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Four Year Funded Studentship. Application Deadline: ongoing till position filled

Developing a Robotic System for MRI-guided Brain Surgery

Primary Supervisor:

Introduction

A 4-year funded PhD studentship is available in the UCL Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering. Funding will be at least the UCL minimum. Stipend details can be found here. 

The successful candidate will join our Research Degree in Medical Physics (application portal here), and benefit from the activities and events organised by the department.

Project Background

Stereotactic neurosurgery is a minimally invasive approach to precisely apply dedicated instrumentation to the target areas. It treats various nervous system disorders like Parkinson’s Disease (PD), essential tremor, and epilepsy: PD alone affects 8.5 million people worldwide; stereotactic ablation for brain tumours increased by 400% between 2012-2018. Importantly, these figures are on the rise, primarily due to the increasing global population's longevity, underscoring the urgent need for more effective treatment options.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)-guided surgical robotics offers a timely solution to address these pressing needs. MRI can provide high-contrast images of soft tissues like the brain. With intraoperative MRI guidance, a teleoperated robot can compensate for the brain shift or deformation during the surgery, leading to enhanced treatment accuracy and significantly reduced operation time. However, there are still significant challenges for the widespread use of MRI surgical robots, including the strong magnetic field (e.g., 1.5T or 3T) and the constrained space within the MRI scanner. 

This project will develop and validate an MR-safe/conditional robot for MRI-guided brain surgery. This will build upon the award-winning work of , the first to develop an intra-operative MRI-guided robot for bilateral stereotactic neurosurgery.

Research aims

This project aims to develop and validate an MR-safe/conditional robot system that can precisely navigate stereotactic instruments towards surgical targets under real-time MRI guidance. A robot system comprising MR-safe actuators, a stereotactic head frame, and miniaturised manipulators will be developed. It involves both mechanical and electronic system design. Lab-based experiments will include a series of performance tests and accuracy tests based on a simulated surgery task. MRI compatibility will be also validated. This multidisciplinary study involves collaboration with clinicians (neurosurgeons and radiologists) and engineering scientists with a breadth of expertise in functional neurosurgery, surgical robotics, and image navigation.

Person Specification and Requirements

• This studentship is only open to Home Fee-paying candidates. More information about fee status criteria can be found here.
• Candidates with backgrounds in Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics or Robotics, or comparable experience in medical instruments are welcome to apply. 
• Hands-on experience in mechanical design, 3D printing, system control and integration will be a plus.
• Candidates should have an interest in image-guided surgery.
• Candidates should hold a UK (or international equivalent) first or upper-second Bachelor’s degree.

How to apply

• Send an expression of interest and current CV to: ziyan.guo@ucl.ac.uk and cdtadmin@ucl.ac.uk.
• Please quote Project Code: 23037 in the email subject line.
• Make a formal application via the UCL application portal. Please select the programme code RRDMPHSING01 (Research Degree: Medical Physics) and enter Project Code 23037 under ‘Name of Award 1’ 
• If shortlisted, candidates will be invited for an interview.