Against cancer, tiny robots arrive

From a painful personal experience (the death of his mother from brain cancer), Bertrand Duplat turned it into a professional project. Co-Founder and President Robotic – one of only two companies in the world specializing in health-related microrobotics – it reassures us about the prospects for better cancer care in the future, in the year 2050. Health in a quarter century was part of one of the main topics at the we are_DEMAIN event, organized by WE DEMAIN and we_are_in 10 And November 11, 2023.

“Beware of suspicions and illusions” warns Bertrand Duplat, who describes patients who volunteer for clinical trials. We must not create false hopes. “Failing to eliminate it, the challenge is to create cancer.” More livableE. What makes the entrepreneur and researcher optimistic is that there is harmony between vision and reality.

Small robots are already in use in our hospitals

These innovations are not limited to laboratories, but today they are proving their effectiveness in the hospitals in which they operate (Cochin and La Petit-Salpetriere in Paris). We know about robot assistants for surgeons that save time, and with Bertrand Duplat we have discovered miniature robots that venture into patients’ bodies. For diagnosis, this involves retrieving fluids or cells (“single cell analysis”) to obtain data about the tumor mutation.

” Tomorrow we will be able to have imaging devices to examine how this cancer mutates and what the effects are on the patient’s immune system“, confirms Bertrand Duplat. The small robot thus makes it as easy as possible to choose a “tailored” treatment. Especially with regard to immunotherapy. The advantage also lies in the ability to monitor the treatment (monitoring) to see if the cells are adapting. ” This is what we call a feedback loop that is sorely missing in oncology.“, confirms the scientist. Concretely, this includes having a “perpetual digital loop” to inform doctors about the progress of treatment.

The little robot, a real gardener inside a human body

Inspired by a scene from the movie Castle in the skyThe researcher remembers this scene where paradise becomes possible thanks to the constant intervention of the robotic gardener. ” For us, this is what we see with patients, the mini-robot acts like a gardener, cutting weeds or stimulating the good ones, whether it is surgical treatments (laser burn) or increasing healthy cells.. »

All you have to do is be patient. In this field, which fortunately is highly regulated, putting it into practice takes time. But for this inventor, ” Preclinical tests are very promising“, is a promise. It may not be necessary to wait until 2050.

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