Miracles and wonders: a healing "lamprey"

Swimming in your body?

Here is a glimpse into the future of medicine.

Tiny microelectromechanical machines running through our bodies are the pursuit of nano labs across the globe, but a team of researchers wants something more: a tiny biomimicking robot that functions like a living creature loaded with sensors derived from animal cells. Called “Cyberplasm,” this robot would mash up biomimicking robotic components with actual mammalian cells to create robot systems and sensors that respond to stimuli like chemicals and light the way living organisms do. “Eye” and “nose” sensors would be derived from animal cells, while an artificial electronic nervous system will record data from Cyberplasm’s surroundings and respond to external stimuli via artificial muscles that are powered by glucose.The whole Cyberplasm system would be modeled on the sea lamprey, an Atlantic-dwelling creature with a simple nervous system that should be relatively easy to mimic. Using the lamprey as a model, the researchers hope to produce a one-centimeter-long prototype capable of swimming around and sensing on its own.

Researchers have designed a new treatment approach that appears to halt the spread of cancer cells into normal brain tissue in animal models. The researchers treated animals possessing an invasive tumor with a vesicle carrying a molecule called imipramine blue, followed by conventional doxorubicin chemotherapy. The tumors ceased their invasion of healthy tissue and the animals survived longer than animals treated with chemotherapy alone.

A vaccine delivered in an injection or nasal spray to prevent heart attacks could be available within five years. Scientists have discovered that the drug stimulates the body's immune system to produce antibodies which prevent heart disease by stopping fat building up in the arteries. The vaccine can cut the build up of fat in arteries by up to 70 per cent.

Researchers have found a "universal" vaccine that could for the first time allow for the effective, wide-scale prevention of flu by limiting the influenza virus's ability to spread and mutate. Universal, or cross-protective, vaccines — so named for their effectiveness against several flu strains — are being developed in various labs worldwide and some are already in clinical trials. The new vaccines would make a bout with influenza less severe, making it more difficult for the virus to spread. At the same time, the vaccines would target relatively unchanging parts of the virus and hamper the virus's notorious ability to evolve and evade immunity.