Drug delivery

One day microscopic robots could be crawling through your body, clearing out disease or delivering drugs. And now we’re one step closer to that future, as scientists from Cornell University have created tiny robots powered by pulses of laser light.

Derived from living organisms, biologic drugs show a lot of promise. They're often difficult to inject through the skin, though, which is where a new hypodermic needle is designed to come in.

New research carried out in Singapore demonstrates how magnets can be used to pinch and apply pressure to the skin, which opens up additional pathways for drugs such as insulin to enter the body in safer, more efficient ways.

Given how compounds like flavoring dissipate out of gum as it's being chewed, scientists are looking into the controlled oral delivery of drugs via medicated gum. A robot is being designed with that in mind, as a way of standardizing the chew test.

Researchers at Harvard have developed a new platform for producing vaccines. Red blood cells are loaded with antigens to generate a specific immune response, and in tests in mice the team showed that it was effective in slowing the growth of cancer.

In future, many diseases may be treated by tiny robots delivering drugs. Taking inspiration from white blood cells, researchers from the Max Planck Institute have unveiled a new micro-robot design that can move against the current of blood flow.

A breakthrough from an international team of researchers raises hopes of a new, targeted approach to regenerative medicine, demonstrating how violet light can be used to switch on a drug and promote growth in highly selective areas.

Some bacteria inject toxins into host cells using a syringe-like appendage. Past research has found we could hijack that as a new drug delivery system, and now Max Planck scientists have developed a way to control the mechanism using light.

Tiny robots could one day deliver drugs inside our bodies, but there are still a few hurdles. Now researchers have developed corkscrew microrobots that drill into cancer while they deliver drugs, preventing them being washed away by fluids.

While there are drugs that help reduce the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in joints, those medications can have unpleasant side effects in other parts of the body. An experimental new light-based system, however, is being designed to change that.

The brain’s own defense mechanism often prevents treatment of brain cancers. But a new experimental treatment has shown success in mice, with carbon nanoparticles able to sneak through the blood-brain barrier and deliver drugs directly to tumors.

In nature, pest insects and other parasites latch onto their hosts by inserting backward-facing barbs into their tissue. Scientists have now copied that strategy, in a system that could someday replace painful hypodermic needles.