3D Printed Microrobots Successfully Administer Targeted Drug Delivery

3D printing has been revolutionizing medicine for years: from 3D-printed custom drugs to bioprinted replicas of human tissue, the technology promises to change how treatments are administered, offering an unprecedented level of personalization. Now, researchers at Caltech have minuscule robots for targeted drug delivery, thanks to additive manufacturing technology.

These robots are not what you would typically picture when a robot comes to mind. Instead, they are small, bubble-like spheres that, once inside the body, can be directed to a desired site. To perform their job, the robots must overcome several challenges. Firstly, they have to survive in bodily fluids like blood, urine or stomach acid. Additionally, they must be controllable, and only once they reach their target can they release their medical cargo. Once they deliver their medicine, they must be absorbed by the body, without leaving any harmful substance behind.

Graduate students and lead authors Hong Han and Xiaotian Ma collaborate with Prof. Wei Gao on experiments involving ultrasound imaging-guided acoustic propulsion of the microrobots.(Photo Credit: Lance Hayashida/Caltech)

The Caltech researchers developed minuscule robots that met all those requirements and called them bioresorbable acoustic microrobots (BAM). What’s more? The BAMs successfully delivered medicine that reduced the size of bladder tumors in mice. Wei Gao, professor of medical engineering at Caltech, Heritage Medical Research Institute Investigator, and co-corresponding author of the new paper about the bots, explained BAMs’ advantage. “Rather than putting a drug into the body and letting it diffuse everywhere, now we can guide our microrobots directly to a tumor site and release the drug in a controlled and efficient way,” Gao said.