Robot pill on the anvil

A team, from Imperial College London, is creating a robotic pill that if swallowed by a patient, has the potential to deliver drugs to the small intestine. This is an area of the body that is currently difficult for doctors to get at and treat.

The robotic pill is fitted with a camera, remote controlled ''anchor'' and miniature repositionable syringe. It is designed to improve the way that intestinal cancers are treated by enabling localised drug delivery.

The team says its on-board syringe could enable chemotherapy medicine to be targeted more precisely. This could potentially reduce the number of invasive procedures needed to remove tumours in patients.

The pill could also be used by doctors to inject adrenaline locally to help treat ulcers in the small intestine to reduce inflammation and pain.

Dr Tim Constandinou, from the Winston Wong Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology and the Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering at Imperial, says, ''The small intestine is a really difficult place for doctors to access using conventional surgical methods, which are often invasive and impact on patient recovery times.

We are developing a robotic pill that has the potential to deliver treatments directly to tumours or ulcers in the small intestine. We are still a long way off from delivering this technology to the hospital bedside, but we hope it could one day improve outcomes for patients undergoing treatments.''