Zurich/Buffalo – Nanoflex Robotics has installed its first remote-controlled robotic system for neurovascular interventions in the USA. At the Jacobs Institute, the magnetically steerable catheter of the spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich is used for tests and studies.
Nanoflex Robotics delivered its first robotic system to the USA shortly after receiving ISO approval for its magnetically steerable catheter. According to a press release, it was installed in the test facility of the Jacobs Institute, a non-profit innovation center for medical devices. The Jacobs Institute is part of the Canon Stroke and Vascular Research Center at the University of Buffalo in the US state of New York. The remote-controlled robotic system from Nanoflex, which was founded in 2021, will be used there for usability tests, in vivo studies, training and demonstrations.
The robotic system of the spin-off from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich uses a compact magnetic field generator and a control unit for navigation to guide ultra-flexible devices through the body. The first application for this is the mechanical removal of blood clots from the brain after a stroke.
With the Nanoflex robotic system, procedures can be performed at the patient's bedside, but also from thousands of kilometers away. Nanoflex CEO Matt Curran is convinced that remote robotics has the potential to "improve surgical outcomes and give patients better and earlier access to important treatments".
"Robot-assisted neurovascular interventions are undoubtedly the future," Adnan Siddiqui, CEO and CMO of the Jacobs Institute, is quoted as saying. He is also Professor of Neurosurgery at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Buffalo. "We are delighted to be working with Nanoflex Robotics to validate this concept." ce/mm