Keyhole neurosurgery unlocked

Manios Dimitrakakis obtained a combined BA and MEng in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Patras, with his Master's thesis subject being the development of a novel robotic manipulator for thoracic surgery. He then went on to do a PhD in University College London Computer Science on the development of handheld robotic devices for minimally invasive neurosurgery. To translate the technology he developed during his PhD into the operating theatre, he co-founded Panda Surgical, a UCL spinout, alongside his PhD supervisors UCL CS Prof. Danail Stoyanov and UCLH neurosurgeon Mr. Hani Marcus. Since May 2023, he has been leading the effort at Panda Surgical as the company's CEO.

Mr Hani Marcus is a consultant neurosurgeon at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and Honorary Associate Professor at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. He specialises in treating patients with pituitary adenoma, and related skull base tumours. He has authored international guidelines on pituitary surgery and in 2020 he cofounded the British Neuroendoscopy Society. Mr Marcus was awarded a PhD from Imperial College London and has a research interest in augmented reality, robotics, and artificial intelligence. His work has attracted over £2.5 million in research funding, resulted in over 200 peer-reviewed publications, including the IDEAL framework on surgical robots and the first book dedicated to neurosurgical robotics. He is frequently featured in the national and international press and his work has prompted a visit by the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Dan Stoyanov is a Professor of Robot Vision in UCL Computer Science, Director of the Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences (WEISS), and Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies. His background and research interests are in the fields of surgical robotics and AI where he has co-authored over 500 papers and is co-inventor on over 70 patent applications. He is elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (FIEEE); Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (FIET); Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng); and Fellow of the MICCAI Society (FMICCAI). Dan is also Chief Scientist at Medtronic Surgical R&D, and co-founder of Odin Vision Ltd (an Olympus Corporation Company), both companies specialising in developing AI products for interventional healthcare.

George Dwyer is a robotics engineer at Panda Surgical, where he primarily works on embedded system design and development. He holds a BEng in Medical Engineering from Swansea University, an MRes in Medical Robotics from Imperial College London, and an MRes in Medical Imaging from University College London. Furthermore, he has a PhD in Surgical Robotics from UCL, where he developed robotic endoscopes for fetal surgery. After his PhD, George has worked on a multitude of robotics projects, including a micro-tissue dissection system, a robotic milling system and implant fabrication as part of his UCL EPSRC doctoral prize fellowship.

Dimitris Psychogyios is a passionate software engineer at Panda Surgical. Armed with a bachelor's degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a master's in Control Systems, Dimitris is currently in the final year of a Ph.D. program focused on Artificial Intelligence vision algorithms for robotic surgery. Early in his academic journey, Dimitris developed camera equipped mobile robots able to navigate their environment. Throughout his PhD, he focused on surgical vision algorithms for depth perception, surgical tool segmentation, generating multiple surgical vision datasets, and adapting neural rendering techniques in surgery. Bringing a wealth of technical knowledge and innovation to our team, Dimitris plays a pivotal role in advancing the software backbone of our revolutionary robotic devices, contributing to the forefront of technology in the field.

Keshav Iyengar is a skilled R&D Engineer at Panda Surgical, bringing a wealth of engineering experience in academia and industry. For his Ph.D. in Robotics and AI, Keshav investigated deep reinforcement learning for concentric tube robots in medical interventions focusing on the simulation to reality gap with publications in ICRA, RA-L, TMRB, and IJCARS. Prior, Keshav completed his MSc. in Robotics and Computation at UCL and his undergrad BASc. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Waterloo where his final year design project was a retrofittable beer pouring system. During his undergrad, he was also the Team Lead for the Unversity Robotics Team. He has also had industry experience as an engineer at Avidbots Corp., Amphenol Canada Corp, and Mackie Moving Systems.

Iliana is a skilled bioengineer with a combined Bachelor and Master of Engineering in Molecular Bioengineering from Imperial College London. She has a strong background in medical device development, having successfully designed and implemented innovative solutions in diagnostic devices. Iliana ensures compliance with FDA, Health and Safety Legislation, and ISO13485 standards, demonstrating her commitment to regulatory excellence. At Panda Surgical, she leverages her expertise as a Quality Engineer to drive advancements in the medical field, focusing on the highest standards of quality and safety in surgical products through cutting-edge technology and rigorous quality control processes. Iliana is dedicated to improving patient outcomes by continually enhancing product performance and reliability.

George is an Embedded Software Engineer at Panda Surgical, contributing almost 2 decades of programming experience, and expertise in robotics, computer vision, and AI. He has a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from King's College London and has published in top-tier conferences and journals, including ICRA and Soft Robotics, collaborated extensively with IBM, and been granted an international patent for his research. He was the founding software engineer for the robotic colonoscope, MorphGI, developing the robot from proof of concept to pre-clinical trials. George was also the project manager and lead engineer for the surgical endoscopy robot, microDART, and collaborated with Ericsson and China Mobile to operate it teleoperatively over 5G. He has demonstrated this robot at numerous high-profile events in India, China, Spain, and England, including to the late Queen. microDART has been featured in the Financial Times, BBC, and more.

Jeffery Alvarez is a Board Director and the Chief Strategy Officer at Moon Surgical, where he works cross-functionally to define its corporate strategy and helps craft its vision of the future. Defining, building, and delivering value in healthcare has been his passion and specialty over the past 20 years. He led product management at Auris Health, where he defined their early endoluminal robotics platform, Hansen Medical and their robotic vascular system, and dozens of other medical devices. Jeffery holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. He believes the future of healthcare is in efficiency, where effective therapy can be delivered in less time, with less training, and fewer resources. And he is passionate about working to make that future happen at Moon Surgical.

Sampson Lau is a Board Member and President at PrimaNova Technologies Limited, a platform developing and commercializing a pipeline of next generation neurosurgical medical devices. Backed by a global team of neurosurgeons and engineers, and with offerings across neuro monitoring, CSF management, and surgical tools, the mission is to significantly enhance patient care in the underserved neurosurgical segment, relentlessly improving patients’ survival and disability. Sampson has prior experience in life sciences venture capital and strategic investment, private equity, and mergers and acquisitions transactions, across the US and APAC markets. He holds a BA in Economics from the University of Chicago.

David Noonan earned a B.Eng in Mechatronics Engineering from Dublin City University, an M.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from King's College London, and a Ph.D. from Imperial College London. He worked on Image Guided Robotics and Fiber Optic RealShape (FORS) technology as a Research Scientist at Philips Research North America before joining Auris Health in 2015. At Auris Health (acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2019), Noonan was the Senior Director of Systems, Algorithms and Robotics where he helped lead the development of the Monarch Platform, the first robotic system for peripheral nodule bronchoscopy. In 2020, he joined Moon Surgical as Chief Technology Officer to lead the development of the Maestro System.