About Me
Christoff joined the Surgical Robotics Lab in January 2017 to pursue a doctoral degree. He recently graduated and is continuing his research as a postdoctoral fellow
He is trained to adapt and integrate embedded sub-systems for health care applications, with a specific focus on surgical robotics, magnetic actuation systems, and medical image processing. His research includes designing clinical equipment for the treatment of endovascular, cardiovascular, and oncological disorders.
Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, he received his Bachelor in Mechatronic Engineering in 2014 from the University of Stellenbosch. Here, he also obtained his M.Eng in Biomedical Engineering in 2016 as part of the Biomedical Engineering Research Group (BERG).
Recently, Christoff has co-founded a spinoff company, Flux Robotics, aiming to commercialize robots that assist surgeons during magnetic surgeries.
Fields of interest
- Biomedical Engineering
- Continuum Robotics
- Mechatronic Design
- Medical Image Processing
Expertise
Organisations
Research
The current practice of endovascular procedures is limited by a number of factors. These factors include patient-specific operation requirements, high-risk surgery procedures, and time-consuming operations. As a solution, continuum manipulators with a focus on magnetically actuated surgical catheters, have been introduced to the field of surgical robotics. These instruments are manually inserted into the body, duct, or vessel and can be used for fluid drainage, disease treatment or to reach certain sites in the body for targeted drug delivery.
Manual insertion and maneuvering of steerable catheters can be accomplished via tendon actuation and guidewires. However, limitations like buckling and friction of the tendons and cables tend to surface. Consequently, magnetically-controlled catheter actuation and navigation systems, or magnetic manipulation systems (MMS), have been introduced. Using magnetic systems to steer catheters allow for high-precision steering in the endovascular network, less radiation exposure and shorter operation durations than conventional navigation systems. Moreover, they have proven to provide enhanced dexterity to clinicians performing minimally invasive surgical procedures, showing higher success rates after surgeries and providing enlarged workspaces. My goal is to explore these advantages by means of controlling magnetically-actuated catheters inside a clinically relevant experimental setup suitable for endovascular surgeries.
Publications
UT Research Information System
Google Scholar Link
Affiliated Study Programmes
Master
Projects
Developed a novel and highly-versatile system for the magnetic actuation of endovascular surgical instruments.
Contact Details
Visiting Address
University of Twente
Faculty of Engineering Technology
Horst Complex
(building no. 20), room Z136
De Horst 2
7522LW Enschede
The Netherlands
Mailing Address
University of Twente
Faculty of Engineering Technology
Horst Complex
Z136
P.O. Box 217
7500 AE Enschede
The Netherlands
Working days
Week | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
Even | |||||
Odd |