How nanotechnology can improve cancer and infertility treatment

May 9, 2024

Professor Yu Sun of the Robotics Institute at the University of Toronto Advanced robotics labs at Canada's top universities are helping the medical community tackle some of the most complex problems from the smallest scale. Photo courtesy of Sylvie Lee/Photography Studio.

This article was originally published on theguardian.com as part of the University of Toronto and Guardian Institute's 'What's Possible?' Ask the Toronto campaign.

Advances in treatment and early detection have significantly improved cancer survival rates in recent decades. However, some cancers remain devastatingly deadly. The average life expectancy of patients with glioblastoma (GBM), the most common and aggressive brain tumor, is only 12 to 18 months after diagnosis. Only 4% survive for more than 1 year, and only 5% survive for more than 5 years.

At the University of Toronto, Professor Seung Yoo and his team at the Institute of Robotics are harnessing the potential of nanorobotics to develop extremely small robots, a field of technology that could lead to innovative new treatment options. , in other words, we are building a nanoscalpel to search for cancer cells. When activated by a magnetic field, it rotates and breaks.

Chemotherapy is initially an effective treatment for cancer, but patients eventually develop resistance to it, and that happens rapidly in glioblastoma, said Sun, founding director of the Robotics Institute. says. We want to provide recourse for patients with treatment-resistant cancers. Can we give them hope for curing their illnesses? he says.

For Sun, this research had a personal resonance. He lost his mother to cancer and saw firsthand the effects of her resistance to treatment. It made me more aware that patients really need technology that can serve as a last resort, he says.

In collaboration with Dr. Xi Huangs' lab at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), the University of Toronto team filled the carbon-tubular molecules of magnetic carbon nanotubes with iron oxide particles and developed antibodies that recognize overexpressed proteins. We have developed a mechanical nanosurgery method that involves coating with It is caused by GBM tumor cells. Thanks to the antibodies, the tube seeks out cancer cells when it is injected into the tumor. The tube is then rotated by a precisely applied external rotating magnetic field.

The tubes act on the cell structure, creating a mechanical torque that mechanically disrupts it and causes cell death, says Dr. Xian Wang. He completed his PhD under Mr. Son, and his subsequent postdoctoral research was co-supervised by Mr. Hwang and Mr. Son at the Hospital for Sick Children. . Wang's development of magnetic nanotweezers was the basis for nanoscalpels.

Dr. Xian Wang uses magnetic coils to control the position of microscopic carbon nanotubes filled with iron oxide. Nanotubes are small enough to enter human cells and can be positioned with unprecedented precision. Photo by Tyler Irving.

In a study on mice with chemoresistant GBM, mechanical nanosurgery reduced tumor size and prolonged survival of the animals. Given that resistance to treatment arises because cancer cells mutate to adapt to treatment, Wang, now an assistant professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., suggests that cancer cells physically kill the cells. They say facts are very important.

Dr. Xian Wang uses magnetic coils to control the position of microscopic carbon nanotubes filled with iron oxide. Nanotubes are small enough to enter human cells and can be positioned with unprecedented precision. Photo by Tyler Irving.

Nanosurgical technology is physical and does not give cells the opportunity to mutate, which is why we attach great importance to it, said the doctor, who played an important role in the development of mechanical nanosurgery. Mr. Huang says.

During his more than 20-year career in micro- and nanorobotics, Sun has earned a reputation for pioneering work that impacts society. As a graduate student, he wanted to give a robotic system that manipulates single cells the sense of touch. Unable to find anything that would do the job properly, he created his own solution. It is a micro-force sensor that was later commercially produced and used by NASA to optimize the response of the James Webb Space Telescope's microshutter, among others.

He also collaborated with Hitachi High-Tech Canada to develop the world's first closed-loop controlled nanorobot system. This system serves as the hands, along with the electron microscope as the eyes, for manipulating and characterizing nanoscale materials and biological samples.

In healthcare, Sun's groundbreaking work focuses on the beginning of life. At the University of Toronto in 2012, he and his team developed another world-first system. This time it's automated human fertilization.

Professor Sun is hopeful that innovations developed at the University of Toronto will have real-world impact. Photo courtesy of Weifang/Getty Images.

The company's robotic intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) system uses carefully developed AI algorithms and robotic micromanipulation techniques to non-invasively select sperm with the least amount of DNA damage and transfer it into human egg cells. Insert. This minimizes damage compared to manual methods using mechanical vibration devices. Sun said it uses a woodpecker-like mechanism to slowly open the egg cell membrane using mechanical pulses. Its purpose is to ensure that children born through IVF are healthy.

Professor Sun is hopeful that innovations developed at the University of Toronto will have real-world impact. Photo courtesy of Weifang/Getty Images.

An enhanced version of this system is currently in patient trials. Meanwhile, Sun hopes his team's mechanical nanosurgery will be ready for clinical trials within his five years.

The pressure of working in this field, he says, is not because of publishing papers, but because there are diseases to treat.

During his time in the workforce, he hopes to see his innovations used with transformative effect in the real world. He says he would like to see the treatment techniques we are working on used in hospitals to benefit many patients. Because the purpose of research is to make the world a better place.

Visit utronto.ca/news to discover an extraordinary community that pushes the boundaries of what's possible.

Written by Rachel Williams

University of Toronto campaign

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