Scientists Control Nanomotors Inside Living Human Cells
Posted on February 10, 2014
Chemists and engineers at Penn State University have placed nanomotors inside living human cells and steered them magnetically. This is the first time nanomotors have been controlled inside living cells. These nanomotors are rocket-shaped metal particles. The scientists can propel them with ultrasonic waves and steer them magnetically. An optical microscope image of a HeLa cell containing several gold-ruthenium nanomotors is pictured above.
Tom Mallouk, Evan Pugh Professor of Materials Chemistry and Physics at Penn State, said in a statement, "As these nanomotors move around and bump into structures inside the cells, the live cells show internal mechanical responses that no one has seen before. This research is a vivid demonstration that it may be possible to use synthetic nanomotors to study cell biology in new ways. We might be able to use nanomotors to treat cancer and other diseases by mechanically manipulating cells from the inside. Nanomotors could perform intracellular surgery and deliver drugs noninvasively to living tissues."
Mallouk says that at lower power the nanomotors have little effect on the cells, but when the power is increased, the nanomotors start moving around and bumping into organelles. He says the nanomotors can like egg beaters to essentially homogenize the cell's contents, or they can act as battering rams and puncture cell membrane. Here is a demonstration of very active gold nanorods internalized inside HeLa cells in an acoustic field. The video was taken under 1000x magnification. Take a look:
The research was published in the journal, Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Other co-authors in addition to Mallouk include co-authors include Penn State researchers Wei Wang, Sixing Li, Suzanne Ahmed, and Tony Jun Huang, as well as Lamar Mair of Weinberg Medical Physics in Maryland U.S.A.