Remote-Controlled Bio Nanobots to Study You from the Inside
With invasive surgery sometimes being a literal pain in the rear, it’s no surprise that scientists are working tirelessly to minimize the need for such procedures. Scientists keep saying they’ll put tiny robots into our bodies to cure disease, perhaps not realizing we may not be down with that. But the field is progressing rapidly, and researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, have created a new generation of tiny remote-controlled nanorobots which could one day allow doctors to diagnose disease and deliver drugs from within the human body.
These tiny, remote-controlled, biodegradable, cancer-killing droids could one day empower doctors to diagnose disease and deliver drugs from within the human body.
The wee machines are made from spirulina algae—a dietary supplement sold in most health food stores.
The nanorobots can be remotely controlled within complex biological fluids with high precision using magnetic fields. The team also describes how the bots are able to release potent drug compounds that are able to attack cancer cells.
“Rather than fabricate a functional microrobot from scratch using intricate laboratory techniques and processes, we set out to directly engineer smart materials in nature, which are endowed with favorable functionalities for medical applications owing to their intrinsic chemical composition
” Li Zhang, an associate professor at the Chinese University, said.“For instance, because these biohybrid bots have a naturally fluorescent biological interior and magnetic iron-oxide exterior, we can track and actuate a swarm of those agents inside the body quite easily using fluorescence imaging and magnetic resonance imaging.”
“Our microrobots have the ability to sense changes in environments associated with the onset of illness and that makes them a promising probe for remote diagnostic sensing of diseases. We must now develop this technology further so we are able to fine tune this image–guided therapy and create a proof of concept for the engineering of multifunctional microrobotic and nanorobotic devices,” he said.
Not relying on a fuel source (most of which are toxic to humans) allows the nanobots to biodegrade naturally over hours or days (depending on the thickness of the iron coating). When cancer cells are exposed to the nanobots, only about 10% (of the cancer cells) manage to survive. It is harmless to other cells in the body, making it a viable solution for fighting cancer.
University of Manchester professor Kostas Kostarelos said creating robotic systems that can be controlled through the body was the “holy grail” of delivery system engineering. “We are still in early days of development since any such robotic system would need to be either completely and safely degraded, or it will need to be removed or excreted from the body after it has finished its work.”
“But nevertheless, our work provides the first ever example of how this could be possible achieved by degradation,” Kostarelos said. “The potential of these bots for controlled navigation in hard-to-reach cavities of the human body makes them promising miniaturized robotic tools to diagnose and treat diseased which is minimally invasive.“
