title: MRI-based Medical Nanorobotic Platform for the Control of Magnetic Nanoparticles and Flagellated Bacteria for Target Interventions in Human Capillaries.
abstract: Medical nanorobotics exploits nanometer-scale components and phenomena with robotics to provide new medical diagnostic and interventional tools. Here, the architecture and main specifications of a novel medical interventional platform based on nanorobotics and nanomedicine, and suited to target regions inaccessible to catheterization are described. The robotic platform uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for feeding back information to a controller responsible for the real-time control and navigation along pre-planned paths in the blood vessels of untethered magnetic carriers, nanorobots, and/or magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) loaded with sensory or therapeutic agents acting like a wireless robotic arm, manipulator, or other extensions necessary to perform specific remote tasks. Unlike known magnetic targeting methods, the present platform allows us to reach locations deep in the human body while enhancing targeting efficacy using real-time navigational or trajectory control. The paper describes several versions of the platform upgraded through additional software and hardware modules allowing enhanced targeting efficacy and operations in very difficult locations such as tumoral lesions only accessible through complex microvasculature networks.
authors.affiliation: NanoRobotics Laboratory, Department of Computer and Software Engineering, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique de Montréal (EPM), Campus of the Université de Montréal, P.O. Box 6079, Station Centre-ville, Montréal (Québec),Canada H3C 3A7.
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Martel
authors.forename: Ouajdi
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Felfoul
authors.forename: Jean-Baptiste
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Mathieu
authors.forename: Arnaud
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chanu
authors.forename: Samer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tamaz
authors.forename: Mahmood
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mohammadi
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mankiewicz
authors.forename: Nasr
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tabatabaei