Tiny robots powered by magnetic fields could help drug-delivery nanoparticles reach their targets

MIT engineers have designed tiny robots that can help drug-delivery nanoparticles push their way out of the bloodstream and into a tumor or another disease site. Like crafts in “Fantastic Voyage”—a 1960s science fiction film in which a submarine crew shrinks in size and roams a body to repair damaged cells—the robots swim through the bloodstream, creating a current that drags nanoparticles along with them.