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About

Eva Lankenau is a pioneering researcher in the field of robot-assisted vitreoretinal surgery, with a focused expertise in developing advanced sensing technologies for micro-surgical interventions. Her primary research areas include force sensing, optical coherence tomography (OCT)-based distance measurement, and their integration into robotic systems for retinal procedures. Lankenau’s major contribution lies in the creation of a combined FBG force and OCT distance sensing cannulation needle, designed specifically for retinal vein cannulation—a promising treatment for Retinal Vein Occlusion, a common cause of severe vision loss. Her most cited work (2018, 41 citations) validated this needle in vivo, demonstrating its potential to overcome the extreme fragility and sub-millimeter scale of retinal structures. She further refined this technology through proof-of-concept studies (2017) and single-scan OCT-based retina detection (2018, 8 citations), enabling safer, more precise instrument manipulation. Lankenau’s research has been instrumental in addressing the critical need for enhanced sensory feedback in micro-surgery, with her combined sensing approach paving the way for more reliable robot-assisted interventions. Her work, supported by European robotics initiatives (2015), represents a significant step toward translating robotic assistance into clinical ophthalmology, offering hope for patients with retinal vascular disorders.