Aguascalientes, Ags. September 5, 2023.- Dr. Gabriela Durán Aguilar, research professor at the School of Engineering and head of the Academy of Innovation and Design at the Panamerican University of Engineering (PAAE) in Aguascalientes, Ags. Panamericana campus Aguascalientes, won the eAwards Mexico 2023 for her project Victoria, an artificial lymphatic vessel to combat lymphedema.
eAwards Mexico 2023
After receiving an invitation from NTT DATAa Japanese multinational technology consulting and services company, from the Technology Transfer team at Universidad Panamericana, Dr. Durán and her team applied to participate with the Victoria project, a lymphatic vessel designed using nanotechnology. This project consists of an internal medical device that allows the restoration of lymph in cases without possible reconstruction.
More than 350 projects applied for this call at a national level, and then about 130 projects passed to the second stage. Our institution participated with eight different projects born from an initiative that arose from the joint INVENTORS PROGRAM "Solutions for a Better World", promoted by NTT DATA and Universidad Panamericana, which sought to recognize and promote the work of scientists and inventors who generate a positive impact on society.
The eight Pan-American projects presented in the framework of this program were evaluated by a jury of experts in science, technology and entrepreneurship. Only two technological initiatives were among the only six eAwards finalists: the aforementioned winning project, Victoria, and the finalist project entitled Autonomous Weeding Robotwhich is promoted by Dr. Eduardo de la Vega Segura and Mr. Alfredo Pedroza Díaz.
The origin of an innovative project
The origin of Victoria's creation comes from her own experience of surviving breast cancer as well as promoting an alternative against this condition; the idea of the name came from her maternal grandmother, who was the first person in her family to have breast cancer and lymphedema.
"For me, winning this award represents the 300 million Gabrielas and Victorias that exist inthe world," she says.
During 2018, through her doctoral thesis, Dr. Gabriela began to promote this project together with her team formed by Dr . Alberto Rosas Sierra, PhD in Materials Science and industrial designer, and Dr. Rita Fuentes, PhD in Biomedical Sciences and Engineering, who for three years were working on the first projects and during 2022 were able to consolidate the final design of Victoria as well as the nanoimprint, since there was no such thing on the market nor the possibility of manufacturing it at such a size. Victoria is composed of six microns, a measure even smaller than the thickness of a hair, and is designed to combat lymphedema by restoring lymph.
"For me the priority is to thank God, thank my family for all the support and obviously to Universidad Panamericana," he says.
Likewise, Dr. Gabriela highlights the importance of promoting this initiative with her students through product design, where empathy is also encouraged, as well as always seeking to design according to the needs demanded by society.
During this project, we also had the support of the Corporate Direction of Innovation and Transfer and the Intellectual Property Management Center. With this great result, Dr. Gabriela and her team will represent Mexico in the international final of the Global eAwards in Europe in October, where they will face teams from 17 countries around the world.
