Living Machines: Algae-Based Biohybrid Microrobots for Precision Oncology

In the equation for humanity's continued survival, one variable has consistently galvanized the mortality rate and remains constant: cancer. Cancer has remained one of the leading causes of death worldwide, claiming an average of 600,000 lives per year since 2019, with conventional treatments-most prominently chemotherapy-being the industry standard for decades with very little innovation. These treatments, although somewhat effective, produce severe, body-wide toxic effects and poor delivery accuracy, leading to a substantial decrease in patient quality of life and effectiveness. This study investigates the potential of an upcoming field of treatments for cancer. Specifically, the potential of algae-based biohybrid microbots and their promise as a revolutionary method for cancer treatment. These miniscule robots (approximately the size of a human hair) unite both biological and synthetic components to navigate through adverse tumor microenvironments while carrying a payload to achieve autonomous propulsion, overall increasing treatment efficacy and efficiency while also boosting patient quality of life. The specific intricacies of these bots allow them to move through volatile tumor microenvironments (TMEs) with utmost versatility and accuracy, allowing them to reach previously inaccessible hypoxic areas to deliver a payload of therapeutic agents directly to tumors and cancer cells with significantly reduced harm to healthy cells, leading to overall reduced side effects. Preclinical studies have shown notable improvements in results using microrobots, most eminently within lung metastasis models. Within all simulations and experiments, these microrobots showed significantly reduced metastatic tumor growth and increased survival times for treated patients. Microrobots also show extreme potential for being the most cost-effective treatment, as their incorporation of algae allows for significant cost reductions compared to standard chemotherapy treatments, which on average cost more than $20,000 per course. Nevertheless, the application of biohybrids encounters several obstacles necessitating resolution before they are able to be fully implemented in real-world environments. Firstly and most notably, the cost-effective, large-scale production of the microrobots while also ensuring long-term biocompatibility and preventing any possibility of immunogenic responses. Though possessing many compelling advantages, microrobots require resolution of the previously listed complexities through peer-review and rigorous evidence-based research, for them to have a chance at making it into the real market. These microrobots hold the potential to revolutionize oncology as a whole, by offering less invasive, more efficacious, more precise, and more patient-centric technologies than ever witnessed before.