SEND A MICRO-DEVICE THROUGH THE BLOOD VESSELS
Science fiction isn’t just for the movies anymore, it has also made its way into our labs. The storyline: injecting, propelling, and guiding a micro-device through an artery, with the help of computer programmes. This nanorobot of the future moves at the speed of 10 centimetres per second. This breakthrough is the fruit of the labour of a team of researchers from the Polytechnique—led by Professor Sylvain Martel, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Micro/Nanosystem Development, Construction and Validation—in collaboration with researchers from the Université de Montréal Hospital Centre. This technological advance, made in 2007, offers a promising avenue, which would allow medicine to reach targets that have heretofore been inaccessible with catheters, for example. This breakthrough in the world of medical robotics is in keeping with the development of non-invasive surgeries that can benefit the entire population.
