"These tiny robots use magnetism to move and explore tight spaces, potentially including disaster rubble or the human body. Credit: Jennifer M. McCann/Penn State" (ScitechDaily, "
This new robot is like straight from the Sci-Fi movie. Its purpose is to swim inside the body. And that robot can deliver medicine precisely into the wanted position. That kind of technology is a groundbreaking system. It can do many things that regular surgeons cannot do. The system can inject things like DNA bites that order tumors to die into the targeted cancer cells. The nanorobot can also give gene therapy.
It can transport the wanted genome into the right cell groups. Or the system can carry stem cells to the right points. That thing can make it possible to give a treatment for damaged tissues. That doesn't revert well. . Stem cell therapy can help to fix brain damage. But those stem cells must be put into the right points. And that new miniature submarine can make that dream true. This submarine has many applications where it can operate.
Another thing that this robot can do is to close blood vessels that transport blood into the tumor. This kind of system can also inject things like thin kevlar fibers into the cells that doctors want to destroy. That makes it possible to use the new types of medicals. The robot that can travel in the body and take even photographs of objects can search for things like tumors and blocks in blood vessels. Those nano-submarines can also transport tissues to fix damages into the blood vessels.
The robot that swims in the blood and searches for non-wanted things are tools that humans never had before. Those systems are the next-generation tools. Whose purpose is to deliver medicines to the right points. These kinds of tools are also very dangerous in the wrong hands. This type of nanotechnology is the so-called perfect assassination weapon. That means the military might want to use those submarines as roles that belonged to bullets.
"Scanning electron microscope image of Caltech’s printed bioresorbable acoustic hydrogel microrobots. Credit: Hong Han" (ScitechDaily, Revolutionary Microrobots Shrink Tumors in Groundbreaking Study)
"Researchers at Caltech have developed bioresorbable acoustic microrobots (BAM) capable of delivering therapeutic drugs precisely to targeted areas within the body." (ScitechDaily, Revolutionary Microrobots Shrink Tumors in Groundbreaking Study)
"These spherical hydrogel-based microrobots, equipped with magnetic nanoparticles for navigation and a drug release mechanism, have successfully shrunk bladder tumors in mice. The technology promises advancements in targeted drug delivery and precision surgery." (ScitechDaily, Revolutionary Microrobots Shrink Tumors in Groundbreaking Study)
"In the future, delivering therapeutic drugs precisely where they are needed in the body might be the job of miniature robots — not metal humanoids or bio-inspired machines, but tiny, bubble-like spheres." (ScitechDaily, Revolutionary Microrobots Shrink Tumors in Groundbreaking Study)
"These microrobots face several complex challenges. They must survive harsh bodily environments like stomach acid, be remotely controllable to reach specific targets, and release their medicine only upon arrival. Afterward, they need to dissolve harmlessly in the body." (ScitechDaily, Revolutionary Microrobots Shrink Tumors in Groundbreaking Study)
"The flow patterns generated by an acoustic hydrogel microrobot vibrating at its resonant frequency were analyzed using advanced methods, including tracking tiny particles in water and computer-based simulations. The position of the microrobot’s two openings are clearly visible here. Credit: Hong Han" (ScitechDaily, Revolutionary Microrobots Shrink Tumors in Groundbreaking Study)
"The Caltech-developed microrobots are spherical microstructures made of a hydrogel called poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate. Hydrogels are materials that start out in liquid or resin form and become solid when the network of polymers found within them becomes cross-linked, or hardens. This structure and composition enable hydrogels to retain large amounts of fluid, making many of them biocompatible. The additive manufacturing fabrication method also enables the outer sphere to carry the therapeutic cargo to a target site within the body." (ScitechDaily, Revolutionary Microrobots Shrink Tumors in Groundbreaking Study)
"An interdisciplinary team led by Caltech’s Wei Gao has created tiny bubble-like microrobots that can deliver therapeutics right where they are needed and then be absorbed by the body. Using the bots, the team successfully delivered therapeutics that decreased the size of bladder tumors in mice. A paper describing the work appears in the journal Science Robotics. Credit: Caltech" (ScitechDaily, Revolutionary Microrobots Shrink Tumors in Groundbreaking Study)
"Those robots offer Advanced Drug Delivery Mechanism, ADM. Rather than putting a drug into the body and letting it diffuse everywhere, now we can guide our microrobots directly to a tumor site and release the drug in a controlled and efficient way,” Gao says. (ScitechDaily, Revolutionary Microrobots Shrink Tumors in Groundbreaking Study)
The concept of micro- or nanorobots is not new. People have been developing versions of these over the past two decades. (ScitechDaily, Revolutionary Microrobots Shrink Tumors in Groundbreaking Study)
Bioresonating nanorobots are a new tool against cancer cells. Those robots are in the image above this text. The nanomachines can carry medicines or DNA into the targeted cells. The interesting detail is that those nanorobots look like the poison bullet that the KGB used in Georgi Markov's (1929-1978)assassination in London in 1978. Small holes in the bullet helped it carry ricin into the victim's body.
This assassination shows what is the difference between weapons and medical tools. The assassination tools must not be as precise. And highly accurate as the medical tools. And the other thing is that. In the wrong hands, nanorobots can be even more deadly than any ricin bullets.
And that thing is similar to those small robots. That bullet was launched by the air gun that looked like an umbrella. The idea in those nano- or mini-robots is similar. They can carry ricin or some other chemical precisely to the targeted cells.
Above. The poison pellet. That killed Markov.
Or they can transfer things like enzymes to the targeted cells. The bio-resonating gel system stores the medicines in the targeted cells. Then. The system presses medicines out from the robot. The robot can carry things like ricin molecules straight to the wanted cells.
Ricin is an extremely poisonous chemical because it blocks the cell's energy production. The ricin molecule is the thing that just fills the cell. That causes cell death. Then that thing causes gangrene. The thing is that the same thing that makes ricin the deadly and effective assassination weapon can make it the most powerful cytostatic in the world. The problem with cytostatic use of ricin is how to control it.
In medical use, the carrier system must not deliver ricin until it is inside the targeted cells. Free ricin in the blood can cause cell death and gangrene that destroys the entire body and kills the victim. The system that can deliver ricin in the cancer cells can be the tool that can have a fundamental effect on cancer therapy. But that thing requires more research. So that it can turn into a medical tool that can destroy tumors.
