{"id":51538,"date":"2025-11-17T10:50:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T15:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/?post_type=news&p=51538"},"modified":"2025-12-03T11:12:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T16:12:15","slug":"micro-grippers-david-gracias-builds-micromachines-that-fold-stick-swim-and-sense-all-inside-the-human-body","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/micro-grippers-david-gracias-builds-micromachines-that-fold-stick-swim-and-sense-all-inside-the-human-body\/","title":{"rendered":"Micro Grippers: David Gracias Builds Micromachines That Fold, Stick, Swim, and Sense\u2014All Inside the Human Body."},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers are pushing the boundaries of cancer detection and minimally invasive surgery with a new generation of nanorobots. David Gracias<\/a>, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, has developed tiny hand-shaped metal grippers that can perform biopsies in hard-to-reach areas. Already tested in pigs, these devices could one day be released throughout the colon during routine screenings, enabling doctors to spot tumors far earlier than current methods allow.<\/p>\n

His research was featured as the cover story<\/a> for the Spring 2025 issue of JHU Engineering Magazine<\/em> and included in a recent Nature Spotlight<\/em><\/a> about \u201cHow nanobots are accelerating cancer-targeting therapies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-51538","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","news_categories-faculty","news_categories-research"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMicro Grippers: David Gracias Builds Micromachines That Fold, Stick, Swim, and Sense\u2014All Inside the Human Body. - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/micro-grippers-david-gracias-builds-micromachines-that-fold-stick-swim-and-sense-all-inside-the-human-body\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Micro Grippers: David Gracias Builds Micromachines That Fold, Stick, Swim, and Sense\u2014All Inside the Human Body. - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Researchers are pushing the boundaries of cancer detection and minimally invasive surgery with a new generation of nanorobots. David Gracias, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, has developed tiny hand-shaped…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/micro-grippers-david-gracias-builds-micromachines-that-fold-stick-swim-and-sense-all-inside-the-human-body\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-03T16:12:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Micro Grippers: David Gracias Builds Micromachines That Fold, Stick, Swim, and Sense\u2014All Inside the Human Body. - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/micro-grippers-david-gracias-builds-micromachines-that-fold-stick-swim-and-sense-all-inside-the-human-body\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Micro Grippers: David Gracias Builds Micromachines That Fold, Stick, Swim, and Sense\u2014All Inside the Human Body. - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","og_description":"Researchers are pushing the boundaries of cancer detection and minimally invasive surgery with a new generation of nanorobots. David Gracias, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, has developed tiny hand-shaped…","og_url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/micro-grippers-david-gracias-builds-micromachines-that-fold-stick-swim-and-sense-all-inside-the-human-body\/","og_site_name":"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","article_modified_time":"2025-12-03T16:12:15+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/micro-grippers-david-gracias-builds-micromachines-that-fold-stick-swim-and-sense-all-inside-the-human-body\/","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/micro-grippers-david-gracias-builds-micromachines-that-fold-stick-swim-and-sense-all-inside-the-human-body\/","name":"Micro Grippers: David Gracias Builds Micromachines That Fold, Stick, Swim, and Sense\u2014All Inside the Human Body. - Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-11-17T15:50:42+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-03T16:12:15+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/micro-grippers-david-gracias-builds-micromachines-that-fold-stick-swim-and-sense-all-inside-the-human-body\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/micro-grippers-david-gracias-builds-micromachines-that-fold-stick-swim-and-sense-all-inside-the-human-body\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/micro-grippers-david-gracias-builds-micromachines-that-fold-stick-swim-and-sense-all-inside-the-human-body\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Micro Grippers: David Gracias Builds Micromachines That Fold, Stick, Swim, and Sense\u2014All Inside the Human Body."}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/#website","url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/","name":"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","description":"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/51538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/chembe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}