In Lübeck, various scientists have collaborated on developing a magnetic micro-robot smaller than a grain of rice.
The Institute for Medical Technology at the University of Lübeck, the Fraunhofer Institute for Individualised and Cell-based Medical Technology IMTE, and the Clinics for Radiology and Nuclear Medicine and Neuroradiology at UKSH, Lübeck Campus, was successfully involved in the model project on a human cerebral artery with an aneurysm. The tiny robot is only about 3 mm long and 1.2 mm wide and can perform gentle interventions in the human body and channel drugs to the actual site of action in the human organism and release them there. The cooperation partners assume that in the future, drugs can also be moved to tumor regions using mini robots and unfold their effect there, which could minimize the chemotherapy rate. Furthermore, clogged blood vessels and also aneurysms are treatable. An aneurysm could be saved from bursting with a small wire mesh, which would have fatal consequences in blood vessels in the brain.
The robot is manufactured using 3D printing and then coated with a magnetic varnish made of magnetic nanoparticles to make rotations and forward movements in the human organism. The Institute for Medical Technology in Lübeck developed the innovation, which could soon be used in clinical applications after successful model testing. The tiny robot’s movements can also be tracked tomographically and in real-time with the help of so-called magnetic particle imaging because it is only the nanoparticles that make it possible for the micro-robot to move; this can be tracked without radiation only with magnetic fields from a tomograph.
According to various experts, the innovation, which is unique to date, combines diagnostics and therapy of a „theranostic method,“ in which both the control of the robot with simultaneous monitoring is possible and a treatment option with a single small surgical intervention.
Source: www.e-health-com.de