Researchers develop robotic tweezers that can grasp single cells

Usually when we talk about robot grip strength, it's in the context of being slowly crushed to death during a violent robot uprising, but it appears we now have to fear our bodies being stolen away cell-by-cell as well. That's the terrifying reality being brought to life at the University of Toronto, where researcher Yu Sun and his team have developed semi-autonomous microscopic robo-tweezers that can sense touch and grip strength acutely enough to pick up and move individual heart cells during tests without damaging them. The tiny rig is just .1 inches long, and the grippers on the ends are fine enough to pick up cell just 10 micrometers wide. So far they've just been arranging cells during testing, but Yu says eventually they can be used to assemble silicon parts on circuit boards, or even engineer tissue. No word on when these might hit production, but when they do Yu says he expects them to cost just $10 each. At least the revolution will be inexpensive, we guess.

[Brian @ Apr 17th 2008 2:12PM]

I, for one, would welcome my heart cells being picked up and moved around with such precision.

[kuade @ Apr 17th 2008 2:19PM]

add on a cholesterol shovel and you got something!

[kyoseki @ Apr 17th 2008 4:44PM]

I think I need a cholesterol snowblower

[blackfeather @ Apr 17th 2008 2:24PM]

Can it make me a Milla Jovovich clone?

[Earl Jr. @ Apr 17th 2008 6:05PM]

as long as there are a few cells left alive.

[payne @ Apr 17th 2008 2:24PM]

This is pretty big.

[schmitty338 @ Apr 17th 2008 2:25PM]

...yes, if by 'big' you mean 'small'....

[rock99rock @ Apr 17th 2008 2:37PM]

Im pretty sure thats what he meant. Funny guy.

[Ally @ Apr 17th 2008 2:41PM]

Well done on noticing that pun.

[andres @ Apr 17th 2008 6:32PM]

thats what she said

[zamir.evan @ Apr 18th 2008 11:39AM]

How is this any better than cell "printers" which have been around for several years now? There are easier ways to arrange cells - and keeping them in place once they are placed is the real challenge. Cells have a funny tendency to want to move.

[Armoured @ Apr 19th 2008 8:50AM]

no, it actually is big. look at the scale. that thing is around 6mm long! and in cellular terms that thing is HUGE!!!!!

[schmitty338 @ Apr 17th 2008 2:24PM]

hmmm...looks like a razor to me....let's see, 1cm razor, 5micrometer 'blades'...*calculating*....MACH 10000 anybody? But instead of cutting the hairs, it disassembles them cell by cell...

On an unrelated note: Whooo!! Go U of T (my Alma Mater)!

[Valgas @ Apr 17th 2008 2:33PM]

Jeeeeez the Caucasoids and the Mongoloids keep innovating. They just won't stop with those big brains and high IQ's.

[Lance @ Apr 17th 2008 2:45PM]

Hey, Look into optical tweezers. They move cells around with laser beams!

http://arryx.com/about.html

[dajimmers @ Apr 17th 2008 3:14PM]

I'm thinking more and more that this robot overthrow of humankind is going to involve these little guys rather than big hunky crushers. Who knows, maybe we all have tiny little laser and gripper-toting robots in our brains right now, waiting for the signal to flip the switch and turn us all to mindless drones...

[IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII (BarCODE) @ Apr 17th 2008 2:51PM]

Finally, something that will help me masturbate!

[webon @ Apr 17th 2008 3:06PM]

Ooooohkey

[Kizorblade @ Apr 17th 2008 3:20PM]

Didn't need to know that.

[itlnstln @ Apr 17th 2008 4:42PM]

@ BarCode

You know, I voted you up. That was funny. You other guys probably didn't find it funny; because, well, it may have hit too close to home.

[Dennis @ Apr 17th 2008 8:01PM]

hahahahaha
thats jokes!

[3rdsun @ Apr 17th 2008 3:06PM]

Frickin' lasers on our heads man

[Wwhat @ Apr 17th 2008 3:16PM]

'only $10'? 10 bucks per cell, and there's what? 3 billion in a heartmuscle?
Yu better have a job at google with full health.
Oh and how would you control these things anyway? use one and have it move around cells or create a single chip in a 'mere' 10 years, or have a million supertiny wires that hopefully don't get intertwined?
I guess it's usable to remove plutonium/asbestos from your lungs or creating cloned humans and that's about it for a while.

[SOOPERGOOMAN @ Apr 17th 2008 4:25PM]

$10 each, 3 million would be lot cheaper. You know the rule silly, "the more you get th better the price". thats a given. usually.

[thebigDallas @ Apr 17th 2008 5:22PM]

"creating cloned humans and that's about it for a while" lol that's 'it'

[Joe Maki @ Apr 17th 2008 3:22PM]

Ok, this is the invention of robot sperm. Be afraid, be very afraid.

[SOOPERGOOMAN @ Apr 17th 2008 4:24PM]

OMG this is cool news.This could pave the way for painless surgery. I would definitely love to have this working and done to me. I have a club foot, it is in bad shape. so much I barely walk now. This could one day potentially reconstruct surgeries or fix any previous mistakes made. This could revolutionize medicine as we know it. Cool indeed. Let the uprising of Borg's Probes begin.
First in Line, mm'kay.

[Andrew @ Apr 17th 2008 11:48PM]

Theres a Tron joke here somewhere.

[asasaki @ Apr 17th 2008 10:35PM]

In related news, doctors have also discovered the world's smallest splinter...

[bw @ Apr 17th 2008 10:38PM]

wow

[Ted @ Apr 18th 2008 12:22AM]

can you imagine trying to remove a splinter form your finger, one cell at a time?

[HolyMary @ Apr 18th 2008 3:42AM]

Here is something similar. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1ebzezSV6s (Nanoassembly)

[homerrlb @ Apr 18th 2008 2:52PM]

Destroy the human race one cell at a time...



All your cell are belong to us!

[DiscoCat5 @ Apr 19th 2008 12:56AM]

wonder whether this could be used to remove blackheads.. lol eww