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Nanorobots
How do you design and build a robot that you can’t even see? And what would you use it for? In May, Horizon explores the developing field of nanorobotics and its potential applications. We speak to Prof. Brad Nelson at ETH Zurich in Switzerland whose team found that the nanobots they were working on destroyed the drugs they were meant to be delivering, so are now repurposing them to purify water. We speak to researchers who are using the origami-like properties of DNA to make tools such as nanorobotic boxes with lids that open, and others that have created a molecular robotic arm that can pick up, reposition and release molecules. And because tasks like going into a blood vessel to dissolve a dangerous clot would be ideal for a nanorobot, we find out how scientists are devising ways to enable nanorobots to travel through the bloodstream.
Once injected or swallowed, most drugs rely upon the movement of body fluids to find their way around the body. Some types of disease can be difficult to treat effectively in this way. Image credit - jesse orrico / Unsplash
ICT, Health, Frontier research
Nanorobots could target cancers and clear blood clots

Tiny nano-sized robots and vehicles that can navigate through blood vessels to reach the site of a disease could be used to deliver drugs to tumours that are otherwise difficult to treat.

Building a molecular machine is a job for elite chemists but the basic tricks of the trade are easy enough to grasp. Image credit - Lenny Kuhne / Unsplash
ICT, Health, Frontier research
How chemists are building molecular assembly lines

Four huge robot arms surround the gleaming metal shell of what will soon be a top-of-the-range automobile. They jerk into life, attaching the bonnet, the wing mirrors, and other panels. It’s the kind of precision operation you can find at car factories around the world these days. But here’s a question worth considering: could we pull off a feat like this only about a billion times smaller?

DNA origami is a technique that allows scientists to create 3D bots made from DNA. Image credit - Daniele Adami, licensed under CC BY 2.0
ICT, Health
Foldable, organic and easily broken down: Why DNA is the material of choice for nanorobots

Only in cancer medicine do we aim to attack and kill legions of our own cells. But healthy bystander cells often get caught in deadly crossfire, which is why cancer treatments can cause severe side effects in patients.

Prof. Brad Nelson sees the real promise of nanorobots as tools for exploring cells. Image credit - Bradley Nelson
Interview, ICT, Health, Frontier research
Q&A: Nanobots could explore human cells – but their size is an engineering challenge

Scientists are developing virus-sized robots that could defuse blood clots, explore human cells or even scrub water of impurities.

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