Microbottles to study cancer cells

A team of researchers from the University of Toronto, Canada, has created a group of micromagnetic clamps capable of cultivating a small robot inside the human cell with extreme precision.

The robot takes the form of a tiny pill and can be used to study the properties of cancer cells, which could pave the way for many possibilities for diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

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Sue Sun and her team at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Engineering have been building micro-robots for nearly 20 years, which can perform various measurements of the cell, offering scientific benefits in areas such as artificial insemination, personal medicine, etc.

The team successfully designed a robotic system that analyzed the cellular structures beneath the lenses of the electron microscope, which required freezing, drying, and cutting into small pieces.

Other research teams use techniques such as laser and sound waves to study cells.

The technique involved the use of six magnetic poles placed at different locations around the microscope slide, researcher Xian Wang said.

The diameter of the robotic bean is 700 nm, 100 times less than the diameter of the human hair, which allows it to be implanted in the cancer cell.

Once the cell is cultured inside the cell, Wang uses an algorithm to control the electric current of the magnetic poles surrounding the microscope and forms the magnetic field in three-dimensional forms in order to move the grain in the desired direction in the cell.

"Imagine if it was possible to use a whole bunch of robotic pills to eliminate a cancerous tumor by blocking the blood vessels that feed it or destroying it directly by mechanical amputation," he said. he declares. This technique will allow the treatment of cancerous tumors resistant to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.