“The idea of the micro-robot date before I was born. One of the most famous examples is a film called The Fantastic Journeywhere a team of scientists board a miniaturized vessel to go into the brain and absorb a blood clot”notes Michael Shpigelmacher, CEO of Bionaut Labs.
“In your cell phone you have a bunch of extremely precise, extremely sophisticated microscopic contraptions that are smaller than a grain of rice,” says this trained roboticist, gone through artificial intelligence and consumer electronics.
“What was science fiction in the 1960s is now science fact… We want to take this old idea and make it a reality,” the 53-year-old scientist told AFP during a visit to the Bionaut Labs research and development center in Los Angeles.
The startup is experimenting with injectable, remotely controlled micro-robots
Resulting from a partnership with the prestigious German Max Planck research institute, the startup is experimenting with injectable micro-robots controlled remotely using magnetic energy.
There are other techniques, such as optical or ultrasound control, but magnetic energy has the merit of being simple and of not interfering with the human body, explains Michael Shpigelmacher.
Unlike an MRI, the device is easily transportable and consumes ten to a hundred times less electricity.
Magnetic coils placed outside the patient’s skull and a computer are enough to remotely guide a micro-robot into the brain, as evidenced by a simulation carried out for AFP.
A robot that might help puncture cysts in the brain
The sequence begins and, following a trajectory programmed in advance, the robot – a metal cylinder a few millimeters in length to which a powerful neodymium magnet has been integrated – begins to evolve in gel reproducing the brain.
The machine comes to position itself under a pocket filled with a blue liquid then, propelled like a rocket, suddenly pierces it with its pointed end, thus allowing the liquid to flow out of the pocket.
The robot can then be extracted following the same path.
When Bionaut Labs begins its first clinical trials, that’s exactly what should break through cerebrospinal fluid-filled cysts in the brain caused by Dandy-Walker malformation, a rare birth condition affecting children.
These cysts, which can grow to the size of a golf ball, swell and increase brain pressure, causing a host of serious disorders.
Data shows the technology is safe for humans
Bionaut Labs has already tested its robots in specialized laboratories “on large animals, sheep and pigs. And the data shows that the technology is safe for humans”, assure Michael Shpigelmacher.
“Today most brain surgery are limited to the straight line. If you can’t get to the target in a straight line, you’re stuck.” dit M. Shpigelmacher.
The injectable robots “make it possible to reach otherwise inaccessible targets, following the safest trajectory possible”.
Thanks to these first promising results, the startup has already obtained authorization from the American Medicines Agency (FDA) to experiment with its method for patients suffering from Dandy Walker syndrome but also from malignant glioma, a cancerous brain tumor. considered incurable.
In the latter case, the micro-robot will be equipped with a receptacle containing an anti-cancer treatment and will travel to the tumor to deposit its drug load there.
Potential treatments for Parkinson’s, epilepsy or stroke
A “surgical strike” where currently available techniques are content to bombard the whole body, with a loss of effectiveness and many undesirable effects, explains Michael Shpigelmacher.
“And because we’re a robot, we can come full circle and do measurements, take tissue samples,” enthuses the boss of Bionaut Labs, which has around thirty employees and continues to recruit.
Bionaut Labs is already in discussion with partners for the treatment of other diseases affecting the brain, such as Parkinson’s, epilepsy or the treatment of strokes.
“To my knowledge, we are the first commercial attempt to design” such a product “but I don’t think we will be left alone”, says Michael Shpigelmacher, because academic research is very active with “regarding fifteen teams” currently working on the subject.
With AFP
