Bio mimicry in medicine

The inclusion of robotics and mechanical devices in medicine has become a common place occurrence, but the idea of bio mimicry is only recently beginning to take hold.  Sure, there have been advances in prosthetics and other areas to mimic the human body, but what about using nature itself as a guide for creating new therapeutic treatments?  A project out of Newcastle, England that is jointly funded by the NSF and EPSRC has endeavored to do just that. 

The researchers’ goal is to develop a small robot that can travel in the body and collect information about the surrounding environment.  They call it the Cyberplasm.  This tiny micro robot is modeled after the sea lamprey, whose basic nervous system, ability to swim, and super sensitivity to the environment make it an ideal model for a device.  The device will be a mix of electronics and natural cells, with an electric nervous system and specialized sensors (such as eyes and a nose) and muscles derived from animal cells.  The device has much potential for medicine, including sensor readings and fighting foreign pathogens, but also for other technology areas.  It is still is creation but the researchers hope to have a working model in a few years and to make the device even smaller.

This article interested me mainly because of the unique approach of modeling a robot on something found in nature.  The fact that there exists a creature that is almost perfectly suited to these functions is astounding, and it is exciting that researchers are taking advantage of the prospects.  I am not sure how I feel about potentially having a device permanently swimming in my blood stream, but the idea is a novel one.

http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2012/Pages/livingmicrorobot.aspx