The research team of Professor Zhang Li has developed a magnet micro/nano-robot for endovascular treatment. The invention has recently received international recognition at the 50th International Exhibition of Inventions Geneva, winning a Gold Medal with Congratulations of the Jury.
Principal Investigator and Team Members:
Professor Zhang Li, Dr. Liu Wai-shing, Dr. Jin Dongdong (Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering)
Professor Simon Yu Chun-ho (Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology)
Professor Chan Kai-fung (Chow Yuk Ho Technology Centre for Innovative Medicine)
Project Title:
Magnet Micro/Nano-robot for Endovascular Treatment
Project Description:
This magnetic microrobotic platform is designed to address the current clinical problem of aneurysm embolisation treatment, enabling localised, targeted therapy with more stable and complete filling, and minimising the potential risk of lost embolic agents or incomplete filling.
An interventional catheterisation-integrated swarming microrobotic platform for real-time medical imaging guided embolisation of aneurysm, aiming to address the bottlenecks of conventional embolisation therapy in filling and targeting efficiencies. Each building block of the microrobotic swarm is a micro-sized sphere composed of pH-responsive self-healing hydrogel matrix, magnetic nanoparticles and imaging dopants.
The schematic and experimental results of swarming self-adhesive microgels enabled on-demand embolisation in aneurysm model, including targeted catheterisation (I), deployment and active accumulation of swarming microgels into aneurysm sac under the actuation of robotic magnet (II), on-demand embolisation via mild acid stimulus (III), and the removal of catheter and robotic magnet (IV).
