CHANNELS

Aerospace

Automotive

Automated & Autonomous Vehicles

Battery & Electrification Technology

Defense

Drone TV

Electronics

Manufacturing & Prototyping

Materials

Medical

Motion Control

RF & Microwave Technology

Robotics & Automation

Sensors & IoT

Test & Measurement

Aerospace
Automotive
Automated & Autonomous Vehicles
Battery & Electrification Technology
Defense
Drone TV
Electronics
Manufacturing & Prototyping
Materials
Medical
Motion Control
RF & Microwave Technology
Robotics & Automation
Sensors & IoT
Test & Measurement
Aerospace & Defense
Search Results

Tiny, Spiral-Shaped Robots Swim Through the Eye to Deliver Drugs

Current treatments for eye diseases are delivered through direct injection or eyedrops, which can be imprecise. An international team of researchers has recently published research in Science Advances  about their development of a tiny, spiral-shaped robot that can pass through the vitreous humor (the jelly-like tissue filling the eyeball behind the lens). The researchers used nanoscale 3D printing to create the device and added a slippery coating and magnetic materials to propel the microbots through the eye using a magnetic field.

Topics:
Automation Manufacturing & Prototyping Materials Medical Motion Control Robotics

More From SAE Media Group

    Transcript

    00:00:00 It's tough to deliver medication quickly and precisely to different parts of the eye. Traditionally medicine for conditions like glaucoma or diabetic macular odema is injected into the eye or dropped onto the surface and left to diffuse slowly throughout. This delivery method isn't always accurate and means the entire eye receives the drug. The process can be slow irritating and painful for the patient.

    00:00:28 Researchers wanted to build tiny delivery vehicles they could drive to deliver cargo quickly to specific parts of the eye particularly through the dense jelly called the vitreous humour. So they use nano scale 3d printing to create small spiral-shaped delivery bots. The bots were nearly 200 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Their tiny size and a nonstick coating made it

    00:00:54 easier for them to pass the tight matrix of the vitreous humour. The spiral bots also contained magnetic material which meant the researchers could drive them forward backward left or right with a magnetic field. The scientists injected a solution containing around 10,000 of the spiral bots into eyes collected from pigs and put the eyes in a magnetic field. They used imaging techniques and dissection

    00:01:20 to see if the bots have been able to pass through the eyeball's jelly all the way to the back where the light the sensing retina lives. The bots were able to deliver their cargo to the right place in much less time than simple diffusion would allow. Next the researchers are planning to test the spiral bots in a living animal's eye. It will be years before any humans have tiny spiral robots delivering drugs to

    00:01:45 the back of their eyes. But the work is a step forward in building controllable vehicles to aim medicine at precise targets in sensitive areas of the body.