Magnendo

Magnendo is a medical technology company founded in 2024 by Yoonho Kim and Miki Rosenberg, developing a robotic platform for neurovascular procedures. The company is headquartered in Boston, USA, and spun out of research conducted at MIT. The founder and CEO, Yoonho Kim, is the primary inventor and was named an MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35 in 2022. The leadership team includes Miki Rosenberg as Chief Development Officer, who was formerly a VP at Medtronic Surgical Robotics, and Dr. Aman B. Patel as Chief Medical Officer, who serves as the Director of Endovascular Neurosurgery at Harvard/MGH.

The company's core technology, "Magnetic Steering & Navigation," utilizes a magnetically steerable, soft-robotic guidewire to navigate the brain's complex and tortuous vasculature. This system combines a guidewire with embedded magnetic particles at its tip with a robotic arm holding an actuating magnet. This allows clinicians, using a remote-control console with a joystick, to more precisely and safely guide the wire to treat conditions like ischemic stroke and brain aneurysms. The automation of the challenging navigation aspects allows the physician to focus on delivering therapeutics. The primary goal is to address the limitations of conventional guidewires, which can increase procedure times and the risk of complications such as vessel perforation.

Magnendo's business model focuses on providing this technology to hospitals and care centers. The system is designed to reduce procedure times, potentially saving over 10 minutes in typical cases and up to 30 minutes in more challenging ones, while also improving safety by minimizing collisions with vessel walls. A key benefit is standardizing performance across physicians with varying experience levels, effectively narrowing the skill gap between junior and senior surgeons. This could enable smaller hospitals and primary care centers to perform life-saving endovascular therapies in-house, expanding patient access beyond major tertiary care centers. In the long term, the company envisions its platform enabling remote telerobotic procedures.

As of June 2024, Magnendo has raised $2.25M in a seed funding round. The company has received investments from firms including BASS Ventures and Kakao Ventures. The technology is still under development and has not yet been cleared by the FDA for commercial sale in the United States.

Keywords: neurovascular robotics, endovascular therapy, stroke treatment, brain aneurysm, magnetic guidewire, telerobotics, medical robotics, neurointervention, robotic surgery, minimally invasive surgery, MedTech, magnetic navigation, robotic catheter, remote surgery, thrombectomy, coil embolization, vascular access, soft robotics, surgical automation, clinical neurology