Can DNA Nanobots Treat Cancer?

The first human trial for treating cancer with DNA nanobots is on schedule. What can be imagined as science fiction is already happening.

With reports already published in Science and Nature & Technology, this treatment could revolutionize everything we know about drugs, everything we know about medicine, and afterwards, robots that will be able to determine the signature of a specific cell in order to destroy it.

Next Generation Surgery with DNA Nanobots

In the near future, you will be able to go to the physician to receive a small injection. The DNA nanobots in the injection will screen your entire body and clean your entire system. At the present, the nanobots can identify 12 types of tumors and even identify single cells that became abnormal.

They will be even able to eliminate them and even help fix injured spinal cords. How do they do that? The spinal cord is actually a bundle of tens of thousands of nerves. The nerves are so small that even two halves of the fiber cannot find each other. These DNA nanobots can actually sense this, and create a bridge…to guide the cells to grow together in the right direction to promote healing. This procedure is already working in tissue cultures, not animals yet, but scientists project animal testing within a year.

 

While the nanobots are made of organic, biocompatible material, one might imagine the body pegging them as foreign invaders and launching an immune response. But reports say that scientists are confident that the bots can be tuned to avoid this. The body otherwise clears them from the system after a little while. The larger vision of more precise drug delivery reopens the possibility of using already discovered drugs deemed too toxic. The vision stretches beyond cancer to DNA nanobots performing surgery on the cellular level.

The broader field of DNA nanotechnology, however, has existed since the early eighties. This DNA nanorobot study is from the Wyss Institute.