Nanorobots the size of cells that swim through the blood, eliminating bacteria and toxins

to engineers of the team of Berta Esteban-Fernández de Ávila, from the Department of Nanoengineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering, under the University of California at San Diego, United States. They have developed tiny ultrasound-driven nanobots that can swim through the blood, eliminate pernicious bacteria along with the toxins they produce. This new class of nanorobots, suitably refined and optimized, could offer a safer and more efficient way to decontaminate biological fluids.

The researchers constructed the nanorbots by coating gold nanowires with a hybrid of platelet membranes and red blood cells. This hybrid cell membrane coating allows nanorobots to perform the tasks of two different cell types at the same time, platelets, which bind to pathogens like bacteria to help neutralize them, and red blood cells, which absorb and neutralize toxins produced by these bacteria. The gold body part of the nanorobots reacts to the ultrasound in such a way that it offers them the ability to move quickly, without using chemical fuel. This mobility helps them to come into contact with bacteria and toxins in the blood and accelerate detoxification.

What the team of Berta Esteban-Fernández de Ávila and their colleagues intend to achieve is to create multifunctional nanorrobots that can be carried out in the future.