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Bionaut Labs plans its first clinical trials on humans in just two years for its tiny injectable robots, which can be carefully guided through the brain using magnets.
"The idea of the micro robot came about way before I was born," said co-founder and CEO Michael Shpigelmacher.
"One of the most famous examples is a book by Isaac Asimov and a film called 'Fantastic Voyage,' where a crew of scientists goes inside a miniaturized spaceship into the brain, to treat a blood clot."
Just as cellphones now contain extremely powerful components that are smaller than a grain of rice, the tech behind micro-robots "that used to be science fiction in the 1950s and 60s" is now "science fact," said Shpigelmacher.
"We want to take that old idea and turn it into reality," the 43-year-old scientist told AFP during a tour of his company's Los Angeles research and development center.
Working with Germany's prestigious Max Planck research institutes, Bionaut Labs settled on using magnetic energy to propel the robots -- rather than optical or ultrasonic techniques -- because it does not harm the human body.
Magnetic coils placed outside the patient's skull are linked up to a computer that can remotely and delicately maneuver the micro-robot into the affected part of the brain, before removing it via the same route.
The entire apparatus is easily transportable, unlike an MRI, and uses 10 to 100 times less electricity.
- 'You're stuck' -
In a simulation watched by AFP, the robot -- a metal cylinder just a few millimeters long, in the shape of a tiny bullet -- slowly follows a pre-programed trajectory through a gel-filled container, which emulates the density of the human brain.
Once it nears a pouch filled with blue liquid, the robot is swiftly propelled like a rocket and pierces the sack with its pointed end, allowing liquid to flow out.
Inventors hope to use the robot to pierce fluid-filled cysts within the brain when clinical trials begin in two years.
If successful, the process could be used to treat Dandy-Walker Syndrome, a rare brain malformation affecting children.
Sufferers of the congenital ailment can experience cysts the size of a golf ball, which swell and increase pressure on the brain, triggering a host of dangerous neurological conditions.
Bionaut Labs has already tested its robots on large animals such as sheep and pigs, and "the data shows that the technology is safe for us" human beings, said Shpigelmacher.
If approved, the robots could offer key advantages over existing treatments for brain disorders.
"Today, most brain surgery and brain intervention is limited to straight lines -- if you don't have a straight line to the target, you're stuck, you're not going to get there," said Shpigelmacher.
Micro-robotic tech "allows you to reach targets you were not able to reach, and reaching them repeatedly in the safest trajectory possible," he added.
- 'Heating up' -
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last year granted Bionaut Labs approvals that pave the way for clinical trials to treat Dandy-Walker Syndrome, as well as malignant gliomas -- cancerous brain tumors often considered to be inoperable.
In the latter case, the micro-robots will be used to inject anti-cancer drugs directly into brain tumors in a "surgical strike."
Existing treatment methods involve bombarding the whole body with drugs, leading to potential severe side effects and loss of effectiveness, said Shpigelmacher.
The micro-robots can also take measurements and collect tissue samples while inside the brain.
Bionaut Labs -- which has around 30 employees -- has held discussions with partners for the use of its tech to treat other conditions affecting the brain including Parkinson's, epilepsy or strokes.
"To the best of my knowledge, we are the first commercial effort" to design a product of this type with "a clear path to the clinic trials," said Shpigelmacher.
"But I don't think that we will be the only one... This area is heating up."
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© Agence France-Presse
Devotees of French food and wine can flock to a new temple following the opening Friday of a gastronomy and wine complex in the capital of France's central Burgundy region, Dijon.
"It's astounding. It's a marriage of gastronomy, wine, culture and education," said former French president Francois Hollande during whose tenure the project was launched.
"It's not unique in France. It's unique in the world," he added at the inauguration.
The city famed for its mustard and rolling vineyards hopes to lure one million visitors a year to the site resembling a village with expositions, a culinary school, shops, restaurants and even a cinema.
"I have no doubt that one million is a completely attainable objective," Socialist Dijon mayor Francois Rebsamen told AFP, adding that Dijon boasted 3.5 million annual visitors before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
The project began after UNESCO added the "French gastronomic meal" to its intangible cultural heritage list in 2010.
The inclusion on the prestigious list sparked the launch of sites in Paris, Lyon, Tours and Dijon designed to showcase different aspects of the country's rich food and wine culture.
Meals are a big deal in France, where 2,000 books on wine or cooking are published every year.
The French will typically sit down together to tuck in unlike Americans "who often eat standing next to the kitchen counter" and alone, says Tours University sociologist Jean-Pierre Corbeau.
The gastronomic meal is "this ritual good food that brings together the French to celebrate the good life together", said European Institute for the History and Cultures of Food founder Francois Chevrier in his book on the Dijon complex.
-'Experimental kitchen'-
The massive Dijon site spreads across 6.5 hectares and combines modern structures with buildings with glazed tiles from the mediaeval times.
"We wanted to enhance the existing heritage while adding contemporary architectural touches to it," architect Anthony Bechu said.
The overall project cost 250 million euros ($265,000) with the private sector financing 90 percent.
Visitors can meander through four sections on the history of French meals, baking, Burgundy's vineyards and the art of cooking.
Once an appetite is worked up, tourists can eat to their heart's content in two restaurants run by triple-starred chef Eric Pras.
And they can wash the meal down with wine from a cellar that offers "one of the widest selections in the world, with 250 wines by the glass among more than 3,000 references," according to its director Anthony Valla.
The site also includes a butcher's shop and a bakery, an "experimental kitchen" offering demonstrations and workshops, and a branch of the world-renowned Ferrandi culinary school.
Such a huge project has raised some eyebrows, especially after the Lyon site closed down only nine months after its inauguration.
"We learned our lesson from the failure of Lyon, which offered something a little down-market and very expensive," Dijon mayor Rebsamen said.
The Dijon site includes "a whole cultural and heritage section that is free", he added.
The French-style meal is in danger because "people think cooking is a waste of time", according to Paris-Sorbonne professor Jean-Robert Pitte.
Pitte is one of the architects of the campaign that led to the UNESCO inscription, designed to restore "the taste for cooking".
He believes "eating well is not superfluous, but necessary for health, sociability, the economy and culture".
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© Agence France-Presse
New York, United States | Women in the US finance industry applaud signs of progress at financial giants like Citigroup, which became the first big Wall Street bank to name a female chief executive.
