Today, only small polyps can typically be removed during colonoscopies. Anything bigger requires invasive surgery through the abdomen to cut out a section of intestine and suture the ends back to one another.

However, pioneering surgeons have shown that much larger tumors can be safely removed using endoscopes, and that this not only reduces invasiveness, but also improves patient outcomes.

The problem is that this procedure it is extremely difficult to learn and to perform, even for experts. Endoscopes with tools passing through them are unwieldy (they are designed for navigation along the intestine, not precise, dexterous motions at a surgical site). Furthermore, having two hands that can move independently greatly facilitates surgical maneuvers.

Prior engineering approaches to this problem have either re-engineered the endoscope or attached devices to the exterior of the endoscope. In the med lab we co-invented a unique steerable sheath technology that is so small and thin-walled that it can pass through the ports in a standard clinical colonoscope, yet still carry tools (graspers, electrosurgery probes, etc) through themselves.

This basic technology (called Concentric Push-Pull Robots (CPPR)) is being commercialized through the lab’s startup company EndoTheia, Inc. EndoTheia is working on simpler fully mechanical hand-held tools for urologic and other procedures throughout the human body. But making a robot is a longer-term project that requires more resources and time than EndoTheia can currently spare. Thus it is the perfect thing for us to work on in the MED Lab in collaboration with EndoThiea. If we do our job right, once EndoTheia’s early fully mechanical products are on the market and providing revenue, and we have demonstrated the feasibility of our robotic approach in animal experiments, we will transition the robot to the company for commercialization.