Scientists create a small robot capable of piercing through eyelids

German, Chinese and Danish scientists have developed a nanotechnology robot that can first break through the eyebrows without damaging them, with the ability to be used as a minimum invasive tool for precise delivery of medicines.

The study, published on Science Advances on Friday, described a vehicle in the form of a helix, 200 times smaller than the diameter of human hair and even smaller than the width of the bacterium.

According to a study, with a slippery coating, the robot moves unobstructed through the dense tissue in the eye.

"We use a liquid found in a greenhouse butter that has a slippery surface in a peristyle to catch insects," said the first author of the Wu Zhiguang study at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Germany. .

"This is like a Teflon coating of a pan, this slippery coating is crucial for the efficient propulsion of our robots in the eye, as it reduces the adhesion between biological protein networks in the glass and the surface of our nano-robots." Wu said.

The researchers tested their nano-helicopters in a chopped pig's eye. They injected tens of thousands of their spiral robots the size of the bacteria in the glassy humor of the eyes.

Using the surrounding magnetic field that spins nano-helicopters, they fly to the retina.

"We want to be able to use our nano-helicopters as tools for minimally invasive treatment of all types of illnesses, where the problematic area is difficult to reach and is surrounded by dense tissue," said researcher Max Planck Qiu Tian, ​​one of the relevant authors of the study, Xinhua .

This work was contributed by the University of Stuttgart, the Institute of Medical Research Max Planck in Heidelberg, the Harbin Institute of Technology in China, the University of Aarhus in Denmark and the Eye Hospital of the University of Tubing.