Product-centred control of biological processes – A biohybrid cyber-physical system for patient-specific vascular grafts

Abstract

Conventional therapy of cardiovascular diseases with synthetic vascular grafts leads to complications due to the limited haemo-compatibility and biomechanical compliance. In contrast, patient-specific biohybrid vascular grafts, consisting of a textile reinforcement and an autologous tissue-engineered cover, are highly biocompatible and offer a promising treatment alternative. To ensure a standardized and reproducible quality of the biohybrid vascular grafts, a plant concept is being developed for the automated, product-centric production of patient-specific vascular grafts. A major focus is on the realization of an individualized conditioning in the bioreactor for each graft. By integrating the biological production process, the necessary sensors/actuators and a local control unit onto a standardized platform (“Mini bioreactor”), the cultivation and conditioning process can be run in an encapsulated system. Platform-specific agent-based control systems allow for the automated parallel processing of separate platforms with different conditioning states according to an individually configured product model.