Robot pill

A tiny robotic pill that will deliver therapies to hard-to-reach places inside the body is being developed by researchers.

A tiny robotic pill that will deliver therapies to hard-to-reach places inside the body is being developed by researchers.

The team, from Imperial College London, are creating a robotic pill that if swallowed by a patient, has the potential to deliver drugs to the small intestine. This is an area of the body that is currently difficult for doctors to get at and treat.

The robotic pill is fitted with a camera, remote controlled “anchor” and miniature repositionable syringe. It is designed to improve the way that intestinal cancers are treated by enabling localised drug delivery. The team say their on-board syringe could enable chemotherapy medicine to be targeted more precisely. This could potentially reduce the number of invasive procedures needed to remove tumours in patients.

The pill could also be used by doctors to inject adrenaline locally to help treat ulcers in the small intestine to reduce inflammation and pain.

Dr Tim Constandinou, from the Winston Wong Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology and the Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering at Imperial, says:

“The small intestine is a really difficult place for doctors to access using conventional surgical methods, which are often invasive and impact on patient recovery times. We are developing a robotic pill that has the potential to deliver treatments directly to tumours or ulcers in the small intestine. We are still a long way off from delivering this technology to the hospital bedside, but we hope it could one day improve outcomes for patients undergoing treatments.”

Currently, hospitals across the UK use robotic pill technology as a diagnostic tool. The team say their pill is an improvement because it can also deliver treatments as well as being a diagnostic tool.

The robotic pill will consist of a miniature video camera, positioned at the tip, which will relay in real-time video images. It will travel through the body via the contraction and relaxation of muscles in the intestine - a process called peristalsis.

The pill can be stopped remotely when it reaches a tumour or ulcer by lowering a miniature “anchor”, which is deployed from its casing. A tiny needle can then be positioned and injected near the tumour or ulcer to deliver drugs, which is stored inside the casing.

The team, which also includes PhD student Stephen Woods, predicts that they will have a working prototype ready within six months. It will then be tested over a 2-year period in animal models to gauge its effectiveness, which could lead to clinical trials.

See a computer animation of how the robotic pill can “lay” anchor to deliver treatments to the small intestine (below).