From Fraunhofer IFAM to the development of an adhesive for kidney stone surgery

Manfred Peschka is a co-founder of Purenum GmbH, a spin-off from the Fraunhofer IFAM, where he was responsible for the department of adhesive manufacturing for many years and also managed further training in this field. Together with his colleague Dr. Ingo Grunwald, Manfred Peschka has now developed an adhesive as part of a BMBF project that makes it possible to glue together and thus remove previously intangible kidney stone fragments. In an interview, Mr. Peschka explains how this came about, what opportunities bonding technology offers and why further training in this field is so important.

Urinary calculus diseases are becoming more and more frequent. The number of new cases in Germany has tripled within the last ten years, and about 1.2 million patients are treated annually. However, the problem that the kidney stone is larger than 4mm and cannot come off naturally occurs again and again. In this case, it must first be crushed with an endoscope and laser. Usually, however, the stone does not break up into pieces of the desired size, so that a number of fragments become very small and cannot be grasped with the endoscope. These small parts then remain in the body, so that a 100% stone-free treatment cannot be performed.

The way to your own spin-off

This problem repeatedly presents great challenges to urologists, which is why they approached Dr. Ingo Grunwald and the Fraunhofer IFAM with the following question: "Is there an adhesive that can glue these fragments together, resulting in a larger body that can be easily removed? Dr. Ingo Grunwald undertook some basic experiments and found a principle that was a possible solution, but was still far from a solution. Since research always has to be financed, he contacted Manfred Peschka in 2012. At that time, he was not only working on setting up the department of adhesive bonding and industrial production at the Fraunhofer IFAM, but had also successfully completed an Executive MBA course two years earlier, whereby the master's thesis happened to be in the field of medical technology. Together they wrote research proposals and continued to work on the idea of joining kidney stone fragments with suitable adhesive to solve the problem of urologists. Within the framework of a BMBF project (GO-Bio 6 "mediNiK"), they received the necessary resources and opportunities to further develop their product. The collaboration ultimately led to Manfred Peschka and Ingo Grundwald founding Purenum GmbH in December 2017 and starting to look for investors. In June 2018, the first round of financing was successfully concluded and Purenum's operative business was started. Currently, Purenum is working with various clinics and doctors who carry out usability tests to determine whether the product works and how to use it. However, there is still a hurdle to be overcome before it is actually launched on the free market: The product has to be certified as a medical product, which is still a long and difficult path. This requires, for example, legal quality and safety requirements, such as quality management according to ISO 13485.

Mr. Peschka, to what extent were you able to use the work at Fraunhofer IFAM for this new development?

I have to take a brief look at this. When I came to Frauhofer IFAM in 2002, I had already completed an apprenticeship as a toolmaker and studied mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University, specializing in bonding technology. In addition, I had already spent several years in industry getting to know a wide variety of sectors in which bonding technology is used and I thought to myself: Fraunhofer IFAM will not be able to teach me that much anymore - which was a mistake. The great thing about the Fraunhofer IFAM and its further education center is that the complete range of tasks is covered and the courses are structured in such a way that the missing pieces of the puzzle are communicated. In industry, things are often done without being more deeply familiar with the background. This gap between industry and research is closed by the training courses at IFAM. They are product-independent (manufacturer neutral) and concentrate on teaching the technical connections. This is how it happens again and again that during the further training courses at the Fraunhofer IFAM an aha moment arises for one or the other participant. After the training, you no longer only know what you are doing or have to do, but also why.

Have you experienced concrete cases in which there was this "aha-moment"?

Yes, there were always some during the training sessions. For example, one participant in a training course told us that a former employee once said: "Today is good weather for gluing", to which his colleagues reacted rather ignorantly. The employee knew, however, that moisture-curing adhesive, which the company uses, is difficult to work with in dry weather. He had understood the overall context, namely that the conditions for the adhesive itself are particularly important for bonding components. Without his further training at the Fraunhofer IFAM, for example, he would not have had this knowledge advantage. Another company often had problems with changing qualities in bonding technology. On the second day of training, he then discovered that they had actually done everything right so far. They have cleaned and rinsed their components for preparation, but have not defined the change interval for the baths - which become dirty over time. Here, too, it became clear that it was not only the components themselves that mattered, but the interaction of many different tasks.

Let's take a look into the future: Could adhesive bonding technology also be suitable for other medical areas?

Yes, definitely. Adhesive Bonding technology is versatile. In fact, we are currently working on another research project that follows on from the previous one. While researching the appropriate adhesive for kidney stone surgery, we tested many formulations for their applicability. In the process, we came across one that adhered particularly well - too well for the kidney stone. The question soon arose: Could this material also be used to glue bones? Because if you break a joint, for example a knee or wrist, very small bone splinters often occur. Because these cannot be fixed with conventional trauma plates, they have to be removed completely, which leads to limited joint mobility for the patient after the wound has healed. If it were now possible to use adhesive to reattach the bone splinters and supply them with the adhesive, this would be a great development in joint surgery. We have not yet reached the end of our research - but the next three remaining years of the project will certainly provide us with interesting findings.

 

Thank you very much for the interview!