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Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

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This Tiny Robot Could One Day Treat Brain Tumors Without Opening the Skull

A tiny screw-shaped robot has taken an important step toward a new way of treating difficult-to-reach brain conditions—without the need to open the skull.

Researchers from the University of Twente (UT) and Radboud University Medical Center (Radboudumc) have successfully steered a miniature magnetic robot through real brain tissue using only a magnet positioned outside the body. The experiments were performed using sheep brain tissue in the laboratory.

The team has also developed a mathematical model that can predict when the robot will lose control. This could become an important tool for safely guiding tiny robots through delicate tissues in future medical procedures.

The study has been published in the journal Advanced Science.

A New Way to Reach Difficult Areas of the Brain

Some brain conditions are extremely difficult to treat because the affected area may be located deep inside the brain.

These include blood clots caused by stroke, deep-seated tumors, brain lesions and vascular malformations. Reaching such areas can require complicated procedures and, in some cases, opening the skull.

The researchers are exploring a very different approach.

Their long-term vision is to create a tiny robot that could travel through the body's blood vessels. At the appropriate location, the robot could pass through the artery wall and then move directly through brain tissue toward a target.

Instead of using a traditional surgical instrument, doctors could potentially control the robot from outside the body using a magnetic field.

However, there is a major challenge: the robot must remain under precise control while moving through different types of tissue.

How Does the Tiny Robot Work?

The robot has a screw-like shape. An external magnet creates a rotating magnetic field that makes the robot spin.

As it spins, its screw-shaped structure allows it to drill forward through the surrounding material.

Generally, increasing the speed of the external magnet also makes the robot move faster. But only up to a certain point.

If the magnet rotates too quickly, the robot can no longer keep up with the magnetic field. It may slip, stop or begin moving unpredictably.

This critical point is known as the step-out frequency.

Knowing this limit is extremely important. A medical robot moving inside the brain cannot simply be pushed faster and faster. Researchers need to know exactly when control will begin to fail.

Researchers Developed a Model to Predict the Limit

The team developed a new model that can predict when the robot will lose synchronization with the external magnet.

To create it, the researchers used the Buckingham Pi theorem, a mathematical method that can simplify complicated physical problems by expressing them using a small number of dimensionless quantities.

The model considers important factors such as the robot's size, magnetic strength and the stiffness of the surrounding tissue.

The results showed that tissue stiffness has a major effect on robot control.

In softer tissue, the robot could remain synchronized with the rotating magnet at speeds of around 30 rotations per second.

But in the stiffest tissue tested, the limit fell to less than one rotation per second.

As Ewout Ligtenberg, the study's first author, explained, if a magnetic robot is pushed too quickly, it eventually stops responding properly to the magnet. The new model allows researchers to predict this point instead of relying largely on trial and error.

One Measurement Could Be Enough

One of the most interesting aspects of the model is that researchers may not need to perform extensive testing for every new tissue condition.

After calibrating the model using one measurement in tissue with a known stiffness, the researchers can use it to predict how the same robot design should behave in other tissues.

The team first tested and validated the model using four different robot designs in gelatin.

They then moved to a more realistic environment: real sheep brain tissue.

In the experiments, without blood flowing through the vessels, the robot remained synchronized with the external magnet up to approximately 1.8 rotations per second.

When blood was pumped through the vessels to imitate conditions inside a living brain, the threshold dropped to below 0.45 rotations per second.

This happened because the pressure inside the vessels caused the surrounding tissue to push back more strongly against the robot.

The Robot Could Drill Through Brain Tissue

The researchers also measured how quickly the robot could move through brain tissue.

While drilling forward, the robot moved at approximately 0.2 millimeters per second.

Interestingly, it could travel back much faster.

When the robot reversed direction and followed the channel it had already created, it moved at around 2.9 millimeters per second.

The reason is simple: during the return journey, the robot did not need to create a completely new path through the tissue.

This ability could eventually be useful in medical procedures where a robot needs to reach a target and then safely return.

Accurate Targeting in a Brain Model

The researchers also demonstrated that the robot could be guided toward specific targets.

Using real-time camera tracking, they steered the robot through a soft gel model designed to represent the brain.

In some experiments, the robot reached its intended target with an accuracy of less than one millimeter.

Although this was still a laboratory demonstration rather than a treatment in humans, the result shows the potential of combining magnetic control with real-time tracking.

What Could This Mean for Future Brain Treatment?

The technology is still in the research stage, and many challenges must be solved before such robots could be used in patients.

Researchers will need to determine how the system behaves in the complex environment of a living human brain, including blood flow, different tissue types, pressure changes and the body's natural response to a foreign object.

Safety will also be critical. A robot used inside the brain must be controlled extremely precisely, and researchers must ensure that it does not damage healthy tissue or blood vessels.

Nevertheless, the new study addresses one important problem: knowing the limits of magnetic control.

By predicting when the robot will lose synchronization, researchers can better understand how fast it can safely operate in different tissues.

A Small Robot With a Big Potential

The tiny screw-shaped robot may look simple, but the idea behind it could eventually transform how doctors approach some difficult brain conditions.

Instead of opening the skull to reach a deeply located target, future medical procedures might use the body's own blood vessels as a pathway. A miniature robot could potentially travel to the right location and then move through tissue toward the affected area, guided by a magnetic field outside the body.

That future is not here yet. The current experiments were performed in laboratory models and sheep brain tissue, not human patients.

But the research represents an important step toward that goal.

The ability to predict exactly when a magnetic robot loses control gives scientists a better understanding of how these tiny machines behave inside biological tissue.

If future studies can demonstrate safety and precision in living organisms, remotely controlled microrobots could one day provide doctors with a completely new way to reach some of the brain's most difficult-to-access regions—without open-brain surgery.

Reference: L.-J. W. Ligtenberg, T. J. van der Burg, S. Y. Kolkman, et al. “ Performance Estimation and Ex Vivo Validation of Untethered Magnetic Robots in Soft Tissue.” Advanced Science (2026): e77011. https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.77011

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