Wireless Stent-like Soft Millirobots (STENTBOT) for Minimally Invasive Brain Vasculature Disease Treatments

Diseases in the brain vasculature, such as acute ischemic stroke, aneurysm and brain tumors, are fatal and require medical devices to treat them with minimal invasion. However, current tethered devices have limited safe access into the distal or tortuous vascular routes, which prevent saving lives of some patients. Therefore, we propose a wireless stent-shaped magnetic soft millirobot, stentbot, which would have the capability of safe access to such routes. Also, the stentbot will be able to be repositioned afterwards without repeating the same procedure fully again if the disease location changes or if the initial position of the device is observed to be not optimal. Such robot concept was originated in the ERC-AdG project of the PI. After reaching its target location safely and precisely under medical imaging and external magnetic actuation guidance, the robot will deliver the tissue plasminogen activator drugs on-demand locally to treat the acute ischemic stroke. Moreover, the robot will be used to treat aneurysms minimally invasively by becoming a flow diverter to regulate flow into the aneurysm sites.