MIT has built a snake robot that slides into your brain

In the long list of creatures I would like to crawl into the crevices of my brain, snakes probably rank somewhere near the bottom. Maybe died last by spiders and cockroaches. But this did not stop researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from creating a snake image device. A robotic snake, if you will, designed to treat the immediate symptoms of strokes and aneurysms.

It is a robotic device, wire-shaped, controlled by magnets. The idea: use this terrifying snake wire to eliminate blood clots in the brain that often manifest as a result of a stroke or aneurysm.

Currently, this type of surgery is performed using manual threaded catheters by surgeons. This snake-like device could be a way to a more effective form of treatment, because with this type of operation, time is essential.

"Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death and one of the leading causes of disability in the United States," said Xuanhe Zhao, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and civil and environmental engineering at MIT. "If an acute stroke can be treated in the first approximately 90 minutes, the survival rate of patients could increase significantly.

"If we could design a device to reverse the blockage of blood vessels in this" golden hour ", we could potentially avoid permanent brain damage – that's our hope."

The snake robot is easier to navigate than a smaller catheter, which means it can slide across areas of the lower brain diameter.

You can read more about the search and the robot itself here.