This US startup is building tiny injectable robots to attack tumours

Bionaut is targeting brain stem gliomas, a type of cancer that largely affects children and young adults, as a first step for proving its tech. — 123rf.com

Doctors take a microscopic craft loaded with cancer-killing chemicals, inject it into the human body, and drive it to a malignant tumour to deliver its payload before making a quick exit.

For most of the 55 years since Fantastic Voyage shrank Raquel Welch and company down to the size of a cell to zap a blood clot out of a scientist’s brain, that scenario has been pure science fiction.