Tiny robots, inspired by the movement of snails, could help deliver drugs more precisely to bowel cancer tumours.
This could both treat the tumour more effectively and reduce the amount of chemotherapy drugs affecting otherwise healthy tissues.
The research project, led by scientists in Manchester, is developing the ‘snailbots’ with help from an investment by UKRI.
And it’s just one of around thirty projects, many of them in health, whose funding by UKRI was announced today.
Bringing together different science experts
All the projects are interdisciplinary, spanning the expertise of multiple research disciplines.
This ensures new approaches and methods are developed that would not be possible from established, single discipline thinking.
They are also applicant-led, meaning that the research ideas come directly from the research community identifying a problem to solve.
Health-related research projects
Other health related projects include the following.
Tackling pancreatic cancer through engineered bacteria and ultrasound
Survival rates for most cancers have doubled since 1980, but some pancreatic cancers still have almost no successful therapies.
A new approach uses engineered bacteria to modify the environment around the patient’s tumour, helping their own immune system to fight it.
The harmless bacteria will be wrapped in a gel and injected close to the cancer site.
Ultrasound will then stimulate the bacteria to release compounds designed to modify the cells around the tumour.
This project brings together material chemistry, synthetic biology, engineering physics and experimental medicine to create an entirely new technology to treat pancreatic cancers.
It helps clinicians to monitor therapies non-invasively, and may reduce the need for toxic anti-cancer drugs, lowering side-effects which can be so debilitating to patients.
Better evaluation and treatment for musculoskeletal conditions
Musculoskeletal disorders, like back pain and arthritis, affect more than 20 million people in the UK, roughly one-third of the population, making them a leading cause of:
- disability
- chronic pain
- long-term sickness
Motion tracking plays a vital role in clinical practice for effective treatment strategies, but traditional motion tracking requires controlled laboratory environments, which do not really reflect individual’s movements at home or work.
This project will combine virtual reality and motion tracking to recreate everyday activities, such as walking in a park or office, within a hospital laboratory.
It will also use eye-tracking technology and measure heart rate, breathing, and other body signals during these activities to better understand a person’s physical and mental health conditions.
This helps doctors, physiotherapists and others to develop a more realistic understanding of a patient’s physical and mental state during clinical assessment and rehabilitation, leading to better outcomes.
Working together on important health problems
Professor Alison Park, UKRI cross disciplinary working champion and Deputy Executive Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council said:
Many of our most pressing problems can only be addressed by researchers working across different disciplines – clinicians working with engineers and technologists, for example.
Through interdisciplinary research like this we can develop ground-breaking health treatments more quickly and effectively than research that occurs only within the boundaries of a single discipline.
Many of the projects whose funding we’ve announced today could transform millions of lives for the better.