Axel Krieger

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Magnetic millirobots deliver drugs directly to a beating heart

Leading the millirobot research team; exploring cancer applications

Johns Hopkins University engineers built a pair of magnetic robots the size of a pencil tip that are designed to travel through the bloodstream and put antibiotics directly on infected heart tissue. The robots carry no batteries or motors; coils outside the body, working on the same principle as an MRI machine, steer them. If it works in patients, the team says the procedure could take under an hour.

Updated Oct 26

Notable Quotes

With just a little pinprick, you insert a micro robot and do a procedure without infection or blood loss.

from Magnetic millirobots deliver drugs directly to a beating heart · Updated Oct 26

Magnetic guidance is exciting because you don't have to power the robot itself. It doesn't carry batteries and motors.

from Magnetic millirobots deliver drugs directly to a beating heart · Updated Oct 26

There's a lot of areas beyond heart infections where this kind of targeted drug therapy and these kinds of steerable robots could play a major role. It's really the frontier of surgical robotics.

from Magnetic millirobots deliver drugs directly to a beating heart · Updated Oct 26