2024-07-21 09:00:00
Following the death of his mother from a brain tumor, robotics engineer Bertrand Duplat began building a microrobot. He discusses “his awareness of the lack of tools to act effectively in the brain and to understand what is happening in a place affected by a pathology or used during treatment.” The start-up Robeauté was created in 2017. It designed a robot 1 centimeter long and 1.8 millimeters in diameter, capable of moving in the extracellular matrix by making curves.
In concrete terms, a small breach is created in the brain at the point where the device is inserted. This opening propagates in the viscoelastic material thanks to the tip of the robot, which indicates the direction in which it must go. The latter is connected to the outside by a cable that supplies it with energy. It can act by delivering a drug, but also collect information. Equipped with electrodes, it knows how to read the activity of the brain and stimulate it.
Other sensors allow it to record vital signs – temperature, pH, oxygenation, CO2 levels or intracranial pressure – and to search for substances. Finally, the robot is capable of taking a sample of brain matter. “This application is the first target,” says Bertrand Duplat, whose start-up has 14 employees. While preclinical tests on animals have been underway since the spring to test the robot, Robeauté hopes to carry out the first trials on human patients as early as 2026.
You are reading an article from L’Usine Nouvelle 3731 – June 2024
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