I joined to my lovely group Medical Engineering in the Department of
Medical Physics in Radiation Oncology at German Cancer Research Center in 2017.
Back then, I began with my practical semester. Then, I did my Bachelor's Thesis in the same
group. I got a Bachelor's Degree in Biomedical Engineering. Now, I'm doing my Master's degree
in Medical Physics and I've just started with my Master's Thesis project in the same group.
Medical devices have to be tested and quality assured. So in our group, we design and build
the testing sets and phantom which allow routinely controlling the devices and machines. Furthermore,
in our group we develop also reproducible anthropomorphic phantom for diagnostic
and therapeutic purposes by using 3D printing techniques which means that we model the shape and
the size of organs based on real patient imaging data and of course as accurate as possible.
My work comprises basically six steps. Firstly defining what's going to be modeled,
what will be measured at which machine. The next step is to model the organ itself
and casting mold for the organs and the tumors inside them.
All this will be done by different CAT software. Follow up choosing suitable printing techniques
based on geometry of the phantom and model and the supporting structure for given hollow organs.
Our printers are able to print stiff, flexible and also colorful. After printing and removing the
supporting scuffle, we can fabricate elastic model made up of silicon with the aid of our
2D printed casting mold. The further step is in chemistry lab where the silicone model
and also a different kind of gels produced be it from radiation sensitive gels or that gels that
provide us with the contrast and also solutions of varying concentration may also be used.
During step 5 our organs and tumors are filled with gels and solutions all with the purpose
of delivering comparable contrast as it's done with the real patient diagnostic image.
Last but not least, the model will be measured and of course the result will be analyzed.
Thanks to my group and our research center I feel free to be creative.
The most important thing in research is to be updated
which requires time and concentration. Another challenge is the research itself because you
usually go for a thing that do not exist yet. So you should come up with plan, stick on it,
you need to believe in yourself and of course not give up easily.