DALLAS Oct 29: An innovative robotic device inspired by snake movement could someday help gastroenterologists diagnose and treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other disorders of the small intestine and remove small polyps while reducing trauma to the organ’s delicate tissues.
Developed in part by Binbin Ying, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Internal Medicine in the Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases at UT Southwestern Medical Center, the bioinspired soft enteroscopic robot (BIOSENTER) prototype successfully navigated small intestines in preclinical studies and demonstrated the ability to perform real-time imaging, tissue biopsy, and localized fluid delivery. The findings were published in Science Robotics.
“While this remains early-stage, preclinical technology, we’re encouraged by its ability to navigate challenging intestinal anatomy and perform procedures that are essential for diagnosing and treating disease,” said Dr. Ying, lead co-first author of the study and a member of the Chemistry, Biomedical Engineering, and Cancer Research Program at the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Our long-term goal is to develop robotic tools that can help clinicians examine the small intestine more safely and efficiently.”
The small intestine is about 20 feet long and tightly folded with slippery mucosal lining, making it one of the most difficult organs to access and navigate. The BIOSENTER technology could eventually aid physicians caring for patients with conditions that require examination or treatment deep within the small intestine, including gastrointestinal bleeding, Crohn’s disease and other forms of IBD, and tumors.
During his postdoctoral training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dr. Ying was inspired to improve enteroscope design and began his collaborative work on BIOSENTER. When he joined UT Southwestern in 2025, he brought his robotic design with him and has continued to refine it with his colleagues in the Ying Lab.
Giovanni Traverso, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT and a gastroenterologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is the study’s corresponding author. Several other collaborators from MIT joined Dr. Ying and Dr. Traverso in this research.
Gastroenterologists currently use double-balloon enteroscopes to examine the small intestine, but Dr. Ying said few doctors are trained to perform the procedure. Though effective, the devices are difficult to operate, require extensive training, and have potential risks. Also, procedures are time-consuming, so only a few patients can be examined each day.
To address these challenges, Dr. Ying and his colleagues designed BIOSENTER, which combines flexible movement, steering capability, and specialized tissue-engagement structures inspired by snakes’ scaly skin and kirigami, the Japanese art of cutting and folding paper into 3D shapes. The device contains a central channel that can accommodate tools used for imaging, biopsy, and delivery of therapeutic agents.
BIOSENTER is a hollow cylinder a little over 3.5 inches long. Air pumping within Kevlar-reinforced inflatable chambers in the robot’s center elongate and bend its body in a manner similar to snake musculature and movements. Kirigami sleeves made of polyimide form the robot’s head and tail.
When expanded by air, the bristly kirigami surfaces anchor BIOSENTER within the slippery mucosa and minimize distention while propelling the robot through the small intestine. Scientists use a joystick to navigate it. In testing, the design generated enough anchoring force to help propel the device without the extensive expansion required by conventional balloons.
The team initially tested BIOSENTER within a structure made of transparent PVC pipes to mimic the twists and turns of the small intestine. During the latest preclinical trial, the researchers successfully sent the robot through 6 feet of a small intestine in about 11 minutes while deploying visualization, biopsy, and fluid delivery tools without visible tissue damage.
Members of the Ying Lab are working with artificial intelligence to optimize the kirigami structure and improve locomotion. He believes that one day, enteroscopes using BIOSENTER technology may navigate patients’ small intestines autonomously. If researchers are able to integrate the robot’s capabilities into existing tools, they can lower barriers to training and improve access to lifesaving small intestine exams and procedures.
“Further engineering development and validation will be needed before human testing, including evaluation of performance over longer distances, safety, usability, and direct comparison with current double-balloon enteroscopy,” Dr. Ying said. “Ultimately, if the technology matures sufficiently, we hope to evaluate its robotic capabilities in clinically relevant settings and determine how it could complement existing endoscopic procedures.”
This research was funded by grants from the MIT Karl van Tassel (1925) Career Development Professorship, the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, the UT Southwestern Medical Center Startup Fund, the Government of Canada Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship, the MIT Samsung Semiconductor Fellowship, the MIT Surpina and Panos Eurnekian Nanotechnology Fund, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship, and the MIT Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.
