The era of swimming biobots that could revolutionize medicine… American scientists who succeeded in producing a swimming biobot opened the door to treatment methods that could revolutionize medicine. Biobots can be used for efficient drug delivery to the body and for surgical interventions that will cause minimal damage to tissues.
American scientists succeeded in creating a swimming biobot. Biobots are a combination of biological and mechanical structures. Built after the walkable biobots in 2012, floating biobots have many potential medical uses, from efficient drug delivery to tissues, to cancer treatment, and surgery that will cause the least possible damage to tissues.
Professor at the University of Illinois, USA. The biobots, developed by the science team led by Taher Saif, have been published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.
The floating biobots, made of extremely small, flexible polymer, consist of two parts, the "head" and the "tail". Cells obtained from heart cell cultures added to the junctions of the head and tail parts allow the tail to float forward by moving the tail from side to side.
The heart cells in the head and tail appendages of biobots, which are modeled on single-celled creatures with long whip-like tails called flagella, which are also found in sperm, move in a self-adjusting and synchronized manner, just like the beating of the heart. As a result of this movement, the wave coming from the head of the structure goes to the tail, and thus, it is possible for the biobot to move forward by wagging its tail, just like a sperm.
CAN SENSE CHEMICALS AND LIGHT
The head of the biobot is 454 micrometers long, 57 micrometers wide and 27 micrometers long. The thinner tail of the biobot, which is 1,5 millimeters long, is 7 micrometers wide and 27 micrometers long. A micrometer is a unit of measurement equal to one thousandth of a millimeter.
The researchers, who produced the single-tailed biobot as well as the two-tailed one, state that the two tails allow the biobot to swim faster. With more tails to be added, it is possible to make the biobots move right, left and backward as well as forward movement.
The researchers note that it is aimed to produce biobots in the future so that they can detect chemicals and light and aim at a certain target in applications developed for medical or other environments.
Source : ntvmsnbc
📩 21/01/2014 23:57
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