Researchers Found a Way To Send Tiny Robots Into Mouse Brains (gizmodo.com) 22
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: In a mind-bending development, a team of researchers in China have managed to treat brain tumors in mice by delivering drugs to the tissues using microscopic robots. The robots jumped from the mice's bloodstreams into their brains by being coated in E. coli, which tricked the rodents' immune systems into attacking them, absorbing the robots and the cancer-fighting drugs in the process. The team's research was published today in the journal Science Robotics. It comes on the heels of previous research by members of the same team, which saw liquid-coated nanorobots remotely propelled through the jelly-like fluid of the eye. Besides being an obvious recipe for an episode of "The Magic School Bus," the research had obvious applications for ophthalmological research and medical treatments.
The crafts are magnetic, and the researchers use a rotating magnetic field to pull them around remotely. On microscales -- we're talking incremental movements about 1% the width of a hair -- the researchers were able to make the hybrid bio-bots wend paths like in the video game Snake. They're dubbed "neutrobots" because they infiltrate the brain in the casing of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell. It ultimately took Wu's team eight years to actualize the microscopic robot swarms capable of bridging the gap between the rodent bloodstream in the animal's tail, where the bots were injected, and its brain, where gliomas -- tumors that emerge from the brain's glial cells -- resided. Part of the issue is that the mice's white blood cells didn't dig the flavor of the magnetic robots. To overcome that issue, Wu's team coated the bots in bits of E. coli membrane, which the white blood cells easily recognize as a unwelcome invader. That made the robots much more palatable, and the white blood cells enveloped them. From inside those cells, the robots were then able to roll the cells toward the brain; a Trojan horse for the 21st century (in this case, one that benefits the residents of Troy). The neutrobots made it into the brains and were able to deliver the drug directly to the targeted tumors.
The crafts are magnetic, and the researchers use a rotating magnetic field to pull them around remotely. On microscales -- we're talking incremental movements about 1% the width of a hair -- the researchers were able to make the hybrid bio-bots wend paths like in the video game Snake. They're dubbed "neutrobots" because they infiltrate the brain in the casing of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell. It ultimately took Wu's team eight years to actualize the microscopic robot swarms capable of bridging the gap between the rodent bloodstream in the animal's tail, where the bots were injected, and its brain, where gliomas -- tumors that emerge from the brain's glial cells -- resided. Part of the issue is that the mice's white blood cells didn't dig the flavor of the magnetic robots. To overcome that issue, Wu's team coated the bots in bits of E. coli membrane, which the white blood cells easily recognize as a unwelcome invader. That made the robots much more palatable, and the white blood cells enveloped them. From inside those cells, the robots were then able to roll the cells toward the brain; a Trojan horse for the 21st century (in this case, one that benefits the residents of Troy). The neutrobots made it into the brains and were able to deliver the drug directly to the targeted tumors.
Gee, Brain, What are we going to do tonight? (Score:3)
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"The robots jumped from the mice's bloodstreams into their brains by being coated in E. coli..."
We just discovered how political rhetoric makes its way into the human brain!
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coated in E. coli, which tricked the rodents' immune systems into attacking them, absorbing the robots
does that mean it would work if ingested and then pass the blood brain barrier (like covid in some recorded cases) so James Bond can put them in your vodka and control you with a ps4 controller ?
scary
Well duh (Score:2)
Duh. The Chinese often steal tech and are a few years behind. I'm guessing it'll be 2025 before their government starts (openly) injecting the 5G mind control neurobots into their citizens..
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Duh. The Chinese often steal tech and are a few years behind. I'm guessing it'll be 2025 before their government starts (openly) injecting the 5G mind control neurobots into their citizens..
And if Bill Gates funds this, I'm getting out the popcorn 'cause conspiracy theorists will lose their minds ...
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This is your brain on Chinese robots. Just say no.
I think you mean, "bù xíng" ... :-)
So THAT's what that tingling is! (Score:1)
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Good first steps. (Score:2)
I'm hesitant to call these anything but proof of concept machines but they do demonstrate that nano-machines are possible. That said, it's merely another crude instrument in world of biology, like a scalpel. This technology could be used to do excellent things in the future but it will never be able to measure up to something like a customized virus, targeting specific cell types (e.g. cancer) and modifying their DNA.
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Biology is nano-machines even though we don't think of it that way.
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Biology is chemical machines. They are a significantly different because the very basis of their operation is chemical reactions whereas in our machines chemical reactions are merely a means to move in some fashion. When interfacing with biology we specifically choose materials that will not reaction chemically.
EVERYTHING is hackable now, even brains (Score:1)
"I didn't do bad things, Jiiihna made me do it! They hacked my wonderful brain and put a bad 6G chip in, those disastrous losers! It made me hold my water glass funny and forget to throw away my used toilet paper, sticking to my shoe. They took that nasty chip out before I went to the doctor so nobody would find out. No trace of it now. Thus, I don't belong in jail, your Honor. I have the most honest and loving brain that's ever existed, so it's all Jiiihna's fault! #MBGA!"
Michael Crichton's 'Prey' (Score:2)
Just finished that book [wikipedia.org] and now this article .... is the universe sending me a message?
Note that the tech here falls quite short of the radio-controlled (but then autonomous!) nanobots in the book but it's still pretty cool ... and a bit frightening
Hidden Mission (Score:2)
The robots once get to your brain would search and erase any thoughts about Winnie the Pooh.
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Not me. I already had some homebrew code inject robots which installed robots.txt in my brain. I'm protected!