Emerging Technology On Nanorobotics [The future of non-invasive surgery]

As a way of introduction, I would like to explain the concept of non-invasive surgery before I move over to the aspect of Nanorobotics.

Non-invasive surgery (procedure) is a kind of surgical procedure that does not require any form of incision to be made on the body. That is; zero cut on the skin. Before now, one of the options to achieve this kind of procedure is by using an endoscopic device, which is normally inserted ino the body of the patient, through any of the orifices, and controlled remotely (maybe with a joystick).

But as technology is advancing, other options are arriving on the scene, and one of the most potent, viable, and future-oriented option is the use of Nanorobots (nanobots). Welcome to the era of nanobot in medicine.

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Just as the name suggests, nanobots are extremely small machines, which are usually measured in the nanometre range. To make you understand this range of size well; I would like to state that the average thickness of a cell membrane is approximately 7nanometre; just to give you an insight of how small nanobots can be.

Note: 1nanometre is equal to 1/1,000,000,000metre

We are aware of the waves of technological advancements in the field of robotics that have been occuring in this era. Permit me to say that there is now a paradigm shift from "robot as usual" to miniaturization of the robots.

This should not be confused with microbots, which are much bigger in size than the nanobots.

There was a proposition some decades ago that "one day, bots would be able to navigate through the human body and fight diseases". Well, I think this era has arrived (or rather approaching speedily; for the sake of being extremely conservative).

Activities of Nanobots

Remember we're focusing only on the medical applications of these bots. But there are other applications; like in the military, where they can be used as spy or as combat bots (or nanomites to eat up enemy warheads), and all that.

Back to the medical applications. Some medical conditions require some form of surgical intervention, and in some cases, the procedure could pose great risk to the patients; Like in the cancer of the brain. But what if I tell you that millions of these bots can perform these surgical operations seamlessly?

Some may look at it as futuristic fictional tale, but a trail for this has been blazed at the Max Plank Institute For Intelligent System, Germany. This research was led by professor Tian Qiu, and they have successfully engineered a bot, which when introduced into the blood stream of the patient, would swim up to the area of required applications and deliver its "payload".

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You may ask, "how would these bots be introduced into the body?". Well, according to professor Tian, millions of these bots would be encapsulated in a form of capsule, which would be swallowed by the patient. Once this capsule enters the body, the bots would be exteriorized from the capsule and swim towards the targeted area.

But another very effective method (in theory), is to inject these nanobots directly into the part where they are needed. So there won't be need to drive them through to the affected areas. At the Max Plank Institute, the prototype design was tested in pig's eye; and yes, the experiment wasn't a failure after all. 

Believe me, a time is coming when these bots would be incorporated in our daily medical practices. Humans would move about with millions of nanobots in their body (this is just like carrying your "doctor" around).

Future advantages of nanorobots

This could actually be what the medical world is waiting for. Surgical processes would be miniaturized, which would ultimately increase precision, effectiveness, and boost the success margin. Did I mention that this would definitely reduce the operative time of surgery? sure it will.

And the most fascinating part of this is; it is non-invasive. Taking the case of cancer for example. Before now, the major therapy used to treat this; apart from completely severing the affected part; was "chemotherapy" and "radiotherapy" (Though recently, oncolytic virus came on the scene to fight cancer). But nanobots are set to revolutionize the treatment of cancer.

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This is because, instead of going through "chemo" that would affect some other cells in the body, these bots would be made to deliver the medicine to the tumour directly; leaving all other cells relatively unharmed.

Another research has also been heralded at the Columbian University, where scientists have created swarms of nanobots that can deliver drugs to some targeted cells in the body.

Conclusion

The world of nano-medicine is advancing rapidly that in the nearest future, the regular drugs would ultimately be replaced by "nanodrugs”. All thanks to nano engineering.

But until then, let's keep an open mind as we herald this era together.

Before I forget this; remember, what we considered as "science-fiction" some years ago is now "science-fact".

Thanks for reading

References for further reading: Ref1, Ref2, Ref3, Ref4, Ref5

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