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We talk about a new safe method for delivering drugs anywhere in your body.
Loy lousy is usually frightening, but robotics look at it differently. In nature, thousands of individual beings are able to move like a coherent group: the bees fly to the sources of pollen, sardines gather in joints, insects quickly change the direction and density of the swarm. Engineers try to use a similar principle for microrobots that are no wider than a human hair.
Such micro machines are needed where the usual tool is too large. In medicine, they can pass through the blood vessels, help remove blood clots, deliver chemotherapy drugs directly to the tumor, transfer drugs to the eye or intestines. In nature, similar systems offer to be used to purify water from plastic and heavy metals.
One microrobot can already be controlled by sound, magnetic field or light. The group is more difficult. Robots should get together in the desired shape, hold the contour, move on command, and then break up again. A team from the University of San Diego has proposed a system of live algae and nanoparticles. The blue light collects the cells together, red helps to dissipate the swarm.
The researchers chose the Ringardt chlamydomonade, a single-celled green algae made of fresh water and soil. Biologists have long been working with Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in laboratories: this organism is well studied and responds to light. The cell reaches about 10 micrometers in diameter, that is, close in size to the middle cell of the skin. Two flagella helps her move. They bend in the water and push the cell forward like tiny screws.
Live cells have already tried to use as transport for drugs and sensors. For example, bacteria attached to nanoparticles with drugs to deliver the load in a liquid environment, fight pathogens, capture microplastics or carry antibiotics. But bacteria are not suitable for all tasks: size and shape can interfere in narrow and sensitive areas. Algae give more control: they are small, actively floating, feeling light and can carry nanoparticles with drugs or chemical sensors.
Microrobots from algae have already been tested in medicine. In one experiment, they delivered antibiotics for bacterial pneumonia in mice. In another case, the researchers tested them to treat inflammatory bowel diseases. The nanoparticles made them absorb and neutralize inflammatory molecules in the intestine. After taking the tablet, the microrobots diverged through the area of treatment and mainly did not get to other organs.
The main difficulty remained in the management of the swarm. One cell can swim on its own, but for a medical task you need a whole group that keeps the shape, changes size and moves in the right direction. The new work just checked whether it is possible to force a live rooir to behave predictably.
In the first experience, the Petri cup with algae was illuminated with blue and red light. On top of the world put stencils with the right pattern. Blue light collected cells in a dense group along the circuit of the stencil, red dispersed a swarm. In a few minutes, the researchers received live figures similar to America and Afro-Eurasia.
Then the team began to change the shape and position of the swarm. Stencil in the form of a arrow helped to move the group by a few millimeters without destroying the overall contour. Other patterns collected algae into stars, letters and triangles. When scientists changed the brightness and duration of blue and red light, the round roam increased by about half or divided into four smaller groups. Based on the results of the experiments, the team wrote an algorithm that predicts how the cells will react to lighting.
After Petri's cups, the researchers moved on to the wound model. The nanoparticles were attached to the algae and applied microrobots on the dummy of the hand with a coating similar to the skin. The surface was treated with a thin layer of artificial wound fluid. The mixture included proteins and chemicals that usually appear after abrasion. Such a model does not replace the living tissue, but helps to check whether the roar will be able to get into the desired area on an uneven surface.
Then the artificial intelligence system was connected. The algorithm studied a picture of the damaged area and divided the tissue into healthy areas, inflamed areas and places with signs of a possible infection. After that, the researchers printed stencils with a laser in the form of the problem area. Under the blue light, the microrobots gathered on the medical ribbon exactly on the contour of the damage.
So the prototype of a smart bandage turned out. The tape was applied to the wound model, then a short flash of red light released more than 90% of the microrobots into the desired area in less than two minutes. The cells didn’t just come to the surface. They were distributed in the form of the site, which was allocated in advance the algorithm.
Tests on real wounds are still far away. Nanoparticles should be loaded with medications, and the behavior of the swarm is checked in living tissue. There will be infancy of immune reactions, fluid movement, different types of cells and a complex surface of damage. Light control also limits application: the beam should reach microrobots, so the method is still better suited for superficial wounds and medical dressings.
Experience has shown that a live roar can be assembled into the desired shape, transferred to the patch and quickly released in the selected area. The next step is to check microrobots from algae with a drug load and understand how they will behave in real damage.
Loy lousy is usually frightening, but robotics look at it differently. In nature, thousands of individual beings are able to move like a coherent group: the bees fly to the sources of pollen, sardines gather in joints, insects quickly change the direction and density of the swarm. Engineers try to use a similar principle for microrobots that are no wider than a human hair.
Such micro machines are needed where the usual tool is too large. In medicine, they can pass through the blood vessels, help remove blood clots, deliver chemotherapy drugs directly to the tumor, transfer drugs to the eye or intestines. In nature, similar systems offer to be used to purify water from plastic and heavy metals.
One microrobot can already be controlled by sound, magnetic field or light. The group is more difficult. Robots should get together in the desired shape, hold the contour, move on command, and then break up again. A team from the University of San Diego has proposed a system of live algae and nanoparticles. The blue light collects the cells together, red helps to dissipate the swarm.
The researchers chose the Ringardt chlamydomonade, a single-celled green algae made of fresh water and soil. Biologists have long been working with Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in laboratories: this organism is well studied and responds to light. The cell reaches about 10 micrometers in diameter, that is, close in size to the middle cell of the skin. Two flagella helps her move. They bend in the water and push the cell forward like tiny screws.
Live cells have already tried to use as transport for drugs and sensors. For example, bacteria attached to nanoparticles with drugs to deliver the load in a liquid environment, fight pathogens, capture microplastics or carry antibiotics. But bacteria are not suitable for all tasks: size and shape can interfere in narrow and sensitive areas. Algae give more control: they are small, actively floating, feeling light and can carry nanoparticles with drugs or chemical sensors.
Microrobots from algae have already been tested in medicine. In one experiment, they delivered antibiotics for bacterial pneumonia in mice. In another case, the researchers tested them to treat inflammatory bowel diseases. The nanoparticles made them absorb and neutralize inflammatory molecules in the intestine. After taking the tablet, the microrobots diverged through the area of treatment and mainly did not get to other organs.
The main difficulty remained in the management of the swarm. One cell can swim on its own, but for a medical task you need a whole group that keeps the shape, changes size and moves in the right direction. The new work just checked whether it is possible to force a live rooir to behave predictably.
In the first experience, the Petri cup with algae was illuminated with blue and red light. On top of the world put stencils with the right pattern. Blue light collected cells in a dense group along the circuit of the stencil, red dispersed a swarm. In a few minutes, the researchers received live figures similar to America and Afro-Eurasia.
Then the team began to change the shape and position of the swarm. Stencil in the form of a arrow helped to move the group by a few millimeters without destroying the overall contour. Other patterns collected algae into stars, letters and triangles. When scientists changed the brightness and duration of blue and red light, the round roam increased by about half or divided into four smaller groups. Based on the results of the experiments, the team wrote an algorithm that predicts how the cells will react to lighting.
After Petri's cups, the researchers moved on to the wound model. The nanoparticles were attached to the algae and applied microrobots on the dummy of the hand with a coating similar to the skin. The surface was treated with a thin layer of artificial wound fluid. The mixture included proteins and chemicals that usually appear after abrasion. Such a model does not replace the living tissue, but helps to check whether the roar will be able to get into the desired area on an uneven surface.
Then the artificial intelligence system was connected. The algorithm studied a picture of the damaged area and divided the tissue into healthy areas, inflamed areas and places with signs of a possible infection. After that, the researchers printed stencils with a laser in the form of the problem area. Under the blue light, the microrobots gathered on the medical ribbon exactly on the contour of the damage.
So the prototype of a smart bandage turned out. The tape was applied to the wound model, then a short flash of red light released more than 90% of the microrobots into the desired area in less than two minutes. The cells didn’t just come to the surface. They were distributed in the form of the site, which was allocated in advance the algorithm.
Tests on real wounds are still far away. Nanoparticles should be loaded with medications, and the behavior of the swarm is checked in living tissue. There will be infancy of immune reactions, fluid movement, different types of cells and a complex surface of damage. Light control also limits application: the beam should reach microrobots, so the method is still better suited for superficial wounds and medical dressings.
Experience has shown that a live roar can be assembled into the desired shape, transferred to the patch and quickly released in the selected area. The next step is to check microrobots from algae with a drug load and understand how they will behave in real damage.
