Diamond dust shines bright in Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Potential alternative to widely used contrast agent gadolinium

30-Apr-2024 - An unexpected discovery surprised a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart: nanometer-sized diamond particles, which were intended for a completely different purpose, shone brightly in a magnetic resonance imaging experiment – much brighter than the actual ...

Pangolin the inspiration for medical robot

It could one day reach even the narrowest and most sensitive regions in the body in a minimally invasive and gentle way

23-Jun-2023 - Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have developed a magnetically controlled soft medical robot with a unique, flexible structure inspired by the body of a pangolin. The robot is freely movable despite built-in hard metal components. Thus, depending on the ...

Bacteria-based biohybrid microrobots on a mission to one day battle cancer

Scientists add artificial components to bacteria for better control and an extra therapeutic effect in seeking and destroying tumor cells

21-Jul-2022 - A team of scientists in the Physical Intelligence Department at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems have combined robotics with biology by equipping E. coli bacteria with artificial components to construct biohybrid microrobots. Firstly, the team attached several nanoliposomes to ...

On the spot drug delivery with light-controlled organic microswimmers

Science Fiction novelists couldn’t have come up with a crazier plot

03-Feb-2022 - Microrobots streaming through blood or through other fluids in our body which are driven by light, can carry drugs to cancer cells and drop off the medication on the spot. What sounds like a far-fetched fantasy, is however the short summary of a research project published in the journal Science ...

Detecting the handedness of a single nanoparticle

New microscope-based spectrometer records both polarization states simultaneously and permitted the first observation of a dynamically moving single nanoparticle

11-Sep-2020 - Scientists from the Micro, Nano and Molecular Systems Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems have developed a new spectroscopic-microscope, which can be used to observe a single nanoparticle in real time. This enabled the first detection of a nanoparticle’s handedness while it is ...

Rolling into the deep

Microroller could to revolutionize the minimally invasive treatment of illnesses

25-May-2020 - A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) in Stuttgart invented a tiny microrobot that resembles a white blood cell travelling through the circulatory system. It has the shape, the size and the moving capabilities of leukocytes and could perhaps be well ...

Magnetic nanopropellers deliver genetic material to cells

Great potential for biomedical applications and minimally invasive surgeries of the future

13-May-2020 - An interdisciplinary team of scientists from Stuttgart, Heidelberg, and London developed miniature magnetic nanopropellers that can deliver genetic material to cells. They used a magnetic material that outperforms the strongest known micromagnets, yet is chemically stable, non-toxic and ...

A boost for biofuel cells

03-Sep-2018 - In chemistry, a reaction is spontaneous when it does not need the addition of an external energy input. How much energy is released in a reaction is dictated by the laws of thermodynamics. In the case of the spontaneous reactions that occur in the human body this is often not enough to power ...

Soft millirobots for minimally invasive surgery and drug delivery?

26-Jan-2018 - Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems invented a magnetically controlled soft robot only four millimeters in size, that can walk, crawl or roll through uneven terrain, carry cargo, climb onto the water surface, and even swim in it. The inspiration comes from soft-bodied ...