Mucus-riding robot headed to intestines

While the thought of having anything, much less a robot, crawl around and inspect our intestinal tract is certainly not in the forefront of our minds, Dimitra Dodou from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands hopes her ideas will change the way colonoscopies are performed. Currently, uncomfortably large tubes or devices known as "wormbots" crawl through the delicate linings of your intestines, typically causing a great deal of discomfort in the process. Dodou's prototype contains a "polymer material" that clings to proteins found in the mucus lining of the gut, but can have its "sticky properties temporarily turned off" when sprayed with water. This two-faced material can be used in "snail-like" transporters that move by alternately gliding forward when it releases water, "sticking around" to control direction, and repeating again until the final destination is reached. By the close of 2006, Dodou hopes to have a camera-equipped version available for trial, which could be quite helpful in taking biopsies. Although we certainly don't intend on going under the knife anytime soon, it's quite comforting to know that Dodou's mucus-riding robot should makes things easier to stomach (ahem) if the occasion arises.

[Eddie @ Sep 23rd 2006 11:25PM]

Anything to stop them from sticking that thing up my ass!!! ANYTHING!!!!! =[

[Binome @ Sep 24th 2006 12:19AM]

Wow, Someone reads slashdot :P

[CooperFBI @ Sep 24th 2006 4:37AM]

Hope it works - I had a colonoscopy a month or so or go and by god it BLOODY HURT! Having it jammed up your ass was v uncomfortable, but not the worst part.

[strider_mt2k @ Sep 24th 2006 7:05AM]

Don't they have imaging for this kind of thing now?

I just turned 40 and don't like what's ahead.

-or behind! ;)

[John Stracke @ Sep 24th 2006 10:15AM]

I, for one, welcome our new robot dunnykindivers.

[tom @ Sep 24th 2006 12:50PM]

hehe, doodoo

[Thermus @ Sep 24th 2006 6:24PM]

Seriously...if this guy's name is pronounced "doo-doo", it's just perfect!

[solar @ Sep 25th 2006 12:58AM]

if you scroll up and down constantly on the range of the image (mucus-riding robot, that is) it seems that the polymers are actually moving from left to right and vice versa. Try it!!

cheers!!

[chevron @ Sep 25th 2006 9:02PM]

im sold on this! mucus bots! TO THE RECTUM! ehhhhh

[Lewis Salem @ Sep 26th 2006 11:11AM]

Awesome. I hope that this becomes reality. I have Crohn's disease and that damn colonoscopy scope is too big! And it's invasive. The scope is not very flexable and disrupts your colon. You have to be put out.