Mannheim University of Applied Sciences

About: Mannheim University of Applied Sciences is a education organization based out in Mannheim, Germany. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Gene & Mass spectrometry imaging. The organization has 593 authors who have published 779 publications receiving 19248 citations. The organization is also known as: FH Mannheim & Mannheim College.

Cross-Domain Conditional Generative Adversarial Networks for Stereoscopic Hyperrealism in Surgical Training

Abstract: Phantoms for surgical training are able to mimic cutting and suturing properties and patient-individual shape of organs, but lack a realistic visual appearance that captures the heterogeneity of surgical scenes. In order to overcome this in endoscopic approaches, hyperrealistic concepts have been proposed to be used in an augmented reality-setting, which are based on deep image-to-image transformation methods. Such concepts are able to generate realistic representations of phantoms learned from real intraoperative endoscopic sequences. Conditioned on frames from the surgical training process, the learned models are able to generate impressive results by transforming unrealistic parts of the image (e.g. the uniform phantom texture is replaced by the more heterogeneous texture of the tissue). Image-to-image synthesis usually learns a mapping \(G:X~\rightarrow ~Y\) such that the distribution of images from G(X) is indistinguishable from the distribution Y. However, it does not necessarily force the generated images to be consistent and without artifacts. In the endoscopic image domain this can affect depth cues and stereo consistency of a stereo image pair, which ultimately impairs surgical vision. We propose a cross-domain conditional generative adversarial network approach (GAN) that aims to generate more consistent stereo pairs. The results show substantial improvements in depth perception and realism evaluated by 3 domain experts and 3 medical students on a 3D monitor over the baseline method. In 84 of 90 instances our proposed method was preferred or rated equal to the baseline.

Myotubularin-related protein 7 inhibits insulin signaling in colorectal cancer

Abstract: // Philip Weidner 1, * , Michaela Sohn 1, * , Tobias Gutting 1 , Teresa Friedrich 1 , Timo Gaiser 2 , Julia Magdeburg 3 , Peter Kienle 3 , Hermelindis Ruh 4 , Carsten Hopf 4 , Hans-Michael Behrens 5 , Christoph Rocken 5 , Tamar Hanoch 6 , Rony Seger 6 , Matthias P.A. Ebert 1 , Elke Burgermeister 1 1 Department of Medicine II, Universitatsmedizin Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, D-68167 Mannheim, Germany 2 Institute of Pathology, Universitatsmedizin Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, D-68167 Mannheim, Germany 3 Department of Surgery, Universitatsmedizin Mannheim, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, D-68167 Mannheim, Germany 4 ABIMAS Research Center, Mannheim University of Applied Sciences, D-68163 Mannheim, Germany 5 Institute of Pathology, Christian Albrecht University, D-24105 Kiel, Germany 6 Department of Biological Regulation, Weizmann Institute of Science, I-7610001 Rehovot, Israel * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Elke Burgermeister, email: elke.burgermeister@medma.uni-heidelberg.de Keywords: colorectal cancer, insulin, MTMR7, phosphatase, myotubularin Received: January 13, 2016 Accepted: June 16, 2016 Published: July 07, 2016 ABSTRACT Phosphoinositide (PIP) phosphatases such as myotubularins (MTMs) inhibit growth factor receptor signaling. However, the function of myotubularin-related protein 7 (MTMR7) in cancer is unknown. We show that MTMR7 protein was down-regulated with increasing tumor grade (G), size (T) and stage (UICC) in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) (n=1786). The presence of MTMR7 in the stroma correlated with poor prognosis, whereas MTMR7 expression in the tumor was not predictive for patients’ survival. Insulin reduced MTMR7 protein levels in human CRC cell lines, and CRC patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) or loss of imprinting (LOI) of insulin-like growth factor 2 ( IGF2) had an increased risk for MTMR7 loss. Mechanistically, MTMR7 lowered PIPs and inhibited insulin-mediated AKT-ERK1/2 signaling and proliferation in human CRC cell lines. MTMR7 provides a novel link between growth factor signaling and cancer, and may thus constitute a potential marker or drug target for human CRC.

Formal verification of software-based medical devices considering medical guidelines.

Abstract: Software-based devices have increasingly become an important part of several clinical scenarios. Due to their critical impact on human life, medical devices have very strict safety requirements. It is therefore necessary to apply verification methods to ensure that the safety requirements are met. Verification of software-based devices is commonly limited to the verification of their internal elements without considering the interaction that these elements have with other devices as well as the application environment in which they are used. Medical guidelines define clinical procedures, which contain the necessary information to completely verify medical devices. The objective of this work was to incorporate medical guidelines into the verification process in order to increase the reliability of the software-based medical devices. Medical devices are developed using the model-driven method deterministic models for signal processing of embedded systems (DMOSES). This method uses unified modeling language (UML) models as a basis for the development of medical devices. The UML activity diagram is used to describe medical guidelines as workflows. The functionality of the medical devices is abstracted as a set of actions that is modeled within these workflows. In this paper, the UML models are verified using the UPPAAL model-checker. For this purpose, a formalization approach for the UML models using timed automaton (TA) is presented. A set of requirements is verified by the proposed approach for the navigation-guided biopsy. This shows the capability for identifying errors or optimization points both in the workflow and in the system design of the navigation device. In addition to the above, an open source eclipse plug-in was developed for the automated transformation of UML models into TA models that are automatically verified using UPPAAL. The proposed method enables developers to model medical devices and their clinical environment using clinical workflows as one UML diagram. Additionally, the system design can be formally verified automatically.

Impact of Mistletoe Triterpene Acids on the Uptake of Mistletoe Lectin by Cultured Tumor Cells

Abstract: Complementary treatment possibilities for the therapy of cancer are increasing in demand due to the severe side effects of the standard cytostatics used in the first-line therapy. A common approach as a complementary treatment is the use of aqueous extracts of Viscum album L. (Santalaceace). The therapeutic activity of these extracts is attributed to Mistletoe lectins which are Ribosome-inactivating proteins type II. Besides these main constituents the extract of Viscum album L. comprises also a mixture of lipophilic ingredients like triterpene acids of the oleanane, lupane and ursane type. However, these constituents are not contained in commercially available aqueous extracts due to their high lipophilicity and insolubility in aqueous extraction media. To understand the impact of the extract ingredients in cancer therapy, the intracellular uptake of the mistletoe lectin I (ML) by cultured tumor cells was investigated in relation to the mistletoe triterpene acids, mainly oleanolic acid. Firstly, these hydrophobic triterpene acids were solubilized using cyclodextrins (“TT” extract). Afterwards, the uptake of either single compounds (isolated ML and the aqueous “viscum” extract) or in combination with the TT extract (ML+TT, viscumTT), was analyzed. The uptake of ML was studied inTHP-1-, HL-60-, 143B- and Ewing TC-71-cells and determined after 30, 60 and 120 minutes by an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay which quantifies the A-chain of the hololectin. It could be shown that the intracellular uptake after 120 minutes amounted to 20% in all cell lines after incubation with viscumTT. The studies further revealed that the uptake in THP-1-, HL-60- and Ewing TC-71-cells was independent of the addition of TT extract. Interestingly, the uptake of ML by 143B-cells could only be measured after addition of triterpenes pointing to resistance to mistletoe lectin.