Tiny robots made from human cells may offer a new way to repair damaged tissues and treat diseases.
According to the Daily Mail, this technology could also open up new horizons for patients to have their own personal robots for diagnosis and tissue repair.
Researchers at Tufts University in Massachusetts have built a microscopic robot using nerve cells that can repair damaged brain tissue.
American researchers say this discovery could lead to the use of living robots to clear blocked blood vessels, repair spinal cord and retinal nerve damage, and deliver drugs to specific parts affected by cancer or infection.
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Previously, artificial robots were programmed to move inside the body and perform specific tasks from colonoscopy to disease diagnosis and treatment.
The new research findings indicate that these small robots can be made with human cells. Therefore, it is unlikely that the body would reject robots made from its own cells.
The reason for choosing nerve cells is that they have cilia that help facilitate the movement of cells. These cilia are small hair-like structures that trap dust in airways, which is then expelled through coughing or throat clearing.
Researchers allowed the nerve cells to grow and multiply in the laboratory for two weeks.
Then, they transferred them to another container where the cilia inclined outwards and acted like legs.
To the researchers’ amazement, within a few days, these robots made up of hundreds of cells inside the laboratory container began to move and their cilia acted like propellers.
Their movement patterns varied, with some cells moving in a straight path, some spinning in small circles, and some combining these two movements or simply vibrating in place.
The researchers then added them to a laboratory container with a layer of human nerve cells that had been scratched with a thin metal rod to simulate a wound or damaged tissue.
After three days, the researchers found that the damage had completely healed.
Tufts University researchers say that when these robots are injected into the body and perform their tasks, they will die after a few weeks and be absorbed by the body. In the future, additional capabilities can be added to these robots to perform various tasks.
Dr. Mo Keshavarz, a researcher at Imperial College London who is researching the use of microbots in the medical field, believes that this therapeutic option will be available in 10 to 15 years.
He says, “These findings currently prove this concept and are in the early stages. However, combining and transforming human cells into microbots can lead to more personalized medical treatments, as we will no longer have to deal with the problem of the patient’s immune system rejecting the treatment.”