Highly successful site visit to Amsterdam University Medical Center

07 Nov 2025 12:00

This week, members of the SMARTHEAL consortium convened in Amsterdam to meet with colleagues from AUMC to discuss the experiential needs of partners for the mouse experiments.

The session began with Wouter de Jonge, Ana Avramovic and Olaf Weitling presenting their previous and on-going work on biomarker studies. These will be key inputs to the future assessment of the success of the SMARTHEAL ring device. A little later, Ana and Olaf brought the visiting group to the laboratory, to demonstrate the anastomosis surgery on the mice. This was a vital step in the development of the test devices, to make sure that the sensors of interest are of a suitable size and to guarantee that the methods for in vivo sensor placement were suitable.

Following a networking lunch, Joep Derikx gave a tour of the paediatrics wing of the AUMC hospital. Professor Derikx's specific interest in is translational research with focus on understanding the pathophysiology and early detection of intestinal anastomotic healing and leakage, making him an idea partner on the SMARTHEAL project. Following the visit, Dr. Roel Hompes presented his expertise on colorectal anastomosis in humans, explaining the statistics, complications and treatments.

Stephen Johnson-Barker, from PLIO, also provided an update on the design and fabrication of the magnetic rings and finished with a demonstration of the implant delivery protocol. The discussions and feedback from the sensor technologists and surgeons will be essential in developing the next, and future, iterations of the implant and the delivery tool.

The highly-productive, hands-on day was capped off with further networking and discussion opportunities — which included some light refreshments.