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categories: ["nanomedicine"]categories: ["nanomedicine"]tags: ["nanomedicine", "nanorobotics", "drug delivery", "molecular machines", "dna origami", "microrobots"]tags: ["nanomedicine", "nanorobotics", "drug delivery", "molecular machines", "dna origami", "microrobots"]summary: "Proposed micron-scale machines that would circulate in the body and perform mechanical repair, a design tradition with no working device and several unsolved physical constraints."summary: "Proposed micron-scale machines that would circulate in the body and perform mechanical repair, a design tradition with no working device and several unsolved physical constraints."updated: "2026-07-27"updated: "2026-08-23"humanEvidence: "No medical nanorobot has been given to a person; the nearest devices, DNA origami containers with molecular latches, have been demonstrated in cell culture and in mice."humanEvidence: "No medical nanorobot has been given to a person; the nearest devices, DNA origami containers with molecular latches, have been demonstrated in cell culture and in mice."access: "Nothing to obtain: no such device exists outside design studies, and the approved products marketed as nanomedicine are passive drug formulations rather than machines."access: "Nothing to obtain: no such device exists outside design studies, and the approved products marketed as nanomedicine are passive drug formulations rather than machines."reversibility: "difficult"reversibility: "difficult"lines 69–74 → 69–7854 unchanged lines not shown
## What actually exists## What actually exists Approved nanomedicine is passive. Liposomal doxorubicin, approved in 1995, changed a drug's biodistribution and toxicity profile without doing anything mechanical. Albumin-bound paclitaxel and the [[lipid-nanoparticles]] behind mRNA vaccines and the first systemic in vivo CRISPR therapies work the same way: they are formulations, not machines. The clinical value of nanoscale medicine so far comes almost entirely from altering where a drug goes and how fast it is cleared, the subject of [[targeted-drug-delivery]].Approved nanomedicine is passive. Liposomal doxorubicin, approved in 1995, changed a drug's biodistribution and toxicity profile without doing anything mechanical. Albumin-bound paclitaxel and the [[lipid-nanoparticles]] behind mRNA vaccines and the first systemic in vivo CRISPR therapies work the same way: they are formulations, not machines. The clinical value of nanoscale medicine so far comes almost entirely from altering where a drug goes and how fast it is cleared, the subject of [[targeted-drug-delivery]]. ```figure{"key": "dna-origami-rotaxane", "caption": "What DNA nanotechnology actually builds: rotaxanes tens of nanometres across — rings threaded on axles by self-assembly, imaged by electron microscopy. Mechanical parts, not machines: no motor, no sensor, no autonomy."}``` The closest thing to a programmable device comes from [[dna-nanotechnology]]. In 2012 a Harvard group built a barrel-shaped DNA origami container held shut by aptamer latches that opened only in the presence of specific cell-surface antigens, delivering antibody fragments to leukaemia cells in culture.[^douglas2012] In 2018 a collaboration reported DNA origami tubes carrying thrombin, sealed by an aptamer that unlatches on nucleolin — a protein exposed on tumour vasculature — which induced clotting in tumour blood vessels and slowed growth in mice.[^li2018] These are genuine logic-gated devices. They are also single-function, non-motile, and demonstrated in animals rather than people.The closest thing to a programmable device comes from [[dna-nanotechnology]]. In 2012 a Harvard group built a barrel-shaped DNA origami container held shut by aptamer latches that opened only in the presence of specific cell-surface antigens, delivering antibody fragments to leukaemia cells in culture.[^douglas2012] In 2018 a collaboration reported DNA origami tubes carrying thrombin, sealed by an aptamer that unlatches on nucleolin — a protein exposed on tumour vasculature — which induced clotting in tumour blood vessels and slowed growth in mice.[^li2018] These are genuine logic-gated devices. They are also single-function, non-motile, and demonstrated in animals rather than people. removed, struck through added, underlinedLine numbers count the serialised markdown of each revision, frontmatter included.
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