A Step Toward Creating Medical Nanobots

Ronald Bailey | October 31, 2008

Canadian researchers have created self propelled "nanobots" by coupling live, swimming bacteria to nano-sized beads. As Technology Review explains: 

A team led by École Polytechnique de Montréal computer engineering professor Sylvain Martel ... is the first to show that such hybrids can be steered through the body using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

To do this, Martel used bacteria that naturally contain magnetic particles. In nature, these particles help the bacteria navigate toward deeper water, away from oxygen. "Those nanoparticles form a chain a bit like a magnetic compass needle," says Martel. But by changing the surrounding magnetic field using an extended set-up coupled to an MRI machine, Martel and his colleagues were able to make the bacteria propel themselves in any direction they wanted.

The bacteria swim using tiny corkscrewlike tails, or flagella, and these particular bacteria are faster and stronger than most, says Martel. What's more, they are just two microns in diameter--small enough to fit through the smallest blood vessels in the human body. The team treated the polymer beads roughly 150 nanometers in size with antibodies so that the bacteria would attach to them. Ultimately, the researchers plan to modify the beads so that they also carry cancer-killing drugs.

This far from the goal of self-directed nanobots with on-board computing as outlined by nano-medicine visionaries like Robert Freitas, but it's a start. (See above illustration.) 

Comments

|10.31.08 @ 11:36AM|#

Any chance I can replace all of blood with this? Have it deliver oxygen and clean out apoptosis at the same time?
Oh, but if I get an erection lasting more than four hours...

anon|10.31.08 @ 11:51AM|#

will these nanobots help me with my mortgage?

|10.31.08 @ 11:56AM|#

Bring it on! I need my my arterial walls scraped and resurfaced. And if you could do something about the various growths, that would be great.

Urkobold™|10.31.08 @ 12:00PM|#

THIS IS ALL WELL AND GOOD, BUT WHEN CAN THE URKOBOLD HAVE RAQUEL WELCH INJECTED INTO HIS BLOODSTREAM?

|10.31.08 @ 12:02PM|#

A Deepness in the Sky: MRI directed, tailored mind control virus.

|10.31.08 @ 12:04PM|#

Urkobold: I'm afraid you'll have to settle for the animated Fantastic Voyage crew

http://www.toontracker.com/fantvoyage/fantvoyage.htm

Which means you'll hear constantly Ted Knight's dramatic narration in your head.

|10.31.08 @ 12:06PM|#

Jeff P: Perhaps you need a sapphire vasculoid? Probably would fix erectile dysfunction too.

Urkobold™|10.31.08 @ 12:09PM|#

PLEASE. RAQUEL WELCH AND HER BOUNTIFUL BOUNTIFULNESS IS NOT A FIT TOPIC FOR HUMOR.

|10.31.08 @ 12:18PM|#

Very, very cool and promising. Danke Ron Bailey.

D.A. Ridgely|10.31.08 @ 1:23PM|#

Somehow I see all of this playing out badly. Nanobots mutate and begin to grow into trillions of mechanical cockroaches taking over the world until... wait for it... the Ex-Terminator!

Yeah, I know. Needs work.

Gilbert Martin|10.31.08 @ 2:54PM|#

Nanobots will become a Constitutional right.

It's not "fair" for some to be able to get their bodies fixed by nanobots and not others.

|10.31.08 @ 5:16PM|#

Nanobots will become a Constitutional right.

It's not "fair" for some to be able to get their bodies fixed by nanobots and not others.

It could go either way, Gilbert. Either a national entitlement program, or a national prohibition.

Gilbert Martin|10.31.08 @ 5:35PM|#

Well his royal highness and Constitutional scholar Barak the 1st has already instructed us that healthcare is a "right" (even though that is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution), so I guess nanobots go along as a package deal with that.

Kaiser|10.31.08 @ 5:56PM|#

Gotta love science. Good to see some advancements in this field.

yingge|11.1.08 @ 4:18AM|#

www.powerleveling2000.com is the professional website for
href="Wow'>http://www.powerleveling2000.com">Wow power leveling. wow power leveling, wow power leveling guide We have been in
wow power leveling service for over 3 years and made so many customers be our friends.
Professional wow powerleveling, fast, cheap and secure service. We power level your character
according to your special requirements with no extra charges or hidden fees. Help you get your
favor is our goal. And we are so happy that customers trust us because we upgrade your toons by
experience levelers only.mmo wow gold powerleveling Enjoy World of Warcraft, Enjoy our service of World of Warcraft power leveling.
Easy
If you want to be the most powerful in game, you should have the enough
href="WOW'>http://www.powerleveling2000.com/WowGold.aspx">WOW Gold then you can
buy the best weapons, equipment, etc. But Farming WOW Gold is very boring and waste a lot of time.
Now, you can Buy WOW Gold from us, just one minute, you will be rich in WOW. reply to this