Creating a Microrobot to One Day Tackle Cancer

Interview conducted by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Jul 27 2022 Thought LeadersBirgül AkolpogluPhysical Intelligence DepartmentMax Planck Institute for Intelligence Systems

I heard about Prof. Sitti's research at the MPI-IS through my master's supervisor and attended one of his talks at my university. I was so impressed, and a new world opened up to me: medical micro-robotics. The fact that one-day humanity could benefit from these micro/nanoscale entities for non-invasive therapies has become a fascinating research topic for me.

At this point, biohybrid micro-robotic research offers many benefits in addition to genetic engineering strategies. By biohybridizing the bacteria with certain materials, new functions could be obtained, including better tumor localization, accumulation, localized chemotherapy, and immune compatibility.

The motility of these swimmers is essential in our applications, and we showed that they retained their original motility and could navigate through biological matrices and colonize tumor tissue with magnetic steering. Furthermore, we demonstrated on-demand cargo delivery by near-infrared stimulus, which melts the liposomes to release the drug-loaded inside that eventually is cytotoxic to cancer cells.Your biohybrid microrobot consisted of E. coli bacteria.

If this approach was implemented in clinics for cancer patients, what benefits would this have not only for healthcare providers but the patients themselves? Bacteria-mediated tumor therapy with genetic engineering tools is already becoming an established method for treating various diseases, so it is not far-fetched to imagine using biohybrid microrobots in clinics in the future.

Robotics has seen a huge increase in recent years, especially surrounding its adoption within healthcare settings. How could robotics help tackle some of the challenges faced by healthcare, and do you believe we will continue to see new uses for robotics in this sector in coming years? Robotics, in recent years, found its place in clinical settings not only on a small scale but also on larger scales.

Source: Healthcare Press (healthcarepress.net)

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