OPTISTENT (2026-2027)

Overview

Title

Optimisation of patient-specific stents

Principal investigator

Michel Duprez

Funding

CNRS — Mission pour les initiatives transverses et interdisciplinaires (MITI), “Optimal shapes” call for proposals, 2026

Budget

€40k

Abstract

Arterial stenosis is a major clinical problem, and standardised stents show their limits in treating it: restenosis, late thrombosis, malapposition. Their effectiveness depends closely on how well they match the local anatomy, geometrically and mechanically — something generic devices can hardly guarantee given the wide variability between patients.

OPTISTENT aims to design stents tailored to each patient through shape optimisation. The pipeline starts from imaging (CTA, OCT, IVUS) to reconstruct the three-dimensional geometry of the vessel and the lesion, including calcified and fibrotic regions. The biomechanical simulations progress from linear elasticity towards anisotropic hyperelastic models accounting for collagen fibre orientation. They are carried out in two complementary environments: FEniCS, whose variational formulation lends itself to optimisation algorithms, and SOFA, which specialises in interactive biomechanical simulation.

A preliminary phase considers the angioplasty balloon alone, which is simpler to model, in order to calibrate the two numerical frameworks before bringing in the stent. Shape derivation and adjoint methods then evolve the geometry of the device systematically, minimising relevant mechanical criteria — wall stresses, uniformity of expansion, quality of apposition.

Partners

  • MLMS team, ICube laboratory UMR 7357 — computational biomechanics, modelling of vascular tissue and endovascular devices.
    Michel Duprez (Inria junior researcher), Stéphane Cotin (Inria senior researcher), Raphaël Bulle (postdoc)

  • PDE team, IECL UMR 7502 — shape optimisation, variational analysis, adjoint methods.
    Yannick Privat (professor), Louis Ducongé (PhD student since 2025)

  • SAINBIOSE laboratory, INSERM U1059 — biomedical engineering, physiological and clinical interpretation of the results.
    Stéphane Avril (professor)