A group of specialists at the College of Colorado at Boulder has planned another class of small, self-moving robots that can hurdle through fluid at unimaginable paces and may one day even convey physician-endorsed medications to hard-to-reach places inside the human body.
In a paper that was published a month ago in the journal Small, the researchers talk about their miniature medical professionals.
“Imagine if microrobots could play out specific undertakings in the body, like painless medical procedures,” said Jin Lee, lead creator of the review and a postdoctoral specialist in the Division of Synthetic and Organic Designing. “Rather than cutting into the patient, we can just acquaint the robots with the body through a pill or an infusion, and they would carry out the actual system.”
Although Lee and his colleagues are not there yet, the new research represents a significant advancement for tiny robots.
“Microscale robots have generated a lot of interest in scientific circles, but what makes them interesting to us is that we can design them to perform useful tasks in the body,”
C. Wyatt Shields, a co-author of the new study and assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering.
The microrobots in the group are extremely small. Each one is just 20 micrometers wide, which is about the same width as a human hair. Additionally, they can travel at speeds of approximately 9,000 times their own length per minute, or about 3 millimeters per second. That is ordinarily quicker than a cheetah in relative terms.
They have a ton of potential as well. The team used fleets of these machines in the new study to deliver doses of dexamethasone, a common steroid, to the bladders of lab mice. Microrobots may be a useful tool for treating bladder diseases and other illnesses in humans, according to the findings.
“What makes them interesting to us is that we can design them to perform useful tasks in the body,” said C. Wyatt Shields, a co-author of the new study and assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering. “Microscale robots have garnered a lot of excitement in scientific circles.”
Fantastic Voyage
If that sounds like something out of a science fiction book, it is. A group of adventurers travels into the body of a man who is in a coma through a reduced submarine in the classic film Fantastic Voyage.
“The film came out in 1966. “Robots on the micrometer and nanometer scales are the norm right now,” Lee stated.
Scannable electron microscope image of a microrobot. Credit: Shields Lab
He imagines that, like in the movie, microrobots could move through a person’s bloodstream and target specific areas to treat various ailments.
Using a method that is comparable to 3D printing, the team constructs its microrobots from substances known as biocompatible polymers. The machines have three tiny fins and have the appearance of small rockets. Additionally, they include the following: Like when you submerge an upside-down glass in water, each robot carries a tiny bubble of trapped air. The bubbles will begin to wildly vibrate when the machines are subjected to an acoustic field, such as that used in ultrasound, which will push water away and propel the robots forward.
Other CU Stone co-creators of the new review include Scratch Bottenus, assistant teacher of mechanical designing; assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering, Ankur Gupta; and, what’s more, designing alumni understudies Ritu Raj, Cooper Thome, Nicole Day, and Payton Martinez.
The researchers set their sights on a common human issue in order to put their microrobots through their paces: bladder infections.
Bringing alleviation
Interstitial cystitis, otherwise called an excruciating bladder condition, influences a large number of Americans and, as its name suggests, can cause serious pelvic torment. Treating the illness can be similarly awkward. A doctor injects a harsh solution of dexamethasone into the bladder through a catheter, often multiple times over several weeks, for patients.
Lee thinks that microrobots might be able to ease some of the pain.
The researchers constructed schools of microrobots that contained high concentrations of dexamethasone for use in laboratory experiments. They then, at that point, brought a large number of those bots into the bladders of lab mice. A real-life Fantastic Voyage was the outcome: before adhering to the bladder walls, the microrobots dispersed through the organs and would likely be difficult to expel.
Over the course of roughly two days, the machines slowly released their dexamethasone once they got there. Lee stated that patients’ outcomes could be improved by having a steady supply of medication for a longer period of time.
He added that the group has a ton of work to do before microrobots can go through genuine human bodies. The group’s first goal is to make the machines completely biodegradable so that they dissolve in the body eventually.
Lee stated, “If we can make these particles work in the bladder, then we can achieve a more sustained drug release, and perhaps patients would not have to come to the clinic as frequently.”
More information: Jin Gyun Lee et al, Bubble‐Based Microrobots with Rapid Circular Motions for Epithelial Pinning and Drug Delivery, Small (2023). DOI: 10.1002/smll.202300409
