World First In Medical Robotics: Researchers Successfully Control Wireless Device Inside Artery

World First In Medical Robotics: Researchers Successfully Control Wireless Device Inside Artery
This article really interested me because it showed the issues surrounding nanotechnology and how far we have come in a relavtively short amount of time. We are now able to guide in vivo and via computer control a microdevice inside an artery at a speed of 10 cm per second.
This procedure was carried out under the control of Professor Sylvain Martel, holder of the Canada Research Chair in Micro/Nanosystem Development, Construction and Validation, and in collaboration with researchers at the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM).
They were successful in their project of injecting, propelling and controlling by means of software programs an initial prototype of an device that was not connected to a computer directly which also contained a ferromagnetic 1.5-millimetre-diameter sphere within the carotid artery of a living animal placed inside a clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system. Due to their positive results they are now trying to do the same thing with reduced sized blood vessels. This could mean great things for treating many different illnesses.
I find this interesting because of the device design projects that we are working on with our groups. This has proven to us that what we are trying to accomplish is worth it as we try to get nano sized particles in to the circulatory system or just into the body period. It is essential that we have a way to control the bots once they have reached the areas necessary to accomplish their goals. I believe this is just the beginning of what is to come with controlling the ability to control bots and hopefully control that and increasing speeds.

Jonathan Dougherty


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070319113137.htm