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Wiggling magnetic micro-robot goes after kidney stones
Recurring kidney stones can be an agonizing, debilitating problem, particularly if they can't be treated by orally-administered medication. There may be new hope on the horizon, however, in the form of a tiny magnetically-steerable stone-dissolving "robot."
Basically solid deposits of salt and other urine-related minerals, kidney stones aren't pleasant for anyone, as they can be very painful to pass through the urethra. Developed by Dr. Veronika Magdanz and colleagues at Canada's University of Waterloo, it presently takes the form of a 1 x 1 x 12-mm filament made of a hydrogel/elastomer blend that is loaded with an enzyme known as urease, and which contains a micro-magnet at one end. In tests performed in a 3D-printed model of a human urinary tract filled with synthetic urine, one of the filaments was found to increase the pH of the liquid from 6 – typical of a kidney stone environment – up to 7.
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