The application and development of micro-robots in the medical field continues to keep pace with the times. In “Nature-Communications” (Nature Communications) in the latest paper in the journal,MIT(MIT) team has demonstrated for the first time a tiny antenna that can operate wirelessly inside living cells. Since cells are the foundation of biological systems, the team believes that the acquisition of information at the cellular level will provide new insights into basic biology and disease treatment.
Tiny antenna that can operate wirelessly inside living cells
The size of general bioelectronic interfaces is usually between a few millimeters and a few centimeters. Considering that even a single cell change can affect the entire organism, the application in the human body is not only highly invasive, but also does not provide the necessary wireless interaction with a single cell. resolution.
In contrast, the new micro-antenna Cell Rover developed by the MIT team is much smaller than cells, with a size of only sub-mm (sub-mm). In the team’s research on oocyte cells, Cell Rover It occupies less than 0.05% of the cell volume, far below the size that would affect or damage cells.
The Cell Rover’s speciality doesn’t stop there. By using magnetostrictive (magnetostrictive) materials, the Cell Rover can be acoustically driven by an AC magnetic field, operating in resonance at low MHz frequencies, without causing detrimental thermal effects to living organisms. The research team even developed a protocol that uses a non-uniform magnetic field to guide the Cell Rover into cells.
Instead of destroying cells to examine the cytoplasm like in the past, Cell Rover can monitor cell development or division inside the cell, detect different chemicals and biomolecules or physical changes, wirelessly operate within living cells and compatible with 3D biological systems. capabilities, giving the Cell Rover the potential to monitor and even guide cellular activity in real time.
Cell Rover monitors changes without destroying cells
From the research point of view, even within a single cell, it is feasible to use multiple Cell Rovers to communicate with each other or with extracellular communication. The researchers believe that with such capabilities, Cell Rovers might be valuable in cancer and neurodegenerative disease research. Scientists can monitor biochemical and electrical changes in single cells to observe disease progression associated with them, or to discover new drugs through the response of living cells to different drugs.
Materials like polymers, which undergo mass or stress changes as chemical or biomolecular changes, believe scientists can use polymer materials already used in medical and other research to integrate with Cell Rover applications to obtain New insights not available from current observational techniques involving the destruction of cells.
MIT Dean Anantha P. Chandrakasan said, Cell Rover is an innovative concept because it can embed intelligent sensing, communication technology into living cells, bringing unprecedented opportunities for extremely accurate diagnosis, treatment and new drug development, as well as biological Cross-border cooperation with IT technology creates new directions.
References:
- Nature Communications, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32862-4
- https://news.mit.edu/2022/cell-rover-exploring-augmenting-inner-world-cell-0922
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