Design and development of biodegradable bacterial-based microrobot for anti-tumour therapy

Flagellated bacteria are a promising and powerful source for the development of reliable and efficient micro-robots. These bio-actuated devices have a wide variety of application in medical field including targeted drug delivery into the tumour. As of now drugs are delivered into the tumour through the blood vessels on the outside but it´s hard to infiltrate the tumour itself. Our goal is to develop bacterial driven micro-beads which would deliver the drugs inside the tumour and degrade it from inside out. For this purpose we have developed 10 μm size polyethylene glycol (PEG) beads using chemical cross linking and incorporated inside it nanoparticles carrying the anticancer drug. For the providing the propulsion force and tumour targeting capability to the microbeads we have attached the genetically engineered Salmonella Typhimurium bacteria onto the surface of beads. These bacterial driven microbeads were found to be highly mobile and have high tumour targeting capability.