time, grow, or adjust to the patient’s needs — we can make these implants last longer and reduce the number of interventions.”