neutrobot tagged posts

Turning White Blood Cells into Medicinal Microrobots with Light

Two images of a neutrobot moving toward a nanoparticle
A laser precisely guided a “neutrobot” toward a nanoparticle (left image), which was picked up and transported away (right image).
Credit: Adapted from ACS Central Science 2022, DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.2c00468

Medicinal microrobots could help physicians better treat and prevent diseases. But most of these devices are made with synthetic materials that trigger immune responses in vivo. Now, for the first time, researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have used lasers to precisely control neutrophils — a type of white blood cell — as a natural, biocompatible microrobot in living fish. The “neutrobots” performed multiple tasks, showing they could someday deliver drugs to precise locations in the body.

Microrobots currently in development for medical applications would require in...

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