{"id":1712,"date":"2021-05-03T11:11:48","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T11:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/horizon.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=1712"},"modified":"2021-05-03T11:11:48","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T11:11:48","slug":"qa-nanobots-could-explore-human-cells-but-their-size-is-an-engineering-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/1712\/qa-nanobots-could-explore-human-cells-but-their-size-is-an-engineering-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: Nanobots could explore human cells \u2013 but their size is an engineering challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Scientists are developing virus-sized robots that could defuse blood clots, explore human cells or even scrub water of impurities.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But as these inventions get smaller, the laws of motion that govern these machines are not very intuitive, so researchers are drawing inspiration from nature, says Brad Nelson, professor of robotics at ETH Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland, who focuses on these tiny intelligent machines down to nanometres in size.<\/p>\n

\u2019We look at what kinds of microorganisms there are out there\u2026to get some insight into the way nature works and figure out whether we have some technology or engineering possibilities that we could use to solve these problems,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

What are these tiny robots like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are two kinds. Microrobots are usually smaller than a millimetre but as large as a micron \u2014\u00a0that\u2019s between a 1,000th of a metre to a millionth of a metre in size. Nanorobots are even more minute \u2014\u00a0smaller than a millionth of a metre, or about a 100th<\/sup>\u00a0the width of a hair. In other words, microrobots are roughly bacteria sized, while nanorobots are about the size of a virus.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re made of different chemicals, including carbon and metallic elements \u2014\u00a0and given these robots are in many cases being developed for use in the human body, they\u2019re typically composed of materials that are compatible with our innards. For example, we like to use iron molecules because iron tends to be biocompatible, and we can also use magnetic fields to make them move.<\/p>\n

The ones we\u2019re working on look like little metal cages made out of iron that are flanked by polymer branches that hang out. The devices look almost organic, like some kind of weird little microorganism \u2014 and with our magnetic fields they are equipped to \u2018walk.\u2019<\/p>\n

Other robots look like tiny blobs and some of them are even uninteresting looking, like a little speck, except there’s a lot of chemistry going on inside.<\/p>\n

What is the potential of nanorobots?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nanorobots are really more research topics right now, there’s not probably going to be any near-term medical applications of them due to the engineering and medical challenges associated with developing the technology at such a tiny scale.<\/p>\n

Some groups are working on emulating size and swimming capacity of the flagellated tails of certain bacteria like E. coli \u2014\u00a0the tails have a little rotary motor about 40-50 nanometres in diameter that spins at several 100 revolutions per minute. That’s a sort of a nanorobotic mechanism that nature has evolved.<\/p>\n

Even the Covid vaccines that use microRNA \u2014\u00a0the instructions that get taken into your cells to provoke the production of antibodies to fight infection \u2014\u00a0you could think of it as a type of nanorobotic mechanism. What our field is trying to do is make more complicated devices that can mimic some of these molecular mechanisms.<\/p>\n

But I think the biggest promise of nanorobots is in the understanding of how biological systems work. It’s more of a tool for exploring cells \u2014\u00a0understanding the mechanics of what’s going on inside of the cell. I wouldn’t say they’re going to be therapies in the near term \u2014\u00a0they’re going to be more like tools for doing research.<\/p>\n

Are there any other uses?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When we were tried to create a nano-machine to help us deliver drugs to treat, for example, a tumour \u2014\u00a0what we kind of accidentally discovered was that we were actually destroying the drug. This was exactly what we didn’t want to do, but it gave the team an idea that the approach could be used instead to destroy micropollutants in water, so we now are working on that.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re also working on building micro-catheters that can deliver microrobots near the location of disease \u2014 and then the microrobots can then deliver nanorobotic devices that will cause disruption that could, for instance, help break down plaque or defuse a blood clot.<\/p>\n

\u2018I think the biggest promise of nanorobots is in the understanding of how biological systems work.\u2019<\/p>\n

Professor Brad Nelson, ETH Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What are the biggest challenges in the field?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since these devices are incredibly small, the physics that govern their motion is very non-intuitive \u2014 so we try to find microorganisms that are navigating these limitations, for instance, by changing their shape during their lifecycle. Then it\u2019s about understanding the physics of that and figuring out whether I have the technology that would allow me to mimic that or be \u2018bio-inspired.\u2019<\/p>\n

Another big issue is what materials to use to make the devices. Some materials such as cobalt and some rare earth metals have properties that are desirable, but they are toxic to the human body.<\/p>\n

On the robotic side, it\u2019s about coordinating magnetic fields to get the device to go just where I want it, and to navigate through complicated blood vessels. A lot of what we do is surprisingly similar to the people working on self-driving cars. If I’m in my office in Zurich and I want to get across the river over to the other side \u2014\u00a0I’ve got to plan a path and have a roadmap of how to get there. We do the same thing when we’re inside an organ, we create roadmaps of all the blood vessels, and then try to navigate through the pathways.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s the need for funding. It takes a lot of investment to get these things right \u2014\u00a0government money only takes you so far, but you really need the kinds of investment that large companies can do to take you across the regulatory finish line.<\/p>\n

We also need to work closely with the medical doctors, because they’re the ones that will be using this technology to treat patients. Often, they’ll have unrealistic expectations of what maybe we can deliver \u2014 and we can also have unrealistic expectations of what they’re really doing; so, bringing together the medicine, the science and technology is a challenge.<\/p>\n

Overall, the longer I work in the field, the more excited I get, and the more I’m convinced that we’ll see these devices being used to improve human health within my lifetime, and certainly within my professional lifetime.<\/p>\n

Prof. Nelson has received funding from the EU\u2019s European Research Council for his <\/em>SOMBOT <\/em><\/a>project.<\/em><\/p>\n

Originally published on Horizon Magazine<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scientists are developing virus-sized robots that could defuse blood clots, explore human cells or even scrub water of impurities. But as these inventions get smaller, the laws of motion that govern these machines are not very intuitive, so researchers are drawing inspiration from nature, says Brad Nelson, professor of robotics at ETH Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland, who … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":1713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,112],"tags":[418,419],"class_list":["post-1712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-ict","tag-nanorobots","tag-robotics"],"yoast_head":"\nQ&A: Nanobots could explore human cells \u2013 but their size is an engineering challenge - Horizon Magazine Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/1712\/qa-nanobots-could-explore-human-cells-but-their-size-is-an-engineering-challenge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Q&A: Nanobots could explore human cells \u2013 but their size is an engineering challenge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scientists are developing virus-sized robots that could defuse blood clots, explore human cells or even scrub water of impurities. 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