Team:DUT China B/Human Practices
Contact lab with society
We get our inspiration from MCU movie. We consider that micro-robots may have potential in medical applications such as micro-therapy and targeted drug delivery, but this is an innovative and cutting-edge medical tool. In the future, if it really has the feasibility and significance of the application remains to be proved. If the Chlamydomonas micro-robot is really applied in the future, can the public fully accept this treatment technology? In addition to the medical field, can the Chlamydomonas micro-robots also function in more fields? Guided by the project background, we will integrate feedback step by step during the project development process, promote in-depth investigation, and finally improve and demonstrate the complete meaning of algae micro-robot in society.
1. In the initial stage of the project, we have interviewed three medical research-related scholars and Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Science in order to make the cutting-edge technology of the micro-robots feasible in the future and figure out exactly the practical application of our projects in the future society. After talking with scholars, we got their affirmation of the novelty and application feasibility of our project.
2. After clarifying the feasibility of the project and its significance to the society, we continue to promote the project. In the process, we have had many exchanges with the professors of Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Science, and asked them about problems related to our measurement of Chlamydomonas’s movements. At the same time, we also considered a specific problem: if Chlamydomonas micro-robot is actually implemented in the future, can it be accepted by the public? We conducted a social survey to learn about the public's cognition degree of this technology and their acceptance level of its practical application from both online surveys and offline face-to-face interviews.
Through questionnaires and interviews, we learned that more than half of the people support the development of this technology in medical applications, and more than two-thirds of people can accept this medical technology.
3. During the investigation, some people have expressed the hope to bring such micro robots into other field. We have considered their suggestions carefully and believe that the micro-scale and mobility can give the cyanobacteria micro-robots advantages in many other fields. On the basis of these characteristics, we ask the relevant scholars in the field of microfluidics, physics and environment about their views in the application of micro-nano robots.
Scholars in different fields agree with the innovation of our project, but at the same time they also propose that the application of Chlamydomonas robots in different fields needs to consider its practical role, and to add downstream functional design. After careful consideration, we believe that Chlamydomonas can play a role in different fields, while single motion control cannot fully exert its function. Therefore, we took the advice of experts and selected three specific directions for the following design.
Fully Responsive
I. We interviewed experts in the field of medical and robotics to explore the feasibility of future applications of Chlamydomonas micro-robot in medical fields.
In the literature review process, we learned that micro-robots will play an important role in the field of precision medicine in the future. With excellent features of strong motility, photoreceptivity and complex protein expression ability, Chlamydomonas will have good application prospects in precision medical treatment as micro robots. But what are the problems with our concept? How feasible is it, and how far is it to achieve its application in medical treatment? Will its excellent features solve the existing medical problems? We interviewed three professors in the field of medical research and professors in the field of robotics research to get the answer.
● Communication with Dr. Yang Yongliang
Introduction: Associate Professor Yang Yongliang mainly uses biomacromolecule simulation, bioinformatics (including artificial intelligence technology), chemical biology, drug design and medicinal chemistry to combine various in vitro and in vivo experimental techniques to study major diseases and important mechanisms of occurrence and development of life processes, discovery of relevant regulatory targets, design and development of innovative drugs, and advanced methods of diagnosis and treatment.
Dr. Yang introduced the research status of micro-robots. There are indeed some limitations of targeted therapies in existing medical applications. Micro-robots are not a relatively new concept of treatment and have been studied for many years. The teacher affirmed the idea and feasibility of our project. It is believed that if the size of Chlamydomonas is appropriate, it can be used to encapsulate or mount drugs, and the light control help the doctors to get to the tumor treatment site where surgery is difficult to reach. For example, brain tumors now rely mainly on drugs for treatment, if the project can finally achieve the targeted effect, it will be very promising. However, the project also needs to consider whether there is an immune response in the human body. Whether it can be considered to apply the algae to the human intestinal inflammatory system such as IBD, which does not require access to the human blood circulation system. Secondly, if the algae can add loading and adsorption functions in addition to the targeted movement, it will play its role better.
Reflection: Our project is feasible and innovative, but it should also be considered during the implementation of the project that what if the future of the algae micro-robots really changes the human body's immunity problem. The algae micro-nano robot should not just play the role of transportation, but also play more functions such as loading, expression and so on.
Using Bootstrap
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Fully Responsive
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Using Bootstrap
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed porttitor gravida aliquam. Morbi orci urna, iaculis in ligula et, posuere interdum lectus.