Grain-Sized Soft Robots for Targeted Drug Delivery

Image credit: Nanyang Technological University

A team of scientists from NTU’s School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) has developed grain-sized soft robots controlled by magnetic fields, offering a promising approach to targeted drug delivery and potentially enhancing future therapies. The new robot, marks a significant advancement in miniature robot technology by being able to carry and release up to four different drugs in programmable sequences and doses.

As reported by medicalxpress, this innovation improves upon earlier small-scale robots that were limited to carrying three drugs and lacked the ability to control their release order. The NTU team believes this new capability could greatly enhance therapeutic outcomes while minimizing side effects.

Led by Assistant Professor Lum Guo Zhan, the team built on their previous work developing magnetically controlled robots capable of complex movements such as “swimming” through tight spaces and gripping small objects. Inspired by the 1960s sci-fi film *Fantastic Voyage*, where a crew was shrunk to perform a medical mission inside a human body, Lum highlighted how their new robot is moving that fiction closer to reality. “Sending a tiny robot to deliver drugs directly where needed could make traditional methods like oral administration or injections seem inefficient,” he said.

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The robot is made from smart magnetic composite materials, which are both biocompatible and non-toxic. Unlike existing miniature robots, this new version is highly maneuverable, able to roll and crawl to overcome obstacles and navigate the body’s complex internal environment.

In laboratory tests simulating the human body, the robot successfully navigated different sections, delivering various drugs at speeds between 0.30 mm and 16.5 mm per second, demonstrating precise control over drug release. In more challenging tests with thicker liquids, the robot continued to deliver drugs effectively over eight hours with minimal leakage, showing promise for treatments that require precise, time-controlled drug delivery.

Co-authors of the study, including Research Fellow Yang Zilin and Ph.D. graduate Xu Changyu, believe the soft robot could play a pivotal role in treatments like cancer therapy, where multiple drugs need to be administered with high precision.

Offering an independent perspective, Dr. Yeo Leong Litt Leonard, a Senior Consultant and surgeon at National University Hospital, emphasized the potential of such robots to revolutionize minimally invasive procedures, envisioning a future where tiny robots could autonomously navigate the body to deliver drugs, providing safer and more effective treatments than current catheter-based methods.

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The NTU researchers are now focused on making the robots even smaller, aiming to deploy them in treatments for conditions such as brain tumors, bladder cancer, and colorectal cancer. Before that, further tests with organ-on-chip devices and animal models are planned.