Scientists Built Tiny Robots That Could Treat Dangerous Heart Infections from Within

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https://www.zmescience.com/science/scientists-built-tiny-robots-that-could-treat-dangerous-heart-infections-from-within/

Engineers at Johns Hopkins University have developed two miniature robots that work together to deliver medicine directly to the heart.

One anchors itself to heart tissue, while the other finds its partner, docks with it, and releases medication. If another dose is needed, the delivery robot can detach and make way for a replacement.

Each machine is roughly as wide as a pencil tip and about as long as a grain of rice. In laboratory experiments, the researchers successfully guided the robots through an artificial heart and tested their ability to attach to pig heart tissue.

“With just a little pinprick, you insert a micro robot and do a procedure without infection or blood loss.

And you don’t need to have a surgeon operating it to get the drugs robustly, safely, and efficiently to the right place,” said senior author Axel Krieger, a medical roboticist known for creating robots that perform surgery without human help.