Scientists for the first time considered robots the size of a cell inside a living organism

Researchers from ETH Zurich and the Max Institute for Intelligent Systems

For the first time, Planck was able to detect in real time and clearly map tiny robots up to five microns in size in the blood vessels of mice's brains using a non-invasive imaging technique.

Scientists used optoacoustic technologytomography. This method is based on the photophonic effect. The tissue to be examined is irradiated with ultrashort laser pulses lasting a few nanoseconds. When radiation is absorbed, ultrasonic waves are formed, which can be detected using broadband ultrasonic transducers and used to build volumetric images.

Microrobots and their visualization in the vessels of the mouse brain. Source: ETH Zurich / Max-Planck-Institut für Intelligente Systeme

Scientists note that in order to obtain a clearimages require special robots. In their work, they used spherical silicon dioxide microrobots coated half in nickel and half in gold. Spherical robots ranging in size from 5 to 20 microns are filled with green nanobubbles (liposomes). The smallest of the devices are the size of red blood cells and can, according to the developers, penetrate the tiniest capillaries.

“Gold is a very good contrastsubstance for optoacoustic imaging. Without the gold layer, the signal generated by the microrobots is simply too weak to be detected,” explains Daniel Razansky, professor at the ETH Zurich and co-author of the study.

In addition, according to scientists, gold is alsominimizes the cytotoxic effect of the nickel coating, which is responsible for moving the robot. The researchers use nickel as a magnetic propulsion medium, along with a simple permanent magnet, to move the robots around inside the body.

The scientists note that the nanoliposomes inside the robot can be loaded with drugs, which will allowUse a robot for targeted drug delivery. 

Without visualization, microrobotics is actuallyblind. Therefore, high-resolution real-time images are needed to recognize and control cell-sized microrobots in a living organism.

Daniel Razansky, professor at ETH Zurich and co-author of the study

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