Patients with eye conditions such as glaucoma and macular edema could one day be treated by robots that measure only 300 micrometers in length. Named MagMites by their creator, professor Bradley Nelson of ETH-Zürich, these machines are meant to be injected into the eye with no need for anesthesia. Once inside the retina’s blood vessels, magnetic propulsion would move them around, allowing them to deliver medicine in a manner much more targeted and efficient than repeated drug injections. Current patients, however, will have to wait awhile before they can be healed with MagMites; so far they have only been tested in animal cadavers.
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