Scientists explain the efforts to develop the microgripper hand which can travel through the circulatory system.

‘Tiny star-shaped microgripper hand travels through the body to grab or fold a targeted tissue or biopsy cell’

“We fabricate the star-shaped grippers from biocompatible metals or polymers, and even bioresorbable [that can be absorbed by the body] silicon-based materials, using techniques similar to those that produce microchips,” Gracias said. “Our grippers require no batteries, wires, or tethers to operate; physiological stimuli such as body temperature causes their ‘fingers’ to close around tissue or even a single cell.”




Gracias and his colleagues have demonstrated the feasibility of their grippers by using them to capture single mouse fibroblast cells (which produce collagen) in culture, collect individual red cells from blood samples and biopsy cells from the colon and esophagus of a live pig.
Source-Eurekalert