P·03 · Mechanical · Electrical
Autonomous Tissue-Targeting Insertion Device
A mouse-sized autonomous insertion device with two-piston, 3-DOF actuation, designed to confirm a hit from the blood flash instead of a force sensor.
At a glance
- 3 DOFwith two-piston actuation, packaged toward the size of a computer mouse
- 5×sample capacity on standard 96-well labware, from the loading mechanism
- 0new consumables or protocol changes needed for that capacity
- Where
- Brigham and Women's Hospital
- Role
- Lead mechanical engineer
- Timeline
- Mar 2026 to present
- Status
- Confidential
- CAD
- Mechanism design
- Multi-DOF actuation
- Compact packaging
- Medical-device design
- Sensor selection
- Lab automation (96-well plates)
- Design for manufacturing
This is active work at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The device design is confidential, so this page has no drawings or photos.
The problem
The device autonomously targets a small tissue cavity and inserts into it. Two things make it hard. It has to know the moment it reaches the target, and all of its motion has to fit in a very small package.
Approach
Confirming the hit
I compared two ways to detect that the tip has reached the target: a force sensor (a FlexiForce pad) and the blood flash, the blood that rises into the device once the tip is in place. I designed the device around the blood flash. In principle, confirmation is as fast as the flash rises, and the signal is far less noisy than the force sensor’s.
Fitting the motion into a small package
The device needs two-piston actuation and three degrees of freedom, and the goal is to fit all of it into something about the size of a computer mouse. Most of the mechanical design work is form factor: arranging the actuators and their travel so every degree of freedom fits that envelope.
Loading more samples on standard labware
On the same project I designed a loading mechanism that positions slotting discs across a full 96-well plate in one step. It fits five times the samples onto standard labware, with no new consumables and no change to the lab’s protocol.
Status
The insertion device and the loading mechanism are both designed.
Also at Brigham
I contributed to mesh microelectrode array (mesh MEA) work that supports sub-1 Hz electrophysiology recording for neural interfaces.
My contribution
I lead the mechanical design of the insertion device and designed the loading mechanism.