Scientists create autonomous robotic flowers that can cure cancer

Scientists have made robots for several purposes and more use cases are still being discovered everyday in different industries.

This time, they have created a microscopic flower made of robots, a paper published on 20 October shows. The flower is also said to be autonomous, with the ability to move and respond to their environments.

The scientists say that versions of the flower can also be used to administer drugs for the cure of cancer and other ailments.

Making flowers out of micro robots

The researchers at the University of North Carolina created what they call DNA flowers, which are tiny hybrid crystals that can change shape quickly.

By weaving DNA strands into cobalt sulphate, they built flowers with the ability to bend, shrink, and open when acidity changes.

The flowers exhibit the movement characteristics of living things, even though they are not alive. They managed to string together long chains of DNA in the presence of cobalt ions to form three-dimensional flower-like structures in a single reaction flask.

With the DNA acting like a built-in control system, the petals stay open when the environment is normal but when the environment turns more acidic, the DNA causes the petals to close.

The flower can open and close as many times as the environment changes without losing its structure. 

Application in disease cure

With the flowers being able to respond to the environment’s pH, the scientists see the application of the technology in medicine. 

Microscopic flowers when swallowed can deliver drugs to specific diseased areas in the body by responding to acidity caused by diseases such as cancer,

Dr. Ronit Freeman senior author and director of the Freeman Lab at UNC, in a statement said:

“People would love to have smart capsules that would automatically activate medication when it detects disease and stops when it is healed. In principle, this could be possible with our shapeshifting materials.”

Researchers can alter the sequence and layering of DNA blocks, thus programming different kinds of movements such as shrinking, bending, or both, just like a mechanical system to deliver medication.