Vital3D Technologies—a Lithuanian deep-tech company developing precision 3D microfabrication technology for medical devices, therapeutics and regenerative medicine—today announced a ‘know-how licence agreement’ with the Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, USA) to develop patient-specific, 3D-printed stents to treat bifurcation aneurysms in the brain. Cleveland Clinic neurosurgeons Mark Bain and Sean Nagel developed the licensed know-how, which includes clinical and procedural planning, and patient-specific device design for bifurcation brain aneurysms.
Through this agreement, Vital3D will apply its FemtoBrush laser-based 3D microfabrication platform to investigate whether a single, patient-specific, Y-shaped stent—designed from the outset around the geometry of an individual bifurcation—can be manufactured reproducibly and delivered through a neurovascular catheter.
“When the neck of a bifurcation aneurysm involves one or both daughter vessels, treatment becomes a balance between achieving durable aneurysm occlusion and preserving those branches,” said Bain. “Some anatomies require complex device strategies. The purpose of this programme is to determine whether a patient-specific device can be designed around the individual bifurcation from the outset and offer a technically viable approach for selected cases.”
Bain and Cleveland Clinic colleagues previously published comparative research on endovascular approaches for unruptured wide-neck bifurcation aneurysms. In April 2019, Bain was also the lead surgeon on one of the first reported brain aneurysm repairs guided by a life-sized, 3D-printed replica of the patient’s aneurysm. This new programme moves from using 3D technology to understand a patient’s anatomy to investigating whether that anatomy can also inform device design.
“The value of patient-specific design depends on whether imaging and clinical information can be translated into a device that can be manufactured consistently, and incorporated into a practical procedure,” Nagel added. “Design, manufacturing and procedural planning therefore need to be considered together from the beginning. Establishing that reproducible pathway is an essential part of translating a concept into a precision medical-device programme.”
As detailed in today’s press release, Bain and Nagel developed the licensed know-how and have a financial interest in the technology through their rights to receive royalty distributions from the Cleveland Clinic if products developed under the licence are successfully commercialised.
Vital3D’s proprietary FemtoBrush platform combines single-feature precision of approximately one micron with demonstrated build dimensions of up to 50mm in the same manufacturing process—a combination vascular devices require, because micron-scale structural features must be integrated across the geometry of a complete device. In 2025, the company and academic collaborators published a Scientific Reports study on two-photon-polymerised vascular stents <1mm in diameter with struts as thin as 50 microns, including mechanical testing and a seven-day, in-vivo feasibility study in the carotid arteries of rats.
“This is exactly the type of problem our technology was built to address: a complete medical-device geometry that still demands micron-scale structural control,” commented Vidmantas Šakalys, chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Vital3D. “Our earlier vascular-stent work gives us a scientific foundation in developing, manufacturing and evaluating very small vascular structures. The next milestone is to determine whether those elements can be translated into a reproducible bifurcation device and a feasible neurovascular delivery.”
Vital3D notes that initial work will focus on translating patient-specific bifurcation anatomy into device geometry, identifying suitable materials, establishing manufacturing repeatability, and assessing the feasibility of catheter-based neurovascular delivery.
The know-how agreement provides a framework for Vital3D to develop and potentially commercialise technology based on the licensed Cleveland Clinic know-how, subject to successful development and applicable regulatory requirements, the company also shares.
