The development of antibiotic drugs is time-consuming, and their effectiveness is diminished by bacteria rapidly developing resistance. Bacteria have acquired the ability to create biofilms, rendering commonly used drugs less effective in treatment. In response to this challenge, micromachines have been designed to deliver payloads directly to the bacterial surface, aiming for site-specific treatment. This approch has found application in cancer but yet to explored for treatment of antibiotic resistant bacteria.

While analysing this domain we observed that it is being majorly explored by universities. Lets have a look at a few innovations.

The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia have developed silica-based nanomotor powered by catalysis of the enzyme urease for which they have filed a patent to protect the technology. Further, in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania, they have developed a treatment application that utilises patented nanomotor technology to deliver antibiotic payload directly onto the bacterial surface. This disrupts its ability to form a biofilm on its surface and leads to depolarisation of their membrane. It has been claimed that this treatment can cause 100% eradication of bacterial population of bacteria on agar plates and 2-3 fold enhanced antimicrobial activity in mouse models.

University of California, San Diego have developed algae cell-based microrobots loaded with antibiotics to be delivered directly to the lungs. At the lab scale, they have shown 100% elimination of pneumonia-causing bacteria in a mouse model. This project has been funded by the National Institutes of Health. Similar efforts have been made by microbiologist Ana Santos and chemist James Tour of Rice University towards the development of miniature spinning molecular machines to destroy the membrane of the bacteria.

This technology holds the potential to eradicate bacteria completely and provide a faster treatment regime. Industrial collaborations are advisable to expedite the availability of such treatments in the market.