Here’s How Swimming Nanobots Can Cure Deadly Diseases

Along with gadget technology that’s making every bit of our surrounding smarter, innovation in the field of medicine has also moved ahead by leaps and bounds. In March, Google disclosed its alliance with Johnson & Johnson to develop advanced robots to assist surgeons with the operation. Today, bringing the fictional medical science to reality, scientists have created tiny nanobots that will swim through your body to deliver drugs.

The nano swimmers are an invention of researchers at Israel Institute of Technology (Technion). This fine, thread-like structure is introduced into a human body to detect diseases and release a drug to cure it. The nanobots of the width of a silk fiber is said to treat any kind of disease, including cancer.

Here’s the video showing nanobots in action:

The research published in Nano Letters journal by American Chemistry Society reads –

Tiny robots could have many benefits for patients. For example, they could be programmed to specifically wipe out cancer cells, which would lower the risk of complications, reduce the need for invasive surgery and lead to faster recoveries.

As said, these nanorobots are extremely small and thin-like silk fiber, with metallic automaton made up of several links of polymer and magnetic nanowires. When landed inside the body, the nanobot can be propelled in a certain direction through external oscillating magnetic field. It may sound strange to imagine some metal whirling through blood fluids, but it will reduce the need of painful surgeries we currently practice; hence, eradicating complications that accompany operations and the recovery process.

The nanobots are in initial stages of development as of now. It will take a good 4-5 years to put them to work.