Microgripper

Johns Hopkins University engineering professor David Gracias demonstrated his “microgripper” at the American Chemical Society meeting last month.  It is a surgical instrument-500 micrometers in diameter, and made of a polymer coated copper and chromium film-that can move within a body and activate tiny “fingers” in response to chemical triggers.  In effect, it is a micro-minimally invasive tool for taking biopsies.  Gracias has used this approach to take a tissue sample from a cow’s bladder, suggesting that retrieval comes via a waste flow.  He believes the device might further be reduced in size to around 10 micrometers.           MORE

Image  Credit:  Timothy Leong/JHU and Technology Review