Scientists have successfully created a tiny robot, or nanobot, that when implanted into a cockroach can carry out specific instructions.
The nanobots, which measure at one billionth of a meter, were developed with DNA to respond to chemical signals while inside the cockroach. The DNA allows the nanobot to act like a computer that can affect how other cells in the organism act, such as cancerous cells, the International Business Times reported.
Scientists at Harvard University and Israel's Bar Ilan University, who conducted the experiment, hope the technique could one day be used to stop the growth of cancer cells and tumors in humans.
"DNA nanobots could potentially carry out complex programs that could one day be used to diagnose or treat diseases with unprecedented sophistication," Daniel Levner, a bioengineer at Harvard University's Wyss Institute, said according to the IBT.
DNA, which is shaped like a double-helix, unravels when it comes into contact with certain proteins. The two unraveled stands become the same as the protein, a method that is similar to how cancer cells spread, the IBT reported.
The nanobots could be instructed to form a certain type of DNA sequence that would unravel if they came across cancer cells. The cancer cells would then mimic the nanobots and unravel too, thus discontinuing the cancer growth, the IBT reproted.
Scientists also injected the cockroaches with different types of nanobots, also known as origami robots, to see how each could deliver drugs inside the insect. The drug-delivering robots turned out to have the same power as an 8-bit computer.
"This is the first time that biological therapy has been able to match how a computer processor works," Ido Bachelet, from Bar Ilan University's Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, said according to the IBT.
A paper on the new technique was published earlier this month in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
