A team of scientists has built tiny nanorobots that can follow instructions and operate inside live cockroaches.
The group from the Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials at Israel's Bar-Ilan University built tiny robots using strings of DNA, Live Science reported.
The nanobots can respond to chemical cues and are programmable, making them potentially able to mend damaged tissues or target cancerous tumors.
With a technique called "DNA origami," the scientists folded the double helix shape of DNA to make a box of sorts with a "lid." The resulting nanorobot was named "E" for "effector," and its lid would open when activated by certain chemicals.
The team worked with the Blaberus discoidalis cockroach, a common food source for reptiles that are kept as pets. Within each robot "box," the scientists placed a chemical that would recognize the cockroach's hemoglyph cells, the insect's version of white blood cells.
The team then injected four kinds of robots into the cockroaches, using "E," "P1," "P2," and "N" boxes.
The three other robots acted as keys to open the E "boxes" when certain chemicals were present. Live Science detailed an example where E robots would open their "lids" only if two particular chemical cues were present.
"Adding the P1 robots to the mix lets the E's open up in response to X only, while adding the P2 robots lets the E robots open in response to Y only," Live Science reported.
"This is just like a logic gate in a computer--an AND (X and Y) or an OR gate (X or Y)."
Using different robots in combination allows for a wide variety of logical operations. The nanobots could eventually be used in clinical care, but it will be a while. Researchers will have to see how the tiny machines work in different spaces and in larger creatures before they can be implemented into medicine.
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