Title:Targeted Drug Delivery and Imaging Using Mobile Milli/Microrobots: A Promising Future Towards Theranostic Pharmaceutical Design
Volume: 22
Issue: 11
Author(s): Ajay Vikram Singh and Metin Sitti
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Microrobots, theranostic, drug delivery, minimally invasive surgery, micromanipulation.
Abstract: Miniature untethered medical robots have been receiving growing attention due to technological advances
in microactuation, microsensors, and microfabrication and have significant potential to reduce the invasiveness
and improve the accessibility of medical devices into unprecedented small spaces inside the human body. In
this review, we discuss therapeutic and diagnostic applications of untethered medical microrobots. Wirelessly controlled
milli/microrobots with integrated sensors are revolutionizing micromanipulation based medical interventions
and are enabling doctors to perform minimally invasive procedures not possible before. 3D fabrication technologies
enabling milli/microrobot fabrication at the single cell scale are empowering high-resolution visual imaging
and in vivo manipulation capabilities. Swallowable millirobots and injectabale ocular microrobots allow the
gastric ulcer imaging, and performance of vitreoretinal microsurgery at previously inaccessible ocular sites. Many
invasive excision and incision based diagnostic biopsy, prostrate, and nephrolgical procedures can be performed
minimally or almost noninvasively due to recent advancements in microrobotic technology. Advances in biohybrid microrobot systems
are pushing microrobotic systems even smaller, using biological cells as on-board microactuators and microsensors using the chemical
energy. Such microrobotic systems could be used for local targeted delivery of imaging contrast agents, drugs, genes, and mRNA, minimally
invasive surgery, and cell micromanipulation in the near future.
