Gripper microbots help perform live biopsy

Developed by engineers and physicians at Johns Hopkins University, the untethered grippers - dubbed mu-grippers - could provide a more effective way to access narrow conduits in the body.

Although each mu-gripper can grab a much smaller tissue sample than larger biopsy tools, the researchers - including David Gracias and Florin M. Selaru - said in a statement that each gripper can retrieve enough cells for effective microscopic inspection and genetic analysis. Armed with this information, they said, the patient’s physician could be better prepared to diagnose and treat the patient.

This approach would be possible through the latest application of the Gracias lab’s self-assembling tiny surgical tools, which can be activated by heat or chemicals, without relying on electrical wires, tubes, batteries or tethers.

The low-cost devices are fabricated through photolithography and their fingerlike projections are made of materials that would normally curl inward, but the team added a polymer resin to give the joints rigidity and to keep the digits from closing.