TINY robots thinner than a human hair could help fight cancer tumours, a study has found.
Scientists have crafted special 3D-printed microbots able to directly take drugs to cancer cells.
They are only 30 microns — thousands of a millimetre — in diameter, and can easily turn from solid to liquid and back.
They can survive stomach acid and would pass out of the body in urine.
A trial in mice has already helped to shrink the size of bladder tumours.
A test on humans is now hoped for in the long term.
Researcher Wei Gao, of Caltech University in the US, said: “Rather than putting a drug into the body and letting it diffuse everywhere, now we can guide our microrobots directly to a tumour site and release the drug in a controlled and efficient way.
“We think this is a very promising platform for drug delivery and precision surgery.
“Looking to the future, we could evaluate using this robot as a platform to deliver different types of therapeutic payloads or agents for different conditions.
“In the long term, we hope to test this in humans.”
Tiny robots could help fight cancer tumours[/caption]
