EDEN 2020: A New Brain Surgery Robot Inspired by Nature

Italian universities Politecnico di Milano, Università degli Studi di Milano and Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele join EDEN2020—an EU-funded project on robotic neurosurgery.
 
An international consortium of universities and industry has received a €8.3m grant from the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 program. Coordinated by Dr. Ferdinando Rodriguez y Baena, expert in robotic medical technology from Imperial College London, EDEN2020 will develop and test a flexible and steerable robotic needle, which will be able to reach and treat areas deep in the brain while minimizing patient-risk. From Italy, Politecnico di Milano, Università degli Studi di Milano and l’Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele are participating in EDEN2020.
 
In the treatment of brain gliomas (a particularly aggressive type of tumor), controlled and localized drug delivery—a synergized approach to surgery—is currently performed using a straight, rigid cannula which makes it difficult to avoid any obstacles encountered on the path to the tumor.
 
EDEN2020 is the fruit of Dr. Rodriguez y Baena’s idea to follow nature’s lead in establishing the trajectory to be followed through human tissue. Indeed, the form of the needle-cannula is inspired by that of the bendable, needle-shaped organ that some insects, such as the wood-boring wasp, use to lay their eggs.

 
Over the past decade, the team at Imperial College London has succeeded in creating the first prototypes for flexible, miniaturized needles. Now an extended group of researchers, including the Dutch University Medical Center Groningen and the Technical University of Munich alongside Imperial College London, Politecnico di Milano, Università degli Studi di Milano and Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele are working together with industrial partners Renishaw PLC and Xograph Healthcare to carry out the first pre-clinical tests on animals in view of clinical deployment.
 
Thanks to modern magnetic resonance techniques, such as diffusion-weighted MRI and tractography, which make it possible to study nervous tissue structure and the organization of the connections between different areas of the brain, the team of neuroradiologists from Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Italy will provide high-resolution images allowing the surgeon to visualize the tissue affected by the tumor in detail. The resulting images will be used to plan the path of the robotic needle, which the neurosurgeon will then guide using a special joystick. An exteroceptive system, located on the outside of the cannula, will track its position through intraoperative ultrasound imaging, while a sensory system on the cannula will measure the needle’s curvature, ensuring adherence to the planned path and absolute safety for the patient. The surgeon will therefore be able to visually monitor the progress of the robotic needle until it reaches the desired treatment site, where the medication will be released through the cannula.
 
“This is a fascinating project, in which our role as bioengineers is crucial for deploying the technological product in a clinical setting in hospitals”, said Prof. Elena De Momi, researcher from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering at Politecnico di Milano.
 


“In addition to the clinical implications for treatment of brain tumors and, potentially, other diseases of the central nervous system, this research will enable us to discover more about important aspects of the brain’s structure, using the most advanced diagnostic techniques at our disposal in the field of neuroimaging,” explained Prof. Andrea Falini, Head of Neuroradiology at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele di Milano.
 
The researchers also foresee other futuristic yet not-too-technologically-distant uses for their biomimetic surgical robot.
 
Lorenzo Bello, Full Professor of Neurosurgery at the Università degli Studi di Milano pointed out: “EDEN2020 is an extraordinary platform for integration of the various pre- and intraoperative imaging technologies, and also a useful tool for innovative in situ diagnostics or for performing other kinds of localized treatment (such as deep brain stimulation for Parkinson’s disease and laser therapy), revolutionizing neurosurgery as we know it”.
 
EDEN2020 expected to last until March 2020 and has received funding from the European Union’s EU Research and Innovation program Horizon 2020 under grant agreement no 688279.