Tuesday, June 26, 2007

The dream of robotic science

As time passes, the size of the microchip becomes more and more miniature. Now, they are talking about creating robotic insects. Perhaps, a more exciting field will see the fusion of nanotechnology with robotic technology, where we create robotic micro-organisms. Imagine a robotic immune cell that is intelligent enough to sniff out cancer cells, virus-infected cells and other pathogen and then get rid of them. Alternatively, we can have a robotic friendly "micro-organism" that targets a tumour mass and gets rid of it. Pretty exciting for the field of medical robotics huh? Okay back to work. I have fantasized enough.

Monday, June 11, 2007

The metastatic stem cell/cancer cell - the inspiration for drug delivery?

Stem cells and metastatic cancer cell-lines have been known to be able to colonize other tissues. Perhaps, this property might be worth considering in drug delivery, especially for biologic agents. It is possible to use one of these cells, and diminish any potential tumorigenic properties at the same time, introduce the gene to produce the biologic agent. The cell will then be able to metastasize to the target organ to produce its therapeutic effect. Okay, this sounds a little crazy. Back to daydream time!