Human Shape Technologies is an innovative startup established on May 21, 2021, with the aim of carrying out the StepBrain technology transfer project, winner of the POR FESR 2014-2020 - CAMPANIA STARTUP 2020.
The company provides many years of expertise in the fields of radiological medicine, medical physics, biomedical and electronic engineering for the creation and manufacture of anthropomorphic phantoms - even customized ones. Specific skills are expressed through ad-hoc software development for medical image processing, anatomical modelling, design, and 3D printing.
The project aims at the technology transfer of an anatomical phantom of the human brain, called Step-Brain, made thanks to an innovative 3D printing technology.
In Diagnostic Imaging, anthropomorphic phantoms perform the function of characterization and verification of the equipment in the various clinical imaging methods, as in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Single Photon Emission Tomography (SPET [or SPECT]). Furthermore, phantoms are often used to fine-tune the techniques to perform diagnostic tests in total safety, since they are able to return results very similar to those obtained on real patients.
StepBrain is an anatomical phantom of the human brain made thanks to an innovative 3D printing technology. The StepBrain phantom was designed to simulate the biophysical and pathophysiological conditions of human brain tissues with the aim of optimizing the interpretation of diagnostic imaging tests performed for the diagnosis and monitoring of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease. The use of this innovative brain phantom will help increase knowledge of this type of pathology, and therefore improve the longevity and quality of life of patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases.
The aim is to improve the interpretation of brain studies on patients using Nuclear Medicine methods such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Single Photom Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT). Moreover, given its high resolution, obtained thanks to a sophisticated 3D printing technique, it is the only marketed phantom suitable for the characterization of hybrid diagnostic scanners with Magnetic Resonance (MRI) and Computed Tomography (CT [or TAC]), or scanners hybrids PET-MRI, PET-CT, and SPET-CT. The latter constitute the frontier of Diagnostic Imaging, as they synergistically provide both the morphological and functional information of the patient, which cannot be obtained simultaneously with the single traditional methods.
The main advantages of Step-Brain, compared to the state of the art of brain phantoms, are represented by the possibility of:
Pirozzi MA, Gaudieri V, Prinster A, Magliulo M, Cuocolo A, Brunetti A, Alfano B, Quarantelli M
StepBrain: A 3-Dimensionally Printed Multicompartmental Anthropomorphic Brain Phantom to Simulate PET Activity Distributions.
Journal of Nuclear Medicine July 18, 2024, jnumed.123.267277; DOI: 10.2967/inumed.123.267277 - ISSN 0161-5505