3D-printing company Nanoscribe is producing tiny robotic spirals to deliver sperm cells to eggs. The company, which has been in business for just over a year, says it can produce up to 100 million of the spiral-shaped eggs per day. The "spermbot" could help healthy, idle sperm reach their final destination, said Oliver Schmidt, Professor at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research. Although the spermbot has been successfully trialled in a petri dish with the use of high-resolution microscopy to guide the robot, when tested inside human tissue, the resolution fails and the researchers cannot see the nanobot.
3D-printing company Nanoscribe is producing tiny robotic spirals to deliver sperm cells to eggs. Using a process called two-photon polymerisation, Nanoscribe is able to produce structures 250 times finer than a human hair. The "spermbot" could help healthy, idle sperm reach their final destination, said Oliver Schmidt, Professor at the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research. Although the spermbot has been successfully trialled in a petri dish with the use of high-resolution microscopy to guide the robot, when tested inside human tissue, the resolution fails and the researchers cannot see the nanobot.