First-Ever MRI-Steerable Micro-Robotics to Revolutionize Glioblastoma Treatment

By MedImaging International staff writers
Posted on 08 May 2025

Image: The engine-free, nonlinear, flexible, micro-robotic platform leverages AI to optimize GBM treatment (Photo courtesy of Symphony Robotics)

Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is one of the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat brain cancers. Traditional surgical procedures, such as craniotomies, involve significant invasiveness, requiring large incisions in the skull and presenting considerable risks, including damage to healthy brain tissue and delays in subsequent treatments like radiation, chemotherapy, or drug delivery. Alternative methods, like laser ablation, offer only partial treatment options. However, a new, groundbreaking, engine-free, nonlinear, flexible micro-robotic system is set to revolutionize the approach to treating GBM.

Symphony Robotics (Miami, FL, USA) has developed an innovative MRI-guided, magnetically actuated, flexible micro-robotic arm technology that navigates nonlinear paths, allowing for precise, micro-invasive surgeries with real-time imaging guidance. This highly maneuverable micro-robotic technology is based on two key advancements: utilizing the magnetic properties of MRI systems to guide the micro-robotic arms along nonlinear trajectories and providing real-time guidance using the high-resolution imaging capabilities of MRI. The flexible, nonlinear micro-robotic arm technology promises to offer extended, accurate access to deeply located lesions while safeguarding surrounding sensitive brain tissue, potentially improving the outcomes and quality of life for GBM patients.

Symphony is developing this technology, which integrates micro-robotic arms, real-time computer vision, and advanced artificial intelligence, with the goal of enhancing neurosurgeons' abilities for complex microsurgical procedures, specifically targeting brain cancer, such as GBM, and conditions like epilepsy. The long-term objective is to reduce the size of incisions and craniotomies to less than 4 millimeters, a tenfold reduction from current clinical standards. The MRI-compatible flexibility of the micro-robotic arm will allow neurosurgeons to perform full ablations through a single tiny opening, even for lesions that are difficult or impossible to reach due to their size or location. This breakthrough could reduce the incision size from something comparable to a coffee cup to the size of a small stirring straw. The company is currently forming partnerships with leading neurosurgical centers to begin beta testing later this year, ensuring comprehensive clinical evaluation across a variety of patient populations and anatomical conditions.

"Symphony Robotics is positioned to transform the treatment paradigm by substantially extending the capabilities of Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy (LITT) in GBM—potentially tripling the ablation volume achievable through its steerability after single-site minimally invasive insertion,” said Dr. Neil A. Martin, Chief Medical Officer. “Our initial objective is to significantly enhance the efficacy of LITT through precise, nonlinear navigation to previously unreachable tumor margins, even in large and irregular tumors. We are implementing an aggressive translational research pipeline for developing applications to accompany and synergize with thermal ablation, including targeted drug and immunotherapy delivery systems for precision neuro-oncology."

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Symphony Robotics