Every year, ~500,000 babies are born extremely preterm (<28 weeks of age) worldwide. These infants are usually transferred to an air-based neonatal intensive care unit to support their heart and lung development. Exposure to air, however, leads to many complications, because the lungs are not fully developed yet. The perinatal life support (PLS) project aims to develop a novel, alternative environment, more similar to the mother’s womb. In this PLS system, extremely premature babies would be transferred to an environment where the lungs remain filled with fluid and the umbilical cord will be attached to an artificial placenta to improve their organ development and ease the transition to newborn life. This project aims to increase the chances of survival for extremely premature babies and not to change the viability threshold.
Read more about the project here
In this section you will find relevant information for the consortium partners, such as link, resources, and meetings.
Dutch Design Week’s “Drivers of Change” features PLS The PLS project attended The University of Eindhoven’s Dutch Design Week and displayed its work as one of the drivers of change. “It has become clear to us that, more than ever, we’re facing enormous challenges. Whether it’s climate, sustainability, efficiency, food, healthcare, energy, housing, mobility… there’s a lot
The Perinatal Life Support (PLS) project marked another step forward during its fourth consortium meeting on June 21st and 22nd, 2023, held in Eidhoven. Partners from the Netherlands, Germany and Italy gathered to share progress updates, explore new ideas, and address technical challenges. The PLS system aims to improve the survival rates of extremely premature
An attachment developed by TU/e to transfer the premature baby in fluid from the mother to the artificial womb. Photo Bart van Overbeeke. A recent article in the popular Dutch magazine De Ingenieur again features the PLS Project in an exciting piece on “Artificial Alternatives to Vital Organs.” Elucidating the essential role organs have in sustaining human
PLS is proud to announce that the project was recently featured in the latest edition of NZZ Folio, a bi-monthly supplement in Neuen Zürcher Zeitung (New Zurich Newspaper). The PLS project, spearheaded by a team of dedicated researchers and medical experts, has made significant strides in providing a solution for the adverse health outcomes of
Extreme preterm birth Clinical relevance Annually, 15 million children worldwide are born prematurely. In addition to short-term complications, such as respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), necrotic enterocolitis (NEC) and intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH), there are also long-term complications, such as neurocognitive developmental disorders [4]. PLS Technology To improve the life expectancy and quality of
Last month the Artificial Placenta Mini Symposium took place! PLS members met for the first time to look at the development of an artificial placenta from different perspectives. A big thank you to Mike Seed, Christoph Haller, and Janna Morrison. Till next time! Mike Seed: Division Head, Cardiology, Cardiac Radiologist, Associate Professor of Paediatrics University of
HORIZON 2020
This project is funded by Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union under grant agreement number 863087.
Perinatal Life Support
